Prof Peter Dale Scott: William Pawley, the Kennedy Assassination and Watergate!

TILT and the "Phase Three Story of Clare Boothe Luce. A new biography of William Pawley clarifies the millionaires status as a friend and adviser to presidents, despite his reactionary views that often made the State Department and even the CIA reluctant to deal with him. His ability to modify and on occasion even overturn official US policies, easily qualifies him yo be considered part of that mostly invisible milieu I have clumsily called the American deep state, a milieu both inside and outside government with the power to steer the history of the public state and sometimes redirect it. It would be wrong to think that Pawley had such power, only because of his personal wealth and connections. I hope to show that from the beginning of his career to his sudden death by a self inflicted gun wound, Pawley always acted in conjunction with other powerful people from both the over-world and the underworld in short, with what I have called other dark forces of the deep state. The key to Pawley's controversial status was that he made, and sometimes lost his fortunes under foreign dictators he was personally close to: Chiang Kai-shek in China, Presidents Prio and Batista in Cuba, and Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. Long after the US Government ceased to support these men, Pawley maintained their confidence, which was one of the reasons elements of the US government chose on occasion to use him as an asset. Another reason is that all these dictators had developed contacts with the US underworld, often because of their involvement in the trafficking of opium and heroin into America. As we shall see, Pawley himself had at least one CIA linked mob contact, John Martino. The book shows how Pawley's personal wealth and associations enabled him at times to mount his own foreign policy, one supported by friends inside government, and also by other wealthy individuals and corporations, who saw their wealth or policy objectives doomed by the fall of strongmen like Chiang Kai-shek and Batista. Among Pawley's closest influential friends were Henry Luce of Time Life, Henry's wife Clare Boothe Luce, Allen Dulles, and Richard Nixon. All of these people shared what has been called Pawley's pathological hatred of Fidel Castro.      

Dean Henderson: The Four Horsemen of Banking!

If you want to know where the true power center of the world lies, follow the money, cui bono. According to Global Finance magazine, as of 2012, the world's five biggest banks are all based in Rothschild fiefdoms UK and France. They are the French BNP, with $3 trillion in assets, Royal Bank of Scotland with $2.7 trillion, the UK based HSBC Holdings with $2.4 trillion, the French Credit Agricole with $2.2 trillion, and the British Barclay's with $2.2 trillion. In the US, a combination of deregulation and merger mania has left four mega banks ruling the financial roost. According to Global Finance, as of 2010 they are Bank of America with $2.2 trillion, JP Morgan Chase with $2 trillion, Citigroup with $1.9 trillion, Citigroup with $1.9 trillion, and Wells Fargo with $1.25 trillion. I have dubbed them the Four Horsemen of US banking. The September 2000 marriage which created JP Morgan Chase was the grandest merger in a frenzy of bank consolidation that took place throughout the 1990's. Merger mania was fed by a massive deregulation of the banking industry, including revocation of the Glass Steagal Act of 1933, which was enacted after the Great Depression, to curb the banking monopolies which had caused the 1929 stock market crash and precipitated the Great Depression. In July 1929,  Goldman Sachs launched two investment trusts called Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. Through August and September, they touted these trusts to the public, selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shares through the Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation at $104/share. Goldman Sachs insiders were bailing out of the stock market. Shenandoah and Blue Ridge was Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer John Foster Dulles. John Merrill, founder of Merrill Lynch, exited the stock market in 1928, as did insiders at Lehman Brothers. Chase Manhattan Chairman Alfred Wiggin took his hunch to the next level, forming Shermar Corporation in 1929 to short the stock of his own company. Following the Crash of 1929, Citibank President Charles Mitchell was jailed for tax evasion.

Julie Levesque: Israel's Holy War. Triggering Palestinian Exodus!

Israel's latest attack on Gaza, Operation Pillar of Cloud, was named after a passage in the Torah: By day the Lord went ahead of them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day and night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. Exodus 13:21-22. Far from divine guidance, however, the intentions underlying the pillars of cloud and fire, Israel violently dropped on the small and densely populated territory had quite a nefarious objective. Exodus and the chasing of Palestinians out of the Holy Land. To achieve their goal, some prominent Israeli figures even had mushroom clouds in mind: We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn't stop with Hiroshima. The Japanese were not surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki too. (Gilad Sharon:  A decisive conclusion is necessary, Jerusalem Post, November 18, 2012). Nile Bowie views the latest attacks as part of the expansion of Israel's illegal settlements: The Israeli bombardment of Gaza being perpetuated under Operation Pillar of Defense comes at an interesting time. Under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements into Palestinian lands has increased at unprecedented rates. Netanyahu's administration has approved the construction of 850 settler homes in the occupied West Bank in June 2012, even after the Israeli parliament rejected a bill to retroactively legalize some of the existing homes in the area. The number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank has almost doubled in the past twelve years, with more than 350,000 residing illegally under international law. While Israels Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman asserts Tel Aviv's unwillingness to permit Palestinians any right to return to their lands, emphasizing, not even one refugee, apartheid enforced on ethnic and religious has become a ratified part of Israeli government policy. Far right political discourse that was once considered extremism is now status quo in Israel.    

Steven Rosenfeld: Five Ways Obama Undermined our Democracy!

Is Barack Obama, the former constitutional law professor and voting rights activist, allergic to democracy reform? Or have congressional Republicans thrown up such roadblocks that the White House has decided it's not worthwhile to fight for the key federal roadblocks that the White House has decided it's not worthwhile to fight for the key federal agencies that defend democracy: Whether the fault lies with the White House or with GOP obstructionists, or both, the results are the same. Federal institutions created to make campaign finances more transparent, and ensure that election technology is evolving, are paralyzed by empty leadership positions, while the executive branch's efforts to push ahead on its own have yielded little. "I've felt like Diogenes looking for an intelligent Republican and never found one, I am hoping that will change," said Craig Holman, Public Citizen's Capitol Hill lobbyist, who puts the blame on the GOP for blocking Obama's appointments. "But I've also been very critical of Obama for not taking on these fights. I've been asking Obama since 2009 to replace these commissioners and take on GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell." Let's go through key parts of the federal landscape that are supposed to ensure a fairer and better democratic process, and identify what's stuck in the political mud: 1. Federal Election Commission. The six member FEC, which regulates how money is raised in federal campaigns, has five vacancies. Until those seats are filled, previously appointed commissioners keep their seats. That's the case now, with three Democrats and three Republicans, which has left the FEC deadlocked on every big issue in recent years, including rules that could have reeled in some of 2012's biggest law evading partisans. Trevor Potter, a former FEC commissioner and chairman, who is more recently known as Stephen Colbert's campaign finance attorney, recently wrote a Washington Post op ed saying that the moribund FEC is more to blame for 2012's top campaign finance abuses than the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling.

Bruce Tyler Wick: Israel Threatens UN General Assembly!!

Though the New York Times reported the Israeli "threats" 14 November 2012, even characterizing them at one point as "threats", their significance has been ignored. First the threats: "Israel's Foreign Ministry has warned foreign governments that a successful Palestinian bid for enhanced status at the United Nations this month could lead Israel to cancel the Oslo peace accords and, possibly, to oust President Mahmoud Abbas and dismantle his Palestinian Authority, according to official documents made available to reporters on Wednesday." "A second document", the NYT article continued, "was more explicit". A recognition of Palestinian statehood by the United Nations, it stated, would leave Israel no alternative but to topple 'the government of Abu Mazen,' referring to Mr Abbas by his nickname. Any softer reaction would be interpreted as raising a white flag, it said." This is the same Mahmoud Abbas, who according to Dina Jadallah, is paid handsomely for his role. "He makes one million dollars a month, has personal Jordanian accounts of more than $500 million, each, of Palestinian taxpayer money, in addition to more perks for himself and his family." So, Abbas is at least a billionaire, if perhaps just barely, paid by someone to manage the affairs of the Palestinian people in that someone's favor. But even Abbas, apparently, can no longer stem the tide toward Palestinian statehood, and is being driven by events. Could there be anything worse than an out of control billionaire? So, what is all the fuss about? Well, presently for UN General Assembly purposes, "Palestine" is classified as a "Non member," "Other Entity," with "Permanent Observer" status. Clear enough, huh? From the "Permanent Observers" page of the UN website: "Permanent Observers, Non member States and Entities: Non member state, the HOLY SEE, "the Vatican," or "Vatican City". Other entities having received a standing invitation to participate as observers in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly are maintaining permanent offices at Headquarters.         

James Petras: The Final Solution to the Palestine Question

For the past forty five years, the state of Israel has been dispossessing millions of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories, confiscating their lands, destroying homes, bulldozing orchards and setting up Jews only colonial settlements serviced by highways, electrical systems and water works for the exclusive use of the settlers and occupying soldiers. The process of Israeli territorial expansion throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem has greatly accelerated in recent years, converting Palestinian held territory into non viable isolated enclaves like South Africa's Bantustan's surrounded by the Israeli soldiers who protect violent settler vigilantes as they assault and harass Palestinian farmers at work in their fields, beat Arab children on their way to school, pelt Palestinian housewives as they hang their laundry, and then invade and defecate in Palestinian mosques and churches. The Rage and Rape of Gaza and its Apologists! Israel's strategic goal is to impose Greater Israel on the region, to take over all of historical Palestine, expel the entire non Jewish population and subsidize Jews only settlements (for settler immigrants, often from the US and former USSR). While bulldozers and tanks have dispossessed Palestinians in the West Bank for decades, the launching of thousands of missiles and bombs have become the weapons of choice for uprooting and eliminating the Palestinians in Gaza. In just eight days, Israel's latest "blitzkrieg" resulted in the killing of 168 Palestinians, (42 children and 100 civilians), the wounding of 1,235, the destruction of over 1,350 buildings and the further traumatizing of over 1.7 million children, women and men fenced in the world's largest concentration camp. According to the Israeli Defense Minister, the Jewish State dropped a thousand times more bombs on Gaza than the Palestinians fired back into Israel. The current Israeli offensive began with the gruesome assassination of a prominent Hamas leader,  Ahmed Jabari, and immediately escalated into an assault on the entire Palestinian population of Gaza. 

The Guardian: Bradley Manning to speak for first time since arrest!s os

Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of being behind the largest leak of state secrets in US history, is expected this week to speak publicly for the first time since his arrest in May 2010. The alleged source of the massive Wiki Leaks dump of hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables and war logs is expected to be called as a witness at the latest pre trial hearing opening in Fort Meade army base in Maryland on Tuesday afternoon. His direct address to the court will be a poignant event that will be followed closely by both his supporters, who see him as a heroic whistle blower, and his detractors, who regard him as a traitor. Jeff Paterson of the Bradley Manning support network said it would be a very telling moment. "Until now we've only heard from Bradley through his family and lawyers, so it's going to be a real insight into his personality to hear him speak for himself for the first time." The hearing, slated to last until Sunday, also marks a crucial stage in the legal proceedings in the run up to a full court martial scheduled for 4 February. Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, is seeking to have any eventual sentence imposed on the soldier radically reduced or even entirely negated on the grounds that he was subjected to pre-trial punishment while he was confined at Quantico marine base in Virginia. Manning's harsh treatment during the nine months he was held in the brig at Quantico, from 29 July 2010 to 20 April 2011, have become something of a cause celebre, with several influential people and organizations castigating the military authorities for subjecting him to a form of torture. The treatment led to a wave of international indignation, from figures as diverse as the UN rapporteur on torture, Amnesty International, leading law scholars and PJ Crowley, then spokesman at the US state department, who resigned in protest. Manning's lawyers are expected to make the case to the military judge presiding of the pre-trial proceedings, Colonel Denise Lind, that commanders at the brig in Quantico ignored expert medical advice in subjecting the soldier to prolonged solitary confinement. Coombs has requested to call eight witnesses in total, though it is not clear how many of hose have been cleared by Lind.

Jim W. Dean: Is a WMD free Mid East a Cruel Charade?

The US helping Israel Hide its WMD Programs has been a Foreign Policy Disaster and Must be Reversed. The December conference on making the Mideast a WMD free zone has been postponed, to no one's surprise. I fear this negotiation will become a competitor to the two state solution. By that I mean it would go on and on for decades, until there is no more room to build settlements and all Arabs have been run out of Jerusalem. Initial reports of an expected delay appeared November 13th on Global Security News-wire, but insiders all knew that nothing was going to happen with Syria still in play, Israeli elections looming,, and the Gaza flare up just around the corner. Of course Israel, the WMD threat to everyone, has not not even committed to attend. I suspect there will be lots of roadblock pre condition demands, like no discussion of Israel's weapons of mass destruction programs, and who has assisted them, officially and unofficially: Declassified American intelligence revealed the pre 1948 War Israelis were hunting chemical weapons in war torn Europe to use on the Arabs. France teamed up to work with them on their early nuclear program. Later the British, Germans and Americans would come in, allowing nuclear material and technology to be stolen and smuggled to Israel in a variety of ways. Things really picked up speed with Lyndon Johnson, who turned the spigot on, trading nuclear technology and material for solid Jewish support come election time. Little did we know back then, that this would become a national support, betraying weapons technology not only for getting re elected, but advancing one's political career in Congress toward getting the most powerful committee chairmanships. Victoria Nuland, US State Department. The language used in the conference delay press reports was almost comical to a degree. Victoria Nuland of the US State Department said," We would not support a conference in which any regional state would be subject to pressure or isolation."

PRESSTV: Brzezinski to US: Stop following Israel like a Stupid Mulel

Leading US strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, unofficial dean of the realist school of American foreign policy experts, has drawn an unflattering picture of US Israel relations. In a speech to the National Iranian American Council, Brzezinski said, "I don't think there is an implicit obligation for the United States to follow like a stupid mule whatever the Israelis do. If they decide to start a war, simply on the assumption that we'll automatically be drawn into it, I think it is the obligation of friendship to say, 'you're not going to make decisions for us. " I think that the United States has the right to have its own national security policy." By denying any US "obligation" to "follow like a stupid mule whatever the Israelis do," Brzezinski accurately implied that this is exactly what the US has been doing up to now, and by plaintively opining that "the United States has the right to have its own national security policy," the former National Security Adviser underlined the fact that since the assassination of John F Kennedy, who secretly went to war with Ben Gurion in a doomed effort to abort the Israeli nuclear weapons program, the US has not enjoyed that right. Brzezunski's assertion that the US is being led by the nose like a stupid mule by the Israelis is perhaps the most candid statement of its kind ever uttered in public by a high level US strategist. Brzezinski's remarks reflect the mainstreaming of the arguments presented by leading US political scientists Walt and Mearsheimer, in their book The Israel Lobby. Indeed, Brzezinski has gone much further than Walt and Mearsheimer, who couch their critique of the tail wags the dog US Israel relationship in extremely cautious language. By laying it out so explicitly, Brzezinski is in effect joining the ranks of such scholars as James Petras and Grant Smith, who leave Walt and Mearsheimer in the dust, as they boldly and accurately describe the outrageous, destructive, and quite literally criminal Israeli domination of the US.

Joseph A. Palermo: The Drone Wars Have Begun!!

From the beginning, there has been a kind of technological determinism associated with the idea, that since the United States possesses this relatively new technology, it should use it. Facing the uncertainty of reelection, President Obama became so concerned about the lawlessness of his drone killings, he sought hastily to codify the rules governing their use. What began in the Bush era as a means for targeting al Qaeda leaders hiding in remote areas has become a vast "amorphous" death machine targeting suspected "militants" in Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. Now we've learned that, in addition to "personality strikes" aimed at individuals deemed enemies of the United States, there are now what's called "signature strikes" where any congregation of suspicious looking military age men is open game.  The Obama administration apparently views drones as the cheapest and easiest way to kill "militants" while keeping American casualties low to non existent. This seeming techno supremacy has the added political benefit of getting around a war weary electorate, but future presidents might not quibble about using drones as judiciously as our current president claims to be, hence his rush to clarify the rules of engagement. But possessing new tools of warfare doesn't mean they should be used. The US has chemical weapons and an arsenal of hydrogen bombs, but those technologies should be left on the shelf. Drones are no different. We mustn't allow global drone warfare to become the "new normal." Sadly, the drone killings of US citizens abroad might end up being one of Obama's most lasting legacies. The former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told a military audience before leaving office, that any future president who sends ground troops into a situation like Afghanistan should "have his head examined." The constant drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, are breeding hatred, creating new enemies where none existed, and costing more lives than otherwise would be the case. Anyone seeing drones as a solution to the problem of international terrorism should also "have his head examined." 

Michael T. Klare: Three Terrifying Things About the Earth!

Rarely does the release of a data driven report on energy trends trigger front page headlines around the world. That, however, is exactly what happened on November 12th, when the prestigious Paris based International Energy Agency (IEA) released this year's edition of its World Energy Outlook. In the process, just about everyone missed its real news, which should have set off alarm bells across the planet. Claiming that advances in drilling technology were producing an upsurge in North American energy output, World Energy Outlook predicted that the United States would overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia, to become the planet's leading oil producer by 2020. "North America is at the forefront of a sweeping transformation in oil and gas production that will affect all regions of the world," declared IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven in a widely quoted statement. In the US, the prediction of imminent supremacy in the oil output sweepstakes was generally greeted with unabashed jubilation "This is a remarkable change," said John Larson of IHS, a corporate research firm. "It's truly transformative.  Its fundamentally changing the energy outlook for this country." Not only will this result in a diminished reliance on imported oil, he indicated, but also generate vast numbers of new jobs. "This is about jobs. You know, it's about blue collar jobs. These are good jobs." The editors of the Wall Street Journal were no less ecstatic. In an editorial with the eye catching headline "Saudi America" "they lauded US energy companies for bringing about a technological revolution, largely based on the utilization of hydraulic fracturing (fracking") to extract oil and gas from shale rock. That, they claimed, was what made a new mega energy boom possible. "This is a real energy revolution," the Journal noted, "even if it's far from the renewable energy dreamland of so many government subsidies and mandates. " Other commentaries were similarly focused on the US outpacing Saudi Arabia and Russia, even if some questioned whether the benefits would be as great as advertised or obtainable at an acceptable cost to the environment.

Shamus Cooke: Why is Obama Silent Over the New Congo War?

The last Congo War that ended in 2003 killed 5.4 million people, the worst humanitarian disaster since World War II. The killing was directly enabled by international silence over the issue. The war was ignored and the causes obscured because governments were backing groups involved in the fighting. Now a new Congo war has begun and the silence is, again, deafening. President Obama seems not to have noticed a new war has broken out in the war scarred Congo. He appears blind to the refugee crisis and the war crimes committed by the invading M23 militia against the democratically elected government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But appearances can be deceiving. The US government has their bloody hands all over this conflict, just as they did during the last Congo war, when Bill Clinton was President. President Obama's inaction is a conscious act of encouragement for the invaders, just as Clinton's was. Instead of Obama denouncing the invasion and the approaching overthrow of a democratically elected government, silence becomes a very powerful action of international complicity on the side of the invaders. Why would Obama do this? The invaders are armed and financed by Rwanda, a 'strong ally' and puppet of the United States. The United Nations released a report conclusively proving that the Rwandan government is backing the rebels, but the US government and the US media cartoonishly pretend that the issue is debatable.  The last Congo War that killed 5.4 million people was also the result of the US backed invading armies of Rwanda and Uganda, as explained in the excellently researched book Africa's World War, by French journalist Gerard Prunier. In fact, many of the same Rwandan war criminals involved in thr last Congo War, such as Bosco Ntanganda, are in charge of the M23 militia and wanted for war crimes by the UN international criminal court. The current Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, is a "good friend" of the US government, and one of the most notorious war criminals on the planet, due to his leading roles in the Rwandan genocide and consequent Congo War. A group of Congolese and Rwandan activists have been demanding that Kagame be tried for his key role in the Rwandan genocide. 

Lynn Stuart Parramore: Greedy CEO's to Shred the Safety Net

A gang of brazen CEOs has joined forces to promote economically disastrous and socially irresponsible austerity policies. Many of those same CEOs were bailed out by the American taxpayer after a Wall Street driven financial crash. Instead of a thank you, they are showing their appreciation in the form of a coordinated effort to rob Americans of hard earned retirements, decent medical care, and relief for the poorest. Using the excuse of a phony, manufactured crisis known as the "fiscal cliff" which isn't a crisis at all, as economist James K Galbraith has succinctly explained, they are gearing up to pull the wool over the public's eyes by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The CEOs are part of the Fix the Debt campaign run by the Peter Peterson backed Center for a Responsible Federal Budget, which plans to unleash tens of millions pushing for a deficit reduction deal that favors the rich in the lame duck session and beyond. You can be sure that many more CEOs in addition to the names on the list below sympathize with plans to shred the social safety net and enjoy windfall tax breaks, but these Scrooges are so bold as to publicly announce their desire to pick the pockets of fellow Americans, while simultaneously pigging out at the corporate welfare trough. Multitasking! A generation ago, an American CEO would think twice about announcing utter disregard not only for his neighbors and employees, but also for the economy, which can't prosper when income is consistently redistributed upward. But in the present culture, even after the Occupy Wall Street movement, these business barons feel perfectly comfortable trumpeting their desire to get richer at your expense. Here's a sample of the Fix the Debt CEO Council Hall of Shame. 1. Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO, Goldman, Sachs & Co. 2. Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO, General Electric Company. 3. Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co. 

Stephen Lendman: Israel Signals Hardline Policy Intentions

Observers thinking Palestinians gained from a Pillar of Cloud might think again. Nothing has changed. Hardline Netanyahu policies continue. Expect worse ahead. Palestinian peace, reconciliation and unity advocates are murdered and arrested. Qassem brigades leader Ahmed Jabari negotiated a truce agreement draft. Ways for establishing ceasefires in case of future flare ups were included. Jabari was working with Egypt to establish permanent peace. Israel murdered him to prevent it. Peace, stability, and Palestinian unity defeat its agenda. Conflict and violence are prioritized. Rogue states need enemies to justify policies. Israel's include crimes of war and against humanity. They rage against soft targets. Tougher ones require US intervention. Israel prefers riding shotgun. When enemies don't exist, they're invented. Hamas is a convenient one. So are Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah. Achieving regional hegemony depends on inventing enemies, destroying major ones, and eliminating rivals various ways. Balkanizing some into weak state-lets substitutes for full scale war. Israel's long standing strategy calls for dividing the entire region along ethnic and sectarian lines. It wants easily controlled satellites. In 1982, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs senior adviser Oded Yinon published "A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s." Longtime Israeli academic, activist, analyst, and outspoken critic Israel Shahak (1933-2001) translated, edited, and retitled it "The Zionist Plan for the Middle East." Israel modeled it after the Ottoman Empire's Millet or nation system. It functioned by letting local authorities govern confessional communities with separate ethnic identities. Israel wants the region ruled this way. Peace and stability defeat its agenda. Great pains are made to prevent them. Jabari was murdered for that reason. Palestinian divisions and besieging Gaza serve the same purpose. On November 21, Israel arrested at least 55 Palestinians. Dozens of others followed. Many were Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Popular Font for the Liberation of Palestine members. Victims committed no crimes.

Alan Hart: The Palestinians' Only Option

In the final countdown to the UN General Assembly vote on recognition of Palestine as a non-member state, the PLO has indicated that it's expecting "a pleasant surprise", it being the number of European countries which will not do Zionism's bidding on this occasion and will vote for the resolution. Victory for the Palestinians in this forum can be taken for granted, and it will help to further isolate the Israel of Netanyahu as a pariah state, but It won't be, can't be, a substitute for a viable strategy to secure justice for the Palestinians. In my analysis the Palestinians now have only one option. For starters, it requires the PLO to recognize and declare that the two state solution is dead, not least because no Israeli prime minister is going to trigger a Jewish civil war in order to end the occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem. Then what? The next step should be winding up the Palestinian Authority and handing total responsibility for the occupation back to Israel. That would open the door to what I believe to be the only viable strategy for the Palestinians, if they are ever to obtain justice. With the two state solution not only dead but formally buried, they could then campaign, with glowing global support, for equal rights and security for all in one state. All of pre-1967 Israel plus all the West Bank plus the Gaza Strip. In one or two decades at the most, because the Palestinians would outnumber the Jews, one state would mean the end of Zionism, but it would also open the door to real security for the one state's Jews. As I have previously written and never tire of saying, the Jews are, generally speaking, the intellectual elite of the world, and the Palestinians are by far the intellectual elite of the Arab world. What they could do together in peace and partnership in one state is really the stuff that dreams are made of. They could change the region for the better, and by doing so, give new hope and inspiration to the whole world. As things are, and look like going, and given that the Palestinians are never going to surrender to Zionism's will by accepting crumbs from its table, the only alternative to one state for all is a final Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Stephen Lendman: Collaborating With The Enemy!

Previous articles explained Abbas' longtime collaboration with Israel. He sold out long ago for whatever benefits he derives. He's Israel's enforcer. He ill serves and insults Palestinians. His presidency is illegitimate. Israel rigged his 2005 election. In January 2009, his term expired. He is still in office. At least for now, Washington and Israel want him there. He's more stooge than statesman. He's a duplicitous puppet. He replicates fascist Quisling Norway, Vichy France, and other Nazi controlled collaborationist regimes. Instead of serving his people, he betrayed them. He subverts Palestine's liberating struggle. Collaborating with the enemy is treason. Abbas and like-minded Fatah officials are guilty on multiple counts. What did he know and when, about Pillar of Cloud? He knew about Cast Lead in advance. On November 30, 2010, Reuters headlined "Israel says Abbas. Egypt warned on Gaza war, leaks," saying : Ahead of Cast Lead, Israel ''conferred with the Western backed Palestinian leadership and with Egypt" Leaked US diplomatic cables quoted a senior Israeli official confirming it. Haaretz reported the same thing. Mubarak and Abbas were briefed in advance. Haaretz said "Israel tried to coordinate the Gaza war with the Palestinian authority." Wiki Leaks released US diplomatic cables confirming it. In June 2009, months before Cast Lead, Israeli Defense Minister Barak met with US congressional members. He also "consulted with Egypt prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas." He "received negative answers from both." Previous leaked information reported the same thing. Wiki Leaks provided "the first documented proof." Abbas denied getting advance word. He lied. Mubarak said nothing either way. Reuters said Abbas "urged Israel to crush Hamas during the war." Avigdor Lieberman held ministerial positions under Sharon and Ehud Olmert. In April 2009, he became Netanyahu's Foreign Minister.     

The Economist: After the Ceasefire An Old DAWN!

In the first light of the first day of the ceasefire, Gazans filed to mourning ceremonies postponed because of the bombing. In the garden outside the bedroom of Faris Bassioun, aged nine, killed in his sleep by the shrapnel of three Israeli missiles that ploughed into the neighboring orchard. Now olive trees are charred and twisted. Lemons lie on the ground, roasted and black from the blast. "Don't give us a six year ceasefire, give us a hundred," cries Hanan Shabat,, the mother of three children, who are now in hospital in Beit Hanoun, in north east Gaza, after shrapnel smashed into their bedroom. "What's the point of raising my child only to be killed when he's 11?" she says, crouched on a sofa littered with glass shards. The clean up has already begun. Worshipers hover over the thick cream carpets of the Istiqama mosque, whose walls were toppled by the blast, and Hamas guards are already back at their posts, entering the passport details of those coming in and out into their computers. "We have won the freedom to move," said one. "That is our victory." Hamas cadres have particular reason to celebrate. For over six years, Israel, the region and western powers, led by the United States, hahe tried to bypass the movement that won the 2006 elections. Unlike the ceasefire that ended Israel's 2009 offensive, its terms include an end to Israeli incursions and the restoration of civilian life, in what Israel calls its buffer zone. Hillary Clinton promised to help Gaza, without insisting that the aid go through the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. No one mentioned the conditions laid down by the quartet of America, Russia,, the European Union and the UN for dealing with Hamas. Israel, backed by the US, demonstrated its military superiority once again.    

Michael Shrimpton: The Coup In Cairo!

The Arab Spring is over. Perhaps we should now be talking about the Arab Fall, in more senses than one. I do not believe that Hillary Clinton knew about the coup in advance. While we have our political differences, she is both the nicer and smarter of the Clintons,and her commitment to democracy is undoubtedly genuine. She is bound to have misgivings over Morsi's seizure of plenary power in Cairo, which has echoes of the seizure of power by Germany's Colonel, perhaps it should have been "Oberst' Nasser. I am less sanguine about Obama. I suspect he green lighted the coup. There is too much US taxpayers cash propping up Egypt for Morsi not to have cleared the coup in advance with the White House. The proof of the pudding, as we say in England, will be the eating. If US cash is withdrawn, then we will know that the Obama White House is serious about democracy in the Middle East. With Iraq now an Iranian client state, the coup leaves Israel as once again the only functioning democracy in the region. Say what you like about those nice chaps President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, (and many have) their commitment to bringing democracy to the Middle East was genuine. They would not have stood by while Syria slid into civil war, nor would they have backed off Libya, as Obama did, presumably in the hope that Gaddafi could hang on. Obama's apparent support for the coup will have sent a shock wave throughout the Middle East. The coup would have taken some time to plan, and was clearly backed by Germany. The silence from the EU has been deafening. It looks as though Morsi agreed the timing of the stepped up rocket assault on Israel with both Hamas and Obama, the idea being that an Egyptian brokered "hudna" would provide diplomatic cover for his seizure of power. I respectfully agree with Egypt's senior judiciary that the powers Morsi has taken are unprecedented. He has promised to hand them back, but then so did Hitler, Mussolini and Nasser. Will Jordan be next?     

Richard Becker: Gaza Ceasefire: Palestine Holds Strong!!

A ceasefire agreement between the Hamas led Palestinian government in Gaza and Israel was announced today, Nov 21, in Cairo by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr. Clinton made an emergency trip to the Middle East with the aim of brokering a truce, a clear sign of the Obama administration's fears that the continuation of the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza was endangering US imperialist interests in the region. Since Israel's latest intense bombing campaign began last week, Clinton, President Obama, and Republican and Democratic congressional leaders have repeatedly expressed all out support for the Israeli side, while pointedly ignoring far higher Palestinian casualties. The House of Representatives "passed" a resolution expressing its "unwavering commitment" to Israel. House Resolution 813 was introduced at 12:04 pm on Nov. 16, and declared adopted at 12:04 pm on the same day! Since Nov. 14, at least 146 Palestinians have been killed, more than 1,000 wounded, and much of Gaza's infrastructure and public facilities destroyed by a coordinated air, sea and land based bombardment. On the Israeli side, there have been five killed, and more than 100 wounded. To hear US officials talk, you would think it was the other way around, but despite their obscenely pro Israel rhetoric, it was also clear that Washington was fearful that a new Israeli ground invasion of Gaza might provoke rebellions in Egypt, Jordan and other neighboring Arab countries, and possibly lead to a wider war. Despite the death and destruction inflicted by Israel, and despite the fact that it has no air force, navy, armored units or anti aircraft defenses, the Palestinian forces have not been defeated. Virtually all news reports from inside Gaza reflect a strong determination to resist among the population. The terms of the temporary agreement reportedly call for a halt to the fighting, an end to Israeli targeted assassinations of Palestinian leaders, and undefined steps to lift the Israeli blockade that has inflicted massive suffering on the 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Prof. James F. Tracy: When Propaganda Masquarades as News

The week long Israeli onslaught against largely defenseless Palestinians in Gaza that began on November 14 provides a basis for assessing how Western corporate media whitewash the war crimes of America's foremost ally in the Middle East. There are three often intertwined techniques consciously applied to such news coverage historical context, sourcing, and objectification of the enemy to be targeted. Such practices can readily transform journalism into propaganda that acts to abet such crimes, while at the same time allowing journalistic institutions to still claim the mantle of objectivity. Such methods are on full display in the reportage of Israel's most recent operation in Gaza. The use of such propaganda fits within a broader campaign of media disinformation that subdues potential outrage, particularly in the US over Israel's overwhelming use of force against an oppressed and vulnerable people, most of whom are civilians. Meaningful historical context for understanding Israel's aggression is almost entirely absent from most Western news coverage of the event. If present, such context would illuminate Israeli government officials true motivations for a military venture that involved 750 airstrikes in four days alone. Operation Pillar of Defense, Nile Bowie observes. Launched just months away from Israel's elections, is a calculated component of the Netanyahu governments strategy to topple Hamas and continue absorbing Palestinian territory. Decades of occupation and apartheid have shaped the current scenario. Israel has dehumanized an entire people by seizing their land, and forcing them into prison like ghettoe's. Adherents to political Zionism have shown contempt for a genuine political solution to the Palestinian conflict, and the Netanyahu administration is poised to crush all opposition to the Jewish state. Major Western media focused instead on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) November 14 assassination of Hamas leader and Palestinian hero Ahmed al Jabari, while blatantly omitting the fact that he was also a major figure in negotiations for a long term truce between Hamas and Israel, freshly brokered by Egypt.