Shaman Was A Woman

We usually associate shamans and shamanism with men, due to the fact that modern shamans are male. However that was not always so. And in fact this evidence validates the thesis that earlier humans lived in a matriarchical or mother right society.

The skeleton of a 12,000 year-old Natufian Shaman has been discovered in northern Israel by archaeologists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The burial is described as being accompanied by "exceptional" grave offerings - including 50 complete tortoise shells, the pelvis of a leopard and a human foot. The shaman burial is thought to be one of the earliest known from the archaeological record and the only shaman grave in the whole region. Dr. Leore Grosman of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, who is heading the excavation at the Natufian site of Hilazon Tachtit in the western Galilee, says that the elaborate and invested interment rituals and method used to construct and seal the grave suggest that this woman had a very high standing within the community.
According to Dr. Grosman, the burial of the woman is unlike any burial found in the Natufian or the preceding Paleolithic periods. "Clearly a great amount of time and energy was invested in the preparation, arrangement, and sealing of the grave." This was coupled with the special treatment of the buried body.
Shamans are universally recorded cross-culturally in hunter-gatherer groups and small-scale agricultural societies. Nevertheless, they have rarely been documented in the archaeological record and none have been reported from the Paleolithic of Southwest Asia.
The Natufians existed in the Mediterranean region of the Levant 15,000 to 11,500 years ago. Dr. Grosman suggests this grave could point to ideological shifts that took place due to the transition to agriculture in the region at that time.

SEE:
Another Prehistoric Woman
Another Dirty Little Secret

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1 vs 100

No not the TV game show. Just another example of Israel's 'measured response' , as the Harpocrites call it, in it's one sided war of occupation .

One Israeli death results in the death of 100 Palestinian citizens.

The Palestinian death toll was one of the highest for a single day since the beginning of the intifada more than seven years ago, and included militants and civilians, among them several children and a 21-month-old baby. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed in heavy fighting with Hamas gunmen.

Yep that's measure for measure.

( Moti Milrod/AP)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires from a position outside the Gaza Strip

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles. Founded by a small group of activists in August, 2001, ISM aims to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance by providing the Palestinian people with two resources, international protection and a voice with which to nonviolently resist an overwhelming military occupation force.

And as usual the politicians and pundits in the West will plead for both sides to 'end the violence', blaming the Palestinians for their own oppression, when in reality it is one sided war.

A report commissioned by the United Nations suggests that Palestinian terrorism is the "inevitable consequence" of Israeli occupation and laws that resemble South African apartheid —

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One Sided War

The continuing one sided war that is Israel's occupation of Palestine continues though of course from the media perspective we get here there are two sides engaged in 'violence'.

UN chief demand stopping violence in Gaza, southern Israel

Israeli-Palestinian violence in Gaza pushed peace efforts to the sidelines as militants threatened revenge for Israeli attacks that killed at least 24 people over two days, and Palestinian moderates joined in condemning Israel.
In a botched attack on Wednesday, an Israeli missile hit the wrong vehicle, killing a 12-year-old boy, his father and uncle. Later Sunday, two militants were killed in an airstrike in central Gaza.

Ah violence that wonderful media phrase that places blame equally on both sides on both parties in a conflict. When the state attacks protesters its because of the threat of violence so they respond with real violence. When the army attacks a village it is because of the threat to them and they respond with violence.

No blame is placed on who engaged in the violence first. Police and Army fully decked out in protective gear, Kevlar bullet proof armour, shields, helmets, clubs, gas, rubber bullets and real ones, attack the unarmed unprotected protesters or villagers, like Knights of olde attacking the peasants.

In the case of Israel the reporting always is about how they are responding with violence because they have been attacked. But if you read between the lines what you see is that Israel has attacked Gaza consistently since last summer. It has refused to allow Palestinians free movement, it keeps them in the townships under curfew, it cuts of money, supplies, fuel and electricity.

Analysis: What now for Hamas?

Ever since the Hamas military takeover of Gaza in June, the territory has been subjected to an economic siege. Israel labelled the Hamas-controlled Gaza a "hostile entity".

In September 2007, Israel declared Gaza a 'hostile entity'; while in October it began a series of 'apparently punitive' measures, including large reduction of fuel supplies.

Since June2007, Israel has been imposing a strict closure on Gaza after Hamas has taken over Gaza amidst a power struggle with Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas, who embraces a peace strategy.

Gaza's last power station closes as Israel blocks supplies

Israel Blocks Supplies, Steps Up Gaza Airstrikes

Israel Closes Gaza Border Crossings

Israel closes Gaza Crossing to UN Aid and Kills 37 Palestinians

HOLON, ISRAEL, 20 January 2008 (IRIN) - With violence in the Gaza Strip and along Israel's southern border escalating, a small hospital in Israel offers a ray of hope for a handful of seriously ill Gazans.

"This child would have died without surgery," said Dr Alona Raucher-Sternfeld, as she simultaneously looked at the small Palestinian baby, Jamal, and the echo machine checking his heart.

Six-month-old Jamal came with his grandmother, Haifa, from the Dir al-Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip to get a check-up on 15 January at the Wolfson medical centre, an Israeli governmental hospital in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv.

Jamal was operated on here when he was two months old, suffering from two heart defects. His tiny size further complicated the surgery, which was ultimately a success, the doctor said.

"When he came here, he was blue. It was an emergency," Raucher-Sternfeld said, reviewing the initial referral from Al-Awda hospital in Gaza.
The surgery, hospital stay and logistics in bringing him out of Gaza were coordinated and partially funded by Save a Child's Heart, an Israeli humanitarian organisation, with some European Union donations. In 2007, 128 Palestinian children from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, all suffering from heart conditions, were treated by the programme and the hospital.

Israeli rules

However, even this organisation could not bend the tight restrictions at the Erez border crossing between Israel and Gaza. Jamal's 24-year-old mother is too young to be allowed out of the enclave, according to Israeli security regulations, and the grandmother was sent as an escort instead.

Col Nir Press, head of the Israeli coordination and liaison administration in Gaza, recently said Israel requires rigid security rules, as Palestinian militants have, in the past, taken advantage of permits issued for medical reasons. In 2004, for example, four Israeli soldiers at the Erez crossing were killed when a Palestinian patient blew herself up inside the terminal.

Press also said the number of permits to Israel issued for medical reasons had risen 50 percent in 2007 compared to the previous year. Some foreign aid workers said this was a result of the closure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Young people not allowed to leave Gaza

Sometimes, simple mistakes of clerks, or clogged up bureaucracy, cause problems.

One-year-old Shahed, from northern Gaza, came with her grandmother to the hospital late in the day. They had been held up at Erez for an extended period of time, as someone had mistakenly entered the wrong date on the permit application.

The aging woman collapsed on the floor as she finally reached the hospital waiting room, tears of exhaustion - but also relief- rolling down her cheeks. She said she ran around inside the Erez terminal, trying to speak with Palestinian and Israeli officials, explaining she had an appointment for the young baby, who recently had a pacemaker put in by the Wolfson surgical team.

"I have diabetes, I'm not strong" she said, breathing heavily, as Jewish and Arab hands helped her into a chair. Like all Palestinians, she brought with her a small but weighty valise, just in case the doctors would make them stay more than one day.

Shahed's 19-year-old mother and 20-year-old father have little chance of leaving the enclave.

It attacks with military raids, missile attacks and bulldozers used against the civilian population which it justifies as being attempts to control Hamas. These attacks on Gaza are often unprovoked, just Israeli occupation policy in practice.

Olmert describes Israel-Gaza violence as "war"

When Hamas and others in occupied Gaza resist with ineffective rocket attacks, which kill no one, barely ever damage property, and basically end up landing in empty fields, this makes the news and is used by the Israeli propaganda machine to justify their continuation of more aggressive military occupation and suppression in Gaza.

Hamas fires over 160 rockets into Israel since Tuesday

Darkness falls on Gaza as Israel takes revenge for rocket attacks

More Palestinian civilians die daily in Gaza as Israeli rocket attacks miss their targets, if they were ever intended to actually hit a Hamas target, and hit wedding parties, or folks gathered in the market.

VOICES IN GAZA SCREAM OUT FOR HELP

Today, children were playing in the streets of Gaza, scores were rushed to hospital with blood pouring out of their little limbs, heads, eyes and nose…Israel bombed Gaza again.40 dead, 100 injured and out of the 100, 45 were children. 45 children not older than 10, soaked in blood. Their own.

More than 37 Palestinians, including at least 11 civilians, have been killed in air and artillery bombings since Israel launched the offensive on Tuesday.

Palestinians stand in front of a destroyed building of Hamas's Interior Ministry after it was targeted by an Israeli missile in Gaza Jan. 18, 2008. Israel closed border crossings with the Gaza Strip and destroyed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry on Friday in what witnesses said was an air strike, stepping up what it says is a campaign to halt Palestinian rocket attacks.(Xinhua Photo)

GAZA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- One Palestinian woman was killed and 46 others were injured in a fresh Israeli strike near the abandoned headquarters of the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza City on Friday, the Doha-based al-Jazeera Satellite Channel reported.

A letter from Gaza
1.5 millions in Gaza are punished collectively now

Dr. Medhat Abbas, Crisis management Palestinian Health Ministry

January 20, 2008 Dear All, Assalam Alykom About (30) strikes were implemented by the Israeli army on Gaza Strip between 14/1/2008 to 19/1/2008 evening . The attacks resulted in (36) martyrs. out of them (3) Ladies and (5) children. The number of those who were injured was (90) out of them there were (9) critical cases and (4) cases of amputations in the limbs (two cases lost their both lower limbs) out of the total casualties (35) were children while the women were (7). On 18/1/2008, the military campaign against the Gaza Strip was crowned by the announcement of sealing all the borders outlets leading to the Gaza Strip, which led to the interruption of all ways of life in the Gaza Strip. Nothing is entering Gaza now, nothing is getting out side it !!! Without exception, no fuel or food and medicines while we are living in the gloom the majority of time as a result of cutting the electricity. The Zionist Israeli occupation has been practising a collective punishment against 1.5 millions in Gaza. The punishment does not exclude children, women or elderly.No patients will travel abroad for treatment now, whatever their health status, before the 18th of January Israelis used to refuse almost 26% of the patients applying to travel for treatment. Today it is 100% closure, the patients now have to face their destiny and to die in peace. No coffins in Gaza any more, there is not even Cement to build their graves. So the people have to starve, the people have to be targeted by the unmanned planes, and when wounded there should be no treatment, and later no coffins or grave when they die. This is the reality. Imagine that Israelis are controling the milk of the babies in Gaza. What sort of respect for international conventions is it?? Dr. Medhat Abbas Crisis management Palestinian Health Ministry

:: Article nr. 40285 sent on 21-jan-2008 01:10 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=40285

When they do blow up a car full of Palestinians we can never be sure they were civilians because the Israeli propaganda machine informs the Western Media that they have successfully targeted and taken out a group of nameless faceless Hamas militants. In effect every Palestinian living in Gaza is a nameless Hamas militant.

Israeli missile strikes kill two Gaza militants

Israeli Troops Kill Militants in West Bank, Gaza in Separate Attacks

Pregnant Detainee delivers her baby under harsh conditions

Friday January 18, 2008 - 23:39

Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, reported on Friday that detainee Fatima Al Ziq, from Gaza, delivered her baby, Yousef, in Kfar Saba Israeli hospital. She was subjected to harsh treatment while being transferred to the hospital and was cuffed.

This is not a war of defense as is often proclaimed by Israel and its apologists in the Bush and Harper governments, this is a war of aggression by Israel in territories it considers under its control.

According to the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service, fewer Israelis were killed by Palestinian attacks in 2007 than in any other year since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in late 2000. "The Good Year," proclaimed the daily Yediot Aharonot in a banner headline Jan. 1.

With the decline in attacks, the building of an Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank and the deepening isolation of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the conflict is receding to the margins of consciousness of many Israelis.

It is a war of terror against the Palestinian peoples, and their counter attacks are then used to justify further violence by the Israeli state.It is not a measured response, it is a policy of hitting back with twice the strength and power to teach a lesson. However that lesson falls flat when you are the aggressor in the first place, the occupying power, the giver and taker of life. Like the Borg of Star Trek Israeli policy in Gaza is to remind Palestinians to accept their imprisonment and punishment for resistance is futile.

Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter expressed a harsh reality to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Sunday, warning that “without military deterrence in Gaza, Sderot could very well collapse.”

Dichter added that “the government must instruct the IDF to eliminate the rocket fire from Gaza entirely. These attacks need not be minimized or managed, but stopped completely irrespective of the cost to the Palestinians.”

The internal security minister noted that 180 Qassam Rocket have been fired at Gaza vicinity communities since the start of 2008. Referencing his recent visit to Sdeort he stated that “the weekend was absolutely terrible on them. After a draining week like that I would expect the IDF chief of staff to address the government as well.”

Responding to Dichter’s scathing criticism, Defense Minister Ehud Barak replied that Israel must uphold its current policy vis a vie Gaza.

"We are impacting the overall quality of life in Gaza and destroying the terror infrastructure," said Barak.

As the cabinet meeting opened, Olmert praised IDF and Shin-Bet operations in the Gaza Strip, and noted that such strikes will continue.

Also during the cabinet meeting, Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim addressed the crisis in Gaza, precipitated by the blockade imposed on the Strip by the defense minister Thursday. This in light of persistent rocket attacks originating from the region.
“We should not manufacture a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Its residents are hostages of a deranged regime, but there is no real humanitarian crisis there,” said Boim. The housing minister also attacked the UN, which condemned Israel following the Gaza closure. “I don’t hear the UN speak out for residents of Gaza vicinity communities which have been living in the shadow of rocket salvos for weeks, months and even years,” he said.

The Bush visit to the Middle East further reinforced this message as did the visit on his coat tails of Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs; Maxime Bernier. Sure they promote a two state solution, but one of those states; Palestine will not be determined by the Palestinian people rather it will be a state designed for them by Israel and its allies. At best it will be a colony of Israel, what they once occupied with military force they will concede to the management of their selected Palestinian compradors.

Peres: Public will rule on any deal reached with Palestinians

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday accused Gaza's Hamas rulers of trying to destroy the Palestinian dream of statehood, saying the Islamist group's violent takeover of the coastal strip last June "destroyed and tries to destroy our dreams, future and national aspirations".

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - The repeated bouts of Israel-Gaza fighting are fueled by a three-way standoff between Israel, the Islamic militant Hamas and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, with none able to win the upper hand.
Only an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal or an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza would likely break through the deadlock.

Abbas and his aides, meanwhile, complain that Israel is using the Gaza quagmire as an unfair pressure tool in peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said peace talks cannot move forward unless the Palestinians halt rocket fire, a position endorsed by U.S. President George W. Bush in his recent visit.

Yet Olmert has not said how he expects Abbas to do what Israel has been unable to achieve.

Abbas aid Nabil Amr said Israeli negotiators routinely raise the Gaza issue whenever their Palestinian counterparts demand that Israel halt West Bank settlement expansion, as required under a U.S.-backed peace plan. «When we raise the settlements as a condition to continue (negotiations), they raise the legitimacy in Gaza,» Amr said. «The Israelis use it, and Abu Mazen (Abbas) cannot do anything because he is not there.

SEE:

Surf's Up In Gaza

Rachel Corrie Story Banned In Canada

Thank The New Canadian Government

Canada Forces Palestinans Into Poverty

Unemployment Breeds Terrorism

Kristallnacht In Gaza


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DisInformation: Israel's Atttack On Syria

In an attempt to test its ability to attack its neighbours as the client state of the U.S. Israel engaged in a ground and air assault on Syria two weeks ago. When Syria complained it was dismissed as paranoia.

'Israeli air strike on Syria shrouded in secrecy'

Now all sorts of disinformation is leaking out, in particular some phony story about Syria receiving nuclear material from North Korea.

'Commandos captured nuclear materials before air raid in Syria'

Israel, US Shared Data On Suspected Nuclear Site

While this so called bastion of democracy in the middle east censors any information on the matter threatening to jail anyone who speaks of it, including journalists. And they are relying on an old colonial law to do it.

Israeli authorities have stopped local journalists reporting on the airstrike in Syria because of the country's subtle but binding code of censorship founded on a law dating from British colonial rule of Palestine.

Syria's air defences had fired at Israeli warplanes on 6 September, said an official announcement on Syrian state TV.

Subsequently, Israel imposed what correspondents described as the strictest censorship in recent times.

Israeli media have reported details of the raid, but only from foreign sources.


Some would even call this situation embarrassing. Something happened that could dramatically affect Israel, even leading to war, and the local media is silent. In and of itself, this silence only intensifies the journalists' dilemma, because it was clear that at some point the world media would begin publishing reports on this subject, and then the Israeli media could find itself facing two unflattering situations: not knowing what is happening at home, or knowing but, God forbid, collaborating with the government.

In fact some journalists not only in Israel but here in Canada pat themselves on the back over the fact that this attack was kept secret. That is that they failed to make this public, to do what they are supposed to do as journalists to be the eyes and ears of the public. Not to act in the interests of the state but of civil society.

It further follows, I think, that much of the war in the Middle East is going offstage, curiously in the interest of all parties. For what we've found in the West is that the "peace movement" only responds to what is presented in the mainstream media. It makes a certain amount of sense, today as during imperial frontier conflicts in the past, to keep as much as possible out of the news. Indeed, one of the mistakes of Vietnam, repeated in Iraq, was giving remarkably open access and full briefings to the media -- when for all practical purposes the reporting has been of assistance only to the enemy. (It is with some pain that I admit that, being a journalist myself.)

That there was a ground assault followed by an air incursion is a given. The other four W's have been gagged. So anything being said is 'leaked' and bound to be disinformation.

Israel's opposition leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, has given the first confirmation from his country of a mysterious air strike on an unknown target deep in Syria earlier this month - fuelling frenzied speculation about exactly what happened.

Meanwhile Syrian officials continue to scoff at the media speculation on the attack.

"All this rubbish is not true," said Syrian Cabinet minister Bouthaina Shaaban, speaking of North Korea's nuclear involvement with Syria.

"I don't know how the imagination has reached such creativity," she said, calling speculation of a North Korean shipment to Syria "fabricated stories that have no value and truth."

She said, "Regrettably, the international press is busy justifying an aggression on a sovereign state and the world should be busy condemning it instead of inventing reasons and aims of this aggression."

And just to further the Weapons of Mass Destruction conspiracy here are a couple of other items on the danger of Syria. You know the place that has millions of Iraqi refugees who cross the border daily to aid their relatives but are called foreign fighters by the Americans.

We spend two days on side-trips, visiting empty tourist attractions that in any other country would be crowded. Palmyra is nearly three hours' drive from Damascus. The Iraq border is just across the ridge, so we share the road with convoys of new, heavily laden Chevrolets, without number plates and filled to the brim with consumer goods and electronic gadgetry new in boxes. Smugglers, no doubt, and a booming trade.

Syria in particular has been repeatedly accused of sending suicide bombers to kill US troops in Iraq, supporting "terrorist groups" in Lebanon and Palestine and spoiling US plans for a "new Middle East". As a consequence, Syria was enlisted in President Bush's "axis of evil, alongside Iran and North Korea. The Syria Accountability Act was also passed by the US Congress and foreign investors were discouraged from working in Syria.

The claims came also after Gen. David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, accused Syria in his testimony before Congress of allowing foreign fighters to cross the borders with Iraq to "instill fear and violence".

Remember all those WMD's they didn't find in Iraq obviously went with the refugees to Syria, and Jordon. Uh oh I am having a case of Deja Vu.

Syrian Chemical Blast Preceded Israeli Strike

Speculation in the Israeli and the U.S. media has focused on a suspect shipment from North Korea, possibly of nuclear-related material - that arrived in Syria just days before the Israeli Air Force struck in the early morning hours of Sept. 6.

But now Janes Defense Weekly is reporting that a military accident that occurred on July 26 near Aleppo, in northern Syria, may be related to the Israeli strike.

Missile Test or Accident?

The incident was initially reported in the official Syrian news agency, SANA, on July 26.

The official report said an explosion occurred at an ordnance depot belonging to a Syrian military unit in Musalmiya, located about 7 miles from Aleppo, that killed at least 15 soldiers and wounded 50 others.

SANA claimed that outdoor temperatures of 113 degrees were responsible for the blast, even though it occurred at 4 AM, the coolest time of the day.

Janes now claims that the explosion occurred at a chemical weapons plant during tests to mate a chemical warhead to a SCUD C missile.

The SCUD C, initially sold to Syria by North Korea in 1991, has a range of 500 kilometers (300 miles), bringing all of Israel into reach. Its 700 kilogram warhead could accommodate a nuclear warhead.

Syria's Chemical Weapons Proliferation Hydra

The deadly effect of the chemical warfare agents produced at the el-Safir military complex near Haleb (Allepo) was demonstrated on the night of July 25, 2007, apparently by an accident, which happened while Syrian engineers working on a Scud C warhead. 15 syrians were reportedly killed in the explosion that, according to official Syrian sources, was caused by sympathetic explosion due to an uncommon summer heat wave (the event happened at night, when the temperature is relaively low). According to Janes Defense Weekly, the casualties also included Iranian experts that were present at the site. According to Jane's, sarin and VX agents were dispersed over a large area after the accidents, causing severe burns.



Syria's Strategic Weapons Programs

Syria has used its rocket and missile forces for strategic signaling as well as deterrence. During the Syrian missile crisis in April 1981 and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, Syria deployed several Scud-Bs to sites near Damascus -- where they could be observed by Israel -- as a warning not to attack. And in recent months, Syria reportedly deployed large numbers of long-range rockets opposite the Golan during several major Israeli military exercises there, apparently to deter what it saw as preparations for an attack.

Should deterrence fail, Syria's rocket and missile forces would likely play a major role in any confrontation with Israel, as a means of deterring further escalation or disrupting Israeli mobilization and military operations. Syria might also be tempted to attack Israeli population centers in order to undermine Israeli morale -- raising the possibility of further escalation and, in turn, the use of chemical weapons should the regime or Damascus be threatened. For all these reasons, although Israel's September 6 airstrike may have averted an unwanted nuclear development, it may also signify the onset of increasing tension and volatility between Israel and Syria.

The fact is that Syria did NOT use their missiles. They merely showed them off. Any speculation on their use of conventional missiles, let alone Chemical, biological or nuclear, is not justified by the facts. And thus it is speculation.
More spin.

Reminding us of Voltaire's dictum;

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

While this unprovoked attack garnered no outrage in the U.S.

US President George W. Bush emphatically refused to address reports of an Israeli attack on Syria despite persistent questioning during a White House press conference Thursday.

They were quick to blame Syria this week for the car bombing in Lebanon. With no evidence merely assertions

US leads world outrage at Beirut bombing

The whole point of this not so clever subterfuge of a nuke story is to send a warning to Iran.

'Was Israeli raid a dry run for attack on Iran?'

US Bush administration ponders when to launch nuclear war against Iran

Attack points to need to halt Iran’s nuclear aims

Which of course got the knee jerk response they expected from Iran. Getting them the media headlines they wanted, of reactionary sabre rattling.

Iran Displays Weapons At Annual Army Celebrations; Warns West Against Attack

While overlooking the fact that Iran has challenged the U.S. not to a war but that most democratic of political forms; the debate.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has again proposed to US President George W. Bush to hold public debates within the framework of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly. Ahmadinejad made this statement on Iranian television on Sunday.

“I had suggested holding a debate. I am saying again that let us discuss global concerns at the (UN) General Assembly in front of representatives of other nations,” Ahmadinejad pointed out. He said he proposed to also discuss the situation in Iraq with the aim of its settlement. The Iranian president said let Bush express his attitude and he will express his own. After that the leaders of 200 states will be able to draw conclusions, Ahmadinejad added.

According to him, “I am ready to hold talks with Bush on important global issues at the assembly.” “Let us hold talks about Iraq and other issues. Then public opinion will judge ... We will offer our global solutions,” he said.

It is five years since President Bush came to the United Nations to warn of the “grave and gathering danger” posed by Saddam Hussein. The ensuing U.S. invasion of Iraq set off a debate that continues to this day over U.S. leadership and the organization’s role in global security. Now Bush takes the UN General Assembly podium with Washington stepping up warnings about another Middle Eastern threat—Iran. His chances for strengthening an international coalition appear at least as uncertain (CSMonitor) as they were prior to the Iraq war. Scheduled speeches by Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on September 25 come amid planned high-level diplomacy among the five permanent UN Security Council members over whether to expand sanctions a third time for Iran’s refusal to suspend its uranium-enrichment program.

Living in the past as all conservatives do, its their nature, the White House and their apocalyptic conservative cheerleaders have their Viet-Nam War now it wants to try its hand at its own Cuban Missile Crisis.

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preparing Syria to cover his flank, should war break out between Israel and Iran over Tehran's nuclear arsenal. Ahmadinejad is evidently gambling on Syria taking out Israel while Iran squares off against the United States. Were Iran and Israel to face each other head-to-head, one or the other would inevitably cease to exist. Israel would have no choice but to annihilate Iran before Iran annihilated Israel.

The reality is that Iran's leadership is divided on their approach to dealing with Europe and the International Atomic Energy Agency over their nuclear energy program. And let's not forget that so far that is all it is. And while Ahmadinejad is President he is not above being ruled out of order by the Iranian regime.

Signs of a Possible Rift in the Iranian Leadership on the Nuclear Issue

In 2005 Khamenei responded to President Ahmadinejad's alleged remark that Israel should be "wiped off the map" by saying that "the Islamic Republic has never threatened and will never threaten any country." Moreover Khamenei`s main advisor in foreign policy, Ali Akbar Velayati, refused to take part in Holocaust conference. In contrast to Ahmadinejad`s remarks, Velayati said that Holocaust was a genocide and a historical reality.

in January 2007, Hossein Ali Montazeri harshly criticized Ahmadinejad and accused him of harming the country. Montazeri, 85, is a senior theologian of the Shia Muslim faith. Also Mohammad Moussavian, a former nuclear negotiator who is currently in prison for espionage, has accused Ahmadinejad of lying to the people about the grave consequences of the penalties voted for by the Security Council. "Our advice to the president is to speak about the nuclear issue only during important national occasions, stop provoking aggressive powers like the United States and concentrate more on the daily needs of the people, those who voted for you on your promises," wrote the Islamic Republic.

That Israel with the cooperation of the United States engaged in an illegal hostile military incursion into a sovereign state's territory, is a clear violation of International law. So to justify their preemptive strike policy they leak stories of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Weapons Of Mass Destruction: A deadly blast occurs at a Syrian missile site as an Israeli airstrike against a suspected nuclear cache catches Tehran's eye. In 1981, Israel thwarted a WMD threat. Is history repeating itself?

Iran has learned well the lessons of Osirak, hardening and dispersing its nuclear facilities, placing many of them underground, protecting them with state-of-the-art air defenses bought from Russia. But Israel's military capabilities also have advanced over the past quarter-century, as have ours.

In September 2004, Israel contracted to buy from the U.S. 500 one-ton BLU-109 "bunker buster" bombs capable of penetrating 30 feet of earth or concrete, capable of reaching the Iranian underground facilities at Natanz.

Iran's loony president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sent his nephew, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, to Syria to assess the strike damage. Perhaps he'll bring back the message that given the choice of an Iranian bomb or bombing Iran, Israel may already have chosen Plan B.

The silence of the Harper government over this violation of international law must mean they condone it as a Measured Response.

The world media and powers that be failed in their duty to take Syria seriously, and as information leaked out of Israel, with their need to gloat over their success, the war monger spin doctors beat them to it.

The Syrians are disappointed with the synchronised silence of the Arab world over the latest Israeli aerial invasion of Syria, which took place on 6 September. They complained to the UN Security Council on 11 September. The Syrians are equally disgusted with the stream of accusations -- all of which they insist are false -- that are coming out of the US media, claiming that the Syrian village of Tal Abyad was being used to host nuclear weapons from North Korea. Other US media reports say that the Israeli jets hit a shipment of arms bound from Iran to Hizbullah in South Lebanon. In an interview with CBS, President Bashar Al-Assad insisted that Hizbullah does not receive arms from the Syrians. The Syrians have long been saying that they are not interested in nuclear weapons, and never miss an opportunity to call for a nuclear-free Middle East that applies -- first and foremost -- to Israel.

The only countries to condemn the Israeli attack were (not surprisingly) Russia, Iran, Turkey -- and North Korea, which came out with a harsh statement at the Israeli aggression. All of America's allies in the region, however, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Lebanon responded with a chilly "no comment". There was no condemnation and no solidarity from the Arab front, unlike other similar cases of Israeli aggression in 2001 and 2003. Major Arab satellite channels and newspapers (all funded by or close to the Saudis) even adopted a stance one step short of holding the Syrians responsible for the Israeli act. The reasons are clear; increased Syrian-Saudi tension over the upcoming presidential race in Lebanon, the state of affairs in Iraq, and Syria's friendship with Iran. The Arab street, however, remains overwhelmingly supportive of Syria, especially when it comes to confrontation with Israel. This was made loud and clear by the Syrian media. The Arab League issued a strong yet powerless condemnation claiming that the Israeli intrusion was "unacceptable".

They went into Syria, with a target in mind, and either did not find it or found something completely different that made them look silly in the international community. States after all are bound by the UN Charter. They are not supposed to violate their neighbour's airspace unless they have very convincing evidence that they can display to the entire world, justifying their actions. The Israelis did not have that. When one intrudes into another country's airspace, with no valid reason, then this is considered an act of aggression.

SEE:

Postcard From Syria

Did They Or Didn't They

Israeli Rabbi Says Wipe Out Arabs

Weapons of Mass Deception

US War On Capitalism In Iran

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Surf's Up In Gaza

The antithesis of the surf routine in Apocalypse Now.

Surfing for Peace. Cowabunga!

Dorian Paskowitz, 86, from Hawaii, handed over some of the surfboards himself. The retired Jewish doctor hopes a love of surfing will help bring Israelis and Palestinians together

Israel has allowed few nonessential goods to pass into Gaza since the militant group Hamas took over the coastal territory in June. When Paskowitz, 86, reached the crossing, the officer in charge had reason to be wary: Israeli forces trying to thwart rocket fire from Gaza that day had killed three Palestinian gunmen and two children who were playing near a rocket launcher near the border. Eight other Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops this week, among the bloodiest this summer.

Paskowitz, who is known as Doc, said he told the officer:

"I came 12,500 miles from Hawaii to give away these boards. The guys who need them are standing 50 meters from here, and you're trying to stop me. How can you do that to a fellow Jew?"

He showed the Israeli officer a photograph of two Gaza surfers on the Mediterranean shore with one battered board between them. It had appeared in the Los Angeles Times on July 29 with an article about how some Palestinians try to escape the poverty and violence of the overcrowded strip by riding the waves.

Paskowitz is one of surfing's top gurus in America after first taking to a board 75 years ago. He and his surfing brood - eight sons, one daughter and a brood of grandchildren - have been dubbed the "first family of surfing", with premier US newspapers and magazines writing about them for years.

The medical doctor who has penned a book on "Surfing and Health" hopes his initiative will bring happiness and hope to both Palestinian and Israelis.

He hopes to organise surfing competitions off the Mediterannean coast of Israel and Gaza within the next three years in order to bring the two sides closer.

"We love to surf and we know how other people love to surf. There is nothing more fulfilling."

See:

Israel

Palestine


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No Two State Solution

There is no two state solution to Israel's occupation of Palestine.

It's been forty years, and yet Israel has become married to the settlements and to an ideology that sees a Jewish state with inherent rights over its non-Jewish citizens, but more critically it as an expansionist state that believes in the right to permanent domination of the lands it controls. The only way to break down a racist and exclusivist structure is to chip away at its base and force an alternative reality. This would require not only ending the occupation, but looking internally at the Israeli state, a Jewish state, a state which doesn't and can't function as democracy for all its people. Many Palestinians leaders and supporters within Israel have come to realize this and have been ostracized for bringing this notion to light, namely Azmi Bishara, while many more will be undermined and attacked in the future. Yet, divestment, boycott, and sanctions coupled with a movement forward for both Israelis and Palestinians to live as equals in a shared society is the only hope for true peace.

See:

Israel

Palestine


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Democracy Israeli Style

Not satisfied with the government elected by the Palestinian people, well simply refuse to fund it and allow for internecine conflicts until your side wins or declares itself a winner.

Which is just what Israel has done, in recognizing the Fatah/Abbas Government in the West Bank. Thus signaling the U.S., Canada and Europe that it is the government they want funded.

In fact it was the only government they ever wanted, and the Palestinians and democracy can be ignored.

Bush and Olmert seek to prop up Abbas

Analysis: Gaza sanctions may increase tension

Gazans Adjust to Power Shift as New Rulers Revel in Their Victory

Analysis: Limits of Democracy Talk

“Israel, Hamaza, and the Fatah Bank: A Three State Solution?

See:

Israel


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Failure of a Measured Response

The words "Measured Response" are never used......And the Israeli soldiers that this war was supposedly about are still prisoners of Hezbollah/Hizbullah and Hamas.

Perhaps this was also the conclusion of Wajid Khan's report to the PM, which is why it has never been made public.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took a staggering blow to the political chin last night after an official commission of inquiry issued a scathing interim report on his government's handling of the country's war last summer in southern Lebanon."The word `failure' recurred over and over again," said Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent for The Jerusalem Post.

Israel's failed war in Lebanon

Israel botched it from the start

ALTHOUGH it said nothing new of substance, the sharpness of the Winograd Commission’s words took Israeli politicians’ breath away. The commission—government appointed and led by a former Supreme Court judge—on Monday April 30th issued a report on the first five days of Israel’s war in south Lebanon last summer. It accuses the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, of a “severe failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence” for deciding to go to war immediately after Hizbullah militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, and for continuing it after it became clear that an attack would not bring them back.

Israel balks at Hamas prisoner demand
Public pressure has been building on Israel's government to make a deal for Shalit — along with two soldiers captured three weeks later by Hezbollah guerrillas in a similar cross-border raid from Lebanon, setting off a destructive 34-day war last summer.

See:

Fraser Institute On Lebanon

Unemployment Breeds Terrorism

Israel Lies Cost Lebanese Lives

Economic War

The Economics of War In Lebanon

Six Week War for Nothing

Lets Get Our Facts Straight

Hezbollah Are Not Terrorists

Israel War Crimes

We Are Hezbolah

Thank The New Canadian Government

Canada Forces Palestinans Into Poverty

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Israel Hacker Heaven

Israel a Hotbed of Internet Attacks, Report Says

Because Israel is a hotbed of corporate malfeasance, spying and corruption.

24 December 2001

Fox News, beginning mid-December, reported a four-part series on alleged Israeli spying on the US telecommunication systems through firms which provide telephone billing and assist FBI wiretaps. Recently the series was withdrawn by Fox News without explanation. The series has been recovered from private archives for publication here.

It is also the source for software tied to the American corporate, military and intelligence establishment.

For the past five years, there have been growing fears that somehow, outsiders have been able to penetrate into the confidential computer files of government agencies, business entities such as banks and defense contractors and individuals.

Some of this appeared to be an attempt to obtain highly classified information that could be of use to others and in other instances, attempts to get into the personal, and corporate, bank accounts of individuals and corporations.

This is a brief study of some of the salient aspects of this problem of computer theft and espionage and we will start with the discovery of massive computer penetration in Israel. We will then consider further penetrations of American business and intelligence computer systems by agents of a foreign government as opposed to confidence men and then conclude with the use of the same methods to commit frauds on the gullible in the United States and elsewhere.

Some of the first public notice of this problem surfaced first in Israel in 2004 when Israeli law enforcement cyber crime experts discovered that what is known as a Trojan Horse (illicit spyware planted on an unsuspecting computer) had been inserted into about 60 major Israeli businesses. Isreali law enforcement subsequently indicted various members of three of Israel’s largest private investigative agencies on charges of criminal fraud. These spyware plants were in various commercial areas such as : Israeli military contracting, telephone systems, cable television, finance, automobile and cigarette importing, journalism and high technology. These intrusive spyware plants were nearly identical with ones developed by the American NSA and widely used inside the United States to glean political, economic and counter-intelligence information from a huge number of American businesses and agencies. Israeli investigators believed that there was illicit cooperation between the American agency and a counterpart in Israel.

These Trojan horses that penetrated the Israeli computers came packaged inside a compact disc or were sent as an e-mail message that appeared to be from an institution or a person that the victims thought they knew very well. Once the program was installed, it functioned every time the victim’s computer system was in use, logging keystrokes or collecting sensitive documents and passwords before transmitting the information elsewhere.

This clandestine theft of valuable commercial, military and political secrets is certainly not limited to Israel and many important agencies and individuals have become increasingly concerned about what is called “phishing” in which both con men and foreign (and domestic) intelligence agencies can locate, capture and use valuable personal, political and financial information. In September of 2005, the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an ad hoc group of corporate and law enforcement groups that track identity theft and other online crimes, said it had received more than 13,000 unique reports of phishing schemes in that month alone, up from nearly 7,000 in the month of October, 2004..

In late 2005, a new form of phishing, called “spear-phishing” emerged.

.So-called spear-phishing is a highly concentrated and far more effectove version of phishing. That's because those behind the schemes bait their hooks for specific victims instead of casting a broad, ill-defined net across cyberspace hoping to catch throngs of unknown victims.

Spear-phishing, say security specialists, is much harder to detect than phishing. Bogus e-mail messages and Web sites not only look like near perfect replicas of communiqués from e-commerce companies like eBay or its PayPal service, banks or even a victim's employer, but are also targeted at people known to have an established relationship with the sender being mimicked. American banks such as Chase and Bank of America are among those whose names are faked and also the online auction house of Ebay and the international money transfer firm of PayPal receive considerable attention from the international conmen and credit thieves. These thieves are not necessarily gangs operating for financial gain but also include theft of trade secrets, private corporate banking and highly sensitive military and political information.

Court remands top Israeli execs in industrial espionage affair
The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court Monday remanded several people from some of Israel's leading commercial companies and private investigators suspected of commissioning and carrying out industrial espionage against their competitors, which was carried out by planting Trojan horse software in their competitors' computers.

Others said the combination of Israel's high-tech culture, fine-tuned in secretive military units, and a penchant for independent thinking made the scandal inevitable. Some of the world's top computer security companies, including Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., are Israeli.
The list of clients implicated in the affair reads like a Who's Who of Israeli blue chips: Amdocs Ltd., a business-software maker that trades on the New York Stock Exchange; the Cellcom phone carrier and three subsidiaries of the Bezeq phone monopoly, a long-distance carrier, cell phone provider and satellite TV firm.

At least one veteran fraud investigator in Israel said he wasn't shocked by revelations of widespread spear-phishing and the corporate espionage scandal last spring. "This case is not unconventional," said Boaz Guttman, a lawyer and former head of the cybercrimes unit for the Israeli national police. "Most of the crimes are not reported. The police here and in the United States only know about 5 percent of the cases. Hackers don't take a break, not one minute.

"Everybody is spying against everybody in Israel," added Mr. Guttman, who said he was representing one of the suspects in the Trojan horse investigation but was not authorized to reveal his client's identity. "You cannot be surprised by this because this is the way of life for companies today."

The Chalabi files recovered by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement provided enough information for the FBI to begin a criminal investigation of a Baghdad-Jerusalem-Washington syndicate that is profiteering from America's misguided invasion and occupation of Iraq. The investigation led to shadowy Israeli-owned firms registered in Delaware and Panama that were fraudulently obtaining contracts and sub-contracts to provide everything from cellular phones and VIP security to the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners using seconded members of Israel's feared Unit 1391 "special techniques" interrogation center. Not only were these firms operating in Iraq with the concurrence of the neo-cons in the Pentagon but some U.S. government officials were personally benefiting from the contracts.


The Economic Espionage law authorizes the FBI to act against foreign intelligence gathering agencies toiling on US soil with the aim of garnering proprietary economic information. During the Congressional hearings that preceded the law, the FBI estimated that no less that 23 governments, including the Israeli, French, Japanese, German, British, Swiss, Swedish, and Russian, were busy doing exactly that. Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI, put it succinctly: "Economic Espionage is the greatest threat to our national security since the Cold War."



Joining scandal-hit NETeller and Torex Retail, Israeli mobile software group Adamind became the latest firm on the junior market to stand accused of nefarious behaviour. The revelation last Monday that it was being investigated by the Financial Services Authority on suspicion of insider dealing caused some critics again to question the efficacy of Aim's regulatory system, which is often blamed for letting inferior companies loose on investors.

Quick: What do Hamas terrorists have in common with Martha Stewart? No, we're not talking about their public-approval ratings. Rather, both may have drawn unwanted scrutiny in part because of the same piece of software.

The data-mining algorithms of ClearForest, based in New York City, are at work within both Israeli security agencies and NASDAQ. Israel uses them to drill for hidden connections among suspected terrorists: say, a pattern of phone calls shortly before each of several suicide bombings. NASDAQ uses the same software to detect block trades of stock quietly placed just before the release of company news — including sales by relatives of ImClone's founder, Sam Waksal, who this fall pleaded guilty to insider-trading charges, and his friend Martha Stewart, who remains under investigation (and has denied any wrongdoing).

Both NASDAQ and Israel's security services are sprawling organizations, bombarded daily with terabytes of information, any bit of which may prevent a catastrophe, whether measured in lives or in retirement savings lost to fraud. And these days, data-mining software, combined with technologies that connect disparate computer systems and databases, is making it possible for everyone from police departments to clothing merchants to global manufacturers to search through ever expanding data warehouses and draw valuable connections that would otherwise be lost to human eyes.

Israeli Citizenship has been linked to U.S. trading scandals and accusations of money laundering against Michael Zwebner. Mr. Zwebner is a good pal of PM Ehud Olmert and the disgraced rapist; Israeli President Moshe Katsav


Dear Jerusalem Post,
In searching for any mention of a Michael Zwebner and his company's business dealings (Universal Communications Systems Inc.) in Israel I came across a series of articles by a person of that name writing on commodities or metals for the 'Jerusalem Post' as late as 1997.They then seem to have come to a halt,for whatever reason,as a search of his name on your internet sight will show.

I was most surprised that mention of his most recent project,an 'AirWater machine', supposedly to provide water for the Israeli military, did not appear in your reputable newspaper.Also no mention was made of a demonstration that supposedly took place at the 'AQUA Israel 2004' exhibition.Nor was there any mention of his company's meeting with Israeli President Moshe Katzov, who was quite flattering of Mr.Zwebner's product, according to a BUSINESS WIRE PR put out by Mr.Zwebner's company, located in Florida and incorporated in Nevada,I believe.

Another of Mr.Zwebner's BUSINESSWIRE press releases further claims the U.S.army in Iraq has made 'an order to supply and ship a number of AirWater machines to the Gulf for immediate delivery to the US Army/Coalition Forces.'Another article from Australia interviewing Mr.Zwebner claimed the order was completed and the AirWater machines of the company are now operating in Iraq.

There are some posting messages on www.ragingbull.com's 'ucsy',or Universal Communication System Inc., message board that are less than flattering.Some people believe the sole purpose of the press releases has been what is termed a 'pump and dump' of a penny stock. Further another website that is a host of consumer complaints hints that President Moshe Katzov actually received remuneration for helping Mr.Zwebner tout or promote this stock whose shares were then dumped on U.S. or other investors as it was touted in fraudulent prs by the company.

http://www.fundstreet.org/...
December 13, 2005

Cerberus-Gabriel hedge fund buys stake in Leumi Bank
Israel is on its way to privatization. The banking sector is amongst the first ones to take a step in this direction. Bank Leumi was in the market recently and attracted bids from several players. Bidder names include strategic investors like Lev Leviev, IDB and Bill Davidson and also financial contenders like UBS, Deutsche Bank and Citibank. However the winner was an American Hedge fund, Cerberus-Gabriel.

Cerberus-Gabriel has purchased 9.9% of the shares of the bank. The purchase of this stake was for approximately $500 million. The fund also has the option of buying an additional 10.01% in the bank. This will bring the total shares quantum to 20% and is roughly valued at $1 billion. This option of additional purchase has to be utilized with in the next one and a half years.

Ehud Olmert, Finance Minister of Israel, is reportedly quite satisfied with the outcome. He feels that this is a positive development and will help the over all Israeli economy. He is amongst the top promoters of privatization move. In his statement he also mentioned that the purchase will ensure healthy competition between the banks and will definitely contribute a lot to the local market.

Another person quite happy with the development is Yaron Zelekha, the treasury's accountant-general, who led the tender. He sees it as fulfillment of the promise made to the people of Israel about privatization of the entire banking system in 2005.

Isreali Citizenship is good for avoiding prosecution in the U.S. as well.

The fugitive former chief executive of leading voice-mail-software maker Comverse Technology (CMVT) has been captured in Africa after a two-month international manhunt, U.S. officials announced Wednesday.

Details of the arrest of Jacob "Kobi" Alexander in the Republic of Namibia were not immediately available. But in a statement, U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf credited local officials in the southwest African nation for assisting the FBI in the capture.

Mauskopf said she would seek Alexander's swift extradition to face charges in federal court in Brooklyn. A call to his defense attorney in New York was not immediately returned.

The manhunt began in late July shortly before authorities unsealed a criminal complaint accusing Alexander and two other former top executives of secretly manipulating stock options for personal profit.

Before he disappeared, Alexander, 54, an Israeli citizen and a permanent U.S. resident, allegedly transferred $57 million to Israel, fueling speculation he may have fled there.

Two other defendants, former finance chief David Kreinberg and former senior general counsel William Sorin, surrendered in August and were released on $1 million bond each.

The complaint unsealed in federal court accuses the three men of making stock options more lucrative by backdating their exercise price to a low point in the stock's value. Usually, a stock option's exercise price coincides with the market value at the time of a grant, to give the recipient an incentive to drive the price higher.

Today fighting corruption and scandal in Israel is the political fallout as a result of the failed Lebanese war last summer.

Zamir served on the Supreme Court from 1994 until 2001, during which he was on the panel that considered the Ganot case. Since his retirement (Supreme Court justices take mandatory retirement at the age of 70) he has spoken out with growing harshness against corruption in Israeli public life and in particular against political appointments in the civil service. In recent years he has been chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Ethics, and two months ago he submitted to the Knesset the report of a public committee he headed following an episode in which an MK cast a double vote in a Knesset motion. The committee recommended adding new rules of ethics and toughening the sanctions that the Knesset can impose on its members.

Zamir is convinced that if Israel does not take urgent steps, it is liable to deteriorate within a few years to the place now occupied by some countries in Africa and Latin America. "We have to shout and say, 'Listen, we are sick,'" he warns. "Corruption really is a kind of chronic disease, which can be terminal." He goes to his study and returns with surveys showing that the Israeli public believes that the government is corrupt. "If the public thinks, even mistakenly, that the entire government is corrupt, that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It leads naturally, and almost necessarily, to the loss of trust in the regime. And then what can replace it: the strong, clean leader. We know from the world's experience that the strong leader, even if he is at first clean, quickly becomes very dirty." Zamir quotes with unconcealed emotion what "the country's No. 1 security person," former chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon, told Ari Shavit in an interview in Haaretz, that corruption is more dangerous than the Iranian threat. "I agree with that. The security threat - missiles from Lebanon and Syria, or an Iranian nuclear threat - is viewed as concrete. We understand it, and we know the damage it will do. So people can become fearful and demand action, and these issues occupy a very high place on the public agenda. When it comes to corruption, though - in part because it operates in the dark and you don?t see it - people are not sufficiently aware of the danger. The result is that there is great indifference among the public, which was given expression, for example, in the last Knesset elections. Like cancer, you don't see corruption at its inception, you don't feel it spreading; you feel it at a certain stage, when it breaks out, and then in very many cases, it's already too late."

And it's revealing that the corruption is just business as usual thanks to the politics of privatization conducted by Olmert. Chickens, home, roost.



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