"Iran MPs draft bill on 60% uranium enrichment" (PressTV)

Funny that I saw this first at PressTV:

Iranian lawmakers have drafted a bill that would oblige the government to produce 60-percent enriched uranium in line with the requirements of the nation’s civilian nuclear program.

Signed by 100 legislators, the draft was presented to the Presiding Board of Majlis on Wednesday.

“If the bill is approved, the government will be obliged to complete nuclear infrastructure at Fordo and Natanz [facilities] if sanctions [against Iran] are ratcheted up, new sanctions are imposed, the country’s nuclear rights are violated and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s peaceful nuclear rights are ignored by members of P5+1,” Iranian lawmaker Seyyed Mehdi Mousavinejad said on Wednesday.

The bill would oblige the government to put the Arak heavy water reactor into operation and enrich uranium to the 60-percent purity level in order to provide fuel for submarine engines if the sanctions are tightened and Iran’s nuclear rights are ignored, the MP underscored.

The draft bill comes as key members of the US Congress introduced a bill last week, which proposes boycotting Iranian oil exports within a year and the blacklisting of Iran's mining, engineering and construction industries.

The Senate bill also calls for "diplomatic, military and economic support" for Israel should Tel Aviv decide to launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Moreover, the administration of US President Barack Obama on December 12 issued new sanctions against more than a dozen companies and individuals for “providing support for” Iran’s nuclear energy program.

The US Treasury Department said it was freezing assets and banning transactions of entities that attempt to evade the sanctions against Iran.

This is while under a nuclear agreement reached in Geneva last month, the United States should not impose fresh economic sanctions against Iran over the next six months.

Meanwhile, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said on December 23 that Washington seeks to include "triggers" in any final nuclear deal with Iran to automatically re-impose sanctions if Tehran violates the terms of the agreement.

"We will not construct a deal or accept a deal in which we cannot verify exactly what they are doing. And if they're caught, we will ensure that the pressure is re-imposed on them," Rice said on CBS news program "60 Minutes."

"Activists in Fisheries Visit Statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il"

Now that the nasty business of the well-deserved demise of Traitor Jang Song Thaek is starting to fade from memory, things can get back to, um, normal:

The participants in the meeting of activists in fisheries of the Korean People's Army Sunday laid a floral basket before the statues of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il in the compound of the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces.

They lined up in front of the statues with deep reverence for the great men of Mt. Paektu before placing the floral basket and bouquets before the statues.

They made a bow to the statues with great pride of achieving signal successes in carrying out the behests of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and the policy of the Workers' Party of Korea by conducting a dynamic fishing drive as intended by supreme leader Kim Jong Un.

"Traitor Jang Song Thaek Executed"

Someone from the list of Commie Goyim just got executed. Some of the news coverage noted the vituperative language of this press release, but it isn't that remarkable. The language routinely used to refer to whoever is in power in South Korea at any given time is quite similar:

Upon hearing the report on the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, the service personnel and people throughout the country broke into angry shouts that a stern judgment of the revolution should be meted out to the anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional elements. Against the backdrop of these shouts rocking the country, a special military tribunal of the DPRK Ministry of State Security was held on December 12 against traitor for all ages Jang Song Thaek.

The accused Jang brought together undesirable forces and formed a faction as the boss of a modern day factional group for a long time and thus committed such hideous crime as attempting to overthrow the state by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a wild ambition to grab the supreme power of our party and state.

The tribunal examined Jang's crimes.

All the crimes committed by the accused were proved in the course of hearing and were admitted by him.

A decision of the special military tribunal of the Ministry of State Security of the DPRK was read out at the trial.

Every sentence of the decision served as sledge-hammer blow brought down by our angry service personnel and people on the head of Jang, an anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional element and despicable political careerist and trickster.

The accused is a traitor to the nation for all ages who perpetrated anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts in a bid to overthrow the leadership of our party and state and the socialist system.

Jang was appointed to responsible posts of the party and state thanks to the deep political trust of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il and received benevolence from them more than any others from long ago.

He held higher posts than before and received deeper trust from supreme leader Kim Jong Un, in particular.

The political trust and benevolence shown by the peerlessly great men of Mt. Paektu were something he hardly deserved.

It is an elementary obligation of a human being to repay trust with sense of obligation and benevolence with loyalty.

However, despicable human scum Jang, who was worse than a dog, perpetrated thrice-cursed acts of treachery in betrayal of such profound trust and warmest paternal love shown by the party and the leader for him.

From long ago, Jang had a dirty political ambition. He dared not raise his head when Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were alive. But, reading their faces, Jang had an axe to grind and involved himself in double-dealing. He began revealing his true colors, thinking that it was just the time for him to realize his wild ambition in the period of historic turn when the generation of the revolution was replaced.

Jang committed such an unpardonable thrice-cursed treason as overtly and covertly standing in the way of settling the issue of succession to the leadership with an axe to grind when a very important issue was under discussion to hold respected Kim Jong Un in high esteem as the only successor to Kim Jong Il in reflection of the unanimous desire and will of the entire party and army and all people.

When his cunning move proved futile and the decision that Kim Jong Un was elected vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea at the Third Conference of the WPK in reflection of the unanimous will of all party members, service personnel and people was proclaimed, making all participants break into enthusiastic cheers that shook the conference hall, he behaved so arrogantly and insolently as unwillingly standing up from his seat and half-heartedly clapping, touching off towering resentment of our service personnel and people. [...]

And rightly so!

Meet the new Iran, same as the old Iran--PressTV makes David Duke look subtle

You may recall that one of the Ahmadinejad pronouncements reported last year in English at the website of IRNA, Iran's most official news agency, is that somebody called "Zionists" "have been inflicting very heavy damage and suffering on the whole humanity for over two thousand years." That sort of thinking lives on in an article that appeared today at PressTV under the title "World War Z and wrath of Netanyahu":

[...] There are not, or rather-should not be-any "surprises" associated with the rise of Jewish power, the creation of the "Jewish state" and the present World War Z that mankind faces these days. Indeed, everything that has taken place, particularly over the course of the last century viz-a-viz the wars, the bloodshed and the nearly complete meltdown of established world order was/is as predictable as the proverbial slaughter at the henhouse after the jackals were put in charge of security.

The sad truth is that everything mankind needs to know about the deadly, radioactive nature of this political, social and cultural "element" on the periodic table of human ideas has been sitting there, screaming out to civilized man for literally thousands of years. Jewish power and violence, Jewish power and genocide, Jewish power and economic despoliation, Jewish power and corruption, none of this began in 1948 with the creation of Israel. It did not begin in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve, as some like to imagine.

It did not even begin with the writing of a literary abomination known as the Babylonian Talmud.

It--the criminal, barbaric nature of Jewish power--has been there from the beginning, congenital from its birth, the moment a penniless nomad begins hearing voices in his head promising him kingdoms, riches and power beyond his wildest dreams, accompanied by the moral justification for doing whatever needs to be done in attaining these items, including lying, genocide, and theft. [...]

That's a fairly small part of a long article. It all sounds as Nazi as the above excerpt does. Anyone with a serious interest in the Middle East should read it all.

"Arafat widow to challenge French forensic probe" (Ma'an)

This story has ceased to be useful to the Mondoweiss agenda, but it keeps getting better for irony fans:

The widow of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat pledged Friday to challenge a French inquiry which found his death to have been from natural causes, rather than poison as Palestinians suspect.

"A request for further expert opinion will be submitted in the next few days to investigating judges in (the Paris suburb of) Nanterre," Suha Arafat's French lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sur told AFP.

Suha Arafat lodged a murder complaint in Nanterre in July last year after an Al-Jazeera television documentary linked Arafat's 2004 death at a military hospital near Paris to polonium poisoning.

"After consultations with many legal experts and with the Swiss institute which examined samples from the martyr Arafat's remains, and having compared the French and Swiss reports, we have decided to turn to the French legal system to challenge the findings in the French medical report," she told AFP by phone.

How do you use a "legal system" to "challenge" scientific conclusions? This should be interesting for some time to come although many of the people who saw articles such as this one will miss out on the fun.

"President Assad: Achieving N. Rights Result of Iranians’ Resistance" (Fars News)

Assad is pleased.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a phone talk with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani underlined that Tehran’s resistance against the greediness of the world powers led to the achievement of the country’s nuclear rights during the recent meeting in Geneva.

According to Syrian TV, President Assad told his Iranian counterpart that Iran’s diplomatic success in talks with the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) in Geneva was because of the Iranians’ resistance in achieving their rights.

He added the success also shows the strong position of the Iranian leadership in making independent decisions.

Iran and the G5+1 reached a final deal on Sunday morning after days of hard work and intensive negotiations.

After endorsing the agreement with the world powers, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif underlined that the six world powers have recognized Iran’s enrichment program. [...]

"Palestinians Visit Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum" (Korean News)

O great day:

Ismail Ahmed Mohamed Hasan, Palestinian ambassador to the DPRK, and his embassy officials visited the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum Wednesday on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the proclamation of the State of Palestine and on the Day of the World Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

They paid tribute to the statue of President Kim Il Sung waving back to the cheering people at the square where the military parade was held to celebrate the war victory.

They paid homage to the sculpture "Victory" in the Monument to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War in memory of the officers and men of the heroic Korean People's Army.

Being briefed on the fact that the KPA and the people of the DPRK defeated the U.S. imperialists for the first time in history under the leadership of Generalissimo Kim Il Sung, they looked round the museum.

The ambassador noted that through the visit he came to know better about the feats the President performed by leading the war to victory and the indomitable fighting spirit of the Korean people.

"IRGC Commander: West's Change of Tone Resulted from Iran's Success in 20% Enrichment" (Fars)

They're in a gloating mood:

Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami said the western states changed their behavior towards Iran’s nuclear program from an imperative mood to a begging mood after Tehran gained access to above 20 percent uranium enrichment capability.

“Before achieving the 20 percent uranium enrichment, the Europeans and representatives of the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) were telling our (negotiating) team proudly and arrogantly that we did not have the technology and capability to enrich uranium to higher levels, and advised us that we would be better off if we gave up enrichment to break the sanctions instead of insisting on this technology,” General Salami told FNA on Tuesday.

The IRGC lieutenant commander said the western countries sometimes said that Iran was not in a position to have access to nuclear technology and that this issue only belonged to the developed world and even if Iran could gain access to it, it still wouldn't be able to turn and establish it in the form of a technology.

“However, when the martyred nuclear scientist Shahriyari gave us access to 20 percent enrichment and they realized this and martyred him, all their imperative, bold and boastful talks changed into request and begging,” General Salami said.

Salami pointed to the Sunday deal between Iran and the six world powers and said "this is just the beginning of a process. We think about a comprehensive agreement and believe that they should lift all sanctions in lieu of the flexibility we have displayed, otherwise this path is reversible". [...]

Ain't understanding mellow?

"Iran rejects ‘one-sided’ US Fact Sheet on N-deal" (PressTV)

Hmmmmm.

Iran Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham says the "Fact Sheet" released by the White House over the nuclear deal between Tehran and the six major world powers is a one-sided interpretation of the agreement reached in Geneva.

“What was released on the White House website as the Fact Sheet was a one-sided interpretation of the text agreed on in Geneva and some descriptions and terms in this sheet are inconsistent with the text of the Joint Action Plan,” Afkham said on Tuesday.

Following the announcement of the Iran-Sextet agreement, titled the Joint Action Plan, the White House released a fact sheet explaining the deal and the US efforts in the negotiations.

“Unfortunately, certain media outlets have translated and released this fact sheet, which is contrary to the reality, as the text of the Geneva agreement,” she added.

After more than four days of intense negotiations, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the US, Britain, Russia, France and China -- plus Germany, sealed an interim deal in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 24. The agreement aims to pave the way for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program.

Afkham further noted that the outcome of the agreements reached during the Geneva talks are incorporated in the four-page text of the Joint Action Plan.

“Every word and sentence of this text has been compiled based on the considerations of all sides and one of the reasons behind the prolongation of these negotiations was the care put into choosing and inserting words in the text of the Joint Action Plan, particularly by the negotiating delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian spokesperson pointed out.

In exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the six world powers have agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Iran over the next six months.

According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the deal allows Iran to continue its activities at Arak, Fordow and Natanz facilities. The agreement also stipulates that no additional sanctions will be imposed on Tehran within the next six months over its nuclear energy program.

Iran's PressTV explains that all recent history is the unfolding of an evil plan created by Bernard Lewis

Kevin Barrett seems to be winning the craziness contest among all the writers for Veterans Today featured in the Iranian Press. I think he'll be leading the pack for some time to come, don't you?

[...] When the Soviet Empire collapsed in 1990, the global elite needed a new enemy to justify their wars, oppression, and plunder. Zionist extremist Bernard Lewis, an advisor to the US, UK, and Israeli governments, proposed a solution: A “Clash of Civilizations” targeting the Islamic world. With communists gone, Muslims would serve as the new global bogeyman.

Lewis wrote a strategy paper for Benjamin Netanyahu entitled “Terrorism: How the West Can Win.” As the title suggests, that paper covertly proposed that since Muslims were not prone to terrorism, the West should commit massive acts of false-flag terrorism and falsely blame those crimes on Muslims. That way Islam and Muslims could be smeared as “terrorists,” and “the West” (meaning Israel and the military-industrial complex) could “win.”

The Western elite took Lewis's advice and engineered a series of false-flag terror attacks blamed on Muslims, beginning with the FBI's bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. When the half-empty, money-hemorrhaging, condemned-for-asbestos Twin Towers were over-insured and then blown up in 2001 in a made-for-television public relations spectacular, the War on Islam - euphemistically referred to as the “war on terror” - was officially launched. One could argue that 9/11 was just another typical Madison Avenue product-launch, with the “war on terror” being the product ... except that in this case the public relations gimmick included the murder of almost 3,000 innocent bystanders. [...]

As President John F. Kennedy suggested in 1963, we are all Berliners. Fifty years after JFK was murdered by the military-industrial complex and the Zionists, we are all still Berliners in the shadow of the Wall; we are all still living behind a massive barrier of fabricated fear, oppression, and lies.

Are you content to live out your life as just another brick in the wall? Or will you join those of us who are confronting the Zionists and the military-industrial complex and saying: “Tear down this wall!”

I cut out much of the material that develops the wall theme referred to in this last paragraph. You're free to read the whole article if you feel like indulging your morbid curiosity a bit.

"The U.S. is the root cause of all sorts of evils and misfortunes in the world and disturber of peace and cancer-like existence." (Korean News)

I almost used the article's actual title: "Minju Joson Flays U.S. President for Hunting People for Fun." Not bad at all, right? Anyway, the sentence I used for the post-title is actually the summing-up sentence at the end. Let's read the article that leads up to that sentence, shall we?

Recently a book was released to show the personality of U.S. President Obama.

The book says in detail how Obama organized "anti-terror war" and murdered people.

In particular, the book refers to the fact that Obama, laureate of Nobel Peace Prize, killed a lot of civilians by hundreds of drone strikes at Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. It reveals the fact that Obama unhesitatingly said himself that he is good at man-hunting.

Minju Joson Sunday observes in a commentary in this regard:

As soon as the book was released, it sparked off great uproar among the readers.

A lot of people expressed hatred for the personality of the U.S. president and skepticism about the "anti-terror war" of the U.S.

From its beginning this war was not for world peace and stability but for the implementation of the U.S. strategy for world domination.

What matters is how the Obama administration behaved quite contrary to the expectation of the world community.

The U.S. has wantonly infringed upon the independent rights of sovereign countries while resorting to the highhanded and arbitrary practices in the international arena under the pretext of "routing terrorists".

To cite its drone strikes as an example, the U.S. indiscriminately mounted drone attacks despite strong protest of relevant countries, massacring innocent civilians.

As seen above, the U.S. does not care at all whether independent rights of sovereign countries are abused or not and innocent civilians are killed by its high-handed and arbitrary acts.

As the book says, the U.S. is pleased to see guiltless people mercilessly killed.

The U.S. is the root cause of all sorts of evils and misfortunes in the world and disturber of peace and cancer-like existence.

"It was disgusting indeed for her to speak English and French . . ."

I haven't posted a good North Korean tirade against whoever is in power in South Korea lately:

A spokesman for the Policy Department of the DPRK National Defence Commission (NDC) released a statement on Thursday disclosing the true colors of Park Geun Hye of south Korea as a despicable sycophant and traitor and maniac keen on confrontation with compatriots.

Prior to her trip to West European countries, she even talked about "north-south summit" in a bid to improve her image. However, this only revealed her vulgar personality, the statement said.

It was disgusting indeed for her to speak English and French with much effort in the UK and France, it noted, and went on:

Park made "speeches" in poor foreign languages as she was steeped in such idea of slavish submission to the marrow of her bones that she should obey and please big countries under any circumstances.

She, bereft of national identity to say nothing of elementary dignity as a politician, donned dresses not suited to her position. Her behavior during her foreign trips was reminiscent of a poodle.

Nothing is more foolish than trying to find even a shred of independent stance in her as she is kowtowing to foreign forces but enforcing brutal "yusin" dictatorship inside south Korea, turning it into mayhem and regarding fellow countrymen as a principal enemy and a target of confrontation and war.

She pledged not to rule out even a war to cope with "provocation" from someone, kowtowing to her American master. This makes it clear that Park and her group are waiting for a chance to launch a war after working out a dangerous scenario for confrontation with compatriots.

Park is the root cause of all disasters on this land as she is always going into extremes.

"IRGC Commander: US Deeply Fearful of War with Iran"--"they saw the Iranian nation's subordination to its Leader"! (Fars News)

Nothing screams "dictatorship" at you like a military boast that simultaneously sucks up to the Supreme Big-guy:

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari underlined that Washington fears military engagement with Iran more than any other country.

“The Americans' statement about having the military option on the table is a lie. Americans don't know that we know they are afraid of attacking Iran more than any other country; there is absolutely no such thought in the minds of the US statesmen, but they talk about it (to use it) as a political tool anyway,” General Jafari told reporters in the Southwestern city of Ahwaz on Sunday.

He said the US deployed troops in all its bases in the neighboring countries of Iran from 2003 to 2007 in a bid to surround the Islamic Republic for a military attack, and added, “They intended to launch a direct military attack on the country, but when they saw the Iranian nation's subordination to its Leader, they felt scared and escaped.”

In similar remarks earlier today, Commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi also said Washington's allegations about the continued possibility of military action against Iran are nothing, but a bluff.

General Naqdi pointed to US President Barack Obama’s recent remarks who said that military option is on the table, and said, “These are just boastful remarks and bluffing because the US army and its economy are weak and their people do not accept to go to (another) war.”

“The US does not have a strong logic and reasoning and it is, thus, forced to always resort to the language of force,” he said.

He reiterated that Iran will surely continue its fight against the global arrogance, and said, “Neither the (military) options on the table nor their execution can intimidate us, let alone boasting about them.”

Every now and then American statesmen warn that the military option against Iran is still on the table, while facts on the ground show Washington incapable of even conducting a limited war, or surgical military operation, against Tehran. [...]

"Ahmadinejad son accuses Hashemi of fabrication" (Mehr News)

This is a little heard to follow, but fascinating:

A son of Iran’s ex-president has accused Hashemi of inventing his memoirs of Imam Khomeini.

Mehr News quoted that Mehdi Ahmadinejad, ex-president’s son, on his webpage derided Hashemi’s account of Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic and the first leader of the Revolution.

Mehdi Ahmadinejad posted on his webpage an evaluation of Hashemi’s memoirs where Hashemi Rafsanjani related that Imam (Khomeini) would seek to remove the motto of ‘death to America’ at that time.

“I would petition to the respected figure who said that Imam agreed to remove the motto, to say what he would remember about Imam, otherwise we would be told that Imam did not mean America was Great Satan, but he meant that ‘how mischievous child would America be!’

Kim Jong Un gives field guidance to Mush Jong Rooms

Prepare to be inexpressibly moved:

Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, provided field guidance to the newly built Central Mushroom Research Institute of the State Academy of Sciences.

The Institute with a total plottage of at least 6 100 square meters has its building, mushroom growing rooms for research and raw materials store, etc. It is a mushroom research center built according to the noble intention of Kim Jong Un making a new history of industrialization of mushroom growing.

After going round the room dedicated to the history of the institute, he dropped in at different places including various research rooms, laboratories, e-library, products storing room and mushroom growing grounds to learn in detail about its construction and research work.

He was pleased that not only different research rooms and labs and mushroom growing grounds but corridors leading to offices, main building and annexes, vestibule and resting place and all other aspects have been built in a peculiar style to be impeccable.

He noted that the institute has a very important duty and role to perform in thoroughly carrying out the behests of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il on turning the DPRK into a huge producer of mushroom.

There is now a brisk drive for mushroom production in different parts of the country in hearty response to the appeal of the Party and large capacity mushroom farms and production bases are now under construction there, he said, adding that scientific research should be given precedence in order to put mushroom production on an industrial and scientific basis.

He underscored the need for the institute to study and round off varieties of edible and medical mushroom growing technologies, intensify the work for solving the issue of substrate suited to the topographical peculiarities and satisfactorily produce and ensure spores necessary for mushroom growing.

Calling for providing proper scientific and technological guidance to the mushroom producing units, he underlined the need to consolidate the data base related to the research and cultivation of mushroom and actively apply advanced technology and widely disseminate it among the relevant units.

He called on the officials and researchers of the institute to register shining scientific research successes and thus turn the institute into a scientific research center to bring substantial benefits to the people.

Recalling that he gave an instruction on completing the construction of the institute till the anniversary of the party, he noted a unit of the KPA carried out it without fail as the KPA considers it a bounden duty to implement the order of the supreme commander at any cost under any circumstances. He noted with great satisfaction that this is the true nature of the revolutionary army and he felt proud of assigning the task to the People's Army. [...]

"Song 'Ode to the Motherland' Created in DPRK"

I wonder who did the creating. One person? A committee?

A song "Ode to the Motherland" was recently created in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a national treasure.

The song, vibrant with feelings of ardent love for the motherland, reminds one of the tireless efforts devoted by President Kim Il Sung and general secretary Kim Jong Il for the prosperity of the country and the wellbeing of its people.

It also reflects the steadfast will of the Korean people to glorify the socialist motherland, built and developed by the President and the leader.

Lyric and melodic, the song is a favorite for everyone.

In the 1st stanza, the song says that one can enjoy a worthwhile life only under the care of the motherland.

In the 2nd and 3rd stanzas, it speaks highly of the DPRK where everything serves for the popular masses.

In the 4th and 5th stanzas, it calls for devoting one's all to the prosperity of the country led by Marshal Kim Jong Un.

Inspired by the song, the DPRK people have turned out in the efforts for the prosperity of the country with their strong will to further glorify the history of Kim Il Sung's nation and Kim Jong Il's Korea.

Yom Kippur

Gemar Chasimah Tovah!

Easy Fast!

Here is "Yom Kippur in a Nutshell" from chabad.org:

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year--the day on which we are closest to G‑d and to the quintessence  of our own souls. It is the Day of Atonement -- "For on this day He will forgive you, to purify you, that you be cleansed from all your sins before G‑d" (Leviticus 16:30).

For twenty-six hours--from several minutes before sunset on Tishrei 9 to after nightfall on Tishrei 10--we "afflict our souls": we abstain from food and drink, do not wash or anoint our bodies, do not wear leather shoes, and abstain from marital relations.

Before Yom Kippur we perform the Kaparot atonement service; we request and receive honey cake, in acknowledgement that we are all recipients in G-d's world and in prayerful hope for a sweet and abundant year; eat a festive meal, immerse in a mikvah, and give extra charity. Late afternoon we eat the pre-fast meal, following which we bless our children, light a memorial candle as well as the holiday candles, and go to the synagogue for Kol Nidrei services.

In the course of Yom Kippur we hold five prayer services: Maariv, with its solemn Kol Nidrei service, on the eve of Yom Kippur; Shacharit--the morning prayer; Musaf, which includes a detailed account of the Yom Kippur Temple service; Minchah, which includes the reading of the Book of Jonah; and Ne'illah, the "closing of the gates" service at sunset. We say the Al Chet confession of sins eight times in the course of Yom Kippur, and recite Psalms every available moment.

The day is the most solemn of the year, yet an undertone of joy suffuses it: a joy that revels in the spirituality of the day and expresses the confidence that G-d will accept our repentance, forgive our sins, and seal our verdict for a year of life, health and happiness. When the closing Ne'illah service climaxes in the resounding cries of "Hear O Israel... G-d is one" and a single blast of the shofar, followed by the proclamation, "Next year in Jerusalem." Then joy erupts in song and dance (a Chabad custom is to sing the lively "Napoleon's March"), followed by the festive after-fast meal, making the evening after Yom Kippur a Yom Tov (festival) in its own right.

"Kim Jong Un Congratulates Syrian President on His Birthday"

Life is good for dictators these days:

Kim Jong Un, first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, Wednesday sent a congratulatory message to Bashar Al－Assad, president of the Syrian Arab Republic, on his birthday.

The message said:

I extend warm congratulations and greetings to you on your 48th birthday.

The Korean people send invariable support and solidarity to the Syrian government and people in their just struggle to defend the sovereignty and security of the country.

I sincerely hope that you will always keep yourself in good health to achieve fresh success in your responsible work, convinced that the long-standing bilateral relations of friendship and cooperation will grow stronger in future.

Rosh Hashanah

What is this Rosh Hashanah business anyway?

The festival of Rosh Hashanah --the name means "Head of the Year" --is observed for two days beginning on Tishrei 1, the first day of the Jewish year. It is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, and their first actions toward the realization of mankind's role in G-d's world.

Rosh Hashanah thus emphasizes the special relationship between G-d and humanity: our dependence upon G-d as our creator and sustainer, and G-d's dependence upon us as the ones who make His presence known and felt in His world. Each year on Rosh Hashanah, "all inhabitants of the world pass before G-d like a flock of sheep," and it is decreed in the heavenly court, "who shall live, and who shall die... who shall be impoverished, and who shall be enriched; who shall fall and who shall rise." But this is also the day we proclaim G-d King of the Universe. The Kabbalists teach that the continued existence of the universe is dependant upon the renewal of the divine desire for a world when we accept G-d's kingship each year on Rosh Hashanah.

The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar, the ram's horn, which represents the trumpet blast of a people's coronation of their king. The cry of the shofar is also a call to repentance; for Rosh Hashanah is also the anniversary of man's first sin and his repentance thereof, and serves as the first of the "Ten Days of Repentance" which culminate in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Another significance of the shofar is to recall the Binding of Isaac which also occurred on Rosh Hashanah, in which a ram took Isaac's place as an offering to G-d; we evoke Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son and plead that the merit of his deed should stand by us as we pray for a year of life, health and prosperity. Altogether, the shofar is sounded 100 times in the course of the Rosh Hashanah service.

Additional Rosh Hashanah observances include: a) Eating a piece of apple dipped in honey to symbolize our desire for a sweet year, and other special foods symbolic of the new year's blessings. b) Blessing one another with the words Leshanah tovah tikateiv veteichateim, "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year." c) Tashlich, a special prayer said near a body of water (an ocean, river, pond, etc.) in evocation of the verse, "And You shall cast their sins into the depths of the sea." And as with every major Jewish holiday after candlelighting and prayers we recite Kiddush and make a blessing on the Challah.

May you be sealed and inscribed for a good and sweet year.

"Kim Jong Un Provides Field Guidance to Sea Fish Breeding Station"

The "last instruction of Kim Jong Il" was "to breed lots of tasty and nutritious sturgeon and send them to Okryu Restaurant"? Wow, and you thought this was going to be the usual, run-of-the-mill "Dear Leader gives field guidance to lemonade stand" article, didn't you?

Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, provided field guidance to Ryongyon Sea Fish Breeding Station.

He was accompanied by Choe Ryong Hae, Ri Yong Gil, Jang Jong Nam, Pak Jong Chon, Pak Thae Song, Hwang Pyong So and Ma Won Chun.

Kim Jong Un first looked round the monument to the field guidance given by leader Kim Jong Il standing in the compound of the station.

He learned about how the station has implemented the instructions given by the leader, recalling that he gave an instruction on breeding in sea water sturgeon, etc. living in fresh water after acclimatizing them to it, having an insight into the fact that if some freshwater fishes live in sea, they look nice in color and become tastier.

At indoor pond No.1 he asked from where sturgeon fries the station gets and what is production cycle and quantity and to which units they are supplied.

It is the last instruction of Kim Jong Il to breed lots of tasty and nutritious sturgeon and send them to Okryu Restaurant, he said, urging the station to thoroughly implement Kim Jong Il's instruction.

Kim Jong Un looked at sea cucumber bred in outdoor fish pond of the station.

He was satisfied to learn that the station cut down by half the production cycle as compared with other countries by studying and rounding off sea cucumber culture method of Korean style.

After going round the station, he gave precious instructions which would serve as guidelines for improving and strengthening its business activities.

To make people get real benefits is as important as building the breeding station into a modern one and registering successes in fish culture and research into fish breeding, he noted, underscoring the need to properly choose the units to be provided with fishes on the basis of calculation of the production, arrange well aquatic products supplying bases having restaurants and shops in Pyongyang and put their operation on a normal footing.

He noted that if the issue of fish food urgently needed for fish culture is to be solved and business activities are to prove profitable, it is necessary to mass-produce high quality fishes including sturgeon and export them to foreign markets.

He called for scrupulously organizing the work for successfully producing processed caviar recognized as high quality food worldwide, in particular, to get profits.

In the coming year, I hope you, too, will be "scrupulously organizing the work . . . in particular, to get profits." Kesiva vechasima tova!

"Britain’s Secret Service Bureau; foundation, changes, sabotage activities" (PressTV-Iran)

There is too much of this stuff to post everything, but Iran, as we have noted many times, is obsessed with conspiracies involving England. And how could I resist the graphic that goes with the story?

MI6, also referred to as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), is responsible for providing the British government with foreign intelligence.

Its activities include a variety of secret political exploit triumphs, including the overthrow of Iran’s first democratically-elected government of late Mohammed Mossadeq in 1953 (in collaboration with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency).

Britain’s spying apparatus MI6 has also been training, supporting and funding anti-Iran terrorist group-lets such as Jundallah headed by executed Abdolmalek Rigi, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), the Kingdom Assembly, and PJAK, all of them have their offices based in London, according to documents even revealed by the British media outlets.

Meanwhile, the assassination of some of Iran’s prominent nuclear scientists can be traced back to London. Two years before the start of the intelligence operations to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program, John Sawers, the head of MI6, talked about the ineffectiveness of U.S.-led sanctions imposed on Iran. A few weeks later, Iranian nuclear scientists including Majid Shahriari were assassinated. Moreover, some elements behind the 2009 sedition in Iran have turned up in Britain.

MI6’s other operations include the joint overthrowing of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, during the year 1961, and the commencement of an internal disagreement between Lebanese paramilitary groups in the second half of the 1980s, that successfully distracted them from further captive takings of Westerners in the area. [...]

British fiends!

"Israel secretly targeting US war veterans" (PressTV-Iran)

Gordon Duff's latest conspiracy, and it has everything: Nancy Pelosi, Janet Napolitano, and that mother of all shadowy puppet-master groups: the Brentwood Homeowners Association! This is too long and rambling to adequately excerpt, but here are a few nibbles. The feast itself requires you to actually give PressTV some web traffic. I won't be offended if you are disinclined to do so.

This week, American war veterans in Los Angeles await a court decision that would return the Veterans National Home to them. The land had been stolen from them by gangsters and politicians, two groups most Americans now know are one and the same. However, they fear the judge is under pressure from powerful anti-veteran groups now clearly identified as Israeli-based. [...]

A powerful organization, organized crime figures, AIPAC, the ADL and JDL, aided by Senator’s Feinstein and Boxer and Representatives Waxman and Pelosi, have declared war on America’s homeless veterans. [...]

Every one of these developers are Israeli citizens. All have long-time ties to the Meyer Lansky “Murder Incorporated” gang that was the real “Mafia.” They are alive and well today, many safely settled in Israel, others still in America. This same organization, the one at war with America’s veterans, the “Old Guard” and “Veterans Today,” put Bush (43) in office, made billions when the World Trade Center was demolished on 9/11, made trillions during the bailouts and market crash and, of course, started the Iraq and Afghan wars and are manipulating the slaughter in Syria and Egypt. [...]

"US, Israel engineer crimes in Muslim countries: Iran official" (PressTV-iran)

Another float in the endless parade:

Chief of Staff of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the United States and Israel are running a think tank which programs criminal acts in Muslim countries including Egypt and Syria.

“Leaders of the US and Zionist regime [of Israel] are fanning the flames of conflicts in Egypt and Syria, and do not let people and governments in these countries decide their own fate,” Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani said on Sunday.

He condemned the recent crimes in Syria and Egypt, saying they are incompatible with Islamic teachings.

“Plans for all crimes in Syria and Egypt are made by the US and Zionist leaders and submitted to their mercenaries. The instruments of these crimes are ignorant and spiteful commanders and rulers in certain Muslim countries,” the official stated. [...]

"Who dares threaten united Islamic world?" (PressTV-Iran)

Who wants to "bully" the "Islamic world"? The Zionist entity, of course. This is a nice example of Iranian paranoia:

As the Middle East seems engulfed in a never-ending cycle of violence, with further reports of bloodshed coming from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Bahrain, Iran continues to warn against Israel's plot to fragment and divide the region to better assert its own hegemonic power and claim victory over its nemesis, Islam.

While politicians, experts and analysts continue to look at the Middle East through political lenses, speaking of territorial hegemony and a race for control over natural resources, Iran remains clear-headed in its assessment - while Western powers are looking indeed to control the Middle East's incommensurable wealth, it is Islam that Israel seeks to destroy under its boots.

More dangerous in Israel's eyes than any political faction could ever be, Islam's very power, its ability to unite and rally under one flag foreign nations, communities and creeds, is what truly poses a threat to the Israeli regime.

Should the Islamic world ever set aside its differences and stand united under one leadership; strong with several billions of men and women, Islam would pose a challenge far too great to any entity or alliance of entities that threaten it.

Who then could prevent Palestinians from reclaiming the lands of their forefathers? Who would then dare oppose the calls for justice of a nation whose power and numbers far outweigh any others? Just as Muslims are the world's over-repressed and -oppressed, stigmatized and branded “terrorists” for daring express their faith, unity would bring salvation for a broken and divided people.

A lost island amid the Islamic world, Israel is sowing discord far and wide across the region for its survival depends on it.

One has only to look at the war raging against political Islam in the Arab world to understand what really is at stake.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, the last bastion of the independent Islamic world, the only nation that to this day continues to defy the United States of America and its master puppet the the Israeli regime has been branded “the axis of evil.” [...]

The incoherence ray is working nicely.

Ali Larijani, an Iranian philosopher, politician and the current chairman of the Parliament of Iran, warned earlier this month against such a ploy on the part of Israel. He stressed, “Muslims should not allow the occupying regime [of Israel] and other enemies of Islam to create discord and rifts in the Muslim world to serve their own interests.” [...]

Racked by internal conflicts, no countries in the Middle East can claim to oppose the Zionist hegemony, save Iran, the last bulwark against imperialism.

At the end of the article, a short bio of the author, Catherine Shakdam, includes the information that she has written for The Guardian.

"Britain’s Royal Family; Christian or Jewish?" (Mehr News-Iran)

We learn: "Princess Diana the bride of Queen Elizabeth was also born to a Jewish mother and was thus considered a Jew." By whom? By Iran, of course:

It still remains a question for many people in the UK as how a “flight attendant” could marry Queen’s grandson; a fact that although hushed and ignored by British mainstream media, did not manage to skip some media’s attention.

The truth is that the Royal Family’s new bride is a Jew. Although in the wedding ceremony it was pretended that Kate Middleton is Christian but this lady’s family roots show that she is considered a Sephardic Jew from her mother’s side. Moreover the timing of the wedding and the way it was held which was based on Jewish culture verify the evidences.

Kate’s mother was surnamed Goldsmith before marrying Kate’s father. According to Jewish laws if a mother is a Jew, her children will be Jews, too. Therefore Kate Middleton is a Sephardic Jew and her children will be Jews based on the Jewish law.

This gains more significance once we realize that she is stepping in to the Buckingham Palace as the wife of a man who will be not only the king of England but also the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Sources close to this 30 year-old bride have said that Kate Middleton and her parents would not regularly attend the church service, therefore Church of England decided to baptize and Christianize the new member unofficially and secretly so that her marriage to Prince William could be confirmed.

Nevertheless even being baptized by the bishop of the church cannot prevent Prince William’s son, the next king and the senior governor of the Church of England, from being a Jew as Kate and William’s child will inevitably remain a Jew.

The Jewishness of the members of the Royal family does not end up in just one case, there are others in the British Royal Family who were and are Jews. Princess Diana the bride of Queen Elizabeth was also born to a Jewish mother and was thus considered a Jew. Therefore her sons William and Harry are also Jews. [...]

In conclusion even if the Royal Family, particularly Kate and William introduce themselves as staunch Christians, since the bride of the family, Princess Diana the wife of Prince Charles , was Jewish, her two sons Harry and William are Jews. On the other hand William’s marriage as the inheritor of the crown to a Jewish girl will leave the future of Britain to the hands of the couple’s Jewish children.

It's a Songun day

Greetings from Palestinian President:

[...] The Palestinian president, in his message, said that he deemed it happiness to extend his sincere and warmest congratulations to Kim Jong Un and, through him, to the government and friendly people of the DPRK on behalf of the State of Palestine, its people and on his own behalf, on the anniversary of the liberation of Korea, hoping that the day would come as early as possible when the progress, prosperity and stability desired by the people of the DPRK are realized.

He reaffirmed that his state would continue to make efforts to develop the good friendly relations between the two countries amid common concern and in the interests of the two peoples. He added that they value the steadfast support extended by Kim Jong Un to the Palestinian people always standing by their side in their struggle to retake freedom and the right to self-determination and create an independent state with east Kuds as its capital, which will be an oasis of security, peace and co-existence. [...]

Co-existence? With whom, I wonder.

New Swimming Pool Appears in Phyongsong:

The Phyongsong swimming pool began its operation. It was built in less than three months in Yangji-dong area in Phyongsong City, South Phyonan Province.

The swimming pool has a jumping pool with 10-meter and 33-meter high slides.

It also has volleyball and basketball courts as well as sun-bathing place, resting places, dressing rooms, and other cultural and logistic facilities to serve the conveniences of the people.

There are green areas covering thousands of square meters to add to the view of the pool.

Designing suited to the topographical conditions was followed by organized guidance to ensure the highest quality of structures to meet modern taste.

The pool is now crowded with youth, students and other people who visit it for maritime sports activities and relaxation.

Haeju Smeltery Fulfills Yearly Fertilizer Production Plan:

The Haeju Smeltery is boosting the production of phosphatic fertilizer.

It has over-fulfilled its yearly production at 107.8 percent as of August 13.

The workers of the phosphatic fertilizer shop have mounted a high-pitched socialist emulation drive for increased production while raising the rate of machinery and equipment operations. They have carried out their daily plan over 120 percent.

The workers of the mechanic shop has increased the production of necessary accessories and repaired production equipment including mixer and belt conveyer in time, contributing to finishing earlier the monthly plan.

Officials of the related units made sure that phosphatic fertilizer was supplied to rural areas soon after their production.

Officials and employees of the smeltery are dynamically conducting a campaign for increased fertilizer production through successful overhaul and maintenance of equipment.

Have a Songun Shabbos!

"US government targeting Egypt for destabilization, eventual destruction?" (PressTV-Iran)

Did you know that "Israel took over the US via the 9/11 coup d’état"? There's more craziness where that came from, courtesy of Kevin Barrett:

Is the US government targeting Egypt for destabilization - and eventual destruction?

The recent appointment of death squad organizer Robert Ford as US Ambassador to Egypt suggests as much.[...]

The destruction of Iraq through death squads and false-flag terror was so successful that Ford was sent to Syria to do the same thing. In 2011, Ford was made Ambassador to Syria - and suddenly a wave of violence created the same kind of civil war that still rages in Iraq.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has belatedly realized that the violence in his country was created by false-flag terrorists. What happened was this: Ford’s death squads, consisting of well-trained professional killers, would station themselves on rooftops during US-incited anti-Assad demonstrations. At a designated moment, the snipers would begin firing. Some of the snipers would create the appearance that they were Syrian army soldiers firing at the demonstrators. Others, on a different rooftop, would create the impression that they were demonstrators firing at the soldiers.

Soon, the pro- and anti-Assad forces really were firing at each other.

Will Ford organize the same kind of mischief in Egypt?

Based on his record in Iraq and Syria, here is what we should expect: Ford and his team of US death squad organizers and false-flag terror experts (possibly including some of the people who blew up the World Trade Center) will create shootings and bombings blamed on “radical Islamists.” They will then encourage the Egyptian junta to arrest, torture, and murder even more peaceful protestors than it already has. Since the Egyptian military junta is basically an American militia, created and maintained by billions of dollars of US support, the puppet dictator el-Sisi will have to follow American orders... and plunge his country into civil war.

Does the US really want to destroy Egypt, as it has destroyed Iraq and Syria?

Apparently, yes. It is worth noting that the US covertly engineered the overthrow of democratically-elected President Morsi in part because Morsi had spoken out forcefully against Ethiopia’s plan to dam the Nile, steal most of Egypt’s water supply, and condemn much of Egypt's population to slow death.

Bottom line: The US, through its Ethiopian puppet, is planning a genocide that will kill tens of millions of Egyptians. And if any Egyptian leader tries to stop it, as Morsi planned to, he will be eliminated.

Why does the US feel the need to destroy Middle Eastern countries? Ironically, it isn’t even about US interests. It’s about Israel’s “Oded Yinon plan” to annihilate Israel’s neighbors and seize all the land between the Nile and the Euphrates for Greater Israel. That is why, as Gen. Wesley Clark revealed, Israel took over the US via the 9/11 coup d’état - with a plan to destroy “seven countries in five years” in service to Netanyahu’s “Clean Break” document, itself an update of the Oded Yinon plan to destroy the Middle East for Israel.

There is only one way to resist this impending genocide. All Middle Eastern people, regardless of religion or nationality, must unite and resist the Zionist-sponsored destruction of their lands.

"Month of Solidarity with Cuban People Observed in DPRK"

A whole month's worth--that's a lot of solidarity!

A meeting and film show took place at the Taedonggang Diplomatic Club here on Tuesday on the month of solidarity with the Cuban people.[...]

Speaking at the meeting, So Ho Won said that the first gunfire made by the Cuban revolutionaries and patriots in Moncada under the leadership of Fidel Castro Ruz marked a historic occasion in encouraging the Cuban people in the struggle for freedom and liberation.

The Cuban people have won victory by following the road of socialism despite the U.S. political and military pressure and moves for stifling Cuba economically and its subversive activities and sabotage, he noted.

The Korean people will as ever stand in the same trench with the fraternal Cuban people in the just struggle to beat back the U.S. imperialists' moves for aggression and intervention and defend socialism, he added.

The Cuban ambassador said that the international solidarity activities are of great significance now that the imperialists are becoming all the more pronounced in their counterrevolutionary offensive. [...]

Somewhere Stalin is smiling.

PA "pushes back" against Talmudic Hasbara meme that 69-year-old Khazar Settler was killed with axe: It was a resistance implement

Or words to that effect. They did say "A terrorist is someone who forcefully occupies the other's land, expels him and comes to live in his place . . . not the Palestinian political prisoner, the freedom fighter." "Political prisoner"? "Freedom fighter"? Isn't a "political prisoner" someone who did not do anything violent at all? My favorite Mondoweiss sentence of the day:

In a war of words, barbs, and tit for tats it's touche for Palestine doubling down with an injection of truth today.

"200 Turkish Soldiers Dressed as Al Nusra Front Militias Enter Aleppo" (Mehr News-Iran)

According to this "a lot of information is available." Good thing it's well-sourced:

News sources say 150 to 200 Turkish officers and soldiers entered Aleppo while dressed as Al Nusra Front terrorists and they are reportedly planning to target Syrian Kurds.

Alahd News Network reported that a lot of information is available indicating that Turkish forces disguised as Al Nusra Front terrorists entered Aleppo later last night.

Alahd News Network quoted local sources as saying that Turkish forces settled in Bani Zeid region of Sheikh Maqsood and Al-Ashrafiya-two of the main Kurdish districts of Syria.

According to the obtained data, 150 to 200 Turkish officers and soldiers, crossed the Azaz-Kilis border and entered the Syrian territory with their military vehicles and equipment.

Local sources announced that the entering of the Turkish forces in the Bani Zeid region- if confirmed- proves that Al Nusra front and Jaish al Hurr forces have been uniting and collaborating to attack Syrian Kurish districts.

Great News from North Korea

I have probably been neglecting all the new Songun developments lately, but the future of the DPRK certainly looks bright:

Soft Drink Stand Springs Up:

The Kaesong Youth Stadium has been remodeled in the DPRK . . . Saunas, public baths and a soft drink stand have sprung up along with an outdoor swimming pool of peculiar style.

The Vitamin C Factory has been commenced:

The Vitamin C Factory has been commenced with due ceremony on Friday. It was built on the bank of the River Taedong in Pyongyang.

The vitamin C producing base has the latest production processes that use bioengineering methods. The factory helps make another achievement in carrying out the behests of leader Kim Jong Il, who worked heart and soul to improve the standard of people's living, and will greatly contributing to promoting health of the people.

World Class Wading Pool:

The completion of the wading pool would mean carrying out the behest of Kim Jong Il who worked heart and soul to provide a comprehensive wading pool to the people, [Kim Jong Un] said, adding how nice it would be if it were built in the lifetime of Kim Jong Il . . . .

On the first floor of the inner wading pool he commanded a bird's-eye view of the outdoor wading pool with latest wading water tanks. When the pool is completed and furnished with the latest wading amusement facilities, it will look very nice and fantastic, he noted . . . .

It is the determination and will of the Workers' Party of Korea to successfully complete the Munsu Wading Pool as a world class one and provide the people with it till the anniversary of the Party founding, he said.

PressTV presents Lyndon Larouche

The man is a Khomeinist's dream:

American political activist Lyndon LaRouche has warned that the continuation of Israeli behavior towards Syria, including the recent air strikes against the Arab country, could end in a US-Russia thermonuclear war . . .

LaRouche, an eight times presidential candidate, said in 2004 that “ the ongoing drive to induce President George W. Bush to launch a war against Iraq, is a 1996 Israeli government policy that is being foisted on the President by a nest of Israeli agents inside the U.S. government.”

Update: The Forward just ran an article from "the founder and current president of the National Iranian American Council" entitled "Why Iranian Leader Hassan Rowhani May Not Be Ahmadinejad II" with the subtitle "The Bogeyman Is Gone — Listen to New Voice in Tehran." I wonder if the folks at the Forward know or care that the "new voice" at PressTV is apparently Lyndon Larouche?

Open Zion on "subtext" of prisoner release: "Your lives—down to and including your very bodies—are under our control."

Here's the paragraph containing that sentence:

When Israel releases Palestinian prisoners, the subtext is entirely of a piece with the subtext of the whole occupation infrastructure: We control your lives. We decide who may go where, and when. We build walls, we issue permits, we arrest, we release. Your lives—down to and including your very bodies—are under our control.

The use of the word "subtext" here means that the author was taught to think like this in college.

Kevin Barrett at PressTV on Detroit Bankruptcy: "Henry Ford understood what was really going on"

Another day in Iranian press land. We have met Kevin Barrett before. Here he endorses one Henry Ford, author of "The International Jew":

[...] It all started with Henry Ford, who figured out how to pay his assembly-line workers enough so that they too could buy the cars they were making. Before Ford, the industrial revolution was manned by underpaid, overworked slum-dwellers. After Ford, manual laborers entered the middle class. [...]

Detroit was the epicenter of the biggest social earthquake in history: The creation of an empowered, educated middle class that included the majority of the population, even manual laborers.

Ironically, the man behind that social earthquake, Henry Ford, has in recent decades been reviled in the mainstream media and academy as an anti-Semite. But according to evolutionary psychology professor Kevin McDonald, most of Ford's claims about Jewish power in America were at least roughly accurate, though a few were exaggerated.

Henry Ford correctly claimed that global investment banking was largely run by a few outlandishly rich Jewish families. These plutocrats, he believed, were a threat to the general prosperity his new model of automobile factory had unleashed.

According to Ford, the big international banking families were draining the world's resources through the exponential power of usury. And they were accumulating wealth and power far beyond that of any nation state. Speakng of World War I, Ford wrote: "I know who caused the war: German-Jewish bankers.”

Whether or not the Rothschild international banking family and its allies caused World War I, they undeniably did dictate its outcome. The Rothschild family approached British leaders in 1917 with an offer they couldn't refuse: Give us Palestine, and we will bring America into the war on your side and make sure you defeat Germany.

The British responded with the Balfour Declaration offering the Rothschilds a “Jewish national home” in Palestine. And the Rothschilds kept their part of the bargain. Using their domination of US media and finance, they demonized Germany and forced America into a war it had absolutely no business fighting.

More than 100,000 Americans, including 50,000 combat soldiers, gave their lives so that the Rothschilds could starve Germany and launch a genocide in Palestine.

Henry Ford understood what was really going on. He was horrified at the exponentially-increasing wealth and power of the international bankers.

If Henry Ford were alive today, he would be even more horrified.

The international bankers killed Detroit. How? By gutting America's manufacturing. In the 1980s and 1990s, the international bankers decided to destroy America's industrial might. So they forced neo-liberal “free trade” policies on the US. Those policies were designed to make American industry uncompetitive, and to move manufacturing overseas. [...]

In 1921 Ford said this about the Protocols of Zion: "The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on."

"Iran condemns Zimmerman’s acquittal" (Mehr News-Iran)

Iran's government and press frequently try to score cheap points by weighing in on "progressive" issues:

Iran on Wednesday lambasted the recent court verdict acquitting U.S. neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in death of an unarmed black teenager.

The acquittal of the murderer of the black teenager once again displayed the systematic racism against religious and ethnic minorities in the United States, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said.

He added that the verdict has seriously called into question the fairness of the justice system in the United States.

Araqchi also advised the U.S. government and its Judiciary to abide by international law and human rights commitments and take practical steps to put an end to discriminatory acts.

A PressTV article from last week combines this theme with an anti-Jewish angle:

. . . Zimmerman is of Jewish decent.

The same way in New York where you had the Central Park jogger who was a Jewish woman who was killed, not killed but beaten by a Latin man, they rounded up a whole bunch of Black men and put them in jail for years. Then it came out that they were innocent. [...]

Is Rouhani here to usher in a great new age of Iranian moderation? Not so far.

Sympathetically presented Islamists in the New York Times: So much for Democracy!

This thing is a must-read, especially for the weirdly respectful setting provided by the NYT:

Sheik Mohamed Abu Sidra had watched in exasperation for months as President Mohamed Morsi and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood bounced from one debilitating political battle to another.

“The Brotherhood went too fast, they tried to take too much,” Sheik Abu Sidra, an influential ultraconservative Islamist in Benghazi, Libya, said Thursday, a day after the Egyptian military deposed and detained Mr. Morsi and began arresting his Brotherhood allies.

But at the same time, Sheik Abu Sidra said, Mr. Morsi’s overthrow had made it far more difficult for him to persuade Benghazi’s Islamist militias to put down their weapons and trust in democracy.

“Do you think I can sell that to the people anymore?” he asked. “I have been saying all along, ‘If you want to build Shariah law, come to elections.’ Now they will just say, ‘Look at Egypt,’ and you don’t need to say anything else.”

There's a lot more in the same vein.

"Iran denounces Morales flight rerouting" (PressTV)

This is one to savor:

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Araqchi has criticized several European countries for closing their airspace to Bolivian President Evo Morales.

In a statement released on Thursday, Araqchi said the move was an insult to the rights of the Bolivian nation and their president, the symbol of the sovereignty of the Latin American country.

He argued that the measure also violated international regulations and accepted responsibilities with regard to observing the contents of international conventions and total immunity of planes carrying presidents of various countries.

Bolivia plans to lodge a formal complaint to the United Nations after several European nations denied airspace to Morales' plane.

“The decisions of these countries have violated international law.... We are already making procedures to denounce this to the UN Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon],” Bolivia's Ambassador to the UN Sacha Llorenti told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.

Bolivia says France, Spain, Portugal and Italy refused to allow Morales' plane, which was flying from Moscow back to Bolivia, to cross their airspace on suspicion of carrying US surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden on board.

Llorenti added that the diversion was an “act of aggression” against his country, and was equal to “kidnapping” the Bolivian president. [...]

Linkim

Ahram Online: Islamic TV channels off air, police arrest crews

Maan News: Owner: Hamas closes Gaza factory for imitating Israeli products

Mehr News: Britain’s Royal Family; Christian or Jewish? h/t: EOZ

Mondoweiss: Egypt’s continuing revolution makes a mockery of Huntington’s ‘clash of civilizations’

Asharq Al-Awsat: Opinion: Mursi is a knockoff Erdoğan

Guardian: Egypt's coup: a ruinous intervention (Ahem, h/t: Ikhwanweb)

Question for Shlomo Sand followers

Someone in the Mondoweiss comments section recently said the following, typifying a train of thought that many anti-Zionists have evidently picked up from Shlomo Sand:

. . .Jewish-ness has been perverted from a *Religious Indentity* into some mythical ethnic, semi racial, semi genetic nationality. You’ve invented a ‘people’ catagory for yourselves beyond religion –one that does not exist and is unidentifable by any traditonal defintions of ethnic or distinct people.

The comments thread is about to close down there, and I just thought of a question which I think very concisely pierces this nonsense, so I will post it here. Here is what I would ask of anyone who thinks the above is a good point and that a "religious identity" automatically excludes nation-hood or people-hood. The Jews originally had a monarch, territory, an army, civil and criminal law-enforcement, and everything else associated with nation-hood or people-hood. Was Judaism not a "religion" in those days?

Sunnis kill Shias, Iran blames Jews

The title of this is "Iran censures latest Shia killings in Egypt." Here is a paragraph from the Iranian Foreign Ministry statement:

“Iran is certain that the sensible and revolutionary Egyptian nation, through its prudent leaders, will once again thwart the Zionist plot to create rifts between Islam and Christianity, and safeguard their revolution and national unity, and will also exercise vigilance vis-à-vis plots to foment discord among various schools of Islam and will not let such a thing happen,” the statement added.

"Zionists controlling US Congress, world economy: Arif Hussain" (PressTV: Iran)

This is a complete article and a good example of the worldview that previals in the government-controlled Iranian press. (Is that "Robert A. Heinlein" the science fiction writer?) Note to leftists: The headings illustrate the use of "Zionist regime" and "Israel" interchangeably.

When human, religious and cultural values vanish from a society, it eventually changes into capitalism. Then murder, injustice, bribery, oppression and occupation becomes the practices of the society.

Zionists being totally deprived of all these values have put their all-out efforts to deprive societies from their highest religious and human values. To accomplish this dirty mission of spreading capitalism, they have been using pornography, bribery and interest-based banking systems worldwide. They kept on invading societies psychologically and enslaving them in a net of racism.

Political dominance of the Zionist regime

The state of Israel was born just yesterday, in 1948. Within a short span of time, it is now controlling the Congress (parliament) of the ruling state in the world, the United State of America. Every single person in the United States is aware of this fact that Zionists control the parliament. Any politician in America who criticizes the Zionist regime can't survive either with or without his political carrier.

What do you think controlling the parliament of a country means? It means political invasion, it means controlling the decision-making body of a nation and it means that by now the actual decision-maker is the invader. Sometimes when the president of the United States just comes in front and says "all the options are on the table" I hardly stop laughing because I can feel how the president of a great nation is forced to narrate the slogans of a minute state.

In the process of building puppet governments, the Zionist regime of Israel has been very successful in replacing many Arab and non-Arab governments so far. Under the slogan of democracy, Israel has toppled many governments which tried to resist its policies, and replaced them with its own versions.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain in the Arabian Peninsula and Turkey, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan and other countries outside the Arabian Peninsula are by now standing under the Zionist Umbrella, offering their best services in return for its barbarism on the innocent people of Palestine.

Economic dominance of Israel

Everybody knows that Israel is controlling the global economy today. The world banking system is directly run by Zionists. A book written by Texas mega church pastor John Hagee, the head and founder of Christian United for Israel, reads

"Congress does not control America's economic destiny. Our economic destiny is controlled by the Federal Reserve system. The Federal Reserve has never been audited, and yet it totally controls the value of money in this country... While most of the stockholders are members of the so-called Eastern Establishment, allegedly the four largest stockholders are not even Americans but members of the Rothschild family of Europe." -- John Hagee, Day of Deception (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997) p. 51.

The Federal system enables Zionists to have an upper hand over the global economy. The Federal Reserve provides the US government with loans based on interest. It collects money from the US government and public and from hundreds of other countries and sends it to the Zionist entity.

Robert A. Heinlein describes Federal Reserve as following:

"Every Congressman, every Senator knows precisely what causes inflation...but can't, [won't] support the drastic reforms to stop it [repeal of the Federal Reserve Act] because it could cost him his job."

They have control over the International Monetary (IMF) Fund and World Bank. Most world nations are all striving for their survival under the load of debt which they need to pay either to the World Bank or the IMF. Once a country is gripped by loans, the Zionists then use it for their political motives. This process is sometimes called “enslaving by money.” Zionists run most multinational companies ranging from cold drinks to petrol, to shoes to hats. Through their illegal and dirty ways of earning, the Zionists are becoming an economic giant on the globe. The adventuresome behaviour of Zionists may trigger a big war

The Zionist regime of Israel is on its way with a mindset to obtain world dominance and will not hesitate in attempting to destroy any opposing forces in the way. This aim of the regime of Israel can be concluded from its own short history.

What objectives does the Zionist regime follow by seeking political and economic dominance and establishing puppet governments around the world? On the one hand, it is expanding the circle of its own versions of governments around the globe, and on the other hand dumping the stores with piles of atomic, thermal and chemical bombs. Yet there are some governments that wouldn’t like to accept the regime of Israel as a dominant state.

At present, some of these governments include Russia, China, Iran, some South American states and Syria. Being the allies of each other, these governments have created a virtual united front. China and Russia are second and third economic and military powers while Iran is a major power in the Middle East. So, one may wonder how the Zionist regime will be able to defeat this front to secure dominance over the world?

Well, they have already started to break and weaken this barrier. The Zionists are effectively using their historical weapon of proxy wars to bring down the allies of this united front one by one. In carrying out these proxy wars, they have always been using the Wahhabi version of Islam. The bloodthirsty Wahhabi and Salafi Jihadists are ready to chop the heads off on the orders of their masters, the Zionists. The Zio-muftis of Saudi Arabia have already filled up their pens to issue any type of religious decree to fulfill this goal for their masters.

What's going on inside Syria is like an open book for those who have thinking brains. The heinous crimes those Jihadists committed and are committing against humanity are quite new in the book of human history. They are busy leveling the shrines of the companions of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and destroying mosques and cutting the throats of religious scholars one by one. A person with half-paralyzed mind can even understand the reason behind all this unrest. Crimes of these Wahhabi Jihadists are countless but here my aim was just to reveal the objective behind, and how Israel is carrying out this proxy war to break the resistance front.

In a very similar way, they have been making their all-out efforts to bring a regime change in Iran, another ally of the resistance barrier. They again tried to use the Wahhabi Jihadist group Jundullah, which Iran successfully controlled and stopped from prevailing. Now they are using a super fake allegation of Nuke building on the Islamic Republic and are trying to start an all-out war. But Iran being a champion rational state has been abstaining from any military confrontation. However, the imposition of crushing economic sanctions is an act of war. MOSAD and CIA are actively involved in establishing a puppet government in Venezuela. They tried to create unrest using the opposition and the situation is still heightening.

This situation cannot proceed forever and the Zionists, as I explained earlier, are not at all willing to come to a common point. They are behaviorally adventuresome, which can be seen throughout their small history. They began waging wars against their neighbors from day one. They believe in occupation and dominance and are also getting stronger and stronger. This adventuresome behavior of the Zionist entity loaded with thousands of weapons of mass destruction will eventually trigger a war which can be referred to as World War III and in Islamic eschatology it is described as AL Malhama.

Mitzvos in Parshas Shelach

I want to try some new things in this blog. I like looking at Sefer HaChinuch, which discusses the 613 mitzvos as they occur in each weekly Torah-reading. Lists and summaries and things like that appeal to me, and I feel that knowing the mitzvos in each parshah is way of boiling it down to its essence. This week's parshah has three mitzvos from the 613 mitzvos (as enumerated by Maimonides), two positive and one negative. The positives: Taking challah, and wearing tzitzis. The negative, as the Sefer HaChinuch puts it, "not to go straying after one's heart and eyes." That seems to need a little explanation. The "heart" part seems to be entertaining thoughts that might lead to meenus--heresy, let's say. The "eyes" part has to do with entertaining physical desires for things forbidden by the Torah. That was easy, right? Just wait. Some parshas have a great many more mitzvos.

Iran's PressTV whitewashes Hungary's far-right Jobbik party

If you haven't been following Jobbik, here is the Wikipedia article. PressTV is happy to take all their ranting about "Zionists" at face-value: "Anti-Zionist demonstration held in Budapest":

About 1,000 people attended the demonstration, which was organized by the anti-Zionist Jobbik party, in the Hungarian capital on Saturday.

Senior figures from the opposition Jobbik party condemned the decision to hold the fourteenth conference of the World Jewish Congress in Budapest, which is scheduled to kick off on Sunday.

"Israeli conquerors, investors, and expansionists should look for a country in another part of the world because Hungary is not for sale," Jobbik party leader Gabor Vona said at the demonstration.

The event was held despite Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s efforts to ban it. Orban will be giving a speech at the opening session of the World Jewish Congress conference.

“Anyone who criticizes the policies of Israel or the spread of Zionism is labeled an anti-Semite so that the sins of Zionism can be covered up,” Hungarian MP Marton Gyongyosi told the protesters, adding,

"Our country has become subjugated to Zionism, it has become a target of colonization, while we, the indigenous people, can play only the role of extras," Gyongyosi, who is also a member of Jobbik, said.

"Rodong Sinmun Condemns S. Korean Puppet Group for Hurting Dignity of DPRK Supreme Leadership"

How did the South Koreans "hurt the dignity of DPRK Supreme Leadership"? They evidently set pictures of the various Kims on fire.

The south Korean puppet group committed a thrice-cursed hideous crime of holding an anti-DPRK rally in downtown Seoul and dare torching portraits of great men symbolic of the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK, not content with viciously slandering the celebrations held in the DPRK to mark the Day of the Sun.

Rodong Sinmun Wednesday says in a bylined commentary in this regard:

It is none other than the south Korean puppet group of hooligans who are bereft of the elementary etiquette and morality, to say nothing of the nation's pride and self-esteem.

The puppet group let loose a spate of vituperation against the celebrations of the Day of the Sun and mobilized gangsters to hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK in the center of Seoul. This is an open declaration of a war against the DPRK.

Their recent act has almost triggered off a nuclear war.

No one can turn back to the present situation on the Korean Peninsula that has already crossed the threshold of a war.

To be included in the targets of retaliation are Seoul, the hotbed of politically-motivated provocation, those directly or indirectly involved in the operation of hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and the puppet authorities and their bosses who instigated the perpetrators and connived at their crime. They are already destined to meet punishment.

We can never live with the puppet group under the same sky.

The army and the people of the DPRK will wipe out the group of traitors who committed the thrice-cursed unpardonable crime and give vent to their pent-up grudge through powerful retaliation action without notice and immediate start of just military operation.

"Immediate start"? So it should have happened by now? This is probably all bluster, but it would be insane to allow their nuclear program to get any more advanced.

"Kim Jong Un Praised by World" (Korean News)

"By World"? Even Imperialists?

One year has passed since the dear respected Kim Jong Un was elected first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK.

The whole world extended warmest congratulations to him upon hearing the news of the Fourth Conference of the WPK and the Fifth Session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK.

He was presented with congratulatory messages and letters, floral baskets and bouquets by party and state leaders, prominent figures, political parties and organizations of China, Russia, Cuba, South Africa and various other countries and international and regional bodies.

He got a floral basket from Mahmoud Abbas according to this.

The Socialist Party of Benin convened a special enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau and adopted a decision on registering him as honorary party member.

Political parties, organizations and figures of different countries in their statements paid highest tribute to him.

The exciting news enlivened the celebrations of the centenary of birth of President Kim Il Sung (the Day of the Sun) held in different parts of the world with splendor.

The World Conference on the Juche Idea held in Pyongyang adopted the Pyongyang Declaration which evinced the will to remain true to the idea and leadership of Kim Jong Un to the last.

The participants in the international festival for celebrating the centenary of birth of Kim Il Sung and the events marking the anniversaries of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK and other significant events highly lauded the undying feats Kim Jong Un performed by putting the DPRK on the status of a proud satellite manufacturer and launcher and a nuclear weapons state.

Organizations of different countries and international and regional organizations and foreigners presented him with orders, silk banners, certificates of honorary titles and gifts.

More than 12,000 media of the world vied with each other to give wide publicity to his ceaseless inspection of the front and field guidance to different fields.

Fileds need guidance.

"U.S. Slammed for Slandering DPRK's Nukes: Minju Joson" (Korean News)

Can one slander nukes? North Korea thinks so:

U.S. high-ranking politicians are letting loose a spate of invectives, terming the DPRK's access to nuclear weapons "a violation of the UN Security Council's resolutions" and "threat to global peace and security". They are appeasing the DPRK, blustering that if it gives up nukes, the U.S. will "have dialogue with north Korea and think of providing economic aid".

Minju Joson Friday says in a bylined commentary in this regard:

Lurking behind the U.S. outbursts is a vicious aim to distort the nature of the DPRK's nukes in a bid to tarnish its international image, lay an international siege to it and stifle it, the news analyst notes, and goes on:

The DPRK's access to nukes is an exercise of the legitimate right to self-defence and so, no one is entitled to slander them.

Nevertheless, the U.S. is taking issue with the DPRK over its access to nuclear weapons. This reveals the U.S. extreme disheartened spirit and fit as its hostile policy toward the DPRK does not work on.

We neither read others' face over the nuclear force nor feel any need to gain others' approval in bolstering it in quality and quantity.

The DPRK will dynamically advance without hesitation true to the line set forth by the Workers' Party of Korea on simultaneously pushing forward the economic construction and the building of nuclear force no matter what others may say and no matter how the situation may change.

To try to change this strategic line based on the strong faith is a foolish ambition.

A Qassam paragraph from a Qassam guy

Juan Cole's writing is best appreciated in single paragraphs. Here is a choice recent one:

Gaza’s population is roughly that of Houston, where 217 people were murdered last year. Gaza’s Palestinians are far, far less violent. A few young militants send tiny home made rockets (not katyushas) over the border and almost never hit anything. (Occasionally they smuggle in a real rocket; but those don’t typically hit much either.) The Israelis justify their air strikes and other actions with reference to what they call terrorism but Palestinians call resistance. Israel offers the Palestinians nothing for making peace, and even punishes the suckers who sometimes negotiate.

Take a bow, Juan.

"More Local Army-People Meetings Held to Support Statement of KPA Supreme Command" (Korean News)

I think those "monuments to the immortality of the great Generalissimos Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il" are statues. Part of the hysteria expressed in the article involves the perception that those all-important statues (the ones that they are always putting floral baskets in front of) might be targets in an exchange of fire with South Korea. By the way, the North Korean government-controlled press has been using phrases like "merciless annihilating strike" (directed at "imperialists," of course) for years:

Army-people meetings were held in South Phyongan, Jagang and South Hamgyong provinces Monday to support the statement of the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army and win victory in all people's final decisive battle against the aggressors including the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet group of traitors.

Speeches were made by representatives of the KPA, the Worker-Peasant Red Guards, the Young Red Guards and the discharged soldiers.

The speakers said that all the service personnel and people are fully determined to demonstrate the dignity and power of Songun Korea in the spirit of annihilating the enemies, upon hearing the statement of the KPA Supreme Command and the news that the dear respected Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un convened an urgent operation meeting on the Strategic Rocket Force's performance of duty on firepower strike.

They declared that they would devotedly protect the monuments to the immortality of the great Generalissimos Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, symbols of the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK, eternally hold them in high esteem and defend Kim Jong Un at the cost of their lives.

They stressed the need for the service personnel to round off their combat methods and operations in the direction of increasing the pivotal role of the nuclear force in all aspects of war deterrence and strategy for fighting a war and to wipe out the enemies at a single strike once they dare come in attack.

The members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards and the Young Red Guards should tightly hold their arms and deal sledge-hammer blows at the enemies, so they may not run riot again, and devote their youth and lives to the fight for the party and leader, the country and its people, they noted.

They underlined the need for the discharged soldiers to wipe out the reckless U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet group of traitors to the last man by giving full play to the wisdom and courage of each beating a hundred enemies which they had cultivated during the days of military service.

The meetings were followed by the demonstrations of their participants.

They're having a sort of reality-hemorrage.

There are so many ways to lie for the truly creative liar

I hope you have been following the latest developments on the Mifta-affair at EOZ. As you will recall, Hanan Ashrawi's Miftah published an essay--in Arabic and over Passover--berating Obama for holding a Passover-seder ("Does Obama in fact know the relationship, for example, between 'Passover' and 'Christian blood' ..?!"). The indefatigable Elder of Ziyon pointed it out, only to be subjected to a thoroughly dishonest counter-attack as the essay was hastily deleted. Why, the offending essay was only published in the interests of free debate, and it only "briefly addressed" the blood-libel, and Miftah is being subjected to a "smear campaign," and it was only removed to "avoid misunderstanding."

Further bad publicity for Miftah and its many respectable enablers ensued, and now suddenly Miftah appears as contrite, newly appreciative of the "disgusting and repulsive phenomena of blood libel or accusation" and ready with the helpful explanation that "the article was accidentally and incorrectly published by a junior staff member." What emerges from all this, I hope you notice, is Miftah's subtle, many-hued, seemingly inexhaustible ability to vary its lying strategy. (The blood libel of the original article, let us recall, is a lie to begin with in the service of Israel-bashing propaganda.) Hats off to Hanan--you have to admire the virtuosity of it all.