How Palestine’s uprising inspired Egypt’s

In the 1990s, one could only whisper Hosni Mubarak’s name. Political talk or jokes were avoided in phone calls. This year, millions of Egyptians fought for 18 days against their aging tyrant, braving the police troops firing teargas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. People in Egypt have lost their fear, but it did not happen overnight. The Egyptian revolution, rather than coming out of the blue on 25 January 2011, is a result of a process that has been brewing over the previous decade — a chain reaction to the autumn 2000 protests in solidarity with the Palestinian intifada.

Mubarak’s iron-fist rule and the outbreak of the dirty war between the regime and Islamist militants in the 1990s meant the death of street dissent. Public gatherings and street protests were banned and if they did take place, confronted by force. Live ammunition was used on strikers. Trade unions were put under government control.

Only after the Palestinian intifada broke out in September 2000 did tens of thousands of Egyptians take to the streets in protest — probably for the first time since 1977. Although those demonstrations were in solidarity with the Palestinians, they soon gained an anti-regime dimension, and police showed up to quell the peaceful protests. The president, however, remained a taboo subject, and I rarely heard anti-Mubarak chants.

I recall the first time I heard protesters en masse chanting against the president in April 2002, during the pro-Palestinian riots around Cairo University. Battling the notorious central security forces, protesters were chanting in Arabic: “Hosni Mubarak is just like [Ariel] Sharon.”

The anger was to explode on an even larger scale with the outbreak of the war on Iraq in March 2003. More than 30,000 Egyptians fought the police in downtown Cairo, briefly taking over Tahrir Square, and burning down Mubarak’s billboard.

The scenes aired by Al Jazeera and other satellite networks of the Palestinian revolt or the US-led onslaught on Iraq inspired activists across Egypt to pull down the wall of fear brick by brick. It was in 2004 that pro-Palestinian and anti-war campaigners launched the Kefaya movement, which took on the president and his family.

Though it failed to create a mass following among the working class and the urban poor, Kefaya’s use of both social and mainstream media helped shift the political culture in the country. Millions of Egyptians, while sitting at home, could watch those daring young activists in downtown Cairo mocking the president, raising banners with slogans that were unimaginable a decade before.

In December 2006, workers at the biggest textile mill in the Middle East, located in the Nile delta town of Mahala, went on strike. The action followed two decades of a lull in the industrial struggle, caused by repression and by an aggressive neoliberal program that had the blessing of the IMF and the World Bank. Following their victory, which received widespread media coverage, a wave of strikes engulfed the textile sector, with workers in other mills demanding the same gains as those of Mahala. The industrial militancy was soon to spill over into other sectors of the economy. Images of the strikes, aired via both social and mainstream media, meant millions of workers could gradually overcome their fears, and organize protests inspired by news of victories of strikes in other sectors. As a journalist covering the strike wave in 2007, I frequently heard from strikers: “We were encouraged to move after we heard of Mahala.”

Though scoffed at by some as only economic, the strike wave was political in essence. In April 2008, a mini revolt took place in the city of Mahala over the price of bread. Security forces put down the uprising in two days, leaving at least three dead and hundreds detained and tortured. The scenes from what became known as the “Mahala intifada” could have constituted a dress rehearsal for what happened in 2011, with protesters taking down Mubarak’s posters, battling the police troops in the streets, and challenging the symbols of the much-hated National Democratic party. Soon after, a similar revolt took place in the city of al-Borollos, north of the Nile delta.

Though these uprisings were quelled, the country continued to witness almost on a daily basis strikes and sit-ins by workers, and smaller demonstrations by activists in downtown Cairo and the provinces. Protesting workers in the spring and winter of 2010 occupied the area around parliament, in what local columnists described as a “Cairo Hyde Park.”

Those daily economic and political struggles against the state meant the legitimacy of Mubarak’s regime was rapidly eroding, if it ever really existed.

By October 2010, there was definitely something in the air. It became normal to bump into a strike here or there while heading to work. Civil servants heading home from the office would pass by activists holding small protests in downtown Cairo. They looked, and very occasionally reacted. But they were witnessing visual displays of daily dissent.

Tunisia then went through its own revolt, overthrew a tyrant, and, more importantly, the revolution was televised to millions of viewers in Egypt and elsewhere, largely via Al Jazeera again. This was only one of many catalysts — daily incidents of police brutality provided many others.

The uprising that started on 25 January 2011 was the result of a long process in which the wall of fear fell, bit by bit. The key to it all was that the actions on the ground were visually transmitted to the widest possible audience. Nothing aids the erosion of one’s fear more than knowing there are others, somewhere else, who share the same desire for liberation — and have started taking action.

Source article by Hossam el-Hamalawy, of The Electronic Intifada is located here.

P.S. It may appear to some that the Ugly Truth is that Palestinians' persistence in protesting their in-humane plight living under the thumb of zionism for 60 years is all for naught. Having to witness such inhumanity that their country was very much responsible for was very much a factor contributing to the Egyptians protesting to throw off their own zionist yolk. What was really ugly in truth was pooh poohing the Egyptian protesters dupes in a zionist plot instead letting them know there were others somewhere else in the world supporting their brave efforts.

Ireland's Pencil Revolution

Ireland’s election called a “transformative moment” in nation’s history: a “pencil revolution” at the ballot box

- The Fianna Fail party has been annihilated at the polls: the party locked Ireland into an 85 billion euro loan from the EU/IMF at an interest rate of 6% and relinquished sovereignty

- New government has just days to stop transfer of tax payer money to foreign bondholders following draconian EU/IMF budget passed in December

- 85% of the income tax revenue will be used to service the EU/IMF loan by 2012 in an economic Blitzkrieg

- EU insists Ireland must pay banks setting stage for “collision” with new Irish government

- Spirit of independence of 1916 awakening as country faces crushing taxation without representation by imperial-style EU administration

Irish voters have delivered “electoral Armageddon” to the Fianna Fail government that saddled tax payers with the obligation to pay interest on a mountain of private bank debt.

Interest on the national debt is set to consume a 85% of the country’s income tax revenues by 2012, according to The Telegraph.

Fine Gael won the most seats in the 166-seat Dáil at 76 and looks set to form a government with the Labour party, which won around 37 seats. Sinn Fein trebled its seats to win 15, including Donegal South West.

Fianna Fail was relegated to the wilderness with 20 seats in an annihilation of historical proportions for the first government in the eurozone to lock its people into an EU/IMF loan.

The stunning ousting of the country’s ruling party that has ruled for 61 of the past 80 years has been called the “pencil revolution” and compared with the uprisings in the Middle East but without bloody street battles.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/elections/comment-analysis/lise-hand-our-uprising-brought-down-ff-with-pencil-revolution-2559045.html

Fine Gael and Labour leaders met today to discuss at top speed how to deal with the interest payments on the EU/IMF loan.

Money will be taken from the Irish tax payers very fast in an economic “Blitzkrieg”. The EU/IMF have plans to repay 60 per cent of holders of non-guaranteed, unsecured senior bonds by the end of 2012, with bondholders getting €5.7bn this year and €7bn in 2012.

Banks have already received €53bn, or 33 per cent of GDP, since 2008. At the same time, GDP contracted by 11 per cent between 2007 and 2010.

The high voter turn-out at the election of 70% and the wipe out of FF at the polls suggests that the population has understood that corruption among the Irish and EU political and financial elite have caused the worst economic collapse in modern Ireland’s history, and want a government that shows the steely spirit of 1916 to rescue the country.

Polls show huge numbers of voters described themselves as “very angry” and “outraged at what is, in effect, the biggest transfer of wealth from the people of Ireland to foreign entities in history under the pretext of having to pay interest on a paper debt.

Vienna Economics Professor Franz Hörmann explained in a report in Der Standard how banks can create money– and also debt — out of thin air using the fractional reserve banking system. He also explained how they can use the fair value accounting rule to amass fraudulent losses on their books that can also be used as a pretext to suck real capital from taxpayers as long as government leaders acquiesce in the fraud.

The FF government and ECB helped fuel a property bubble by easy credit and they subsequently burst the bubble.

The ensuing property losses gave the banks a pretext to declare themselves in liquidity problems and get billions in real capital in the form of tax payer money in return for paper losses.

The EU and IMF are insisting that Irish taxpayers hand over their money to foreign bondholders at a brutal pace, leaving a new government little time to reverse the biggest transfer of wealth from the country to foreign entities in history before key summits in March.

“The cost of servicing Irish bank debt and the EU-IMF bank loans will consume 85 per cent of Ireland’s income tax revenue by 2012, a burden that a majority of voters find intolerable.,” reports Bruno Waterfield.

An average Irish family will have to pay about £3,900 a year in extra taxes , and most to the banks.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ireland/8349497/Irelands-new-government-on-a-collision-course-with-EU.html#

This burden comes after the FF leadership saddled the Irish people with private bank debt obligations which amount to about 135 billion in a backroom deal.

In November, 2010, FF locked the country into an 85 billion euro loan from the EU/IMF at an interest rate of about 6%. They also relinquished sovereignty to the EU and IMF and passed an EU/IMF budget in December 1010 to raise taxes by 5 billion and cut spending by 10 billion euros.

This triggered early elections and the wipe out of the FF party at the polls last Thursday in a warning to the EU and IMF and banks that voters have had enough.

Enda Kenny is set to attend at an EU summit on March 11, and on March 24 and 25.

Kenny has said he will try persuade his European counterparts to cut the interest rate on the EU loan. But it is not clear how this will help Ireland significantly given the size of the national debt and the pace at which it is being repaid.

According to EU officials, the Irish voters have no say, however, report the media. There will be taxation without representation in a development that puts the EU on the same footing as the colonial British empire.

The German and French government are pressing for an embryonic EU fiscal union, which is just another method for looting EU taxpayers who are increasingly opposing the extraction of their money by banks via the European Stability Fund.

The Irish people will never acquiesce in the open looting of their economy by the EU, German and French officials on behalf of the banks in what can only be described as an economic “Blitzkrieg” setting the scene for a collision, as the Telegraph reports.

Labour could reject Fine Gael and its polices on privatisation, austerity and income cuts and form a government with Sinn Fein and Independents and make a fresh start.

German economist Hans-Werner Sinn recently said that Greece should readopt the Drachma, recognizing that there is no way out of a eurozone country caught in the EU/IMF bank debt trap other than setting up a new currency and detaching a country’s economy from the blood sucking banks that control the apparatus of the EU government.

It should conduct an inquiry into the banking crisis and bring those responsible to account.

This was an economic crime comparable in the devastation it has wrecked to a war crime.

Ireland should strike out on a new path with full confidence, showing leadership and giving an example to the downtrodden people and tax slaves in the EU empire.

It freed itself from the grip of the British empire – and this is the same whatever mask or name the EU and IMF may give to their robbery of the Irish people.

With its back against the wall, Ireland has nothing to lose as it is. Following the EU and IMF path will result in the rapid and total destruction of the country.

The spirit of courage and independence of 1916 is surely required to make a clean break.

Any new Irish government should surely write off the paper bank debts, restructure the banks to separate the commercial from the investment or property arms and if it brings the eurozone currency built on debt to its knees in doing so, all the better.

Ireland is already entering a so-called debt-death spiral with soaring unemployment, falling tax receipts, growing mortgage defaults and banks requiring ever more bailouts, forcing the government to borrow more until it is finally pushed into a default.

Given the fact that euro is set to disintegrate anyway under inflationary pressures created by the way the ECB’s buying up the souvereign bonds of the growing numbers insolvent eurozone nations, Ireland would be advised to leave the euro altogether and adopt the punt again, something that would bolster its already strong export sector.

Source article is located here.

P.S. Me thinks it won't be long before the Irish hit the streets like the Tunisians, the Egyptians, the Lybians, the Wisconsinites, etc.... Hey! Is it the Ugly Truth that this is all a zionist plot to have everybody protesting their plight under jewish domination and tyranny so they can implement more police control to make the world safe for jewish bankers? You guys stop all that protesting now!

Pics of Glenn Beck's Wisconsin "Commie" Protesters

Jesus Challenged Empire

From the Sabeel Conference in Bethlehem (February 24, 2001): SABEEL CONFERENCE IN BETHLEHEM: JESUS CHALLENGED EMPIRE

Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh described "the 13 percent of Bethlehem that is the concentration camp we (Palestinians) are allowed to live in," while the remainder is either zoned restricted or is "illegally annexed." He said, "Israel continues building its Wall, which in Bethlehem is 60-70 percent complete." Qumsiyeh, a professor at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities, addressed "Mapping Empire Today in Palestine and Israel."

"Shedding fear is the most important part of people-power resistance," Qumsiyeh said. "State power requires fear," and it employs "unimaginable" tactics such as demolishing homes six and seven times.

As for "empire," we have to ask who is behind all this, Qumsiyeh said. "Greed and interests of greed that cannot be ignored. We must understand the biology of the disease we are facing so that we can treat it." Palestinians are facing world powers, not just another state, he said.

"Justice, peace, truth - these are not just words. Leaders blurt them unconsciously. I say as a Palestinian Christian, look to Jesus Christ. He was the first Palestinian martyr. He spoke Aramaic, a precursor to Arabic, and he was killed for acting, not just for saying these words," Qumsiyeh said.

The Rev. Mitri Raheb preached at the Wi'am Center, located next to the Separation Wall in Bethlehem. He spoke to the familiar text from the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth," saying it would more correctly be translated, "for they shall inherit the land." Raheb is the pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church and president of the Diyar Consortium in Bethlehem.

"We really think empire will last. Jesus says it will not," Raheb said. "How wise Jesus was. No one of Jesus' time would have imagined that Herod was not here to stay. Jesus tells us through this verse that we are released from the power of empire. Jesus speaks and empire has lost its power over us. We see it in the Arab world in these recent weeks. Young people saw that empire could be shattered. God won't do it alone, only with us."

Source

P.S. But, but then again, revolutions don't happen that way, and although it's true that Jesus honored peoples' faith by multiplying two fishes and five loaves of bread to feed thousands, the Ugly Truth is that God is unlikely to move in behalf of the duped, hapless protesters today.

Egyptians to march on Liberation Square

Millions of Egyptians are planning to continue their protests by flooding Cairo's Liberation square for a demonstration dubbed as 'cleansing Friday.'

Protesters have planned the rally for this Friday, as they say their demands have not been met, The Associated Press reported.

They want the military council to hand over power to a civilian government, and Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq's cabinet to resign.

"We will march in protest to demand the resignation of Shafiq's government and abolishing emergency law and the trial of Mubarak and his family," Mohamed Fahmy of the People's National Movement for Change said.

They are also calling for the immediate release of all political prisoners.

Fear is spreading that Vice President Omar Suleiman -- who was the right-hand-man of toppled President Hosni Mubarak -- is making the post-revolution decisions for the government. Reports indicate that he is dictating decisions to the military council.

After holding talks last week, activists accused Suleiman of being divisive and have refused to hold further negotiations. The Muslim Brotherhood has also cut contacts.

Suleiman disappeared from the public eye after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted last month. He was Egypt's intelligence chief for two decades before being appointed vice-president, maintaining a close relationship with the US and Israel all the while.

Source

P.S. The Egyptian people apparently aren't getting it or they're not buying the Ugly Truth that their protesting is all part of a zionist plot and they're all being duped. Don't you guys get it? The Ugly Truth is your protesting is all for nothing! The Ugly Truth is revolutions just don't happen this way. The Ugly Truth is tyrants aren't just going to give up their power by your protesting. The Ugly Truth is you're going to get hurt for nothing.

The truth is that the courage and tenacity of the Egyptian is to be celebrated, and it should be supported by people of good will everywhere... now!... rather than vaingloriously pooh poohing them as manipulated dopes... as if they were American Republican tea partiers.

P.P.S. Oh yes, it is true that Jesus honored peoples' faith by multiplying two fishes and five loaves of bread to feed thousands, but in this case, the Ugly Truth is that these protests are all in vain. Sorry, that's the Ugly Truth of it. I'm afraid the Ugly Truth is that God is unlikely to move in behalf of these duped, hapless protestors.

Soros Is Wrong, The Islamic Republic of Iran Will Survive and Benefit from the Arab Awakening

We take billionaire financier George Soros up on the bet he proffered to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria this week that “the Iranian regime will not be there in a year’s time.” In fact, we want to up the ante and wager that not only will the Islamic Republic still be Iran’s government in a year’s time, but that a year from now, the balance of influence and power in the Middle East will be tilted more decisively in Iran’s favor than it ever has been.

Just a decade ago, on the eve of the 9/11 attacks, the United States had cultivated what American policymakers like to call a strong “moderate” camp in the region, encompassing states reasonably well-disposed toward a negotiated peace with Israel and strategic cooperation with Washington: Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf states, as well as Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey. On the other side, the Islamic Republic had an alliance of some standing with Syria, as well as ties to relatively weak militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Other “radical” states like Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Muammar al-Qaddafi’s Libya were even more isolated.

Fast-forward to the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration as president of the United States, in January 2009. As a result of the Iraq war, the collapse of the Arab-Israeli peace process, and some fairly astute diplomacy by Iran and its regional allies, the balance of influence and power across the Middle East had shifted significantly against the United States. Scenarios for “weaning” Syria away from Iran were becoming ever more fanciful as relations between Damascus and Tehran became increasingly strategic in quality. Turkey, under the Justice and Development Party (AKP), was charting a genuinely independent foreign policy, including strategically consequential partnerships with Iran and Syria. Hamas and Hezbollah, legitimated by electoral successes, had emerged as decisively important political actors in Palestine and Lebanon. It was looking progressively less likely that post-Saddam Iraq would be a meaningful strategic asset for Washington and ever more likely that Baghdad’s most important relationships would be with Iran, Syria, and Turkey. And, increasingly, U.S. allies like Oman and Qatar were aligning themselves with the Islamic Republic and other members of the Middle East’s “resistance bloc” on high-profile issues in the Arab-Israeli arena — as when the Qatari emir flew to Beirut a week after the 2006 Lebanon war to pledge massive reconstruction assistance to Hezbollah strongholds in the south and publicly defended Hezbollah’s retention of its military capabilities.

On Obama’s watch, the regional balance of influence and power has shifted even further away from the United States and toward Iran and its allies. The Islamic Republic has continued to deepen its alliances with Syria and Turkey and expand its influence in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. Public opinion polls, for example, continue to show that the key leaders in the Middle East’s resistance bloc — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Assad, Lebanon’s Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas’s Khaled Mishaal, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — are all vastly more popular across the region than their counterparts in closely U.S.-aligned and supported regimes in Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and Saudi Arabia.

And, now, the Obama administration stands by helplessly as new openings for Tehran to reset the regional balance in its favor emerge in Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and perhaps elsewhere. If these “pro-American” Arab political orders currently being challenged or upended by significant protest movements become at all more representative of their populations, they will no doubt become less enthusiastic about strategic cooperation with the United States. And, if these “pro-American” regimes are not replaced by salafi-dominated Islamist orders, the Arab governments that emerge from the present turmoil are likely to be at least somewhat receptive to Iran’s message of “resistance” and independence from Israel and the West.

Certainly, any government in Cairo that is even mildly more representative than Hosni Mubarak’s regime will not be willing to keep collaborating with Israel to enforce the siege of Gaza or to continue participating in the CIA’s rendition program to bring Egyptians back to Egypt to be tortured. Likewise, any political order in Bahrain that respected the reality of that country’s Shiite-majority population would be firmly opposed to the use of its territory as a platform for U.S. military action against Iranian interests.

Over the next year, all these developments will shift the regional balance even more against the United States and in favor of Iran. If Jordan — a loyal U.S. client state — were to come into play during this period, that would tilt things even further in Iran’s direction.

Against this, Soros, other American elites, the media, and the Obama administration all assert that the wave of popular unrest that is taking down one U.S. ally in the Middle East after another will now bring down the Islamic Republic — and perhaps the Assad government in Syria, too. This is truly a triumph of wishful thinking over thoughtful analysis.

...the Obama administration’s post-Ben Ali, post-Mubarak approach to Iran is putting important U.S. interests in serious jeopardy. It is putting at risk, first of all, the possibility of dealing constructively with an increasingly influential Islamic Republic in Iran. More broadly, at precisely the time when the United States needs to figure out how to deal with legitimate, genuinely independent Islamist movements and political orders, which are the most likely replacements for “pro-American” autocracies across the Middle East, the Obama administration’s approach to Iran is taking U.S. policy in exactly the opposition direction.

The United States faces serious challenges in the Middle East. Its strategic position in this vital part of the world is eroding before our eyes. Indulging in fantasies about regime change in Iran will only make the situation worse.

P.S. Read all of the source article here.

P.S. If all of the upheaval we're seeing unfold in the Middle East is due to some zionist master plan, those master planners are taking a terrible risks by letting so much truth and repressed sentiments vent themselves. They could lose control of things. Heaven knows they couldn't control things forever.

We just might see the unraveling of zionist hegemony in our time. It's possible. Minimally this is an educational moment for much of the world as so much truth that has been successfully suppressed for so long is now venting itself.

This is a positive moment. There is much to cheer, encourage and hope for. I'd sure hate to be one of those smart guys that are hanging their hats on the idea that all of this upheaval is just a zionist plot, and not be able to cheer on what was always inevitable because being right is more important than being with right.

From Tahrir Square to Shatila Camp. The Biggest Battlefield yet to come will be in the USA.

Overnight, the death toll among Egypt’s masses protesting for the overthrow of US-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak has risen to over 150 and thousands injured. With telecommunication services blacked out by the authorities (and willingly obliged by the telecoms corporations), it is hard to verify the exact casualty figures. But it is undeniable that a massacre is occurring. And it is a massacre made in the US.

The US public needs to be very clear about this. The armed forces of the Mubarak regime are now killing and maiming civilians with weapons that are made in the US and supplied by the US at the rate of $1.5 billion a year – for the last 30 years.

Mubarak’s regime could not carry out its violent repression without the material and political support of Washington. For 30 years, the Mubarak regime could not have impoverished its mass of people, subjected them to terror, illegal incarceration, torture and killing without the material and political support of Washington (and other Western governments).

Now bitter irony heaped upon bitter irony, the Israeli regime is reported to be sending weapons to its partner-in-crimes against humanity in Cairo to put down the popular uprising. Israel, which receives $4-5 billion a year from Washington to crush Palestinian Arabs, is sending its surplus of US-made and US-supplied weapons to crush Egyptian Arabs.

The bottom line is that US weapons, whether sent directly or indirectly, are being used to massacre civilians who are simply demanding democracy, economic justice and human rights.

With millions of citizens taking to the streets in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria – and reports of similar unrest in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere across the Middle East and North Africa, it can be fairly said that a revolution in popular awakening is underway. And it is clear that these people are demanding an overthrow of decades-long regimes that have denied them, often brutally, democracy. Simple as that.

It is also crystal clear on which side of the struggle that the US government and its Western allies stand. Despite mealy-mouthed and disingenuous ‘support’ being voiced from Western capitals for the demands of the people, these same capitals are steadfastly on the side of the corrupt status quo. Think about that. The US and other Western governments are against democracy. They are for fascistic dictatorship, massive immiseration, countless other crimes against humanity and other ‘evils’ that go with that, such as extremism that so haunts the West.

In many and very real ways, as Andrew Gavin Marshall (1) and others have pointed out, what is happening in the Middle East and North Africa is the beginning of a global awakening.

Right now, the streets of Cairo, Tunis and elsewhere look like battlefields. But the biggest battlefield yet to come will be in the US. And quite fittingly so. As the executive power upholding the capitalist order that has for decades spawned wars, violence, injustice, corruption and fascism around the world to achieve its undemocratic ends, the US is the primary site of struggle for democracy, not just in the US, but also for the rest of the world.

In past decades, the battle lines were obscured by lack of communications and propaganda diversions (the ‘evil Soviet empire, Vietnam, Latin American subversion, war on drugs, and, latterly, this phony war on terror, etc). But with mounting and unrelenting poverty across the US (and Europe), and global communications, the battle lines are now becoming apparent. The real enemy is the US/Western diktat of capitalism – the economic system that enriches the few and impoverishes the majority because it is all about private profit, and increasingly elite private profit.

The people of the US and Europe are not mere observers to some kind of removed spectacle. They are intimately involved in this struggle. It is their governments that have already taken sides in this struggle. It is their governments that have sparked the revolution by creating these regimes in the first place.

It is their governments that form and inform the policies of these regimes. Because they are the very same policies of anti-democracy that are also being forced – and all too painfully being forced – on the people of the US and Europe: autocratic political monopoly under two- or three-party systems of servility, economic injustice, elite embezzlement, financial oligarchy, erosion of human rights, police state powers. It’s a sliding scale of fascism that has as its epicentre Western capitals, and in particular Washington. The struggle for democracy is not just being fought for in the streets of the Middle East and North Africa. The struggle is on every US and European street too – albeit latent and partially obscured for now. In this struggle, we are no longer Americans, European, Africans or Asians – the elites long ago gave up their pretense of patriotism in their quest for profits. We are people of the world who demand democracy – real, sustainable democracy that can not be delivered by Global capitalism.

The world is witnessing a world revolution. Its origins, of course, go back a long time to the tyrannies of Europe. But its latest phase began in the US. There, it will have to be finished. It is a vital task. Onerous yet potentially glorious for the sake of democracy, justice and peace in the world.

Source article is located here.

Was that Jesus guy duped?

I wonder if that Jesus guy was duped by some Pharisaic plan. A plan to call him a trouble maker and such. I mean look at where his protesting got him.

And weren't his followers treated similarly? And look where we are today.

Jesus should have been smarter, layed low until he had the advantage. He should have allied himself with the good jews and bargained for good judaism. Then he wouldn't have gotten himself killed, along with his naïve followers. Then perhaps we wouldn't be having all this conflict we're having today. We'd have nice jews and nice gentiles getting along just fine.

Need a Job Americans? Learn Chinese or Hindi.

You won't have to learn Chinese or Hindi just compete for jobs that have been outsourced out of our country. You need to learn these languages to compete for white collar jobs here also, well at least Hindi. American engineers have been competing with Indians for jobs in this country for years. Maybe those that have lost their jobs could learn Hindi and pretend that they're Indians to get their jobs back. Of course, they'll be getting lower pay. But it should still be better than working at McDonalds. Well, it's either that or join the army.

Anti-Semitic Musing 015: Is Norman Finkelstein a Zionist Apologist?

Norman Finkelstein’s talk at UM-D on Wednesday was instructive and revealing—though not, I’m sure, in the way he intended.

The event began with him speaking for about an hour and 20 minutes, mostly on the December 2008 invasion and massacre in Gaza. He recounted the usual facts about that tragic event, facts that were probably well known to nearly everyone in the lecture hall. He spent about 20 minutes on the Mavi Marmara incident of last May, and another 10 on recent events. His talk concluded with no new news, no controversial statements—only the usual condemnation of Israeli atrocities that any decent person would find appalling.

Then came time for questions. I was the first. I said: “Norm, during your talk you offered neither discussion nor criticism of the Zionist project. This suggests that you find Zionism either irrelevant or unimportant to the question of Palestine. So I have a three-part question for you: (1) What is your definition of Zionism? (2) What percent of Jewish Americans are Zionists? and (3) Are you a Zionist?”

For the next 15 minutes, literally, the audience was treated to a rambling, incoherent response that failed to even address, let alone answer, any of the three questions. This gist of his answer, as far as I can tell, consisted of a dismissal of the term “Zionism” as irrelevant to modern-day society. Labeling people is counter-productive, he seemed to say. We don’t want to upset anyone, he implied. Finkelstein ended his reply by stating explicitly, regarding the question of his own Zionism, “I refuse to answer that.” (This non-answer drew applause from a few members of the audience, including Nabeel Abraham of HFCC.)

Moderator Tarek Beydoun then interjected a follow-up question, to the effect that, the first question was indeed relevant, and why won’t you answer it? Finkelstein then launched into yet another (!) 15-minute sprawling non-answer, ending with the suggestion that we all need to “adjust and accommodate” ourselves to the reality of the situation—whatever that means.

It got no better after that. Of the few remaining questions, we heard that Norm cares only about the occupation and the civilian killings, and that the rights of Israeli Arabs are of little concern; that “nobody” really believes in equality of all people; and that it is simply not reasonable to allow all Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland (“maybe they should just choose not to return”).

Most people left the hall knowing scarcely more than when they went in. We don’t need someone to tell us the obvious. We need an examination of the ideological basis for the present situation. We need to expose the power of the Israel Lobby in media and government. And we need a concrete strategy to restore justice and true democracy to the Middle East.

Perhaps I am too hard on Norm. Everyone has their limits, and his happen to include only the most obvious and blatant Israeli crimes. This is fine, as far as it goes. But let’s not fool ourselves. Let’s not portray the man as some noble critic of the Zionist state. In fact he is no critic of Zionism at all; he won’t even discuss the matter.

At best, Finkelstein has a very shallow threshold for criticism. At worst, he is a closet apologist for Zionism. If American Zionists wanted to create a “safe” critic of the Jewish state, one who would point to only the most obvious flaws while covering up the root causes, they could do little better than Norm Finkelstein.

Source article can be found here.

P.S. Is Norman Finkelstein an apologist for zionism?

Uhm........ YES. Norman is a zionist apologist. He's two-state zionist.

I encourage everybody to ask Norman the same question that the author of this article did the next time zionist peace rockstar Finkelstein makes an appearance at a university in their neighborhood. Listen to Finkelstein dance around the issue of zionism at another one of his university rockstar events here.

Hijack the Zionist Plot, Support the Protestors

It is noteworthy to note that it is our jewish MSM that is giving these protests prime time coverage. I'm a burned out anti-war protestor. I know our jewish MSM worked to kill, and ultimately did kill, the anti-war movement in this county first by ignoring it, and then when it was impossible to ignore it, by low-balling its size and significance and demonizing it. You never saw any jewish MSM aerial view of the large crowds protesting at the national protests in Washington DC, the first of which had crowd of over 100 thousand protestors from across the entire country, the second of which double that number, at least, and the third of which included over 500 people from across the country.

And prior to the largest protest in February, when over 8 million people protested the imminent invasion of Iraq worldwide, NYC officials per-emptively killed the protest in NYC by banning the protestors in this country from assembling on the main streets, forcing the protestors to split up into smaller smaller groups spread across smaller side streets, in order to minimize its visual impact as much as possible. There were a million protestors there.

That said, NOW is the time to SUPPORT THE CAUSE OF THE PROTESTORS in the Middle East by focusing on why they are protesting, why they have cause to protest, what they are protesting, why they have puppet dictator, etc. Who cares if its a zionist plot. Support their cause. Take advantage of the jewish MSM coverage. Hijack the plot. PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST. JOIN THE PROTESTS. Don't discourage it by sitting on the sidelines, and encouraging others to just sit on the sidelines, by constantly harping that its all just a zionist plot. Let me say that again with emphasis:

DON'T DISCOURAGE THE PROTESTS BY CONSTANTLY HARPING THAT ITS JUST A ZIONIST PLOT.

Support the protestors. Make a stink. Make it evident what 9/11 and this bogus “war on terror” is all about, i.e., zioinism and Israel. Let the US masses see the burden to the world that zionism is. This is a golden moment for that. It is the best moment for it. Then at least people, especially Americans, will get some cognizance of horrible burden that zionism is to the world. That will be a major victory in itself.

Amazing Video: Child Leading Protest Chants

Here's an example of hijacking the "zionist plot to incite protests" and running away with it. Try not to be inspired. Can zionists match this spirit, or squelch it?

Israel Soon To Fulfill Lonstanding Dream

Never before have Satan's little helpers been closer to fulfilling the century old Zioscum dream of a 'Greater Israel' from the Euphrates to the Nile

While millions of Egyptians are protesting for an immediate removal of Mubarak, Western politicians are pressuring the Egyptian government to refrain from the use of force, respect 'freedom of the press' and 'listen to the people'. At the same time, Israeli politicians keep handing out Judas kisses by reminding everyone interested of what a great friend and ally (!) Mubarak has been for the past 30 years and how terrible, terrible a regime change would be for the Jews-only state. Who needs more evidence that what is currently going on in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt is being orchestrated by nobody else but the Anglo-Judean Axis of Greed?

It's not like Israeli politicians are so stupid not to realise that their praise for Mubarak is not exactly making it easier for him to cling on to power. Nor are Western politicians so stupid not to know that their criticism of Mubarak's desperate attempts to save his rule will only serve to encourage demonstrators and political opposition. No, both Israeli and Westerns politicians are doing everything in their power to ensure a victory of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The fall of Egypt is likely to trigger similar developments throughout the Middle-East, including Saudi-Arabia and Turkey. Israhell - slavishly supported by Western governments - will 'secure' strategic assets such as oil fields, pipelines and the Suez Canal, resulting in an all out Middle-East war, in which the Zionist hellhole - 'desperately fighting for its survival' - will wipe strategic rival Iran off the map and annex large chunks of territory of its neighboring countries. Never before have Satan's little helpers been closer to fulfilling the century old Zioscum dream of a 'Greater Israel' from the Euphrates to the Nile.

Source article can be found here.

P.S. The good thing in all this display of protesting is that it is becoming apparent what a burden Israel is on the world and what 9/11 and the so-called "war on terror" has been about all along. What self-deceiving argument will two-state jewish altruists and fellow traveling sycophants come up with once the dream of Eretz Isreal is fulfilled? Will it be now that jews are secure there can finally be justice? Will jews ever feel secure?

If it's a Zionist Plot, Hijack the Zionist Plot.

But then again, if it’s a nice zionist plot... hmmm let me contemplate that one....

Nice Zionism Now!

1) Back to the ‘67 borders... well as close to them that’s reasonable.

2) Get out of the West Bank... well as much as is reasonable.

3) Let them have a Palestinian state now!... or maybe two states: Gaza and Trans Jordan. [But then again maybe Gaza, North Trans Jordan and South Trans Jordan. But then again maybe Gaza, North Trans Jorndan, South Trans Jordan, East Trans Jordan and West Trans Jordan. We'll make as many states as is necessary to make things better.]

The above message --not the video-- is approved by all jewish altruist zionists and their traveling jewish sycophant companions. All altruist jewish zionists and their traveling jewish sycophants recommend that you stop all that protesting now. It's just a mean zionist plot. You'll just get hurt and you're making it more difficult to campaign for a two-state solution. Jewish sycophants want to emphasize that you're just playing into the hands of the mean zionists, who don't even consider you human, let alone virtually equal to jews as jewish altruist zionists do. Stop that protesting. You're making those mean zionists foam at the mouth about their Eretz Israel with all this protesting. So stop it now.

Anti-Semitic Musing 014: The J-factor in the Middle East Turmoil

The uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen are the inevitable results of the J-factor, which destroys everything. As I was told by a Saudi army general many years ago, all Arab countries are secretly controlled by Israel, including his own. It is Jewish control of Arab countries that was the exact reason the Russian Jews were forced into the region following WWI: to destabilize Arabs and eventually control their huge oil resources.

Read more about the J-factor here.

Listen to discussion of the J-factor between Daryl Bradford Smith and Muhammad Rafeeq of February 1st here or here.