Israel continues its merciless pounding of the defenceless.

[Rob W 0]

Shhhh - he might notice in his elf befuddled mind..............

[Park Life 71]

Israel: Defying all odds

 

ISRAEL BANS iPADS.

 

 

Customs officials said they have already confiscated about 10 of the lightweight tablet computers since Israel announced the new regulations this week. The ban prevents anyone from bringing iPads into Israel until officials certify that they comply with local transmitter standards.

 

"If you operate equipment in a frequency band which is different from the others that operate on that frequency band, then there will be interference," said Nati Schubert, a senior deputy director for the Communications Ministry. "We don't care where people buy their equipment. ... But without regulation, you would have chaos."

 

Not as tech minded as they vid would have one believe eh?

[Rob W 0]

much more likely that it interferes with some of their own comms gear

 

switch on yer iPad, hit "launch applications" and the Mid East goes up in an enormous mushroom cloud

[Park Life 71]

much more likely that it interferes with some of their own comms gear

 

switch on yer iPad, hit "launch applications" and the Mid East goes up in an enormous mushroom cloud

 

:icon_lol:

[Rob W 0]

it WOULD solve a lot of problems but the oil price would be thru the roof and the travel disruption...

 

i suppose a lot of New Yoik Zionists couldn't be persuaded to resettle Israel soon after - like at about 0.75 half life.......?????

[Park Life 71]

it WOULD solve a lot of problems but the oil price would be thru the roof and the travel disruption...

 

i suppose a lot of New Yoik Zionists couldn't be persuaded to resettle Israel soon after - like at about 0.75 half life.......?????

 

Don't give a fuck about oil prices me.

 

500 years and loads of imported soil.

[Happy Face 29]

Dear Europe, sorry about the ash cloud over your heads and that you can't travel anywhere. We feel just the same. Sincerely, Gaza.

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments...loud_over_your/

[Happy Face 29]

New Israeli regulations allow authorities potentially to imprison or expel from the West Bank tens of thousands of Palestinians.

 

The Israeli right has long favored “transfer” (i.e. ethnic cleansing) as a means of dealing both with Palestinian-Israelis and with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Given the extreme-right character of the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, it is no cause for wonder that practical steps are now being taken toward expulsions and deportations of anyone who even peacefully opposes the government’s systematic colonization of the West Bank.

 

following on....

 

The new Israeli policy of deporting Palestinians from the West Bank on arbitrary grounds has kicked in with Ahmad Sabah, who has just been deported to Gaza and separated from his family in the West Bank. The measure contravenes the Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of occupied populations, and it also goes contrary to the undertakings Israel made toward the Palestine Authority in the course of the Oslo peace negotiations.

 

The episode underlines the ways in which their forced statelessness leaves Palestinians (almost uniquely among major world nationalities) completely vulnerable to loss of the most basic human rights. That he was forcibly moved to Gaza by the Israelis suggests that many of those singled out for potential deportation from the West Bank may be moved to the small slum along the Mediterranean, which the Israelis have cut off from its traditional markets and which they keep under a blockade of the civilian population (a war crime). The Israeli establishment has decided not to try to colonize Gaza, and its isolation and hopelessness make it an attractive place for them to begin exiling West Bank residents, thus making more room for Israeli colonists.

 

The new policy, which is illegal six ways to Sunday in international law, is the brainchild of the government of far rightwing Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu.

 

Netanyahu, an Israeli hawk and expansionist, slapped President Barack Obama in the face again Thursday when he confirmed that he refused to halt construction of new homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem, which is militarily occupied by Israel.

 

Netanyahu’s announcement is probably the nail in the coffin of any two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (in which the Israelis have thrown most Palestinians now living beyond the Green Line off their land and deprived them of citizenship in a state and all the rights that go with such citizenship). Palestinians are so despairing that only 57 percent even believe in having an independent Palestinian state any more. The rest are resigned to becoming Israelis in the distant future, when demographic realities and perhaps world-wide boycotts of Israel for its Apartheid-style policies toward the occupied Palestinian will force Israel to accept them.

 

At the same time, Netanyahu tried to throw sand in peoples’ eyes by talking about recognizing an ‘interim’ Palestinian state with “temporary” borders.

 

Palestinian leaders reject this formulation, which is intended to allow the Israelis to continue aggressively to colonize Palestinian territory while pretending that they are engaged in a ‘peace process.’ The Palestine Authority, established in the 1990s, was already a sort of interim state then, and Palestine’s borders were then ‘temporary.’ So temporary that Israel has made deep inroads into them through massive colonies and building a wall on the Palestinian side of the border, cutting residents off from their own farms and sequestering entire towns and cities.

 

Netanyahu’s various moves this week, from illegally expelling a Palestinian from the West Bank to Gaza– to blowing off the president of the United States and hitching his wagon to massive increased colonization of Palestinian land– all of these steps are guaranteed to mire Israel in violent disputes for years and perhaps decades. And the US, which has already suffered tremendously in Iraq and elsewhere from its knee-jerk support of illegal and inhumane Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, will suffer further.

 

Meanwhile, in the wake of a vicious attack on Barack Obama by New York senator Chuck Schumer, Steve Clemons of the Washington Note frankly wonders whether Schumer understands he is in the US Senate or whether he is under the impression he is serving in the Israeli Knesset.

 

http://www.juancole.com/2010/04/netanyahu-...new-policy.html

[Park Life 71]

All I know is Palestine will be independant in my lifetime, so these weekly tragedies I see as stones thrown hopelessly into a sea of history by a backward thinking Israel.

 

Peace.

[Renton 21980]

All I know is Palestine will be independant in my lifetime, so these weekly tragedies I see as stones thrown hopelessly into a sea of history by a backward thinking Israel.

 

Peace.

 

Not sure about that Parky. You're on to so many conspiracies I suspect they might tamper with your brakes.

[Billy Castell 0]

The Israelis are so bone-headed, that they don't realise that their actions just fuel the anti-Semites who believe in the whole Jewish conspiricy angle and deliver them 'proof' that Jews are evil. I'd personally go as far as to say that some of their actions remind me of this lot:

 

 

The more tthey act like this, the less non-Jewish people will care about what happened to the Jews in 1933-45. You can only hide behind that atrocity for so long.

[Park Life 71]

All I know is Palestine will be independant in my lifetime, so these weekly tragedies I see as stones thrown hopelessly into a sea of history by a backward thinking Israel.

 

Peace.

 

Not sure about that Parky. You're on to so many conspiracies I suspect they might tamper with your brakes.

 

Fuck em.

[Happy Face 29]

The Israelis are so bone-headed, that they don't realise that their actions just fuel the anti-Semites who believe in the whole Jewish conspiricy angle and deliver them 'proof' that Jews are evil.

 

To be fair the majority of Israeli's would accept a two state solution, slightly more than the Palestinians....

 

74 percent of Palestinians and 78 percent of Israelis are willing to accept a two-state solution.

 

As predominantly happens in older democracies though, the leadership rarely listens to the electorate.

Edited April 23, 2010 by Happy Face

[Park Life 71]

To be fair the majority of Israeli's would accept a two state solution, slightly more than the Palestinians....

 

74 percent of Palestinians and 78 percent of Israelis are willing to accept a two-state solution.

 

As usual in a democracy the leadership rarely listens to the electorate though.

 

The Palestinian vote is factionalised by outside forces influence such as Egypt and Syria who have their own agendas the wankers.

[Happy Face 29]

Frankie Boyle has lashed out at the BBC, branding them ‘cowardly’ and ‘cravenly afraid of giving offence’ after censuring one of his jokes.

 

In an angry open letter, the comedian hit back at the BBC Trust for apologising for a gag he felt drew some small attention to the ‘apartheid’ in Palestine.

 

The corporation’s governing body yesterday issued an apology for the joke Boyle made on Radio 4’s Political Animal two years ago. A listener took their complaint that the gag was anti-Semitic – although appearing on a show hosted by the Jewish Andy Zaltzman – all the way to the top.

 

They ruled that the gag was a ‘serious’ breach of BBC rules and said: ‘It said: ‘As a result, the committee wished to apologise to the complainant on behalf of the BBC for any offence the remark may have caused him and other listeners to the programme.’

 

However, Boyle says the Palestinian situation is a suitable topic for satire and defended the joke.

 

Here is the full text of his response:

 

Obviously, it feels strange to be on the moral high ground but I feel a response is required to the BBC Trust’s cowardly rebuke of my jokes about Palestine.

 

As always, I heard nothing from the BBC but read in a newspaper that editorial procedures would be tightened further to stop jokes with anything at all to say getting past the censors.

 

In case you missed it, the jokes in question are: ‘I’ve been studying Israeli Army Martial Arts. I now know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back. People think that the Middle East is very complex but I have an analogy that sums it up quite well. If you imagine that Palestine is a big cake, well…that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew.’

 

I think the problem here is that the show’s producers will have thought that Israel, an aggressive, terrorist state with a nuclear arsenal was an appropriate target for satire. The Trust’s ruling is essentially a note from their line managers. It says that if you imagine that a state busily going about the destruction of an entire people is fair game, you are mistaken. Israel is out of bounds.

 

The BBC refused to broadcast a humanitarian appeal in 2009 to help residents of Gaza rebuild their homes. It’s tragic for such a great institution but it is now cravenly afraid of giving offence and vulnerable to any kind of well drilled lobbying.

 

I told the jokes on a Radio 4 show called Political Animal. That title seems to promise provocative comedy with a point of view. In practice the BBC wish to deliver the flavour of political comedy with none of the content. The most recent offering I saw was BBC Two’s The Bubble. It looked exactly like a show where funny people sat around and did jokes about the news. Except the thrust of the format was that nobody had read the papers. I can only imagine how the head of the BBC Trust must have looked watching that, grinning like Gordon Brown having his prostrate examined.

 

The situation in Palestine seems to be, in essence, apartheid. I grew up with the anti apartheid thing being a huge focus of debate. It really seemed to matter to everybody that other human beings were being treated in that way. We didn’t just talk about it, we did things, I remember boycotts and marches and demos all being held because we couldn’t bear that people were being treated like that.

 

A few years ago I watched a documentary about life in Palestine. There’s a section where a UN dignitary of some kind comes to do a photo opportunity outside a new hospital. The staff know that it communicates nothing of the real desperation of their position, so they trick her into a side ward on her way out. She ends up in a room with a child who the doctors explain is in a critical condition because they don’t have the supplies to keep treating him. She flounders, awkwardly caught in the bleak reality of the room, mouthing platitudes over a dying boy.

 

The filmmaker asks one of the doctors what they think the stunt will have achieved. He is suddenly angry, perhaps having just felt at first hand something he knew in the abstract. The indifference of the world. ‘She will do nothing,’ he says to the filmmaker. Then he looks into the camera and says, ‘Neither will you’.

 

I cried at that and promised myself that I would do something. Other than write a few stupid jokes I have not done anything. Neither have you.

 

Frankie Boyle

 

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2010/04/30/1...s#ixzz0maparcWm

[Park Life 71]

Generally the BBC's reporting on Palestine and Gaza have been nothing short of a disgrace. It won't be forgotten.

[Rob W 0]

Generally the BBC's reporting on Palestine and Gaza have been nothing short of a disgrace. It won't be forgotten.

 

 

as compared with say.... Sky or Fox???

Edited May 1, 2010 by Rob W

[Park Life 71]

Unconditional support for Israel 'is dangerous', say leading European Jews

 

 

 

 

The Guardian

Sun, 02 May 2010 07:43 EDT

Anti-settlement petition signed by Bernard Henri-Lévy and others causes division in Jewish community

 

More than 3,000 European Jews, including prominent intellectuals, have signed a petition speaking out against Israeli settlement policies and warning that systematic support for the Israeli government is dangerous.

 

The petition's signatories include French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Greens leader in the European Parliament.

 

Supporters, who compare their goals to those of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel Jewish lobbying group in the United States, plan to present their position at a news conference at the European Parliament in Brussels tomorrow.

 

They say they hope to build a European movement that is both "committed to the state of Israel and critical of the current choices of its government".

 

Israeli columnist Yossi Sarid, a former Cabinet minister identified with Israel's peace movement, praised the initiative in an comment piece published in the Haaretz daily today.

 

"These are people who seize every opportunity to defend Israel publicly and remain faithful to it," he wrote. "But even their patience is running out and their hearts are filled with sincere concern."

 

Israel's foreign ministry declined to comment because the initiative is not government-sponsored.

 

Many signatories are from France, where the petition has received much press coverage. France's Jewish community has hotly debated the petition, entitled Call for Reason.

 

But the president of France's leading Jewish association, CRIF, declined to sign, saying he objected to some of its language and its tone.

 

"Do Israelis need the Jewish Diaspora to know what is 'the right' decision, what should be the borders of a country that their sons and daughters are protecting?" Richard Prasquier wrote in Le Figaro newspaper.

 

The petition says Israel faces a threat in the "occupation and the continuing pursuit of settlements in the West Bank and in the Arab districts of East Jerusalem".

 

"These policies are morally and politically wrong and feed the unacceptable delegitimization process that Israel currently faces abroad," it sayings, adding that "systematic support of Israeli government policy is dangerous and does not serve the true interests of the state of Israel".

 

Source: Associated Press

Print

[Happy Face 29]

It is after considerable contemplation that I have lately arrived at the decision that I must withdraw from the two performances scheduled in Israel on the 30th of June and the 1st of July.

 

One lives in hope that music is more than mere noise, filling up idle time, whether intending to elate or lament.

 

Then there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent.

 

I must believe that the audience for the coming concerts would have contained many people who question the policies of their government on settlement and deplore conditions that visit intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security.

 

I am also keenly aware of the sensitivity of these themes in the wake of so many despicable acts of violence perpetrated in the name of liberation.

 

Some will regard all of this an unknowable without personal experience but if these subjects are actually too grave and complex to be addressed in a concert, then it is also quite impossible to simply look the other way.

 

I offer my sincere apologies for any disappointment to the advance ticket holders as well as to the organizers.

 

My thanks also go to the members of the Israeli media with whom I had most rewarding and illuminating conversations. They may regard these exchanges as a waste of their time but they were of great value and help to me in gaining an appreciation of the cultural scene.

 

I hope it is possible to understand that I am not taking this decision lightly or so I may stand beneath any banner, nor is it one in which I imagine myself to possess any unique or eternal truth.

 

It is a matter of instinct and conscience.

 

It has been necessary to dial out the falsehoods of propaganda, the double game and hysterical language of politics, the vanity and self-righteousness of public communiqués from cranks in order to eventually sift through my own conflicted thoughts.

 

I have come to the following conclusions.

 

One must at least consider any rational argument that comes before the appeal of more desperate means.

 

Sometimes a silence in music is better than adding to the static and so an end to it.

 

I cannot imagine receiving another invitation to perform in Israel, which is a matter of regret but I can imagine a better time when I would not be writing this.

 

With the hope for peace and understanding. Elvis Costello

 

http://www.elviscostello.com/#/news/it-is-...ontemplation/44

 

Good lad Elvis.

 

Needs more like you....and Gil Scott-Heron and Carlos Santana and U2.

Edited May 19, 2010 by Happy Face

[Park Life 71]

Good to hear.

[Happy Face 29]

Good to hear.

 

Other major acts need some pressure put on them...

 

Veteran British rock star Rod Stewart will play at the Ramat Gan stadium on 1 July.

 

Also playing at the Ramat Gan Stadium is another veteran British rock star Elton John who will return to Israel for the third time to perform on June 17, exactly 17 years after his previous Holy Land concert.

 

1960s teen idol Paul Anka, accompanied by 12 musicians, will return to Israel for a third concert at Tel Aviv’s Nokia arena on 29 May, after two sell-out concerts in the same venue in November 2009.

 

In addition, Metallica are planning their third visit to Israel with a concert on 22 May at the Ramat Gan stadium; folk singer legend Bob Dylan is planning a concert at the Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv on 27 May and alternative rock band The Pixies will play on 9 June as part of a larger rock festival.

 

Shame on Zimmerman.

[Park Life 71]

Good to hear.

 

Other major acts need some pressure put on them...

 

Veteran British rock star Rod Stewart will play at the Ramat Gan stadium on 1 July.

 

Also playing at the Ramat Gan Stadium is another veteran British rock star Elton John who will return to Israel for the third time to perform on June 17, exactly 17 years after his previous Holy Land concert.

 

1960s teen idol Paul Anka, accompanied by 12 musicians, will return to Israel for a third concert at Tel Aviv’s Nokia arena on 29 May, after two sell-out concerts in the same venue in November 2009.

 

In addition, Metallica are planning their third visit to Israel with a concert on 22 May at the Ramat Gan stadium; folk singer legend Bob Dylan is planning a concert at the Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv on 27 May and alternative rock band The Pixies will play on 9 June as part of a larger rock festival.

 

Shame on Zimmerman.

 

It's all in the name.

[sniffer 0]

Or the number of shekels on offer.

[Park Life 71]

Gaza aid flotilla to set sail for confrontation with Israel

 

 

A flotilla of eight boats carrying thousands of tonnes of construction materials, medical equipment and other aid is preparing to sail to Gaza in the next few days, setting the scene for a confrontation with Israel which has vowed to prevent the ships breaking the blockade on the Palestinian territory.

 

Three cargo ships and five passenger vessels plan to meet up in international waters between Cyprus and Gaza Strip before heading towards Gaza City. The Israeli military is expected to stop the flotilla and divert it to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

 

One of the organisers of the flotilla, which includes three vessels from Turkey, is IHH, a humanitarian aid group supported by Ankara. Diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated since the Israelis launched a three-week war on Gaza in 2008-09. An attempt to block the flotilla is likely to increase tensions between the two countries. The Turkish prime minister, Racep Tayyip Erdogan, has called on Israel to avoid this be allowing the boats through.

 

"This could make relations between Israel and Turkey more complicated," said Yigal Palmor, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman.

 

On board the ships are 10,000 tonnes of cargo and about 700-800 activists and politicians from more than 40 countries. The cargo includes building materials, medical supplies and paper for schools. One boat is carrying a complete dental surgery including drills. Crayons and chocolate are also on board for Gazan children. The cargo has been paid for by donations.

 

"We're trying to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip and tell the world that Israel has no right to starve 1.5 million Palestinians," said Greta Berlin, of the Free Gaza Movement, another organiser of the flotilla. "We are bringing in vitally needed supplies so the people of Gaza can rebuild their infrastructure."

 

Israel has imposed an economic blockade on Gaza since the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas seized control almost three years ago. Nearly all exports and imports are banned and only a limited supply of food and medical aid is allowed in.

 

Free Gaza has organised six previous aid boats to the Palestinian territory, the last three of which were blocked from reaching their destination by the Israeli military. This is the biggest attempt to take aid to Gaza. "The previous boats were making a statement ‑ these boats will be making a real impact," said Berlin.

 

The Israeli navy enforces a 20-nautical mile (23-mile) closure of the sea off Gaza, which has had a devastating impact on its fishing industry. "The boats will not be allowed to enter Gaza territorial waters," said Palmor. "This is a territory in a self-declared state of war with Israel. There can be no uncontrolled transportation in or out of Gaza."

 

Berlin accused Israel of "sabre-rattling" in the hope that the flotilla plan will be abandoned. "They have no right to control Gaza waters unless they want to admit they are occupying Gaza," she said. "They are the illegal entity, not us." Israel claims it is acting within international law.

 

The Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara was today docked in Antalya, Turkey, along with two cargo ships, waiting to be joined by boats from Greece. "We will all go together in the next couple of days," said Hosain Orut, of the IHH.

 

John Ging, head of the main UN agency in Gaza, urged more ships carrying aid to be sent: "We believe that Israel would not stop these vessels because the sea is open, and many human rights organisations have been successful in previous similar steps, and proved that breaking the siege on Gaza is possible."

 

Earlier this week, a UN report said that three-quarters of the damage caused to Gaza's infrastructure during the three-week military conflict has not been repaired because of the blockade.

 

Mark Regev, the Israeli prime minister's spokesman, said: "It is strange that human rights activists are acting as apologists for a regime that is brutally repressing human rights. Hamas oppresses women, gays and Christians, has crushed independent media and destroyed all political opposition." He added that 15,000 tonnes of aid was allowed into Gaza every week.

 

Dozens of boats manned by Israeli citizens took the water at the weekend in protest at the aid flotilla.

[Rob W 0]

"Exodus" - the movie