VIEWPOINT: Save Gaza today; tomorrow’s too late! By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

Palestinians search through the rubble of a house following an Israeli airstrike that killed 18 people of the same family in Gaza City, July 13, 2014.

Emma Bull was right when she said, “Coincidence is the word we use when we can’t see the levers and pulleys.” The timing of Israel’s recent assault on Gaza is not coincidental. It is the culmination of several factors: The Hamas-Fatah unity; Israel’s escalation of illegal construction in occupied territory; the collapse of the peace talks; the success of the BDS movement; and the growing number of Europeans warning against investment in occupied territories.

Israel’s expansionist agenda was at odds with the growing lack of sympathy around the world.  So it pulled out its best card - the victim card. On June 12, three Israeli teens were kidnapped, thought by many to be another Israeli false flag operation. According to Israeli police records, “the voice of MK Shelly Yacimovich (Labor) could be heard who was being interviewed by Israel Radio as the kidnapping took place” (Jerusalem Post).

During the phone conversation, shots were heard while Hebrew language was blaring in the background. A gag order was put on this call. Immediately, Netanyahu launched on a campaign to solicit sympathy for this ‘victimization’ and to invoke outrage from world leaders blaming the kidnapping on Hamas (who denied responsibility), all the while giving the impression that the teens were alive.

Without provocation, on June 17, Reuters reported that Israel cracks down on Hamas “in a mobilisation on a scale not seen in years” to find the abducted shot teens. As sentiments of solidarity toward Israel and disgust toward Hamas increased, victim card in hand, IDF boots marched into Palestinian houses turning them into military observation posts, making arbitrary arrests and putting up road blocks to increase pressure on Hamas.

It took more than two weeks for the very competent IDF to find the dead bodies of the teens in a tiny area – and identifying all the ins and outs of Palestinians households. More sympathy and condemnation poured in as the teens’ bodies were found on June 30. Standing center stage amidst Western media, Netanyahu said, “May God avenge their blood.” Thinking of himself as God, on July 1, arrest raids were ordered, hundreds were arrested and a ‘Hamas member was killed.’ All hell broke loose.

The sympathies and framing of events on the ground by the Western media and sympathies of Western leaders gave justification to the bombing of Gaza. The burning alive of a teenage Palestinian boy got a passing mention in the press. As the death toll in Gaza keeps rising, always, not only must Palestinians defend their lives and livelihoods, but they must also contend with fighting the pro-Israel media narrative.

Meanwhile, the UN utters a pathetic whim but remains idle as bombs are dropped on toddlers.    After all, they take their cue from their paymasters with US contributing 25% to the United Nations (the next largest contributors being Japan (12.53%), Germany (8.018%), the United Kingdom (6.604%), and France (6.112%). Lending their support in fratricide are the Arab leaders as their continued silence echoes the call to genocideby Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked.

As Israel is set for a ground invasion of Gaza, the alarming call of a “holy war” is heard from an Israeli commander who tells his soldiers that they are engaged in a war to “wipe out” an “enemy who defames” God. Jewish extremism has always been concealed, and with it, the dangers. But the threat is very real – and very well understood even by those supporting this growing danger.

A 1997 article reviewing the Israeli Defense Force repeatedly stressed the possibilities of and the need to guard against a religious, right-wing military coup, especially as the proportion of the religious in the military increases. They have been on the increase. In 2009, it was reported, “Israel’s army is changing. Once proudly secular, its combat units are now filling with those who believe Israel’s wars are ‘God’s wars.’” If Israel determines “God’s wars,” none are safe.

World leaders have warned that the conflict could engulf the entire region, but Israel is not heeding their warnings. Perhaps Netanyahu is smug in the knowledge that even if all in the region (and beyond) perish, Israeli Jews, or at least some, will be safe in its Site 911. Site 911, funded by America, due for completion soon, “will have five levels buried underground and six additional outbuildings on the above grounds, within the perimeter. At about 127,000 square feet, the first three floors will house classrooms, an auditorium, and a laboratory — all wedged behind shock resistant doors — with radiation protection and massive security. Each door of the facility will have a detailed description of the mezuzahs written in “in-erasable ink.”

With the growing extremism in Israeli military, their “holy wars” and nukes, it is not just Gaza that is burning – this is a war on humanity and perhaps even human race.  If we do not stop it today, tomorrow may be too late.

SSU/HJL

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is a Public Diplomacy scholar, independent researcher and writer with a focus on US foreign policy and the role of lobby groups.

Source: Press TV

Anti-Israel demonstrations held in London

Sources

Thousands of protesters have gathered on the streets of London in protest against Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, Press TV reports.

Amid growing global outrage at the Israeli assaults on Gaza, thousands of Londoners took to one of the busiest streets in London demanding justice and freedom for the people of Palestine.

Protesters expressed anger at Israeli aggression and the mainstream media's biased coverage of the events in Gaza.

“More and more young people are coming up to me and saying, ‘look, I’m only believing what I’m seeing with you guys when it comes to the situation on the ground in Gaza, because if I were to watch just one of the mainstream channels, you would think that this is a situation where the sides are equally armed,” Press TV correspondent Amina Taylor said.

This is while on July 15, thousands of people gathered for anti-Israel protests outside the London headquarters of the state-run British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

The demonstrators said the BBC is biased in its coverage of Israel’s onslaught on the coastal sliver.

Protesters say the BBC is smart about the way it shows some Palestinian views and some Israeli views but the media giant’s coverage always seems to blame Palestinians.

Similar protests were held in countries across the world including in Iran, India, the US, Tunisia, Italy, Pakistan and Indonesia.

More than 340 people, including women and children, have been killed and nearly 2,400 injured since Tel Aviv unleashed its offensive 12 days ago.

Gazan homes, mosques and schools are also being targeted by the Israeli army. According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, more than three-quarters of the victims are civilians.

GMA/AB/SS

Source: Press TV

EXCLUSIVE VIEWPOINT: Just free palestine ends Hamas response to Israel's aggression By Dr. Anisa Abd el Fattah

photo credit: Press TV

Many of those offering opinions on the most recent Israeli assault on Gaza limit the number of deceased to those killed within the past week, or from the July 2014 inception of what Israel is calling a war, putting the death toll at 209. The fact is that Israel has been killing Palestinians in massacres and other types of assaults and under other pretenses since before 1948 when Israel was “created” by the partitioning of Palestine and later in what Israel calls its war for independence.

In fact, when we examine the Zionist Jewish project in Palestine, it becomes clear that there has never been a period lasting for any significant amount of time when the Palestinian people were not being killed either by the Israeli political and military entities, or by the illegal Israeli settlers. There has never been peace in Palestine for the Palestinians. Aside from that, we must also consider that prior to this recent outbreak of Israeli violence in Gaza, for one week prior, Israel carried out a violent arrest and detention campaign in the West Bank that killed 4 people, wounded 1000 and resulted in the arrests of more than 600 others.

Israel raided villages, stormed homes and kidnapped more than 600 Palestinians, including small children, in what seems now to have been preparation for this current aggression in Gaza. Israel claims it was responding to the kidnapping and deaths of 3 settlers who had served in the Israeli military and may have been active in the military when they were allegedly kidnapped and killed.

Israel has lately stepped up its air assault on the Palestinian people of Gaza, killing 3 more Palestinian people. They have done so with at least the tacit approval of the United States, the UN and EU. These Western powers seem to feel, perhaps along with some Arab governments, that Israel's repeated violations of international law, such as targeting civilians, children, hospitals and private homes, are acceptable, so long as this situation would bring Hamas to a cease fire. Israel's other hope might be that as a result of the tremendous loss of life associated with Israel's assault, the Palestinian people will blame Hamas for their losses rather than Israel, and pressure Hamas to end Israel's violence through an open ended cease fire agreement. Israel has already killed in its recent 2014 slaughter, more than 200 Palestinian people, mostly women and children.

There is something very troubling about the idea that Israel entered into this campaign of violence with the hope of bringing Hamas to a cease fire in a confrontation that Israel initiated. Israel had a cease fire agreement with Gaza, resulting from its 2012 assault, which it violated within days of accepting the agreement, killing 3 Palestinians almost immediately after the cease fire was announced.

The fact that Israel has never honored a cease fire is also troubling, but strangely it seems to be troubling only to those who understand, that unless something significantly different happens this time, we have no reason to expect that a cease fire will change anything. A cease fire without conditions has no real purpose or effects other than buying Israel the needed time to regroup and rearm in preparation for part 2 of its 2014 assault on Gaza, and it will never result in anything that even resembles peace.

What is needed to create a real incentive for Palestine to agree to a cease fire must be more than the standing Israeli ultimatum, which is accept the cease fire or die, considering that on average Israel kills approximately 3 Palestinians per week. Some people have suggested that Hamas might be interested in a cease fire if Israel agrees to lift the siege on Gaza, which Israel did in 2012 and of course never lifted the siege. In fact Israel tightened the siege, giving its newest Arab ally in the region, Egypt's president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the command to bomb all of the tunnels leading into Gaza that were used to transport a minimal amount of needed food and supplies into Gaza from Egypt, which el-Sisi has done quite effectively.

What has not been mentioned enough yet, is clearly a significant result that is needed, is an end to Israel's 40 years of illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, which some refer to as the occupied territories. Now the world should consider that after 40 years of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, along with an incessant and very aggressive illegal colonization program in the West Bank, in violation of international law and UN resolution 242, it is time for Israel to end the occupation.

A former Israeli Mossad chief has suggested that Israel should attempt to open negotiations with Hamas on issues related to the economic embargo. Reason suggests that Israel should not even think about negotiations with Hamas until it ends its illegal occupation. Also, the cease fire or die ultimatum might not be that attractive to people who have had at least 3 cease fire agreements with Israel and never stopped being killed. Palestine has been subjected to ethnic cleansing through deadly violence that includes kidnappings on almost a daily basis and that does not include the massacres that have occurred regularly since 1948.

Ending the Palestine occupation would require more than merely Israel's word that it will relinquish its claimed authority over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It would require the UN creation of an overseeing committee that would work with Israel and Hamas to develop a plan for Israel’s withdrawal and the associated terms of the withdrawal, which must include reparations for Israel's near total destruction of Gaza's infrastructure.

If the world is serious about ending the Palestinian resistance response to Israel's aggression, we must all push very hard for Israel to end its illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and its withdrawal to its 1967 borders.

AA/AB

Dr. Anisa Abd el Fattah is a political analyst and human/civil rights activist. She is the former editor of the Middle East Affairs Journal (MEAJ) a peer reviewed international journal which focused on the political progress and intellectual and ideological development of the Islamic movements in the Muslim world. She has a Ph.D. in Islamic Jurisprudence and now heads a newly established think tank, The Center for Muslim World Studies. She has been published in many of the major newspapers in the United States such as theBoston Globe, The Washington Times and the New York Times and has lectured at some of the United State's most prestigious universities including Georgetown University, Columbia University in New York and the American University in Washington DC. More articles by Dr. Abd el Fattah

Source: Press TV

Israel raided Gaza to sabotage Palestine unity government

Photo Credit: News24.com

A political analyst says Israel’s relentless onslaught against the Gaza Strip is aimed at undermining the recently formed Palestinian national unity government, Press TV reports.

In an interview with Press TV on Saturday, Sharif Nashashibi said Israel used the alleged abduction of three Israeli settlers as a pretext to launch an offensive against the Gaza Strip with the aim of undermining the Palestinian national unity government.

“Israel’s target was the national unity government from the beginning when the Israeli teenagers were abducted,” Nashashibi said, adding, “There was no doubt it (Israel) was going to do anything it could and use anything as a pretext to destroy the national unity government.”

Israel accused Hamas of kidnapping and killing three settlers that went missing early last month. During the so-called search operation for the settlers, Israeli forces killed several Palestinians and raided a number of homes.

Hamas, meanwhile, consistently rejected the claim, saying Tel Aviv seeks to sabotage the recent reconciliation accord reached between the movement and Fatah, which led to the formation of the Palestinian national unity government.

On July 8, shortly after the discovery of the bodies of the settlers, Israel launched an offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip.

The death toll from the Israeli aggression on Gaza has risen to more than 342. About a third of the fatalities have been women and children. Nearly 2,500 others have been also injured.

The Israeli regime also launched a ground invasion of the blockaded enclave late on Thursday.

Israel had called up 48,000 reserve soldiers for the ground operation and the military said later on Thursday that an additional 18,000 reservists have been also called up to bolster the 48,000 already summoned.

AR/HMV/SS

Source: Press TV

1000’s join anti-Israel demo in France

Pro-Palestinian protesters have clashed with police in Paris as thousands defy a ban on a planned demonstration against Israeli atrocities in the Gaza strip.

Protesters in France’s capital Paris launched projectiles at riot police, who responded by firing stun grenades and tear gas into the crowds on Saturday.

The demonstrators were chanting anti-Israeli slogans such as “Israel is a terror state” and also scaled a building and proceeded to burn an Israeli flag.

On Friday, French authorities banned pro-Palestinian groups from holding the rally for security reasons.

The Paris police made the announcement in a statement on Friday, saying Saturday’s planned anti-Israeli protest would be banned.

French President Francois Hollande said during a visit to Niger that he backed the protest ban.

Also, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he welcomed the Paris police's move and advised other cities across France to consider banning planned protests.

Organizers had said despite the ban they would go ahead with the protest, which is planned to be held in the northern Paris neighborhood of Barbés.

Meanwhile peaceful protests were held in over a dozen French cities.

The ban comes as anti-Israeli rallies are being held worldwide in condemnation of Tel Aviv’s ongoing atrocities against Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave.

The death toll from the Israeli aggression on Gaza has risen to more than 342. About a third of the fatalities have been women and children. Nearly 2,500 others have been injured.

The Israeli regime also launched a ground invasion of the coastal sliver late on Thursday.

Israel had called up 48,000 reserve soldiers for the ground operation and the military said later on Thursday that an additional 18,000 reservists have been also called up to bolster the 48,000 already summoned.

SRK/NN/AS

BOKO HARAM: RELIGIOUS WAR, NORTH’S RESPONSE TO A SOUTHERN PRESIDENT OR F.G’S MALADMINISTRATION

BY QUDUS OYEDOTUN

 

To say that terror group, “Boko-haram” is an Islamic sect or North’s response to a southern presidency is mischievous and a facade by the federal government to divert the country’s attention from the real happenings in the country. 

It is ironical to say that, Boko-haram has any Islamic affiliations because the sect does not subscribe to any of the tenets of the religion. And as the religion, Islam does not approve of the mindless killings and maiming that the sect has been engaged in on daily basis. Boko-haram is only a group of frontier elements, using religion as a façade.

It is however short of sense to say the terror group is the North’s response to southern presidency or a religious war. This unfound claims have been defied by the recent killings that have not spared Muslims; abduction and killing of the Emir of Gwazu; maiming of other emirs and northern elites by the boko-haram sect.

And to address the presidency’s claims that the insurgency was fashioned and sponsored by some political forces and directed at disrupting his administration and governance is laughable, as the sect started in 2002, when Obasanjo was President, worsened in 2009, when Yar’adua was President, and continued under his (Jonathan’s) administration. It therefore seeks an answer as to how all this is a northern conspiracy!

The reality is that boko-haram is a nemesis of the whole of Nigerians: be it Christians and Muslims, Southerners and Northerners, irrespective of tribal and ethnic modifications.

It has been unequivocally echoed by well-meaning Nigerians, Opposition parties and research has glaringly showed that among the factors that led to the insurgency are, widespread unemployment especially in the north and the fact that the region lags behind in education, meant a waiting pool of idle hands to be enlisted into the ranks of the sect.

Among the numbers of suggestion put forward to government was “Developing a full counter-insurgency programme, rather than address the problem in bits; Aligning the military strategy with political and economic measures; De-radicalizing the North-east , which is worst hit by the insurgency; Equipping the military so they can effectively battle the group; Also revamping its intelligence gathering mechanism by first winning the hearts and minds of the locals, who are the ones to give information on boko haram and so on. And what was the government’s response to these? A DEAF EAR. This is so, because the advice came from the opposition.

Whether the advice was from the opposition or not, should not have been a problem of concern to the government, but a cause to act in the good interest of Nigerians at large.

This leaves us with the worthy recall of concerned Nigerians that it took about 20 days for our President to make any pronouncement on the abduction of the girls, because he never believed they were abducted in the first place, thus losing valuable time to rescue them. It is also worthy of note that, a day after the first Nyanya bomb blast in Abuja, our President was in Kano dancing at a rally, as if the Chibok girls abduction didn’t matter and was not a cause for alarm. Let us recall that Nigeria, which has been one of the top peacekeeping nations in the world since independence in 1960, is today a subject of global peacekeeping, with countries running head-to-head to send any possible assistance to Nigeria to help rescue the girls. And finally, let us recall that over 12,000 of our citizens have been bombed since 2009, while 8,000 others have been mutilated by the insurgents, perhaps for life.

Similar cases of this insurgency was witnessed in America, in the year 1993, when a frontier group, “Branch Davidians” under the Koresh was suspected of weapons violation and US federal and Texas law enforcement laid a siege that culminated in the death of 76 men, women and children at the religious group’s base in Waco. The US acted decisively without seeing a religious conspiracy against the government and back here in Africa, Joseph Kony’s Lord Resistance Army (LRA) has perpetrated the most heinous of crimes, including abducting young girls to be sex slaves, just like book haram has done. The Ugandan government responded firmly without saying the group was the opposition’s plan to topple it, and the battle continues to this day, with LRA considerably weakened and a manhunt continuing for Joseph Kony.

Once again, to say that terror group, “Boko-haram” is an Islamic sect or North’s response to a southern presidency is mischievous and a facade by the federal government to divert the country’s attention from the real happenings in the country; but to determine if it was maladministration, I leave you to decide.

MSS NIJ PLANS ITS 4TH ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM

IT'S HERE AGAIN! BUT THIS YEAR IT PROMISES TO BE BIGGER AND MORE IMPACTING! AND WHAT IS THAT?

It's the Muslim Students' Society of Nigeria, Nigerian Institute of Journalism Branch's 4th Annual Symposium. AND WHAT IS THE PROGRAMME ALL ABOUT?
The symposium is organized yearly and its main aim has been to create a forum for knowledge where students from higher institutions meet and are enlightened on topical issues affecting our society from the perspective of seasoned professionals and prominent figures in the society.
This year's theme is tailored towards the general elections in 2015 as it draws near and is fashioned to enlighten us on the elections; what to expect and more, from an introspective point of view...

THEME: 2015 IN INTROSPECTS: THE ROADMAP.

CHAIRMAN OF THE SYMPOSIUM: Mr. AbdulHakeem Ishola, (Internationally Renowned Broadcast Journalist)

LECTURE 1: ROLE OF INDIVIDUALS IN ELECTION; An Islamic Perspective.

Guest Discussant: DR. TAJUDEEN YUSUF (Lecturer, Dept. of Actuarial Science and Insurance, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Lagos).

LECTURE 2: 2015 GENERAL ELECTION: ROLE OF THE MEDIA.
 
Guest Discussant: Miss Maupe Ogun (Broadcast journalist, Channels Television).

LECTURE 3: SECURITY CHALLENGES IN THE COUNTRY, VIZ A VIZ THE ELECTION
.
Guest Discussant: Alhaji Umar Abubakar Manko mni (Commissioner of Police, Lagos State).

Other Invited guests include, Mr. Sulaiman Aledeh Sulai Aledeh (CHANNELS TV), amongst others.

DATE: Wednesday, May 14, 2014
TIME: 11:AM
VENUE: NIJ Main Auditorium, Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Ikeja.

It promises to be educative, enlightening and entertaining,as the programme will feature interesting INTERLUDES that will keep you refreshed and NOT BORED...
For Enquires, Call 08123673721, 08180097386.