Chomsky on “Occupy Wall Street” and Israel Imminent Collapse

Pyramidian
Dr. Ashraf Ezzat

- U.S in vicious cycle of social & economic issues, it’s about time for some protest.

- Israel now on the way to South Africa style isolation.

- U.S backed dictators but shifted policy when they were overthrown.

- EU takes cowardly stance unwilling to oppose U.S position.

Noam Chomsky

In an interview with RT’s Marina Portnaya, prominent scholar Professor Noam Chomsky gives his take on some of the world’s political hot topics.

Chomsky vividly shares his reflections on the wall street protests and warns of an impending serious poverty and real unemployment similar to the great depression, he talks about the 2012 American presidential campaign spending and how positions in both the white house and the congress are being bought, not earned and he refers to the killing of Osama Bin Laden and how this marks a shift of American policy from Bush’s abducting and torturing whoever the CIA thought posed a threat to the U.S to Obama’s “just kill `em when you spot `em” approach regardless of the legalities overlooked in the process.

He concludes that the killing of Osama Bin Laden was done, in such a way, as to infuriate, and may be implicate the Pakistani military, something he seriously regards as extremely dangerous.

In regard to the Arab spring, Chomsky acknowledges that the U.S and its western allies did not support the Tunisian or the Egyptian revolutions; rather they opposed them, and backed the dictator till the last minute and then shifted policy when they were overthrown.

Pinning its hopes on the sole support of the US, Chomsky warns “the Zionist state would risk a collapse if that support was to be withdrawn or compromised – much like apartheid-era South Africa.” ­He recalls how South Africans felt safe to ignore a UN embargo and corporations pulling out of their country throughout the 1980s, as long as the Reagan administration continued to support them.

As soon as the US withdrew its support, the apartheid regime collapsed. “For 35 years, the US and Israel have been rejecting a political settlement that is supported virtually by the entire world.

A couple of months ago, there was a meeting of the oligarchs — people who pretty much run the economy of Israel,” Chomsky says, “and they warned the government that it better accept something like this resolution, because otherwise, Israel will be, as they put it, South Africanized: even more isolated, with boycotts, refusal to load ships, and their economy will collapse.”

Flash Mob's Major Production at Portland Apartheid Supporter 'New Seasons'

Salem-News
Tim King

I think people are eventually going to learn, the way we all learned about South Africa...

With all of the stories about terrible things taking place in the world, it is good to know that flash mobs are out there to embarrass the holy living sh*t out of retailers that want to grease their palms with blood money from Israel.

It's no secret, Israel isn't just slightly over the line in terms of human rights violations and highly documented war crimes, the Zionist government of Netanyahu is almost primeval in its treatment of human beings. The folks at New Seasons in Portland know what is going on, and their stance in support of oppressive Israeli occupation is baffling.

We learned yesterday that Israel's government may reserve their most vicious public assaults for American Jews who dare to voice support for human rights. (see: Israel's Crap Treatment of an American Jew)

Many of us actually understand that the goal of peace can never be reached under the current system. George W. Bush turned the U.S. into a nation guilty of committing Genocide. 

After all, Iraq is an unjustified conflict against a civilian population that has a lot of oil. One point five million human lives eradicated by the U.S. led forces? Just imagine how greed transcends right down to the thought that fewer people mean more resources for the nation committing the acts. Fewer human beings to disagree? I saw two types of people up close in Iraq; they were either highly compliant, or bound, hooded and subdued.

The U.S. right wing nearly proclaims the country's 'Christianity' while at the same espousing a system of religions freedom, which is supposed to exist. However President Bush compared the war on Iraq to the Crusades (two wholly unjustified extended periods of bloodshed). Then, just as now, Genocide always happens for the simple reason; because of religious hegemony and oppression.

Israel, like Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, admits that religious freedom is denied - it is written as such. By national doctrine they exist to serve the needs of only one faith, i.e. the 'Jewish State of Israel'. The same goes for the 'Islamic Republic of Afghanistan'. I wouldn't call the Afghan government Genocidal; in fact it was the scene of a Genocidal invasion and war from the former Soviet Union, which the Afghan Mujaheddin banded together and won. Unfortunately, the Afghan struggle for freedom led to destroyed ancient Buddhist statues and a near eradication of Jews. On that note, I had never looked into whether there are any Jewish people living in Afghanistan at all. Here is what Wikipedia says:

"Jews have lived in Afghanistan for at least 2,000 years, but the community has been reduced greatly because of emigration. Afghan Jewish communities now exist mostly in Israel, Pakistan and the United States. Today, it is believed that there is only one Jew, Zablon Simintov, residing in Afghanistan. He cares for a dilapidated synagogue in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, and receives aid from sympathetic Muslims and Jews around the world." (see: History of the Jews in Afghanistan - rom Wikipedia)

One guy! This is Afghanistan; America's big Middle east 'project', hearts and minds, all of that. I now wish I had gone to see that dilapidated synagogue when I was in Kabul, what a story that would have been. My question is this; if Israel had reduced the Muslim population of Palestine to a single sad broken down mosque, would it be cared for with the proceeds of sympathetic Jews? Would the Muslim running it survive a single day?

In Palestine, the backers of the Genocide are Jews, in Iraq they are Christians, in Afghanistan they are Muslims, and in Sri Lanka they are Buddhists, and good luck to you if you happen to live in one of the latter three places listed, and fail to fit in. But never assume that these terrible behaviors represent the actual religions or their people at large. Not in any case, including Northern Ireland.

Since the people of opposing religions tend to represent different cultures, at least perceptually, it is racism, and as soon as the killings begin en mass, then it is Genocide. The first defense of the Genocidal groups as I have learned in my years of writing, is to accuse the writer of being against the religion of the majority.

The people in this Portland, Oregon flash mob carry the virtues of what is right in this world, they are drawing attention to what is wrong. That is what we are supposed to do as human beings.

Israel came to power in 1948 and then attacked neighboring Arab countries in 1967 in the Six Day War and used their victory to justify a major land grab. Since then Israel has progressively encroached on the remaining Palestinian areas, forcing them to drive on separate roads, and be subjected to a different set of laws than those that govern Jews. This is what U.S. taxpayers are funding. Israel is obviously very guilty of years of violent and deadly ethnic cleansing. Background: Murdering Babies is 'Permissible' When They're Palestinian - Alison Weir Salem-News.com

Background on Israeli Occupation: The activists understand that: all of Palestine has been militarily absorbed by Israel, which didn't exist as a government until 1948. Gaza is an isolated coastal strip bordered by Israel on the east and Egypt to the south. The West Bank and Golan Heights are also Palestine, and everything else is Israel. So, you have Palestinians who live in occupied Palestine; Palestinians who live in Israel that are Israeli citizens, and Palestinians in Gaza who have been locked in an open air concentration camp for years.

Every time a person buys a Nestle product, they are funding the diesel fuel of a bulldozer that will mow down a Palestinian family home, sometimes with people inside, almost always illegally. And when they use Caterpillar construction equipment, they directly fund the destruction of Palestine's homes.

All Israeli settlement products are directly funding colonies that exist atop ancient Palestinian villages. The settlers regularly harass the native Palestinians and school kids aren't safe, families aren't safe. The settlers train with deadly weapons and fire homemade rockets into Palestinian neighborhoods. And before people start ranting about Hamas rocket attacks, remember that these rogue attacks from Gaza have killed exactly 28 Israeli people. That is terrible, nobody should have died and the deaths of the Israelis are no less significant than any others, but they are far, far fewer in comparison to Palestinian deaths at the hands of the Israelis, like more than a 100 to 1, far more.

Israel built division walls across Palestinian farmland and they shoot farmers with sniper rifles when they try to work their land, even in the legal zones. The Israeli navy regularly attacks and harasses, detain, confiscate, arrest, etc., the poor fishermen of Gaza who try to earn a meager living in restricted waters. A great writer and peace activist who was killed recently in Gaza, Vittorio Arrigoni, regularly protested the treatment of the fishermen.

And that is all just one tiny glance at the problems people have living under Israel's highly aggressive illegal 'army' called the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). 

Learn more about BDS, take part.

In a Google search just now, I saw that anti-BDS sites have high ranking. The first thing I read was, "BDS leaders want to destroy Israel and vilify Jews in the process". They're so completely full of it. Salem-News.com has an overt reputation for reporting the truth and everything else be damned. 

I can go on forever about this, instead I will let you enjoy this super cool video featuring a unique concept known as 'humanity' that is often the missing guest. 

New Seasons, you guys need to drop your products that violate BDS and if you do it we will bring the television cameras to Portland and give you substantial coverage, all on is, to show people that anything and everything is possible once the right amount of education has been applied. 

Please do the right thing. I predict that if you drop just a few of your products, that you will earn many customers for life, and those are who you need.

The Portland BDS Coalition Mobs New Seasons Grocery demanding a total Boycott of Israeli Products

Dr. Cornel West endorses BDS, supports Ethnic Studies at University of Arizona

Intifada

Following the recent direct action on the University of Arizona (UA) campus — in which an enormous mock wall was constructed to bring attention to Israel’s wall in the West Bank and the wall at the US-Mexico border — legendary intellectual and academic Dr. Cornel West formally called on the UA community to divest from corporations that profit from Israel’s illegal settlement policies and the occupation of Palestine as well as from “immigrant and indigenous suffering and youth cultural censorship in Arizona and nationwide.”

In an open letter to the UA community, including students, faculty, staff, and the administration, Dr. West stated:

“Powerful social movements such as the one that helped end South African apartheid have shown that when world governments fail to enforce the rule of law, international civil community must arise to meet the challenge of upholding fundamental human rights and securing justice. Ethnic studies youth activists and groups like Jewish Voice for Peace are doing just that. As [South African Archbishop Desmond] Tutu and many others point out in the case of the Palestinians—as well as that of Latina/o immigrants and indigenous peoples in the U.S.—the tactic of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is an effectively nonviolent means of exerting moral and economic pressures to end unjust policies, from racial profiling to repressive laws, to foreign occupation and land settlement.  Perhaps the most vulnerable right in these situations is the right of education, because of the endangered cultural future it represents.  Those in the United States and Israel who hold the levers of power and influence over such policies must be beckoned to the negotiating table so that vulnerable peoples can anticipate a peaceful future through living a just and honorable peace.”

Identifying Caterpillar and Motorola, two US corporations that have entrenched contracts with the Israeli military, Dr. West said that such companies are responsible for the “treachery targeting our youth’s future” and praised the current campaign launched by JVP to urge giant pension fund TIAA-CREF to divest from such corporations.

Connecting the struggles between Palestine and Arizona (and other immigrant communities across the US) has been a powerful movement that keeps growing more and more vocal. Especially with the shocking presence of Arizona’s anti-immigrant “Minutemen” — whose members have been given the green light by state officials to shoot-to-kill undocumented immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border — the solidarity movements bridging Palestinian and American indigenous peoples have been intensifying. Elizabeth Dake, a student and ASUA Women’s Resource Center Health and Sexuality Chair, stated in the Arizona Daily Wildcat (UA’s on-campus newspaper) on 25 April that:

“Denying education to Palestinian students and eliminating ethnic studies in Arizona are necessary steps to maintain oppressive, pro-corporate policies. The UofA currently holds contracts with Motorola, Caterpillar…which support Israeli occupation of Palestine and anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona. Divestment is the strongest statement our university can make in support for worldwide human rights. We, as members of the university community, demand that our administration end our university’s contracts with these corporations and stand up for human rights around the world and at home.”

Dr. West’s endorsement of the Palestinian-led call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) comes amidst a time of severe attacks not only against Latin American immigrants, but of Ethnic Studies programs across Arizona campuses — a move that has sparked nationwide outrage and protest from students, academics and anti-racist activists. In a joint press release, No More Deaths (No Mas Muertes) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) stated that:

West’s letter came on the heels of an Ethnic Studies youth movement that is shaking Arizona and the nation to its bones.

This past Tuesday night, when the Tucson Unified District School Board (TUSD) was to vote on a fateful measure that would effectively dismantle Ethnic Studies programs as core classes for students, the popular youth coalition UNIDOS (United Non-discriminatory Individuals Demanding Our Studies) and dozens of supporters occupied the TUSD headquarters. Minutes before the meeting was to begin, 9 UNIDOS activists rushed the Board platform and chained themselves to Board members’ chairs and dais, setting up a banner that read, “UNIDOS Presents the Youth School Board.” The Board was unable to hold their meeting and rescheduled for a later time. Asiya Mir, organizer with UNIDOS and founder of Tucson High School Students for Justice in Palestine, was one of the 9 activists who chained themselves to the board. Mir believes the TUSD board will not yield from selling out the students’ education. However, she said, “We stopped them from passing the vote tonight. For tonight, it’s a victory.”

Dr. West explained in his letter that Ethnic Studies programs:

“[are] about the quest for truth, from the standpoint of the weak and the vulnerable who are rising up to speak, to educate, to struggle and to build justice from the ground up … Bold Arizona youth who are fending off attacks on their cherished Ethnic Studies in an environment of racism and hostility; courageous Palestinian youth who aim to preserve and defend their own fragile Ethnic Studies from the violent, cultural destruction of a vicious, 44-year Israeli occupation—an occupation whose length continually represses the memory of a peaceful time … A decent education cannot be limited to tolerating youth accessing their ethnic and cultural history but must be about facilitating their right to do so, without the hindrance of state or corporate exploiters.”

West continued:

“Attacks on education are big business. Greed is amuck in Arizona and in occupied Palestine. U.S. corporations like Caterpillar and Motorola—and others especially in the prison-Industrial complex—continue to profit from the suffering of peoples who seek dignity and self-determination in Arizona. Similar corporations profit from the misery of occupied and distressed peoples in Palestine.”

$5 million lawsuit targets Jimmy Carter for ‘attacking Israel’

The Ugly Truth

WASHINGTON – Former President Jimmy Carter has become the target of a class action lawsuit over ostensibly mean things he said about Israel in his best-selling 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
 

The lawsuit, filed in New York by an Israeli firm, alleges that the book “contained numerous false and knowingly misleading statements intended to promote the author’s agenda of anti-Israel propaganda and to deceive the reading public instead of presenting accurate information as advertised.”

The five American plaintiffs, two of whom are dual citizens of the US and Israel, seek $5 million in damages over the book (which is being sold for less than $10 on Amazon) on the basis that its criticisms of Israel violated consumer protection safeguards.

The plaintiffs alleged in a press release that the 39th US president and Nobel Peace Prize winner “violated the law and, thus, harmed those who purchased the book” by unfairly “attacking Israel.”

Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said her clients’ lawsuit “will expose all the falsehoods and misrepresentations in Carter’s book and prove that his hatred of Israel has led him to commit this fraud on the public.”

Publishing company Simon & Schuster, which is also targeted in the lawsuit, dismissed it as a frivolous act and a “chilling attack on free speech that we intend to defend vigorously.”

“This lawsuit is frivolous, without merit, and is a transparent attempt by the plaintiffs, despite their contentions, to punish the author, a Nobel Peace prize winner and world-renowned statesmen, and his publisher, for writing and publishing a book with which the plaintiffs simply disagree,” Simon & Schuster spokesman Adam Rothberg told the Washington Post.

Netanyahu is turning Israel into another South Africa

Haaretz
Sefi Rachlevsky

Let us imagine Meretz founder Shulamit Aloni as prime minister of Israel. An impish fantasy for some of us. In that case, would it be reasonable to imagine Shas launching a campaign under the slogan "Only the daring will win," calling upon Aloni to gather her courage and transform Israel into a theocracy under rabbinical law? Not really.

And is it possible that in their "Zurich initiative," the leaders of the settlers would submit to Aloni a practical and detailed plan for building 500,000 apartments in the Israeli colony in the territories, with the aim of perpetuating it? This too is not really likely. And not only in Israel.

Is it possible to imagine the American right in a campaign advising President Barack Obama to gather his courage and revoke medical insurance legislation or submitting a detailed plan to him for a sweeping prohibition on abortions in the United States? Did the left in the U.S. ever suggest to President George W. Bush a plan for making the country a welfare state and did it bother to urge Nixon to embrace the peace organizations during the Vietnam War?

Even as rhetorical questions, these things look imaginary. And this, strangely and exceptionally, is exactly how the non-right in Israel has been operating for years now. In all the established democracies there is the simple awareness that the role of the alternative is to be an alternative. It has to challenge the regime and its values. Not give advice to the ruler but instead display determination to replace him. The alternative's role is to delegitimize the regime, its ways and its values, and to try to obtain a majority for a different set of values.

Only in non-democratic countries does the head of state derive his power from being perceived as impossible to replace and it seem possible only to advise him. This is the way things have looked in the Arab countries until recently. These simple things are clear to everyone in democratic systems. To everyone, that is, except the non-right in Israel. Only these people - from within what they perceive as good intentions and "responsibility" - look like eunuchs scurrying in an attempt to give advice "from within" to a regime that has chosen the opposite path.

It is not possible to understand the messianic, racist and anti-democratic right's move from the margins to dominance in the government without considering the flaccidity of the non-right in Israel and its choice of political conduct, for which there is no parallel. This strange stance has built up the power of the right in many dimensions. First of all, this depicts it as a "regime," for which there is no substitute, and all that remains is for the advisors/eunuchs to fight for closeness to its ear.

Secondly, this enables the extreme rightist ruler to move towards the "center" in the public's perception. This is how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's success came about. He is the leader of a radical and multi-faceted rightist outlook, from the incitement demonstrations before the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin to the intentional damage inflicted on the Oslo agreements and democracy - an outlook that should be locating him in a place similar to that of a politician from the fringes of the American right, beyond Sarah Palin. His image, however, has become that of someone located close to the center. Someone who will soon decide between advice from National Union MK Michael Ben Ari and advice from the 'Geneva Peace Initiative'.

There is nothing that distances the public more from the alternative than arrogance. The politically mistaken path also radiates tremendous arrogance. As though there were an "objectively" correct path, which the right and its voters in their stupidity are not managing to understand. If only we explain it well - to the appropriate person - and market a precise plan that is worthwhile to everyone, then those who are having difficulty will understand.

But having Israel return to its Declaration of Independence and establish a democratic and egalitarian state within the 1967 borders is not good for everyone. The racist and messianic world is not going to enjoy this change. Its values are the opposite.

Avoidance of the battle over values at this time is tantamount to an existential scandal. The Palestinians are getting close to a declaration of independence. Israel, with its Declaration of Independence, should be the first to support this.

It is not by mistake that Netanyahu is leading the country to the lepers' corner where South Africa used to be. For precisely the same racist values, the Declaration of Independence is being trampled in the Knesset. It's not advice whispered into the prime minister's ear that Israel needs - but rather a clear alternative that will supplant him for the sake of a democratic Israel.

Iran vs Israel: What The Media Wants You To Forget

Michael Rivero
WhatReallyHappened

The corporate media have been given their orders to throw the focus back on to Iran.

Here is a recap of what they are trying to make you forget.

1. Last Spring, Rose Gottemoeller, an assistant secretary of state and Washington's chief nuclear arms negotiator, asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel refused.

2. The United Nations passed a resolution calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to inspections. Israel refused.

3. The IAEA asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to inspections. Israel refused.

4. Iran's formal notification to the IAEA of the planned construction of the backup fuel-rod facility underscores that Iran is playing by the rules of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which Iran has signed.

5. Iran allows IAEA inspections of all its facilities.

6. Contrary to face-saving claims, it appears that the US and Israel were both caught off guard by Iran's announcement. The reasoning is simple. Had the US or Israel announced the existence of the new facility before Iran's notified the IAEA, it would have put Iran on the defensive. As it is now, the US and Israel seem to be playing catch up, casting doubt on the veracity of Israel's claims to "know" that Iran is a nuclear threat.

7. The IAEA and all 16 United States Intelligence Agencies are unanimous in agreement that Iran is not building and does not possess nuclear weapons.
 
8. In 1986, Mordachai Vanunu blew the whistle and provided photographs showing Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons factory underneath the reactor at Dimona.

9. Israel made the same accusations against Iraq that it is making against Iran, leading up to Israel's bombing of the power station at Osirik. Following the invasion of 2003, international experts examined the ruins of the power station at Osirik and found no evidence of a clandestine weapons factory in the rubble.

10. The United Nations has just released the Goldstone Report, a scathing report which accuses Israel of 37 specific war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza earlier this year. Israel has denounced the report as "Anti-Semitic (even though Judge Goldstone is himself Jewish), and the United States will block the report from being referred to the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague, thereby making the US Government an accessory after-the-fact.

11. Recently revealed documents prove not only that Israel has nuclear weapos, but actually tried to sell some to Apartheid South Africa. Who else Israel approached to sell nuclear weapons remains an unasked question.

12. In 1965, Israel stole over 200-600 pounds of weapons-grade uranium from the United States.
 
13. Declassified documents from the former South African regime prove not only that Israel has had nuclear weapons for decades, but has tried to sell them to other countries!
 
We all need to be Joe Wilson right now. We need to stand up and scream, "LIAR!" at every politician and every talking media moron that is pushing this war in Iran. And we need to keep dong it until they get the message that we will not be deceived any more.

Israel wants to send your kids off to die in Iran, and YOU are the only one that can stop them.
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