"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.

Chag kasher v'sameach!

I usually don't post on Chol HaMo'eid. See you when it's all over.

"DPRK Army and People Ready for All-out Action" (Korean News)

Best bluster in the business:

Servicepersons of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have been put on a high alert for all-out action, only awaiting an order from Supreme Commander Marshal Kim Jong Un.

Written on their military hardware is a slogan "Annihilate the U.S. imperialist aggressors, the sworn enemy of the Korean people!"

The slogan represents the DPRK army's steadfast will to exterminate the U.S. imperialists, who have inflicted untold miseries and sufferings upon the Korean nation since the intrusion of their aggression ship "General Sherman" into the Taedong River in 1866.

In the period of the last Korean War (1950-1953), the U.S. imperialists slaughtered many Koreans in a most brutal way. They killed more than 35 000 inhabitants in Sinchon County alone by way of skinning off and dismembering.

Although it has been 60 years after the ceasefire, the DPRK people's resentment against the U.S. imperialists is running higher as the days go by. Now is the time for them to finally settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists.

Should the U.S. imperialists intrude into the territorial waters, air and land of DPRK even 0.001mm, its armed forces and people will annihilate the aggressors with strong retaliatory strikes and achieve the final victory in the long-standing showdown with the U.S.

Angry Arab takes the Chavez "assassination" seriously

My take on AA up to this point has been that he is intelligent but that on the subject of Israel, "hatred is the functional equivalent of stupidity." Now I'm not so sure. He takes the possibility of some conspiracy's causing Chavez's cancer seriously enough to consult an "expert." Here is a telling bit from the reply:

In theory, carcinogens, agents that cause the initiation of cancer, can be applied as a weapon. Carcinogens are employed in experimental animals to study cancer initiation and progression. However, cancers take a (long) while to develop, and the impact of using a carcinogen cannot be carefully targeted. If applied in large doses, they can cause cancer development in multiple tissues. These uncertainties limit their usefulness as an assassination tool (if it is going to take a few years for someone to die as a consequence of their use, then they would be too blunt of an instrument).

Far more useful and clever to my mind has been the use of Polonium 210 as an assassination tool. It is difficult to detect and decays naturally over time. Arafat was probably assassinated that way.

Right, as if that old bag of corruption needed a push to help him out the door. Oh well, maybe the actual functional equivalent of stupidity is . . . stupidity.

"Venezuela accuses US of having infected Chavez with cancer virus" (PressTV-Iran)

I'll tell you something, they could not have chosen a more appropriate victim for the cancer raygun:

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro has announced the expulsion of two US embassy officials for allegedly spying on the country’s military, accusing Washington of having infected late President Hugo Chavez with the cancer virus.

Maduro charged the US administration in a televised speech on Tuesday, after holding an emergency meeting with high military command and civilian leaders and hours before the announcement of President Chavez’s death.

Caracas accused the US embassy’s Air Force attache, Colonel David Delmonaco, and assistant air attache, Major Devlin Kostal, of trying to stir up a military plot against the Venezuelan government.

Washington confirmed that the two officials were employed at the embassy, saying Delmonaco was en route back to the US, and Kostal was in America at the time. Maduro also said that, “We have no doubt” that the President’s cancer, first diagnosed in 2011, was induced by “the historical enemies of our homeland,” a thinly-veiled reference to the US.

He compared the situation to the death of the late leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, who Maduro claimed was “inoculated with an illness.”

US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a statement that Washington “definitely rejects” the assertion that the US was involved in Chavez’s illness.

On Tuesday, the 58-year-old Venezuelan leader died after a two-year battle with cancer.

Back in 2011, Chavez had accused the US of developing a technology for infecting Latin American leaders with cancer.

Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner Fernandez, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and former Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo have all received treatment for cancer disease.

“Wouldn't it be weird if they [the US] had developed a technology for inducing cancer and nobody knows up until now?” Chavez had said at the time.

A current Juan Cole paragraph

In which we learn that AIPAC wants Israel to bomb "civilian nuclear enrichment facilities."

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which ought to be a registered foreign agent, opens its annual conference in Washington today. Its three big goals right now are to make sure US government aid to Israel is exempted from the across the board budget cuts of the sequester; to make sure Israel can with impunity go on stealing Palestinian land in the West Bank; and to get permission from Congress for the Israeli Air Force to bomb Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment facilities.

Juan Cole's post about the Hagel confirmation

The title is "Hagel Confirmed, but Bloodied by American Nationalists Seeking Wars & World Dominance." Here is the first paragraph or so:

The GOP senators have their own foreign policy, and it isn’t the same as that of President Obama or Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.

For them, the US is a 900 pound behemoth that can boss the world around with its high-tech military at will. Their foreign policy is to shoot first and ask questions later, to cowboy it all alone, to never have regrets and never question American supremacy. They believe in a civilizational hierarchy, with Americans at the top of it, and for some of them ‘Americans’ means white Americans.

So we now have Pat Buchanan (but without the intelligence) for Secretary of State, and Juan is pleased. All that excoriating rhetoric about Republicans means that he's happy.

Gilad Atzmon at PressTV: "BDS takes stance against George Galloway to please its Zionist masters"

With Gilad, every day is Purim.

With BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), it’s never boring. Although formed initially to mount pressure on Israel, increasingly BDS campaigns are now, bit by bit, focusing on silencing any pro-Palestinian voice with an IQ over 90.

For the BDS leadership, intellect is a threat - and they may be right.

For a year now, we have noted BDS’ repeated assaults on leading activists and intellects such as Ken O’Keefe, Prof. Norman Finkelstein, Alison Weir, Greta Berlin, Daniel Barenboim, yours truly and many others. But this weekend, the BDS found a new potential punch-bag: British MP George Galloway.

On Wednesday, MP Galloway walked out of a debate at Christ Church, Oxford. Galloway was upset to find that he was about to be in debate with an Israeli. "I was misinformed" he said. "I don't debate with Israelis. I don't recognise Israel." Galloway later wrote on Twitter "No recognition, No normalisation. Just Boycott, divestment, sanctions."

Now surely, Galloway’s reaction, though impulsive, must be accepted or at least understood by Palestinians and their advocates. Not so, it seems. The ‘Jews in the movement’ were really distressed, so much so that Israeli BDS enthusiast Rachel Shabi confirmed on The Guardian yesterday that the BDS national committee was quick ‘to issue a statement’ to disassociate itself from Galloway’s attitude. It looks like the BDS Committee in Ramallah has, once again, had to bow to its paymasters.

On The Telegraph Toby Young maintained the exact same line. “Following George Galloway's dramatic exit from an Oxford University debate” Young wrote, A leading Palestinian organisation (BDS) has issued a press release saying it doesn’t condone boycotting individuals.” Young concludes, “It seems the Respect MP hasn't simply lost the respect of his political opponents after his antics at the Oxford debate. He's losing the respect of his political allies, too.” Somebody in Ramallah better advise us why did BDS joined the Hasbara campaign against MP Galloway. Seemingly in the BDS committee they are yet to grasp the notion of solidarity.

The BDS statement, brilliantly original as ever, reads as follows:

“The global BDS movement has consistently adopted a rights-based approach and an anti-racist platform that rejects all forms of racism, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.”

Pretty impressive. Anti-racism is certainly important except that Galloway did not once refer to Jews or to race. He referred to Israel and refused to debate an Israeli national. Now, I happen to think that Galloway was wrong but still, his decision, a purely political one, was entirely legitimate.

Interestingly, BDS leader Omar Barghouti is not exactly himself much of an anti-racist. In fact, it has amply demonstrated what a banal, racist mind he has. Recall how last year Barghouti was caught on video exploring some extremely vile, racist, biological determinist terminology when this essentially banal mind launched an attack on the White race.

For a while, Barghouti’s open racism bewildered me but I then realised that this Palestinian petty Marxist probably fell asleep during the relevant lesson and missed the most important bit. Israel is not South Africa and it is not the ‘White State’ or the ‘White man’ who plunders Palestine, it is actually the ‘Jewish state.’

In her Guardian article, Israeli Rachel Shabi explained in the clearest of terms why she has a problem with Galloway. “One reason that many left-leaning Jews don't join the BDS movement is precisely because the boycott is perceived to be about rage against people, rather than an effective political tool.” There you go, plain and clear, according to Shabi BDS is there to appease the ‘Left-leaning Jews’. It is not about Palestine or the Palestinians, not even about justice or universalism, it is just a ‘political tool’. In fact, this clumsy statement by Shabi may explain why more and more of us regard the BDS, in its current form, as nothing short of a ‘controlled opposition’ dominated by Jewish tribal interests. (According to some Israeli sources, it is also largely funded by liberal Zionist George Soros’ Open Society.)

But here are some critical questions for the BDS Committee, Shabi and Soros. Do you really want to form a totalitarian movement dominated by an intellectually lame ‘big brother’ that will tell us exactly what we may talk about and how we may express ourselves? Do you really want to turn Palestine into a synagogue and the solidarity movement into a yeshiva? Does the prospect of intellectual and spiritual freedom not appeal to you? After decades of abuse, don’t the Palestinian people deserve freedom?

Let me be clear. I believe that BDS is a force for good but BDS leadership had better reflect a little and start to focus on the real enemies of justice and of Palestine rather than harassing the most dedicated voices in this discourse.

But still, one question is still unresolved. Almost a year ago we discovered that BDS had compromised the most fundamental of Palestinian rights: the Right of Return. In an entirely underhand way the BDS National Committee had changed the wording of its mission statement from demanding that Israel ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands to its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967.

BDS made this change without alerting its affiliated organization. In fact an Israeli BDS activist confirmed to me that the change was made to appease the ‘Jews in the movement’. However, in spite of the wide publicising of this strange conduct by BDS, the organisation has, to date, failed to clarify its position. For more than 8 months since this crucial question was raised, BDS remains silent - but it took the BDS Committee in Ramallah less than five hours to react to Galloway and to disassociate itself from him.

The message is clear. BDS, in its current form, is an occupied territory. If it wants to save itself, (and I hope it does), it must be de-Zionised - and immediately. If it fails to do this, it will be remembered as possibly the most repugnantly treacherous chapter in the history of the Palestinian struggle. And this is indeed painful and tragic.

That's an interesting claim about Barghouti. I'll have to see if I can look into it.

Update: Here is that video.

"IRGC Tests Suicide Drones, Modern Warfare Units' Capabilities in Wargames" (Fars)

We learn that "IRGC forces also tested targeting hypothetical enemies' drones." Drones of hypothetical enemies? Or hypothetical drones? Only the mind behind those shades knows for sure.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force tested different asymmetric tactics and various types of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs), including its suicide drones, as well as its special modern warfare units on the first day of the massive wargames underway in Iran's Southeastern province of Kerman on Saturday.

The IRGC Ground Force started massive wargames, codenamed Payambar-e Azam 8 (The Great Prophet 8), which include exercising different defense tactics, in Southern Iran on Saturday.

"For the first time, our special modern warfare task forces are conducting specialized operations," Spokesman of the Wargames General Hamid Sarkheili told reporters, elaborating on the missions and goals of the drills.

Sarkheili said the IRGC forces also tested targeting hypothetical enemies' drones, and used different types of UAVs in the wargames.

"In the other phases of the wargames, the reconnaissance as well as suicide drones, which are capable of attacking the enemies, have been used and their operational capabilities came under assessment," the spokesman noted.

He added that IRGC drones are now monitoring the moves of the hypothetical enemy in the wargame zone, while electronic warfare units are wiretapping enemy communications.

Earlier this month, Commander of the IRGC Ground Force Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour had informed the media that the massive wargames would be held in Iran's Southeastern regions of Kerman, Siriz and Sirjan.

The IRGC drills are aimed at maintaining and improving the combat preparedness of the IRGC Ground Forces, testing the latest combat systems of the IRGC Ground Force and exercising different asymmetric warfare tactics.

"Amnesty International believes that the Memorandum of Understanding 'is an important contribution to the quest of justice'"

"Argentina's International Amnesty Politics and Justice Area coordinator" is an Amnesty International official speaking in an official capacity? It would be nice to see this reported widely enough to embarrass Amnesty International's central whatever into confirming or denying it. I'm not holding my breath, however.

Leah Tandeter, Argentina's International Amnesty Politics and Justice Area coordinator, defined today the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Argentina and Iran “as an important contribution to the quest of justice and reparation for the victims” of the 1994 Amia terrorist attack, because “it is Constitutional and respects the domestic legislations”.

During a dialogue with Buenos Aires Radio Nacional, she said that “from Amnesty International we believe that this agreement expresses both countries´will to advance in the elucidation of the AMIA attack”.

The agreement, she added, “makes possible the inquiries in Teheran and besides it creates the Commission of Truth, which will be made up by high-profile jurists of renowned prestige”.

Regarding the debate at the Argentine Senate yesterday, she said that “it is very healthy to have such a broad debate on such an important document, since it is within the Congress’s powers to approve this kind of agreements".

"U.S., S. Korean Provocations Push Situation to Brink of War" (Korean News)

Hmmm, the "Brink of War." Are your regular news sources keeping you up to date on how bellicose and threatening North Korean rhetoric is these days?

The U.S. and the south Korean puppet regime are busy staging madcap war drills in south Korea this month in their wake in January.

Anti-submarine naval maneuvers were kicked off in the East Sea of Korea on Feb. 19 with the U.S. forces and the south Korean puppet armed forces involved. "Winter-season combined maneuvers" of the U.S. Marines and the south Korean Marine Corps have been under way this month. A drill for gearing up for wartime operations has been staged between the U.S. 7th Air Force and the south Korean air force operational command since Feb. 12.

The 20th Division and the 55th Division of the south Korean ground force launched "a drill in biting cold" in the areas of Ryoju and Yangphyong of Kyonggi Province on Feb. 18 and it will last till Feb. 28 and its unit 6953 is now staging a ground drill in the area of Mugon-ri, Phaju City, Kyonggi Province.

The war exercises being staged by the U.S. and south Korea in the sky, land and sea from the outset of the year are serious military provocations pushing the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region to the brink of a total war as they are aimed at invading the north to all intents and purposes.

What merits attention is that these drills are under way in the areas similar to forefront areas and the north's strategic vantage points.

The programs of the drills involve river crossing, precision strike, infiltration by use of skis and mobile drills for carrying out the scenarios for invading the north.

Also involved in the drills are warships equipped with new type cruise missiles capable of striking various areas of the DPRK and Northeast Asia.

What should not be overlooked is that the U.S. and the south Korean group of traitors are letting loose a spate of invectives hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK such as "calls for bringing down its social system" and "making a precision strike at the windows of the office of the north's headquarters", kicking up war atmosphere.

All these facts go to clearly prove that the military drills are the war exercises for mounting a surprise preemptive attack and nuclear war drills being staged in pursuance of their heinous hostile policy to stifle the DPRK.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region has reached an extremely dangerous phase owing to the hostile forces which are kicking up evermore frantic anti-DPRK racket over its satellite launch for peaceful purposes and its nuclear activities for self-defence.

Their noisy war drumbeats are a blatant challenge to the efforts of the international community to defend global peace and security as they are a product of their strategic scenarios to hold hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region including Northeast Asia.

Their claim that those war maneuvers are to cope with the additional provocation of the north is no more than sheer rhetoric to pass the buck for the escalating military tension on the peninsula and in the region to the DPRK and justify their acts of aggression.

If they ignite a war on this land, the army and the people of the DPRK will not miss the gold chance but deal decisive and deadly retaliatory blows at them and blow up the strongholds of aggression and thus achieve the historic victory in the war for the country's reunification.

"After listening to the historic speech made by Kim Jong Un with great excitement, the participants in the meeting extended highest glory and deepest thanks to Kim Jong Un, who is ushering in the greatest heyday of increasing the military capability with his extraordinary wisdom and stratagem, matchless grit and pluck and noble virtues"

And that isn't even the whole sentence:

An enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea was held under the guidance of Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the WPK, chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK, first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army.

Present there were members of the WPK Central Military Commission, staff members of the KPA Supreme Command and commanding officers of the large combined units including the navy, air force and anti-air force and strategic rocket force.

The enlarge meeting of the WPK Central Military Commission discussed the issue of bringing about a great turn in bolstering up the military capability, true to the Songun revolutionary leadership of the WPK, and an organizational issue.

Kim Jong Un made an important concluding speech which serves as guidelines for further strengthening the KPA into a matchless revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu and defending the security and sovereignty of the country as required by the WPK and the developing revolution.

After listening to the historic speech made by Kim Jong Un with great excitement, the participants in the meeting extended highest glory and deepest thanks to Kim Jong Un, who is ushering in the greatest heyday of increasing the military capability with his extraordinary wisdom and stratagem, matchless grit and pluck and noble virtues and evinced their firm determination to unconditionally and thoroughly implement the militant tasks set forth by him in his speech.

The enlarged meeting of the WPK Central Military Commission held at an important time when a turning phase is being opened in building a thriving socialist nation and achieving the cause of national reunification will mark an important occasion in powerfully encouraging the army and people of the DPRK all out in the general advance of the new year full of conviction of certain victory and optimism and bolstering up the defence capability of the country in every way.