"Mention any trouble spot in the Third World over the past ten years, and, inevitably, you will find smiling Israeli officers and shiny Israeli weapons on the news pages. The images have become familiar: the Uzi submachine gun or the Galil assault rifle, with Israeli officers named Uzi and Galil, or Golan, for good measure. We have seen them in South Africa, Iran, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Namibia, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Chile, Bolivia, and many other places. From Manila to San Salvador, from Seoul to Tegucigalpa, from Walvis Bay to Guatemala City, from Taipei to Port-au-Prince, Israeli civilians and military men have been helping, in their own words, in 'the defense of the West'." (The Israeli Connection: Who Israel Arms & Why, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, p xii)
Beit-Hallahmi's groundbreaking expose of Israeli military involvement in conflict zones around the world, was published in 1987. Needless to say, nothing has changed:
"'If Iran tries to block the Bab al-Mandab strait, I'm sure it will find itself facing an international coalition determined to prevent it. This coalition will include all Israel's army branches as well,; declared Benjamin Netanyahu in August, following Iran's threat against American sanctions. Such a coalition had already been set up in 2015 by Saudi Arabia, who partnered with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and Pakistan. Israel is also an unofficial partner. Israeli cyber companies, gun traders, terror-warfare instructors and even paid hitmen operated by an Israeli-owned company are partners to the war in Yemen.
"In September, London-based Al-Khaleej Online published a long article about Israel's involvement in training Colombian and Nepalese combatants, who were recruited by the UAE for the war in Yemen... The report also says that Israel set up special training bases in the Negev, where the mercenaries were trained by Israeli combatants... The mercenaries later took part in the war on the port town of Hodeidah and other fighting zones in Yemen. The site's sources said Israel also sold bombs and missiles to Saudi Arabia, some of which are banned. Recently it was reported and later denied that Israel also sold Saudi Arabia combat drones and intends to sell it Iron Dome systems as well.
"Many reports have been written about Israeli companies like the NSO group, which is suspected of selling Saudi Arabia Pegasus spyware accused of helping trace and survey Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, or the AGT company owned by the Israeli businessman Mati Kochavi, which in 2007 won the $6 billion bid to set up surveillance and monitoring systems in Abu Dhabi. But what remains a mystery is to what extent Israeli technology served the fighting forces in Yemen.
"Another company, Spearhead Operations group, which was set up by Israeli Avraham Golan and is registered in the United States, was responsible for assassinating Yemenite clergyman Anssaf Ali Mayo in December 2015. Mayo was one of the leaders of the Yemeni reform party, which is affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood. The latter is classified in the UAE as a terror organization... " From Yemen's war is a mercenary heaven. Are Israelis reaping the profits? Zvi Bar'el, outline.com, 15/2/19
Showing posts with label Israel/weapons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israel/weapons. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Monday, April 16, 2018
Israel's Chemical Weapons Capability
"Following the horrors of World War I... civilized nations joined together to ban chemical warfare... The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread, and use of chemical weapons. Establishing this deterrent is a vital national security interest of the United States." (From Full text of Trump's address regarding airstrikes in Syria)
OK. Well, now you've punished Syria for its alleged gas attack, how about Israel for its actual gas attacks? James Brooks' extensive essay The Israeli poison gas attacks: A preliminary investigation, (mediamonitors.net, 8/1/03) details these.
Here's a most interesting extract from chapter IV, Israel's chemical weapons capability:
"Regardless of official pronouncements, the Israeli government has had a deep and abiding interest in the full range of chemical and biological warfare agents. It is well known that Israel has been developing chemical and biological weapons for decades at its Institute of Biological Research (IIBR) complex in Nes Ziona, near Tel Aviv. The facility has been involved in, among many other things, 'an extensive effort to identify practical methods of synthesis for nerve gasses (such as tabun, sarin, and VX) and other organophosphorus and fluorine compounds.'
"One of the IIBR's specialties is inventing novel delivery systems for chemical weapons. One example is a revolver with a range of 150 feet. On impact, a bullet from this weapon injects a needle impregnated with a deadly toxin. The whole affair is designed to penetrate just enough to deliver a fatal dose, and leave little or no trace of the needle.
"IIBR's expertise is also highly scalable. In the aftermath of a tragic 1992 air crash in Amsterdam, the large scale production of nerve gases at IIBR became very difficult to deny. An El Al 747 jumbo cargo jet, flying from New York to Tel Aviv, plowed into a 12-story Amsterdam apartment building, killing the four people on the plane and at least 43 people on the ground in an instant inferno. Teams in while Hazmat suits, never identified or acknowledged by officials, descended on the scene and hauled away certain debris. The Dutch and Israeli governments assured the public that the plane had been carrying 'perfume and gift articles,' and 'no dangerous material' was on board.
"In time, a syndrome of debilitating and chronic health disorders beset at least 850 local survivors. They and their doctors suspected a connection to the El Al crash. In 1998, a Dutch newspaper partially leaked the flight manifest; 20,000 pounds of chemicals had been on the plane, including large amounts of three of the four ingredients needed to make sarin, a deadly nerve gas - enough, when properly mixed, to annihilate a major world city.
"Finally, El Al admitted the presence of the three chemicals. But the identity of one-third of the chemicals on the plane remains a secret to this day. A Dutch citizens group, OVB, literally dug deeper to learn more. They found that soil at the crash site was tainted with uranium, zirconium and lanthanum. Tests also found depleted uranium in the stool samples of local survivors, which, doctors said, corresponded well with the symptoms suffered in the post-crash health syndrome."
See also Salman Abu Sitta's essay, Traces of Poison, weekly.ahram.org.eg, 27/2/03.
OK. Well, now you've punished Syria for its alleged gas attack, how about Israel for its actual gas attacks? James Brooks' extensive essay The Israeli poison gas attacks: A preliminary investigation, (mediamonitors.net, 8/1/03) details these.
Here's a most interesting extract from chapter IV, Israel's chemical weapons capability:
"Regardless of official pronouncements, the Israeli government has had a deep and abiding interest in the full range of chemical and biological warfare agents. It is well known that Israel has been developing chemical and biological weapons for decades at its Institute of Biological Research (IIBR) complex in Nes Ziona, near Tel Aviv. The facility has been involved in, among many other things, 'an extensive effort to identify practical methods of synthesis for nerve gasses (such as tabun, sarin, and VX) and other organophosphorus and fluorine compounds.'
"One of the IIBR's specialties is inventing novel delivery systems for chemical weapons. One example is a revolver with a range of 150 feet. On impact, a bullet from this weapon injects a needle impregnated with a deadly toxin. The whole affair is designed to penetrate just enough to deliver a fatal dose, and leave little or no trace of the needle.
"IIBR's expertise is also highly scalable. In the aftermath of a tragic 1992 air crash in Amsterdam, the large scale production of nerve gases at IIBR became very difficult to deny. An El Al 747 jumbo cargo jet, flying from New York to Tel Aviv, plowed into a 12-story Amsterdam apartment building, killing the four people on the plane and at least 43 people on the ground in an instant inferno. Teams in while Hazmat suits, never identified or acknowledged by officials, descended on the scene and hauled away certain debris. The Dutch and Israeli governments assured the public that the plane had been carrying 'perfume and gift articles,' and 'no dangerous material' was on board.
"In time, a syndrome of debilitating and chronic health disorders beset at least 850 local survivors. They and their doctors suspected a connection to the El Al crash. In 1998, a Dutch newspaper partially leaked the flight manifest; 20,000 pounds of chemicals had been on the plane, including large amounts of three of the four ingredients needed to make sarin, a deadly nerve gas - enough, when properly mixed, to annihilate a major world city.
"Finally, El Al admitted the presence of the three chemicals. But the identity of one-third of the chemicals on the plane remains a secret to this day. A Dutch citizens group, OVB, literally dug deeper to learn more. They found that soil at the crash site was tainted with uranium, zirconium and lanthanum. Tests also found depleted uranium in the stool samples of local survivors, which, doctors said, corresponded well with the symptoms suffered in the post-crash health syndrome."
See also Salman Abu Sitta's essay, Traces of Poison, weekly.ahram.org.eg, 27/2/03.
Thursday, September 7, 2017
The Refugee Specialists
"Mention any trouble spot in the Third World over the past ten years, and, inevitably, you will find smiling Israeli officers and shiny Israeli weapons on the news pages." (The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms & Why, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, 1987, p xii)
"Israel has continued to sell weapons to Myanmar as thousands of Rohingya refugees flee the military's violent crackdown in the Rakhine state. The weapons sold to Myanmar include over 100 tanks, weapons and boats used to police the country's border, according to human rights groups and Burmese officials Israeli arms companies such as TAR Ideal Concepts have also been involved in training Burmese special forces who are currently in the Rakhine state where most of the violence has taken place." (Israel arming Myanmar amid ongoing massacre of the Rohingyas, Areeb Ullah, mintpressnews.com, 5/9/17)
"Israel has continued to sell weapons to Myanmar as thousands of Rohingya refugees flee the military's violent crackdown in the Rakhine state. The weapons sold to Myanmar include over 100 tanks, weapons and boats used to police the country's border, according to human rights groups and Burmese officials Israeli arms companies such as TAR Ideal Concepts have also been involved in training Burmese special forces who are currently in the Rakhine state where most of the violence has taken place." (Israel arming Myanmar amid ongoing massacre of the Rohingyas, Areeb Ullah, mintpressnews.com, 5/9/17)
Friday, September 1, 2017
Sectarian Birds of a Feather
"It was in 1989, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that the Government of India turned in its membership in the Non-Aligned Movement and signed up for membership in the Completely Aligned, often referring to itself as the 'natural ally' of Israel and the United States.* (They have at least this one thing in common, all three are engaged in overt, neocolonial military occupations: India in Kashmir, Israel in Palestine, the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.) (Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy, Arundhati Roy, 2009, p 146)
1989, it seems, also saw the birth of India's 'Temple Mount' movement:
"Claims that the [17th century Muslim mausoleum known as the] Taj Mahal is a Hindu temple have surfaced periodically, either from lone Hindu mavericks, revisionists, or extremist Hindu groups ever since PN Oak, an Indian writer, published his 1989 book Taj Mahal: the True Story, in which he claimed it was built before Muslim invaders came to India. Proponents of this theory resent that its glory belongs to India's Muslim heritage and argue that since some of the Mughal invaders destroyed Hindu temples or converted them into mosques, it follows that the Taj Mahal must have originally been a Hindu structure." (Taj Mahal is Muslim tomb not Hindu temple, Indian court told, Amrit Dhillon, theguardian.com, 30/8/17)
In fact, a group of Hindu lawyers, who claim that the Taj Mahal "had originally been a temple called Tejo Mahalaya dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva," are currently petitioning the Agra court for the right to perform Hindu prayers at the Taj Mahal.
Sound depressingly familiar?
[*Israel is currently India's chief weapons supplier.]
1989, it seems, also saw the birth of India's 'Temple Mount' movement:
"Claims that the [17th century Muslim mausoleum known as the] Taj Mahal is a Hindu temple have surfaced periodically, either from lone Hindu mavericks, revisionists, or extremist Hindu groups ever since PN Oak, an Indian writer, published his 1989 book Taj Mahal: the True Story, in which he claimed it was built before Muslim invaders came to India. Proponents of this theory resent that its glory belongs to India's Muslim heritage and argue that since some of the Mughal invaders destroyed Hindu temples or converted them into mosques, it follows that the Taj Mahal must have originally been a Hindu structure." (Taj Mahal is Muslim tomb not Hindu temple, Indian court told, Amrit Dhillon, theguardian.com, 30/8/17)
In fact, a group of Hindu lawyers, who claim that the Taj Mahal "had originally been a temple called Tejo Mahalaya dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva," are currently petitioning the Agra court for the right to perform Hindu prayers at the Taj Mahal.
Sound depressingly familiar?
[*Israel is currently India's chief weapons supplier.]
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Australia's Shame
"In a statement on [Israel's] Ministry of Defence's (MoD) Twitter feed on 6 April, head of the international defence co-operation department SIBAT Michel Ben-Baruch said that the country's defence companies signed export deals valued at US$5.6 billion... IHS Jane's tracked approximately US$2.1 billion worth of export deliveries - comprising new and ongoing orders - from Israel in 2015, with India being the country's leading customer followed by the United States and Australia." (Israel reports flat defence exports for 2015, Charles Forrester, janes.com, 6/4/16)
Friday, March 18, 2016
Spotlight on the 'Australia Israel Labor Dialogue' 2
More from The Australian's John Lyons on the Elbit Systems-linked Australia Israel Labor Dialogue - Carr wants friends of Israel to open books (17/3/16):
"Pressure is growing for a Labor friends-of-Israel group to open its accounts to show who has been funding trips to Israel for trade unionists and members of the Labor Party. Former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr said yesterday the current situation amounted to 'a shameful look' for Labor's support base. He warned the issue could damage the ALP with its 'hundreds of thousands of voters with Arabic backgrounds'.
"The Australian reported yesterday that a key figure in the Australia Israel Labor Dialogue - Mary Easson - is a lobbyist for the Australian subsidiary of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit. Elbit is one of Israel's largest manufacturers of bombs, mortars, cyber-warfare systems and drones and was a key supplier of the army during the 2014 war against Gaza. On its website, it says one of its newest products has 'unprecedented lethality.' Ms Easson denies Elbit has ever made a donation to AILD. But Mr Carr said any connection to Elbit was 'a shameful look - arms dealers, civilian deaths, the electronic fence. It would be common sense for party leaders to say the Dialogue must present an independently audited account of its fundraising. The party's credibility with literally hundreds of thousands of voters with Arabic backgrounds is at stake,' he said.
"Ms Easson says Elbit Systems of Australia managing director Dan Webster has assured her no donation had been made from Elbit to the AILD. Mr Carr's call was supported by NSW ALP assistant secretary Rose Jackson, who took one of the AILD's trips. 'All funding and connection should absolutely be publicly declared,' she said. However, many of those who have taken trips clearly do not want to talk about them. The candidate for the federal seat of Perth, lawyer Ted Hammond, has refused to answer questions about his trip. NSW AILD branch patron, former Queensland premier Peter Beattie said Mr Carr's comments were internal ALP warfare. 'I am not interested in a petty side argument between the warring factions in the ALP over Israel and Palestine,' he said. Mr Beattie said there had been no donations since he became patron last year, 'so there was nothing to audit'.
"The growing division within the party over the issue was further evident yesterday when Labor Friends of Palestine published a list of all union and party officials known to have taken trips. The group said Elbit's profits increased 6.1% in July 2014, during the Gaza war, and that Human Rights Watch had confirmed that Elbit's drones had been used on Palestinian civilians. It said the Norwegian State Pension Fund, Denmark's Danske bank, Sweden's largest pension funds, Germany's Deutsche Bank and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund had divested themselves from Elbit for ethical reasons. A growing number of senior ALP figures - including Mr Carr, Tony Burke, Jason Clare, Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese - have all made clear that if Israel continues to expand the population of its settlements on the West Bank and there is no progress to a two-state solution, the next Labor government will recognise Palestine."
"Pressure is growing for a Labor friends-of-Israel group to open its accounts to show who has been funding trips to Israel for trade unionists and members of the Labor Party. Former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr said yesterday the current situation amounted to 'a shameful look' for Labor's support base. He warned the issue could damage the ALP with its 'hundreds of thousands of voters with Arabic backgrounds'.
"The Australian reported yesterday that a key figure in the Australia Israel Labor Dialogue - Mary Easson - is a lobbyist for the Australian subsidiary of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit. Elbit is one of Israel's largest manufacturers of bombs, mortars, cyber-warfare systems and drones and was a key supplier of the army during the 2014 war against Gaza. On its website, it says one of its newest products has 'unprecedented lethality.' Ms Easson denies Elbit has ever made a donation to AILD. But Mr Carr said any connection to Elbit was 'a shameful look - arms dealers, civilian deaths, the electronic fence. It would be common sense for party leaders to say the Dialogue must present an independently audited account of its fundraising. The party's credibility with literally hundreds of thousands of voters with Arabic backgrounds is at stake,' he said.
"Ms Easson says Elbit Systems of Australia managing director Dan Webster has assured her no donation had been made from Elbit to the AILD. Mr Carr's call was supported by NSW ALP assistant secretary Rose Jackson, who took one of the AILD's trips. 'All funding and connection should absolutely be publicly declared,' she said. However, many of those who have taken trips clearly do not want to talk about them. The candidate for the federal seat of Perth, lawyer Ted Hammond, has refused to answer questions about his trip. NSW AILD branch patron, former Queensland premier Peter Beattie said Mr Carr's comments were internal ALP warfare. 'I am not interested in a petty side argument between the warring factions in the ALP over Israel and Palestine,' he said. Mr Beattie said there had been no donations since he became patron last year, 'so there was nothing to audit'.
"The growing division within the party over the issue was further evident yesterday when Labor Friends of Palestine published a list of all union and party officials known to have taken trips. The group said Elbit's profits increased 6.1% in July 2014, during the Gaza war, and that Human Rights Watch had confirmed that Elbit's drones had been used on Palestinian civilians. It said the Norwegian State Pension Fund, Denmark's Danske bank, Sweden's largest pension funds, Germany's Deutsche Bank and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund had divested themselves from Elbit for ethical reasons. A growing number of senior ALP figures - including Mr Carr, Tony Burke, Jason Clare, Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese - have all made clear that if Israel continues to expand the population of its settlements on the West Bank and there is no progress to a two-state solution, the next Labor government will recognise Palestine."
Spotlight on the 'Australia Israel Labor Dialogue' 1
Before you read the following expose by The Australian's John Lyons - Labor Friend of Israel a lobbyist for weapons firm (16/3/16) - keep in mind that Israel's arms manufacturing Elbit Systems 'won' a $349m contract with the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) to develop a command, control and communications system for the Australian army in 2010 (See my 17/3/10 post Passports: Finally, Some Action) and is linked to Israel's illegal (ICJ 2004 ruling) West Bank apartheid wall* (See my 26/10/11 post Sucked in at Sydney University):
"A key figure behind a Labor Party friends-of-Israel group is also a lobbyist for the Australian subsidiary of one of Israel's largest arms manufacturers. Mary Easson has also played an active role in the emotive debate within the Labor Party over its policy towards Israel. Ms Easson is one of five members of the NSW branch of the Australia Israel Labor Dialogue. At the same time, she is a lobbyist for Elbit, according to her latest listing on the federal registrar.
"The fact that Ms Easson's company, Probity International Pty Ltd, is lobbying for Elbit is almost certain to lead to anger within the ALP from those who have taken trips organised by the AILD. Ms Easson has been locked in a brutal fight inside the Labor Party with former minister Bob Carr over policy towards Israel. Ms Easson wants the ALP to retain its bipartisan support for Israel while Mr Carr wants a deadline for Israel to cease its expansion of settlements in the West Bank and to return to negotiations with the Palestinians.
"Elbit is one of Israel's largest manufacturers of bombs, mortars, cyber warfare systems and drones and much of its ordnance was used in the 2014 war with Gaza. On its website, Elbit says one of its products - the Soltam Spear - has 'unprecedented lethality.' The patron of the NSW branch of the AILD, former Queensland premier Peter Beattie, said he was unaware of Ms Easson's connection to Elbit. 'I am very comfortable saying if there is any contribution made in NSW and that is made available for trips to Israel, that information should be publicly available.' Since it was formed in 2010, the AILD has sent 33 union and Labor Party officials to Israel. Ms Easson told The Australian most of those had been sent by the Victorian branch and she did not know of any being sent by the NSW branch.
"NSW convener Greg Holland said he took a group of unionists in 2014, which included now NSW ALP secretary Kaila Murnain and the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Perth, Tim Hammond. Yesterday, Ms Murnain would not answer any questions related to her trip and Mr Hammond said he was conscious these trips were 'highly sensitive' and would make no comment.
"When asked whether her role as a lobbyist for Elbit presented a conflict of interest when being part of a Labor Party group, Ms Easson at first said she worked for Elbit Australia, not the parent company. Later she said: 'I am employed by Intech Strategies and Intech Strategies is employed by Elbit Australia.' Ms Easson said she did not know who funded the trips for unionists. 'I'm not being coy, I really don't know the answer,' she said. 'How they get their funds I don't know - I guess I should have asked.'
"She said she joined the NSW branch of the AILD twelve months ago when it formed and it had not raised any funds or sent anybody on overseas trips. No one associated with the AILD contacted by The Australian was prepared or able to say who funded the trips. She said Elbit Systems of Australia managing directer Dan Webster had yesterday assured her no donation had been made from Elbit to the AILD. In October last year, three key NSW Labor officials went on an AILD trip - the secretary of the NSW branch of the Rail Tram and Bus Union, Alex Claasens, the secretary of the NSW Police Association, Peter Remfrey, and the Transport Workers Union's Polo Guilbert-Wright. Mr Claasens said he was approached by the Victorian branch and did not know of the Elbit connection when he went. 'The question for the people who run the organisation and the individual concerned is should it be put out there for people to see? Mr Claasens said.
"One of the key figures in the AILD, ACTU assistant secretary, Michael Borowick, would not give any specifics about who funded the AILD trips. 'Many individuals pay for their participation in the trips. AILD does respond favourably to individuals who make requests for a subsidy where it is available to do so,' he said. When asked who funded the AILD he said: 'AILD employs a variety of funding methods to support its activities.'
"Ms Easson has written in support of the current ALP policy - she was not a delegate but wrote a live blog from the NSW Labor conference in February. When the conference rejected motions she opposed, she wrote that 'the moment the fanatical anti-Israel forces were stopped and stood up to by sensible people in NSW Labor.' Several motions called for the banning of products made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and mandating that all Labor MPs who visited Israel on paid trips should spend equal time on the Palestinian side. The conference accepted a motion that 'encouraged' party members to spend 'substantial time in both Israel and Palestine.'
"Mr Holland did not think the AILD should have to reveal who funded trips. Asked if unionists who had been on these trips should have been told of Ms Easson's connection to Elbit, he said: 'That's up to Mary to do.' Asked about the possible conflict between the AILD, whose stated aim was a peaceful solution, and an arms manufacturer, Mr Holland said: 'I'm not sure what they (Elbit) do and how they do it. They might have peaceful solutions to conflicts.' He had the utmost confidence in Ms Easson and her probity.
"Federal Labor MP Melissa Parke - who has not taken one of the trips - said: 'Given the significant numbers of ALP members who are apparently being taken on these trips to Israel, it is a concern to know who is providing the funds, particularly where there is a person associated with an Israeli weapons manufacturer on the AILD committee. The Israel-Palestine conflict is a matter of ongoing and sometimes heated debate within the ALP. The best antidote to distrust and suspicion is full disclosure and full transparency'."
[* This puts Mary Easson's 2007 comment on the wall in a whole new light: "A wall in principle sounds like a terrible thing, but you go and see it and you think, 'Oh well, yeah, I can see why you would need that." See my 19/6/12 post A Family Affair.]
"A key figure behind a Labor Party friends-of-Israel group is also a lobbyist for the Australian subsidiary of one of Israel's largest arms manufacturers. Mary Easson has also played an active role in the emotive debate within the Labor Party over its policy towards Israel. Ms Easson is one of five members of the NSW branch of the Australia Israel Labor Dialogue. At the same time, she is a lobbyist for Elbit, according to her latest listing on the federal registrar.
"The fact that Ms Easson's company, Probity International Pty Ltd, is lobbying for Elbit is almost certain to lead to anger within the ALP from those who have taken trips organised by the AILD. Ms Easson has been locked in a brutal fight inside the Labor Party with former minister Bob Carr over policy towards Israel. Ms Easson wants the ALP to retain its bipartisan support for Israel while Mr Carr wants a deadline for Israel to cease its expansion of settlements in the West Bank and to return to negotiations with the Palestinians.
"Elbit is one of Israel's largest manufacturers of bombs, mortars, cyber warfare systems and drones and much of its ordnance was used in the 2014 war with Gaza. On its website, Elbit says one of its products - the Soltam Spear - has 'unprecedented lethality.' The patron of the NSW branch of the AILD, former Queensland premier Peter Beattie, said he was unaware of Ms Easson's connection to Elbit. 'I am very comfortable saying if there is any contribution made in NSW and that is made available for trips to Israel, that information should be publicly available.' Since it was formed in 2010, the AILD has sent 33 union and Labor Party officials to Israel. Ms Easson told The Australian most of those had been sent by the Victorian branch and she did not know of any being sent by the NSW branch.
"NSW convener Greg Holland said he took a group of unionists in 2014, which included now NSW ALP secretary Kaila Murnain and the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Perth, Tim Hammond. Yesterday, Ms Murnain would not answer any questions related to her trip and Mr Hammond said he was conscious these trips were 'highly sensitive' and would make no comment.
"When asked whether her role as a lobbyist for Elbit presented a conflict of interest when being part of a Labor Party group, Ms Easson at first said she worked for Elbit Australia, not the parent company. Later she said: 'I am employed by Intech Strategies and Intech Strategies is employed by Elbit Australia.' Ms Easson said she did not know who funded the trips for unionists. 'I'm not being coy, I really don't know the answer,' she said. 'How they get their funds I don't know - I guess I should have asked.'
"She said she joined the NSW branch of the AILD twelve months ago when it formed and it had not raised any funds or sent anybody on overseas trips. No one associated with the AILD contacted by The Australian was prepared or able to say who funded the trips. She said Elbit Systems of Australia managing directer Dan Webster had yesterday assured her no donation had been made from Elbit to the AILD. In October last year, three key NSW Labor officials went on an AILD trip - the secretary of the NSW branch of the Rail Tram and Bus Union, Alex Claasens, the secretary of the NSW Police Association, Peter Remfrey, and the Transport Workers Union's Polo Guilbert-Wright. Mr Claasens said he was approached by the Victorian branch and did not know of the Elbit connection when he went. 'The question for the people who run the organisation and the individual concerned is should it be put out there for people to see? Mr Claasens said.
"One of the key figures in the AILD, ACTU assistant secretary, Michael Borowick, would not give any specifics about who funded the AILD trips. 'Many individuals pay for their participation in the trips. AILD does respond favourably to individuals who make requests for a subsidy where it is available to do so,' he said. When asked who funded the AILD he said: 'AILD employs a variety of funding methods to support its activities.'
"Ms Easson has written in support of the current ALP policy - she was not a delegate but wrote a live blog from the NSW Labor conference in February. When the conference rejected motions she opposed, she wrote that 'the moment the fanatical anti-Israel forces were stopped and stood up to by sensible people in NSW Labor.' Several motions called for the banning of products made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and mandating that all Labor MPs who visited Israel on paid trips should spend equal time on the Palestinian side. The conference accepted a motion that 'encouraged' party members to spend 'substantial time in both Israel and Palestine.'
"Mr Holland did not think the AILD should have to reveal who funded trips. Asked if unionists who had been on these trips should have been told of Ms Easson's connection to Elbit, he said: 'That's up to Mary to do.' Asked about the possible conflict between the AILD, whose stated aim was a peaceful solution, and an arms manufacturer, Mr Holland said: 'I'm not sure what they (Elbit) do and how they do it. They might have peaceful solutions to conflicts.' He had the utmost confidence in Ms Easson and her probity.
"Federal Labor MP Melissa Parke - who has not taken one of the trips - said: 'Given the significant numbers of ALP members who are apparently being taken on these trips to Israel, it is a concern to know who is providing the funds, particularly where there is a person associated with an Israeli weapons manufacturer on the AILD committee. The Israel-Palestine conflict is a matter of ongoing and sometimes heated debate within the ALP. The best antidote to distrust and suspicion is full disclosure and full transparency'."
[* This puts Mary Easson's 2007 comment on the wall in a whole new light: "A wall in principle sounds like a terrible thing, but you go and see it and you think, 'Oh well, yeah, I can see why you would need that." See my 19/6/12 post A Family Affair.]
Friday, March 4, 2016
Air Apartheid
"A local technology start-up is channeling the know-how of the Israel military to lure Australian former defence personnel as pilots for its fleet of commercial drones. Ninox [Robotics]managing director Marcus Ehrlich said its first group of two pilots and two maintenance staff undergoing training were all ex-Australian Defence Force men. 'They're all out of the army drone regiment which makes them fantastic to train and great utilisers of the system,' he said... Last year Sydney's Ninox Robotics was the first Australian drone operator to conduct test flights at night...
"Now Ninox pilots and technicians are in Israel for one month, honing their flying skills using drones made by Bluebird Aero Systems. Bluebird operates from Kadima, a small town 35km from Tel Aviv. It makes a variety of drones... According to Bluebird's website, it is used for 'covert, real-time, life-saving intelligence to the Israeli forces performing their missions in the war on terror and supporting the Israel homeland security situation'. Bluebird's drones were used in Operation Brother's Keeper, launched in response to the 2014 kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, and Operation Protective Edge, Israel's response to rocket attacks from Gaza in the same year..." (Israeli army trains drone pilots, Chris Griffith, The Australian, 26/2/16)
"Now Ninox pilots and technicians are in Israel for one month, honing their flying skills using drones made by Bluebird Aero Systems. Bluebird operates from Kadima, a small town 35km from Tel Aviv. It makes a variety of drones... According to Bluebird's website, it is used for 'covert, real-time, life-saving intelligence to the Israeli forces performing their missions in the war on terror and supporting the Israel homeland security situation'. Bluebird's drones were used in Operation Brother's Keeper, launched in response to the 2014 kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, and Operation Protective Edge, Israel's response to rocket attacks from Gaza in the same year..." (Israeli army trains drone pilots, Chris Griffith, The Australian, 26/2/16)
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Zionist Lie Gets Makeover
Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem has just issued its latest report, Black Flag: The legal & moral implications of the policy of attacking residential buildings in the Gaza Strip, Summer 2014, occasioned by last year's Israeli massacres the Gaza Strip (Operation Protective Edge - July-August), which resulted in the deaths of over 2,200 Palestinians (including hundreds of children) and the destruction of about 18,000 homes.
It focuses in part on that notorious Zionist talking point, namely that the Palestinian resistance uses civilians as a shield:
"[Israeli] officials eschewed responsibility for the immense harm to civilians, placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of Hamas. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel's 'security forces are doing everything in their power to avoid harming civilians and if innocents are hurt, it is because Hamas deliberately hides behind Palestinian civilians.'
"This argument is unacceptable. True Hamas... do not abide by IHL [international humanitarian law], nor do they purport to do so... Not only did Hamas fire at Israeli civilians and civilian targets, it did so from within the civilian population. Hamas operatives fired from sites located near civilian dwellings, concealed weapons and munitions inside them and dug tunnels under them.
"Given this reality, the issue at hand is what conclusions policymakers may draw from it. The prime minister's statements indicate he believes that Hamas and the [Israeli] military share the responsibility to take precautions. Yet this interpretation is designed to block, a priori, any allegations that Israel breached IHL provisions. Accepting it would mean that there are no restrictions whatsoever on Israeli action and that whatever method it chooses to respond to Hamas operations is legitimate, no matter how horrifying the consequences. This interpretation is unreasonable, unlawful, and renders meaningless the principle that IHL violations committed by one party do not release the other party from its obligations toward the civilian population and civilian objects."
IOW, whatever Hamas does or doesn't do, cannot be used as an excuse by the Israelis for slaughtering Palestinian civilians.
You'll note that the charge leveled at Hamas by B'Tselem, at least with respect to Palestinian civilians and their homes, is simply that its "operatives fired from sites located near civilian dwellings, concealed weapons and munitions inside them and dug tunnels under them."
I've already dealt with the question of whether, in resisting Israel's overwhelming military aggression, they could have done otherwise (and whether the Israeli occupation forces can be similarly accused), in another post: Israeli Militarism (4/9/14).
This post, however, was prompted by the following extraordinary revelation that somehow managed to escape B'Tselem's attention:
"During the conflict, thousands of children were forcibly herded by Hamas as human shields around its rocket launch sites. Like Israeli children taken to shelters, post-traumatic stress levels are high, with estimates that up to 90% of the Palestinian child population suffers from traumatic symptoms." (Hadassah's healing vision, Peter Kohn, The Australian Jewish News, 23/1/15)
Heard that one before? Not only has the basic Israeli 'human shield' talking point been outrageously sexed up, but the AJN has slyly balanced genuine Palestinian suffering with the faux Israeli variety. This smacks of desperation. Could it be that no one's listening to the old plain Jane lie anymore?
But there's more in this instance. This blatant shot at blaming the victim for his suffering, followed by the gratuitous suggestion of an equivalent suffering on the part of the perpetrator, comes bang in the middle of a piece showcasing a rather dubious project:
"Gazan children traumatised in last year's war will benefit from a landmark joint venture between Hadassah Australia and aid agency World Vision to advance Hadassah's Project Rozana,* boosting critical medical services in the Palestinian territories." This will reportedly involve cooperation in "training Palestinian child psychologists to treat children suffering post-traumatic stress after the Gaza war," and forging closer links between World Vision Australia and Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital.
Quite how this joint venture will manage to shrug off the charge that it is exploiting the same traumatised Palestinian kids to burnish Israel's tarnished image abroad is anyone's guess.
World Vision's CEO, Tim Costello, is quoted thus:
"Costello said World Vision Australia has trained around 8,000 Palestinian mothers to recognise symptoms of 'psycho-social trauma' in their children. 'Hadassah is the foremost hospital in Jerusalem and their expertise in dealing with these issues, along with medical issues, is a natural fit for us.' But the high-profile advocate on social issues said another vital aspect of the venture will be to foster better understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. 'We cannot solve the political issues but we do know that starting with children's dreams and their rights on both sides is profoundly important'."
Of course we can't solve the political issues - unless we first speak out about them.
Children's dreams and rights on both sides? Is the man serious? Is he not aware that Zionism's wet dream - a Palestine without Palestinians - is the very stuff of Palestinian nightmares? Rhetorical question, of course.
Just to inject an air of reality here, I'll leave you with two summaries of findings from another recent report on Israeli savagery in Gaza, No Safe Place, by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Gaza's Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.
This one touches on the unimaginable scale of psychological trauma among Palestinians in Gaza:
"The majority of the 68 patients interviewed suffered insomnia, flashbacks, nightmares, screaming, loss of appetite, weight loss, depression and unstable emotional states. Doctors and nurses said that the trauma they saw was not just from the attacks, displacement, threats of joblessness and poverty, but also the sense of total isolation from the rest of the world. Those interviewed said that Gaza's dire situation affects individuals' life choices, like whether or not to get married and have children." (Investigators: Israel fired on Gaza civilians carrying white flags, Charlotte Silver, electronicintifada.net, 28/1/15)
And here's the other. Maybe Costello and his opposite number in Hadassah Australia, Ron Finkel (described in a November 2007 Zionist Council of Victoria press release as "a longstanding advocate for Israel and Zionism since his student days in the 1970s when he served as President of AUJS") could explain how they envision Hadassah Hospital dealing with the Palestinian survivors (?) of these hellish devices:
"Flechette munitions (which doctors reported surgically removing from the faces of children); 'explosive barrel' bombs... that were made to be used to clear mines, but were dropped on civilians; what are suspected to be DIME weapons, leading to 'unusual burns' and 'unusual amputations,' with 'charred' black skin that did not smell like burning flesh and black 'tattooing' around cauterization-like stumps of amputees; weapons that left 'computer chips' with Sony markings embedded as shrapnel in people's bodies'; and 'a gas of unknown type,' a white-colored substance with a 'sewage-like' smell' that burned skin and caused respiratory problems and could be seen and smelled from 500 meters away"? (Independent investigation details Israel's deliberate targeting of civilians in Gaza, Ben Norton, mondoweiss.net, 29/1/15)
[*On Project Rozana, see my 9/6/13 post Palwashing.]
It focuses in part on that notorious Zionist talking point, namely that the Palestinian resistance uses civilians as a shield:
"[Israeli] officials eschewed responsibility for the immense harm to civilians, placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of Hamas. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel's 'security forces are doing everything in their power to avoid harming civilians and if innocents are hurt, it is because Hamas deliberately hides behind Palestinian civilians.'
"This argument is unacceptable. True Hamas... do not abide by IHL [international humanitarian law], nor do they purport to do so... Not only did Hamas fire at Israeli civilians and civilian targets, it did so from within the civilian population. Hamas operatives fired from sites located near civilian dwellings, concealed weapons and munitions inside them and dug tunnels under them.
"Given this reality, the issue at hand is what conclusions policymakers may draw from it. The prime minister's statements indicate he believes that Hamas and the [Israeli] military share the responsibility to take precautions. Yet this interpretation is designed to block, a priori, any allegations that Israel breached IHL provisions. Accepting it would mean that there are no restrictions whatsoever on Israeli action and that whatever method it chooses to respond to Hamas operations is legitimate, no matter how horrifying the consequences. This interpretation is unreasonable, unlawful, and renders meaningless the principle that IHL violations committed by one party do not release the other party from its obligations toward the civilian population and civilian objects."
IOW, whatever Hamas does or doesn't do, cannot be used as an excuse by the Israelis for slaughtering Palestinian civilians.
You'll note that the charge leveled at Hamas by B'Tselem, at least with respect to Palestinian civilians and their homes, is simply that its "operatives fired from sites located near civilian dwellings, concealed weapons and munitions inside them and dug tunnels under them."
I've already dealt with the question of whether, in resisting Israel's overwhelming military aggression, they could have done otherwise (and whether the Israeli occupation forces can be similarly accused), in another post: Israeli Militarism (4/9/14).
This post, however, was prompted by the following extraordinary revelation that somehow managed to escape B'Tselem's attention:
"During the conflict, thousands of children were forcibly herded by Hamas as human shields around its rocket launch sites. Like Israeli children taken to shelters, post-traumatic stress levels are high, with estimates that up to 90% of the Palestinian child population suffers from traumatic symptoms." (Hadassah's healing vision, Peter Kohn, The Australian Jewish News, 23/1/15)
Heard that one before? Not only has the basic Israeli 'human shield' talking point been outrageously sexed up, but the AJN has slyly balanced genuine Palestinian suffering with the faux Israeli variety. This smacks of desperation. Could it be that no one's listening to the old plain Jane lie anymore?
But there's more in this instance. This blatant shot at blaming the victim for his suffering, followed by the gratuitous suggestion of an equivalent suffering on the part of the perpetrator, comes bang in the middle of a piece showcasing a rather dubious project:
"Gazan children traumatised in last year's war will benefit from a landmark joint venture between Hadassah Australia and aid agency World Vision to advance Hadassah's Project Rozana,* boosting critical medical services in the Palestinian territories." This will reportedly involve cooperation in "training Palestinian child psychologists to treat children suffering post-traumatic stress after the Gaza war," and forging closer links between World Vision Australia and Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital.
Quite how this joint venture will manage to shrug off the charge that it is exploiting the same traumatised Palestinian kids to burnish Israel's tarnished image abroad is anyone's guess.
World Vision's CEO, Tim Costello, is quoted thus:
"Costello said World Vision Australia has trained around 8,000 Palestinian mothers to recognise symptoms of 'psycho-social trauma' in their children. 'Hadassah is the foremost hospital in Jerusalem and their expertise in dealing with these issues, along with medical issues, is a natural fit for us.' But the high-profile advocate on social issues said another vital aspect of the venture will be to foster better understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. 'We cannot solve the political issues but we do know that starting with children's dreams and their rights on both sides is profoundly important'."
Of course we can't solve the political issues - unless we first speak out about them.
Children's dreams and rights on both sides? Is the man serious? Is he not aware that Zionism's wet dream - a Palestine without Palestinians - is the very stuff of Palestinian nightmares? Rhetorical question, of course.
Just to inject an air of reality here, I'll leave you with two summaries of findings from another recent report on Israeli savagery in Gaza, No Safe Place, by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Gaza's Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.
This one touches on the unimaginable scale of psychological trauma among Palestinians in Gaza:
"The majority of the 68 patients interviewed suffered insomnia, flashbacks, nightmares, screaming, loss of appetite, weight loss, depression and unstable emotional states. Doctors and nurses said that the trauma they saw was not just from the attacks, displacement, threats of joblessness and poverty, but also the sense of total isolation from the rest of the world. Those interviewed said that Gaza's dire situation affects individuals' life choices, like whether or not to get married and have children." (Investigators: Israel fired on Gaza civilians carrying white flags, Charlotte Silver, electronicintifada.net, 28/1/15)
And here's the other. Maybe Costello and his opposite number in Hadassah Australia, Ron Finkel (described in a November 2007 Zionist Council of Victoria press release as "a longstanding advocate for Israel and Zionism since his student days in the 1970s when he served as President of AUJS") could explain how they envision Hadassah Hospital dealing with the Palestinian survivors (?) of these hellish devices:
"Flechette munitions (which doctors reported surgically removing from the faces of children); 'explosive barrel' bombs... that were made to be used to clear mines, but were dropped on civilians; what are suspected to be DIME weapons, leading to 'unusual burns' and 'unusual amputations,' with 'charred' black skin that did not smell like burning flesh and black 'tattooing' around cauterization-like stumps of amputees; weapons that left 'computer chips' with Sony markings embedded as shrapnel in people's bodies'; and 'a gas of unknown type,' a white-colored substance with a 'sewage-like' smell' that burned skin and caused respiratory problems and could be seen and smelled from 500 meters away"? (Independent investigation details Israel's deliberate targeting of civilians in Gaza, Ben Norton, mondoweiss.net, 29/1/15)
[*On Project Rozana, see my 9/6/13 post Palwashing.]
Monday, August 4, 2014
Why Is the MSM Ignoring Israeli Firepower?
Here's something rare: a mainstream media estimate of the number of Israeli artillery shells lobbed onto Gaza thus far. (I have no idea, BTW, whether this includes naval shelling):
"Former assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs Bing West, today an author on war-fighting and counter insurgency, told The Weekend Australian 'artillery is a distance weapon, and Israel has fired over 30,000 shells. In the April 2004 invasion of Fallujah, the US Marines did not fire one artillery shell. 'New devices, especially GPS and reliable individual radios, enabled the marines to co-ordinate a street-by-street, house-by-house search without using long-distance area weapons. However, the cost was 27 marines killed in face-to-face fights inside houses. The Israelis are unwilling to accept higher casualties by using such discriminating tactics'." (Israel aims to minimise troop casualties, Rowan Callick, The Australian, 2/8/14)
I can't quantify this (maybe someone else can), but I imagine that each of these 30,000 shells is infinitely more destructive than any Palestinian rocket.
As to the destructive capacity of Israeli aerial bombing, please note the following:
"In 2002, the launching of a one-tonne bomb on a home [in Gaza] resulting in the death of 14 civilians was the exception... Seven years later, during Operation Cast Lead, there was widespread use of the tactic of dropping bombs over densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip. Today, in Operation Protective Edge, the air force boasts of having released more than 100 one-tonne bombs on Gaza. What was once the exception is now the policy." (From admitting mistakes to an embrace of killing, 'mostly moral' army lost its way, Yuli Novak, Sydney Morning Herald, 30/7/14)
God only knows the full extent of Israeli ordnance raining down on Gaza today. So why isn't the msm media investigating and reporting on this?
Why is it that all we ever seem to hear about are Palestinian rockets (largely of the pinprick variety) and mortars*, estimated by the Israeli military, as of 31/7/14, at a mere 2,670**?
[*See my 17/7/14 post Is It Rocket Science?;**Warning of 'new Gaza targets', John Lyons, The Australian]
"Former assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs Bing West, today an author on war-fighting and counter insurgency, told The Weekend Australian 'artillery is a distance weapon, and Israel has fired over 30,000 shells. In the April 2004 invasion of Fallujah, the US Marines did not fire one artillery shell. 'New devices, especially GPS and reliable individual radios, enabled the marines to co-ordinate a street-by-street, house-by-house search without using long-distance area weapons. However, the cost was 27 marines killed in face-to-face fights inside houses. The Israelis are unwilling to accept higher casualties by using such discriminating tactics'." (Israel aims to minimise troop casualties, Rowan Callick, The Australian, 2/8/14)
I can't quantify this (maybe someone else can), but I imagine that each of these 30,000 shells is infinitely more destructive than any Palestinian rocket.
As to the destructive capacity of Israeli aerial bombing, please note the following:
"In 2002, the launching of a one-tonne bomb on a home [in Gaza] resulting in the death of 14 civilians was the exception... Seven years later, during Operation Cast Lead, there was widespread use of the tactic of dropping bombs over densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip. Today, in Operation Protective Edge, the air force boasts of having released more than 100 one-tonne bombs on Gaza. What was once the exception is now the policy." (From admitting mistakes to an embrace of killing, 'mostly moral' army lost its way, Yuli Novak, Sydney Morning Herald, 30/7/14)
God only knows the full extent of Israeli ordnance raining down on Gaza today. So why isn't the msm media investigating and reporting on this?
Why is it that all we ever seem to hear about are Palestinian rockets (largely of the pinprick variety) and mortars*, estimated by the Israeli military, as of 31/7/14, at a mere 2,670**?
[*See my 17/7/14 post Is It Rocket Science?;**Warning of 'new Gaza targets', John Lyons, The Australian]
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Untargeted Shelling, Targeted Propaganda
Here's Radio National presenter James Carleton speaking with (American-accented) Lt. Libby Weis, spokesperson for the Israel Defence [sic] Forces on RN's Breakfast yesterday about Israel's habit of just blazing away at Gaza:
JC: Has Israel used artillery against Gaza?
LW: Artillery has been used. Yes.
JC: But isn't artillery inherently untargeted? It can be aimed, but Israel talks of pinprick accuracy in targeting individual militants in individual rooms when, of course, an artillery shell, that is something that destroys a large area and cannot be targeted with precision.
LW: Artillery is not the only method being used on the ground. All the methods we use, all the targets selected, are done, again, with the goal of only targeting Hamas and not civilians in the area.
JC: But then why would you use artillery, because that is inherently unlikely to achieve your stated aim.
LW: Again, that's one use in a range of different operational abilities we have at our use. It's not the only thing we use, and again we weigh every situation and make the decision upon different criteria.
JC: Lt. Libby Weis, thank you for your time.
And here's just one result of Israel's blazing away at Gaza, described by Anne Barnard of the New York Times:
"The four Bakr boys were cousins, the children of fishermen who had ordered them to stay indoors. But cooped up for 9 days during Israeli bombardments, the children defied their parents and went to the seaside, the eldest shooing away his little brother, telling him it was too dangerous. As they clambered over a beach jetty in the late afternoon sun, a blast hit a nearby shack. One child was killed instantly. The others ran. There was a second blast, and 3 more bodies littered the sand.
"The Israel Defence [sic] Forces acknowledged later that it was responsible for the 'tragic outcome' and had intended to hit Hamas militants. Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai announced that Israel would observe a 6-hour 'humanitarian ceasefire' in Gaza following an appeal from the United Nations. Alon Ben-David, an Israeli military affairs analyst, said on Israeli television that the second beach blast might have been aimed at the running children, perhaps mistaken for militants. He added that given the military's technologically advanced surveillance equipment 'it is a little hard for me to understand this, because the images show that the figures are children'. One correspondent who witnessed the incident from a nearby hotel said a shell seemed to have been deliberately aimed at the boys as they were running away from the earlier strike.
"The surviving boys were carried to the nearby Deira Hotel, where foreign journalists gave first aid to other wounded children. Hamad Bakr, 13, lay flat on his back moaning in pain from a piece of shrapnel that had penetrated his chest. Nearby, his 7-year-old brother, Yunis, crouched by a wall whimpering, his face distorted in terror. Their cousin, Moatasem, 11, lay bleeding from stomach and head wounds, a bandage wrapped around his head.
"The Israeli army said: 'The IDF has no intention of harming civilians dragged by Hamas into the reality of urban combat. We are carefully investigating the incident in question. Based on preliminary results, the target of this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives. The reported civilian casualties from this strike are a tragic outcome'." (Strike kills four boys playing on beach, Anne Barnard, NYT/Telegraph, London/Sydney Morning Herald, 18/7/14)
JC: Has Israel used artillery against Gaza?
LW: Artillery has been used. Yes.
JC: But isn't artillery inherently untargeted? It can be aimed, but Israel talks of pinprick accuracy in targeting individual militants in individual rooms when, of course, an artillery shell, that is something that destroys a large area and cannot be targeted with precision.
LW: Artillery is not the only method being used on the ground. All the methods we use, all the targets selected, are done, again, with the goal of only targeting Hamas and not civilians in the area.
JC: But then why would you use artillery, because that is inherently unlikely to achieve your stated aim.
LW: Again, that's one use in a range of different operational abilities we have at our use. It's not the only thing we use, and again we weigh every situation and make the decision upon different criteria.
JC: Lt. Libby Weis, thank you for your time.
And here's just one result of Israel's blazing away at Gaza, described by Anne Barnard of the New York Times:
"The four Bakr boys were cousins, the children of fishermen who had ordered them to stay indoors. But cooped up for 9 days during Israeli bombardments, the children defied their parents and went to the seaside, the eldest shooing away his little brother, telling him it was too dangerous. As they clambered over a beach jetty in the late afternoon sun, a blast hit a nearby shack. One child was killed instantly. The others ran. There was a second blast, and 3 more bodies littered the sand.
"The Israel Defence [sic] Forces acknowledged later that it was responsible for the 'tragic outcome' and had intended to hit Hamas militants. Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai announced that Israel would observe a 6-hour 'humanitarian ceasefire' in Gaza following an appeal from the United Nations. Alon Ben-David, an Israeli military affairs analyst, said on Israeli television that the second beach blast might have been aimed at the running children, perhaps mistaken for militants. He added that given the military's technologically advanced surveillance equipment 'it is a little hard for me to understand this, because the images show that the figures are children'. One correspondent who witnessed the incident from a nearby hotel said a shell seemed to have been deliberately aimed at the boys as they were running away from the earlier strike.
"The surviving boys were carried to the nearby Deira Hotel, where foreign journalists gave first aid to other wounded children. Hamad Bakr, 13, lay flat on his back moaning in pain from a piece of shrapnel that had penetrated his chest. Nearby, his 7-year-old brother, Yunis, crouched by a wall whimpering, his face distorted in terror. Their cousin, Moatasem, 11, lay bleeding from stomach and head wounds, a bandage wrapped around his head.
"The Israeli army said: 'The IDF has no intention of harming civilians dragged by Hamas into the reality of urban combat. We are carefully investigating the incident in question. Based on preliminary results, the target of this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives. The reported civilian casualties from this strike are a tragic outcome'." (Strike kills four boys playing on beach, Anne Barnard, NYT/Telegraph, London/Sydney Morning Herald, 18/7/14)
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Phillip Adams Drones On
Phillip Adams was at the Brisbane Writers Festival last week, a fact which would not ordinarily interest me in the least, except for the fact that he was chairing a session on the subject of drones and one of his 3 guests happened to be Israeli Mossad salesman, Michael Bar-Zohar, out here pushing his latest book, Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service. The other two were lawyer Michael (Dan) Mori, associated, you may remember, with the defence of David Hicks, and UK anti-drone activist James Bridle. (You can hear the entire program, broadcast on October 3, on Adams' program, Late Night Live, on Radio National.)
Of course, the incorrigibly Ziophilic Adams, who invariably goes all soft and gooey in the presence of a Zionist, just couldn't help but allude to the 1972 Munich massacre, which he characterised as a terrorist attack which the Israelis "had to respond to."
This was the first of Adams' many services to the Israeli narrative during the course of the program.
Of course, Israel did not have to respond in the way it did, namely by unleashing a Mossad death squad against Palestinian resistance representatives in Rome, Paris, Nicosia and Oslo between October 1972 and July 1973. None of the individuals murdered in this killing spree had any proven connection with the events in Munich. Israel's actions were nothing more than eye-for-an-eye acts of vengeance, as were its murderous bombing runs over Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria in the immediate aftermath of Munich.*
(In the case of Wael Zuaiter, the resistance movement's representative in Rome, gunned down on 16 October 1972, an Italian court set out to try 8 Mossad operatives in absentia for his death but was forced to acquit them for lack of evidence. In its judgment of 17 December 1980, the Court had this to say of the victim: "The fact is that Wael Zuaiter had established strong ties in a number of Italian political, cultural and press circles and had developed an intense propaganda in favour of the Palestinian cause... However, there was nothing to authorize anyone to think that these activities, which were carried out in compliance with the laws of the host country, were a cover-up for any activities which, objectively, were likely to help extremist groups carrying out obviously unacceptable actions." (For a Palestinian: A Memorial to Wael Zuaiter, Ed. by Janet Venn-Brown, 1984, pp 209-210))
Adams' opening question to Bar-Zohar - whether drones were "necessary" - facilitated the first of Bar-Zohar's 'tough neighborhood' whines:
"It's very funny to sit here in Australia. You have no problems. You don't have any border with any enemy state, no danger of something exploding suddenly in a cafe or restaurant... and for you it's very easy to judge the outside world... By the way, Israel doesn't use drones for military purposes [because] terrorists live in densely populated territories."
This would have been an ideal opportunity for a critical and informed chairperson to suggest, in one form or another, that this might have something to do with Australia's having come to terms with its indigenous population, as opposed to Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine's indigenous population, but Adams is neither, instead bending over backwards to accomodate the arrogant sod:
"Michael makes the point that Israeli public opinion does not allow for too many civilian deaths, hence the reluctance to use these damn things."
Notice too, how Bar-Zohar is allowed to get away with the lie that Israel doesn't use drones to kill Palestinians. The reality is that they are an integral part of Israel's policy of 'targeted assassination', a euphemism for wiping out any manifestation of armed resistance to Israeli occupation:
"Each targeted assassination is a large-scale operation that integrates hundreds of specialists from different military branches and security apparatuses. Beyond its reliance on background intelligence (much of it gathered in mass arrests and from Palestinians stopped at checkpoints), targeted assassination depends on sharing real-time information between various agents, commanders, operators, and different military planes and on their ability to act upon it. After a Palestinian is put on the death list, he is followed, sometimes for days, by a 'swarm' of different kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles. Often, different swarms follow different people simultaneously in different areas of the Gaza Strip. In this way, the security services establish the targeted person's daily routines and habits and maintain continued visual contact with him until his killing. As well as being cheaper to operate, unmanned drones have the advantage over manned planes or helicopters because they can remain in the air around the clock... and because their formations circulate in relatively small areas while providing a multiplicity of angles of vision. Moreover, drones are quiet and barely visible to the human eye. This is the reason that, beginning in 2004, the air force started to shoot its missiles from drones, rather than from its more visible battle helicopters. A swarm of various types of drones, each circulating at a different altitude, up to a height of 30,000 feet, is navigated by a GPS system and woven by radio communication into a single synergetic reconnaissance and killing instrument that conducts the entire assassination operation." (The Power of Inclusive Exclusion: Anatomy of Israeli Rule in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, ed, by Adi Ophir, Michal Givoni, & Sari Hanafi, 2009,pp 544-545) [*See also Cut to pieces: the Palestinian family drinking tea in their courtyard, Clancy Chassay, The Guardian, 24/3/09.]
Characteristically, Adams, wasted no time in switching the focus away from Israeli and onto American war crimes, suggesting to Mori, that unlike Israel, the US is not nearly as averse to a bit of 'collateral damage':
"That doesn't seem to be of great concern in the US, does it?"
Here's what ensued, in particular, Bar-Zohar's second 'tough neighborhood' whine:
Mori: Well, now we're raising the issue of collateral damage and how many civilian deaths are acceptable if we're getting the terrorist planner. Is it OK to kill him if we know there'll be 6 other members of his family, is that OK?
Bar-Zohar: Is it OK? If I listen to all this debate I would find out finally you can't get a war because [Sound of cheering from audience] everything we say - yes, here it's fine, it's fine for you, and I envy you people but when my enemy sits 40 km from my home and attacks me with missiles every day and bombs my restaurants and buses every day, what should I do? Debate what's moral, how to count, how many people are equivalent to death of a terrorist or go after the terrorist. That's the point. And speaking of errors... I can make you a list from here to eternity about the errors which are made in each and every war. War is a very unpleasant business. You've been to war? I've fought in 4 wars in my life. I don't recommend it to anybody, and war is full of mistakes every second and every moment people are killed for no reason and civilians are hurt for no reason so let's not mish-mash everything. There is today a new instrument. Everything changes. Before there were different kinds of war. They were running with spears and arrows. Then the tank came...
James Bridle then intervened to make the following, telling point:
"I totally understand the point Michael is making, that there is a particular situation in Israel that has produced these conditions and these weapons. What these weapons are now doing is carrying the attitudes of that conflict to the rest of the globe."
As did Mori, leading to this little exchange with Bar-Zohar:
Bar-Zohar, No, we didn't produce the killer drones, not at all.
Mori: No, but you produced the concept of executive-directed killings.
Bar-Zohar: No, not for drones.
Mori: No, not for drones, but for the executive determining who's bad and who should be killed.
But Bar-Zohar just couldn't let this one pass:
"You mentioned before about the Munich group which was followed. There was a tribunal in Israel formed by PM Meir, DPM Alon, and Defence Minister Dayan, and they had to approve each file of terrorism submitted to them by the Mossad saying this man should be killed."
At this point, Adams just couldn't help himself, and rushed to Bar-Zohar's aid with this fawning nonsense:
"I think what he might be getting at is that Israel has over quite a long time often done quite remarkable things which the world may have applauded but which weren't really legal. We did a program the other day on Eichman... This is Israeli intelligence - Mossading - at its best, going into another country, taking someone away for a trial back in Israel. You have long history of targeting individuals... but no one does it like the Israelis..."
Bar-Zohar, elated, chimed in with:
"No one does it better, but don't forget we are all the time on the front line..."
Adams blundered on, the imaginary Israel of his salad days, with its legendary Goldas and Moshes, taking possession:
"You have a history as a Labor member of the Knesset. You're the biographer of some very important progressive figures in Israeli politics. There must be times when what Mossad has done or is doing concerns you ethically."
Unfortunately for Adams, his Israeli guest missed the cue to indulge in a bit of good old Israeli 'shoot & cry'. No tortured soul he:
"Not very many times that I remember. You mentioned the case when the Mossad made a mistake killing a poor Moroccan waiter... Israeli government paid a huge amount of money to his family as an indemnity."
Warms your heart, doesn't it?
Adams final Q&A with Bar-Zohar was quality grist to the latter's propaganda mill. "Michael," he asked, "does Hamas or Hezbollah in Lebanon have access to drones?"
Bar-Zohar: No, they don't need to. They don't need drones. They have 40,000 missiles, 40 THOUSAND MISSILES along the Israeli border ready to be launched.
Adams: Nonetheless, it must be highly possible that we're witnessing an arms race spurred by the widespread use of UAVs by the US.
Bar-Zohar: So far they sent 2 drones which were shot down over the ocean before they came into Israeli territory... but they have 40,000 missiles. That's much more dangerous than the drones.
God knows what the Brisbane audience made of all this.
[*See my 2/7/12 post Massacre Inc.]
Of course, the incorrigibly Ziophilic Adams, who invariably goes all soft and gooey in the presence of a Zionist, just couldn't help but allude to the 1972 Munich massacre, which he characterised as a terrorist attack which the Israelis "had to respond to."
This was the first of Adams' many services to the Israeli narrative during the course of the program.
Of course, Israel did not have to respond in the way it did, namely by unleashing a Mossad death squad against Palestinian resistance representatives in Rome, Paris, Nicosia and Oslo between October 1972 and July 1973. None of the individuals murdered in this killing spree had any proven connection with the events in Munich. Israel's actions were nothing more than eye-for-an-eye acts of vengeance, as were its murderous bombing runs over Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria in the immediate aftermath of Munich.*
(In the case of Wael Zuaiter, the resistance movement's representative in Rome, gunned down on 16 October 1972, an Italian court set out to try 8 Mossad operatives in absentia for his death but was forced to acquit them for lack of evidence. In its judgment of 17 December 1980, the Court had this to say of the victim: "The fact is that Wael Zuaiter had established strong ties in a number of Italian political, cultural and press circles and had developed an intense propaganda in favour of the Palestinian cause... However, there was nothing to authorize anyone to think that these activities, which were carried out in compliance with the laws of the host country, were a cover-up for any activities which, objectively, were likely to help extremist groups carrying out obviously unacceptable actions." (For a Palestinian: A Memorial to Wael Zuaiter, Ed. by Janet Venn-Brown, 1984, pp 209-210))
Adams' opening question to Bar-Zohar - whether drones were "necessary" - facilitated the first of Bar-Zohar's 'tough neighborhood' whines:
"It's very funny to sit here in Australia. You have no problems. You don't have any border with any enemy state, no danger of something exploding suddenly in a cafe or restaurant... and for you it's very easy to judge the outside world... By the way, Israel doesn't use drones for military purposes [because] terrorists live in densely populated territories."
This would have been an ideal opportunity for a critical and informed chairperson to suggest, in one form or another, that this might have something to do with Australia's having come to terms with its indigenous population, as opposed to Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine's indigenous population, but Adams is neither, instead bending over backwards to accomodate the arrogant sod:
"Michael makes the point that Israeli public opinion does not allow for too many civilian deaths, hence the reluctance to use these damn things."
Notice too, how Bar-Zohar is allowed to get away with the lie that Israel doesn't use drones to kill Palestinians. The reality is that they are an integral part of Israel's policy of 'targeted assassination', a euphemism for wiping out any manifestation of armed resistance to Israeli occupation:
"Each targeted assassination is a large-scale operation that integrates hundreds of specialists from different military branches and security apparatuses. Beyond its reliance on background intelligence (much of it gathered in mass arrests and from Palestinians stopped at checkpoints), targeted assassination depends on sharing real-time information between various agents, commanders, operators, and different military planes and on their ability to act upon it. After a Palestinian is put on the death list, he is followed, sometimes for days, by a 'swarm' of different kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles. Often, different swarms follow different people simultaneously in different areas of the Gaza Strip. In this way, the security services establish the targeted person's daily routines and habits and maintain continued visual contact with him until his killing. As well as being cheaper to operate, unmanned drones have the advantage over manned planes or helicopters because they can remain in the air around the clock... and because their formations circulate in relatively small areas while providing a multiplicity of angles of vision. Moreover, drones are quiet and barely visible to the human eye. This is the reason that, beginning in 2004, the air force started to shoot its missiles from drones, rather than from its more visible battle helicopters. A swarm of various types of drones, each circulating at a different altitude, up to a height of 30,000 feet, is navigated by a GPS system and woven by radio communication into a single synergetic reconnaissance and killing instrument that conducts the entire assassination operation." (The Power of Inclusive Exclusion: Anatomy of Israeli Rule in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, ed, by Adi Ophir, Michal Givoni, & Sari Hanafi, 2009,pp 544-545) [*See also Cut to pieces: the Palestinian family drinking tea in their courtyard, Clancy Chassay, The Guardian, 24/3/09.]
Characteristically, Adams, wasted no time in switching the focus away from Israeli and onto American war crimes, suggesting to Mori, that unlike Israel, the US is not nearly as averse to a bit of 'collateral damage':
"That doesn't seem to be of great concern in the US, does it?"
Here's what ensued, in particular, Bar-Zohar's second 'tough neighborhood' whine:
Mori: Well, now we're raising the issue of collateral damage and how many civilian deaths are acceptable if we're getting the terrorist planner. Is it OK to kill him if we know there'll be 6 other members of his family, is that OK?
Bar-Zohar: Is it OK? If I listen to all this debate I would find out finally you can't get a war because [Sound of cheering from audience] everything we say - yes, here it's fine, it's fine for you, and I envy you people but when my enemy sits 40 km from my home and attacks me with missiles every day and bombs my restaurants and buses every day, what should I do? Debate what's moral, how to count, how many people are equivalent to death of a terrorist or go after the terrorist. That's the point. And speaking of errors... I can make you a list from here to eternity about the errors which are made in each and every war. War is a very unpleasant business. You've been to war? I've fought in 4 wars in my life. I don't recommend it to anybody, and war is full of mistakes every second and every moment people are killed for no reason and civilians are hurt for no reason so let's not mish-mash everything. There is today a new instrument. Everything changes. Before there were different kinds of war. They were running with spears and arrows. Then the tank came...
James Bridle then intervened to make the following, telling point:
"I totally understand the point Michael is making, that there is a particular situation in Israel that has produced these conditions and these weapons. What these weapons are now doing is carrying the attitudes of that conflict to the rest of the globe."
As did Mori, leading to this little exchange with Bar-Zohar:
Bar-Zohar, No, we didn't produce the killer drones, not at all.
Mori: No, but you produced the concept of executive-directed killings.
Bar-Zohar: No, not for drones.
Mori: No, not for drones, but for the executive determining who's bad and who should be killed.
But Bar-Zohar just couldn't let this one pass:
"You mentioned before about the Munich group which was followed. There was a tribunal in Israel formed by PM Meir, DPM Alon, and Defence Minister Dayan, and they had to approve each file of terrorism submitted to them by the Mossad saying this man should be killed."
At this point, Adams just couldn't help himself, and rushed to Bar-Zohar's aid with this fawning nonsense:
"I think what he might be getting at is that Israel has over quite a long time often done quite remarkable things which the world may have applauded but which weren't really legal. We did a program the other day on Eichman... This is Israeli intelligence - Mossading - at its best, going into another country, taking someone away for a trial back in Israel. You have long history of targeting individuals... but no one does it like the Israelis..."
Bar-Zohar, elated, chimed in with:
"No one does it better, but don't forget we are all the time on the front line..."
Adams blundered on, the imaginary Israel of his salad days, with its legendary Goldas and Moshes, taking possession:
"You have a history as a Labor member of the Knesset. You're the biographer of some very important progressive figures in Israeli politics. There must be times when what Mossad has done or is doing concerns you ethically."
Unfortunately for Adams, his Israeli guest missed the cue to indulge in a bit of good old Israeli 'shoot & cry'. No tortured soul he:
"Not very many times that I remember. You mentioned the case when the Mossad made a mistake killing a poor Moroccan waiter... Israeli government paid a huge amount of money to his family as an indemnity."
Warms your heart, doesn't it?
Adams final Q&A with Bar-Zohar was quality grist to the latter's propaganda mill. "Michael," he asked, "does Hamas or Hezbollah in Lebanon have access to drones?"
Bar-Zohar: No, they don't need to. They don't need drones. They have 40,000 missiles, 40 THOUSAND MISSILES along the Israeli border ready to be launched.
Adams: Nonetheless, it must be highly possible that we're witnessing an arms race spurred by the widespread use of UAVs by the US.
Bar-Zohar: So far they sent 2 drones which were shot down over the ocean before they came into Israeli territory... but they have 40,000 missiles. That's much more dangerous than the drones.
God knows what the Brisbane audience made of all this.
[*See my 2/7/12 post Massacre Inc.]
Saturday, July 7, 2012
In Bed With Argentina's Generals
I see that one of Argentina's imprisoned 'Dirty War' (1976-84) generals, Jorge Videla, has just been sentenced to a further 50 years in prison for stealing the babies of female prisoners who were then tortured and executed. A charming gent, the old Jorge.
And quite talented too. Did you know, for example, that he speaks fluent Israeli?
No?
Well here's the proof:
"The women giving birth, who I respect as mothers, were militants who were active in the machinery of terror,' the former dictator said in his closing remarks. 'Many used their unborn children as human shields.'" (Robbery of infants: Videla sentenced to 50 years in prison, Buenos Aires Herald, 5/7/12)
So where did Videla learn to throw around such quintessentially Israeli words as terrorists and human shields?
Why, from the masters of course:
"President Isabel Peron was overthrown by the Argentine military in March 1976. Thus began 8 years of military rule, during which the relations between Israel and Argentina were cordial and intimate. The first junta, in control to 1981, was headed by General Jorge Rafael Videla, and included also Admiral Emilio Massera and Brigadier General Orlando Agosti. Lieutenant General Roberto Eduardo Viola succeeded Videla in April 1981 as Argentina's president, and ruled with the help of Admiral Armando Lambruschini and General Omar Graffigna. The third and last junta was made up of General Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, Admiral Jorge Isaac Anaya, and Brigadier General Basilio Lami Dozo. The last junta had to relinquish power after a long series of economic and military fiascos, and Argentina was returned to civilian rule.
"Generals Viola, Videla, Valin, and Galtieri became gracious hosts to Israeli military and civilian leaders, and their names grew familiar to their Israeli counterparts during the years of military rule. Israeli generals Peled and Lahav and Reshef and Rahav, names as interchangeable and forgettable as their Latin American colleagues', had many good meetings with the Argentines. They were liked and admired; they enjoyed the friendly times. There were 'three countries that enjoyed a special sympathy in Argentine military circles: the United States, South Africa, and Israel' (Yediot Aharanot, 1983a, p. 7).
"Argentina has been one of Israel's major arms customers, especially since President Carter suspended US military aid in 1977 (a move partly reversed by by President Reagan in July 1981). The script is familiar to us from Nicaragua, Guatemala, and other places: Israel filled the demand. It sold Argentina nearly a hundred jet fighters - mostly improved versions of the French Mirage, plus 24 US A-4 Skyhawks - and Shafir missiles to arm them. The navy received 4 Dabur-class patrol boats and 50 Gabriel missiles. Spare parts, ammunition, and small arms were also sold in large quantities.
"Israel's supplying arms to Argentina during the Falklands-Malvinas War of 1982 brought much comment and understandable British concern, but it merely reflected a long-standing relationship (Taubman, 1982). Judging by reports of arms delivered, Israel played a role in helping the Argentine armed forces to replace armaments and aircraft lost during the war, with Nesher planes, Mirage planes, Gabriel missiles, spare parts, and ammunition (Schumacher, 1982). Supplies also came from South Africa (Dabat & Lorenzano, 1984) and numerous other countries, including Libya.
"Although many Israeli leaders visited Argentina during the years of the generals, former military leaders drew the most attention. General Mordecai Gur followed up his visit to Chile in 1978 with one to Argentina, and was warmly received by General Alfredo Ciola, Argentine chief-of-staff, and other generals. The former chief-of-staff (1964-1968) and prime minister (1974-1977) Yitzhak Rabin visited Argentina in August 1980, and lectured at the Argentine Armed Forces National College. Lately it has come out that after the Malvinas War of 1982, when the military regime was on its last legs, its Israeli friends came up with a grand rescue plan, designed to make Argentina into a 'South Atlantic power,' and to save the generals' future (Shipler, 1986)." (The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms & Why, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, 1987, pp 101-103)
And quite talented too. Did you know, for example, that he speaks fluent Israeli?
No?
Well here's the proof:
"The women giving birth, who I respect as mothers, were militants who were active in the machinery of terror,' the former dictator said in his closing remarks. 'Many used their unborn children as human shields.'" (Robbery of infants: Videla sentenced to 50 years in prison, Buenos Aires Herald, 5/7/12)
So where did Videla learn to throw around such quintessentially Israeli words as terrorists and human shields?
Why, from the masters of course:
"President Isabel Peron was overthrown by the Argentine military in March 1976. Thus began 8 years of military rule, during which the relations between Israel and Argentina were cordial and intimate. The first junta, in control to 1981, was headed by General Jorge Rafael Videla, and included also Admiral Emilio Massera and Brigadier General Orlando Agosti. Lieutenant General Roberto Eduardo Viola succeeded Videla in April 1981 as Argentina's president, and ruled with the help of Admiral Armando Lambruschini and General Omar Graffigna. The third and last junta was made up of General Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, Admiral Jorge Isaac Anaya, and Brigadier General Basilio Lami Dozo. The last junta had to relinquish power after a long series of economic and military fiascos, and Argentina was returned to civilian rule.
"Generals Viola, Videla, Valin, and Galtieri became gracious hosts to Israeli military and civilian leaders, and their names grew familiar to their Israeli counterparts during the years of military rule. Israeli generals Peled and Lahav and Reshef and Rahav, names as interchangeable and forgettable as their Latin American colleagues', had many good meetings with the Argentines. They were liked and admired; they enjoyed the friendly times. There were 'three countries that enjoyed a special sympathy in Argentine military circles: the United States, South Africa, and Israel' (Yediot Aharanot, 1983a, p. 7).
"Argentina has been one of Israel's major arms customers, especially since President Carter suspended US military aid in 1977 (a move partly reversed by by President Reagan in July 1981). The script is familiar to us from Nicaragua, Guatemala, and other places: Israel filled the demand. It sold Argentina nearly a hundred jet fighters - mostly improved versions of the French Mirage, plus 24 US A-4 Skyhawks - and Shafir missiles to arm them. The navy received 4 Dabur-class patrol boats and 50 Gabriel missiles. Spare parts, ammunition, and small arms were also sold in large quantities.
"Israel's supplying arms to Argentina during the Falklands-Malvinas War of 1982 brought much comment and understandable British concern, but it merely reflected a long-standing relationship (Taubman, 1982). Judging by reports of arms delivered, Israel played a role in helping the Argentine armed forces to replace armaments and aircraft lost during the war, with Nesher planes, Mirage planes, Gabriel missiles, spare parts, and ammunition (Schumacher, 1982). Supplies also came from South Africa (Dabat & Lorenzano, 1984) and numerous other countries, including Libya.
"Although many Israeli leaders visited Argentina during the years of the generals, former military leaders drew the most attention. General Mordecai Gur followed up his visit to Chile in 1978 with one to Argentina, and was warmly received by General Alfredo Ciola, Argentine chief-of-staff, and other generals. The former chief-of-staff (1964-1968) and prime minister (1974-1977) Yitzhak Rabin visited Argentina in August 1980, and lectured at the Argentine Armed Forces National College. Lately it has come out that after the Malvinas War of 1982, when the military regime was on its last legs, its Israeli friends came up with a grand rescue plan, designed to make Argentina into a 'South Atlantic power,' and to save the generals' future (Shipler, 1986)." (The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms & Why, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, 1987, pp 101-103)
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Sucked in at Sydney University
Reading The Australian's spin on the coming Israel Research Forum to be held at Sydney University on October 31, you'd swear dissenting SU professor Jake Lynch was looking a gift horse in the mouth:
"University of Sydney scholars set to exchange ideas with visiting Israeli experts on neuroscience, tissue regeneration and other cutting-edge research areas are being warned the event will offend potential Muslim undergraduates... Associate Professor Jake Lynch, director of the university's Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies, has urged his colleagues to withdraw from the research gathering, and the university administration to cancel it. Dr Lynch has been a strong supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign designed to isolate Israel... 'The university risks sustaining reputational damage if the forum goes ahead', Dr Lynch told The Australian yesterday.'It risks being seen as condoning the complicity by Israeli universities in Israel's breaches of international law and indirectly with the university's social inclusion policy'." (University forum with Israeli scientists 'offends Muslims', Imre Salusinszky, 25/10/11)
Neuroscience, tissue regeneration and other cutting-edge research areas? Wowee! Who could say no? Can Dr Lynch be serious?
Well, yes, because our visiting Israeli experts hail from such august bastions of the apartheid state's military-industrial complex as The Weizmann Institute of Science, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and Tel Aviv University, each of which, in one way or another, aids and abets Israel's 44-year long occupation of the Palestinian Territories and its 63-year abuse of the Palestinian and other Arab peoples.
The fact of the matter is that, by flirting with such institutions, Sydney University contributes to their normalisation and exposes itself to charges of complicity in Israel's cutting-edge crimes.
Just briefly:
The Weizmann Institute for Science is the birthplace of Israel's nuclear weapons.
The Technion collaborates with Israeli military technology manufacturers such as Elbit Systems Ltd, a manufacturer of military, surveillance and security equipment, some of which is incorporated in Israel's illegal West Bank wall. Elbit also manufactures unmanned aerial and ground vehicles which are routinely used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It also collaborates with the government-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, one of Israel's largest military technology manfacturers and source, among other things, of protective shields for its Merkava tanks and missiles for its killer drones. (See Structures of Oppression: Why McGill & Concordia Universities must sever their links with the Technion University, tadamon.ca, 26/10/10)
Tel Aviv University collaborates with the Israeli Ministry of Defence in preparing select Israeli high school students for work in Israel's arms industry. (See Tel Aviv hosts youth seminar on Science & Technology in the Service of Security, Alternative Information Center, 24/11/10)
Thank God someone's blowing a whistle.
[Related post: The ABC of Zionist Propaganda, 12/12/10]
"University of Sydney scholars set to exchange ideas with visiting Israeli experts on neuroscience, tissue regeneration and other cutting-edge research areas are being warned the event will offend potential Muslim undergraduates... Associate Professor Jake Lynch, director of the university's Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies, has urged his colleagues to withdraw from the research gathering, and the university administration to cancel it. Dr Lynch has been a strong supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign designed to isolate Israel... 'The university risks sustaining reputational damage if the forum goes ahead', Dr Lynch told The Australian yesterday.'It risks being seen as condoning the complicity by Israeli universities in Israel's breaches of international law and indirectly with the university's social inclusion policy'." (University forum with Israeli scientists 'offends Muslims', Imre Salusinszky, 25/10/11)
Neuroscience, tissue regeneration and other cutting-edge research areas? Wowee! Who could say no? Can Dr Lynch be serious?
Well, yes, because our visiting Israeli experts hail from such august bastions of the apartheid state's military-industrial complex as The Weizmann Institute of Science, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and Tel Aviv University, each of which, in one way or another, aids and abets Israel's 44-year long occupation of the Palestinian Territories and its 63-year abuse of the Palestinian and other Arab peoples.
The fact of the matter is that, by flirting with such institutions, Sydney University contributes to their normalisation and exposes itself to charges of complicity in Israel's cutting-edge crimes.
Just briefly:
The Weizmann Institute for Science is the birthplace of Israel's nuclear weapons.
The Technion collaborates with Israeli military technology manufacturers such as Elbit Systems Ltd, a manufacturer of military, surveillance and security equipment, some of which is incorporated in Israel's illegal West Bank wall. Elbit also manufactures unmanned aerial and ground vehicles which are routinely used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It also collaborates with the government-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, one of Israel's largest military technology manfacturers and source, among other things, of protective shields for its Merkava tanks and missiles for its killer drones. (See Structures of Oppression: Why McGill & Concordia Universities must sever their links with the Technion University, tadamon.ca, 26/10/10)
Tel Aviv University collaborates with the Israeli Ministry of Defence in preparing select Israeli high school students for work in Israel's arms industry. (See Tel Aviv hosts youth seminar on Science & Technology in the Service of Security, Alternative Information Center, 24/11/10)
Thank God someone's blowing a whistle.
[Related post: The ABC of Zionist Propaganda, 12/12/10]
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Round Round Get Around... 8
They get around:
"At least 7 Israeli arms dealers are currently in jail in four countries... the United States, Russia, France and Britain - on charges of illegal arms dealing. Some of them are also suspected of crimes such as forgery, bribery, money-laundering and violating UN Security Council embargoes. Such arrests are briefly covered in Israel and then forgotten. But they have a cumulative effect that is very damaging to Israel's image, or what remains of it. Even though it is doubtful whether those in jail know one another, they have quite a lot in common. All are men in their 50s and 60s. All are well to do (or were in the past), having made most of their money in international arms dealing or in exporting security services and equipment from Israel. They served in the Israel Defense Forces and reached mid-level ranks (from captain to lieutenant colonel), and when they were arrested, they denied the charges. Friends who came to their assistance described them, naturally, as 'the salt of the earth'.* All 7 are familiar faces in the corridors of the defense establishment, and at one time received arms dealing permits from the Defense Ministry. All sought to 'expedite procedures' in violation of local or international laws, and did so out of pure greed. Due to this covetousness, they also fell into traps and can expect to face many years in jail." (Why are so many Israelis arrested over illegal arms deals worldwide? Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 1/7/10) [*Monosodium glutamate of the earth?]
"Two Israeli businessmen have been arrested in Georgia on suspicion of offering the deputy finance minister millions of dollars in bribes, local media reported Saturday... According to the report, Ron Fuchs and Zeev Frenkiel were arrested two days ago during a meeting with Georgian Deputy Finance minister Avtandil Kharadze... According to Georgian prosecutors, the two were awarded nearly $100 million in an arbitration process, but the Georgian government had tried to challenge the decision to transfer them the money... The affair began in 1991, when a company represented by Fuchs started looking for investment opportunities in Georgia's energy sector. In 1992 the company established a joint venture with the Georgian state oil company and obtained concession on the construction of an oil pipeline to transport Azerbaijani oil to the western market via Georgia and Turkey. The two had sued the Georgian government after a deal they signed for the development of oil pipelines in the country was revoked." (2 Israelis suspected of bribing Georgian minister, Ronen Medzini, ynetnews.com, 16/10/10)
"A remote-control drone operated by the Mexican government crashed in the United States near El Paso, Texas, this week, the US Customs & Border Protection agency confirms to TPM... A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board... tells TPM that the plane that crashed was a 'mini-orbiter UAV' but declined to elaborate further. A Google search turns up a drone called an Orbiter Mini UAV made by Aeronautics Defense Systems, an Israeli company... Last year, Mexico spent $23.25 million to buy an 'unspecified' number of Hermes 450 drones from the Israel-based Elbit Systems Ltd, Reuters reported in August." (Unmanned Mexican drone crashes near El Paso, Texas, Eric Lach, tpmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com, 16/12/10)
"It is fitting that the man described as the 'fixer' in Kosovo's alleged organ [donor] ring was an Israeli of Turkish descent. Moshe Harel, a fugitive wanted by Interpol in connection with the case, is accused of matching potential donors recruited in Turkey with recipients, many if not all of whom had connections with Israel... Last month the recipients of organs illegally transplanted in a private hospital in South Africa were described as Israelis. The donors - said to have included children - were Brazilians and Romanians... Netcare of South Africa... admitted in court to receiving R3.8m from an illegal organ trafficking syndicate." (Kosovo organ donor ring: the Israeli connection, Paul Lewis, guardian.co.uk, 17/12/10)
"The police crackdown on a rogue [Trinidad & Tobago] Government spy agency at the break of dawn on October 23 this year was compromised by a police double agent, who tipped off agency head Nigel Clement that a high-level police swat team was on their way. Sunday Express investigations into the unfolding spy drama involving the abuse of secret wiretaps by the Patrick Manning administration, have found a tangled web of shadowy political and itelligence figures; Israeli operatives; a stunning amount of intercepted data that has little or nothing to do with crime; the whistle-blower intelligence analyst who called attention to the Government's secret electronic spying on citizens, including President George Maxwell Richards; a slush fund that ran well over the seven-figure mark; a coded message sent to the Israeli spy equipment manufacturer for urgent sanitisation assistance; and police spies." (Spy games, Camini Marajh, trinidadexpress.com, 18/12/10)
"At least 7 Israeli arms dealers are currently in jail in four countries... the United States, Russia, France and Britain - on charges of illegal arms dealing. Some of them are also suspected of crimes such as forgery, bribery, money-laundering and violating UN Security Council embargoes. Such arrests are briefly covered in Israel and then forgotten. But they have a cumulative effect that is very damaging to Israel's image, or what remains of it. Even though it is doubtful whether those in jail know one another, they have quite a lot in common. All are men in their 50s and 60s. All are well to do (or were in the past), having made most of their money in international arms dealing or in exporting security services and equipment from Israel. They served in the Israel Defense Forces and reached mid-level ranks (from captain to lieutenant colonel), and when they were arrested, they denied the charges. Friends who came to their assistance described them, naturally, as 'the salt of the earth'.* All 7 are familiar faces in the corridors of the defense establishment, and at one time received arms dealing permits from the Defense Ministry. All sought to 'expedite procedures' in violation of local or international laws, and did so out of pure greed. Due to this covetousness, they also fell into traps and can expect to face many years in jail." (Why are so many Israelis arrested over illegal arms deals worldwide? Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 1/7/10) [*Monosodium glutamate of the earth?]
"Two Israeli businessmen have been arrested in Georgia on suspicion of offering the deputy finance minister millions of dollars in bribes, local media reported Saturday... According to the report, Ron Fuchs and Zeev Frenkiel were arrested two days ago during a meeting with Georgian Deputy Finance minister Avtandil Kharadze... According to Georgian prosecutors, the two were awarded nearly $100 million in an arbitration process, but the Georgian government had tried to challenge the decision to transfer them the money... The affair began in 1991, when a company represented by Fuchs started looking for investment opportunities in Georgia's energy sector. In 1992 the company established a joint venture with the Georgian state oil company and obtained concession on the construction of an oil pipeline to transport Azerbaijani oil to the western market via Georgia and Turkey. The two had sued the Georgian government after a deal they signed for the development of oil pipelines in the country was revoked." (2 Israelis suspected of bribing Georgian minister, Ronen Medzini, ynetnews.com, 16/10/10)
"A remote-control drone operated by the Mexican government crashed in the United States near El Paso, Texas, this week, the US Customs & Border Protection agency confirms to TPM... A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board... tells TPM that the plane that crashed was a 'mini-orbiter UAV' but declined to elaborate further. A Google search turns up a drone called an Orbiter Mini UAV made by Aeronautics Defense Systems, an Israeli company... Last year, Mexico spent $23.25 million to buy an 'unspecified' number of Hermes 450 drones from the Israel-based Elbit Systems Ltd, Reuters reported in August." (Unmanned Mexican drone crashes near El Paso, Texas, Eric Lach, tpmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com, 16/12/10)
"It is fitting that the man described as the 'fixer' in Kosovo's alleged organ [donor] ring was an Israeli of Turkish descent. Moshe Harel, a fugitive wanted by Interpol in connection with the case, is accused of matching potential donors recruited in Turkey with recipients, many if not all of whom had connections with Israel... Last month the recipients of organs illegally transplanted in a private hospital in South Africa were described as Israelis. The donors - said to have included children - were Brazilians and Romanians... Netcare of South Africa... admitted in court to receiving R3.8m from an illegal organ trafficking syndicate." (Kosovo organ donor ring: the Israeli connection, Paul Lewis, guardian.co.uk, 17/12/10)
"The police crackdown on a rogue [Trinidad & Tobago] Government spy agency at the break of dawn on October 23 this year was compromised by a police double agent, who tipped off agency head Nigel Clement that a high-level police swat team was on their way. Sunday Express investigations into the unfolding spy drama involving the abuse of secret wiretaps by the Patrick Manning administration, have found a tangled web of shadowy political and itelligence figures; Israeli operatives; a stunning amount of intercepted data that has little or nothing to do with crime; the whistle-blower intelligence analyst who called attention to the Government's secret electronic spying on citizens, including President George Maxwell Richards; a slush fund that ran well over the seven-figure mark; a coded message sent to the Israeli spy equipment manufacturer for urgent sanitisation assistance; and police spies." (Spy games, Camini Marajh, trinidadexpress.com, 18/12/10)
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
From Israel With Love
Chinese drones? Shock, horror! We'll all be rooned!:
"China is ramping up production of unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] in an apparent bid to catch up with the US and Israel... The US and Israel are the world leaders in developing such pilotless drones, which have played a major role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and which analysts say could one day replace the fighter jet." (China's drones could soon challenge US, Jeremy Page, The Wall Street Journal/The Australian, 23/11/10)
Those cunning oriental untermenschen! How the heck could they have caught up with USrael on this? Well...
"On Monday morning, after weeks of undercover investigation, an elite police investigative unit detained the CEO, owners and some of the employees of the EMIT company under suspicion that they illegally sold military technology to the Chinese government. Detectives from the police's International Serious Crimes Unit detained the suspects for further questioning, and after doing so, made public allegations describing a web of forgeries and lies through which the suspects allegedly conspired to sell the sensitive military technology - including the Sparrow Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) - to the east Asian superpower.
"The Kadima-based company is suspected of selling UAVs without receiving governmental clearance to do so, and of exporting military-related research to Chinese sources. They were also suspected of forging documents in order to export the equipment from Israel. Police would not say whether EMIT's founder and managing director, Ephraim Menashy, was or was not the lead suspect in the case. Menashy was the chief pilot and the test pilot for the UAV MALAT division of Israel's aviation industries during 1981 -1991. The company's CEO is suspected of bypassing export laws by claiming that he was lending the Sparrow UAV and its accompanying equipment to China in order to display it at a weapons exhibition. According to police allegations, once the CEO's actions were uncovered, he began a deliberate campaign to destroy evidence, including changing and forging contracts that he had made with the customers in question. Attorney Devora Hen, who was representing EMIT, said in an interview on Army Radio Monday that 'The CEO denies all of the incidents ascribed to him, and especially the way in which they were presented in the press'. The Sparrow, released in 2004, is, according to the EMIT company, already in use by an Asian navy. Among its features are superior surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and remote warfare operations. EMIT is one of the world leaders in the development of UAVs, and works with Israel Aircraft Industries, Elbit and other top Israeli military developers, as well as US-based Kollsman and Canada-based Oerlikon Contraves. EMIT designs, develops and manufactures cost-effective UAV systems, specialising in avionics, autopilot systems and full size and compact GCS (ground control stations) with up to 200km communication range. This is not the first time that an Israeli company has run into legal and diplomatic problems over UAV sales to China. In 1994 IAI sold China Harpy drones, a killer UAV that hovers over enemy anti-missile batteries and radar systems and then destroys them by diving into them. The scandal surrounding that sale still plagues US-Israel relations, especially in the field of military technology cooperation." (Man questioned for illegal UAV sales, Rebecca Anna Stoil, The Jerusalem Post, 22/5/06)
For more on the (ever-spreading) joy of drones see my posts The Big Picture (3/11/10) & Supping With the Devil (19/5/08).
"China is ramping up production of unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] in an apparent bid to catch up with the US and Israel... The US and Israel are the world leaders in developing such pilotless drones, which have played a major role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and which analysts say could one day replace the fighter jet." (China's drones could soon challenge US, Jeremy Page, The Wall Street Journal/The Australian, 23/11/10)
Those cunning oriental untermenschen! How the heck could they have caught up with USrael on this? Well...
"On Monday morning, after weeks of undercover investigation, an elite police investigative unit detained the CEO, owners and some of the employees of the EMIT company under suspicion that they illegally sold military technology to the Chinese government. Detectives from the police's International Serious Crimes Unit detained the suspects for further questioning, and after doing so, made public allegations describing a web of forgeries and lies through which the suspects allegedly conspired to sell the sensitive military technology - including the Sparrow Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) - to the east Asian superpower.
"The Kadima-based company is suspected of selling UAVs without receiving governmental clearance to do so, and of exporting military-related research to Chinese sources. They were also suspected of forging documents in order to export the equipment from Israel. Police would not say whether EMIT's founder and managing director, Ephraim Menashy, was or was not the lead suspect in the case. Menashy was the chief pilot and the test pilot for the UAV MALAT division of Israel's aviation industries during 1981 -1991. The company's CEO is suspected of bypassing export laws by claiming that he was lending the Sparrow UAV and its accompanying equipment to China in order to display it at a weapons exhibition. According to police allegations, once the CEO's actions were uncovered, he began a deliberate campaign to destroy evidence, including changing and forging contracts that he had made with the customers in question. Attorney Devora Hen, who was representing EMIT, said in an interview on Army Radio Monday that 'The CEO denies all of the incidents ascribed to him, and especially the way in which they were presented in the press'. The Sparrow, released in 2004, is, according to the EMIT company, already in use by an Asian navy. Among its features are superior surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and remote warfare operations. EMIT is one of the world leaders in the development of UAVs, and works with Israel Aircraft Industries, Elbit and other top Israeli military developers, as well as US-based Kollsman and Canada-based Oerlikon Contraves. EMIT designs, develops and manufactures cost-effective UAV systems, specialising in avionics, autopilot systems and full size and compact GCS (ground control stations) with up to 200km communication range. This is not the first time that an Israeli company has run into legal and diplomatic problems over UAV sales to China. In 1994 IAI sold China Harpy drones, a killer UAV that hovers over enemy anti-missile batteries and radar systems and then destroys them by diving into them. The scandal surrounding that sale still plagues US-Israel relations, especially in the field of military technology cooperation." (Man questioned for illegal UAV sales, Rebecca Anna Stoil, The Jerusalem Post, 22/5/06)
For more on the (ever-spreading) joy of drones see my posts The Big Picture (3/11/10) & Supping With the Devil (19/5/08).
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The Big Picture
Here's the little picture:
"Imagine if, an hour from now, a robot-plane swooped over your house and blasted it to pieces. The plane has no pilot. It is controlled with a joystick from 11,000km away, sent by the Pakistani military to kill you. It blows up all the houses in your street, and so barbecues your family and your neighbours until there is nothing left to bury but a few charred slops. Why? They refuse to comment. They don't even admit the robot-planes belong to them. But they tell the Pakistani newspapers back home it is because one of you was planning to attack Pakistan. How do they know? Somebody told them. Who? You don't know, and there are no appeals against the robot. Now imagine it doesn't end there: these attacks are happening every week somewhere in your country. They blow up funerals and family dinners and children. The number of robot-planes in the sky is increasing every week. You discover they are named 'Predators' or 'Reapers' - after the Grim Reaper. No matter how much you plead, no matter how much you make it clear you are a peaceful civilian getting on with your life, it won't stop. What do you do? If there was a group arguing that Pakistan was an evil nation that deserved to be violently attacked, would you now start to listen?
"This sounds like a sketch for the next James Cameron movie - but it is in fact an accurate description of life in parts of Pakistan today, with the sides flipped. The Predators and Reapers are being sent by Barack Obama's CIA, with the support of other Western governments, and they killed more than 700 civilians in 2009 alone - 14 times the number killed in the 7/7 attacks in London. The floods were seen as an opportunity to increase the attacks, and last month saw the largest number of robot-plane bombings ever: 22. Over the next decade, spending on drones is set to increase by 700%. The US Government doesn't even officially admit the program exists... But [the Obama] administration says, behind closed doors, that these robot-plane attacks are 'the only show in town' for killing suspected jihadis... True, the program has certainly killed some real jihadis. But the evidence suggests it is creating far more jihadis than it kills - and is making an attack on you and me more likely with each bomb.
"Drone technology was developed by the Israelis, who routinely use it to bomb the Gaza Strip. I've been to Gaza during some of these attacks. The people were terrified - and radicalised. A young woman I know who had been averse to political violence and an advocate of peaceful protest saw a drone blow up a car full of people - and she started supporting jihad and crying for the worst possible revenge against Israel. Drones have bombed much of Gaza, from secular Fatah to Islamist Hamas, to the brink of jihad. Is the same thing happening in Pakistan?" (Rise of the killer drones, Johann Hari, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 30/10/10)
And here's the Big Picture:
"Few Zionists would deny the escalating violence that has attended the insertion of Jewish colons into the Middle East. Mostly, however, the Zionists draw attention to the Arabs as the source of this violence and blame it on their rejection of Israel. Moreover, they maintain that Arab rejection of Israel is rooted in their ancient and religiously inspired hostility toward Jews. The Zionist movement in Palestine has generated endemic violence between Jewish settlers and Palestinians. Since 1948, this violence has repeatedly pitted Israel against the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors. It has dragged Western societies, especially the United States, into ever widening and deepening conflicts with the Islamicate.* It is the thesis of this... book that the history of these ever-expanding circles of conflict and instability was contained in the Zionist idea itself. Instability and violence are integral to Zionism: they have flowed from its inner logic. They are not incidental to it." (Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism, M. Shahid Alam, 2009, pp 25-26)
"This study has employed a dialectical framework for analyzing the destabilizing logic of Zionism. We have examined this logic as it has unfolded through time, driven by the vision of an exclusionary colonialism, drawing into its circuit - aligned with it and against it - nations, peoples, forces, and civilizations whose actions and interactions impinge on the trajectory of Zionism, and, in turn, who are changed by this trajectory. It would be a bit simplistic to examine the field of interactions among the different actors in this historic drama on the essentialist assumption that these actors and their interests are unchanging. Instead, we need to explore the complex ways in which the Zionists have worked - and, often have succeeded - to alter the behavior of the other political actors in this drama: and, how, in turn, the Zionists respond to these changes. Most importantly, we need to explore all the ways in which the Zionists have succeeded in mobilizing the resources of the United States and other Western powers to serve their specific objectives. Consider a list of the political actors who have had more than a passing connection to the Zionist project and, who, at one time or another, have affected or have been affected by this project. First, there are the different Zionist factions, the Jewish diaspora, and, later, the state of Israel. These entities are overlapping, with the degrees of overlap between any two of them changing over time. The second set of actors consists of Western powers - especially, the United States, Britain, and France - the Christian Zionists especially in the United States, and the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe. Finally, there are actors who are direct and indirect victims of the Zionist project, those who have paid the costs of Zionist success. They form four concentric circles around Israel, including the Palestinians, the Arabs, the Middle East, and the Islamicate. These three sets of actors make up the dramatis personae in the unfolding tragedy of the Zionist project. Clearly, the number of actors involved, their variety, and, not least, the multilayered power commanded by the Zionists and their allies would indicate that Zionism is no sideshow. Directly, it has involved much of the Western world, on one side, and the global Islamicate on the other side, who will soon make up one-fourth of the world's population." (ibid, pp 213-214) [*Following Marshall Hodgson, 'Islamicate'... will refer to a society comprising mostly of Muslims.]
"Imagine if, an hour from now, a robot-plane swooped over your house and blasted it to pieces. The plane has no pilot. It is controlled with a joystick from 11,000km away, sent by the Pakistani military to kill you. It blows up all the houses in your street, and so barbecues your family and your neighbours until there is nothing left to bury but a few charred slops. Why? They refuse to comment. They don't even admit the robot-planes belong to them. But they tell the Pakistani newspapers back home it is because one of you was planning to attack Pakistan. How do they know? Somebody told them. Who? You don't know, and there are no appeals against the robot. Now imagine it doesn't end there: these attacks are happening every week somewhere in your country. They blow up funerals and family dinners and children. The number of robot-planes in the sky is increasing every week. You discover they are named 'Predators' or 'Reapers' - after the Grim Reaper. No matter how much you plead, no matter how much you make it clear you are a peaceful civilian getting on with your life, it won't stop. What do you do? If there was a group arguing that Pakistan was an evil nation that deserved to be violently attacked, would you now start to listen?
"This sounds like a sketch for the next James Cameron movie - but it is in fact an accurate description of life in parts of Pakistan today, with the sides flipped. The Predators and Reapers are being sent by Barack Obama's CIA, with the support of other Western governments, and they killed more than 700 civilians in 2009 alone - 14 times the number killed in the 7/7 attacks in London. The floods were seen as an opportunity to increase the attacks, and last month saw the largest number of robot-plane bombings ever: 22. Over the next decade, spending on drones is set to increase by 700%. The US Government doesn't even officially admit the program exists... But [the Obama] administration says, behind closed doors, that these robot-plane attacks are 'the only show in town' for killing suspected jihadis... True, the program has certainly killed some real jihadis. But the evidence suggests it is creating far more jihadis than it kills - and is making an attack on you and me more likely with each bomb.
"Drone technology was developed by the Israelis, who routinely use it to bomb the Gaza Strip. I've been to Gaza during some of these attacks. The people were terrified - and radicalised. A young woman I know who had been averse to political violence and an advocate of peaceful protest saw a drone blow up a car full of people - and she started supporting jihad and crying for the worst possible revenge against Israel. Drones have bombed much of Gaza, from secular Fatah to Islamist Hamas, to the brink of jihad. Is the same thing happening in Pakistan?" (Rise of the killer drones, Johann Hari, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 30/10/10)
And here's the Big Picture:
"Few Zionists would deny the escalating violence that has attended the insertion of Jewish colons into the Middle East. Mostly, however, the Zionists draw attention to the Arabs as the source of this violence and blame it on their rejection of Israel. Moreover, they maintain that Arab rejection of Israel is rooted in their ancient and religiously inspired hostility toward Jews. The Zionist movement in Palestine has generated endemic violence between Jewish settlers and Palestinians. Since 1948, this violence has repeatedly pitted Israel against the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors. It has dragged Western societies, especially the United States, into ever widening and deepening conflicts with the Islamicate.* It is the thesis of this... book that the history of these ever-expanding circles of conflict and instability was contained in the Zionist idea itself. Instability and violence are integral to Zionism: they have flowed from its inner logic. They are not incidental to it." (Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism, M. Shahid Alam, 2009, pp 25-26)
"This study has employed a dialectical framework for analyzing the destabilizing logic of Zionism. We have examined this logic as it has unfolded through time, driven by the vision of an exclusionary colonialism, drawing into its circuit - aligned with it and against it - nations, peoples, forces, and civilizations whose actions and interactions impinge on the trajectory of Zionism, and, in turn, who are changed by this trajectory. It would be a bit simplistic to examine the field of interactions among the different actors in this historic drama on the essentialist assumption that these actors and their interests are unchanging. Instead, we need to explore the complex ways in which the Zionists have worked - and, often have succeeded - to alter the behavior of the other political actors in this drama: and, how, in turn, the Zionists respond to these changes. Most importantly, we need to explore all the ways in which the Zionists have succeeded in mobilizing the resources of the United States and other Western powers to serve their specific objectives. Consider a list of the political actors who have had more than a passing connection to the Zionist project and, who, at one time or another, have affected or have been affected by this project. First, there are the different Zionist factions, the Jewish diaspora, and, later, the state of Israel. These entities are overlapping, with the degrees of overlap between any two of them changing over time. The second set of actors consists of Western powers - especially, the United States, Britain, and France - the Christian Zionists especially in the United States, and the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe. Finally, there are actors who are direct and indirect victims of the Zionist project, those who have paid the costs of Zionist success. They form four concentric circles around Israel, including the Palestinians, the Arabs, the Middle East, and the Islamicate. These three sets of actors make up the dramatis personae in the unfolding tragedy of the Zionist project. Clearly, the number of actors involved, their variety, and, not least, the multilayered power commanded by the Zionists and their allies would indicate that Zionism is no sideshow. Directly, it has involved much of the Western world, on one side, and the global Islamicate on the other side, who will soon make up one-fourth of the world's population." (ibid, pp 213-214) [*Following Marshall Hodgson, 'Islamicate'... will refer to a society comprising mostly of Muslims.]
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Round Round Get Around... 6
They get around:
"An ugly anti-Muslim chauvinism accompanies India's violence. It has been open season on Muslims since 9/11, when the liberation struggle in Kashmir was conveniently subsumed under the war on terror and Israeli military officers were invited to visit Akhnur military base in the province and advise on counter-terrorism measures. The website India Defence noted in September 2008 that 'Maj-Gen Avi Mizrahi paid an unscheduled visit to the state of Kashmir last week to get an up-close look at the challenges the Indian military faces in its fight against Islamic insurgents. Mizrahi was in India for 3 days of meetings with the country's military brass and to discuss a plan the IDF is drafting for Israeli commandos to train Indian counterterror forces'. Their advice was straightforward: do as we do in Palestine and buy our weapons. In the 6 years since 2002 New Delhi had purchased $5 billion-worth of weaponry from the Israelis, to good effect." (Not crushed, merely ignored, Tariq Ali, London Review of Books, 22/7/10)
"Israeli and Greek leaders discussed expanding military ties on Tuesday including sharing military know-how and holding joint war games, officials said. Israel has been keen to expand ties with Greece as its relations with Turkey - another strategic Mediterranean partner - soured since an Israeli raid on a Turkish-backed aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip in May. As he wrapped up his two-day trip to Greece, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - the highest ranking Israeli to visit the country - said the two nations were 'opening a new chapter'." (Israel & Greece to expand military ties, Reuters, 17/8/10)
"The Israeli head of a labor recruiting company accused of exploiting 400 workers from Thailand and forcing them to work on US farms is under arrest and pleading not guilty. Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower Inc. CEO Mordechai Orian surrendered Friday in Honolulu... The FBI says it is the largest human-trafficking case ever charged in US history." (LA: Israeli charged with human trafficking, AP/Ynet, 4/9/10)
"First, Israel will beef up Russia's robotic air force. Down the road, perhaps, Vladimir Putin may return the favor by equipping Israeli drones with Russian laser tech. On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his Russian counterpart... signed a first-of-its kind military agreement between the two countries. It's the latest step towards cooperation for two countries that have traditionally been at each other's throats. In 2009, Moscow bought a dozen Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles... That was after Georgia relied on Israeli spy drones during the South Ossetia War. Now, Russian officials say, Jerusalem and Moscow have agreed to a second, $100 million deal for another 36 drones. " (Israel, Russia in drone deal: Laser tech next? Noah Shachtman, wired.com, 7/9/10)
"Five doctors from South Africa's health group Netcare have been charged for allegedly participating in an international kidney trading syndicate. Netcare's hospital in Durban allegedly conducted more than 100 operations in 2001-03 in which poor Brazilians and Romanians were paid to donate kidneys to wealthy Israelis." (Charges on South Africa 'kidney trafficking syndicate', bbc.co.uk, 16/9/10)
"Colombian Congress asked the government to make another attempt to have Israeli mercenary Yair Klein extradited from Russia to Colombia... 'It is urgent that the Israeli mercenary face [Colombian] justice for his multiple crimes committed in the 1980s', [Congressman Ivan] Cepada said. He added that trying Klein will 'ensure the right to truth for victims of crimes against humanity committed by paramilitary groups'. Colombia has previously requested that Klein be extradited to the South American country, where he is accused of creating training camps for private armies that worked for drug lords, including the infamous Pablo Escobar. These groups later developed Colombia's right-wing paramilitary groups. Colombia's request was denied in April, with the European Court citing human rights concerns as the reason Klein would not be delivered to Colombian authorities. The former Israeli army lieutenant colonel was convicted in absentia by a Colombian court in 2001 for training illegal armed groups in the 1980s." (Congress requests extradition of Israeli mercenary, Teresa Welsh, colombiareports.com, 23/9/100
"A computer worm that targets industrial and factory systems is almost certainly the work of a national government agency, say security experts who warn it could be near-impossible to identify the culprit. There has been speculation that the target of the virus was Iran's controversial Bushehr nuclear power plant and that it was created by Israeli hackers. The Stuxnet computer worm, which has been described as one of the 'most refined pieces of malware ever discovered', has been most active in Iran according to security firm Symantec." (State-backed cyber attack targets Iran, Josh Halliday, Guardian/Age, 26/9/10)
"An ugly anti-Muslim chauvinism accompanies India's violence. It has been open season on Muslims since 9/11, when the liberation struggle in Kashmir was conveniently subsumed under the war on terror and Israeli military officers were invited to visit Akhnur military base in the province and advise on counter-terrorism measures. The website India Defence noted in September 2008 that 'Maj-Gen Avi Mizrahi paid an unscheduled visit to the state of Kashmir last week to get an up-close look at the challenges the Indian military faces in its fight against Islamic insurgents. Mizrahi was in India for 3 days of meetings with the country's military brass and to discuss a plan the IDF is drafting for Israeli commandos to train Indian counterterror forces'. Their advice was straightforward: do as we do in Palestine and buy our weapons. In the 6 years since 2002 New Delhi had purchased $5 billion-worth of weaponry from the Israelis, to good effect." (Not crushed, merely ignored, Tariq Ali, London Review of Books, 22/7/10)
"Israeli and Greek leaders discussed expanding military ties on Tuesday including sharing military know-how and holding joint war games, officials said. Israel has been keen to expand ties with Greece as its relations with Turkey - another strategic Mediterranean partner - soured since an Israeli raid on a Turkish-backed aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip in May. As he wrapped up his two-day trip to Greece, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - the highest ranking Israeli to visit the country - said the two nations were 'opening a new chapter'." (Israel & Greece to expand military ties, Reuters, 17/8/10)
"The Israeli head of a labor recruiting company accused of exploiting 400 workers from Thailand and forcing them to work on US farms is under arrest and pleading not guilty. Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower Inc. CEO Mordechai Orian surrendered Friday in Honolulu... The FBI says it is the largest human-trafficking case ever charged in US history." (LA: Israeli charged with human trafficking, AP/Ynet, 4/9/10)
"First, Israel will beef up Russia's robotic air force. Down the road, perhaps, Vladimir Putin may return the favor by equipping Israeli drones with Russian laser tech. On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his Russian counterpart... signed a first-of-its kind military agreement between the two countries. It's the latest step towards cooperation for two countries that have traditionally been at each other's throats. In 2009, Moscow bought a dozen Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles... That was after Georgia relied on Israeli spy drones during the South Ossetia War. Now, Russian officials say, Jerusalem and Moscow have agreed to a second, $100 million deal for another 36 drones. " (Israel, Russia in drone deal: Laser tech next? Noah Shachtman, wired.com, 7/9/10)
"Five doctors from South Africa's health group Netcare have been charged for allegedly participating in an international kidney trading syndicate. Netcare's hospital in Durban allegedly conducted more than 100 operations in 2001-03 in which poor Brazilians and Romanians were paid to donate kidneys to wealthy Israelis." (Charges on South Africa 'kidney trafficking syndicate', bbc.co.uk, 16/9/10)
"Colombian Congress asked the government to make another attempt to have Israeli mercenary Yair Klein extradited from Russia to Colombia... 'It is urgent that the Israeli mercenary face [Colombian] justice for his multiple crimes committed in the 1980s', [Congressman Ivan] Cepada said. He added that trying Klein will 'ensure the right to truth for victims of crimes against humanity committed by paramilitary groups'. Colombia has previously requested that Klein be extradited to the South American country, where he is accused of creating training camps for private armies that worked for drug lords, including the infamous Pablo Escobar. These groups later developed Colombia's right-wing paramilitary groups. Colombia's request was denied in April, with the European Court citing human rights concerns as the reason Klein would not be delivered to Colombian authorities. The former Israeli army lieutenant colonel was convicted in absentia by a Colombian court in 2001 for training illegal armed groups in the 1980s." (Congress requests extradition of Israeli mercenary, Teresa Welsh, colombiareports.com, 23/9/100
"A computer worm that targets industrial and factory systems is almost certainly the work of a national government agency, say security experts who warn it could be near-impossible to identify the culprit. There has been speculation that the target of the virus was Iran's controversial Bushehr nuclear power plant and that it was created by Israeli hackers. The Stuxnet computer worm, which has been described as one of the 'most refined pieces of malware ever discovered', has been most active in Iran according to security firm Symantec." (State-backed cyber attack targets Iran, Josh Halliday, Guardian/Age, 26/9/10)
Friday, August 6, 2010
Round Round Get Around... 2
They get around:
"In Israel, 1,000-3,000 women are sold annually, all for the sex industry... N., from Ukraine... explains why women don't run away. 'We all dreamt of escaping, but they even managed to steal the dream from us after someone did leave. A week after she disappeared, her family's home in Moldova was firebombed'." (A living hell, Miri Chason, ynetnews.com, 18/3/05)
"It is a sad truth that with the exception of a few civilian enterprises in agriculture, communications, infrastructure and diamonds, almost all Israeli activity on the African continent is related to weapons exports. 'The ugly Israeli' in the guise of the arms dealer (mostly former intelligence and military officials) who promotes weapons sales on behalf of Israeli military industries, with the backing of the defense establishment, have given Israel a bad name world-wide. Israelis have been involved in civil wars (in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast) and in aiding dictatorial regimes such as in Equatorial Guinea and the two Congo republics. A case in point is the deal concluded recently between Israel Shipyards and the Nigerian defense ministry, for the manufacture and delivery of two Shaldag patrol boats... The boats and intelligence equipment are intended for the use of Nigerian forces against rebels in the Niger River Delta region." (Israeli arms dealers join Lieberman's entourage to Africa, Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 6/8/09)
"Use of Israeli-made light arms by militants against security forces in Waziristan has raised several questions amongst many recently." (Militants' possession of Israeli arms raises questions, Kaswar Klasra, The Nation, 17/11/09)
"Israel is aiding an exiled Arab sheikh who is vying to seize control of a strategically important Gulf emirate only 40 miles from Iran. The Israeli ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, has met Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr al-Qasimi, the exiled crown prince of Ras al-Khaimeh (RAK), who asked him to help with his campaign to oust the leadership of the northernmost state in the United Arab Emirates." (Israel linked to exiled sheikh's bid for 'coup' in Gulf emirate of RAK, Robert Booth, guardian.co.uk, 28/7/10)
"In Israel, 1,000-3,000 women are sold annually, all for the sex industry... N., from Ukraine... explains why women don't run away. 'We all dreamt of escaping, but they even managed to steal the dream from us after someone did leave. A week after she disappeared, her family's home in Moldova was firebombed'." (A living hell, Miri Chason, ynetnews.com, 18/3/05)
"It is a sad truth that with the exception of a few civilian enterprises in agriculture, communications, infrastructure and diamonds, almost all Israeli activity on the African continent is related to weapons exports. 'The ugly Israeli' in the guise of the arms dealer (mostly former intelligence and military officials) who promotes weapons sales on behalf of Israeli military industries, with the backing of the defense establishment, have given Israel a bad name world-wide. Israelis have been involved in civil wars (in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast) and in aiding dictatorial regimes such as in Equatorial Guinea and the two Congo republics. A case in point is the deal concluded recently between Israel Shipyards and the Nigerian defense ministry, for the manufacture and delivery of two Shaldag patrol boats... The boats and intelligence equipment are intended for the use of Nigerian forces against rebels in the Niger River Delta region." (Israeli arms dealers join Lieberman's entourage to Africa, Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 6/8/09)
"Use of Israeli-made light arms by militants against security forces in Waziristan has raised several questions amongst many recently." (Militants' possession of Israeli arms raises questions, Kaswar Klasra, The Nation, 17/11/09)
"Israel is aiding an exiled Arab sheikh who is vying to seize control of a strategically important Gulf emirate only 40 miles from Iran. The Israeli ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, has met Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr al-Qasimi, the exiled crown prince of Ras al-Khaimeh (RAK), who asked him to help with his campaign to oust the leadership of the northernmost state in the United Arab Emirates." (Israel linked to exiled sheikh's bid for 'coup' in Gulf emirate of RAK, Robert Booth, guardian.co.uk, 28/7/10)
Friday, November 27, 2009
Mosque Busters
Follow the thread:
"Yehuda Etzion was no less colorful. A student of the Elon Shvut Yeshiva, determined and zealous in his faith, he was among the 'professional settlers' during the first years of Gush Emunim, spending long periods on the hilltops, moving constantly from one to another. Etzion did his military service as a paramilitary yeshiva soldier in combat engineering, a unit that provided him with the training in explosives that he latter used in terror group activities. He was a partner to the first settlement attempt by the Elon Moreh nucleus in Samaria, in the spring of 1974, and was among those who were forcibly evacuated while Sharon was endeavoring to protect him with his own body and instructing the evacuating soldiers to refuse to obey orders. Afterward Etzion headed the work brigade out of which the settlement of Ofra grew. During the days of Camp David he took part in demonstrations all over the country and organized protest settlements. However, the failure of the settlement attempt at Rujaib near Nablus right after the signing of the Camp David agreements led him to cut himself off from Gush Emunim and to a period of isolation and thought. Settling the land no longer looked to him like the most important course of action. He set out to seek a 'personality of spiritual stature, who would put himself at the head of an initiative that would march the Jewish people toward the fulfillment of their destiny'. The books of his relative, Shabtai Ben-Dov, and the conversations he conducted with his friend Yeshua Ben Shushan gave him ideas about the ways of accelerating the process of the Redemption... When Etzion asked... Ben-Dov whether removing the Dome of the Rock from the Temple Mount would start a dynamic of Redemption, the latter replied..., 'If you want to do a deed that will solve all of the problems of the Jewish people - do that!' Etzion and Ben Shushan turned for advice to Rabbi Zvi Yehudah Kook, the spiritual leader of Gush Emunim, and the rabbi directed them to Ariel Sharon." (Lords of the Land: The War Over Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007, Idith Zertal & Akiva Eldar, 2007, pp 81-82)
"The destruction of a mosque by Hindu radicals that led to some of the bloodiest religious riots in India since Partition was 'meticulously planned' by politicians including a former prime minister, according to a leaked report of the official investigation. The razing of the 16th-century Babri Mosque - in the northern town of Ayodhya, on December 6, 1992, by an estimated 150,000 Hindus - led to national violence in which about 2000 people died, mostly Muslims. The demolition also cemented the power base of the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power 4 years later. BJP hardliners had long claimed the mosque stood on the birthplace of Lord Rama, the Hindu warrior god, and had campaigned for a Hindu temple to be built on the site... Those [politicians] allegedly involved included former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee..." (Hindu MPs behind razing of mosque, Rhys Blakely, The Australian, 25/11/09)
"Ariel Sharon [was] the first Israeli prime minister to visit India since independence in 1947... During a dinner organised in his honour by his Indian counterpart, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on September 9, Sharon reaffirmed his government's determination to 'act against terror'. Vajpayee said: 'Our defence cooperation rests on the foundation of mutual understanding of security concerns'. The spectacular blossoming of Israeli-Indian relations owes much to their joint perceptions of 'Islamic threats' in Kashmir and in Palestine. Long fascinated by Israel, the leaders of the nationalist Hindu Indian Peoples Party (BJP) decided in 1999, after a fresh wave of bloody clashes with Kashmiri guerillas... to call on Israeli expertise... The events of September 11, 2001, further boosted that cooperation, and the Indian prime minister's national security adviser... speaking earlier this year to the American Jewish Committee in Washington, argued in favour of a central axis consisting of the United States, Israel and India that would fight terrorism together. Israel is now India's second-largest arms supplier after Russia." (Sharon & Vajpayee see eye to eye on terror, Francoise Chipaux, Guardian Weekly, 18/9/03)
"Yehuda Etzion was no less colorful. A student of the Elon Shvut Yeshiva, determined and zealous in his faith, he was among the 'professional settlers' during the first years of Gush Emunim, spending long periods on the hilltops, moving constantly from one to another. Etzion did his military service as a paramilitary yeshiva soldier in combat engineering, a unit that provided him with the training in explosives that he latter used in terror group activities. He was a partner to the first settlement attempt by the Elon Moreh nucleus in Samaria, in the spring of 1974, and was among those who were forcibly evacuated while Sharon was endeavoring to protect him with his own body and instructing the evacuating soldiers to refuse to obey orders. Afterward Etzion headed the work brigade out of which the settlement of Ofra grew. During the days of Camp David he took part in demonstrations all over the country and organized protest settlements. However, the failure of the settlement attempt at Rujaib near Nablus right after the signing of the Camp David agreements led him to cut himself off from Gush Emunim and to a period of isolation and thought. Settling the land no longer looked to him like the most important course of action. He set out to seek a 'personality of spiritual stature, who would put himself at the head of an initiative that would march the Jewish people toward the fulfillment of their destiny'. The books of his relative, Shabtai Ben-Dov, and the conversations he conducted with his friend Yeshua Ben Shushan gave him ideas about the ways of accelerating the process of the Redemption... When Etzion asked... Ben-Dov whether removing the Dome of the Rock from the Temple Mount would start a dynamic of Redemption, the latter replied..., 'If you want to do a deed that will solve all of the problems of the Jewish people - do that!' Etzion and Ben Shushan turned for advice to Rabbi Zvi Yehudah Kook, the spiritual leader of Gush Emunim, and the rabbi directed them to Ariel Sharon." (Lords of the Land: The War Over Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007, Idith Zertal & Akiva Eldar, 2007, pp 81-82)
"The destruction of a mosque by Hindu radicals that led to some of the bloodiest religious riots in India since Partition was 'meticulously planned' by politicians including a former prime minister, according to a leaked report of the official investigation. The razing of the 16th-century Babri Mosque - in the northern town of Ayodhya, on December 6, 1992, by an estimated 150,000 Hindus - led to national violence in which about 2000 people died, mostly Muslims. The demolition also cemented the power base of the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power 4 years later. BJP hardliners had long claimed the mosque stood on the birthplace of Lord Rama, the Hindu warrior god, and had campaigned for a Hindu temple to be built on the site... Those [politicians] allegedly involved included former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee..." (Hindu MPs behind razing of mosque, Rhys Blakely, The Australian, 25/11/09)
"Ariel Sharon [was] the first Israeli prime minister to visit India since independence in 1947... During a dinner organised in his honour by his Indian counterpart, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on September 9, Sharon reaffirmed his government's determination to 'act against terror'. Vajpayee said: 'Our defence cooperation rests on the foundation of mutual understanding of security concerns'. The spectacular blossoming of Israeli-Indian relations owes much to their joint perceptions of 'Islamic threats' in Kashmir and in Palestine. Long fascinated by Israel, the leaders of the nationalist Hindu Indian Peoples Party (BJP) decided in 1999, after a fresh wave of bloody clashes with Kashmiri guerillas... to call on Israeli expertise... The events of September 11, 2001, further boosted that cooperation, and the Indian prime minister's national security adviser... speaking earlier this year to the American Jewish Committee in Washington, argued in favour of a central axis consisting of the United States, Israel and India that would fight terrorism together. Israel is now India's second-largest arms supplier after Russia." (Sharon & Vajpayee see eye to eye on terror, Francoise Chipaux, Guardian Weekly, 18/9/03)
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