Dissolve the PA!

The ongoing discussion about and the protest against the Palestinian Authority (PA) "president", Mahmoud Abbas' submissive attitude towards Israel and the US misses a central point. The issue at hand is not just Abbas stepping down but the continuation of the PA at all. There are basic structural problems about the Oslo agreement.

It should be asked whose interests are served mainly by the PA?

Warum soll ein Vergewaltiger für sein Lebenswerk geehrt werden?

Aufruf zum Boykott gegegn FilmmacherInnen, die Polanski unterstützen znd sein Verbrechen verharmlosen::

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/405/petition-to-boycott-roman-polanski-petition-supporters

Petition:  Art Does Not Excuse Rape: Polanski Must Face Justice

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/599143029

Sexuelle Missbräuche im Show-Biz

Mit der weltweiten Kontroverse um die Verhaftung des Filmregisseurs Roman Polanski soll auf ein grundlegendes Problem gelenkt werden: 
Wie häufig sind sexuelle Missbräuche im Bereich der darstellenden Künste? 
Wie kommt es, dass ein Vergewaltiger für sein Lebenswerk geehrt werden kann? Roman Polanski, ein bekennender Liebhaber Minderjähriger, bekommt Preise und wird überdies von vielen KollegInnen geschützt. Was steckt dahinter? Ist der Fall Polanski nicht die bekannte Spitze des Eisbergs? 

Drum beat to war with Iran?

Israel's rulers know very well that there is no real military option for them in order to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, if this is really the Iranian goal. These leaders know also that even if Iran does possess nuclear weapons, the threat to Israel will not be much higher than the existing one. Iran has already the capability with its conventional rockets and those of its proxy Hezbollah to hit Israeli strategic targets like electrical plants, tanks containing poisonous substances etc. and cause the death of at least hundreds of thousands Israelis. Thus Iran already poses an existential threat to Israel. Still the Iranian rulers behave more rationally than their reckless rhetoric against Israel let presume. Besides, even if Iran does possess nuclear weapons it would be very difficult to attack Israel with them without killing many Palestinians.

Therefore instead of the belligerent rhetoric it would make sense either to give Iran some incentives to give up its nuclear plan or at least develop effective mechanisms, not unlike those between the US and the former USSR during the "Cold War" in order to prevent a fatal accident.

Meanwhile Israel's rulers try not to go too far in formulating the Iranian threat as it might put the Israeli citizens in panic and accordingly there are some comforting declarations e.g. from the Israel war minister Ehud Barak:

"Right now, Iran does not have a bomb. Even if it did, this would not make it a threat to Israel's existence. Israel can lay waste to Iran…" (New York Times, September 17, 2009)

Israel's leaders know that they are not likely to get a green light from Washington for a military attack against Iran and that even if they do get such an OK from the US administration, the Iranian response might be very deadly for Israel and the whole region for the reasons stated above.

The US analyst Anthony H. Cordesman, who is close to the Israeli and US establishments wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal:

"An effective Israeli nuclear strike may not be possible, yet a regional nuclear arms race is a game that Iran can start, but cannot possibly win. Anyone who meets regularly with senior Israeli officials, officers and experts knows that Israel is considering military options, but considering them carefully and with an understanding that they pose serious problems and risks."

Cordesman wrote further:

"The conclusion is that Israel could attack only a few Iranian targets—not as part of a sustainable operation over time, but as a one-time surprise operation."

And:

"…Israel would have to contend with the fact that it has consistently had a "red light" from both the Bush and Obama administrations opposing such strikes. Any strike that overflew Arab territory or attacked a fellow Islamic state would stir the ire of neighboring Arab states, as well as Russia, China and several European states."

Cordesman finishes his article in stating that Israel poses an existential threat to Iran:

"While Iran is larger than Israel, its population centers are so vulnerable to Israeli thermonuclear weapons that Israel already is a major "existential" threat to Iran."

In clear language this means that if there was a real military option the Israeli air force would have attacked Iran long ago. The US "red light" for such an attack means that even the famous and powerful "pro-Israel" lobby, that allegedly made the US invade Iraq in 2003 because of the supposed Israeli interests, cannot get a US "green light".

Even the present very belligerent and disproportional tones coming from Washington following the Iranian admissions that it is enriching uranium do not seem to signal a real change in the attitude towards a military operation.

It should be noted that Obama's reaction to the disclosure of a new Iranian enrichment facility is not very credible. If the US "intelligence" community had known about it for a long time, why had they not published it before; and if it is so dangerous, why does the Iranian regime admit its existence? Even Israeli state radio in its Friday noon news broadcast talked about a US spin in this context.

One can only speculate about the reasons of this spin. The most likely explanation is that the Obama administration has decided to station anti-ballistic missiles(ABM)
in the Middle Eastand has to get an Arab political and financial support for this plan.

An obviously well informed US analyst, Greg Grant Friday, wrote on his blog on September 18^th.:

"The Obama administration has been frantically cobbling together a package of incentives to try and convince the Israelis to keep their bombers out of Iranian air space. Placing a ring of anti-ballistic missiles at sea in the Persian Gulf and at sites on the Arabian Peninsula is a key part of that effort, the [Pentagon] source tells us.

(…)

Behind the scenes, near term deployments will focus on boosting missile defense capabilities in the Gulf."

This policy is in accordance with the old neocon objective of strengthening the ABM program and now there is a good chance that Arab Gulf states will not only allow the stationing of ABMs on their territories but also will finance them and thus help the ailing US economy

It is noteworthy that notwithstanding the real aims of Iran's policy, they certainly help Israel to remove the Palestinian issue from the international agenda. In order to restraint the Israeli leadership from attacking Iran, Greg Grant has stated correctly that the Obama administration has cobbled together a package of incentives for Israel. Those inducements definitely include concessions on the palestinian issue. Thus the Iranian leadership has once harmed again Palestinian interests.

On the other hand Iran's rulers now have an opportunity to make several important demands in return for abandoning their nuclear ambitions. They may thereby achieve important objectives not only for their own country, but also for the Palestinians.

Edited by George Malent

Deutsche Medien: feige wie gewohnt

»Hey Schweinsteiger, vergiss nicht die Shoa.«

Ein weiteres Beispiel von schlechtem israelischen Geschmack und Missbrauch des Nazi Judeozids:

FC Bayern München spielte am Dienstag (15.9) gegen das israelische Team Maccabi Haifa in Israel. Nach einem Bericht von ynet in Hebräisch wurde Bastian Schweinsteiger schon am Morgen vor dem Spiel von zwei "lustigen" Radiomoderatoren, Harel Slutzki und Ofer Dominguez (Radio Kol Harega – Voice of the Minute) geweckt. Sie baten den deutschen Spieler nicht zu hart gegen den israelischen Club vorzugehen:

"Hey Schweinsteiger, vergiss nicht die Shoa!"

16.09.09
Ein weiteres Beispiel von schlechtem israelischen Geschmack und Missbrauch des NS-Judeozid:

German Papers are afraid to attack a tasteless Israeli anti-German "Joke"

On Tuesday two Israeli radio hosts demonstrated very bad taste and told the German soccer player Bastian "Schweini" (piggy) Schweinsteiger that his team Bayern Munich should not win 6:0 against the Israeli club Maccabi Haifa because this number is reminiscent of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.

Bayern Munich should not have won 6:0 against an Israeli soccer team

Enclosed is another example of Israeli bad taste and abuse of the Nazi Judeocide.

The Swedish canard – not only smoke, but also fire

By: Shraga Elam

25 August 2009

(Heb.http://cafe.themarker.com/view.php?t=1192567)

The controversy over the racist Swedish article on the trade in organs of Palestinians should not obscure the fact that the slovenly report has a scandalous basis in fact, which calls for a serious discussion.

Himmlers Schweizer Freund

Berner Zeitung; 15.08.2009; Seite 35

Berner Zeitung BZ zeitpunkt

LANDARZT Fritz Thönen, ZWEISIMMEN

Himmlers Berner Vertrauter

Fritz Thönen, imposanter Arzt aus Zweisimmen, hatte Kontakte zur Führung Nazi- deutschlands. Erstmals ausgewertete Dokumente zeigen nun: Er traf gar SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler und verhandelte mit ihm über den Freikauf von Juden. Wer sich noch an Thönen erinnert, hält es aber für zu simpel, ihn nur in die Naziecke zu stellen.

Mythos Bergier-Kommission

Offener Brief an Ueli Haldimann

Direktor des Schweizer Fernsehens

A mosque in Ein-Hod

The following text comes from an ardent Zionist who addresses frankly a problem typical to colonialist endeavours: A disregard and contempt towards the "native" culture and religion plus their basic rights. All this happened in a village occupied since 1948.

Some thoughts on Netanyahu’s speech

Although it is obvious that Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu is not honest and is counting on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to reject his "final solution", still what he said is shared by most of the so-called Israeli peace camp and many parts of it were actually accepted by the PA leadership.

The bludgeon of anti-Semitism is being swung against Mizrahi intellectuals

Obviously some mainstream Israeli academics are losing their nerve in their desperate efforts to silence growing internal intellectual opposition. Ashkenazi Jews are now swinging the club of alleged "anti-Semitism" against critical Mizrahim (oriental Jews). This is going to happen in a conference to be held in Haifa University on 22 June, 2009. The subject: The New Anti-Semitism - Educational Challenges

Big Broder und die Fremdsprachen

Der wichtigste Publizist im deutschsprachigen Raum, Henryk very Modest Broder hat offensichtlich grosse Schwierigkeiten mit Fremdsprachen.
Nachdem er einen englischen Satz von mir falsch übersetzt und mir damit Holocaustleugnung unterstellt hatte, kritisiert er jetzt peinlicherweise Uri Avnerys vermeintliche Nicht-Beherrschung der hebräischen Sprache.
Obwohl ich mit vielen Analysen und Visionen Avnerys nicht einverstanden bin und mir der Personenkult um ihn und auch andere Menschen zuwider ist, besteht kein Zweifel, dass es ganz wenige Israeli gibt, die so viel zum modernen Hebräisch wie der Journalist Avnery beigetragen haben. Seine Sprachbeherrschung ist phänomenal und er braucht bestimmt keine Nachhilfe von Broder.
Selber mit beschränkten Hebräischkenntnissen ausgerüstet glaubt Broder, Avnery bei einem gravierenden Lapsus erwischt zu haben.
In der englischen Version eines Avnery-Beitrags steht Folgendes: In the Knesset bakery (the Hebrew word for bakery is mafia), some new pastries are being baked.”
Wie ein übereifriger Erstklässler, der den Lehrer beeindrucken will, springt Broder darauf und meint, hier einen Fehler entdeckt zu haben, weil Bäckerei auf Hebräisch Ma‘afia und nicht Mafia (kriminelle Vereinigung) heisse.
Nun ist die hebräische Schrift aber ziemlich xenophob, obwohl sich die gesprochene Sprache wiederum aussergewöhnlich fremdenfreundlich zeigt. Denn viele Wörter werden gleich geschrieben, haben aber unterschiedliche Bedeutungen und werden jeweils auch anders ausgesprochen. Und so kommt es, dass Ma‘afia (Bäckerei) und Mafia normalerweise genau gleich geschrieben werden, d.h., wenn sie nicht mit Vokalzeichen versehen sind. Diese fehlen bei normalen Texten ganz und werden nur für Anfänger, in der Lyrik oder im Alten Testament usw. verwendet.
Der englische Übersetzer von Avnerys Text unterlief lediglich ein kleiner und unwichtiger Fehler. Er hätte schreiben sollen: ”…the Hebrew word for bakery can also be read as mafia.”
Auf Althebräisch könnte man Broder deshalb sagen: Tol Kora mi‘ben Enecha, tol Kesam mi‘ben Schinecha. Da ich nicht ganz sicher bin, ob er diesen Spruch verstehen wird, hier zwei sinngemässe Übersetzungen: Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein, oder Wer anderen in der Nase bohrt, ist selbst ein Schwein.

Shraga Elam

Israel High Command tells officers: Lose the PowerPoint presentations

It is interesting that the Israeli High Command is telling its officers to drop the PowerPoint presentations. There cannot be any doubt that many modern ailments and problems are due to a manager culture that finds its expression in superficial PowerPoint presentations, executive summaries and MBA influenced decision making with no real connection to reality.

"The deputy chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Erez Weiner, wrote a damning indictment of such presentations in last month's issue of the IDF journal Maarachot.

PowerPoint presentations, he wrote, represent "a strong point that has turned into a weak point. The Americans have concluded that using them makes discussions shallower and compromises analysis. The IDF remains addicted to this tool, and is paying for it dearly."

He added that "for many years the use of presentations in the civilian world has expanded, and even more so in the military. It is virtually impossible to have a discussion or lecture in a military forum in which the presentation is not used.

"I believe the use of presentations has made the level of discussion, and the depth of study, more superficial." (Haaretz 7.6.2009 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090908.html)

Is it possible that a deeper study might lead the Israeli High Command, the political and economic leaderships to realize that there are logical, essential and unavoidable limits to the use of force and brutality? That this adventurous policy creates more dangers than it prevents?

Just the same, it is not clear why Weiner claims that all the USAnians "have concluded that using them [PowerPoint presentations] makes discussions shallower and compromises analysis." Certainly there is critique of this tool in the US, but still it is very common and popular. E.g. Obama's Cairo speech might be considered as a verbal PowerPoint presentation. Repeating like a mantra the call for the so called "Two State Solution" for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not seem to be very realistic, just like crying "oh my god" during sex cannot be considered to be a prayer.

Brig. Gen. Erez Weiner's critical assessment and recommendations follow Henry Mintzberg, a professor of management at McGill University, who says that Business Schools with their MBA programs are responsible for the present financial crisis. According to Mintzberg it is time to scrap the MBA as training programme for future leaders as these schools are too detached from real-world issues.

This reminds me of a Swiss emeritus professor of medicine who who used to say that medical studies give for over 90% of the answers provided by medical studies are to questions that nobody asked"

Shraga Elam

Zurich/Switzerland

(Edited by George Malant)