US-Arab Activist Says Obama is Hiding Anti-Israel Stance to Get Elected

More proof that Obama is anti Israel.

US-Arab Activist Says Obama is Hiding Anti-Israel Stance to Get Elected: “

Ali Abunimah is a Pro Arab Journalist and founder of the Electronic Intifada. He will tell you that Senator Obama is full of crap when he says that he is pro-Israel

If disappointing, given his historically close relations to Palestinian-Americans, Obama’s about-face is not surprising. He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected

He says that Obama has long been a friend of the Palestinian community, but he knows where the money is. He has changed his position because those in the Pro-Israel camp (American Jews?) have the money to get him elected. Below is a portion of what he has written for Electronic Intifada on the subject:

How Barack Obama learned to love Israel

From left to right, Michelle Obama, then Illinois state senator Barack Obama, Columbia University Professor Edward Said and Mariam Said at a May 1998 Arab community event in Chicago at which Edward Said gave the keynote speech. (Image from archives of Ali Abunimah)

…….Over the years since I first saw Obama speak I met him about half a dozen times, often at Palestinian and Arab-American community events in Chicago including a May 1998 community fundraiser at which Edward Said was the keynote speaker. In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor. On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The last time I spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004 at a gathering in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. He was in the midst of a primary campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat he now occupies. But at that time polls showed him trailing.

As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, ‘Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I’m hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.’ He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy, ‘Keep up the good work!’

But Obama’s gradual shift into the AIPAC camp had begun as early as 2002 as he planned his move from small time Illinois politics to the national scene. In 2003, Forward reported on how he had ‘been courting the pro-Israel constituency.’ He co-sponsored an amendment to the Illinois Pension Code allowing the state of Illinois to lend money to the Israeli government. Among his early backers was Penny Pritzker — now his national campaign finance chair — scion of the liberal but staunchly Zionist family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain. (The Hyatt Regency hotel on Mount Scopus was built on land forcibly expropriated from Palestinian owners after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967). He has also appointed several prominent pro-Israel advisors.

Michelle Obama and Barack Obama listen to Professor Edward Said give the keynote address at an Arab community event in Chicago, May 1998. (Photo: Ali Abunimah)

Obama has also been close to some prominent Arab Americans, and has received their best advice. His decisive trajectory reinforces a lesson that politically weak constituencies have learned many times: access to people with power alone does not translate into influence over policy. Money and votes, but especially money, channelled through sophisticated and coordinated networks that can ‘bundle’ small donations into million dollar chunks are what buy influence on policy. Currently, advocates of Palestinian rights are very far from having such networks at their disposal. Unless they go out and do the hard work to build them, or to support meaningful campaign finance reform, whispering in the ears of politicians will have little impact. (For what it’s worth, I did my part. I recently met with Obama’s legislative aide, and wrote to Obama urging a more balanced policy towards Palestine.)

If disappointing, given his historically close relations to Palestinian-Americans, Obama’s about-face is not surprising. He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power. Palestinian-Americans are in the same position as civil libertarians who watched with dismay as Obama voted to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, or immigrant rights advocates who were horrified as he voted in favor of a Republican bill to authorize the construction of a 700-mile fence on the border with Mexico.

Only if enough people know what Obama and his competitors stand for, and organize to compel them to pay attention to their concerns can there be any hope of altering the disastrous course of US policy in the Middle East. It is at best a very long-term project that cannot substitute for support for the growing campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions needed to hold Israel accountable for its escalating violence and solidifying apartheid.

Ali Abunimah is the co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse

Please email me at yidwithlid@aol.com to be put onto my mailing list.
Feel free to reproduce any article but please link back to http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com

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(Via YID With LID.)

The New Guardians of Israel

Check out this great new piece that Caroline Glick wrote. Pieces like this give me hope.

The New Guardians of Israel: ”

Moshav Tzipori, in the Lower Galilee, is a microcosm of the history of the Land of Israel. A regional capital under King Herod, Tzipori was the seat of Jewish learning and the preservation of the Torah through some of the most tumultuous periods of Jewish history.

After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, refugees from Jerusalem fled to the Galilean town. Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, who presided over the writing of the Mishna, or oral law, moved to Tzipori from Beit Shearim, and it was there that he codified the six books of the Mishna and died.

The Jews of Tzipori revolted against the Roman Emperor Constantine, refusing to accept Christianity and the city was destroyed. The Jews later returned during the Islamic period. On and off, for the next millennia, Jews settled, were forcibly removed and resettled the city several times under various conquerors of Israel.

During the 1948 War of Independence, the ancient city was the site of a major battle between the new Israel Defense Force and the neighboring Arab villages assisted by invading forces from Syria and Lebanon. The Arabs were routed. In 1949, Moshav Tzipori was founded.

LAST FRIDAY afternoon, the struggle for Jewish control of Tzipori, the Galilee and the Land of Israel as a whole continued on the ancient ground. On that quiet afternoon of Purim, under the blistering sun, three horses stood happily grazing in a field of shrubs and grasses. The only problem with the otherwise pastoral scene was that the horses belong to Arab squatters from the Kablawi clan. In recent years, the Kablawis have built themselves an illegal village of some 20 houses masquerading as storage containers on stolen Jewish National Fund land adjacent to Tziporis fields. The horses, who entered through a hole cut into the fields fence, pranced about and ate, destroying the field that was painstakingly cultivated for the moshavs cattle herds.

The farmers and ranchers of the Galilee, like their counterparts in the Negev are at wits end. Fearing Arab riots or political condemnation by the Israeli Left, Arab leaders, the Islamic Movement and their allies abroad, the police and the state prosecutors have simply stopped enforcing the laws against the Galilee and Negev Arabs. Surrounded by increasingly hostile and lawless Arab and Beduin villages, local Jews livestock and crops are continuously plundered.

They are faced with three equally unacceptable options for contending with this state of affairs. They can do nothing and let their livelihood and lives work be destroyed. They can pay protection money to Arab criminal gangs, who in exchange agree not to rob them. Or they can try to sell off their lands and abandon agriculture altogether.

The obvious recourse – filing a complaint with the police – is an exercise in futility. Thousands of complaints are filed each year. Almost none of them end in indictments or trials. Most of the files are closed by the police due to ‘lack of public interest.’

ON FRIDAY, the field in question belonged to a cattle rancher named Haim Z. Over the past few years, Haim has filed more than 250 complaints against local Arabs from the Kablawi family and from neighboring Arab villages like the Islamist stronghold Mashad with the police. None have ever gone anywhere. Last year, a helpful police officer recommended that Haim simply start paying protection money.

Last year Haim told his son that he had had it. The son of the moshavs founding generation, Haim said that he just couldnt go on anymore. The states refusal to protect Jewish property rights had forced him to devote all of his energies to playing cat and mouse games with Arab poachers. He couldnt invest in his herd. He couldnt develop his land. All he could do was sit by and watch as year in and year out, his lands were plundered, his cattle stolen and the work of his life and his fathers life was destroyed.

HIS SON, a 23 year old soldier in one of the IDFs elite commando units decided that it was up to him not only to save his fathers farm, but to stem the tide of Arab infringement on Jewish land and property rights. Due to his position in the IDF, his name is classified. Well call him J – for Jew.

In response to his fathers desperation, J. took a storage container to a hilltop that overlooks Tziporis fields, the surrounding Arab villages and the access routes to the moshavs fields. He placed a sofa, a bookshelf full of Jewish history books, religious texts and philosophy classics, and canned food inside and moved in during his furloughs from the army. Rather than hang out with his friends, he began standing guard. He confronted every Arab he caught infiltrating the moshavs fields, and both filed complaints with the police and chased them away.

Given his impossible schedule, J. enlisted his friends to help out. The sons of other desperate farmers, who also serve in combat units, they joined him enthusiastically. Within months, J. had set up an organization of more than a hundred young volunteers – soldiers, college students, and high school students from his moshav, other moshavim in the lower Galilee and surrounding non-agricultural communities.

He called the organization, Hashomer Hayisraeli Hahadash – or the New Israeli Guardsmen. The original Hashomer, or Guardsmen was established in the Galilee in 1909 for the same purpose – protecting Jewish farming communities from Arab marauders who demanded protection money from the farmers. It was the progenitor of the Haganah, which in turn, became the Israel Defense Force.

As J. puts it, ‘Were not simply a security service. We see ourselves as a new movement. Our activities rest on three foundations: securing the land, expanding our operations throughout the Galilee and the Negev, and teaching Zionist and Jewish values to our members, our communities and the general public.’

TZIPORI, ONE of the stops of the Cross Israel Hiking Trail, is a popular destination for school groups, youth groups and just regular hikers. J. has organized visits to his guard post for thousands of hikers over the past year. During their visits the hikers listen to lectures about the New Guardsmen, about the Jewish history of the Galilee and the development of agriculture in the area, and topics of general interest provided by local residents, politicians and professors.

Friday afternoon, after noticing another encroachment on his fathers field, J. called the police at the Nazareth police station. Joined by two of his fellow guardsmen, who are also sons of farmers and soldiers in commando units, they waited in the sun for over an hour for the police to arrive and planned their moves. They approached the horses with reins and bits.

‘We will seize the horses and bring them back to our stable. If the Kablawis pay the damages, then Ill give them back, if not, Ill sell them,’ J. explained.

As the young men approached the horses, Yasser Kablawi, the head of the clan appeared. According to Haim, over the past year, the Kablawis have trampled his fields with their animals on more than 20 occasions.

Haim, who arrived at the scene some 10 minutes before the police made their grand appearance turned toward Kablawi and said, ‘Why are you doing this?’

‘This land belongs to the JNF, not to you,’ Kablawi said.

‘Why are you lying? I sat in your home with the JNF inspector months ago, and he told you straight that this is my land. You know you are stealing from me, and youre doing it while youre illegally squatting on JNF land. Youve caused me tens of thousands of shekels in damages by trampling my fields today alone, and you know it.’

By the time the police arrived, J. and his friends had roped one of the horses. Kablawi was joined by three grandsons and four sons. J. was joined by another seven Guardsmen. It was a standoff.

THE POLICE, who were informed of the presence of a journalist at the scene, acted with some resolution. After speaking with the JNF inspector, they explained to Kablawi that he could either sign a statement acknowledging that the land belongs to Haim and that he would be arrested if he trespassed again, or they would allow Haim to seize his horses. Kablawi signed.

J.s activism is not just a personal quest to save his father from economic ruin. ‘If it were just about me and my family, my brother and I could take care of the thieves. Theyd leave us alone. But then theyd just move on to our neighbors. It isnt about one family. This is a question of control over the land of Israel. The state is weak. We need to be strong if we want to remain here.’

Last month, J. registered the Guardsman as a non-profit organization. He has a grand vision for the future.

‘In the space of just a few months, I have brought in thousands of people, exposed them to our mission. I have more than a 100 volunteer guards. We have reduced theft by 80 percent.

‘I want to raise money to buy night vision goggles and some all terrain vehicles to do proper patrols. Id like to be able to give students scholarships so that they can guard and study at the same time. Ive been in touch with farmers and ranchers in the Negev and they are anxious for us to expand to the south. I believe that within five years, the Guardsmen can end the protection rackets.’

BACK IN June 2005, then vice premier Ehud Olmert gave an American audience his opinion of the Israeli people. ‘We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies,’ he whined.

Young people like J. and his colleagues, secular, yet deeply rooted Jewish sons and daughters of Galilee and Negev farmers, like their religious friends prove everyday that Olmert was not speaking for his countrymen. Whatever messes Olmert and his colleagues in the government still manage to make before they are finally thrown from office, it is absolutely clear that these young people and millions like them are willing and able to clean them up for themselves, their countrymen, and for the next generation of Jews in the land of Israel.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.

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(Via Caroline Glick.)

BBC Lies About Bush Speech, Then Tries To Cover It Up

BBC is trying to rewrite history by lying about Israel, spreading anti-semetic ideas, and make it appear that anyone that is willing to fight Radical Islam is clueless. It seems like they are rewriting some of their own reporting. It seems as if the BBC is modeling its propaganda practices on 1984, while promoting Radical Islam, the biggest threat to liberty in our time.

BBC Lies About Bush Speech, Then Tries To Cover It Up: “

Exhibiting a thoroughness worthy of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, the BBC has been busy erasing all traces of the corporation’s blatantly dishonest reporting of President Bush’s speech on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion.I’ll provide a quick recap for anyone who’s new to the story…On Wednesday the BBC reported the speech under the headline ‘Bush speech hails Iraq ‘victory’‘. The headline was supported by the following sentence in the story:He said recent troop reinforcements had brought about ‘a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror’.However, this isn’t what Bush said. What he said was:The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around – it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror.‘Opened the door to’ is obviously very different to ‘brought about’ – the BBC’s own words. The deceitful editing of the story, and the equally deceitful headline, were clearly designed to expose the President to the ridicule of the BBC’s viewers around the world, by creating the impression that he was once again prematurely declaring victory in Iraq, as he was ridiculed for doing back in 2003.I wrote my first post about the story on Thursday, and emailed a few of the bloggers I read on a regular basis. Charles at Little Green Footballs linked, and by Friday morning – almost certainly as a result of word of the LGF post reaching the BBC – the headline on the story had been changed to ‘Bush says Iraq invasion was right’. However, the misleading sentence mentioned above was still in the story, and the ‘Bush hails victory’ headline still appeared on a video of the speech.By this time the dishonestly headlined, mendaciously edited BBC story had been displayed prominently on the website for two days. With the site attracting around 13 million unique viewers per week, we can safely assume that several million people around the world saw the report of President Bush ‘claiming victory’ in Iraq.As I noted in my second post (linked by Pajamas Media) the BBC’s ‘Have Your Say’ thread on the story was filled with comments hostile to President Bush and the US, with many commenters citing and ridiculing the ‘victory claim’ which Bush never made. At least two commenters called for Bush and Tony Blair to be hanged, and this in a ‘fully moderated’ thread. Here’s one of those comments:Late on Friday night/Saturday morning I emailed the BBC, using the comments form provided on the website (here – it’s not too late to let them know what you think), to point out that the deliberately misleading sentence remained in the story, and the inaccurate headline remained on the video clip; I also sent links to mine and Charles’s posts. I received no reply from the BBC, but by lunchtime on Saturday the story had been corrected, and the headline on the video clip had been changed.I stupidly didn’t think to screen-grab the headline on the original story – to be honest I didn’t expect the BBC to correct it – but after it was changed I did screen-grab the video player. Here’s the original version, with not one but two references to Bush ‘hailing victory’:And here’s the ‘after’ version, with the first reference corrected and the second deleted:It’s inconceivable that the headline and sentence which created such a misleading impression of Bush’s speech were simply ‘editing errors’. I used to work as a sub-editor on a daily newspaper in the UK, and a story as important as this would one have been seen by perhaps six different journalists before the paper went to press.I’ve no doubt that at least as many BBC journalists would have been involved in putting together the Bush story, and senior ones too. The BBC is fat with British taxpayers’ money, and its news-gathering operation is probably the best-resourced and most over-manned in the world; they wouldn’t have farmed this job out to the intern.The journalists who edited the report knew exactly what they were doing. They had access to the full transcript of the speech, and the video. They cut-and-pasted, or typed out, Bush’s ‘incriminating’ words. It’s clear that the decision to manipulate his words, and to headline the story with a lie, was approved at a high level.Even for a news organisation with an undisguised political bias, the manipulation of a key speech by such an important figure would be despicable behaviour. The BBC’s actions are made worse by the fact that it maintains the pretence of impartiality, although anyone familiar with its reporting on issues from Israel-Palestine (see also this story) to global warming knows this isn’t the case.As I wrote in my second post, the BBC is trusted by, and influences the opinions of, millions of people around the world, and such influence demands a similar degree of responsibility. It’s one thing to ‘bash Bush’, but the BBC’s selective and biased reporting on the war on terror can only embolden the jihadists and their state sponsors (anyone who seriously doubts there’s a link should read this), while simultaneously undermining the political and public support that US, British and allied troops so desperately need.Read the rest of this article at The Monkey Tennis Centre blog.”(Via avideditor’s shared items in Google Reader.)

Three Syrian Army Divisions Mass On Lebanon Border

Check out this news and commentary from Holger Awakens

Three Syrian Army Divisions Mass On Lebanon Border: “

Omnious to say the least – Syria has massed three army divisions on the Lebanon border in anticipation of an all out war between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. The head nitwit of Hezbollah, Nasrallah, has promised open war on Israel after a 40 day mourning period for the assassinated Hezbollah thug, Mughniyeh and if my addition is correct, that 40 days will be up in about 3 to 5 days.
Israel is making preparations as well but isn’t it interesting to see the reaction of Syria? Now tell me, are they going to stand by the story that they are just protecting their border from an Israeli invasion or are they there to perhaps join the fray? I certainly hope the United States has a nearby aircraft carrier that is willing to scramble some fighter jets to Damascus at the first sign of Syrian aggression against Israel.
As for Israel’s take on all of this, look at this sentence from the article:

The Magen David Adom ambulance service is on emergency standby across the country.

This has really got bad news written all over it and I truly hope that in the meetings recently with U.S. officials, the Israelis made a case for some assistance – I believe that this next go around they will need it – the jihadists have been building up for this for quite some time.

Here’s the full story from DEBKA.

Syria masses three army divisions on Lebanese border

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Syrian deployment is backed by the concentration of pro-Syrian Palestinian factions in the Beqaa valley of Lebanon, amid rising war tensions between Hizballah and Israel.
Hassan Nasrallah declared Hizballah would wage ‘open war’ with Israel at the end of the 40-day mourning period the group observed for Imad Mughniyeh who was killed in Damascus February 12. His deputy has maintained that Hizballah had ‘100 percent solid evidence’ that Israel had killed Mughniyeh, which Israel has consistently denied.
Monday, March 24, Nasrallah will address a big memorial rally in South Beirut. The Israeli army is on high alert for a possible Hizballah attack from Lebanon. The Magen David Adom ambulance service is on emergency standby across the country.

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(Via avideditor’s shared items in Google Reader.)

Outrage: Palestinian Terror Leaders Need Money, America Provides

The US has just given the PA money and it is being used to pay terrorist and kill jews. It makes me sick how the US is funding terrorist. This is at par with giving Hitler money to build gas chambers. It makes me sick.

Outrage: Palestinian Terror Leaders Need Money, America Provides: ”

Pictured: Members of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade…they need our money to pay the rent.

So here’s the deal. You got $150 million freed up to send to the Palestinian Authority this past week.

Abbas promises certain leaders of Fatah’s military wing Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades that live in Ramallah $3,000 each because they had been complaining to him that they cannot pay their bills.

Yo, no problem Haji…here ya go, compliments of Uncle Sam.

That went out to about 20 Al Aqsa leaders in Ramallah. But when Al Aqsa leaders living in Nablus and Hebron got wind of the grants, they also complained to Abbas… ‘We need to pay our bills!’ And extended their open palms.

Well Abbas, was accused of showing favoritism to the Ramallah leaders and so guess what?

Here’s an article in World Net Daily by Aaron Klein:

JERUSALEM – Just days after it was announced the U.S. would transfer $150 million directly to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ government, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, the declared military wing of Abbas’ Fatah party, were told they would receive cash grants, WND has learned.

According to Palestinian militant sources familiar with the issue, earlier this month, 20 members of the Brigades leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah complained to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad they did not have enough money to pay their bills, including, for many of them, rent for their apartments.

Last week, according to the informed sources, Fayyad told the complaining Brigades leaders he would provide them with a one-time grant of $3,000 each, or $60,000 to the Ramallah-based Brigades leadership.

The sources said after Brigades leaders in other West Bank cities, including Hebron and Nablus, heard of the grants, they also demanded pay increases.

‘Some of the other fighters accused Fayyad of favoring the Brigades leaders in Ramallah since that’s where Fayyad lives,’ said a militant source. ‘So he gave grants also to other cells.’

The sources estimate at least $350,000 in grants to Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leaders were pledged by Fayyad since last week. Some of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leaders serve in Fatah security forces while others only work in the Brigades.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, deadly shootings and rocket attacks. It is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization even though U.S. policy considers the Fatah party to be ‘moderate.’

Many members of the Brigades openly serve in Fatah’s official security forces.

Fayyad’s purported grants to the Brigades come after the U.S. announced last week it will transfer $150 million directly to accounts controlled by Fayyad, marking the first time in eight months America has transferred money directly to the PA instead of to nongovernmental agencies.

President Bush pushed Congress to remove a hold on a $150 million aid package to be transferred to the PA. Bush said the PA was in economic trouble and needed the money at a time it is ‘threatened’ by extremists and negotiating with Israel.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee earlier halted the aid fearing it would be used to fund terrorism.

Fayyad claimed to reporters last week the U.S. money, due to be transferred tomorrow, would go directly to the Palestinian national treasury to be used for running what he termed a cash-strapped government.

‘We see this [U.S. aid] as significant, especially because it underscores the confidence with which our financial system is viewed internationally,’ Fayyad said at a signing ceremony last week at the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem.

(WND)

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(Via avideditor’s shared items in Google Reader.)

Peace love and anti-semitism

Due it indoctrination in my university, I used to be a crazy lefty. The extreme anti semitism of the movement woke me up to the lies of the left. I am sure if you read my blog you know where I stand now. Check out this great movie shows how anti-semitism has taken over the American Left. 

     

Barack Obama’s pastor shares the same views. And despite what Barack Obama is saying now his past actions show that he is inline with the anti-Semitic left. 

UPDATE: It look like the leftists are spreading their hate of the jews: Anti-Semitism on the Rise in Europe  

 Hat Tip: Mosquewatch