From Counter Currents Org.

By Bill Van Auken

13 January, 2010
WSWS.org

Massoud Ali Mohammadi, one of Iran’s leading nuclear scientists, was assassinated in Tehran Tuesday, just two days after the top US military commander in the region announced that the Pentagon has drawn up plans to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.....

The assassination in Tehran came just two days after the senior—and highly political—US Army general, David Petraeus, announced in a television interview that Iran’s nuclear facilities “certainly can be bombed.” Petraeus heads the US Central Command, which oversees both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. His statement signaled a significant escalation of US military threats against Iran.

In an interview with the CNN cable news network broadcast Sunday, Petraeus declared that “it would be almost literally irresponsible” if CENTCOM (Central Command) failed to draw up “plans for a whole variety of different contingencies” relating to a potential military attack on Iran......

In another indication of the military pressure that Washington is bringing to bear on Iran, President Obama has ordered a carrier strike group, led by the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower, into the Persian Gulf for a six-month deployment. The flotilla, including 6,000 sailors and Marines, four squadrons of fighter bombers and several missile cruisers and destroyers, set sail for the region on January 2.

After Afghanistan and certainly Iraq - can any logical person support the efforts of the unholy US/Zionist alliance to "cry wolf" even again? And to use their terrorism to subjugate the rights of any nation on the planet to have nuclear power?  North Korea has withstood all attacks by the US - is that because they don't have natural resources to be plundered?

Assuming that the "rag heads" (as the invincible US Marines call them) have the damned cheek to read and learn about nuclear power and its assets - does the US/Zionist alliance have even OUR imprimatur to destroy Iran's efforts for cheap clean energy - as Howard would have had us believe?

It is surely logical to assume that if the US/Zionist alliance has the power (and they have) to pre-emptively attack a sovereign nation (yet again) on the contrived basis that the nuclear power stations which this "rag-head" nation wishes, could provide cheaper clean energy - as the terrorist US/Zionists have actively claimed?  Or could it be used to be the way to nuclear weapons? Fair dinkum. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step".

If the genuine objective of the US Middle East criminals is peace - then why are they causing the wars?  To me the US is the terrorist monster of the modern age and more insidious than the Mongols or the Vandals. The ever-present Zionists are, as usual, taking advantage of the situation.

Why does Australia support the US/Zionist alliance in committing the Middle East crimes when Rudd himself wanted out of Iraq?  Does Rudd now bend to the powers of the extreme right press as did Howard before him?  Is that what politics is all about - genuflecting to the terrorists?

An old saying in the Trade Union movement is that you should not complain "until you are hurt".

The Zionist claim of “thought crime” only applies to gentiles?

God Bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

"The International Day Of Solidarity With The Palestinian People", Pretoria December 4th 1997 - Nelson Mandela:

I have come to join you today to add our own voice to the universal call for Palestinian self-determination and statehood. We would be beneath our own reason for existence as government and as a nation, if the resolution of the problems of the Middle East did not feature prominently on our agenda.

When in 1977, the United Nations passed the resolution inaugurating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, it was asserting the recognition that injustice and gross human rights violations were being perpetrated in Palestine. In the same period, the UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system.

We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.

End of quote.

All of us can read - all of us can think - all of us know right from wrong - but how many of us use this knowledge to make a profit?

The crimes being committed by the US and especially their alliance with the Zionist Occupation Forces in Palestine, are a scar on any future claims by the United States Of America to be the leader in the establisment of "freedom" - of any degree - in the entire world.

God Bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

The 85-year-old Jewish, anti-Zionist, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein is a sturdy looking woman. Her slightly hunched frame hides the determination to continue a life-long dedication to social justice.

This week in Cairo she joined close to 1,400 international delegates on the Gaza Freedom March (GFM), a project aimed at ending the suffocating blockade on Gaza. Epstein launched a hunger strike alongside about 50 others to highlight the human rights abuses in Palestine and Israeli and Egyptian collusion in the humanitarian crisis for the Strip's 1.5 million population.

GFM steering committee member Dr Haidar Eid, based in Gaza, said that the "deadly, hermitic siege" had only tightened after Israel's Operation Cast Lead in December 2008/January 2009.

Epstein told The Age that she refused to remain silent as a Jew when, "Israel was committing crimes against the Palestinian people. I often receive hate-mail from Jews over my public stance, being called a self-hating Jew and worse, but I ignore them."

Citizens from 42 countries, including America, Venezuela, Cameroon, Ireland, Australia, Britain, Japan and Libya descended on Cairo on December 27 with the hope of leaving for the Egyptian/Gaza border the following day. Organised by American peace group Code Pink, prominent delegates included leading American legal advocate Michael Ratner, European members of parliament and co-founder of the Electronic Intifada website Ali Abunimah.

The Egyptian regime blocked access for the mission, citing "security" concerns, and refused to grant entry visas to the assembled group. Cairo's position, undoubtedly backed by its masters the US and Israel, condemned most of the marchers as "hoodlums" and "criminals". In fact, many participants were the elderly and the religious and non-violent, Gandhian tactics were the central ideology.

I attended the week-long event, as a Jew, human being and journalist, and never heard any mention of incitement from the delegates. Instead, it was clear that Palestine had become a key concern for citizens across the globe, dismayed that the Western political elites continued to support Israeli aggression. The Jewish state's very legitimacy is being challenged like never before.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=9920&page=0

G'day Gus,

Since the illegal and un-democratic state, euphemistically called "Israel", which currently occupies Palestinian land, does NOT exist legally; morally or historically, then continued discussion on whether they can have this or that is irrelevant since it creates a false image of something that is like the "tooth fairy" and doesn’t exist.

But let’s be reasonable and adopt a civilized explanation.

For reasons which are now evident, the Zionist's "Jewish People’s Council” unilaterally declared the “State of Israel” at the same time as the British government’s League of Nation’s mandate expired.  So, did the Jewish citizens of the Palestine nation take over that mandate? And if so, by what authority?

Prior to then, the activities of the Jewish People’s Council was condemned as terrorism since it was totally, illegal subversive violence against the mandated authority and therefore opposed to the principles of the “United Nations” predecessor.

Bearing in mind that a significant number of these Jewish/Palestine citizens were welcomed immigrants from Russia subsequent to that country’s  revolution and on, one would not be surprised that Russia “recognized” this “declaration of independence” (from whom?) as indeed did the US - their ultimate guardian.  Palestine existed before and after the expiry of the mandate.

So let’s not mince words, in any civilized situation, that act would be so ridiculous that it would not be allowed to survive since it was in fact, an example of the inexcusable stupidity that caused and exacerbated WW’s 1 and 2.

Universal acceptance of that “rebellion” by immigrants of a certain culture to Palestine was not and should not have been accepted for any logical; legal or moral reason. Even the Palestinians who had accepted these “new citizens” were not allowed to vote on the rebellion’s acceptability.

So, what I have written is as true as general knowledge will allow and therefore, the “declaration of independence” by a certain culture in a host nation, who have become citizens of thousands of years civilization, should not be allowed to take over the land that they have been so fortunate to have been welcomed into with open arms – or even without.

Will the rest of the world take notice of this?

I just cannot stand the hypocrisy of the “powers that be”.  If the “swine flu” epidemic of the US interference in the freedom of established civilizations does not meet its “waterloo”, then climate change can be ignored.

The number of nations to whom the US owes a sincere apology builds by the year.

Think and reason – read between the lines.  While I have no axe to grind with Muslims, in fact I respect their resistance to the US/Zionist oppression; I would nevertheless vigorously oppose them if they dared to try a “Zionist unilateral declaration of independence” in my Australia.

God Bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

Israel's leader declared his country's permanent claim to parts of the West Bank on Sunday, angering Palestinians again and complicating efforts by President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy - though the same claim was also made by previous, more moderate premiers.

Timing and context lent weight to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to two Jewish settlements and his declaration that they would remain in Israel forever. He planted a tree at one of them - Maaleh Adumim, home to about 30,000 Israelis about two miles (three kilometers) from Jerusalem - a symbolic act of ownership.

"Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here. This place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel for eternity," Netanyahu proclaimed, just as envoy George Mitchell was trying to restart peace talks after a yearlong stalemate.

http://www.timesonline.com/bct_news/news_details/article/1373/2010/january/24/premier-israel-to-keep-parts-of-west-bank-forever.html

While Andrew Robb describes Prime Minister Julia Gillard's criticisms of the Greens as 'contrived', he accuses the Greens of anti-semitism.

It is NSW Greens policy to support a boycott of the state of Israel.

Senator elect Leigh Rhiannon told online opinion site New Matilda that the Greens could have campaigned better around the NSW Greens policy.

"Collectively we didn't do enough to amplify support for [a boycott] and show that this is part of an international movement," she is quoted as saying.

"This creeping anti-semitism I think is something we don't need in Australia," says Andrew Robb.

"The boycott is driven, in my view, strong ant-Israel views that are starting to emerge in parts of the community," he says.

"The fact that the Greens, not only this one Senator, but the fact that the NSW state conference of the Greens has adopted a resolution calling on a boycott - it's a very extremist position," says Andrew Robb.

meanwhile .....

Newly elected NSW Government member Chris Hartcher has reiterated his intention to hold Marrickville Council to account over its support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

Earlier this month, then shadow minister for inter governmental relations told The AJN he was "putting Marrickville Council on notice".

"I don't intend to allow councillors to waste ratepayers' money on this sort of thing if the NSW Coalition is elected to form government next month," he said at the time.

When contacted by The AJN this week, Hartcher reiterated that if he is appointed as minister, he "will move quickly on the issue of Marrickville Council".

Under Section 434 of the Local Government Act, a minister can ask councils to account for particular practices.

and from Zionist apologist, uncle rupert ....

So this is how it works when advocating for Palestinian human rights. You'll be smeared, accused of anti-Semitism and told you hate Jews. Anything to avoid discussion about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians; apartheid.

I wrote an article this week for New Matilda detailing the New South Wales Greens and its policy of backing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. A number of key figures were interviewed about the NSW election campaign, what went right and what went wrong.

Today's Murdoch Australian leads with this laughable front page non "story", essentially finding countless corporate politicians and Zionist lobby hacks to smear the NSW Greens Federal Senate member Lee Rhiannon for daring to support the "radical" BDS:

Greens leader Bob Brown is under mounting political and diplomatic pressure to pull his hard-left senator-elect Lee Rhiannon into line as she intensifies her support for a radical boycott of Israel.

Ms Rhiannon, who will take her Senate spot on July 1 when the Greens take the balance of power in the upper house, yesterday drew condemnation from Labor and the Coalition after expressing regret that the NSW Greens did not campaign harder for a boycott of Israeli goods and services at last weekend's state election.

Trade Minister Craig Emerson said last night the policy was disgusting and he feared it represented an extremism that would make its way to Canberra.

Dr Emerson told The Australian: "Confirmation by senator-elect Rhiannon of this disgusting policy is reprehensible."

He applauded voters in the inner-western Sydney seat of Marrickville, who returned erstwhile Labor deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt to parliament over Greens candidate Fiona Byrne, a supporter of an Israeli boycott.

"Good on the people of Marrickville for rejecting this Greens extremism, and I am confident that the rest of Australia will too."

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the Gillard government did not condone nor support any boycotts or sanctions against the Jewish state.

Senator Brown's office said an Israeli boycott was not Greens national policy, but Coalition figures said they were concerned Ms Rhiannon would influence the party's platform when she arrived in Canberra.

Ms Rhiannon was quoted on the online news site New Matilda as saying, in the wake of the Coalition's landslide victory in NSW, that the Greens should have spent more time building support for the global BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement, particularly among academics, Arab communities and social justice groups.

"Months before the election we needed to explain why the Greens backed BDS and we needed to work closer with our allies on BDS - academics, the Arab community and social justice movements in Sydney and Melbourne," Ms Rhiannon was quoted as saying.

"Collectively we didn't do enough to amplify support for BDS and show that this is part of an international movement."

An Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce spokesman warned yesterday that boycotts on Israeli goods could prevent access to potentially groundbreaking water-saving technology and telecommunications switches that may be picked up by the National Broadband Network.

Ms Rhiannon refused to return The Australian's calls yesterday, as did all federal Greens MPs.

Tony Abbott denounced her position, calling on Julia Gillard to distance Labor from Ms Rhiannon's views. "The Coalition completely rejects any campaign designed to weaken Israel and can't understand why a supposed environmental party are involved in this nonsense," the Opposition Leader told The Australian.

"Given the Greens are Labor's political bedfellows, I call on the Prime Minister to pull her alliance partner into line."

Other Liberal MPs expressed concern that Ms Rhiannon's position would infect the federal Greens platform and contaminate government policy.

"I am particularly concerned that Lee Rhiannon, who is going to become a member of the governing Labor/Greens alliance federally, is going to bring those views into this alliance," Liberal senator Mitch Fifield told The Australian.

But Senator Fifield also dismissed Dr Emerson's attack on the Greens in light of the deal signed by Ms Gillard with Senator Brown last September to secure minority government. "The fact that Labor is prepared to be in a governing alliance with the Greens makes their denunciation of the (NSW) Greens' Israel boycott ring a little hollow," he said.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said Ms Rhiannon's comments were "extreme", "highly prejudicial" and "deeply troubling".

She said that, in light of Ms Rhiannon's views, the Prime Minister needed to guarantee the Greens would not influence her government's foreign policy.

"Given that the Greens do not support our alliance with the US either, the Prime Minister must guarantee the Greens will not influence Labor's foreign policy in the same way as they have influenced Labor's policy on a carbon tax," Ms Bishop said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Rudd said last night: "Australia is firmly committed to Israel's security and fully recognises the significant security challenges Israel faces.

"The Australian government has consistently supported a negotiated two-state solution to the Middle East peace process where Israel and a future Palestinian state live side by side in peace and security."

Ms Rhiannon, who entered the NSW Legislative Council in March 1999 and is a former member of the Socialist Party of Australia, is one of four new Greens senators who will travel to Canberra in July.

They will take the number of Greens in the upper house to nine, securing the party the balance of power and greater influence over Labor's legislative agenda.

It is official Greens policy to "support the rights of the Palestinian peoples to statehood through the creation of a viable state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel, based on the pre-1967 borders and the right of all peoples in the region to peace".

In December, however, delegates from local NSW Greens groups unanimously endorsed a series of military, trade and services boycotts of Israel and the international BDS movement as a way of supporting Palestinian self-determination.

The proposal passed by the NSW Greens state council and, in a December 7 media release, called upon all Australians and "the Australian government to boycott Israeli goods, trading and military arrangements, and sporting, cultural and academic events as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel's occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory".

At the time, Ms Rhiannon said the Greens were hopeful their "backing of the BDS movement will win more Australian support for this important cause".

An Israeli embassy spokeswoman urged the Greens to engage in dialogue rather than support boycotts, suggesting such a path would embolden radicals.

"Those who are behind the policy of singling out Israel through a boycott are clearly showing their true colours," she said. "The whole boycott program strengthens the radicals in a lot of ways.

"A lot of people who support the boycotts have never read the BDS charter which states Israel should be just a one-state country.

"It does not support negotiations at all."

Jeremy Jones, the director of international affairs with the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council, said the more Ms Rhiannon publicised her views on the BDS, the more it would harm the Greens.

"It is an extreme policy and it goes against any purported interest in reconciliation, peace or justice," Mr Jones said. "The only possible impact (of a BDS) is to strengthen the hand of extremists on all sides of the equation."

Mr Jones said he did not believe the federal Greens would accept a BDS as federal policy and suggested the policy had sparked a very strong negative reaction among the public in inner-city seats such as Marrickville.

This is "journalism", Murdoch style. Find some opportunistic people to talk about anything except what Israel is doing in Palestine. It hasn't worked globally and it won't work here but this won't stop lazy reporters making a story out of nothing. Of course, the fact that the paper didn't mention that the New Matilda article from which they quote was written by me is simply the ethics-free zone in operation globally in the Murdoch empire.

Unfortunately, Greens leader Bob Brown has criticised Rhiannon, the sign of a leader who doesn't really understand the Israel/Palestine conflict and is afraid to take on the Zionist lobby:

Greens leader Bob Brown has carpeted future Senate colleague Lee Rhiannon for her anti-Israel stance, telling her the policy was a mistake that cost the party votes in the NSW state election.

He has also accused Julia Gillard of insulting Australians by suggesting Greens voters do not have a love of family or their nation.

Senator Brown said the Israel boycott proposal was against his advice and had alienated NSW voters when the party should have been focusing on bread-and-butter issues.

He had conveyed his views to Greens senator-elect Ms Rhiannon in a "robust" phone call this morning.

Senator Brown said the federal Greens in no way endorsed the policy.

"The NSW Greens have taken to having their own shade of foreign policy," Senator Brown said.

"It was a mistake. I differ from Lee on that, and so do the other components of the NSW Greens, who handled so badly that part of the campaign against my advice.

"I reiterate that the policy she and the NSW Greens had in the run to the NSW election was wrong emphasis.

"NSW voters wanted to hear about issues affecting them day-to-day, it's one that has been rejected by the Australian Greens."

The Victorian Greens also show themselves to be gutless in the face of Zionist pressure:

The Victorian Greens distanced themselves from their NSW counterparts' controversial Israel boycott proposal today as a prominent Jewish federal MP attacked the policy as "absolutely extreme".

Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the party's state branch did not support the NSW branch's BDS policy, which advocates a boycott, divestment and sanctions targeting Israel.

"We never have (considered it), it's never even been put to any forum in Victoria as far as I am aware,' he said of the policy, championed by NSW Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon.

Mr Barber said he was too far removed to say whether the BDS policy had hurt the party's bid for the Sydney inner-city seats of Marrickville and Balmain.

"I'm just a state MP trying to get the trains running," he said.

Labor's Mark Dreyfus, the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, said he was concerned at Ms Rhiannon's views and their potential to damage Australian-Israeli relations.

"I'm concerned that we've got a senator coming in on the 1st of July who seems to have absolutely extreme views on Israel, that I'm confident that the vast majority of Australians don't share," he told ABC radio in Melbourne.

"She's actually calling, as are her state Greens party colleagues in NSW, for a boycott of the state of Israel, when we have a warm, longstanding friendship with the state of Israel.

"We have trade relations with Israel and we have very fruitful academic exchanges with the state of Israel.

"Australia would be the poorer if we were, for no reason at all, to cut off relations with the state of Israel - which is ridiculously what Lee Rhiannon is calling for."

Finally - and all courtesy of the Australian, that bastion of corporate "journalism" - another Israeli spokesman says the boycott is problematic:

Israeli trade commissioner Ehud Gonen has warned that the Greens-dominated Marrickville Council's policy of boycotting Israeli goods could contravene international trade rules that Australia has signed up to.

Mr Gonen told The Australian Online that, under the World Trade Organisation charter, Australia was forbidden from discriminating against goods imported from another member.

Marrickville Council in Sydney's inner west passed a motion in December pledging to effectively sever all commercial, sporting, cultural, academic and government links with Israel.

The council undertook to identify links with any organisations or companies that "support or profit from the Israeli military occupation of Palestine", and then sever them.

But Mr Gonen said today that Australia and Israel were both members of the WTO and signatories to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

"It's not permitted within the WTO/GATT charter for elected bodies, including local governments, to do any boycott," he said.

"Of course we know that Australia will respect its obligation. We think this boycott is illegal and it's not going to happen.

"I personally take this, from a symbolic point of view, as very negative. But practically it makes no sense."

So what does all this really mean? That the establishment is scared. Worried that BDS will take off in Australia like it has globally. Concerned that people will start looking more closely at a Zionist state that happily occupies Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. And where are the progressive Jews, unions and backers of Palestine speaking out in support of BDS? They need to raise their voices. Now.

Bottom line? This smear job will fail. And Israel will become increasingly internationally isolated. As it deserves. When you occupy another people for decades, you must pay a price. BDS is one answer.

These bullying tactics are even turning off many young Jews, something I hear all the time. For example, here's Manny Waks, Zionist Australian, writing yesterday on J Wire:

Young Jews are regrettably alienated by prevailing approaches to the advocacy of Israel. I am unequivocally supportive of Israel-my birthplace and spiritual homeland-and at the age of 18 I travelled to Israel to serve in the Golani Brigade. I have also published widely in support of Israel and accept its centrality in the Jewish consciousness. However, and tragically, many young Jews are at best indifferent, and at worst antagonistic towards Israel.

In his 2010 article, The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment, Peter Beinart notes that, 'In recent years, several studies have revealed, in the words of Steven Cohen of Hebrew Union College and Ari Kelman of the University of California at Davis, that "non-Orthodox younger Jews, on the whole, feel much less attached to Israel than their elders," with many professing "a near-total absence of positive feelings."' Inevitably, many within the younger demographic are alienated by the uncritical alignment with Israel of our structured communal roof bodies. National and State communal roof bodies should focus largely on matters that concern the local Jewish community. Advocacy of Israel should instead be the province of those organisations who unambiguously have this mandate. This would, to some extent, prevent the alienation of those Jews who do not have a favourable view of Israel.

We'll be helping those splits grow even wider.

but others strike back .....

Long-time Australian human rights activist Pip Hinman writes in today's ABC Unleashed of the stakes:

A vicious smear campaign against the Greens candidate for Marrickville Fiona Byrne in the NSW state election reveals just how worried the powers-that-be are about the prospect of the NSW Greens winning a lower house seat.

This smear campaign focussed almost exclusively on the Greens pro-Palestine stand, in particular its support (along with ALP councillors) for Marrickville council's decision to sign on to the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

In the context of an election rout of Labor, and a shoe-in for the Coalition, the Greens had a real chance in two lower house seats.

Labor opted to conduct the scare campaign over the Marrickville Council BDS motion (that the Greens and Labour councillors had all supported). It was game on. The Greens were unprepared, and the result is history.

There was a de facto anti-Green alliance of both major parties, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and the Australian Jewish New, a powerful alliance that ran a slanderous campaign asserting that the Greens are anti-Israel (or anti-Semitic) because they support BDS and Palestinian rights.

The anti-BDS and anti-Greens campaign in Marrickville - which reached fever pitch in the last two weeks of the election campaign - included the outrageous accusation that the Greens are "fascists" and "Nazis". Greens billboards in the Marrickville electorate were plastered with swastikas, as well as racist and sexist abuse.

The attempt to slur those who criticise Israel's treatment of Palestinians as fascists - or supporters of the Nazi's attempts to wipe out the Jewish population in Eastern and Central Europe during the World War II - is a crude and desperate attempt to silence critics.

While some anti-BDS campaigners would disagree with this sort of slanderous tactic, they nevertheless equate criticism of Israel's policies with a form of anti-Semitism.

Antony Loewenstein