Apartheid Israel On a Road to Nowhere

Nir Rosen describes the reasons for the scenario he believes is likely on the horizon in apartheid Israel:

And now Israeli combat units and the Israeli military in general are gradually falling into the hands of Jewish Taliban. There was a time when it was the secular elites from the kibutz who dominated the combat units and senior levels of the military, but as Israel has changed from a socialist apartheid state to an extreme capitalist apartheid state the only people left willing to fight and die for Zionism will soon be extreme religious Jews. And Israeli society is getting more and more open in its racism against its native Palestinian population (Israeli Jews like to call them Israeli Arabs and pretend that they are not Palestinian too). So now you have an Israeli Jewish society that is increasingly extreme and overt in its hostility to the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Even the Druze of Israel, who were the most collaborationist, are gradually realizing that they will never be Jewish. So its great when they’re in the military and everybody’s a brother but once they try to rent an apartment in a Jewish area and they’re treated like a dirty Arab by Jews who are worried that their daughters will be contaminated by them then even the Druze must realize that they have no place in ZIonism.

It is Israel itself that is hastening its demise. Israeli society is going in one inevitable direction. They will try to expel (transfer is their preferred nomenclature) the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Its integral to the logic of Zionism. You have a state created by ethnic cleansing and maintained by ethnic cleansing (so that they can call themselves a Jewish democracy- cant have too many non-Jews). But now in historic Palestine you have about fifty percent Jews ruling the other fifty percent of non Jews who have different categories (citizens, occupied) but are all inferior in their status and basically without any guaranteed rights. But the non Jews are increasing. What do you do? You have to get rid of some of them. But what will the international community do? You cant just put the Arabs on trains and take them out, can you? Well the international community (which means powerful Western countries) didnt do anything when you flattened half of Lebanon and targeted civilians. They didnt do anything when you flattened half of Gaza and targeted civilians. They didnt do anything when you attacked unarmed and peaceful aid workers trying to help the people of Gaza and you executed them, so they wont do anything when you try to expel your non Jewish citizens except complain that it is unhelpful and not nice. And Israelis know they have to do it soon. They’re losing their friendly dictators one by one. They’re even losing the support of liberal Americans (slowly), including Jews, thanks to Netanyahu and Lieberman. And soon there will be too many non Jews in Israel for them to pretend they are a Jewish democracy. And this is happening when Palestinian citizens of Israel are increasingly angry and awakened. They are not their parents, they want equality, they feel connected to the rest of the Arab world, they love the speeches of Seyid Hassan Nasrallah, they are united with their brothers via al Jazeera. Make no mistake, the third intifada is coming and it will start in northern Palestine (inside what is now called Israel), it may start in Um al Fahm, or Baqa al Gharbiya, some other town, but its coming, sooner than ever thanks to the revolutionary people’s uprisings sweeping the old Middle East and it is Israel that will soon feel the birth pang’s of the new Middle East.

Palestine / Israel Links

Marrickville Council’s Israel boycott rankles DFAT
Prominent Italian author lashes out at Israel boycott proponents – despite his work on Ur Fascism, Umberto Eco illustrates his inability to understand the fascist nature of zionism.
Jerusalem & Babylon / Returning to the source of it all : The call to send students to Hebron seems like a response to the trend of youth looking for their Jewish roots (more syncretism of mythology into zionism actually)
Rafah security camp attacked, Bedouin detainees released
Israel investing $1.6 million in “new media warriors”
Racial and religious vilification laws Victoria in relation to disgraceful comments at Galus Australia post on hopes of Muslims to hold prayer meetins at a St Kilda community house.
Memories of my grandmother, a defiant victim of the occupation of Palestine
Why the U.S. cannot ‘do something’ about Palestine
McEwan’s criticism appears hypocritical
Haaretz’s Ari Shavit: The last colonialist
Why Faithless are giving Israel a miss
The economic mirage in the West Bank – Ramallah
The Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East
The people want an end to American support for settlements
US Senators Press Lebanon on International Tribunal
The Plot for America

Libya Links

Gaddafi’s private pilot has fled Libya
the size of bullets being used on Libyan civilians.
‘Libya is not Egypt’
Noose tightens around faltering Libyan leader
Will Anyone Publish Saif Gaddafi’s Book on Civil Society?

Egypt Links

Army general threatens to kill protesters

Other Links

As Christchurch earthquake death toll rises, will the city itself be a victim?
¡Viva WikiLeaks! Sicko Was Not Banned in Cuba
6 Weird Things That Influence Bad Behavior More Than Laws
Will Anyone Publish Saif Gaddafi’s Book on Civil Society?

The Whitewash Apartheid Orchestra

Adalah-NY and supporters creatively protest the performance of the “Brand Israel” Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on February 22. In the background, celebrated Irish composer and prominent activist for Palestinian rights, Raymond Deane, appreciates the innovative music of The Whitewash Apartheid Orchestra*.

The Whitewash Apartheid Orchestra
Credit: Ellen Rachel Davidson
The Whitewash Apartheid Orchestra
Credit: Ellen Rachel Davidson

Noelle Ghoussaini from Adalah-NY explains:

“Tonight we sent a clear message to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israeli government’s “Brand Israel” campaign that their music cannot drown out Palestinians’ calls for justice.” The US protests respond to the call from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to boycott cultural institutions like the IPO that work to normalize Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and whitewash the oppression of Palestinians in Israel, the occupied territories, and in exile.

Hundreds of well-dressed concert-goers paused on the edge of the sidewalk in front of Carnegie Hall, and looked across the street at the protesters’ signs, and listened to their chants and songs. Many were handed a mock IPO program that featured a cover photo of a past IPO performance in front of Israeli tanks for the Israeli army, and, on the inside, the PACBI’s call for an international boycott of the IPO.

Protesters held signs saying, “Israel Fiddles while Palestine Burns,” “Justice Presto not Lento,” “Without Justice There’s No Harmony,” and “Boycott the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra;” and they carried a banner with the words “Don’t Harmonize with Israeli Apartheid,” surrounded on each side by a violin with a rifle barrel as its neck. Protesters chanted, “We love Gustav, we love Mahler, but occupation makes us holler;” “For liberation take a stand, don’t let Is-ra-el rebrand;” and “Muslims, Jews, Atheists and Christians, stand for justice like Egyptians.”

In a street theater skit, a protester­­-turned-IPO conductor asked the crowd, “How can apartheid continue without us promoting the new, positive, aesthetically vibrant and civilized Israel? Don’t forget, there is “art” in “apartheid.” The conductor instructed three violinists to play progressively louder in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to drown out and cover up Israeli crimes against Palestinians that kept welling up behind the orchestra.

View the complete photo collection.

* Raymond Deane’s work “March Oubliee” will feature at a concert with Irish ensemble, the ‘Fidelio Trio’, in the Leonard Nimoy Thalia on the 24th February at 7.30pm.

The Fidelios Trio will also conduct a residency at the University of Illinois on the 27/28 February playing “March Oubliee”.

Other Current BDS Actions to Support

Support BDS in Marrickville – send a Marrickville Councillor a note of encouragement for their important stand for human rights.
CJPP Carry Bags – An environmentally-friendly, Palestine-friendly, ecosilk shopping bag. Strong, light and compact, to fit in your handbag or pocket. A stylish alternative to plastic bags!

Palestine / Israel Links

Fox reverses poll results to portray public as anti-union
This is the occupation: A letter from a reasonable woman
PFLP condemns Gaddafi regime’s massacres against the Libyan people | Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Israeli airstrikes injure 16 Gazans
Army, Settlers, Destroy Palestinian Olive Trees in Al-Jab’a
Netanyahu: Mideast instability could last for years – dreaming of regional conquent still
The emergence of a new Arab world?
Obama’s folly: the human cost of the West Bank settlements

Libya Links

If the tide turns: some pros and cons of military intervention in Libya

Saudia Links

Saudi’s $36bn bid to beat unrest

Other Links

Dozens slaughtered by US forces in Afghanistan-Pakistan air attacks

One village resident told Pajhwok Afghan News that foreign forces intercepted a vehicle taking the wounded father to hospital, halting it for two hours. “The troops beat us and tied our hands,” the man, Psarlay, said. “Meanwhile, Patang died because of excessive bleeding.”

Another resident, 26-year-old Ezatullah, told the Wall Street Journal: “The house was completely destroyed by the strike. Only two children [aged] four and six survived.” He added that “thousands of people attended the funeral of the slain family Monday and are planning a protest against coalition forces Tuesday”.

Deputy AG loses job after tweet drama
Dept. Attorney General Jeff Cox is now Former Dept. Attorney General Jeff Cox and no longer is part of the Indiana AG’s office.
Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama & Neo-Liberalism are the Daleys’ Gifts to Chicago and the Nation. Thanks.
Fox reverses poll results to portray public as anti-union
Ruling on Assange’s Extradition Is Due on Thursday
The origins of the ALP
Egypt May End the ‘Obama Arms Bazaar’ – NOT!
Military budget of the United States

For the 2010 fiscal year, the president’s base budget of the Department of Defense rose to $533.8 billion. Adding spending on “overseas contingency operations” brings the sum to $663.8 billion.[1][2]

When the budget was signed into law on October 28, 2009, the final size of the Department of Defense’s budget was $680 billion, $16 billion more than President Obama had requested.[3] An additional $37 billion supplemental bill to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was expected to pass in the spring of 2010, but has been delayed by the House of Representatives after passing the Senate.[4][5] Defense-related expenditures outside of the Department of Defense constitute between $319 billion and $654 billion in additional spending, bringing the total for defense spending to between $1.01 and $1.35 trillion in fiscal year 2010.[6]

Catastrophe in the Shaky Isles

Today, my distress after the dreadful earthquake rocking Christchurch in New Zealand’s South Island is increasing. Civil Defence Minister John Carter has declared the death toll indeterminate for the present. Adding insult to injury, the scurrilous vamperazzi has outdone itself with a monstrous feasting on human suffering. In juxtaposition, the CTV building has been destroyed and there are fears for the lives of 100 people who may have been inside. I wait, along with so many others, to hear from a friend whom I love.

Whilst I am a ‘strict’ atheist, Christchurch Cathedral is one of my favourite buildings, where charming volunteers are always happy to take folks on a grand guided tour. The cathedral has been shaken and damaged by quakes several times since its construction in 1881 but in the latest quake, the cathedral spire has fallen, as though the symbolic connection with the heavens are broken while underworld ogres wreak their wrath on mere mortals and their puny dwellings. Worse, there may be several people still trapped inside.

I’ve played the magnificent cathedral organ and inspected the wonderful archive of music, sacred and secular, from all performances ever held at the cathedral. In another life, I would have loved to have been the organist at this special community hub which cared even to include me. The architecture inside the cathedral is stunning, most particularly, the roof, buttressed inside by the upturned hull beams of a ship constructed with matai and totara. Another fabled local attraction, the Wizard of New Zealand, orates outside in the square. Fortunately the Wiz is unscathed though his home has minor damage.

Floods and fires there are in Australia aplenty, yet not so many quakes as in New Zealand which sits squarely on the Pacific Ring of Fire. There’s something deeply disturbing about earthquakes – solid ground proves not so reliable, protective structures are racked and shattered by forces beyond restraint. Blessings to everyone affected by this tragedy which has devastated a city and people I love.

HOW TO DONATE

Donate to The Salvation Army:
Freephone 0800 530 000; online at www.salvationarmy.org.nz; or by post: The Salvation Army, PO Box 27001, Marion Square, Wellington, 6141. Mark correspondence: “Canterbury Earthquake Appeal”.

Donate to the Red Cross:
http://www.redcross.org.nz/donations

Donation drive from the Auckland University Students’ Association:
Call (09) 309 0789 or go to Auckland University’s Student Union building.

Donate via Westpac:
Westpac account 03 0207 0617 331 00.

Donate via ANZ:
ANZ account 01 1839 0188939 00.

Beware email scams asking for donations

NEW ZEALAND INFORMATION

What you need to know
Christchurch earthquake: How to donateHow to donate

AND IN OTHER DISPATCHES

Israel’s theft and denial of water from Palestinians is an integral part of the ziocolony’s genocidal tactics which support its expansionism.

Racist violence in Jerusalem against Palestinians, where a Palestinian youth is murdered by Israeli youths – as Joseph Dana notes, the incident was covered up by the government, then ignored and distorted by the media.

The Israeli government quickly put a media blackout on the case fearing a violent reactions from Palestinians in Jerusalem, Israel and the West Bank. Once the media blackout was lifted, select Israeli media outlets covered the story as a “drunken brawl turned bad” and the story was largely ignored.

Palestinian Unity Revolution for March 15 Promo:

Egypt Links

Conversation with an Egyptian socialist
How taking it to the streets works to overthrow oppressive regimes

Libya Links

Live Blog – Libya Feb 23
The Gaddafi family and the limits of western education
Gaddafi’s former number two resigns in support of protesters
Libya’s tragedy, Gaddafi’s farce
Gadafy family may have billions in secret accounts
Libya’s free to the East
The King of Kings’ speech
30% of Libya in Hands of Youth Movement
Bouazizi family’s message to Libya
The Nato Plan Is To Occupy Libya – Reflections by Comrade Fidel – oh dear, Fidel!
Where does the US draw the line with Libya?

Palestine / Israel Links

The Knesset Passes Human Rights NGO Harassment Bill
Israeli army will cash in on Egypt’s upheavals
Knesset member Aryeh Eldad places ad in Haaretz calling on Jordan to declare itself Palestine.
Is the West Bank next?
FRANKLIN LAMB : FROM TAHRIR SQUARE TO SHATILA CAMP, “HURRIYA” (FREEDOM)
Israeli army will cash in on Egypt’s upheavals
Stop international soccer championship in Israel
Israeli shelling east of Gaza City, reports of injuries
Israeli Army Arrests Palestinians from Hebron Area
Fayyad willing to visit Gaza to discuss Hamas unity deal
Palestinian house inside cage in Jewish settlement
Palestinian hit by gunfire sent to IDF jail despite injury
Israel Philharmonic Protest NY Carnegie Hall 22/2/2011
New Yorkers protest Israel Philharmonic, more protests planned in other cities

Other Links

An end to this soft bigotry against the Arab world
Irony of the day : Iran urges rights body to examine Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya
Afghan resistance statement : Statement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Regarding the Martyrdom of Innocent Afghan Civilians as a Result of American Merciless Bombardment in Ghazi Abad District, Kunar Province.
Will the House of Saud Be the Next to Go Down?
Middle East Uprisings: Like 1989? How About 1848?
WikiLeaks: US Lied About Bala Baluk Massacre, Red Cross Concealed Truth
Regardless of Shameful U.S. Endorsement; Toss Elections
Saudi king announces reforms ahead of return: report
Indiana Official: “Use Live Ammunition” Against Wisconsin Protesters

Muammar Mary Poppins Gaddafi

The Language of a Dictator
The Language of a Dictator
Recently landed from Venezuela? reports of his resignation and flight have been greatly misinterpreted. Yet Gaddafi’s hours remaining in power seem numbered. I predict his destination will be to Zimbabwe, to seek consolation from his good friend and fellow pan-Africanist tyrant Mugabe. In case Mugabe’s regime topples as part of the regional revolution, The Guardian has a few more suggestions for Gaddafi’s retirement.

Perhaps the Leader won’t be utilising his umbrella for an expeditious exit though, for it may be difficult to abandon his precious Libyan Rocket.

Libya Links

Expect a free Libya
The mad dog of the Middle East
UN condemns Israeli demolitions
Pro-Gadhafi forces fight bloody battle as protests sweep Libya
Libya’s falling tyrant
Analysis: Zimbabwe’s Mugabe unlikely to be swept from power
Qadafi remains one of few constants for troubled Libya
When tyrants want tear gas, the UK has always been happy to oblige
Guy Rundle:

‘The Libyan revolution makes it clear that the Iraqi people could have, and almost certainly would have, stood up to Saddam in this current wave of uprisings?—?taking upon themselves the responsibility for their own liberation, and the sacrifice of it.’

@SultanAlQassemi: Al Jazeera: Libya’s resigned ambassador to the Arab League says Chief of the Libyan Army is under house arrest. #Libya #
UPDATE 1-Libyan embassy in Malaysia calls crackdown “barbaric, criminal”
UN Security Council to meet on Libya
Letter from Tripoli: an eyewitness account
Libya violence continues, over 300 dead
#Libya on knife-edge
THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE DEMOCRATISATION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS: From ‘Soft Power’ to Collective Decision-Making? Saif Al-Islam Alqadhafi

Palestine / Israel Links

Jerusalem panel takes three sensitive construction plans off agenda – no, not as a result of Ian McEwan’s arrogant imperialist acceptance twaddle in Jerusalem, but more likely as part of an underhanded deal with the US in return for its veto of the illegal settlements resolution in the UN.
McEwan accepts award, but still attacks Israeli settlements
Knesset postpones vote over panels of inquiry into leftist NGOs
Nobody Could Have Predicted (Part 8)
Settlers uproot 270 olive trees near Nablus
Witnesses: Israel demolishes tents in West Bank village
Israel isolated and under threat
Poetry of Resistance, recited by Sudhanva Deshpande
Palestinian Gandhi, mark II
American Activist, Aishah Schwartz, “Now is not the time for an International March on Rafah.”
Egypt reopens border for travellers from Gaza Strip

Egypt Links

To Celebrate The #Jan25 Revolution, Egyptian Names His Firstborn “Facebook”
Egyptians Ponder Israel Peace Terms
The upheaval in Egypt: what impact on U.S. imperialism

Other Links

Obama Requests Funding For Venezuelan Opposition in 2012 Budget
The CIA’s Secret War in Iraq – an oldy but a goody
‘We Stand With You as You Stood With Us’: Statement to Workers of Wisconsin by Kamal Abbas of Egypt’s Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services
Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
The NYT’s journalistic obedience – Glenn Greenwald

Following the dictates of the U.S. Government for what they can and cannot publish is, of course, anything but new for the New York Times. In his lengthy recent article on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, NYT Executive Editor Bill Keller tried to show how independent his newspaper is by boasting that they published their story of the Bush NSA program even though he has “vivid memories of sitting in the Oval Office as President George W. Bush tried to persuade [him] and the paper’s publisher to withhold the eavesdropping story”; Keller neglected to mention that the paper learned about the illegal program in mid-2004, but followed Bush’s orders to conceal it from the public for over a year — until after Bush was safely re-elected.

The tail wags the dog – cynical and blissfully accurate analysis of the rotten state of Australian politics, particularly in regard to the Catch the Fire scum.

These groups are organised and able to bring far greater pressure to bear on our politics than their numbers dictate. At the ballot box, they record barely a blip in voting trends one way or another but behind the scenes, be it in byzantine factional struggles conducted over mobile phones or through fervent email campaigns, our politicians invariably sit up and take notice.

It is madness and a perversion of democracy. Real political leadership would dismiss these groups as the nutters, ideologues and meddlers they are.

And therein lies the nub of the matter.

Villawood guards blow whistle on abuses at detention centre

Will the US Veto Assist Palestinian Unification?

While the US ambassador to the UN, “>Susan Rice disingenuously claimed that “We think it unwise for this council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians” with regard to the UNSC resolution against illegal Israeli settlements, the fallout against the US and Israel may turn out to be a decisive factor in unifying Palestinians in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank along with consolidating the resistance of Arabs across the Middle East against US imperialism and its belligerent, expansionist, apartheid special friend.

In Gaza, Hamas described the US position as outrageous and said Washington was “completely biased” towards Israel.

Ibrahim Sarsour, an Israeli-Arab member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, said it was time to tell the US president, Barack Obama, to “go to hell”.

“Obama cannot be trusted,” he wrote in an open letter to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. “We knew his promises were lies. The time has come to spit in the face of the Americans.”
The Egyptian foreign ministry said the US veto would “lead to more damage of the United States’ credibility on the Arab side as a mediator in peace efforts”.

The use of the veto for the first time under Obama will strengthen perceptions in the Arab world that for the US, protection of its ally Israel overrides its desire for a just outcome for Palestinians in the decades-old conflict.

There’s also the strong possibility that the US interactions with Abbas were stage-managed – had Abbas not stood firm backing the UNSC resolution, his leadership likely would be challenged by outraged Palestinians in the West Bank. Now, the US’s investment in their collaborator satrap for converting the West Bank into neoliberal-friendly, pliant industrial zones and encouraging by default the growth of illegal Israeli settlements has outweighed any justice dividend. This US decision seems likely to prove unwise, damaging US credibility across the globe and adding fuel to burgeoning anti-imperialism in the region and beyond. With grass-roots revolutions for democracy in Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia. Yemen and Libya flourishing, the days of US hegemonical control of the vast resources of the Middle East may be numbered.

In other outrages, the US has refused a visa for Palestinian BDS leader Omar Barghouti, preventing him from attending his speaking tour in the US to promote his latest book. Barghouti squarely nails the problem Palestinians, and other folks in the region face, and the appropriate response.

Freedom, from the US establishment’s perspective, amounts to the “liberty” to bow to their hegemony and accepting their multinationals’ pillage of the world as fate. We shall continue to speak truth to power no matter what the consequences. We shall continue to struggle for nothing less than full freedom, full justice, full self determination, and full emancipation from US imperial hegemony.

Palestine / Israel Links

B.D.S. Song/Dance Flash Mob : Step-by-Step How-To Kit
From Tahrir Square to Shatila Camp: “Cry Hurriya!” (freedom!)
Hitting Israel where it hurts most
Arab anger to turn against U.S.
Israeli army arrests children in Beit Ummar
Palestinians plan ‘day of rage’ after US vetoes resolution on Israeli settlements
McEwan attacks the “great injustice” in Middle East (Hamas called for an end to suicide bombings in 2006.)
Author McEwan protests in Jerusalem

The Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity movement lauded McEwan’s support for its cause.
“Ian McEwan today joined a long list of figures – including former President Jimmy Carter, writer Mario Vargas Llosa, and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahanman – who honored the protestors with their presence,” group member Avner Inbar said.

Palestinians shun McEwan over Israel honor – McEwan denies Palestinians agency:

“The message has come through to me that they can’t meet me. They won’t meet me. Pressure has been brought to bear – I guess, of a parallel but probably much more vigorous kind than was brought to bear on me”

Jerusalem Prize Acceptance Speech
Let the tribute fit the crime

Novelist Ian McEwan criticizes Jewish settlements
McEwan receives Jerusalem prize, criticizes Israel
The prize of democracy
Next, Palestine
Israel and Chile cooperated to spy on Iran, WikiLeaks reveals
The United States Stands Alone with Israel in the UN Security Council [or How (Dis)honest is the Honest Broker?]

After all for more than 43 years the Israelis have been whittling away at the substance of the two state consensus embodied in unanimous Security Council Resolution 242 (1967), contending at every phase of the faux peace process that an agreement must incorporate ‘subsequent developments,’ that is, unlawful settlements, ethnic cleansing. In the end, the Israelis may turn out to have been more clever by half, creating an irresistible momentum toward the establishment of a single secular democratic state of Palestine that upholds human rights for both peoples and brings to an end the Zionist project of an exclusive ‘Jewish state.’

Oslo demands relocation of Israeli embassy : City officials say embassy poses security threat to surroundings; demands it be moved to an alternate site within a year. Ambassador: No one wants to sell us property

Egypt Links

Egyptian independent trade unionists’ declaration – Demands of the workers in the revolution
Egyptians Are Buying Pizza for Wisconsin Protestors
The Egyptian military ‘ignored the advice of the Saudis, who, in calls to Washington, said that President Hosni Mubarak should open fire if that’s what it took, and that Americans should just stop talking about “universal rights” and back him.
Egyptian army pokes itself and joins Facebook

As the contagion of democracy protests spread in the Arab world last week, Bahrain’s far less disciplined forces decided, in effect, that the Saudis, who are their next-door neighbors, were right. They drew two lessons from Egypt: If President Obama calls, hang up. And open fire early.’

Libya Links

Live Blog – Libya
@AJELive Moftah, Benghazi protester, told Al Jazeera earlier that security and military forces have withdrawn and the city is run by “young people”. #

Concern over rising Libya violence – Top US diplomats condemn crackdowns on protesters but stopped short short of calling for a change of government.
Libya clashes spread to Tripoli – Clashes between anti-government protesters and Gaddafi supporters escalate as army unit ‘defects’ in Benghazi.
@freeourlibya: PLEASE RT URGENT Google Speak2tweet 4 #LIBYA. Numbers: +16504194196 (ct) http://deck.ly/~NRc5r #

Other Links

Robert Fisk: Dark humour in a time of dictatorship
Hitting Israel where it hurts most