Is The GOP Really Willing to Sabotage the Economy to Protect the Wealthy & Hurt President Obama?

Sabotage Continued

November 29 2011

As a reminder, here’s how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) described his priorities:

The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.

A few weeks ago, we took a closer look at polls showing that fully half of Americans believe the GOP is sabotaging the economy on purpose to make sure that President Obama is not re-elected. We concluded thusly:

If Republicans don’t want the American people to believe they’re trying to sabotage the economy just to stop President Obama from being reelected, they can easily dispel this notion by starting to cooperate with President Obama and Democrats to pass bills that will put millions of Americans back to work.

Yesterday, we discussed the payroll tax cut extension and expansion the Senate will vote on later this week. Today, we’ll take a closer look at the economics behind it — and why it would be devastating for the economy and tens of millions of Americans if Republicans block this must-pass legislation in order to achieve their other main goal: protecting the wealthiest Americans at all costs.

(Tune in tomorrow for a look at an equally important must-pass piece of business: an extension of long-term unemployment benefits.)

Payroll Tax Cut Extended & Expanded: Jobs, Money In Your Pocket, Economic Growth

• Macroeconomic Advisers: Payroll Tax Cuts Could Create More Than 50,000 Jobs A Month. “Preliminary analyses of the White House plan estimate that the tax cuts could create more than 50,000 jobs a month, a significant boost considering that employment climbed by 35,000 jobs, on average, in each of the last three months… Joel Prakken, senior managing director at Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm, said that the benefits of creating more than half a million jobs next year should not be minimized. ‘It’s going to make the unemployment rate lower than it otherwise would be,’ he said.”
• Ameriprise Financial Economist: Payroll Tax Cut Will Add More Than 1 Million Jobs. “This additional spending capacity in the hands of consumers should continue to foster improvements in aggregate domestic demand. And ultimately, it is demand and demand alone that will lead to more business hiring,” said Russell Price, senior economist for Ameriprise Financial Services. “Price estimates the increased payroll tax holiday for workers by itself is likely to add between 750,000 to 1 million jobs, and that the new break on payroll taxes for employers could add an additional 100,000 to 200,000 jobs. He added that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economic activity, could get a 1.5 percentage point boost as well.”
• Decision Economics Economist: “Payroll Tax Cuts Are Very Powerful.” “Payroll tax cuts are very powerful,” said Allen Sinai, chief economist of Decision Economics. “They provide a boost to direct income and, in turn, spending, which is important to growth.”
• Former McCain Adviser Mark Zandi: Payroll Tax Cut are “Much Needed.” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, called the payroll tax cut for employers a “creative” way to help small companies, which have struggled more than larger ones to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009. “Something like this is much needed” for an economy grappling with 9.1 percent unemployment, Zandi said. “The economy is on the edge of recession.”

Payroll Tax Cut Blocked by GOP: The Economy Drops Like a Stone

An analyst from Barclays was on Bloomberg TV this morning. Here’s what he had to say about the consequences of blocking an extension of the payroll tax cut:

One of the things that we’re watching is the payroll tax extension and the signals that we’re getting from Washington as to whether we get that extension. Because if we don’t, our growth forecast frankly will probably be dropped down from about 2.5 percent in Q1 down to around 1 percent. It’s that big.

The Cost to the 1%: Virtually Nothing; The Benefit to the 99%: Massive

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post got some new data today from Citizens for Tax Justice. Here’s what they told him about the surtax on millionaires that would finance the payroll tax extension for approximately 160 MILLION working Americans:

The surtax would impact around 345,000 taxpayers, roughly 0.2 percent of taxpayers, or one in 500 of them. Those people would pay on average an additional 2.1 percent of their overall income, or just over 1/50th of that overall income, in taxes.

In a majority of states, only one-tenth of one percent, or one in 1,000 taxpayers, would pay this surtax.

And how many people would benefit from the payroll tax cut? According to the group, around 113 million tax filing units — either single workers or families that include more than one worker — would see their payroll tax cut extended. That’s a lot of people — well over 113 million workers, in fact.

The Choice

Michael Tomasky sums it up pretty well over at the Daily Beast:

Every blessed once in a great while, all artifice is stripped away, rhetoric collapses under the weight of its own absurdity, and we get to see things as they really are. Such will be the case later this week when the Senate tries to vote on extending the payroll-tax holiday. The Republicans will oppose it—that is to say, the Republicans will support a tax increase on working Americans. And why? Because the Democrats want to pay for it with a small surtax on the very top earners. So the choice couldn’t be more direct: which is more important, giving the middle class a tax cut or protecting those who make more than $1 million a year? Republicans are making it clear. [...]

Two, extending the holiday will help the economy at a moment when Republicans are now very clearly trying to hurt the economy. This is not even a controversial thing to say anymore, it’s so obvious. And three, now there’s a price tag on it; it has to be paid for in some way, and that way is a surtax on super-high incomes. And this above all is what the GOP cannot accept.

IN ONE SENTENCE: This week’s Senate vote will illuminate the top priorities for both sides: progressives want an economy that works for everyone which means that the wealthiest Americans will have to pay their fair share, while conservatives appear willing to do nearly anything to protect the wealthy and hurt President Obama.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed

Siri, the unique voice-activated assistant of the iPhone 4S, may be misleading women seeking emergency health services.

Michelle Bachmann’s preposterous plan to deport each and every undocumented immigrant in America would cost more than $2.6 trillion.

Conservatives are outraged that President Obama did not thank God in his Thanksgiving message.

Artistic advice for Herman Cain.

House Republicans prepare to strike down a regulation that doesn’t exist.

Comparing the Federal Reserve’s reaction to the financial crisis versus the unemployment crisis.

The Global Fund, the world’s largest multilateral source of AIDS funding in the developing world, is suffering a $1.6 billion budget cut, posing a grim budgetary trade-off between costly anti-retroviral treatments and low-cost prevention programs.

While Iran hawks focus on keeping the “military option” on the table, Joshua Rovner examines the implications of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear program and concludes that such a strategy would severely limit the U.S.’s ability to deter a nuclear weapons possessing Iran.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found that banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, may have improperly foreclosed on 5,000 active members of the military.

 Source: Think Progress War Room

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"Palestine is the heart of Arab countries" - The PalestineFreeVoice ______________________________________________________ 

Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The PalestineFreeVoice,all publishing is for information services only.

Lebanon’s Palestinians Continue Decent to Abyss on 64th Anniversary of UNSCR 181

Palestine Day

  

By Franklin Lamb

Embassy of Palestine, Tripoli, Libya

"Between Nov. 29, 1947, and Jan. 1, 1949, Zionist terrorists depopulated and destroyed more than 530 Palestinian villages and towns, killing more than 13,000 Palestinians and expelling 750,000, approximately half the population.

UN General Assembly resolution 181, passed on November 29, 1947, purported to divide Palestine between the indigenous inhabitants and European colonists who arrived seeking to occupy and exploit Palestine and create, they planned, an exclusive Jewish homeland.

Under the UN plan, European Jews were granted more than fifty six per cent of historical Palestine while the native Palestinians, who owned ninety three per cent of the territory, were offered less than forty four per cent of their own land.

The partition vote was based on a UN Special Committee (UNSCOP) recommendation to divide the country into three parts: a Palestinian state with a population of 735,000, of which 725,000 were Palestinians and 10,000 Jews; a new Jewish state comprised of 499,000 Jews and 407,000 Palestinians, creating a new state with roughly less than sixty per cent Jewish majority.

In addressing the Central Committee of the Histadrut (the Eretz Israel Workers Party) days after the UN vote to partition Palestine, David Ben-Gurion expressed apprehension and told the party leadership:

"…the total population of the Jewish State at the time of its establishment will be about one million, including almost 40% non-Jews. Such a [population] composition does not provide a stable basis for a Jewish State. This [demographic] fact must be viewed in all its clarity and acuteness. With such a [population] composition, there cannot even be absolute certainty that control will remain in the hands of the Jewish majority… There can be no stable and strong Jewish state so long as it has a Jewish majority of only 60%.

To ensure an absolute Jewish majority, the Zionist’s “Transfer [Expulsion] Committee” waged a war to cleanse their part of the non-Jewish population. The “War [Expulsion] Committee” under the leadership of  David Ben Gurion, assigned ethnic cleansing language to its military operations, from Hebrew names such as Matateh (broom), Tihur (cleansing), Biur (a Passover expression meaning “to cleanse the leaven”) and Niku (cleaning up).

Following Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence in 1948, it continued its land grab strategy to secure an absolute Jewish majority; the Zionists assailed, depopulated, and occupied an additional thirty per cent of the land which had been designated for the future Palestinian state under the UN plan.

"Since 1967, Israeli Occupation Forces have demolished more than 24,000 Palestinian homes, while more than 500,000 Jews currently are colonizing the West Bank and Jerusalem. Also since 1967, the Israeli military has detained more than 700,000 Palestinians – 20 percent of the population - according First International Conference on the Rights of Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees held in Geneva in March 2011. About 5,700 currently are being detained in prisons within Israel, a direct violation of international law. In addition, the siege on Gaza and the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank and Jerusalem have severely restricted or denied Palestinians’ freedom of movement.

Sixty four years since the November 29, 1947 UN Resolution 181, and after twenty years of negotiating with Israel, the international community allows the status quo while Israel encroaches on the remaining twenty two per cent with ever more illegal Jewish only settlements.

"In Lebanon, , where approximately 129,000 Palestinian refugees fled during the 1947-48 Nakba, approximately 250,000, sixty four years later, remain in Lebanon with approximately 130,000 squeezed into twelve fetid Refugee camps. Each new study documents a steepening economic, social, and humanitarian slope down which this largest and oldest refugee population skids into more degradation.   

Today in Lebanon, Palestinian refugees continue to live in conditions more inhumane than anywhere on Earth including, the six decades of suffering endured by their sisters and brothers, under the brutal Zionist occupation of their own country, Palestine.

Six decades since UN GA Resolution 181 Lebanon continues to forbid Palestinian refugees from working in more than 50 jobs and professions. This prohibition is in contravention of a large and condemnatory body of international law, specifically numerous UN Resolutions, multilateral legal agreements, international customary law as well as the UN Declaration of Universal Rights, which some of Lebanon’s leaders helped draft in 1949, and even the Lebanese Constitution.

Since 2001, the Government of Lebanon has also outlawed Palestinian refugees who lost their homes to Zionist colonialists, from purchasing even a one room shack or tent for a home, even though most Palestinians might be willing to agree that their ownership of Lebanese real estate would vest only until they are able to return to Palestine, which given events in the region seems sure to exceed CIA estimates of the dissembling of Israel by 2029.

For this failure to uphold the law, Lebanon increasingly faces the prospects of international sanctions as well as civil unrest. What Palestinian refugees in Lebanon seek and have right to enjoy, just as every refugee in any country, is to live in dignity, to be able to apply for a job and to care of their families. Living in dignity includes the right to live outside the teeming, squalid camps and to purchase better housing if they are able.

"Virtually every political party and every religious authority in Lebanon boldly and regularly pays lip service to the “sacred cause of Palestine”, as “the bloodstream issue for every Arab and every Muslim.” Each aver that in Lebanon “our brothers must live in dignity until they are able to return to Palestine” and that “for us Lebanese, as their hosts, to do less than this would violate our religious duties for which certainly Allah (Christians insert “Jesus or God Almighty”) will justly condemn us to Hell on judgment day. Lebanese Political parties and movements that have sacrificed for Palestine and seek to liberate it and political parties whose militia have massacred Palestinian civilians, women, children and the elderly in refugee camps, have a special obligation to act now and give meaning to their words.

And most certainly those Lebanese politicians whose words and ubiquitous photo shopped posters identify with the cause of Palestine but who, in the service of foreign governments, acted differently, should do immediate penitence and use their political power and financial wealth to do justice.

Neither Lebanese politicians, political parties nor religious enterprises have a legitimate excuse not to devote an afternoon in Parliament, currently in session, and rid the country of its self-imposed debasement by repealing the resist 2001 law forbidding home ownership for Palestinian refugees and granting the same right to work that every other refugees enjoys in Lebanon and by International law, common morality, and religious doctrine and belief.

To do less, condemns all of us and makes a mockery of Lebanon as a claimed civilized society.

Franklin Lamb is reachable c/o fplamb@gmail.com

Source    29-11-2011 - 10:29 Last updated

 

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"Palestine is the heart of Arab countries" - The PalestineFreeVoice ______________________________________________________

Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The PalestineFreeVoice,all publishing is for information services only.

Palestine Day : - Rabbi Weiss: Israel Is Rebellion against God

 Palestine Day

Special Reports on The Media Day in Support of the Palestinian Cause

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November 29, 2011 -17:43

Sara Taha Moughnieh

As media plays the major role in our world today, the Zionist entity, that has major  control over it, succeeded in deceiving the world for centuries, and fabricated a new “Jewish” religion that opposes every Torah order.

Don’t steal; it stole an entire land. Don’t kill; it waged deadly wars. Don’t oppress; it expelled, humiliated, displaced, and tyrannized every individual that stood in face of its scheme.

That is Israel in the eyes of every person who wants to see the truth, but this is also Israel in the eyes of Jews. Jews who follow and respect the Torah, and recognize that as God is compassionate He did not give orders to oppress His creation.

In an exclusive interview with Al-Manar Website, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss explains the true Jewish point of view regarding Israel, and assures that the end of Israel is definite. 

How do you read the current Palestinian/Israeli situation?

The conflict between the Palestinian issue and the so-called state of Israel, which is the Zionist state, is totally wrongly understood, meaning that people think that this is a religious conflict between Jews and Arabs/ Jews and Muslims.

"Zionism is a transformation from the Jewish religion into nationalism or materialism"

The ideology of Israel is Zionism and Zionism is a transformation from the Jewish religion into nationalism or materialism. Judaism is religious observance to the Almighty, accepting his role, and following the teachings of Torah… so it comes out that Zionism is a rebellion against the Almighty and what he commanded the Jewish people; it is blasphemy, it tells the Jews to do something entirely different from what they are required to do.

Since the destruction of the  temple in Jerusalem thousands of years ago, the Jewish people were put under oath that we are not to go up in masses to try to return the holy land; secondly, we are not to rebel against any nation, so we are required to be loyal citizens in every country we are residing, Jews in the United States, Jews in Lebanon, Jews in the Islamic Republic of Iran, etc… of course not in the so called state of Israel, because it is a forbidden entity and an illegitimate state, but under the Palestinian people, we have to be loyal citizens; thirdly, do not make any attempt in exile.

So therefore, for thousands of years the Jewish people have accepted this order from the Almighty, and never tried to establish their own entity, and Zionism came around a hundred years ago with its transformation into materialism to make a state that rebels against what we stated. This is forbidden for us even if it (the state) was not in an inhabited land, in other words, it is forbidden for the Jews to have one inch of their own sovereignty even if it was given to them or bought by them.

The establishment of a state in a land against the will of its people by subjugating and oppressing, like they have done in Palestine, from banishing and expelling people-and actually Jews oppose this of course – by establishing such a state against the will of the people, it just gets compounded, rebellious against God; it is a crime, because in the Torah which is our basis, we are not allowed to kill, steal, or oppress. Just like God is compassionate we have to be compassionate.

"They have taken all the Jewish identifications to give ore and legitimacy to their state"

So, Zionists in order to gain legitimacy for their state, they have hijacked and kidnapped the “Star of David” and the name “Israel”, because in the Torah, Jacob, the father of the Jewish people, his name was Israel. They have taken all the Jewish symbols and identifications in order to give ore and legitimacy to their state, when according to the Jews it is illegitimate and a total crime.

How do Israel and the Zionist Rabbis hide, or ignore this Torah truth and permit the killing and oppression of other people?

First of all, we have to always express that the truth defied logic on how they (Zionists) were able to gain legitimacy both in the international arena and among Jews in order to be able to establish the state. This subject was studied well, and many documents about this could be found on nkusa.org.

Chief Rabbi in Palestine Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky

One of the documents was given by the chief rabbi of Palestine – when we say the chief rabbi of Palestine we don’t mean the Israeli rabbinate because that is all farce and these rabbis don’t have legitimacy – the truth is that there was rabbinical courts and a chief rabbi in Palestine, and this rabbinate called “Eidah Chareidis” still exists until today and does not recognize the right of existence of the State of Israel, and in July 16, 1947, the chief rabbi at that time Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky handed a document to the United Nations and it said: “…  We furthermore wish to express our definite opposition to a Jewish state in any part of Palestine...”

What happened is that Zionists who are trickery and as I said have hijacked the identity of Judaism have presented themselves to the world as if they represent Judaism. However, the more the religious, the more anti-Zionist, and we feel the sufferings of the Palestinian people… we have been demonstrating daily in the streets of Jerusalem and around the world against the existence of the state and all the crimes that emanate from it, and we have been arrested, thrown into jails, and sometimes killed because of that. In fact, probably the first martyr was a Jewish fellow, his name was Dr. Yaakov Yisrael Dehan and he was murdered because he was a diplomat and was going to present to the English government the view of rabbis when the Zionists were coming
.

Dr. Yaakov Yisrael Dehan up at the beginning of the20th century. In 1924 he visited Palestine and said “I am going back to Europe to reveal to the world the false representation of Jews,” and so the Zionists shot and assassinated him. Since then, many leaders of the Jewish people who spoke out got murdered, assassinated, and this is until today, we just had one of the great leaders, his name was Rabbi Moshe Hirsch who passed away a year ago after acid was thrown on his face.

Still unfortunately you would find Jews, who support Israel, and these are fooled… The Zionists have counted on the ignorance of the masses, because the vast majority of the Jews do not follow the Torah because they were sent into exile.

Yet there were Jews who did not fall into this trap, and so they (the Zionists) started using this concept “Jews are being murdered by the anti-Semites,” and here we are not talking about anti-Semitism that was created by Zionism, but the anti-Semitism that was present in Russia and Europe against Jews who were simply practicing Judaism and were good people. And so, when Hitler came and it became a terrible massacre and destruction hit the Jewish community, they started using it.

Many Jews were manipulated by the Zionists that gave Jews the right to go to Palestine and told them “see these Arabs and the Palestinians, they want to kill you, they hate you, they are a continuation of the Nazis,” and till today they talk to the religious Jews and say “we know you are not allowed to have a state, we are not telling you to accept us because we are Zionists, but to have your entity, but if you don’t stand with us on this state, the Arabs will murder you,” and they repeat this constantly.

They use these different frauds to be able to have control and backing even by the religious Jews. While the Torah says that we have to be thankful and that we are required to express our gratitude for good treatment.

It is the press, which is manipulated by Zionists, run by Zionists, and owned by Zionists that only portray the Zionist side of things and totally ignore the view or voice of the truly religious that is out there in the world.

How do you read the Israeli Situation today? Do you see any close end to the occupying State of Israel?

We believe in God and follow the Torah, and so we truly believe that the Almighty rules the world and nothing could be done without his will.

"Israel is a rebellion against God, we know it definitely will end, it cannot have a future"

In the Torah God says to the world “why are you defying the words of God? You will not be successful.” Therefore, as the state of Israel is clearly a rebellion against God, we know that it definitely will end, it cannot have a future.

We pray to God that this happens easily, because we don’t know how much more suffering it will bring to all human beings.

"If this is God’s miracle how come people are dying?”

I would like to point out that since its (the state of Israel) existence people have looked at it as a miracle or as God’s will because of its power, but the Chief Rabbi of Palestine Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum who moved  to New York after the occupation, where he created a tremendous community and spoke against the state of Israel and about these “miracles” said “what miracles” and showed how false these are while assuring that God does not in any way support this state as its power is from Satan because it is a forbidden entity, and asked “if this is God’s miracle how come people are dying?”.

Moreover, we see that not 10 years have passed since its existence without having a major war, and this is not the will of God.

Do you think that all the actions and movements you are making are affective and will bring the end of the State of Israel closer?

We believe that we are required to take action, and whether we can accomplish or not accomplish is not for us. We are required to speak out to the world against this terrible crime against the Almighty and His creation, and accomplishment is in the hands of God. Now what we can do is to let the world know and be aware about the Zionist propaganda and people are starting to recognize the real victims that are the Palestinians and the people of Gaza.

Do you think that the Jewish community around the world is responding to your efforts and that its support to the Zionist entity is decreasing?

 "The Zionists want to create enemies to have an excuse for their existence"

There are Jews who were brainwashed by the Zionist propaganda with its control over the media, but now there is the alternative media such as the internet and different news outlets, which are educating people, so we are able to reach tens of thousands of Jews.

We have received many mails about Jews who changed their views, and the same thing goes for the Arab and Muslim worlds. The Zionists want to create enemies to have an excuse for their existence. However, the Arab and Muslim worlds, thank God, now get to see the truth.

Did Israeli citizens ever regret this identity after being influenced by the true Jewish teachings?

"People are frustrated, embarrassed and humiliated because of the crimes done by Israel"

Yes, we have this constantly. We receive emails where people tell us they are frustrated, and that they are embarrassed and humiliated because they see the crimes done by Israel. They tell us that they thought this was right and then they became aware that this was not right, and they have changed. This is an ongoing happening. And as I have said there are people in the Arab and Muslim worlds who call us and tell us that they apologize because they had this hate for Jews for years since they thought that they supported the oppression of the Palestinian people. We had this constantly, yet we hope to see it in greater numbers.

Regarding the US policies in the Middle East and its complete bias to Israel, do u stand against these US policies?

Of course we oppose, and have opposed and stood up against them at the United Nations. You can see that on nkusa.org. Since the existence of the so called State of Israel we have been demonstrating, since I was a child I used to go with tens of thousands of Jews and protest against this in the United Nations, outside it, and near the white house. We’ve demonstrated against this terrible tragedy that America supports Israel.

We, as American citizens, respect our presidents but we try to send them a message and tell them that they are being fooled by Zionists, and that the Arab and Muslim peoples have constantly been our friends and have hosted us.

"AIPAC pressures political leaders: if you speak out you are committing political suicide"

We tell them that what they are doing is not helping or protecting the Jews, it is actually creating more hate and more bloodshed. Supporting the I sraeli occupation is not the way for helping the Jewish people. We tell the Jewish people the same thing; that what you are doing in terms of oppressing the Palestinians will bring excessive hate.

We do our best, but they (the American Administration) cannot meet with us or respond to us because they are under so much pressure from the Zionist program. The Zionists have tremendous power in the US as well as in Europe, they also have the AIPAC which puts tremendous pressure on every political leader, and points to them that if they speak out and show that they understand the view of the religious Jews that oppose Zionism, or show too much sympathy with the Palestinian people then they are committing political suicide; while on the contrary if they speak out they have to show support and respect to Israel.

But we know that with what we are doing behind the scenes, they see us. When they do the AIPAC meeting we have a group of people that stand up and do demonstrations, and show them that there is another side to the point and that true Judaism oppose the existence of the Israeli occupation.

Source

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"Palestine is the heart of Arab countries" - The PalestineFreeVoice ______________________________________________________

Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The PalestineFreeVoice,all publishing is for information services only.

Iran: 150,000 Missiles Pointed at Israel

S-300 Surface-to-Air Missiles  November 28, 2011 - 11:05 .. Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said that Iran has up to 150,000 missiles pointed at Israel, according to the semi-official Iranian FARS news agency. According to the report, Vahidi questioned threats against the Islamic Republic from the Zionist entity, asking "How many missiles have they prepared themselves for? 10,000? 20,000? 50,000? 100,000, 150,000 or more?" The Iranian defense minister also warned against an offensive by the United States, saying it would meet a hard defensive line were it to attack Iran. "The US and its allies should know that Iran is so powerful that its battling will teach the US how to fight and what war and warrior mean," Vahidi told a crowd of 50,000 volunteer soldiers in Bushehr.

Source: Agencies

 ______________________________________________________

"Palestine is the heart of Arab countries" - The PalestineFreeVoice ______________________________________________________

Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The PalestineFreeVoice,all publishing is for information services only.

Israel to Cut off Power, Water to Gaza if Unity Gov. Formed

	Local Editor
Israel warned on Saturday that it would cut the supply of water and electricity to the Gaza Strip if Fatah and Hamas form succeeded in forming a unity government. "The foreign ministry is examining the possibility of Israel pulling out of the Gaza Strip in terms of infrastructure," Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the daily Yediot Aharonot website. On Friday, Israeli ministers decided to maintain a freeze on the transfer of tens of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority hours after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal. "If the Palestinians have signed an agreement over a unity government, it would make a transfer of funds impossible," AFP quoted a senior Israel government official as saying.

Source AFP

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Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The PalestineFreeVoice,all publishing is for information services only.

U.S. and the Palestinian Cause

 November 29, 2011

By F. Michael Maloof

The United States has been a tremendous disappointment to Palestinians who had hoped this country which represents democracy and freedom to the world hasn’t displayed any leadership in resolving the tremendous injustice that Palestinians have faced for more than six generations. 

And their plight is getting worse, not better.

The U.S. position toward Palestinians in attempting just to upgrade their status in the United Nations recently shows how much U.S. policy is subservient to “Israeli” interests.  The U.S. stance in objecting to this effort blatantly revealed a hypocrisy in U.S. policy of talking about Palestinian rights on the one hand but undermining and vehemently objecting to their efforts to gain the recognition they have long deserved.

Unfortunately, the recent Palestinian effort to seek their just recognition at the U.N. evoked immediate cries from “Israeli” supporters in Congress to cut off all U.S. financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority.  There now exists a freeze by Jewish congressmen and congresswomen who are in key positions of leadership on important committees which halted further funding.

Their ranting against the Palestinians showed just how much in lockstep the U.S. Congress is with “Israel” and certainly the control that the Zionists have over the U.S. Congress.

 For Palestinians, the Arab Spring is passing them by, and that is just wrong.

While the U.S. has now focused just on the U.N. recognition issue, it has ignored the Palestinian state issue and how “Israelis” continue with settlement construction.  U.S. policymakers also have been silent on the way “Israeli” settlers treat Palestinians by destroying their property including valuable olive and fig trees which constitute the livelihood for countless Palestinians, or forcing defenseless Palestinians from their own property at gunpoint, or just blowing up their houses altogether. 

There are numerous examples of these events occurring daily but remain largely ignored by the regular U.S. media which also is subject to major Jewish influence.

Between the Congress and the media, it further underscores the headlock Israel has on almost all facets of U.S. policy formulation, including America’s financial sector.

In addition, “Israeli” action against Palestinians is a clear demonstration and total disregard for United Nations resolutions, such as UNSCR 242 forbidding expansion by military force, which the “Israelis” do with impunity and virtually on a daily basis.

 The U.S. insists that any peace settlement needs to be worked out bilaterally between “Israel” and the Palestinians.  However, some 30 years of negotiations and the way in which “Israeli” treatment of Palestinians continues without challenge have shown that this approach just hasn’t worked. 

It is especially noticeable as the Zionists say they want to negotiate a peace settlement with the Palestinians and then virtually in the next breath announce the construction of thousands of settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, making any notion of a bilateral approach simply unworkable.

Given the historical record of such “Israeli” double-speak, it now is clear that the “Israelis” have no intention of working out a bilateral settlement with the Palestinians because of their thirst for what they admit is “Lebensraum,” over more “living space to expand.

For the “Israelis,” that means taking over more Palestinian lands, knowing that neither the United States nor any other country will put a stop to it.  The Israelis started out slowly but, given the lack of serious objection or any U.S. sanctions imposed against the “Israelis’ for such behavior, the Zionists believe the lack of any objection allows them to go all out with constructing more settlements on Palestinians lands.

What is diabolical about this is that “Lebensraum” formed the basis of a policy of the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler against the Jews in confiscating their properties in Germany and German-held territories. 

It represented a means by which the Third Reich took over lands and subjugated its peoples to what amounted to slavery.  Such invasions led to the start of World War II.

Just as the world has condemned such a racist, hatred-filled policy since then toward the Jews, no less should be directed toward how the Zionists in power now treat the Palestinians living in the occupied territories and bombing and occupying their lands with impunity.

Yet, the U.S. government doesn’t react to such an approach which even American Jews should be rebelling against because of those World War II memories.  However, they, too, are silent.

In speaking out about the way in which Palestinians are treated, it is apparent that it represents a conflict in U.S. policy toward “Israel.”

By its silence, the U.S. government thereby gives “Israeli’ supporters in Congress more license to confront the administration on any issue that shows any concession toward Palestinians, even if the effect is minimal.  However, that silence is deafening.

Unfortunately, other western countries also haven’t shown any courage or leadership to call the Israelis on such treatment and remind them that not in the too distant past their families were similarly treated by the Nazis, an event which led to the emotional appeal back in 1948 to create the Zionist state.

Palestinians are in the same position today with the “Israelis” but the moral leadership expected from other democracies in the world, especially the United States, is absent.

The inability of the United States to show that moral leadership to right the wrongs of an oppressed people as the Palestinians suggests that America also speaks out of both ends of its mouth when it expresses such values but ignores those appeals.

The world has witnessed this in the case of the Arab Spring in which the U.S. continued to back autocratic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa against demonstrators’ demands for democracy and justice.

It now is clear that you can’t mistrust the United States enough when it comes to being that moral compass to do what is right by all peoples, including Palestinians.

F. Michael Maloof is a former senior security policy analyst in the U.S.Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Source

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"Palestine is the heart of Arab countries" - The PalestineFreeVoice ______________________________________________________ 

Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The PalestineFreeVoice,all publishing is for information services only.

Palestine, Arab unity are main challenges facing Arab Islamists

November 27, 2011 - 11:07 PM

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By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

There is no doubt that the outcome of recent elections in Tunisia and Morocco is good news for the Palestinian cause. It is also hoped that the Egyptian elections will further consolidate the Islamist reality in this part of the world where decades of unlimited and unrestricted western  backing of Zionism, or Jewish Nazism, enabled Israel to torment, dispossess and humiliate hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims.

 Now this has got to stop.

The peaceful and democratic  transformation in  the Arab world is the most positive development since the downfall of the Ottoman state in 1924. It is hard not to relate to what is happening in the Arab world  today in strategic and historical terms.

The Arabs are simply declaring their disbelief in secular nationalism, Godless secularism, dynastic and feudal despotism, and tyrannies of all kinds. They must soon declare their disbelief in territorial nationalisms of all sorts. After all, territorial nationalisms are merely advanced degrees of tribalism. Territorial nationalism is un-Islamic, it should be obliterated, though gradually.

Indeed, one can attest with utmost certainty that territorial nationalism represents and reflects the will of the western colonizer, not that of  Arab and Muslim masses. Hence, keeping the Arab world in a perpetual state of disunity, fragmentation and disintegration can be considered a real betrayal of Arab aspirations for unity.

In the past, Islam unified the Arabs. There is simply no other healthy and decent unifier.  This is why the earned rise of Islamist forces in many Arab lands can be viewed as a realistic cause for hope for reviving efforts to unite the Arab world.

There ought to be a qualitative chasm between Islam's vision of the Arab world and that harbored by secularist, liberal and nationalist trends. In short, the Islamists' vision should go beyond mere banalities and seeking solutions for contemporary problems facing Arab countries.

Islamists therefore must seek something more historical, more strategic, and more sublime, such as true, integrative Arab unity,  otherwise the Islamist way of governance would remain confined inside a parochial circle, which would eventually generate a huge disappointment among the masses.

I am saying this because there are high and legitimate expectations the masses believe the Islamists must meet. The expectations go far beyond the normal things, e.g. a higher standard of living, greater degree of civil liberties,  lesser unemployment,  lesser graft and corruption, more social justice and equality before the law.

Undoubtedly, these aspects are very important and in many cases they constituted the main underlying causes of the Arab Spring

Which means that these basic issues must be tackled, but the Islamists are warned against stopping there because the Islamist vision doesn't stop at feeding the people and granting them employment.

 I realize that that pursuing Arab unity now may be beyond the Islamists' ability, especially at this early stage. Grand enterprises do require time to achieve. However, we must remember that even grand enterprises can be carried out in stages. For example, the first steps toward the establishment of the European Union took  place a few years after the Second World War when Europe was thoroughly devastated.

The important thing is that we put our feet on the right track, because in the absence of Arab-Islamic unity, we would continue to move from one crisis to another more crippling crisis until we reach our ultimate demise as a civilization that once extended from China to the Atlantic .

The pursuing of Arab unity shouldn't be at the expense of determining our ultimate approaches or approaches toward Zionism, or Jewish Nazism, which is trying to obliterate our people in occupied Palestine, destroy our holy places, and arrogate more lebensraum in the region at our expense.

More than anyone else, the Islamists ought to know that Israel is not just another state seeking to secure a shelter for persecuted  Jews as the mouthpiece of lies in the Zionist  regime have been claiming.
 
The truth of the matter is that Israel is a cancerous entity seeking to create a Talmudic empire extending from the eastern Mediterranean to Persia and from southern Turkey to Upper Egypt.  I am not an alarmist or suffering from  anti-Jewish phobias. I am only reading their literature and there is no rational reasons not take them seriously.

The Islamists must not pursue international relations in the style of the defunct regimes. This would boomerang sooner or later, besides being a betrayal of the Islamist line of thinking.

Yes, we must have normal relations with all countries, including superpowers and important powers. But we must never ever compromise Muslim dignity and honor in order to appease certain governments. The old regimes are gone, we must make a complete and absolute departure from their ignominious modus operand.

Once again, remember Israel is the venomous snake that will try to harm you and  incite and  conspire against you. Don't be intimidated by this evil entity, it will eventually go away. Evil will not prosper for- ever (end

Source: the Palestinian Information Center 

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"Palestine is the heart of Arab countries" - The PalestineFreeVoice ______________________________________________________

Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The PalestineFreeVoice,all publishing is for information services only.

Internally displaced Palestinians (IDPs) demand protection

Palestine Day.

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By Hiyam Noir and Fadwa Nassar

November 28, 2011
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The Zionist State of Israel considers Palestinian who are living as refugees within in the occupied 48- border and the West Bank physically present yet at the same time absent and deprived of their rights to return to their land and regain their property, confiscated by the colonial state. These absentees are internally displaced, a group of Palestinians whom are at the same time refugees, and reseeding in their country, upon where the Zionist Israel colony was built.

A new book entitled "Internally Displaced Palestinians" The Present Absentee’, is documenting the story of the “displaced “Palestinian people, and is published by the "The Center of Palestinian Return" based in London. This agency is promoting the Palestinian right of return, the author is the Tunisian researcher; Arafet Boujemaa.

Very few studies are devoted to the issue of the "displaced” Palestinians. The first part of the book in reference to the history of Palestinian refugees, whose main demand is implementation of their right to return to their country which is the IDPs ( displaced Palestinians)origin. These Palestinians are the refugees which land and property were stolen by the Zionist: (Israel does not have a written constitution), in the aftermath of the war of 1948. Hence, being forced to live as refugees in their own land, with their property and possessions distributed to the Zionist colonial government and its military or destroyed or distributed among the settlers.

As refugees, these IDPs are forbidden to recapture their property or return to their own land, as it is mandatory required by resolution 194 of the UN Security Council. The second resolution issued, is that of the 48 Palestinians, who physically lived within their own colonized homeland, and with stoic courage stood up against the Zionists religious and ethnic cleansing, which was carried out in the 1948’s by terrorist Zionist gangs.


In a virtue of patience and courage these Internal displaced Palestinians, resisted separation from their property and their homeland and continued to struggle throughout their lives inside the Israel, as a "Arab minority”. This category represents approximately 25% of the 48 Palestinians. Being the refugees or internally displaced, they continued to live their lives deprived of their rights to access their farmland and villages, which were either colonized or placed under military control.

Interesting is the point in which the displaced Palestinians (i.e.) IDPs, argue for guarantee of international protection within the category which in a twofold manner is oppressed by the Israel. Until 1952, the IDPs depended on UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for assisting Palestinian refugees, to act as provider of basic survival needs, including medical care and the educational, also the enabling of employment possibilities. Yet the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East withdrew its obligations for the internally displaced Palestinians, because they had not taken into consideration the possible legal consequences regarding "international borders”. The UNRWA was now forced to provide the newly established colonial entity “Israel", with basic services – education, health, relief and social services. The colonial Zionist entity prohibited employment for the internal Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories, since being refugees, UNRWA left them and the Zionist regime didn't recognize them as refugees. Hence, as a whole at this very instant, their presence in itself was a direct indication of that crimes have been committed, and still existing in the lands of 48,which is an unstable legal foundation since it was created by removal of the indigenous  population.

The IDPs are absent in the Israeli statistic, however in theory, IDPs are holding a minority position within "the Arab minority”. Since in practice IDPs position in the everyday life of the colonial institution, it is obliged to ensure that no one of them, on his own land, previously worked as a farm laborer and or participated in campaigns of destruction of the buildings erected around their villages, or else erased a Zionist colony that had taken hold of their land. The righteous struggle waged by the displaced residents of Ikrit and Kfar Bir'im and other villages, to return back to their lands, lasted more than three decades, before it was finally obstructed by the Zionist authorities. A refusal to allow the villagers and their descendants to return to their land and their villages, simply fearing that a possible favorable outcome would give the IDPs incentives to follow in the same path of legal battles in the future.

The matter of concern is that the IDPs are a powerful source for most of the unrecognized villages, in particular, the area of al-Jalil. These internal Palestinians are prevented from returning to their villages to live in their own homes and cultivate their own land. The rules dominating the lives of the IDPs were established by the occupier in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Haifa and Nasra among others or against home and landowners which belong to refugees expelled from their homelands remote villages, or village of origin. However, many IDPs have refused to live in these facilities since they are considered to be provisional during the time, between year 1950 and 1966, when military power was institutionalized against the Palestinians of 48. That is why these Palestinians return back to build their homes on the outskirts of colonized or destroyed villages. For example Ayn Hod, the unrecognized Palestinian village which lands and homes of origin were transformed into a colony for Zionists artists.


The Palestinians of the 48 are considered to be at the bottom of the social ladder in the Israel, as to standard of living, the quality of education and medical care. The underlying causes /facts are that private funding from Arab municipalities barely can afford to provide services to every IDPs that are in need of support, while money is widely available in the Jewish settlements. Even more so, difficult to comprehend is that the knowledge of living conditions of the IDPs have become more difficult to endure, since their possessions and lands are confiscated by the Israelis, compared with the villagers and landowners who at least until the late 60's, kept their land and property, the IDPs potential for future survival is beyond reach.

Denied as equal by the Zionist state, however, the IDPs, are leading a battle on several frontiers in order to be recognized, and to be able to return to their homes and villages. This is in short the meaning of the constitution of the “Association for the Defense of the rights, of IDPs”, in "Israel" (ADRID), a Palestinian representative of the IDPs who managed, to gather the local committees of IDPs, was demanding the return to villages and farmland. In an interview, Mr. Wakim Wakim, chairperson of the "Association for the Defense of the rights of IDPs" said during the meeting of the committee that: "Our position to assert our right of return to our villages is not only based on international law, and the right that exists by virtue of natural law to own land and property, but it's also equivalent with the laws of "Israel", which guarantee the right of everyone to live where he wants. Suppose that we would want to live in al-Bassa, which is the village of our family and where we have land. Why not? Why can we not open an office, a business or build a house in al-Bassa?" - [North of al-Jalil] a village which lands was confiscated to be part of a settlement built on the site, but where the Church and the Mosque still stands to testify the Palestinian historic presence.

The legal battle is not good for anyone, since the army can challenge any decision of the Zionist Supreme Court, (when it at times takes a stand for the Palestinians).The battle of today is more popular and media-oriented, aimed at raising international awareness, support and public opinion, to enforce the right of return of the IDPs and accurate compensation for property destroyed. But, as noted by a recent study on the situation for the IDPs, these internal Palestinians are not covered by any international protection. The IDPs cannot rely on legal assistance from any international body to enforce their rights or claim protection. In several countries, the subject of internally displaced people has been discussed, since racial and colonial wars have resulted in forced displacement of millions of people around the world.


In order to claim refugee status, established by the United Nations without "crossing international borders”, was the “Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement". However, these principles are not serving as protection and these "guidelines" does not apply to the internally displaced Palestinians, since the Zionist entity refuses to distinguish IDPs from other Palestinians of 48. It is only through their own struggle and supports from international solidarity, the IDPs have received access to this status, thus they can not return to their home villages to recover their land and property.

The Zionists consider them absentees, yet the IDPs (internally displaced Palestinian refugees) at the same timed every year must prove they are present. They have become the problem, a source of some retrogression on the every year remembering (occasion), of the Nakba, when popular marches are heading to the grounds of "disappeared" villages and the displaced Palestinians are carrying placards with names of their home villages, denouncing Zionist policy of ethnic cleansing. These marches have become the highlight of Palestinian struggle for the land of 48, thus the IDPs, are not participating in a larger number since in their perseverance they are well aware of that they are contributing promotions to the rights of Palestinians living in the occupied country since 1948, they are also promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees abroad, which ancestors were expelled in the NAKBA, to return back home.

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"Palestine is the heart of Arab countries" - The PalestineFreeVoice ______________________________________________________

Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The PalestineFreeVoice,all publishing is for information services only.