Not in our name it wasn't!

There have many rallies around the world against Israel and in support of the poor people of Gaza who have had to endure 3 weeks of constant bombardment - apart from the 18 months blockade preceding it.

It has been heartening to see the response of many Jews, both individually and collectively, in attacking Israel's actions - and not be beholden to organisations claiming to speak for their respective Jewish communities. At one rally, in Melbourne Australia, Peter Slezak, co-founder of Australia's IAJV [Independent Australian Jewish Voices], spoke clearly of how Israel's conduct ought to be viewed:

"We have a responsibility to turn our moral concern into meaningful action, because it is here, in the West, that the fate of Palestine is decided. We must find ways to counter the barrage of deceit that prevents people from understanding what is going on and reacting to it as human beings.

History is being re-written even as it happens. So, it is a lie that Israel is defending itself. There are no Palestinian F-16 jets bombing Israel. There are no Palestinian tanks in the streets of Tel-Aviv.

The assault on Gaza is not a war, but a cowardly act of terrorism."

Read the stirring and eloquent address, in full, here.

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Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives? In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t

The NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) goes on hold.....because of one non-Treaty member (Israel)

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#1 Prize for a bizarre story.....and lying!

No comment called for in this piece from CommonDreams: Another young black man: The strange sad case of 21-year-old Chavis Carter. Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas stopped him and two friends, found some marijuana, searched put Carter, then put him handcuffed behind his back into their patrol car, where they say he shot himself in the head with a gun they failed to find. The FBI is investigating. Police Chief Michael Yates, who stands behind his officers' story, says in an interview that the death is "definitely bizarre and defies logic at first glance." You think?

Mahler's Prodigal Son

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