Beyond The Fringe

NGO Monitor is an Israeli organisation “founded jointly by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an organization which says it has “developed and implemented an array of cutting-edge programs to present Israel’s case to the world”,[4] and the U.S.-based [5] Wechsler Family Foundation.”

This unholy alliance also runs the ICA [Institute for Contemporary Affairs] in Jerusalem which “provides a forum for discussion of Israel’s strategic, defense and national security challenges”.

Thus NGO Monitor is clearly a hasbara conglomerate. Ironically, it is subsidised by the US taxpayer to undermine the work of peace organisations in Israel and Palestine in the interests of the Israeli and US economic elite.

One of its co-sponsors is the Wechsler foundation, a non-profit [sic], tax-exempt US organisation.

The foundation’s contact is Harry C Wechsler. Is this the same person as the ex CIA officer mentioned in regard to the Boston Systematics/Alltel/Vince Foster/PROMIS software affair?

The Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem claims NGO Monitor is “an organization that attempts to frame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a one sided skewed narrative. NGO Monitor is run by pro-Israeli contributors, is funded by pro-Israeli groups, and has a proven track record of smearing Palestinian supported groups while refusing to report on pro-Israeli organizations.”

The ARI took NGO Monitor to court and won in 2007.

UPDATE:

Play Spot the NGO Monitor below – (Click on the + signs on the coloured squares to expand)

Here’s the NGO Monitor International Advisory Board:

Elie Wiesel
Professor Alan Dershowitz
Sir Martin Gilbert
R. James Woolsey
Tom Gross
Michael Gove MP
Douglas Murray
Judea Pearl
Elliott Abrams
Harry Wechsler
Nina Rosenwald

Also worth a look around is the Project for the New American Century map.

The Israeli New York Consulate response to the Goldstone Report is a case study in deception. I’ve posted a comment which has not as yet, after three days waiting at their checkpoint, been published, now published. Here it is:

I notice you are still regurgitating the same hasbara about “thousands” of Hamas rockets despite this information including confirmation from your own ex-Shin Bet chief about the efficacy of the ceasefire from June 08:

“Time magazine in a report published four days earlier on December 15 backed The Associated Press report, and calculated the ceasefire, until the Israeli military raid, had resulted in a dramatic decline in projectile attacks.

“From the beginning of the year until June 19, Israel was struck by 2,660 projectiles fired from Gaza. From June 19, when the tahdiya went into effect, to Nov. 4, the total was 65. But on Nov. 5 a new round of “negotiations” — with weapons — began when Israel struck what it said were militants tunneling under the Gaza fence. Hamas responded with a barrage of rocket fire that has continued for most of the past month,” the Time report said.

A month earlier Yoram Cohen, until recently the Deputy Director of the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet, wrote a similar account for the Washington Institute.

“Last week, Israeli forces entered Gaza, destroyed an underground border tunnel, and battled Hamas fighters, leaving several militants dead. In response, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired around eighty rockets into southern Israel, including the Israeli city of Ashkelon,” he wrote

“On June 19, 2008, Israel and Hamas began observing an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire, which was intended to last six months with an option to extend. In general, Hamas has observed the ceasefire; the number of attacks and rocket launches has decreased significantly, and Hamas has prevented other Gaza militant organizations from striking Israel,” wrote Cohen.”

Hamas has said they would cooperate with Goldstone’s recommendations.

Israel refuses to cooperate – a clear indication that it has plenty to hide.

Waiting, waiting … and in the interim, there is movement at Hasbara Central.

Nutanyahoo has announced his intention to set up an investigative committee to inquire into the findings of the Goldstone Report – Goldstone welcomed this, adding

“I would be delighted if Israel established a committee to investigate our allegations. That?s what we asked for – a transparent open investigation into our allegation I hope Hamas will also go for it.”

What is the likelihood any committee set up by Nutanyahoo will be transparent and independent?

The latest sinister efforts of the Israeli agitprop machine to obscure the Zionist’s state real intent and historical narrative is chronicled at the Jewish Herald-Voice.

The aim is to fight the media and web war against Israel for Israel by blogging and using social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as posting talkbalks on a range of media sites.

The task force was set up at the Israel offices of StandWithUs and IDC Herzliya, in coordination with the IDC Raphael Recanati International School, the Sammy Ofer School of Communications and the Asper New Media Fellowship. Another special “Web Situation Room” has been set up at the Jerusalem headquarters of StandWithUs. The efforts are coordinated with StandWithUs’ New York office, which is spearheading the U.S. Internet offensive. The situation rooms are linked to all the relevant authorities spokespeople and to people reporting and live-blogging on the scene as rockets fall.

They are working around the clock to respond in real-time to online criticism of Israel and to help counter misinformation about the situation. The Internet task force is made up of volunteer bloggers, including some prominent names in New Media, giving their time and energy to the cause. Within its first full day of operation, more than 3,500 activists had enlisted.

Goebbels would be envious.

Here are the facts the Hasbaraniks are currently attempting to obscure:

From the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (www.pcbs.gov.ps) and various NGOs:

* 1,334 killed, one-third of them children (more children than ‘militants’ were killed)
* 5,450 injured, one-third of them children
* 100,000 displaced, 50,000 made homeless
* 4,100 residential homes and buildings destroyed, 17,000 damaged (together accounting for 14 percent of all buildings in Gaza)
* 29 destroyed educational institutions, including the American International School
* 92 destroyed or damaged mosques
* 1,500 destroyed shops, factories and other commercial facilities
* 20 destroyed ambulances
* 35-60% of agricultural land ruined
* $1.9 billion in total estimated damages

Speaking of hasbara, Regev appears to need a serious brush up course if he thinks the world will find his latest rubbish plausible.

One of my favourite in situ hasbara debunkers, Gideon Levy is characteristically scathing about the choice of political candidates offered to Israeli voters in their forthcoming Feb 10 elections.

“Ground Zero”
20th January 2009

Earlier this week, following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, residents returned to some of the areas which had become no-go zones during the attacks, such as Jabalia just outside Gaza City. On Tuesday 20th January, ISM Gaza Strip volunteers joined a university professor as he visited his house in the east of Jabalia. We were shown from room to room around the bombed-out shell of what had once been a beautiful home. When asked if he and his family would continue to live there, he replied calmly that it was their right to and that they would never leave their land.

As we made our way up the hill through the orange grove beyond the professor’s house, we encountered evidence of where tanks had been positioned – churned up ground, tank tracks, uprooted olive trees. At the top of the hill, from where the Green Line was clearly visible, we began to see homes which had been totally destroyed, several stories concertinaed. Families sat together on the rubble of their homes. Children collected firewood from the dismembered limbs of fruit trees.

At first it seemed as though it was ‘just’ a cluster of ten or fifteen destroyed houses, which would have been bad enough in its own right. However, as we continued walking it became apparent that the devastation extended into the next street and the next, more and more destroyed and damaged homes following one another. This entire neighbourhood on this easternmost edge of Jabalia had been virtually wiped off the face of the earth. It resembled the site of some massive natural disaster. However this ground zero was entirely man-made.

The gouged-out windows of some of the homes still standing were filled with dark green sand bags. This was a sign these houses had been used by the Israelis as sniper positions. One could barely imagine how the situation must have been in this neighbourhood when it was under attack.

We met a blind woman who had been held prisoner for 11 days in one room of her home, along with a paralysed man, whilst Israeli soldiers used it as a base. Terrified and expecting to be killed at any time, they were given water twice during their ordeal. When the Red Crescent evacuated them, the woman said she could finally breathe for the first time since the soldiers arrived. The walls had been daubed with Hebrew graffiti, empty plastic food trays were strewn around and the stairway stank of urine.

In the wake of a Gazan holocaust, thousands of people are finding themselves in truly desperate situations. A traumatized but resilient population is somehow beginning to pick up the pieces. Merely continuing to exist is a form of resistance.

– Photo & text courtesy of Rafahkid

This war unmasked Livni, the woman who had promised us “different politics.” She, who as foreign minister was supposed to show Israel’s sunny side to the world, chose to present an arrogant, violent and brutal face. During the war she boasted that Israel was acting “savagely,” threatened to let Hamas “have it” and announced that the cease-fire would come into effect “whenever Israel decides.”

As far as she was concerned, there was no world, no United States and Europe, no UN Security Council, and no bleeding and defeated other side – only Israel will decide. No foreign minister has ever spoken like this before.

In her pathetic attempts to assume a masculine, militaristic, even macho, posture of someone who would know what to say if the telephone rang at 3 A.M., Livni was exposed as a failed foreign minister, whose words and deeds are no different from those espoused by the radical militaristic men around her. No self-respecting voter who considers himself an upstanding centrist could vote for her. Whoever votes for Kadima will be voting for the right, which is eager to embark on any war and risk the accompanying crimes.

Voting for Labor also means voting for the war and its horrors. This war’s marshal, Ehud Barak, has forever deprived himself of the moral right to talk of coexistence, political arrangements and diplomacy. If he really believed in them, he would have given them a chance before going to war, not afterward. Barak took the army to war and Barak must pay for it, together with his “left-wing” party, which joined the most radical, far-right parties in supporting the move to outlaw Israel’s Arab parties.

Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu, Livni and Barak are one – they all voted in support of an undemocratic decision. And don’t be alarmed by Lieberman – he, too, only talks. But at least he does so honestly, while Barak fires off salvos and deceives.

Granted, these impostors still enjoy the support of world leaders, but for many people around the globe, they have become war-mongers and suspected war criminals. Their diplomatic immunity will protect them – but who wants those leaders, with their bloodied hands, to represent us?

No less severe is the fact that there are no ideological differences between the candidates. Let Barak and Livni step up and explain what the hell sets them apart. What ideological argument are they conducting, apart from bickering on who should be credited for the war?

Facing them is Netanyahu – what does he have to offer? “Economic peace.” After this war, which wasn’t enough as far as he is concerned, his doctrine sounds even more ludicrous than ever.

This is how we’re going into elections – with three leading parties that are hardly different from each other.

We always used to say, “There aren’t any moderates in the Arab world.” Now we are the ones who don’t have any. Vote as you will, but don’t fool yourself. Every ballot cast for Kadima, Labor and Likud is an endorsement of the last war and a vote for the next one.

Who are the *real* terrorists again?

The propaganda war has been going very badly for Israel. Now the hasbara behemoth is on a new groove with an army of multilingual bloggerniks preparing to invade selected blog targets with phony justifications, lies, whinings and bleatings in an attempt to ameliorate their global public relations catastrophe and humiliation in Gaza. We shall take this new plan as a covert admission that the Giyus Megaphony machine has done its bearings.

Be warned, hasbaraniks – naturally, no quarter will be given here to those who attempt to justify land theft or mass murder in the name of a secular militaristic expansionist ideology. Those with senses of humour will be excused – though we’ve yet to come across a hasbaranik possessing one.

Enjoy Gaza photojournalist Sameh Habeeb’s photos of Gaza during the conflict. As Christopher Walker said, the main reason foreign journalists were kept out of Gaza by the Israelis wasn’t because of their verbiage, but because of the shocking photos they would send out to the world of illegal weapon usage, child fatalities, absence of Hamas action around UN targets – the sort of evidence the Israelis would rather do without in any forthcoming war crimes trial. Sameh’s photos provide excellent coverage of the terrible events of the past 23 days.

You can also listen to today’s interview with Sameh Habeeb on Alive in Gaza.

Christopher Walker analyses mainstream media coverage as a result of Israel’s ban of foreign journalists during its attack on the people of Gaza, and refers to the insidious hasbara used by Israeli spokespersons. Israel calculates that it wins the war of words against Palestinians but can’t win the war of images – thus the decision to keep foreign journalists out of Gaza during the butchery is calculated to prevent imagery adverse to Israel escaping

Hilary Clinton is making the same sort of dead end noises as Condi already:

“Speaking on Tuesday at her senate confirmation hearing, Clinton said that the US must address Israel’s security and work on the “legitimate” political and economic aspirations of the Palestinians.

However she ruled out negotiations with the Palestinian group Hamas until it recognised Israel and renounced violence, saying her position on the issue was “absolute”.

Will Hamas surrender to Hilary? Unlikely, since there’s nothing new brought to the table.

Meanwhile the collective punishment of the people of Gaza continues with 1001 murdered.

How the pro-Israel lobby in Britain benefits from a generous London tycoon – junkets for journalists to Israel.

The British Israel Communication and Research Centre, known as Bicom, has been one of the most active organisations behind the scenes in the UK during the present Gaza offensive, organising briefings and interview opportunities with senior Israeli spokesmen.

Excerpts from the diary of Safah Joudeh.

Israel is doomed. Their lies cannot withstand the truth which is sweeping the world in defiance of their oily propaganda. Here’s what the Hamas government Health Minister has to say about the Shoah against the civilian population of Gaza.

We believe in resistance, not revenge

Hamas is demonised to justify Palestinian suffering in Gaza. But we have no quarrel with Jewish people, only the actions of Israel

Ninety per cent of the targets attacked are civilian. Of nearly 900 confirmed dead, 32% are children. More than 40% of the 4,000 wounded are children, while medical centres and 13 ambulances have been destroyed.

Hamas is not the only group fighting against this aggression: its fighters are joined by members of Islamic Jihad, the PFLP and Fatah. But the popularity of Hamas has increased during the invasion. Every occupied people has the right to resist if negotiation fails. People know very well that those who took the other path – of negotiation without resistance – got nothing from it: only more settlements, checkpoints, killings, prisoners and occupation without end.

We have made clear our conditions for a ceasefire: a halt to the aggression, full withdrawal and the lifting of the siege. We have rejected any international force inside the Gaza Strip, but international monitoring at the crossings can be discussed. However, last week’s UN security council resolution has given a green light for the Israelis to continue their killing under an international umbrella.

Now that their massacres of women and children and their destruction of schools and mosques have been exposed before the world, the Zionists’ propaganda machine is trying to discredit our liberation struggle more desperately than ever. Through flagrant misquotation and mistranslation, they have falsely claimed that Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar has called for the killing of Jewish children around the world and attacks on synagogues.

He did no such thing – nor would any Hamas spokesman. Such a call would be against Islam and the teachings of the Prophet, who prohibited the killing of children and attacks on places of worship. And from the beginning of our struggle, Hamas has always insisted that its operations are restricted to the field of battle, Palestine itself.

What Dr Zahar did do is warn that by carrying out these barbaric massacres of children and women, and by destroying our mosques, the Zionists are creating the conditions for people to believe it is justified or legitimate to take revenge. That is not the call of Hamas. Dr Zahar did not even mention “Jews” in his comments. And throughout this latest offensive, hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed, while not a single Israeli child has died.

Our struggle is not against the Jewish people, but against oppression and occupation. This is not a religious war. We have no quarrel with the Jewish people. We welcome and appreciate the stand taken by leading Jewish figures in Britain and around the world against Israel’s aggression against Gaza and for the rights of our people. It is also not the case, as has been claimed, that Hamas is seeking to enforce sharia law in Gaza: we respect the democratic process and individual rights.

The continuing attempt to discredit and demonise Hamas by Israel, and its US backer, cannot hide the real atrocities and massacres they are now inflicting on our people. Hamas and its administration in Gaza remains intact, despite the devastation. This aggression will not succeed.

Basim Naim is the minister of health in the Hamas government in Gaza

Social Democrat in Sweden Ingalill Bjartén, is calling for boycott of Israel in the Davis Cup.

“Israel is an apartheid state. I think Gaza is comparable to the Warsaw ghetto,” said Ingalill Bjartén, the vice chair for the Social Democratic women’s organization (S-kvinnor) in Skane in southern Sweden, to the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

“I’m surprised that Israel – where large numbers of the population suffered under the Nazis – can do the exact same things the Nazis did.”

More techniques for for understanding and dealing with Israeli hasbara by James Zogby.

Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann ,Secretary of the UN General Assembly has condemned Israel in no uncertain terms.

The Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, but Israel has escalated its offensive and Palestinian rocket fire has also continued.

“There have been some who were under the illusion that the Security Council would do something that could help the situation,” d’Escoto said. “I never thought so.

“Now we’re faced with not only with a lack of compliance but with a prime minister of Israel who has practically responded to the Security Council by saying ‘mind your own business’.

“It’s unbelievable that a country that owes its existence to a general assembly resolution could be so disdainful of the resolutions that emanate from the UN.”

D’Escoto, a former Roman Catholic priest and Nicaragua foreign minister, is known for his outspoken criticism of Israel and last year likened Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the racist apartheid system previously used in South Africa.

Gabriela Shalev, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, called d’Escoto an “Israel hater” for having hugged Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president and a vocal critic of Israel.

D’Escoto also said the UN had to bear some responsibility for the long-standing conflict in the Middle East as it had allowed the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, leaving the Palestinians stateless.

“You have to attack problems at their root cause and the Palestinian people have been subjected to subhuman treatment for decades and this [the Israeli offensive] is going to make matters worse.”

@BreakingNewsOn Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos confirms that Hamas has accepted a ceasefire that would end the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Is Israel’s gratuitous display of sadism to end for the time being?

Till the next time – the beast needs habitual blood tribute.

Is it coincidence that Bin Laden ‘releases’ a new tape? not many believe he is still alive. We’re still looking for a full transcript.

What scraps are around aren’t definitive, though he does make commentary on Gaza along with pronouncements of economic doom for the US and Israel.

Bin Laden last appeared in an audio tape in May and also focused on Gaza, calling on Muslims to try to help to end the blockade of the area. The al-Qaeda leader has placed growing emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in recent years and today’s audio tape was accompanied by a still of bin Laden and a picture of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest shrine.

From Al Jazeera:

The speaker on Wednesday’s tape hailed the global financial crisis as a decline in US influence around the world and said it would, in turn, weaken Israel – one of Washington’s closest allies.

From the New York Times:

The Bin Laden tape’s authenticity could not immediately be verified, but it bore many hallmarks of Qaeda messages. The tape was produced by As-Sahab, the Qaeda media arm, and the voice on the tape closely resembled other recordings by Mr. bin Laden, who was pictured on the Web sites next to an image of Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam’s holiest sites.

The Bush administration reacted to the tape, according to Reuters, with White House spokesman Gordon D. Johndroe saying it appeared to demonstrate Mr. bin Laden’s “isolation and continued attempts to remain relevant at a time when Al Qaeda’s ideology, mission, and agenda are being questioned and challenged throughout the world.”

Finally, here’s the full transcript, complete with economic pronouncements:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

The Jihad Media Battalion

Presents

English Translation of the speech of ?sheikh Oussama Ben Laden -may Allah preserve him-

Entitled:

Call For Jihad To Stop Aggression Against Gaza

All praise be to Allah. We thank Him, we seek His guidance and forgiveness. We seek His refuge from the evils of our souls, and the evil results of our deeds.

Whosoever Allah guides, there is none to lead him astray, and whosoever is led astray by Allah, there is none to guide him.

I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah, alone, without partner, and that Muhammad is His slave and messenger.

To proceed:

My dear Muslim Ummah (nation)

I am not the one who stands in front of you in these difficult days under the guise of condemnation and denunciation to react toward what is happening to our people in Gaza, but I stand before you to say a word of truth which helps us to get back what was extorted of the truth.

Word of truth which doesn’t wheedle neither king nor Prince, neither savant nor minister.

Word which doesn’t recognize the false international legitimacy and fear not the United Nations Security Council which spread fright among the oppressed people in the small and weak countries like Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Kashmir and Chechnya.

Word of truth which the whole world stood against in order to erase it from our method and life then erase us.

It is the sacred Jihad (fighting for the sake of Allah) to get back Bayt al-Maqdis and al-Quds (Jerusalem)

Poetry:

O captive Quds suffering its violation
And Muslims still sleeping far from Jihad

O my Muslim Ummah

The great point of imbalance in the previous efforts to free Palestine is that, those who assumed its cause were governors who betrayed their trust. In the war of 1948, the Muslims were surprised how we were defeated, but the surprise was to be victorious in that war, how can we be victorious while our kings entrusted the matter of war to the real governor of Jordan at that time, the British General Glub Basha. How can a nation be victorious while the leader of its armies is its enemy? At that time every one of our kings had a Basha like this one to guide him, for example: in Peninsula he was the non-enthroned king, the British General Philip, and it was enough for deceiving people to be named by the governor as Haj Abd-Allah Philip.

Him who looked into the British ********s related to this matter knows the degree of heedlessness reigning at that time among people, and now these deceptions still continuing with a change of faces and names. In each capital today there is “Bremer” (ex U.S. Civil Administrator of Iraq) overtly or secretly, and there is with him “Allawi” (former Iraqi Prime Minister ) at his disposal to execute his orders, and in each country there is “Sistani” (Iranian Shi’a cleric in Iraq) and “Tantawi” (Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Egypt) supported by groups of official and unofficial Savants, and groups of writers, intellectuals, journalists and reporters who give false legitimacy to the agents of the crusaders in our countries. All these groups are enemies of our Ummah (nation) and we must beware of them, they are known in majority because the most important of their characteristics is that the governor enables them of the mass media to address people and deceive them regularly, while he prevents the truthful from a Friday sermon in outlying village.

Other points of imbalance we face nowadays are many ways that are raising slogans to free Palestine, most of them are in favor of mislaying the cause. One of the vastest way is what the governments are doing concerning the Ministerial Sessions and transference of the cause to the United Nations and Security Council, this is a way of disclaiming the responsibility and mislaying of the Palestinian cause.

Some of these ways also, is what some savants are doing about asking the governors to come to aid of Palestine, this is another way of disclaiming the responsibility and mislaying the Aqsa mosque and the martyrs’ bloods. How can we ask help from the agents of our enemies, aren’t those people tired of supplicating during these long decades?

Poetry:

Him who seeks the help from Amer in his distress
Is like him who seeks help of fire from scorching heat

There is another way taken by the Islamic groups and which is the permission of the governors to do Jihad, or asking them (governors) to be at the level of their peoples’ requests, and this is also another way of disclaiming the responsibility, which results in foisting heads into sands and deceiving the followers of these groups, and it is also mislaying of the cause. Those (leaders of the Islamic groups) must speak out frankly to their brothers and inform them that the responsibility is very heavy and they are not ready to assume it. Both international and regional Kufr (disbelief) are the same in attacking violently every one working and saying the word of truth in favor of this cause.

The duty is to instigate the youths to do Jihad and to arrange them in battalions to fight for the sake of Allah the Zionist-Crusader alliance and its agents in the region, not to make them feel satisfied by protesting in streets without arms.
These leaders of the Islamic groups must let the courageous and capable persons from their brothers to lead the group in these difficult conditions in order to do the legitimate duty.

Poetry:

Him among you who is not convinced that the fight is a duty
Must give the way for other and not stray the one who is convinced

With all these numerous deviated ways, there is one right way to get back al-Aqsa mosque and Palestine, it is the Jihad for the sake of Allah as we mentioned before. Allah Soubhanahu Wa Taala shows us how to stop the aggression of the infidels in the Holy Quran when He said: [Then fight (O Muhammad (peace be upon him)) in the Cause of Allâh, you are not tasked (held responsible) except for yourself, and incite the believers (to fight along with you), it may be that Allâh will restrain the evil might of the disbelievers. And Allâh is Stronger in Might and Stronger in punishing.] (4:84). So, by inciting people and fighting the enemy, so that the aggression of the infidels stops.

As I say to my Ummah:

Being ******* with laying the responsibility on the governors and savants, doesn’t exempt you (O my Ummah) from responsibility, but it is also another way of disclaiming the responsibility. For the order of Allah in the Holy Quran is very clear whereas the Jihad for the sake of Allah with soul and money is a duty until the achievement of the goal..

O my Muslim Ummah:

You are able to defeat the Zionist entity by your popular potentialities and huge energies without any support of the governors, even the majority stand with the Zionist-Crusader alliance in the same trench. Here , I would like to assure you my Ummah, I am sure that this matter is easy for you Allah willing if we took it seriously by trusting in Allah Soubhanahu Wa Taala, executing his orders and abandoning the deviated way.

Here I am giving you two evidences proving that you are able to defeat our enemies by small capacities:

* First evidence is the great defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan by the grace of Allah then by your popular efforts without any intervention of any army of your governments, even if the general winds were behind the Mujahideen’s ship at that war. Since that the flag of the Soviet Union was removed from the world and thrown in the forgetting basket, praise and gratitude are due to Allah.

* As for the second evidence: after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the American system seized the opportunity of being alone without adversary and went into impose its hegemony and policy upon the world, so the governors of our region became more surrendering which made America more tyrant and more supporting the Zionist entity to destroy the crops and the cattle in Palestine.

Then a group of your sons (O my Ummah) declared the Jihad against this only magnate, Hitler of the era, the rhinoceros to which we broke the horn, destroyed its fort and demolished its tower (9/11 events). That made its president angry and claimed that he would reach the Mujahideen’s leaders dead or alive to regain the prestige of America and to make them as a lesson for others, he was like Abu Jahel in Bader battle and went out strutting by his great number of accouterments. Thus we destroyed them, killed his soldiers and dispersed his companions, by the grace of Allah.

Hence, when the battle became fierce and the enemy attacked us, the response was the sharp swords to drive away the oppression .

Here is America being shaky under the hits of the Mujahideen which made it suffering from human political and financial losses and now it is drowning in the economic crisis till the point of asking for alms from both small and grand countries. Therefore, this made it without respect in front of its friends and it could no longer dread its enemies.

Here we need a stance of pondering, you know well that the first loser due to the recession of the American oppression is the Zionist entity, because it will lose one of the most important components of its subsistence and life’s arteries. This terrible and fast recession of the American power is one of the most important causes which pushed the Israelis to carry out this savage attack on Gaza, in a despairing attempt to profit from the last days of the two periods of Bush administration, in which the Zionist entity found what couldn’t be reached by others from power, money, determination and rancor to assault the Muslims and to beat all powers refusing the American ascendancy in the region.

Since the White House’s forces being broken down over the Mujahideen’s rock in Afghanistan and drowning in quagmires of Iraq, this is why the Israelis are in a hurry to defeat their enemies in Gaza to replace them by Mahmoud Abbas and his authority for protecting their backs. So they carried out this terrible genocide before the end of the Bush’s period of rule and before more appearance of the American weakness, so that the Veto will collapse because the world started revolting against it and voices started rising high to annul it, it (Veto) is an unconcealed and flagrant call for oppression and arrogance.

O my Muslim Ummah:

This talk about weakness and recession of the American ascendancy as well as the collapse of its economy, is not a talk of hopes, but testimonies given by leaders themselves which they couldn’t conceal any longer:

* Biden the US vice president says: “the crisis is more difficult than we expected, the whole American economy is exposed to collapse”.

* The former chairman of American Reserve Bank (Alan Greenspan) says: “the big recession will appear as a nice promenade in comparison with the economic crisis”.

* As for the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, he described the crisis saying: “the crisis is very deep and the Global Financial System was about to fall in a catastrophe”. And I say: it is really inside the catastrophe by the grace of Allah because of those oppressors.

* The German Finance Minister said: “the world will never return to the previous situation prevailing before this crisis, and the United States will lose its position as a great force in the Global Financial System”.

Then, I present to you reports of the American intelligence which confirm the recession of the American influence in the coming years.

O my Muslim Ummah:

Indeed the Jihad of your sons against the Zionist-Crusader alliance is one of the main causes (after the grace of Allah) in all these results which destroyed our enemies, and which appeared after the “seven years” war, and I assure you O my Ummah -regarding the graces that Allah bestowed us-, we feel that Allah granted us patience which suffices us to continue on the way of Jihad for seven years again, and seven and seven again..Allah willing. The patience is the best weapon and Taqwa (piety) is the best provision. If we got martyrdom so we achieved what we were looking for, but the flag of Jihad will never fall down until the Day of the Judgment as we were informed by the prophet of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

But the question is: Can America continue in fighting us for coming decades?

The reports and indicators suggest otherwise, and that 75% of the American people are pleased by the departure of the president who entangled them in wars that exceeded their power, and plunged his country into economic turmoil. His successor has inherited a heavy legacy and was left between two bitter choices, like the one who swallowed a double-edged dagger which hurts him with any small movement. It is a most difficult heritage, to inherit a long guerrilla war with a patient stubborn enemy, that is funded with usury loans. For if he (enemy) withdrew from the war, it will be a military defeat, and if he continued the war he will sink in the economic crisis, how then about inheriting two wars, in which he is not able to continue, and we are on our way to open other fronts Allah Willing.

O my Ummah, with greater reason you should put your hands on the hands of your sons “the Mujahedeen” to continue Jihad against Allah’s enemies and to go through exhausting them on those two fronts and the other open fronts of the war with the Zionist-Crusader alliance and its agents in the region, in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Waziristan, Islamic Maghreb and Somalia…

It is your duty to support them with souls and money full supply, for I experienced Jihad by Allah’s grace and I know its financial costs, the Zakat (charity money) of one of the rich Muslim dealers can cover the expenses of Jihad in all the current open fronts with our enemies, and Jihad has a share in the Zakat as you know. Hence, the happy one is the one who could participate in the victory of his religion and could defend his prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his nation.

How similar the hardship of the Mujahedeen today, to the hardship the Muslims passed by in al-Usrah (the hardship) army at the time of the prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), till Uthman Ben Affan came and equipped most of the army, the prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said then: “Nothing of Uthman’s deeds will harm him after that”.

Who is willing to be Uthman of this current hardship??

I know many of the Muslim dealers who can pay for the sake of Allah without meanness, but they are afraid of America and its agents in the region, and I say to them ‘this is not an excuse, you are in a test in this dunya (worldly life), and remember what Allah says : [do you fear them? But Allah is most deserving that you should fear Him, if you are believers].(9:13).

There must be migration and endurance for the costs of the victory and implementation of the religion, the prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) who is the best of the mankind was obligated to hide in a laurel and to leave his people, his family and homeland, to migrate from Mecca, the best place on earth.

Hurry up, seize the precious opportunity, and take the prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) as your good example when he hid in the laurel. Can’t anyone of you hide in a house in some place!? Isn’t it too vast the earth of Allah, to hide in to do the financial Jihad worship?!

Allah Soubhanahu Wa Taala says: [O My servants who believe! surely My earth is vast, therefore Me alone should you serve] (29:56), and says: [Surely (as for) those whom the angels cause to die while they are unjust to their souls, they shall say: In what state were you? They shall say: We were weak in the earth. They shall say: Was not Allah's earth spacious, so that you should have migrated therein? So these it is whose abode is hell, and it is an evil resort. Surely (as for) those whom the angels cause to die while they are unjust to their souls, they shall say: In what state were you? They shall say: We were weak in the earth. They shall say: Was not Allah's earth spacious, so that you should have migrated therein? So these it is whose abode is hell, and it is an evil resort] (4:97-98).

O my Muslim Ummah:

These wars, calamities and ordeals involve in them grants, and wise people are not to leave these grants to pass without benefiting from them, you have great opportunity to push away injustice and tyranny which is practiced upon you from in and outside since many decades, and snatch forcibly your rights. Him who tells you (O my Ummah) that the way to take back rights is the ballot boxes (giving you as example the Western peoples), those are deceiving you and lying to you! They say this out of either fear or greed of the rulers, because the Western people -whom they are giving as an example- got back their rights with rebellions and armed force.

After seven years of war between Britain and France for the acquisition of America, both of them suffered a huge economic crisis, which prompted the leaders to impose taxes on people, and this –with what preceded it of injustice and tyranny of the kings- was the incentive of the French Revolution.
For the King Louis XIV used to say: ” I am the State and the State is but me”, and this is what our leaders and kings are saying today, then the French people took the grants from among these ordeals and rebelled against the unjust kings who sucked their bloods and riches, and they dethroned Louis XIV, guillotined him and took their rights with the army force.

There is no place for the ballot boxes in our countries under the ruling of tyrants. And it is regrettable and should be noted that many of the great scholars and preachers market for this big trick!

And from that economic crisis, the Americans too rebelled against Britain to get back their rights, they didn’t follow the trick of democracy which they are deceiving us with today in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries. However they took back their rights with army and force. Learn a lesson from it O you who have insight.

We as Muslims believe that it is the nation’s right to elect its president and we believe in Shoura, however we believe that the Western democracy –beside being a big trick- it is an illegitimate heresy from the Islamic point of view, and Muslims do not agree to be ruled but with Allah’s rulings not man-made laws.
In our religion, fighting for the sake of Allah against the invaders and the apostate rulers is for Allah’s word to be the highest, till things are back to normalcy and till rights are back to their owners.

At the end I say to our people in Palestine:

May Allah make great your reward for what you endured..
May Allah accept your dead among martyrs..
May Allah cure your wounded sooner..
And I ask Him the Great and Almighty to comfort the families of the victims and to reward them the best.

O my brothers in Palestine, you suffered so much as your fathers did nine decades ago, and the Muslims are sympathizing with you for what they see and hear, and we “the Mujahideen” are also sympathizing with you more because they (Mujahideen) are living the same situation as yours, and their feeling toward you is bigger because of what you are suffering from. They live under bombardment like you by the same aircrafts, and they are losing their sons like you, praise be to Allah, and truly to Allah we belong and truly, to Him we shall return.

In this year Allah wills that the lineaments of the daybreak and the omens of relief appear, by the recession of the Zionist-Crusader expansion, for the relief is imminent and we are with you and we will never let you down, your fate is related to ours in fighting the Zionist-Crusader alliance, so either we fight until victory is achieved or we get martyrdom for the sake of Allah.

Endure and be more patient, and guard your territory by stationing army units permanently at the places from where the enemy can attack you, and fear Allah, so that you may be successful.

At last we say All praise be to Allah. Peace and Blessing be upon our prophet, and upon his family and companions.

The Israeli misinformation campaign is moving into full swing, along with its gratuitous bombings and continued collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

Here’s my comment at the Israeli Consulate blog waiting to be now passed through their checkpoint, in response to How Did the Cease Fire End:

“More hasbara – this is getting old.

One day soon your leaders will know just what imprisonment feels like. At Le Hague.”

Israeli spin (= propaganda = bullshit) is known as hasbara. Coordinated by Israel’s National Information Directorate, hasbara is aimed at creating an unrealistically wholesome image of Israel so the average person accepts the Zionist state’s aggressions against its neighbours and land thefts without question. In this ongoing post, I’m going to collect thoughts and links which demonstrate Israel’s pernicious perversions of reality.

From the Guardian article “Special spin body gets media on message, says Israel“:

The directorate acts across ministries and decides key messages on a daily basis. Of its core messages for the media, there has been the advice that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements with Israel; that Israel’s objective is the defence of its population; and that Hamas is a terror organisation targeting Israeli civilians. “In general, we think we are succeeding in getting the message across,” said Vatikai.

The three slogans above are distortions and outright lies which have been exposed previously on this blog.

Uri Avnery also explains these Israeli fabrications:

As a matter of fact, the cease-fire did not collapse, because there was no real cease-fire to start with. The main requirement for any cease-fire in the Gaza Strip must be the opening of the border crossings. There can be no life in Gaza without a steady flow of supplies. But the crossings were not opened, except for a few hours now and again. The blockade on land, on sea and in the air against a million and a half human beings is an act of war, as much as any dropping of bombs or launching of rockets. It paralyzes life in the Gaza Strip: eliminating most sources of employment, pushing hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation, stopping most hospitals from functioning, disrupting the supply of electricity and water.

Those who decided to close the crossings – under whatever pretext – knew that there is no real cease-fire under these conditions.

That is the main thing. Then there came the small provocations which were designed to get Hamas to react. After several months, in which hardly any Qassam rockets were launched, an army unit was sent into the Strip “in order to destroy a tunnel that came close to the border fence”. From a purely military point of view, it would have made more sense to lay an ambush on our side of the fence. But the aim was to find a pretext for the termination of the cease-fire, in a way that made it plausible to put the blame on the Palestinians. And indeed, after several such small actions, in which Hamas fighters were killed, Hamas retaliated with a massive launch of rockets, and – lo and behold – the cease-fire was at an end. Everybody blamed Hamas.

* * *

WHAT WAS THE AIM? Tzipi Livni announced it openly: to liquidate Hamas rule in Gaza. The Qassams served only as a pretext.

Liquidate Hamas rule? That sounds like a chapter out of “The March of Folly”. After all, it is no secret that it was the Israeli government which set up Hamas to start with. When I once asked a former Shin-Bet chief, Yaakov Peri, about it, he answered enigmatically: “We did not create it, but we did not hinder its creation.”

For years, the occupation authorities favored the Islamic movement in the occupied territories. All other political activities were rigorously suppressed, but their activities in the mosques were permitted. The calculation was simple and naive: at the time, the PLO was considered the main enemy, Yasser Arafat was the current Satan. The Islamic movement was preaching against the PLO and Arafat, and was therefore viewed as an ally.

With the outbreak of the first intifada in 1987, the Islamic movement officially renamed itself Hamas (Arabic initials of “Islamic Resistance Movement”) and joined the fight. Even then, the Shin-Bet took no action against them for almost a year, while Fatah members were executed or imprisoned in large numbers. Only after a year, were Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his colleagues also arrested.

Since then the wheel has turned. Hamas has now become the current Satan, and the PLO is considered by many in Israel almost as a branch of the Zionist organization. The logical conclusion for an Israeli government seeking peace would have been to make wide-ranging concessions to the Fatah leadership: ending of the occupation, signing of a peace treaty, foundation of the State of Palestine, withdrawal to the 1967 borders, a reasonable solution of the refugee problem, release of all Palestinian prisoners. That would have arrested the rise of Hamas for sure.

But logic has little influence on politics. Nothing of this sort happened. On the contrary, after the murder of Arafat, Ariel Sharon declared that Mahmoud Abbas, who took his place, was a “plucked chicken”. Abbas was not allowed the slightest political achievement. The negotiations, under American auspices, became a joke. The most authentic Fatah leader, Marwan Barghouti, was sent to prison for life. Instead of a massive prisoner release, there were petty and insulting “gestures”.

Abbas was systematically humiliated, Fatah looked like an empty shell and Hamas won a resounding victory in the Palestinian election – the most democratic election ever held in the Arab world. Israel boycotted the elected government. In the ensuing internal struggle, Hamas assumed direct control over the Gaza Strip.

And now, after all this, the government of Israel decided to “liquidate Hamas rule in Gaza” – with blood, fire and columns of smoke.

Paul Craig Roberts implodes the myth that Israel is acting in self-defence:

Israel’s slow theft of Palestine is illegal under international law but protected by US “diplomacy.”

The Palestinians are no more of a threat to Israel than Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were a threat to the Nazi state. Yet, everywhere in America–Congress, the executive branch, the print and TV media, the universities, evangelical Christian institutions–there is the belief that Israel is on the verge of annihilation by Palestinian terrorists. This ignorance, so carefully cultivated by the Israel Lobby, turns genocidal aggression into self-defense.

It fools Americans, but it doesn’t fool Israelis. The Israelis have always known that “self-defense” is a cloak for a Zionist policy of territorial expansion. The policy is controversial within Israel. Many Israelis object, just as many Americans object to President Bush’s illegal wars and violations of US civil liberties. Many Israelis give voice to their moral conscience, but they are overwhelmed by vested interests.

To further the deception and ensure the majority of the world is fed with sanitised rubbish, Israel has banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza since the beginning of its bombing attacks and during the 2 months following Israel’s breaching of the cease fire in early November.

One of the challenges of Israel’s media offensive has been to counter the disturbing images of Gaza in the conflict. “In the war of the pictures we lose, so you need to correct, explain or balance it in other ways,” said Aviv Shir-On, foreign ministry deputy director-general for public affairs.

After a successful court case by the Foreign Press Association, Israel will now deign to let in 8 journalists

Israel says it will allow eight people from foreign media organisations into Gaza each time it opens the Erez crossing into the tiny territory, despite an Israeli supreme court ruling on Wednesday that up to 12 people should be allowed to enter.

It will be very interesting to see from which news agencies the vetted journalists come.

Ian Welsh at Firedoglake translates the Israel friendly tripe fed to the world by Associated Press.

The hasbara war on Wikipedia

More on the hasbara infiltration of Wikipedia

And some more

Hasbara 2.0 (beware of bugs) – hasbara at Times Square and on Youtube.

The Hasbara Buster – an erudite blog addressing many Zionist myths.

David Shasha in his book review Crushing the Wheels of Hasbara says:

The Israeli propaganda machine has become a ubiquitous presence in the American Jewish community and any attempt to generate and promote alternative sources of information carries the crushing burden of threatening that merciless beast, a beast which can do great damage to its critics.

Techniques of hasbara

* Smearing/defaming critics of Israel, aka, attacking the messenger. This is even the terminology found in the Hasbara Handbook
* Selective discussion of issues
* Framing of issues, and setting the terminology used in discussing Israel
* Harassing media about its coverage, aka, flak
* Challenging the portrayal of an alternative narrative, and attempting to keep the zionist narrative as the dominant one.

The hasbara manual describes seven propaganda techniques:

1. Name calling: through the careful use of words, then name calling technique links a person or an idea to a negative symbol.
2. Glittering generality: Simply put, glittering generality is name calling in reverse. Instead of trying to attach negative meanings to ideas or people, glittering generalities use positive phrases, which the audience are attached to, in order to lend positive image to things. Words such as “freedom”, “civilization”,…
3. Transfer: Transfer involves taking some of the prestige and authority of one concept and applying it to another. For example, a speaker might decide to speak in front of a United Nations flag, in an attempt to gain legitimacy for himself or his idea.
4. Testimonial: Testimonial means enlisting the support of somebody admired or famous to endorse and ideal or campaign.
5. Plain folks: The plain folks technique attempts to convince the listener that the speaker is a ‘regular guy’, who is trust-worthy because the are like ‘you or me’.
6. Fear: See fear.
7. Bandwagon: See bandwagon.

More debunking of the myth that Hamas breached the ceasefire with some solid linkage.

Often those who criticise the policies of Israel are labelled by trolls as anti-semites. Here’s a great article by journalist Kawther Salam – Why Israel is an anti-semitic state:

A ’semite’ is one who is descended from a ’semite’ tribe of the whole entire Arabian Peninsula. A ’semite’ speaks one or all of the ’semitic’ languages: Aramaic, Hebraic, and Arabic. Most probably these languages descended from Sumeria. ‘Semitic’ is an adjective that, when used properly, refers to those who speak one of the languages of the ’semites’. It is a linquistic and cutural/tribal characterization, not religious or political.

‘Anti-semitic’ is a perjorative word being used to slander and smear individuals who criticize something Hebraic. This is a false accusation. Hebrews who hate Arabs would then also be ‘anti-semites’. It is time to shut the ‘anti-semite baiters’ up.

Furthermore, most of the citizens of the State of Israel are Khazarian in ancestry, which is NOT ’semitic’, but Euroasian. When I studied Hebrew and Arabic, I did not become a ’semite’; I simply learned a ’semitic’ language. When one becomes a Buddhist, he does not become a Tibetan.