Tuesday, 30 November 2010

THE TALMUDIC INQUISITION OF LITHUANIAN HISTORIAN PETRAS STANKERAS

Ask yourself this: What if you discovered a poisonous and criminal letter targeting you, yet somehow everyone attacked you instead  ~  merely for bringing it up. Would that make any sense? This is how bad they’ve turned everything around, so that Whites literally fear opening their mouths, even when it’s us being targeted in our own countries (not just America). That’s got to change  ~  will you have the courage to speak out about these subversive people?

Below are a few relevant quotes to accompany  this article. I have a few quotes establishing the Zionist regard for the laws of the world.

"Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial." ~ Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 25 March 2001 quoted in BBC News Online

“The Jew is the living God, God incarnate: he is the heavenly man.
The other men (non-Jew) are earthly, of inferior race.
They exist only to serve the Jew.
The Goyim (non Jew) are the cattle seed."
~ Jewish Cabala

We Jews, we, the destroyers, will remain destroyers forever. Nothing that you will do will meet our needs and demands. We will forever destroy because we need a world of our own." ~ Maurice Samuel, "You Gentiles", p. 155, Harcourt Brace, 1924. Url. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau.../ Maurice Samuel

“While God requires other normal nations to abide by abstract codes of justice and righteousness, such laws do not apply to Jews.” ~ Gush Emunim Rabbi, Shlomo Aviner

“Nations will gather together to bring their homage to the people of God; the whole fortune of nations will pass into the hands of the Jewish people, they will march behind the Jewish people, in chains as captives, and will prostrate before it.” ~  Isador Loeb, Le Probleme Juif.

“We Jews regard our race as superior to all humanity, and look forward, not to its ultimate union with other races, but to its triumph over them.” ~  Goldwin Smith, Jewish Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, October, 1981

“Gentile souls are of a completely different and inferior order. They are totally evil, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.”…If every simple cell in a Jewish body entails divinity, is a part of God, then every strand of DNA is a part of God. Therefore, something is special about Jewish DNA…” ~ Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh in “Jewish Week,” the largest Jewish publication in the United States, April 26, 1996.

Petras Stankeras
by Michael Hoffman
November 30, 2010

Efraim Zuroff’s tirade against Lithuanian “Holocaust denial" (see below) is a textbook example of the Talmudic inquisition at work. I say “Talmudic” because the notion of a supreme level of cosmic suffering and horror far above that of any non-Judaic nation is a thoroughly Talmudic prerogative of the Master Race of Holy People. Lithuanian historian

Petras Stankeras can’t question the kangaroo Nuremberg Trials because such questions offend the Master Race of Holy People. 

Mr.Stankeras can’t question the magical Six Million figure because such questions offend the Master Race of Holy People, and for the same reason he must not state the fact that there is no document from Hitler ordering extermination.

“Blatant Holocaust denial” is a loopy pseudo-legal term cooked up by Deborah Lipstadt and then universally imposed on the language of the world by the poor persecuted ones. This is heresy-hunting, not law or history.

Notice how Mr. Zuroff feels free to accuse the entire nation of Lithuania (“Lithuanian society”) of deep-seated dishonesty and guilt for horrible crimes. 

But don’t anyone dare say such things about Israeli society! 

By the Talmudic standard, Judaics are the judges of the gentiles; gentiles are never fit to judge Judaics. Negative generalization about Israelis is a step on the road to another victimizing ‘Holocaust,” while negative generalization about “Lithuanian society” is a righteous corrective against a nation of “Holocaust” criminals.

This is the Talmudic double-standard that Lithuania must swallow if they want to be a "member in good standing of the European Union and Nato.” This is the reverse racism that historian  Petras Stankeras must embrace if he wants to restore his career and gain back his position in the Ministry of the Interior.
The most heinous offense of all on the part of the Lithuanians is to dare to even think for a moment that what their nation suffered under Soviet Communism, including at the hands of Christian-hating Soviet Judaics, was in any way equivalent to what the Mater Race of Holy People experienced under the Nazis. How dare any gentile for even a moment compare his or her family’s suffering to that of the Holy People! Outrageous!
Efraim Zuroff:

"Lithuania has been the leader of a insidious campaign to try to distort the history of the Holocaust by seeking recognition that Communist crimes were just as terrible as those of the Nazis. This false equivalence would unjustly rob the Shoah of its universally-accepted uniqueness and historical significance, turning the worst case of genocide in human history into merely one of many tragedies.”
Give us a break! No one else has suffered? What of the multiple millions destroyed by Chairman Mao?  What of the millions of Christian White Russians starved and murdered during the Bolshevik revolution in Russia? What of indigenous people around the earth?
 
According to the Talmud, in all things, Judaics are higher, more noble, more suffering, more persecuted than non-Judaics. There can be no equality (“equivalence”) between the two, most especially in the realm of war crimes and genocide upon which Judaics have a proprietary (and lucrative) trademark.

Animals are incapable of the depth of pain or emotion and spirituality that a human has. Therefore the suffering of others is truly inferior in depth and certainly not worth true consideration, just a little lip service if pressure is great.

Not to worry, however. Hannah Rosenthal, the U.S. government’s "special ambassador to combat antisemitism”  has arranged for a massive “Holocaust" education indoctrination “seminar" for Lithuanian teachers, who will be taught to know their place as inferiors and dutifully conform to the Talmudic hierarchy of victimhood.

***
US must take a tougher line on Baltic revisionism

Why has the US remained silent while European nations roundly condemn Holocaust denial by a Lithuanian government official?




Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office, American-born Israeli historian Efraim Zuroff coordinates the center's worldwide effort to locate Nazi war criminals and bring them to justice. In a career spanning 28 years he has not only tracked down those who helped perpetrate the Holocaust, but also convinced often-hesitant governments to prosecute them. One could claim with justification that this gentleman is the Chief Inquisitor.



Efraim Zuroff
guardian.co.uk, 

29 November 2010

The resignation late last week of historian Petras Stankeras from his post as a "senior specialist" at the Lithuanian ministry of the interior received little attention in the US, but the scandal that prompted his decision to give up his job should set off a red warning light in Washington, and especially in the state department and the US embassy in Vilnius.

The story began two weeks ago with the publication in the 8 November issue of the popular news weekly Veidas of an article by Stankeras to mark the 65th anniversary of the opening of the Nuremberg Trials in which he described the proceedings as a "clearly wrong judicial investigation", and openly and unequivocally denied the Holocaust. 

 According to the now former government official, one of the major failings of the Nuremberg trials was that they "provided a legal basis for the legend about 6 million supposedly murdered Jews, although the court did not have a single document signed by Hitler on the extermination of Jews (no one has found this document to this day, if it even exists, although a million-dollar prize has been promised).” 


While such a blatant assertion of Holocaust denial has never been the norm in Lithuania, a member in good standing of the European Union and Nato, anyone closely following the policies of the government on Holocaust-related issues over the years could not have failed to discern a deep-seated reluctance to honestly confront its Holocaust past and especially the extensive collaboration of local Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of Jews, primarily inside Lithuania, but outside its borders as well. 

From an abysmal failure to punish any of the Lithuanians who participated in the annihilation of Jews to a clear tendency in history books and textbooks to hide or minimise local complicity in Holocaust crimes, to a total failure on the issue of restitution, Lithuanian society has not even begun to tell the truth about its Holocaust history and truthfully deal with its implications.
Worse, Lithuania has been the leader of a insidious campaign to try to distort the history of the Holocaust by seeking recognition that Communist crimes were just as terrible as those of the Nazis. 
This false equivalence would unjustly rob the Shoah of its universally-accepted uniqueness and historical significance, turning the worst case of genocide in human history into merely one of many tragedies.
All this has been going on with increasing intensity in recent years, virtually unopposed and unchallenged, neither within the European Union nor in Nato, but Stankeras' article has now proved the catalyst for action in Europe.

In a letter signed by the ambassadors to Lithuania of six EU members ~ Britain, Estonia, France, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway ~ there is not only an unequivocal and strong condemnation of the Holocaust denial and the lack of any public or official Lithuanian protest, but for the first time, there is an open denunciation of Lithuanian efforts to create a false equivalency between Nazi and Communist crimes. 

The letter condemns the recent decision of a court in Klaipeda to allow the use of swastikas "as a traditional Lithuanian symbol", and goes on to denounce "Spurious attempts … to equate the uniquely evil genocide of the Jews with Soviet crimes against Lithuania, which, though great in magnitude, cannot be regarded as equivalent either in their intention or their result."
 


. ..this week, the US embassy in Vilnius is conducting a special Holocaust education seminar for Lithuanian teachers, financed by a grant announced by Rosenthal (Hannah Rosenthal, the US "special ambassador to combat antisemitism” -Ed.) during her visit to Lithuania this past spring....

Comment from a  reader:
Why on earth would anyone imply that crimes committed towards Jews by the Nazis is somehow worse than crimes committed towards other ethnic groups by the communists? 

Do you have any idea of the type of tactics they used? 

Everything ranging from execution to torture to starvation! 

And they killed by far many times more people than the Nazis ever did. 

Furthermore, they did attempt to wipe out complete ethnic groups. 

What about the Ukrainians in the Holodomor? 

Six million starved Ukrainian men, women, and children. 

No big deal to the person (Zuroff) who wrote this piece though right?

***
Posted by Michael Hoffman
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NETANYAHU: WIKILEAKS REVELATIONS GOOD FOR ISRAEL


BY DECEPTION THOU SHALT WAGE WAR

November 30, 2010







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Monday, 29 November 2010

LIFE AFTER THE OCCUPATION ~ TALKING WITH THE TALIBAN


Special report: In the last of his series from Afghanistan, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad asks Taliban leaders past and present what kind of regime they would run ~ and whether there is a chance of negotiated peace


By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
November 26,2010 

In the south-eastern city of Khost, the everyday business of the Taliban administration carries on across the street from the fortified, government-run city court and police station.

The head of the Haqqani network's civilian administration and his assistant hold their council in the grand mosque, which is also known as the Haqqani mosque because it was built with Taliban and Arab money.

When I met them, the two men ~ a frail-looking 60-year-old and his younger sidekick ~ gave the impression of being haggard peasants seeking work in the city rather than members of one of the organisations most feared by Britain and America.

Worshippers at the mosque greeted the Haqqani representatives with a mix of reverence and anxiety, some walking in a long circle to avoid them while others came forward and shook hands, pledging contributions for the movement. The mosque leader begged them to be his guests for the night.

"The resistance is stronger and bolder today," the old man said. "A few years ago the Taliban could move only at night.

"Now that our land has been liberated ~ thanks be to God ~ we walk around in the middle of the day and we fight in front of the people. We control our lands and our villages while [the Americans] can only come in by air."

The administrator was laden with messages to deliver. Among his many roles as a senior member of the civilian administration, the most important is as a conduit to the higher Taliban authority of Sirajuddin Haqqani and his base in the border region between Khost and Pakistan.


The old man carries edicts from the leadership in one direction and petitions and complaints in the other.
When the Taliban ruled in Kabul in the 1990s they closed schools, stopped women working and exposed themselves to ridicule by banning trivial pursuits such as kite flying.

Yes, the Taliban had made mistakes in the past, he admitted, and they were still making them. "Our men still do things that annoy the people, and that is part of my job, to convey the complaints," he said.

"But the benefits of the Taliban outweigh the harm we do to the people. In our area there were thieves and bandits. It was chaos.

"People needed someone to monitor and rule and punish. They needed us to impose order.

"The government is besieged in its fortresses and can't come to the people, and corruption is paralysing it. One of the main reasons for our popularity is the failure of this government."

In a striking parallel with what the Americans have been advocating as part of their counterinsurgency initiative, the Haqqanis have set up local shura (consultation) councils made up of village elders and clerics to run the affairs of villagers in the "liberated" areas and create local security. The old man's job is to supervise these councils.

"I am a representative of the movement and I walk among the people and everyone knows me. I move between the people and the commanders, watching the commanders' behaviour. I listen to the people and convey the picture to the supreme leaders," he said.

Had the Taliban changed? A future administration would be based on Islamic rule, which was what the Afghan people wanted, but it would be different in detail from the Taliban regime that had ruled in Kabul before. "We will not rule based on theory. The people want us to be more pragmatic."

He quoted the Muslim poet Muhammad Iqbal. "When the painter works on the same old painting again, he will make it much better.

"The Taliban that will return will not be like the old Taliban. We have learned from the old mistakes. We will accept others. We are not and cannot be all of Afghanistan, but we are an important part of it."

The commander

From Khost I traveled to nearby Ghazni province to meet a commander of the Quetta Taliban I had met two years before.

Last time I saw Mawlawa Halimi he was scared and kept a watch at the doors and window of the small hotel where we had lunch. He had just been promoted to lead a small unit and he moved around incognito, fearing government agents and police checkpoints.

In the intervening years he had become one of the most senior commanders in the province. He was a few pounds chubbier, his hair was longer and he had an air of authority. I waited for him in the bazaar. He arrived on a motorbike with an armed guard riding pillion and no one in the bazaar gave him a second glance. He drove ahead, leading us to a mud-walled compound.

As we followed him, an American patrol passed along the main road a hundred metres distant, three huge armoured trucks wrapped with mesh fences to counter RPG attacks, each with two sets of armoured wheels in front to detect and detonate improvised explosive devices and landmines. The soldiers in their gun turrets trained their weapons left and right.

"Last time we met, the atmosphere in this area was tense. The villages and markets you passed through were targeted by the Americans," Halimi said.

"They used to come here a lot and life for people was difficult. Now, with Allah's grace, this is all ours.
"The war has changed. I used to fear the government wherever I went. Now we move everywhere and carry our guns with us. Two years ago we were just trying to defend our areas. Now we control this area and we go to the main street to attack."

He highlighted another major difference with the Taliban of two years ago. Then, the foot soldiers had all been trained in the madrasas. Now they were less ideological.

"It's a mistake to call all of the fighters Taliban. The Taliban are madrasa students and I am a mullah, but most of my fighters are peasants and farmers and students who come from the government schools.

"In winter we send them to Pakistan to get some religious training, but they are not Taliban," Halimi said.

"When we sit and watch the news on TV we hear that the Taliban attacked here and there and destroyed tanks and killed soldiers. Then in the next news item you hear that the Americans are calling for negotiations and of course you understand that these two news items are related. The second news item is the result of the first, and the Americans want to negotiate because they are losing.

"Why don't they just leave?" he said. "What are they waiting for?"

The ambassador

The fluffed-up sofas in the Kabul living room of Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, have seated many high-ranking dignitaries in recent months as officials from the UN, the EU and Nato have come visiting.

It is a dramatic change of affairs for a man who spent three years from 2002 in prison in Guantánamo and who, until July this year, was on the UN list of known terrorists.

Zaeef is now a prolific writer and speaks five languages fluently. According to many Taliban insiders, if there are any negotiations between the Taliban and the Americans they will go through him.

"The Americans came and sat here," he said, pointing at one of the big sofas. "They said they needed to talk to the Taliban but couldn't find them. They didn't know who the Taliban were. I said go and look, they are everywhere, the Taliban have shadow governors and administrators, why don't you go and talk to them?"

The real reason the Americans didn't talk, he said, was that they had no respect for the Taliban.

"I told the Americans to respect their enemy. You can't negotiate with the Taliban from a position of strength, so why would the Taliban come and talk to you? If you want talks you have to treat the Taliban as equals."

In any negotiation, the Taliban would assert that as long as their land was under occupation they would struggle to liberate it.

They would continue to fight until the foreigners left. Their argument was with the Americans, not the Afghan government. They did not want to bring down the government, they just wanted to renew it.

"The Taliban have no problem with the Afghan government. We have no problem with Karzai or the Afghans. The problem lies with the Americans," he said.

"Why would we negotiate with Karzai if he has no say in running his government? They are under occupation and all orders come from foreigners."

The Americans, he said, had not talked to any senior Taliban to his knowledge. However, "the government and the Taliban have been talking for two years on local matters, health-related issues, prisoner exchange, education.

"This is not a negotiation, this is a way to help and benefit our Afghan people and nation. Negotiations haven't started yet."

The Americans had a right to know that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for attacks against them, he said, but that was all.

"The Americans have one right only, and that is their right to be assured that Afghanistan will not be used against them and that is something the Taliban should give.

"Apart from that they have no rights, they have no right to tell us about democracy and human rights. That's an Afghan issue and it will be decided by the Afghans.

"The Americans behave with arrogance and if they don't want to be defeated in Afghanistan they should talk.

"They don't belong here," he said. "They are foreigners, outsiders."

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AMISH COMMUNITY ASKS FOR FORGIVENESS FROM JEWS AT KOTEL

The caption to this read: 
"The Amish banker and the Jewish farmer."

Unbelievable the strange bedfellows these days. The Amish have declared themselves to be wholeheartedly in with Israel as part of their apologizing for being silent during the Jewish Holocaust. Did these people speak out during the Gaza Holocaust or would they even know it was happening>  Will they have beard growing contests?

Fattest beard, skimpiest, fanciest, best braided. Do the curls give the Hasidim an edge on their new found buddies? It seems amazing that such a peaceful people as the Amish would align with such a violent organization as the Israelis.

Can't you just hear Lucifer gloating over this one, and the cries of angels. Probably slapping his knee and hooting by now. The main body of these Amish obey and do as told in politics; it seems the elders have sold out and the family  get to keep the land for awhile longer. Or some such agreement. A fresh source of pure girls, such a difficult commodity to find in today's world, and what satanic practitioner would not be rubbing his hands in glee at such a coup.

To my mind, a sad step backwards for the Amish. The innate naivete of the women and children and certain of the males, these folks are in for a rough ride.


Amish and Hasidim conversing

Representatives take highly unusual step of using modern transportation to make journey to the Holy Land; commit to loudly supporting Jews.

Representatives of the Amish community from the United States and Switzerland paid a visit to the Western Wall on Saturday night, during which they asked the forgiveness of the Jewish people over their group’s silence during the Nazi’s extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.

Part of what made the visit so special is the fact that Amish, a split-off from the Mennonite Church who largely reject modern technology, do not normally use contemporary transportation forms such as the aircraft on which they made the journey to the Holy Land.

According to an announcement issued by the office of Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites Shmuel Rabinovitch, with whom the group met, the Amish delegates saw a great importance in coming to Israel and expressing their contrition, as well as declaring their unreserved support of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

The delegation members stressed that they are neither seeking any kind of gesture from the Jewish people nor to proselytize, only to support Israel for the simple reason that they haven’t in the past.

Rabinovitz was presented various tokens at a ceremony in the Hassmonean chamber, including a parchment with the request of forgiveness in the name of the entire Amish community. 

The Amish representatives also gave a commitment that from this time on, they will loudly voice their support of the Jewish people, especially in the wake of the expressions of hatred by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinjad and his extensions.

Iran, Iran, Iran! Church n state.
The delegation left Israel on Sunday.
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DAVID ICKE ~ MANKIND IS WAKING UP or FREEDOM OR FASCISM

 

POSITIVE REALISTIC SPIN OF THE WORLD TODAY ~ DAVID ICKE



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Sunday, 28 November 2010

WHEN CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST, ISRAEL SHIVERS

WAR CRIMINAL LEAK STRIKES 
AT THE HEART OF ISRAELI SOCIETY
  

 "Instead of asking why some groups or individuals in Israeli society are willing to take great risks to hold that society accountable for its actions, Israel prefers to blame the problem on treacherous, self-hating, anti-Semitic Jews, and to instill fear and hatred as the means for preventing Israelis from examining their consciences."

November 27, 2010
By Paul Larudee

When unknown elements in Israel leaked the name, rank, identification number and other information (and photographs!) about two hundred Israeli military personnel who reportedly participated in the 2008-09 invasion of Gaza, the effect was sudden and profound, according to sources in Israel.

Although the first site on which the leaked information appeared was taken down by the host, it has continued to circulate via email, and has appeared on a number of other sites. The Israeli military and other Israeli agencies are reportedly doing all they can to shut down every site on which it appears, and to prevent it from "going viral". At least one popular blog that links to the site has received a record number of death threats.

You can run, but you cannot hide from the truth for much longer, Israel. 
 
What is so special about the list? As several critics have pointed out, it doesn't even state the crimes that the listed individuals are alleged to have committed.
The root of the problem, according to the sources in Israel, is a poorly kept secret ~ namely, that it is hard to serve in the Israeli military without committing war crimes, because such crimes are a matter of policy. 

What Israeli soldier has not ordered a Palestinian civilian to open the door to a building that might house armed militants or be booby-trapped? Who has not denied access to ambulances or otherwise prevented a Palestinian from getting to medical care, education or employment?

Some, of course, have gone much farther, and deliberately targeted unarmed civilians (as in the "buffer zones" along the border of the Gaza Strip), tortured detainees, and have either ordered or participated in massive death, injury and destruction at one time or another. 

These acts have all been heavily documented by numerous credible agencies, such as the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Amnesty International, the Goldstone Commission, Human Rights Watch, and B'tselem.

What has been missing in large measure is accountability. To be sure, isolated victories have been won, usually with great effort. Within Israel, token trials and punishment, such as the conviction of the shooter of British human rights volunteer Tom Hurndall, continue to provide a thin cloak of respectability to the Israeli justice system. 

Beyond Israel's control, however, senior Israeli officials have been forced to avoid travel to an increasing number of countries for fear of law-enforcement action. Nevertheless, ordinary Israelis had not yet been made to feel directly subject to such pressures.

Then it is time they learned and understood what the world, on the whole, thinks of the things they do, did, plan to do, to Palestine and Lebanon.  
 
The publication of the list of 200 changes everything. The list contains the names of a few high-ranking officers, but many of those named are in the lower ranks, all the way down to sergeant. The effect is to make ordinary Israelis concerned that they, too, may be subject to arrest abroad, and without the protection that well-connected higher officials might enjoy. 

They know what they have done, or been ordered to do, or have ordered others to do, and they suspect that they may be held accountable by foreign laws, over which their government has little control.

Many Israelis already fear that an anti-Semitic world is looking for an excuse to shut down the Zionist experiment. It is therefore not a great leap to believe that they could become pawns ~ or scapegoats ~ in the rising chorus of voices speaking out for Palestinian rights and against Israeli abuses.

Coupled with this is the Israeli addiction to vacationing abroad, which is a national obsession and almost a right, in the mind of many. The result is that suddenly, with the release of the list of 200, the prospect of being held accountable outside Israel is no longer an abstraction, to be dealt with at the level of diplomats, government policy and the news stories. It hits home.

So sad when a Palestinian is not allowed to leave their miserable prison for medical, educational, or any other reason. Stuck at home in Israel. If it is so beautiful, they should be thrilled to vacation in their own back yard. 

This has serious consequences for Israeli society. It potentially increases the number of youths who will try to avoid the military, the rates of emigration and immigration, and other patterns of commitment to Israel and its military. 

Wonderful news! No soldiers, no bombing, no more shooting goat boys for sport.

Most of all, according to the sources, it may cause soldiers to begin to question policy and orders far more than in the past, because of the way it may affect them personally. The debate is already taking place around the question, "Can I be held responsible?"

If old men who cooked in Nazi camps can be held responsible for millions of deaths, why not you?

The answer to that question could potentially determine whether it will be possible to mount a massive offensive against a population that has no effective military forces, as in Gaza, or where saturation bombing, cluster munitions and depleted uranium might be used, as in Lebanon. (and Gaza)

This is potentially a daunting prospect for Israeli military commanders, and some sources in Israel believe that the publication of the 200 has already had that effect.

More likely, however, it is premature to make such a call. It seems unlikely that Israel will succeed in putting the genie back in the bottle with regard to the list of 200. It is already leaping from one place to another in cyberspace, via website and email (although Israel seems to have been temporarily successful in banning it from Facebook).

However, will it generate further research and release of information on the potential offences committed by the named individuals, and will it lead to further publication of such lists?

Thank you from the heart of millions to the one who leaked this first lot. Unlike the faux Wikileaks, this stuff is real and of great import to humanity.
According to the sources in Israel, the military and perhaps other agencies have gone into high gear to track down the source of the leaks. This is a typical Israeli response to the problem. 

Instead of asking why some groups or individuals in Israeli society are willing to take great risks to hold that society accountable for its actions, Israel prefers to blame the problem on treacherous, self-hating, anti-Semitic Jews, and to instill fear and hatred as the means for preventing Israelis from examining their consciences.

* Paul Larudee is co-founder of the Free Gaza and Free Palestine movements and an organizer in the International Solidarity Movement.
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IOF SHOOTS 3 GAZAN WORKERS & SHUT EREZ CROSSING

 
November 27, 2010

It is to the point that there is no use commenting on what these luciferian djinn do to the Palestinians.  They are so terribly repetitive in their inhumanity. We know now what they are. I cannot say animals, no natural creature of this earth deserves such an insult, these members of the Israeli military are just unimaginative demons from IsraHell.
First, their actions speak for themselves. 
Second, there is not enough vocabulary to express the disgust and disdain I feel for these things. 
Third, there are not enough words to express what the families of the victims, and everyday Palestinians, feel at this constant onslaught of outrage after outrage.
Fourth, their foul actions are now seen and recognized for what they are by the decent folk of this planet. 
Gaza, November 28, (Pal Telegraph) 

Israeli occupation forces opened fire Sunday at Palestinian workers in north of Gaza Strip, near Erez (Bait Hanoon) crossing.

Local sources reported that three workers, one of them was a 15-year-old boy, were shot while they were collecting gravel from destroyed houses in north Gaza.

Medical sources added that the injured workers were evacuated to Kamal Odwan Hospital to receive medication and their health conditions are moderate.

Local sources added that the Israeli occupation forces closed the crossing for today.
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ROAD TO HOPE CONVOY REACHES GAZA

November 27, 2010
The Road to Hope Convoy reunited in Egypt after having been split by the Egyptian requirement to charter a ship from Libya to El Arish and the kidnapping of 10 convoy members from Libya to Greece.

Three members of the convoy travelled to Egypt by sea with 30 vehicles and £500,000 of humanitarian aid, 29 convoy members flew in a chartered jet from Libya to El Arish and 3 of the 10 kidnap victims flew from the UK and Greece to Egypt on November 21, 23 and 25, all reuniting on the 25th, according to a press release sent by the convoy’s organizers to the Tehran Times on Friday.

The aid convoy was subsequently challenged by the Egyptian resistance to the 3 kidnapped convoy members rejoining the convoy, this because they had not flown in with the chartered jet from Libya. This was not possible however because of their inability to get new passports after having been separated from them against their will.

Importantly, Egypt had approved travel to Gaza for all 3 of these convoy members just days before.
   
Being unable to negotiate the return of the kidnapped convoy members to the convoy they were compelled to jump into the vans when they proceeded from El Arish Port to Rafah. When the Egyptian authorities realized that these convoy members were among the entire convoy group at Rafah, they announced that these three would not be able to reach Gaza.

Among these members was Ken O’Keefe, convoy leader and survivor of the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara. With the entire convoy standing firm, the Egyptian authorities reversed their decision after several hours and the entire convoy passed through to Gaza.

After a demanding and very long 7 week journey the convoy members have been given just over two days to stay in Gaza or risk joining the imprisoned population of Gaza; this is typical of the Egyptian control of the Rafah Crossing. 
13 members of the convoy were blacklisted by Egypt, including a seventy-year-old children’s entertainer and magician from Wales who was transporting toys for the children of Gaza.
Also blacklisted was a Scottish national who has never left Scotland and has no affiliation with any organization, along with a 19 year-old British national, again with no associations that could be considered prohibitive. 
Several survivors of the Mavi Marmara were banned, along with British/Pakistani nationals and previous convoy members. This trend makes it harder and harder for people to support Palestine and should be considered a part of the overall blockade of Gaza.

The convoy members will do their best to experience as much of Gaza as possible and share with the world the reality of life for people entering four years of a brutal collective punishment policy. The vehicles and aid will be distributed to various charities and organizations that are doing invaluable work. Among the aid is medical equipment and medicines, wheel chairs, crutches, toys, clothes footballs and shoes.

Ken O’Keefe will remain in Gaza for 40 days (or longer if imprisoned) and begin daily video reports focusing on the children of Gaza. These will be posted at his Facebook and Twitter accounts and his blog.
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Saturday, 27 November 2010

PORTUGAL: 3 MILLION PARALYZE ECONOMY, "BIGGEST GENERAL STRIKE EVER"

Meanwhile, over in Portugal, the country  next in line for the bankers' slam........ 


THREE MILLION PARALYZE ECONOMY 
IN "BIGGEST GENERAL STRIKE EVER"
27/11/2010 
Over three million workers laid down tools in Portugal on Wednesday, as a massive general strike ground the country to a halt. It is already being termed as the country’s “biggest strike action ever”. After months of growing resistance, strike actions, and massive demonstrations during the year, this general strike is a major turning point that will lift up to a new stage the raging class battle of the Portuguese working class against the market-dictated policies of the massively rejected ‘Socialist Party’ (PS) minority government. 

The freezing of the pensions, raising of VAT and various taxes, 5% cut in public sector wages, further attacks on welfare benefits, cuts of 15% in operational costs of public hospitals, and new road tolls are among some of the new measures planned for the 2011 austerity budget, which was approved in Parliament on Friday. 

Almost every day, Portuguese newspapers are announcing new attacks against the living and working conditions of the majority. The mainstream politicians, the media and their so-called specialists, the European Commission, the IMF, the bankers and the bosses, all repeat in chorus that “there is no alternative” to endless sacrifices, massive spending cuts and new austerity measures. 

Every sane person who was in Portugal on Wednesday knows that the figures given by the government, which spoke subsequently of a 29% participation rate, is nothing but pure propaganda. The Ministry of Labour noted, in support of the governmental figures, the fact that energy consumption in the country was “practically the same” than on a normal day.

In response to this, Carvalho da Silva, Secretary of the CGTP, declared ironically: “If this is true, we need to conclude that planes don’t spend any energy, that boats don’t spend any energy, and that a lot of private companies don’t spend any energy either. This is a phenomena.” 

In practice, the participation in the general strike exceeded every prediction. Part of this exceptional turn out was the involvement of new layers of workers who were engaging their first strike action, or sectors who have usually not been very active in previous mobilizations. In Lisbon and Porto, art workers surrounded theatres in big human chains composed of hundreds, shouting “General Strike, the struggle continues!” and in the capital, engaged in militant street blockades in front of a totally impotent police force.

Social tensions rising ~ Historic turnout

Wednesday’s General Strike drew impressive levels of involvement and support all over the country, being seen by many workers as a historic opportunity come together to display collectively their strength and will to fight back. For weeks, huge banners, placards, and graffiti were displayed across the country to urge workers to join the “Greve Geral” to fight against measures aimed at making the poor pay the price of a crisis not of their making. 

As a result, over 3 million workers stopped work, much more than the 1.7 million strikers registered in the 1988 general strike (the last one to have been called by a common front of the CGTP and the UGT). 

And this is despite the fact that many more people ~ especially in the private sector where the trade unions influence is weaker, jobs contracts much more precarious, and threats and intimidation from the bosses stronger ~ wanted to join the strike, but did not do so for fear of losing their jobs. 

In a situation where unemployment is at the biggest level ever registered (11.5% officially, with a rate approaching 25% for young people, and 54,000 jobs destroyed this year alone) and the government is slashing en masse the access to unemployment benefits, this factor played undoubtedly a role in the overall participation in the strike, especially in medium and small sized private companies. Figures show that about a third of privately employed workers do not have permanent contracts. 

For these reasons, the strike was more solid in the public sector. Public transport workers in particular were highly involved. Not one plane took off from or landed on Portuguese soil on Wednesday, the whole metro system was shut down in Lisbon and Porto, while buses, boats and trains were massively disrupted. 

Also, in public administration, education, healthcare, and justice, unprecedented turnouts were reported. More than 2,500 public schools were closed because of strike actions, and everywhere, uncollected rubbish in the streets testified to the massive participation of refuse workers. 

But strong, sometimes unprecedented, paralysations occurred in the private sector as well: the Volkswagen factory of AutoEuropa for example, the biggest industrial plant of the whole country, registered 98% of strikers from among its 3,400-strong workforce, preventing the production of a single car during the whole day.

The Portuguese ruling class is clearly sitting on social dynamite. Even the middle classes have expressed sharply their outrage against the present state of affairs. One commentator recently wrote: “If, as generally accepted, democracy relies on the stability of the middle class’ position, then in Portugal democracy is committing suicide”. 

Significantly, in order to avoid to sparking popular anger, Prime Minister Socrates remained enclosed in his Sao Bento palace for the whole day, not daring to come out, contrary to what happened in 1988 when the then right-wing head of government, Cavaco Silva, visited factories during the general strike. 

This is for an obvious reason: Socrates’ approval ratings stand at 21.7%; even the hated French President Sarkozy is doing better! Those figures contrast with the popular support for the leading figures of the Left Bloc (Francisco Louçã) and the Portuguese Communist Party (Jeronimo de Sousa), who stand at 32% and 28% respectively. 

Overall, the capitalist state dealt extremely cautiously with the general strike. The government decided to avoid any provocation that could fuel the movement in one way or another, and did not utter one word to confront the trade unions on that day. This is not to say that repression and strike-breaking operations by the state machine did not occur. 

One of the most prominent confrontations took place at the CTT Postal depot of Cabo Ruivo, the biggest of the Lisbon area, where the police intervened in order to protect scabs employed illegally by the management through a private company to replace the jobs of the 270 out of 276 workers who were on strike. 

The attempt by a more than 50 police, armed with helmets, shields, sticks, tear gas and pepper spray, and assisted by a private security force, to break the picket was resisted and prevented for 4 hours with bare hands by a courageous and collective effort of about 80 workers and trade unionists, assisted by a few Socialismo Revolucionário and other CWI members present there.

In its ongoing social war, the ruling elite will try to use every means and argument to attack the right to strike. This includes evoking the constantly repeated “right to work”. What hypocrisy! When, in the recent weeks, Portugal’s largest handling company, Groundforce, declared the ending of its operations at Faro airport and announced ~ overnight, and by email ~ the sacking of 336 workers, some of whom even learned the news first through the media, not many voices were heard defending their “right to work”. 

Attempts to roll back the right to strike will increase in the next period, and must be clearly opposed and offensively challenged by the trade unions. 

This includes the operation of “minimal services” in some sectors considered “imperative social necessities”. These measures are justified by the idea of “preserving the general interest”. What is the general interest when the majority of the workers are engaged in a general strike? 

The trade union organisations must have complete control over such measures, not letting governmental and bosses agencies to decide arbitrarily how and where they can undermine the efficiency of strike actions.

Trade unions declare “victory”…

but the fight is only starting

Wednesday’s successful general strike could have had much more impact if the trade union leaderships had not refused to organize proper demonstrations during the day. 

This was clearly a bureaucratic attempt to prevent momentum building up between the different sectors involved in the strike. The result is that no real space was offered for the workers from the various sectors to connect with each other, to bring their demands onto the streets, to exchange the experiences of their workplaces, etc. 

There is no “national interest” 

between workers 

and a corrupt government, 

sold to the capitalist class

Facing the growing threat of a bail-out from the IMF and ECB, the preservation of the “national interest” of the country will increasingly be used as a diversion to make Portuguese workers swallow the pill of austerity more easily. 

Such a logic can only be countered by the organisation of an international fight back of the working class. The left must make this point clearly, instead of echoing this nationalist propaganda, as the PCP is systematically tempted to do. 

Obviously, like we have seen with Greece a few months ago, with Ireland more recently, or with the intervention of the IMF in Portugal in the 1980s, the intervention of the IMF in Portugal would undoubtedly be coupled with new savage austerity conditions, all for the purpose of reassuring the bond speculators that their gambling operations are in good hands and that their orgy of profits can continue. 

The possibility of such a bail-out will be used as a Damocles sword upon Portuguese workers’ heads… to impose more drastic cuts anyway. 

The reality is that with or without such a bailout, the austerity policies have no end in sight, as long as we leave intact the present profit-driven system, in which the economic levers are controlled by powerful private hands, and workers’ lives depend on an immense and anarchic casino. 

The present wage cuts and tax increases, which they dare to call “courageous measures”, are the shortest road to plunging the country back to recession, with all that that implies for workers and the poor. 

All serious economists warn that the planned cuts will choke any possibility of already anemic growth, and slide the country back into recession from next year. The OECD and IMF both predict similar scenarios for Portugal, and even the Portuguese Economic Minister has openly declared that the present measures will have a “recessive effect”. 

And these are the same people who want us to believe that these measures are necessary to preserve jobs and living standards! It is like a doctor giving poison to his patient, then warning him that he is going to die, and at the same time continuing to tell him that the poison is good for his health! 

This shows blatantly once again that the capitalist system, in Portugal as elsewhere, has failed, and is driving the majority of ordinary people into the wall, provoking growing misery, mass unemployment, squeezed services and a return to 19th century working conditions as the only distinctive future. 

In those conditions, the only “courageous measures” would be to expropriate the banks, the financial institutions and the commanding heights of the economy, to put them under public ownership and democratic control of the working class, and to start the building of a democratic socialist society, based on the rational planning of the economy to satisfy the social needs of all.

This General strike was only the first step

The General Strike has demonstrated the potential power which exists on the workers’ side to impose such a programme However, many workers also expressed doubts and skepticism about the possibility of similar actions to really change the course of events. 

This goes back to the strategy and proposals coming from the trade union leaders and the left, most of them only seeing the strike as a symbolic action, or at best as a means towards further negotiations with the government. 

Socialismo Revolucionario thinks that the general strike announced in Greece for 15 December represents the perfect occasion to build upon the success of 24 November and to concretise a sentiment which is shared by an increasing number of workers in Portugal: the necessity for coordinated strike action on an international level.

Joint General strikes in Greece and Portugal on the same day would have a powerful impact, boosting the confidence of the working class in both countries to a new level, and would have strong repercussions for the outlook of the whole European working class. 

The determination of the all governments in Europe to continue, to satisfy their capitalist and speculator masters will require a determined and consistent programme of struggle by the working class, including by preparing a European-wide general strike response. 

This fight, at a certain stage, will pose the question of an alternative system to the crisis-ridden capitalism. SR wants to address consciously this question now, prepare the forces and build support for the genuine ideas of democratic socialism. 

We call on the Portuguese left organisations, especially the PCP and the LB, to start a dialogue between each other to draw the lines of a common fight against the unprecedented assault which is taking place against the future of millions of ordinary people.


As a contribution to the debate, SR is advocating:
Refuse to pay the debt created by the capitalists ! Open the books of the banks and big companies, to see where our money has been going! 
 
Down with the hedge funds and professional speculators! Nationalize the banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions under the democratic control of the working class and consumers’ organizations! 
 
Reduce the working week without loss of pay, to provide decent jobs for all the unemployed! 
 
Enough with the casino and anarchic market system: for a government by and for workers and the poor, based on a rational, socialist, plan of production, fulfilling the needs of the millions, not the profits and greed of millionaires! 
 
For massive and joint 24 hour general strikes in Portugal and Greece on 15 December! 
 
For international unity and solidarity of the working class! Prepare for a European-wide general strike!
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