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Rabi' al-Thani 16,1435/February 16, 2014 # 7
Hijab in USA. Two aspects. Unusual article from Chicago.
Scroll to end please.
Historic Pakistani top religious unity gathering calls for
Peace: End to Army-Pak Taliban conflict demanded.
See report at end below.
Pak Talibs countering MQM and ANP in Karachi:. Large areas
under Talib control.
See map below.
New Book
World War II could have been stopped: The peacemaker spent
46 years in British-allied prison.
Rudolf Hess: His betrayal and Murder by Abdallah Melaouhi,
2013, The Barnes Review, P.O. Box 15877, Washington, DC
20003. For phone orders by card, 1-877-773-9077.
Most scholars of the war know that Hitler's top deputy
Rudolf Hess flew to England in an astonishing peace making
attempt. He was "detained" by the Brits because Churchill
and his Jewish advisers wanted the war to continue.
What is not known is that during his last frail years, Hess
was tended in the inhumane highly sanitized Spandau prison
in Germany by a MUSLIM doctor. Hess knew Arabic. The writer
witnessed the murder of Hess in prison and has tried for
years to bring out what happened.. The old man refused to
die and constantly smuggled out his messages from the
maximum security prison. Finally when he was 93, he was
killed.
It is an astonishing book and should alert our readers to
the lies they have heard about the war.
Sanitized prisons? Think of Imam Jamil, Shaikh Omar,
Ahmed Abdel Sattar
[
AhmedAbdelSattar.org
]
,
Massoud Khan
[
FreeMasoudKhan.net
]
,
Shifa El-Sadequi and others in
sound proof cells. No one can hear them even if they scream.
Two sides to hijab: From a Chicago Muslimah's blog by a
local "Patch" [non-Muslim] writer.
Scroll to end please.
Are we good or what!
New Trend's Web Site. Thanks to Br. Rich in Nebraska.
There were 51,141 hits in January in spite of winter woes.
There were 12,251 visitors in this one month.
Yahoo groups:
In February 2014 till now New Trend has been posted on 33
yahoogroups. Thanks to Jamaat al-Muslimeen- Washington, DC.
Breaking News: Syria
On February 15, the Geneva talks between the Assad regime
and the pro-western opposition broke down. Meanwhile Assad's
regime continues to drop barrel bombs on civilians in
Aleppo, forcing thousands to flee towards Turkey. It's a
massacre with more than 800 killed by barrel bombs in 3
weeks in Aleppo alone. More than 9 million people of Syria
are now refugees. Assad is denuding the population support
base of the Islamic opposition.
Also on February 15, Assad's Alawite elite troops prepared
to attack the town of Yabroud near Lebanon border with mass
support from Hizbush shaitan. Artillery shelling has forced
3,000 people to flee the town. In the southern village of
Yadouda, Shi'ite agents blew up a mosque after juma prayers
killing 32 including 10 children.
Mujahideen in the Damascus suburbs led by al-Nusra beat back
Assad attempts to advance. The mujahideen in Aleppo
frontlines [ISIL, Ahrar, Tawheed] are also holding firm.
For report from Homs and analysis of non-Muslim and Shi'ite
support for Assad, Also Syria and Saudis: see article by
Kaukab Siddique below.
Congratulations to Iran on the February 11 anniversary of
the revolution. Iran moved from being an Islamic state to a
nationalist state to a Shi'ite state. Its support for
Syria's Assad has totally isolated Iran from the Muslim
world. Zionist propaganda against Iran is misleading and
false. American intellectual Mark Weber points out that Iran
is NO THREAT to the US.
Please scroll to end
for Weber's article.
Our America #1
Dr. Anthony Monteiro, Advocate for Mumia Abu-Jamal,
Dismissed
[Info sent by Nadrat Siddique]
Associate Professor of African American Studies, Dr. Anthony
Monteiro, Ph.D., a long-time advocate for Mumia Abu-Jamal,
distinguished W. E. B. Du Bois scholar and community
activist, has been dismissed from his position in Temple
University's African-American Studies Department. It is
clearly a case of a "retaliation firing," even though Temple
administrators deem it simply "end of term" for Dr.
Monteiro. For one report on the firing see this story at The
Philadelphia Tribune. The National Call contests the
dismissal, protests the retaliatory firing and seeks Dr.
Monteiro's reinstatement.
If you are an educator and wish to sign this Call, send your
name to
johanna.fernandez@baruch.cuny.edu
AND
mark.taylor@ptsem.edu
, subject heading: "Signature
Monteiro." Please give your name as you would like it listed
and your institutional affiliation (which will be shown for
identification purposes only).
A Call for the Reinstatement of Temple University's Dr.
Anthony Monteiro
WE UNITE with Philadelphia faculty members, labor, community
and student organizations to call for the immediate
reinstatement of Professor Anthony Monteiro as Associate
Professor in African-American Studies. After Dr. Monteiro's
10 years of distinguished service in Temple University's
historic Department, the first to offer a doctorate in
African-American Studies, he has been informed that his
contract will not be renewed, in a letter of Jan 6, 2014
from Dean Teresa Soufas of Temple's Liberal Arts College. No
reason was given for dismissal of so highly respected a
scholar, particularly for his Du Bois scholarship, but also
in African American Studies, generally.
Our America #2
Any Lesson from the recurring snow storms and extremely cold
weather?
The main lesson is that there are great disparities between
the rich and the poor. The weather hurts the poor and the
homeless to an extreme degree. Many of the homeless go to
shelters. Others who are unable to, sleep on the grates of
magnificent buildings, absorbing the vapors of the heat
which keeps the rich wearing summer clothing inside their
homes.
The poor and the old cannot easily go to hotels when the
electricity fails [20,00o in Philadelphia alone]]. They
shiver and are traumatized by the sudden removal of basic
facilities. Everything is based on electricity.
Injustice is apparent. This is the richest country in the
world and keeps an entire country funded in the Middle East.
"israel" [occupied Palestine] thrives while millions shiver
in America.
Our America:#3
Crimes Against Women are Commonplace in America: Here is one
from the Chicago area.
Romeoville, Illinois: February 13: A woman 33 year old and
her daughter 15 year old, sitting in their car, in front of
their house, were shot by a man who fled. They are barely
alive after being airlifted to one of the great hospitals in
the area. [Source: Romeoville Patch.] Police are looking for
the shooter.
Our America: #4
New York's Inside Story: De Blasio like Jefferson? How?
Vice President Biden Likens La Guardia Airport to a 3rd
World Country
by Sis. Aisha [Jamaat al-Muslimeen New York City] [2
items]
New York City - According to February 6th reports, Vice
President Joseph Biden insulted the New York City
administrations by likening La Guardia Airport to a Third
World Country. he made the comments at an event in
Philadelphia about America's infrastructure. La Guardia
Airport is grimey compared to JFK Airport. That is not news.
However, I noticed that V.P. Biden did not make such
insulting comparisons while Mayor Bloomberg, a staunch
Zionist Jew was in office. He waited until Mayor Bill De
Blasio (a.k.a Thomas Jefferson, I will explain, later) took
office.
New Mayor Bill De Blasio has been compared to Thomas
Jefferson for a number of reasons by Black Activists, of
late. First, he is married to a Black Woman, Chirlane McCray
( a former lesbian), and has two children of
African-descent. It has been stated that just because a
White Man is married to a Black woman does not mean that he
is anymore fair or just. Many White men have enjoyed the
company of Black women and still upheld White supremacist
ideology just as Thomas Jefferson and modern day
segregationist Strom Thurmond did.
Proof of these suspicions about De Blasio became cemented
when he brought back William Bratton to become New York
City's police commissioner, AGAIN! Bratton served under
tyrannical Mayor Giulianni. He is also responsible for
creating the very stop-and-frisk programs that human rights
activists have been trying to abolish altogether. Were it
not for Dante De Blasio's anti-stop-and-frisk campaign
commercials for his dad, Mayor De Blasio would have never
been elected. There was a protest a few days ago against
Commissioner Bratton's selection outside of City Hall.
Sounds like a Thomas Jefferson to me.
Yeshiva Student Arrested for Anti-Jewish Graffiti
On February 6, Cedarhurst Yeshiva student, Jonathan
Schuster, 18, was arrested for defacing area property with
anti-Jewish messages. His messages were expressly against
Orthodox Jews.
The Jews are very good at victimizing themselves and crying
wolf.
Brief war news: Syria
February 13: Assad's jet fighters bombed the small town of
Yabroud 13 times killing scores of civilians. Hizbullash
from Lebanon and Assad elite troops are trying to capture
the town because it lies on the route to the Alawite enclave
on the coast and the Hizbullsah forces which are helping
Assad.
Meanwhile Assad's air force continued to bomb Islamic
populations across the country. The death toll from barrel
bombs is heavy. The Human Rights Observatory which documents
each death notes that 4959 people have been killed in three
weeks, one third of them civilians, including 515 women and
children.
Mujahideen forces are trying to advance against Assad
strongholdsfrom north to south but are unable to break the
tank forces supported from the air. The losses are heavy on
both sides.
The Assad forces have retaken the large prison the
mujahideen broke in Aleppo on February 6. However 300 of the
4000 prisoners who came out made good their escape. These
were strong Islamic supporters.
One correction: The martyrdom operator who broke through the
prison gate was British, not Chechen. He has been identified
as Abdul Waheed Majid from the British town of Crawley. The
Muslim immigrants living in Crawley are shocked. British
authorities say several hundred British Muslims have
secretly moved to Syria to support the mujahideen. The
number is estimated at 400.
Homs being used for propaganda by Iran. Assad's forces
encircling the civilians opposing him in Homs have allowed
nearly 1000 civilians to leave. They were near death by
starvation. Many needed immediate medical attention. Iranian
propagandists are using this tragic situation to paint Assad
as a humanitarian!
Understanding Syria. Who is who? The Saudi Issue explained.
Analysis by Kaukab Siddique
Who in the West is supporting Assad through propaganda?
Non-Muslim activist writers like Cartalucci, Chodavussky,
Fisk, Lamb, and others feel threatened by chances of an
Islamic victory in Syria. They are either repeating Assad's
propaganda or are churning out their own far fetched
conspiracy theories. They are strongly supported by Iran's
Press TV, the Shi'ite al-Manar TV of Lebanon, Iranian media,
Russian media and Zionist media in the West. Some of the
points they make are:
-
Assad is fighting terrorists. The 100,000 plus Muslims
killed by Assad were terrorists and deserved to be killed.
One fighter angrily chewed up the liver of an Assad soldier.
This was broadcast wordwide. Even Putin harped on it.
-
Assad is part of the "resistance" against Israel.
Hizbullah {more correctly hizbush-shaitan] include Assad in
the "resistance" although the Syrian border with "Israel"
has not seen even border incidents in 30 years.
-
Saudi Arabia is fomenting the conflict in Syria. The
Cartaluccis of the world know thst Saudi Arabia is very
unpopular in America, so to link the mujahideen with the
Saudis would smear the Islamic fighters.
This Saudi issue is important. The Saudis support the tiny
westernized secular segment of Assad's opponents. The reason
is that if this segment gains power, the jihad groups will
be defeated and Saudi Arabia will be safe from the attacks
Osama bin Laden initiated on the Saudis.
When Assad launched chemical attacks on the suburbs of
Damascus which are under al-Nusra's control and killed 1500
civilians including hundreds of children, America threatened
military action. When the action did not happen, the Saudis
were deeply disappointed. American intervention would have
convinced the Syrian people that America wants to save them
from Assad's clutches. The jihad groups who are extremely
anti-American would have lost support and the westernized
"coalition" would have gained support which it sorely lacks.
Obama was apparently advised by his Zionist counsellors that
bombing Assad would make the jihad groups dominant and the
westernized "coalition" has very little support on the
ground.
The Saudis have since then not only shown reservations about
their relations with USA but have clamped down on Saudis
going voluntarily to join the fighting in Syria.
None of the Jihad groups are supported with weaponry or
funds by Saudi Arabia. Even Cartalucci, Lamb etc have not
been able to provide any such evidence, Turkey allowed small
arms to go through but recently has clamped down on this and
even bombed a convoy of the Islamic State of Iraq. Qatar and
the Saudis help refugees who are flooding out of Syria owing
to Assad's mass slaughter of civilians. Why Cartalucci,
Lamb, Fisk etc should object to the Saudis helping refugees
is not clear other than as anti-Muslim bigotry.
Twelve of the 14 jihad groups in Syria, who now control more
than half of Syria, are 100% Syrian. Of the other two,
al-Nusra is mostly Syrian and is led by a Syrian but has
received volunteers from Muslim communities around the
world. Its moral guide and philosopher is the Al-Qaida
leader Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri who worked for many years with
Shaykh Osama bin Laden but whose current whereabouts are
unknown. Al-Nusra is in control of six suburba of Damascus
and numerous points in Aleppo and across Syria.
The other major group is Islamic State in Iraq & the Levant
[ISIL], led by an Iraqi, al-Baghdadi, mostly Iraqi and some
Syrian but attracting many volunteers from Muslim
communities globally. They are very hostile to Saudi Arabia
and very harsh against any Muslims who show any weaknesses.
Should Muslims support the Mujahideen or should they support
Assad, Iran, Russia and hizbush? The answer should be very
clear to anyone who has read te Qur'an.
Brief War News: Pakistan.
February 13: A Pak Taliban attack hit a bus packed with
police officers in the city of Karachi. Thirteen officers
were killed and 43 wounded. Pak Taliban issued a statement
claiming that the attack was in revenge for assassinations
of Islamic activists by the government in Swabi, Peshawar
and other areas supporting the Pak Taliban.
Earlier on February 12 a cinema theatre showing porno movies
in Peshawar was blown up. Reportedly 14 people were killed.
Meanwhile, Pakistanis led by Imran khan and Munawar Hasan
are urging talks with the Pak Taliban to end the internal
fighting. Talks are opposed by pro-American secular elites
who want the Taliban to be wiped out. On the Taliban side's
representatives, Maulana Abdul Aziz, the surviving leader of
the Red Mosque, is saying that the real issue is the
implementation of Sharia [Islamic Law and not just cease
fire.
The Pak Taliban themselves have not joined the talks because
they suspect the Paki military is preparing to attack while
using the peace talks as a cover.
In a counter to secularist & pro-West groups MQM and ANP,
Pak Taliban have gained support in the poorest and
downtrodden areas of Karachi. See map researched by the Wall
Street Journal via Dawn. The secularists are now urging the
army to attack the Pak Taliban areas.
Brief War News: Iraq
February 13: Heavy fighting is reported from Anbar province
where US-installed Maliki Shi'ite regime is using weaponry
from America to re-capture the cities of Fallujah
[completely in Islamic hands] and Ramadi [partly under
Islamic control].
As the fighting goes on 300,000 people have left their homes
to avoid the al-Maliki Shi'ite army's assault.
Keeping Religion Pure
Shias are claimimg that Ali, r.a., could commit no Wrong and
was superior to all Sahaba, r.a.
We Muslims take ONLY Muhammad, pbuh, as Example. Not Ali,
r.a. Here is one reason.
by Kaukab Siddique, PhD
Ali, r.a., was a great Muslim as were other sahaba, r.a.
They were all humans and with their greatness they had
imperfections. Only angels have no faults.
For Ali, r.a., it is well known that he did not treat
Fatima, r.a., well. He even wanted to bring an enemy of
Islam, Abu Jahal's daughter, into the community of Islam as
his wife. That would have been a disaster for the
community.
Fatima, r.a. complained to the Prophet, pbuh. Coming from
such a gentle woman, those were harsh words she used for
Ali, r.a. . She called him "This Ali...."
Here is the reprimand of Ali by the Prophet, pbuh.. I will
select only one narrative. A scholar can surely find
others:
" The Prophet, pbuh, said from the mimbar of the masjid::
"The People of Hisham ibn Mughira have asked my permission
to marry their daughter to Ali ibn Abi Talib. I DO NOT
PERMIT IT. AGAIN, I DO NOT PERMIT IT. and AGAIN I DO NOT
PERMIT IT. Of course, if Ali divorces my daughter and
marries their daughter, he has the right. My daughter is
part of myself. Whoever harms her, harms me. Whatever hurts
her hurts me." [Sahih Bukhari, kitab-un-nikah]
Thus Ali, r.a., was reprimanded THREE TIMES, in one speech by
the Prophet, pbuh, and that too from the mimbar of the
mosque. He did not reprimand any other sahabi like that.
So, I say to Ismailis and Ghali Shias: Remember, we are
followers of ALLAH, not of Ali.
Our leader is MUHAMMAD, pbuh, not Ali.
Keep Ali, r.a. within his human limits and we will respect
him as he should be.
Bangladesh
Elderly Bengali leader of Jamaate Islami dies in police
custody under pro-India Regime
[Courtesy Shah Abdul Hannan.] [Monday, February 10, 2014.]
[The regime in Dhaka is picking on non-violent, middle
class, peace loving spiritually oriented leaders of Jamaate
Islami. Abul Kalam Muhammad Yusuf was one of them. He wrote
this testament for his family in May 2013. He passed away on
February 9, 2014 after being treated like a common criminal
in pro-Hindu regime's prison. Read the testament carefully.
Not a word about fighting back or taking revenge. This is
the weakness of Jamaate Islami Bangladesh. He was a very
decent person but the regime unloaded on him claims of huge
crimes which are unverifiable and totally absurd.
May Allah punish this Hinduized "Muslim" regime of Awami
League and Hasina Wajed... Editor New Trend.]
Address to my family and well-wishers
I am now 87 years of age. Most friends and colleagues among
my contemporaries have already left this world for the
hereafter. Today, despite my age and many health
complications, God has still preserved me. Of my eight
children and twenty-four grandchildren, most are now living
abroad in different countries (USA, Canada and UAE).
Given my frail age and the various illnesses that afflict
me, God may call me to the other side at anytime now. In
light of this, my children and grandchildren had made a
request that I write a little something about my life so
they could publish it somewhere. Upon their encouragement
and their request, I am addressing the following words to
them and also to all of my countless well-wishers. I hope
that you all may accept as an advice (wasiyat) these sincere
words that I offer from the depths of my heart.
I am but a minor, insignificant servant and a slave of the
Most Merciful Allah. The abundant overflow of blessings that
Almighty Allah Rabb al-?Alamin, has continued to bestow upon
me and my progeny has far exceeded what I could have asked
for, and for which I am incapable of being thankful enough
to God. In my lifework, I have not been able to get anywhere
near God's most favored and beloved servants. But it is my
strong faith in Allah that has urged me to follow the way of
His Messenger (PBUH), and so I have always tried to remain
on that path all my life. Even though, along the way, there
may have been faults and blames intentional or otherwise,
and for that I remain forever a seeker of God's forgiveness
and a beggar of His mercy. Allah SWT Himself has declared:
"Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all
sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (Surah
al-Zumar, Verse 53).
To my family and well-wishers, I wish to say that just as I
have always tried to be mindful of and committed to
fulfilling the rights of my parents, my wife, my children
and my relatives, in the light of the guidance from Allah
and His Messenger, so have I tried to be mindful of the
rights of my neighbors, my community and society, and the
people of my country. With whatever limited capacity and
effort, I have also tried my level best to stand alongside
all those who work for the benefit of the country and the
Muslim ummah at large.
To my children and my grandchildren, my advice: just as you
must attend to the rights of and your responsibility towards
your parents, your spouses, your children and your
relatives, so must you stay mindful of the rights of your
neighbors as well as the poor, needy and helpless around
you. The Muslim ummah and its well-being should also be in
your thoughts.
It was the blessing of Almighty Allah upon me, that I have
had the opportunity to work with several national and
international charity organizations and gracious
individuals, so that I was able to do some work towards
humanitarian projects (Sadaqa Jariyah) in all areas
throughout my motherland. To the extent that your own
resources and capabilities permit, you should also work for
Sadaqa Jariyah. For it is the blessings and rewards of such
endeavors that continue to accrue even after death.
To my dearest children and grandchildren, my last advice to
you all is that no matter what, you must remain steadfast on
the path of Allah and never neglect to observe all the fard
(obligatory) worship ordained by Allah-prayers, fasting,
charity and pilgrimage. Do not even approach or go near that
which is sinful and wrong, and always strive to attain a
moral character of the highest order.
These above words of advice that I am leaving behind for my
sons and daughters and my grandchildren, this same advice
remains for all of my friends and my colleagues in the
movement, young and old.
- Abul Kalam Muhammad Yusuf
May 4, 2013
With thanks to New Trend's Christian friend Ms. Carolyn in
Florida
Washington's Military Aid to Israel
By Chase Madar
We Americans have funny notions about foreign aid. Recent
polls show that, on average, we believe 28% of the federal
budget is eaten up by it, and that, in a time of austerity,
this gigantic bite of the budget should be cut back to 10%.
In actual fact, barely 1% of the federal budget goes to
foreign aid of any kind.
In this case, however, truth is at least as strange as
fiction. Consider that the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid
over the past three decades isn't some impoverished land
filled with starving kids, but a wealthy nation with a
per-head gross domestic product on par with the European
Union average, and higher than that of Italy, Spain, or
South Korea.
Consider also that this top recipient of such aid -- nearly
all of it military since 2008 -- has been busily engaged in
what looks like a nineteenth-century-style colonization
project. In the late 1940s, our beneficiary expelled some
700,000 indigenous people from the land it was claiming. In
1967, our client seized some contiguous pieces of real
estate and ever since has been colonizing these territories
with nearly 650,000 of its own people. It has divided the
conquered lands with myriad checkpoints and roads accessible
only to the colonizers and is building a 440-mile wall
around (and cutting into) the conquered territory, creating
a geography of control that violates international law.
"Ethnic cleansing" is a harsh term, but apt for a situation
in which people are driven out of their homes and lands
because they are not of the right tribe. Though many will
balk at leveling this charge against Israel -- for that
country is, of course, the top recipient of American aid and
especially military largesse -- who would hesitate to use
the term if, in a mirror-image world, all of this were being
inflicted on Israeli Jews?
Military Aid to Israel
Arming and bankrolling a wealthy nation acting in this way
may, on its face, seem like terrible policy. Yet American
aid has been flowing to Israel in ever greater quantities.
Over the past 60 years, in fact, Israel has absorbed close
to a quarter-trillion dollars in such aid. Last year alone,
Washington sent some $3.1 billion in military aid,
supplemented by allocations for collaborative military
research and joint training exercises.
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Overall, the United States covers nearly one quarter of
Israel's defense budget -- from tear gas canisters to F-16
fighter jets. In their 2008-2009 assault on Gaza, the
Israeli Defense Forces made use of M-92 and M-84 "dumb
bombs," Paveway II and JDAM guided "smart bombs," AH-64
Apache attack helicopters equipped with AGM-114 Hellfire
guided missiles, M141 "bunker defeat" munitions, and special
weapons like M825A1 155mm white phosphorous munitions -- all
supplied as American foreign aid. (Uniquely among
Washington's aid recipients, Israel is also permitted to
spend 25% of the military funding from Washington on weapons
made by its own weapons industry.)
Why is Washington doing this? The most common answer is the
simplest: Israel is Washington's "ally." But the United
States has dozens of allies around the world, none of which
are subsidized in anything like this fashion by American
taxpayer dollars. As there is no formal treaty alliance
between the two nations and given the lopsided nature of the
costs and benefits of this relationship, a far more accurate
term for Israel's tie to Washington might be "client
state."
And not a particularly loyal client either. If massive
military aid is supposed to give Washington leverage over
Israel (as it normally does in client-state relationships),
it is difficult to detect. In case you hadn't noticed, rare
is the American diplomatic visit to Israel that is not
greeted with an in-your-face announcement of intensified
colonization of Palestinian territory, euphemistically
called "settlement expansion."
Washington also provides aid to Palestine totaling, on
average, $875 million annually in Obama's first term (more
than double what George W. Bush gave in his second term).
That's a little more than a quarter of what Israel gets.
Much of it goes to projects of dubious net value like the
development of irrigation networks at a moment when the
Israelis are destroying Palestinian cisterns and wells
elsewhere in the West Bank. Another significant part of that
funding goes toward training the Palestinian security
forces. Known as "Dayton forces" (after the American
general, Keith Dayton, who led their training from 2005 to
2010), these troops have a grim human rights record that
includes acts of torture, as Dayton himself has admitted.
One former Dayton deputy, an American colonel, described
these security forces to al-Jazeera as an outsourced "third
Israeli security arm." According to Josh Ruebner, national
advocacy director for the U.S. Campaign to End the
Occupation and author of Shattered Hopes: Obama's Failure to
Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace, American aid to Palestine
serves mainly to entrench the Israeli occupation.
A Dishonest Broker
Nothing is equal when it comes to Israelis and Palestinians
in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip -- and
the numbers say it all. To offer just one example, the death
toll from Operation Cast Lead, Israel's 2008-2009 assault on
the Gaza Strip, was 1,385 Palestinians (the majority of them
civilians) and 13 Israelis, three of them civilians.
And yet mainstream opinion in the U.S. insists on seeing the
two parties as essentially equal. Harold Koh, former dean of
the Yale Law School and until recently the top lawyer at the
State Department, has been typical in comparing Washington's
role to "adult supervision" of "a playground populated by
warring switchblade gangs." It was a particularly odd choice
of metaphors, given that one side is equipped with small
arms and rockets of varying sophistication, the other with
nuclear weapons and a state-of-the-art modern military
subsidized by the world's only superpower.
Washington's active role in all of this is not lost on
anyone on the world stage -- except Americans, who have
declared themselves to be the even-handed arbiters of a
conflict involving endless failed efforts at brokering a
"peace process." Globally, fewer and fewer observers believe
in this fiction of Washington as a benevolent bystander
rather than a participant heavily implicated in a
humanitarian crisis. In 2012, the widely respected
International Crisis Group described the "peace process" as
"a collective addiction that serves all manner of needs,
reaching an agreement no longer being the main one."
The contradiction between military and diplomatic support
for one party in the conflict and the pretense of neutrality
cannot be explained away. "Looked at objectively, it can be
argued that American diplomatic efforts in the Middle East
have, if anything, made achieving peace between Palestinians
and Israelis more difficult," writes Rashid Khalidi, a
historian at Columbia University, and author of Brokers of
Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle
East.
Evasive Silence
American policy elites are unable or unwilling to talk about
Washington's destructive role in this situation. There is
plenty of discussion about a one-state versus a two-state
solution, constant disapproval of Palestinian violence,
occasional mild criticism ("not helpful") of the Israeli
settlements, and lately, a lively debate about the global
boycott, divestment, and sanction movement (BDS) led by
Palestinian civil society to pressure Israel into a "just
and lasting" peace. But when it comes to what Americans are
most responsible for -- all that lavish military aid and
diplomatic cover for one side only -- what you get is either
euphemism or an evasive silence.
In general, the American media tends to treat our arming of
Israel as part of the natural order of the universe, as
beyond question as the force of gravity. Even the "quality"
media shies away from any discussion of Washington's real
role in fueling the Israel-Palestine conflict. Last month,
for instance, the New York Times ran an article about a
prospective "post-American" Middle East without any mention
of Washington's aid to Israel, or for that matter to Egypt,
or the Fifth Fleet parked in Bahrain.
You might think that the progressive hosts of MSNBC's news
programs would be all over the story of what American
taxpayers are subsidizing, but the topic barely flickers
across the chat shows of Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, and
others. Given this across-the-board selective reticence,
American coverage of Israel and Palestine, and particularly
of American military aid to Israel, resembles the Agatha
Christie novel in which the first-person narrator, observing
and commenting on the action in calm semi-detachment, turns
out to be the murderer.
Strategic Self-Interest and Unconditional Military Aid
On the activist front, American military patronage of Israel
is not much discussed either, in large part because the aid
package is so deeply entrenched that no attempt to cut it
back could succeed in the near future. Hence, the global BDS
campaign has focused on smaller, more achievable targets,
though as Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the
Jerusalem Fund, an advocacy group, told me, the BDS movement
does envision an end to Washington's military transfers in
the long term. This makes tactical sense, and both the
Jerusalem Fund and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli
Occupation are engaged in ongoing campaigns to inform the
public about American military aid to Israel.
Less understandable are the lobbying groups that advertise
themselves as "pro-peace," champions of "dialogue" and
"conversation," but share the same bottom line on military
aid for Israel as their overtly hawkish counterparts. For
instance, J Street ("pro-Israel and pro-peace"), a
Washington-based nonprofit which bills itself as a moderate
alternative to the powerhouse lobbying outfit, the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), supports both
"robust" military aid and any supplemental disbursements on
offer from Washington to the Israeli Defense Forces.
Americans for Peace Now similarly takes the position that
Washington should provide "robust assistance" to ensure
Israel's "qualitative military edge." At the risk of
sounding literal-minded, any group plumping for enormous
military aid packages to a country acting as Israel has is
emphatically not "pro-peace." It's almost as if the Central
America solidarity groups from the 1980s had demanded peace,
while lobbying Washington to keep funding the Contras and
the Salvadoran military.
Outside the various factions of the Israel lobby, the
landscape is just as flat. The Center for American Progress,
a Washington think tank close to the Democratic Party,
regularly issues pious statements about new hopes for the
"peace process" -- with never a mention of how our
unconditional flow of advanced weaponry might be a
disincentive to any just resolution of the situation.
There is, by the way, a similar dynamic at work when it
comes to Washington's second biggest recipient of foreign
aid, Egypt. Washington's expenditure of more than $60
billion over the past 30 years ensured both peace with
Israel and Cold War loyalty, while propping up an
authoritarian government with a ghastly human rights record.
As the post-Mubarak military restores its grip on Egypt,
official Washington is currently at work finding ways to
keep the military aid flowing despite a congressional ban on
arming regimes that overthrow elected governments. There is,
however, at least some mainstream public debate in the U.S.
about ending aid to the Egyptian generals who have violently
reclaimed power. Investigative journalism nonprofit
ProPublica has even drafted a handy "explainer" about U.S.
military aid to Egypt -- though they have not tried to
explain aid to Israel.
Silence about U.S.-Israel relations is, to a large degree,
hardwired into Beltway culture. As George Perkovich,
director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace told the Washington Post,
"It's like all things having to do with Israel and the
United States. If you want to get ahead, you don't talk
about it; you don't criticize Israel, you protect
Israel."
This is regrettable, as Washington's politically invisible
military aid to Israel is not just an impediment to lasting
peace, but also a strategic and security liability. As
General David Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command,
testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2010,
the failure to reach a lasting resolution to the conflict
between the Israelis and Palestinians makes Washington's
other foreign policy objectives in the region more difficult
to achieve. It also, he pointed out, foments anti-American
hatred and fuels al-Qaeda and other violent groups.
Petraeus's successor at CENTCOM, General James Mattis,
echoed this list of liabilities in a public dialogue with
Wolf Blitzer last July:
"I paid a military security price every day as a commander
of CENTCOM because the Americans were seen as biased in
support of Israel, and that [alienates] all the moderate
Arabs who want to be with us because they can't come out
publicly in support of people who don't show respect for the
Arab Palestinians."
Don't believe the generals? Ask a terrorist. Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks now imprisoned at
Guantanamo, told interrogators that he was motivated to
attack the United States in large part because of
Washington's leading role in assisting Israel's repeated
invasions of Lebanon and the ongoing dispossession of
Palestinians.
The Israel lobby wheels out a battery of arguments in favor
of arming and funding Israel, including the assertion that a
step back from such aid for Israel would signify a "retreat"
into "isolationism." But would the United States, a global
hegemon busily engaged in nearly every aspect world affairs,
be "isolated" if it ceased giving lavish military aid to
Israel? Was the United States "isolated" before 1967 when it
expanded that aid in a major way? These questions answer
themselves.
Sometimes the mere act of pointing out the degree of U.S.
aid to Israel provokes accusations of having a special
antipathy for Israel. This may work as emotional blackmail,
but if someone proposed that Washington start shipping
Armenia $3.1 billion worth of armaments annually so that it
could begin the conquest of its ancestral province of
Nagorno-Karabakh in neighboring Azerbaijan, the plan would
be considered ludicrous -- and not because of a visceral
dislike for Armenians. Yet somehow the assumption that
Washington is required to generously arm the Israeli
military has become deeply institutionalized in this
country.
Fake Peace Process, Real War Process
Today, Secretary of State John Kerry is leading a push for a
renewed round of the interminable American-led peace process
in the region that has been underway since the mid-1970s.
It's hardly a bold prediction to suggest that this round,
too, will fail. The Israeli minister of defense, Moshe
Ya'alon, has already publicly mocked Kerry in his quest for
peace as "obsessive and messianic" and added that the newly
proposed framework for this round of negotiations is "not
worth the paper it's printed on." Other Israeli high
officials blasted Kerry for his mere mention of the
potential negative consequences to Israel of a global
boycott if peace is not achieved.
But why shouldn't Ya'alon and other Israeli officials tee
off on the hapless Kerry? After all, the defense minister
knows that Washington will wield no stick and that bushels
of carrots are in the offing, whether Israel rolls back or
redoubles its land seizures and colonization efforts.
President Obama has boasted that the U.S. has never given so
much military aid to Israel as under his presidency. On
January 29th, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted
unanimously to upgrade Israel's status to "major strategic
partner." With Congress and the president guaranteeing that
unprecedented levels of military aid will continue to flow,
Israel has no real incentive to change its behavior.
Usually such diplomatic impasses are blamed on the
Palestinians, but given how little is left to squeeze out of
them, doing so this time will test the creativity of
official Washington. Whatever happens, in the post-mortems
to come there will be no discussion in Washington about the
role its own policies played in undermining a just and
lasting agreement.
How much longer will this silence last? The arming and
bankrolling of a wealthy nation committing ethnic cleansing
has something to offend conservatives, progressives, and
just about every other political grouping in America. After
all, how often in foreign policy does strategic
self-interest align so neatly with human rights and common
decency?
Intelligent people can and do disagree about a one-state
versus a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. People
of goodwill disagree about the global BDS campaign. But it
is hard to imagine what kind of progress can ever be made
toward a just and lasting settlement between Israel and
Palestine until Washington quits arming one side to the
teeth.
"If it weren't for U.S. support for Israel, this conflict
would have been resolved a long time ago," says Josh
Ruebner. Will we Americans ever acknowledge our government's
active role in destroying the chances for a just and lasting
peace between Palestine and Israel?
See Tom Engelhardt's response here.
This article was published at NationofChange at:
http://www.nationofchange.org/washington-s-military-aid-isral-1392043212. All rights are reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center,
325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637;
Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to
http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject
class has always fought the battles. The master class has
had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class
has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially
their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Our America : Chicago
Trending: Muslim Woman Discovers Friendly New World When a
Winter Scarf Covers Her Hijab
Leena Suleiman | Source: leenamielus.blogspot.com
By Dennis Robaugh
Oak Lawn, Ill. - A woman who hid her hijab beneath a fluffy
knit hat and scarf found an entirely different world around
her when others couldn't see the traditional Muslim
garb.
"I didn't understand what was happening at first. People
started talking to me more. Women would speak to me like I
knew them since forever. Men looked at me like I was
actually approachable," Leena Suleiman wrote of her
experience on her blog, Facetruth. "And I was made to feel
like I was actually from this planet."
But with the hijab hidden, Suleiman also learned the
familiar place she inhabited comfortably for so many years,
the world of American Muslims, no longer was warm and
friendly.
"The Muslim taxi drivers who would almost always say
"Assalamu Alaikum," ask me where I'm from or if I'm single,
or not allow me to pay for the fare became cold and dry. I
would simply give the address, and the only dialog
thereafter was at time of payment. It was puzzling," she
wrote.
But the wrap around her head made all the difference. And so
she decided to conduct her own social experiment, much like
skinny people who don fat suits or white people who darken
their skin to see how others react to their new "body."
"I started paying more attention to the difference in the
way people treated me. It was fun feeling like everyone
around me believed I belonged in their culture by default,
and not as part of the begrudgingly adopted diversity piece
of the pie. It was a good feeling. I secretly started
looking forward to venturing out into the cold to further
explore what it meant to be 'normal.'
"I became even more confident walking in my city. My city.
All the stares were not racially related anymore. I was
addressed as 'lady' and 'little lady,' something I had never
heard before. Men would hold doors for me. Women would crack
jokes with me. I became respectable, lovable, and
accepted."
Suleiman, a 25-year-old architectural designer in Chicago
who graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology, was
born in Oak Lawn and lives in Chicago Ridge. A large
population of Muslims, many with roots in Palestine, is
concentrated in the south suburbs.
Her blog, posted on Feb. 7 and titled "I Took Off My Hijab,"
has more than 200 comments as of Feb. 13. Suleiman goes on
to write that the realization, only made possible by this
winter's record-setting cold temperatures and windchill in
Chicago, saddened her.
"I immediately began to despise the inequality, and it
dawned on me that I acted like someone who was bullied for
years, and finally was accepted by the mean girls ..."
Commenters on her blog found the experiment
thought-provoking, however.
"Sounds quite adventurous! Perhaps the fact that the
'hijabis' ignored you because you were not visibly Muslim
may indicate both sides of the problem .Too often insularity
is what keeps people from being treated as 'normal,'" said
one.
Adds another: "Honestly, I think many non-Muslims in America
aren't quite sure how to approach someone in a hijab. It's
not that you're Muslim. It's that you simply dress in a way
that is different and it's a bit intimidating."
Behind the Campaign For War Against Iran
Mark Weber - Institute for Historical Review
http://www.ihr.org/other/behindwarcampaign
In recent years prominent American politicians and other
influential public figures have spoken repeatedly of the
alleged danger of Iran's nuclear program, and have again and
again threatened war against this Middle East nation of 75
million ... How real is this "threat"? How dangerous is
Iran? What's behind the campaign for war? And what does all
this mean for Americans? In fact, the so-called Iran
"crisis" is artificial ... Often ignored amid the clamor for
war are the sober warnings of informed scholars, historians,
specialists, analysts, and military leaders, who point out
some basic, key facts: Iran is not building nuclear weapons,
Iran is not a threat to the US ... War is not the answer.
What's needed instead is a bold new reality-based approach
toward Iran.
Pakistan
Historic Call for Peace in Pakistan: Call to army & Pak
Talibs to stop fighting.
by Anwar Niazi
LAHORE, Feb. 15; Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Syed
Munawar Hasan, has said that dialogue was the only way out
from the terrorism and lawlessness confronting the country
and all patriotic forces must unite and stand on one page
for the success of the talks.
Addressing the Ulema convention organized by the JUI(S)
headed by Maulana Sami ul Haq in the city on Saturday, he
said that undoubtedly, by opting for talks process, Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif had foiled all conspiracies to plunge
the country into the mire of lawlessness and chaos. He said
the Ulema stood completely united for the success of the
talks for the restoration of peace.
Representatives from 32 religious parties including some
party heads attended the convention held at a local hotel.
Those who addressed included Maulana Samiul Haq, Allama
Awais Noorani, Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, Allama Sher Ali,
Liaqat Baloch, Prof. Ibrahim Khan and Maulana Yousuf
Shah.
The convention announced all out support to the government-
Taliban talks and assured every possible help for the talks
success.
Syed Munawar Hasan said there should be immediate ceasefire
from both the sides. He said that Pakistan had bitter
experiences of military operations and instead of repeating
those, the path of dialogue must be adopted for peace. He
remarked that if democratic system failed, no one would
invite dictatorship. Therefore, the same approach would be
adopted for peace.
The JI chief said that the American lobby had been dreaming
of military operation which would ruin all prospects of
peace, and said this lobby had been deeply hurt over Prime
Minister's announcement for talks while the government and
the Taliban had behaved most prudently in a complicated
situation. He urged the nation to lend full support to
Maulana Samiul Haq's commendable efforts to resolve the
issue.
Syed Munawar Hasan said that Pakistan could lead the Muslim
Ummah only if was strong and peaceful within, and that was
why the anti Islam forces wanted to perpetuate instability
and disruption here. The patriotic forces should foil their
evil designs through supporting the peace process, he
added.
2014-02-16 Sun 09:28:05 cst
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