News in english

Israel is closer than ever to war with Iran, warns former deputy national security adviser Eran Etzion – an exceptional voice among Israel’s security experts

Democratic billionaire Megadonor #HaimSaban Attacks #US Senators for Urging #Humanitarian Aid to #Gaza Strip - The Intercept #zionism #israel #Palestine

The hardline pro-Israel billionaire accused a group of 13 senators led by Bernie Sanders of getting their facts wrong.

Du nouveau à propos de #AhedTamimi et c'est à vomir. Combien d'obscenités devrons-nous encore supporter de la part de cet état voyou qu'est #israel ? #FreeAhed #FreePalestine

Israeli forces detained Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi's cousin, Mohammed, who has been missing part of his skull since he was shot while protesting.(...)

#Israel publishes blacklist of organisations banned from entering country over boycotts - The Independent #WarAgainstJustice #BoycottIsrael #IStandWithBDS #BDS #Palestine #FreePalestine

Israel has published a list of organisations supporting a boycott campaign against the country, whose activists will be banned from entering the Jewish state. Members of 20 groups which back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement will be denied entry visas and residency rights under a controversial law.

Why #Weinstein hired #israel spies to infiltrate his accusers’ lives - Investigative journalist #MaxBlumenthal explains why #HarveyWeinstein turned to Israeli i#ntelligence veterans to suppress his sex abuse accusers #BlackCube #zionism #HillaryClinton #Mossad

' #IDF is a terrorist organization'‒fmr IDF soldier #MikoPeled - #tsahal #israel #apartheid - RT - 08.02.17-7mn

Growing Far-Right Nationalistic Movements are Dangerously Anti-Muslim — and Pro- #Israel

by Glenn Greenwald - The Intercept

The common cause between the international "alt-right" movement and the Israeli government is not difficult to understand.

Leaked emails show donors drive #HillaryClinton ’s pro- #israel positions #BDS #zionism #corruption

Democratic nominee revealed her real views on Syria and Saudi Arabia only behind closed doors.

A batch of internal Clinton campaign emails published by Wikileaks in recent days reveals the extent to which campaign donors drive Hillary Clinton’s rhetoric and policy positions on Israel and the broader Middle East.

Last year, Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to billionaire media mogul Haim Saban on her campaign stationery vowing “to make countering BDS a priority” if she wins the presidency.

Saban has donated at least $7 million to getting Clinton elected president and openly confesses that his number one priority is influencing US policy in Israel’s favor.

According to the emails between Clinton’s senior campaign aides, the letter to Saban was deliberately leaked to friendly media to attract pro-Israel donors concerned about the rise of the BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – movement.

The way the campaign aides discuss the issue is completely devoid of emotion or ideology. It’s all about the donors.

Opposing BDS to please donors

In a 3 July 2015 email to campaign staffers, Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook wrote, “I was just thinking: has she made a clear statement on Israel yet? I get this question from donors all the time. Does she need to state her principles on Israel before Iran? Or do both at the same time?”

“That’s basically the goal of the BDS letter,” responded Clinton speechwriter Dan Schwerin.

“We could either get a donor to leak it or just give it to a reporter if we want to get it out there. I’m semi-surprised it’s not out yet,” replied deputy communications director Christina Reynolds.

Clinton’s voice is nowhere to be seen in the correspondence. “We have a two pager I’m getting clearance from her on. That is what we have to ship around,” Jake Sullivan, a senior foreign policy adviser to Clinton, wrote.

“Let’s def give it to someone. I see zero downside to a story. Then we can circulate around right away (hopefully) in advance of Iran,” reasoned Mook.

“If Haim’s going to give it to the Jewish media, I think that solves our problem. Once they write, we can make sure it gets picked up by some of our beat guys,” Christina Reynolds responded.

Three days later, Politico reported on and published the letter.

The emails show Saban coordinating directly with the Clinton campaign, offering positive reinforcement for Clinton’s pro-Israel messaging and strategizing with Clinton aides against BDS.

Israel’s liaison

The emails show that Stuart Eizenstat, a former US ambassador to the EU under President Bill Clinton, acted as a liaison between the Israeli government and the Hillary Clinton campaign, counseling senior staffers on how to adjust their messaging to the liking of the Israeli leadership.

Eizenstat wrote lengthy and detailed emails to campaign aides summarizing his meetings with Israeli government officials and recommending talking points for Clinton to adopt.

The Clinton campaign frequently thanked Eizenstat for his counsel, regularly implemented his suggestions and often sought his approval on speeches related to Israel.

“I took some of your concepts but left out the specifics,” foreign policy adviser Sullivan wrote in a July 2015 email to Eizenstat.

Sullivan was seeking pointers for Clinton’s statement in response to the passage of the Iran nuclear deal.

A month earlier, Sullivan messaged Eizenstat for advice on BDS: “I was talking to HRC [Hillary Clinton] today about the idea of having her meet with some Jewish leaders later this week about BDS/delegitimization efforts. She and the leaders could go out and make a statement following the meeting.”

Sullivan sought Eizenstat’s opinion on who Clinton should include in such an initiative.

Netanyahu is ready for Hillary

In December 2015, Eizenstat reported on his “meeting with a senior [Israeli] official who is very close to the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu], and knows his thinking.”

“The prime minister always had a ‘surprising good relationship’ with Hillary; she is ‘easy to work with,’ and that she is more instinctively sympathetic to Israel than the White House,” Eizenstat wrote.

The official also told Eizenstat that “Israel [sic] Arabs are a ‘real problem.’ The government had to dismantle the northern branch of the Islamic Association because they were radicalizing the Israeli Arabs, who are 20 percent of the population.”

Eizenstat was referring to Israel’s ban on the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, a political party with a large following among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Eizenstat’s emails also reflect the Israeli leadership’s intense hostility toward President Barack Obama.

In a May 2015 email to the Clinton campaign, Eizenstat noted that in his meeting with the Israelis, “The level of vitriol against the president was striking, to such a degree that one participant urged that he was being unfairly demonized.”

In June 2015, Eizenstat wrote, “I was struck in my week in Israel, not only among Israeli officials, but among my friends across the political spectrum (most are former officials) and apolitical relatives, at the depth of antipathy and distrust of President Obama, as ‘weak,’ ‘pro-Muslim’ and ‘anti-Israel.’”

“Attack, attack, attack”

In another June 2015 email, Eizenstat provides details of a meeting with Netanyahu and his cabinet in which Netanyahu urges attacking BDS and recruiting Latinos, Evangelical Christians and Asian Americans to assist in the effort.

Summarizing Netanyahu’s views, Eizenstat wrote: “On BDS, Israel should move from the defense to the offense. It should be attacked on moral grounds. It is ‘unjust’ and ‘cruel.’ Israel must attack its attackers. The best defense is a good offense: ‘attack, attack, attack.’”

Smearing BDS

In an August 2015 email labeled “NOT FOR CIRCULATION,” Eizenstat passed along advice to Hillary Clinton from Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador in Washington.

A US-born right-winger who has been called “Bibi’s brain,” Dermer told Eizenstat that the Israeli government was plotting to smear Palestine solidarity activism on college campuses as terrorism.

“They will shortly expose the funding base for the main BDS group on campus, Students for Justice in Palestine, which tie it with terrorist funding,” Eizenstat wrote. “The key is to expose BDS as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.”

No-fly zone would “kill a lot of Syrians”

During the Democratic Party primary race, Bernie Sanders repeatedly called on Clinton to release the transcripts of her paid speeches to Wall Street banks, but she refused.

One of the most damning aspects of the latest Wikileaks dump is the excerpts of Clinton’s paid speeches.

In a speech to Goldman Sachs in 2013, Clinton confessed that a no-fly zone in Syria would “kill a lot of Syrians.” This is because it would require bombing Syria’s air defenses, “many of which are located in populated areas,” according to Clinton.

While making this assessment in private, Clinton has continued to publicly advocate for a no-fly zone, ostensibly to protect Syrian civilians.

Saudi support for ISIS

Clinton told the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago at a luncheon in 2013 that Israel and Jordan were working in close partnership for the purpose of “shoring up King Abdullah.”

That same year she told congregants at a synagogue, “One of the developments of the Arab Spring is that you now have Israel and Saudi Arabia more closely aligned in their foreign policy” in the region.

Publicly, Clinton frequently casts Iran as the single greatest funder of terrorism in the world. But privately she has repeatedly acknowledged Saudi Arabia’s contribution to violent extremism.

At a Jewish United Fund dinner in 2013, Clinton said she preferred “a more robust, covert action” to arm Syrian rebels against the government of Bashar al-Assad.

But she added that this was complicated because, “the Saudis and others are shipping large amounts of weapons – and pretty indiscriminately – not at all targeted toward the people that we think would be the more moderate.”

She also described Saudi Arabia’s fierce opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood as “kind of ironic since the Saudis have exported more extreme ideology than any other place on earth over the course of the last 30 years.”

In one of the leaked emails Clinton accuses Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding the Islamic State, sometimes referred to as ISIS or ISIL.

Citing “Western intelligence, US intelligence and sources in the region,” Clinton wrote, “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”

It’s all about the donors

The Clinton Foundation has accepted millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

And while serving as secretary of state, Clinton greenlighted enormous weapons deals to those countries.

From Israel to Saudi Arabia, it is clear that Clinton’s donors are in charge. They exert more influence over her public positions and policy prescriptions than she does.

If Clinton were running against Senators Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio, these emails would be scandalous.

Instead, the leaks have been completely overshadowed by the even more sensational and lurid October surprise that befell Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Clinton is lucky her opponent is more disliked and disingenuous than she is.

#Facts -  #ShimonPeres: Israeli war criminal whose victims the West ignored #MortDUnPourri

 

Lawsuit:  #US foreign aid to #israel (3 billions US $/year) is illegal #MikoPeled #nuclear #Palestine #Droit

As the United States and Israel negotiate a foreign aid package that would send $40-$50 billion to Israel, a lawsuit has been filed in US district court that alleges US aid to Israel violates a decades-old law prohibiting aid to nuclear powers that fail to sign a nonproliferation treaty. Miko Peled, Israeli peace activist, joins RT America’s Simone Del Rosario and says there is “no question it is a valid lawsuit” and “America is in collusion with Israel,” ignoring crimes the country commits as well as their potential nuclear weapons program.

#Histoire d'1 des nombreux crimes IMPUNIS de l'Etat d' #israel .Ici au #Liban ds un village:106 civils tué, massacrées, atomisées en 20 mn #ONU #justice 

With attempts to get justice blocked, residents are trying to preserve the memory of 106 people killed in an Israeli raid on a UNIFIL compound

QANA, Lebanon - Atop a hill overlooking the historical land of Galilee, in a town where Jesus is believed to have transformed water into wine, the skeleton of an Israeli tank stands intact.

Behind it a church lies in ruins, its interior completely gutted. The floor is still carpeted with remnants of broken glass, burnt pieces of cloth, rusty bits of artillery and wooden poles that once supported the roof.

A simple and linear monument facing the adjacent road bears the names of the 106 people who lost their lives in the span of five minutes 20 years ago when Israel bombed the headquarters of the Fijian battalion of the UN interposition forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) – an act that has gone down in history as the Qana massacre.

At that time, more than 800 civilians were in the compound, seeking refuge from Israel’s operation “Grapes of Wrath” - a 16-day attack on south Lebanon with the declared intent of crushing Hezbollah.

Jamil (Jimmy) Salame, a 49-year-old father of three, was inside when the bombs started to fall that bloody April.

Limping heavily on one leg, Salame trots towards visitors as they cross the threshold of the memorial site. As the self-proclaimed gatekeeper, he spends every day of the week recounting visitors the same story he has been telling for two decades.

“Every day on the radio we got news of a new village being shelled by Israel, so many people from the area came to Qana to find shelter in the UN compound,” says Salame, who at the time was working as a handyman for the Fijian battalion.

“It was little before 2pm on a Thursday when we heard the shelling getting closer and closer. We all knew Israel would bomb Qana, but we thought our families would be safe inside the UN compound.”

They were proved terribly wrong.

“All I could see was fire and blood. I saw corpses and injured people – some were missing a leg, an arm, an eye,” he says.

In a pouch strapped around his waist, he still keeps proof of what he witnessed, freely showing grizzly pictures he managed to take on the day of the massacre. Salame says that, despite the shock and the pain caused by the shrapnel that ripped through his arm and leg, he knew he had to record what he saw so that one day the world would know what happened here.

As he flicks through the photo book, the images of bodies torn apart or lying lifeless on the blood-soaked ground starkly illustrate the scale of destruction. 

“I still see it before my eyes as if it was happening now,” says Salame. “These images have been in my mind every day for 20 years.”

For him, the UN compound had been a second home. His father abandoned the family when he was a toddler, leaving his mother to provide for four children. 

He started working as a handyman for the Fijian battalion at the age of 20 to help his family and quickly developed a tight relationship with the international troops who were first mandated in 1978 to monitor the peace between Israel and Lebanon after Israel invaded following a string of raids by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).  

“I learnt English with them, word after word, and they gave me food to bring home,” he says. “They were like my brothers.”

While he does not know how to read or write English or Arabic, Salame has other tools to keep the memory alive.

“I want to tell everyone what happened here because no one talks about it in other countries,” he says. “They say the shelling lasted 16 days, but to us each day felt like a year. I want everyone to know what Israel did, it shall not be forgotten.”

A village destroyed

Israeli officers claim the shelling was caused by a computer error while attempting to target Hezbollah fighters firing in the proximity of the Fijian base.

The technical survey conducted by the UN, however, concluded that it was “unlikely that the shelling of the United Nations compound was the result of gross technical and/or procedural errors.”

Contrary to repeated denials by Israeli officials, a video confirmed the presence of two helicopters and a remotely piloted vehicle above the area of Qana before the attack, seemingly contradicting Israel’s claim that it was unaware of the presence of civilians in the UN compound.

Much to the fury of residents, both the UN investigation report and the video were at first concealed due to intense political pressure from the United States and Israel. However, they were quickly leaked to The Independent by UNIFIL, sparking widespread outrage.

In 2005, a group of survivors filed a lawsuit in an American court against former Israeli Army chief of staff Moshe Yaalon. The United States District Court dismissed the complaint, claiming that Yaalon was entitled to immunity under the Foreign Sovereignty Immunity Act.

The misery of losing 100 lives in a close-knitted community, combined with frustrations over their inability to get international justice, means that twenty years on wounds have been slow to heal and many of the victim’s relatives still cannot find closure.  

The trauma was further compounded when 10 years ago, Israel again launched a war against Hezbollah in 2006, devastating much of south Lebanon. Qana was hit once more and 28 people were killed in a single airstrike on 30 July 2006.

“Everyone here does their bit,” says Imad Sbeity, a Qana resident. “Some clean the memorial, others drive the tourist bus, and so on.”

Salame has stayed on as a tour guide on a volunteer basis for decades, living off visitor’s tips and says that no matter how hard times get, he will keep doing his job. Salame feels it is important to keep telling people about the horrors that happened in the village which remains a tourist destination for the faithful who believe Jesus performed his first miracle here.  

“He has three children and gets no salary from the municipality, all he does is on a voluntary basis,” Sbeity told MEE.

Many of the survivors – some of whom lost more than one relative - continue to congregate at the cemetery every week to mourn the dead. 

But few lost as much as Sadallah Balhas. The Israeli attack in 1996 killed 31 members of his family and also cost him his eye. Before passing away a few years ago, he was well-known for wearing a pendant with pictures of his deceased relatives and acting as a key driving force behind the lawsuit against Yaalon. 

“That is not something anyone can forget nor, I dare say, would want to forget,” says Nicholas Blanford, a journalist who witnessed the immediate aftermath of the shelling and who wrote a recent piece to mark its 20th anniversary.

“I think there will always be a bond among those who experienced the massacre, whether the civilian survivors, the UNIFIL troops or the journalists.”

What I saw that day “was the most harrowing and traumatic experience I have had. I found it hard to walk into butchers' shops because the smell of blood and fresh meat would take me straight back to Qana,” he adds.

The memory was so harrowing that Blanford says that for years he would watch a video of the massacre on its anniversary.

“It was not the images that upset me - the images have always been there in my mind. It was the sounds - the screams, the wailing, that would move me most and take me back to Qana,” he says.

As Salame locks the door to the memorial behind him for the day, he says that he will never forget the tragedies that befell his small but ancient village.

“We cannot change what happened,” says Salame. “The only thing left to do is prevent our stories from going unheard.”

#Israel planned construction beyond the Green Line cynically exploits the terror wave -Haaretz #débridés #impunis

These are construction plans that would never have passed international muster had they not been preceded by acts of gruesome violence.

Truth and Fiction in #ElieWiesel ’s “Night” - Counterpunch

When in trouble, head for Auschwitz, preferably in the company of Elie Wiesel. It’s as foolproof a character reference as is available today, at least within the Judeo-Christian sphere of moral influence. One can easily see why Oprah Winfrey and her advisers saw an Auschwitz excursion in the company of Wiesel as a sure-fire antidote to salve the wounds sustained by Oprah’s Book Club when it turned out that James Frey had faked significant slabs of his own supposedly autobiographical saga of moral regeneration, A Million Little Pieces.

Published in 2003, Frey’s irksome book swiftly became a cult classic. (The present author was offered it in the summer of 2004 by a young relative, presumably to assist in his moral regeneration, but after glancing through a few pages returned it, on the grounds that it wasn’t his kind of thing.) Winfrey picked it for her Book Club in September 2005, and it rocketed to the top of the bestseller lists.

Jewish American Explains Why She Supports #Palestine and #BDS ( #Boycottisrael) - The Real News - #Israel #CodePink #ArielGold

#JohnBolton Acted Against US Interests to Push #israel's Agenda in #Lebanon in 2006 #History #DonaldTrump #zionism

When Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, then-Ambassador John Bolton worked to prevent a ceasefire, acting as "an asset for Israel against the interests of his own secretary of state, his own State Department, his own superiors, and his own president," says Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies Visit http://therealnews.com for more stories and help support our work by donating at http://therealnews.com/donate.

#Netanyahu son bragged about 20 billion $ #gas deal to the benefit of gas tycoon #KobiMaimon outside strip club, tape reveals - The Guardian #nepotism #corruption #israel #commodities

Lebanese actor #ZiadItani arrested for allegedly ‘collaborating’ with #israel - #lebanon #security #treason #intelligence #spy #Mossad

25.11.2017

Ziad Itani, a well-known Lebanese actor and playwright, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly “collaborating and communicating with Israel” for the past three years. Itani was arrested on his way home in Ain Al-Rammaneh district in Beirut.

Itani is famous for his play “Beirut Al-Jadideh Road,” which talks about changing traditions in Beirut and “Beirut on the Tree.”

Lebanon's State Security released a statement claiming it had arrested Itani over charges of helping Israel assassinate current and former Lebanese officials, including Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk.

After several months of investigating and tracking Itani, the security forces confirmed the charges against him, the statement added.

According to the Lebanese State Security, the suspect confessed to the tasks he was assigned to in Lebanon, including “monitoring a group of prominent political figures, and strengthening relations with their close associates, in order to get as many details as possible about their lives, occupations, and especially their movements, and providing his operators with detailed information about two prominent political figures.”

The statement said that the identities of Itani’s operators “will be revealed in our following statements.”

According to Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar, Itani was trapped by a woman who started talking to him on Facebook Messenger in 2014, who was later revealed to be the Mossad Chief.

Earlier this month, the Lebanese State Security detained Lebanese activist Jana Abu Diab, who is known for supporting the Palestinian Cause, on the same charges.

Click Opposing #Zionism is not #racism – says Court in #Scotland – #Justice #Palestine #israel - 15.07.2017here to edit the content

A pro-Palestinian organization in Scotland has clinched a landmark victory in a UK court that ruled in favor of its members, who were accused of racism for having participated in a protest against Israel three years ago.

.

Glasgow Sherriff’s Court announced on Friday its verdict in favor of two members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), which supports Palestinian issues in Britain.

The members of SPSC Mick Napier and Jim Watson had been facing charges of racism and aggravated trespass for a protest against an Israeli firm in September 2014.

The two were arrested in a shopping center back then when they refused to leave the demonstration, which was held against Israeli company Jericho cosmetics that operates in the occupied West Bank and had been involved in Israel’s 2014 military offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Napier said they “were accused of being motivated by hatred of Israelis rather than opposition to Israel’s repeated massacres, apartheid across the whole of Palestine and genocidal violence in Gaza.”

The prosecutor in Scotland claimed that the two were recycling an ancient anti-Semitic “Jewish blood libel” by speaking about Israel’s murdering of Palestinians.

Napier said these claims were being made in support of the Israeli regime, while the people of Gaza “were still looking for ice-cream freezers and vegetable refrigerators in which to store the bodies of children killed by Israel’s military.”

“When the Scottish government joined in by denouncing the ‘deep inhumanity’ of the Israeli massacre,” Napier said, the Scottish procurators were “working hand in glove with pro-Israel lobby groups to silence voices of Palestine solidarity.”

The SPSC has been under pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists and Scottish prosecutors who were trying to criminalize their actions in support of Palestinians.

Last year, two employees of the pro-Israel Community Security Trust made allegations against SPSC members but that was also thrown out by a court.

First published on PressTV 15th July 2017

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/07/15/528552/Scotland-politics-antisemitism-racims-zionist-Palestinians-rity-Campaign-S

The Smear Campaign Against #KeithEllison Is Repugnant but Reveals Much About Washington - #US #israel

The Intercept - Glenn Greenwald

Democrats sincere about opposing anti-Muslim bigotry should denounce these ugly attacks on Ellison.

Ever since he announced his candidacy to lead the Democratic National Committee, Keith Ellison, the first American Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, has been the target of a defamation campaign that is deceitful, repugnant, and yet quite predictable. At first expressed in whispers, but now being yelled from the rooftops by some of the party’s most influential figures, Ellison is being smeared as both an anti-Semite and enemy of Israel — the same smears virtually any critic of the Israeli government reflexively encounters, rendered far worse if the critic is a prominent American Muslim.

Three days ago, the now ironically named Anti-Defamation League pronounced Ellison’s 2010 comments about Israel “deeply disturbing and disqualifying.” Other Israel advocates have now joined in. What are Ellison’s terrible sins? He said in a 2010 speech that while he “wanted the U.S. to be friends with Israel,” the U.S. “can’t allow another country to treat us like we’re their ATM.”(..)

Le respect de la démocratie selon Hillary Clinton....

De là, à penser que vu ses difficultés elle fera tout pour truquer SES élections, il n'y a qu'un pas .

ps : vous trouverez bizarre mon commentaire si vous pensez qu'il est normal de truquer les élections de "bougnoules"  ...

 

#History #HillaryClinton Expressing Regret For NOT Interfering (!!) in the #Palestine Election in 2006 Tape - The Real News  #israel

 

#US Admits #israel Is Building Permanent #Apartheid Regime — Weeks After Giving It $38 Billion - #zionism

After serving as key protector of South Africa's apartheid, U.S. playing the same role for Israel.

 

n 2010, Israel’s then-defense minister, Ehud Barak, explicitly warned that Israel would become a permanent “apartheid” state if it failed to reach a peace agreement with Palestinians that creates their own sovereign nation and vests them with full political rights. “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic,” Barak said. “If this bloc of millions of ­Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”

Honest observers on both sides of the conflict have long acknowledged that the prospects for a two-state solution are virtually non-existent: another way of saying that Israel’s status as a permanent apartheid regime is inevitable. Indeed, U.S. intelligence agencies as early as 45 years ago explicitly warned that Israeli occupation would become permanent if it did not end quickly.

All relevant evidence makes clear this is what has happened. There has been no progress toward a two-state solution for many years. The composition of Israel’s Jewish popu(...)

Inside the #Palestine Occupied Territories with #AmiraHass , #Haaretz journ (On Contact with #ChrisHedges) #israel #IllegalSettlements #colonialism #racism #supremacism  27 mn

A french immigrant testifies : " #israel is a dictatorship. But other than that, it’s paradise." - Haaretz

Liat Elkayam Jul 02, 2016 6:39 AM
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.728090

Arrivals / Departures: A French immigrant says Israel is special even though the authorities deported his girlfriend; an Israeli immigrant says he prefers Western Europe to his homeland, although he thinks Russians are the best people.

Hello, can I ask why you’re traveling?

I am going to see my wife. She lives in Miami, but when she came to visit me in Israel, the police arrested her and wouldn’t let her enter the country.

Why?

She’s originally Russian and lived in Donetsk [Ukraine]. Because of the war, she fled to Miami. I met her there, at Chabad House, and we hit it off. Then she came here, and because she told the truth – that she wanted to live here and wasn’t a tourist – she went to jail. Everything is upside down in this country. If she had lied, they would have let her in, she would be prime minister.

So they sent her back to Miami?

They put her on the first flight back to the United States. And they put her in jail there, too. I managed to get on the same flight, and I told them: “If you put her in jail, put me in jail with her.” They told me: “No.” In that case, I told them, I would burn my Israeli passport, and then they would be forced to jail me. “Don’t do it,” they told me. I came back to Israel and hired a lawyer, who did nothing. I called the Ukrainian foreign ministry and caused a revolution there. They talked to American immigration services, and eventually they told her there: Sign a document saying you are ready to return to Ukraine in wartime.

What’s happening now?

She went back to Kiev. We were married there a week ago, and now I am waiting to give all the documents to the Interior Ministry here in Israel, but I also want her to do a conversion to Judaism. There’s a rabbi in Kiev whom I’m going to grab, one of those rabbis with a 15-meter-long beard, that’s why I’m going there now. This is my third wife, and I want it to end here. Now is the time to marry; 19 years alone is enough. A person can’t live like that. Because afterward, all kinds of weird bugs enter your head.

Will the two of you live here?

With God’s help. I travel a lot.

Why is that?

I make shade for rich people.

Excuse me?

I have a small factory in Paris called Sun Twist, which makes leather Venetian blinds for windows on yachts, in hotels, for individual residences. It’s all hand-made and also carries a lifetime warranty.

Why leather?

It’s chic, it’s classy.

Is it expensive?

In my view, no. Not expensive enough. It’s $400 per square meter for something that can last a lifetime – that’s not expensive.

Are the blinds made to order?

They can be. Here in Israel I did blinds for the yacht of a woman – I can’t tell you her name – with gold thread. There are clients here, thank God.

Is that why you immigrated to Israel?

I came to Israel in 1997 from France, and after four years I returned to France. Three years ago I came back to Israel, to help my sick mother. If not for my parents, who are alone here, I might not have come back. But Israel, other than the Interior Ministry, is a paradise. People don’t know it. I’ve been to New Zealand, to Seattle, everywhere. The air here is special. When you breathe it, the scent is special; there’s nothing like it anywhere, and even if there’s this mess here, it will pass.

Which of the messes are you talking about?

It’s a joke, the government here, it’s mafia. The economy is mafia. I have great respect for the Israeli citizenry, because it suffers from every direction. Ten rich families control everything here and there is no competition. Everything is twice as expensive as in France. A tomato leaves the kibbutz at 80 agorot and ends up being sold for 6 shekels [20¢ and $1.50, approximately]. What’s the story? There’s a French saying, “Chacun se tient la barbichette” – everyone tends to his goatee. Everyone
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.728090(...)

In unprecedented move, #British police summoned #TzipiLivni over suspected #Gaza #warcrimes - #israel - Haaretz

Barak Ravid (London) Jul 03, 2016 12:41 PM
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.728619