Finkelstein Banned in Berlin: A Democracy that isn't a Democracy

Anis Hamadeh, February 18, 2010

Dr. Norman Finkelstein wrote several books in the field Israel/Palestine/Holocaust and is one of the most sagacious analysts of our time. Similar to Professor Ilan Pappe, he formulates sharp criticism in respect to past and presence of the State of Israel, and both use very rational argumentations and are reliable researchers. Especially since the mass murders in Jenin and in Gaza, these two men and many other Jews (also in Germany) speak out, because they do not want to be counted among supporters of violence by a state that arrogates to itself the right to speak and act in the name of all Jews.

As is known now, both the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation have canceled Finkelstein talks that were already scheduled in Berlin. While the foundation close to the Green party did not even bother to explain its behavior, the board of the foundation close to the Left party explained its drawback in a media info with the empty statement that such a talk would be "explosive" ("brisant").

Turkey seizes its moment By Ramzy Baroud

The assessment by veteran Israeli human-rights and political campaigner Uri Avnery of the recent Israel-Turkey diplomatic and political row - that "the relationship between Turkey and Israel will probably return to normal, if not to its former degree of warmth" - seems sensible and daring. In my view, however, it is also inaccurate.

Simply put, there is just no going back.

In a recent article entitled "Israel Must Get Used to the New Turkey", Suat Kiniklioglu, deputy chairman of external affairs for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party wrote, "Israel
 
appears to be yearning for the golden 1990s, which were the product of a very specific situation in the region. Those days are over and are unlikely to come back even if the Justice and Development Party (AKP) ends up no longer being in government."

This assessment seems more consistent with reality.

Germany's Unilateral Sanction against Itself and the Unspoken Moral of the Story - by Shirin Shafaie

by MR ZINE the monthly review
German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently claimed at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Germany has always called for transparency and cooperation with Iran, but unfortunately Iran has not responded.  Merkel also made it clear that her government will pursue unilateral economic sanctions in case China blocks an otherwise unanimous Security Council plan for more sanctions against Iran.¹
However, Jens Nagel, Managing Director of the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade (BGA), believes unilateral German sanctions against Iran to be totally incomprehensible because they will open Germany's lucrative slice of the Iranian market to Asian and European competitors.  According to BGA President Anton F. Boerner, Germany could be the biggest loser of a unilateral sanction policy against Iran because it could lead to the loss of 10,000 German jobs, in mostly medium-sized German companies, many of them family-owned businesses which depend heavily on trade with Iran. ²

******* Women Soldiers Break the Silence

by Ira Chernus            commondreams
remark substituded by lupo cattivo: the expression Israel, Israeli a.s.o.. by ******** because the same should be valid for EVERY COUNTRY

What's it like to be a woman serving in the Israeli occupation force in the West Bank? Is a woman's experience as an occupier any different than a man's? Yes indeed, say some women who have just broken their silence and offered a glimpse into the grim reality of the occupation.
"A female combat soldier needs to prove more," one explains. "A female soldier who beats up others is a serious fighter...When I arrived there was another female [who] was there before me...Everyone spoke of how impressive she is because she humiliates Arabs without any problem. That was the indicator. You have to see her, the way she humiliates, the way she slaps them, wow, she really slapped that guy."
This "impressive" woman is not a rare exception. "We discovered that the girls try to be even more violent and brutal than the boys, just to become one of the guys," says Dana Golan, director of Breaking the Silence, the ******* organization that has just released a report with testimony from some 50 ******* women who are veterans of the occupation.

Jews Against Zionism by Stephen Lendman / December 8th, 2009

They’re numerous, outspoken, and range from secular to orthodox to one group calling itself “True Torah Jews Against Zionism.”
They believe that “traditional” Jews don’t support Zionism, an ideology they call “contrary to Jewish law and beliefs and the teachings of the Holy Torah.” They say Zionism:

• advocates “a political and military end to the Jewish exile;”
• fosters “pseudo-Judaism” based on secular nationalism;
• coercively seeks “armed materialism” in place of “a Divine and Torah centered understanding;”
• endangers all Jews worldwide;
• wants to disassociate Jews and traditional Judaism from ideological Zionism; and
• calls Israel a “Zionist State,” not a Jewish one.

They:

• cite their concern for “peace and safety of all people throughout the world including those living in the Zionist state” and in Occupied Palestine;
  
  

For Israel, a reckoning

by John PIlger
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the growing boycott, disinvestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine. Based on the anti-apartheid campaign that helped bring down the racist regime in South Africa, BDS is becoming a catch-cry for freedom in countries whose governments continue to ignore the Palestinians' struggle against another form of apartheid and which Nelson Mandela has described as "the greatest moral issue of our time".
 

The farce of the climate change summit in Copenhagen affirmed a world war waged by the rich against most of humanity. It also illuminated a resistance growing perhaps as never before: an internationalism linking justice for the planet earth with universal human rights, and criminal justice for those who invade and dispossess with impunity. And the best news comes from Palestine.

Palestinian resistance to the theft of their country reached a critical moment in 2001 when Israel was identified as an apartheid state at a United Nations conference on racism in Durban, South Africa. To Nelson Mandela, justice for the Palestinians is “the greatest moral issue of our time”.