That is, if the whole case isn’t derailed by a last-minute protest by another defendant. If the trial goes ahead as planned, Chirac, 78, faces a month in court on charges that he masterminded a scheme to have Paris City Hall pay for work that benefited his political party when he was mayor — before he became president in 1995. A prison term is seen as highly unlikely, but in principle if convicted, Chirac could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined euro150,000 ($210,000). via faustasblog.com
Arab_and_anti_Israel_sites have been abuzz over the past couple of days over this story (this version from Tehran Times:)
Israeli arms distribution company Global CST has reportedly, under the authorization of Tel Aviv, provided Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi with African mercenaries to clamp down on anti-government protesters.
Egyptian sources have revealed that the Israeli company has so far provided Gaddafi's regime with 50,000 African mercenaries to attack the civilian anti-government protesters in Libya.
The arms company was previously convicted in an African country over illegal deals, News-Israel website reported.
Sources say Global CST had obtained the permission for providing the mercenaries to Gaddafi from the Israeli officials in advance.
Like all good rumors, this one has a tiny shred of truth.
First, the first published source was the Israeli Inyan Mercazi (Central issues) website. The article there quotes unnamed Egyptian sources making these accusations, including the charge that the CEO of the company met with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials and received explicit approval to provide weapons and men for Gaddafi.
So already we see that the original source for this article is suspect. No documents are reproduced, no proof is made, and how could an Egyptian source know that the Global CST CEO met with Israeli leaders, let alone what transpired in the meetings?
All these unsourced accusations are being repeated without confirmation by Inyan Mercazi.
The Israeli site then adds on some background: that the company was once in trouble for selling arms to some African country in the past, and indeed it does provide security services worldwide.
Let's look at the previous incident, as it will shed light on how absurd this rumor is:
From Ha'aretz, May 6, 2010:
The Defense Ministry's recently fined Global CST and its owner, Maj. Gen. (ret. ) Israel Ziv for deviating from the restricted permit it was granted by the ministry and signing a contract with the government of Guinea to set up and train Special Forces there and supply them with weapons. According to sources in the Defense Ministry, it was agreed that the fine, around NIS 90,000, would not be transferred to the state's coffers, and instead the company would invest it in developing training courses for its employees, where they would learn the Defense Ministry's guidelines and export regulations. Global CST denies they were fined, but confirmed that it had been ordered to retrain its employees.
This means that the company will not do anything without the approval of the Israeli government. So in order to believe this story, you must believe that Israel is supporting sending mercenaries to Gaddafi.
Is it a coincidence that this was the same rumor that erupted in the early days of the Libyan uprising, when both sides accused the other of Zionist collusion?
Tracing back this rumor, there is not a shred of evidence and it belies logic. That of course doesn't stop people who hate Israel from seizing on this story, buttressed by it being quoted in an Israeli newspaper, as being unquestionably true. Ma'an picked up on the story, from where it spread to Al Jazeera, where it then turned into 50,000 mercenaries being recruited from South Sudan, Chad, Nigeria - and Guinea, the same country we know that Global CST is banned from dealing with!
Interestingly, Global CST's head, General Yisrael Ziv, sent a letter to Al Jazeera completely denying the story, calling it absurd, ridiculous and disgusting, and saying that Al Jazeera's broadcasting of these lies threatens the legitimate security work done by the company. (They have done security work worldwide, including Georgia.)
Of course, it is now too late, and none of the news sites are bothering to publish the explicit denials of a story that had no basis to begin with. Israel haters don't need proof for their lies, after all - just a small peg to hang their lies on, one that was provided this time - stupidly - by an Israeli newspaper.
(h/t Suzanne and Naftali)
When celebrities are drunk, on drugs or just high on their own egos, they often engage in rants. These days many such rants are captured on cell phone videos or audio tapes and go viral on the internet. Nothing surprising there. What is surprising to many is that the rant de jour these days seems to be directed against Jews.
Consider the former Dior designer, John Galliano, who was sitting in a bar in a Jewish section of Paris and announcing his love for Hitler and smiling as he told the people at an adjoining table, who he apparently assumed to be Jewish, that "People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f—– gassed."
Or consider Charlie Sheen who claims to be high on Charlie Sheen, attacking his producer by emphasizing the Jewish nature of his original name, Chaim Levine.
Or Oliver Stone telling an interviewer last year that too much attention is paid to the Holocaust because of "Jewish domination of the media." And that Hitler wasn't all that terrible to the Jews.
Then there is the Reverend Louis Farrakhan, ranting and raving about Satanic Jews controlling the world.
This is not an entirely new phenomenon. Mel Gibson delivered a similar rant when he was stopped by Los Angeles police in 2006. "F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"
Generally, sobriety results in apology, but the damage has been done.
The question is why the Jews? There's an old joke about a Nazi rally in Nuremberg where Hitler is screaming, "Who causes all of Germany's problems?" An old man in the crowd shouts back, "the bicycle riders." Hitler's taken by surprise and asks, "why the bicycle riders?" To which the old man replies, "why the Jews?" That was the 1930s. But "why the Jews" in the second decade of the 21st Century?
Let me suggest two possible answers. The first is that little about the nature of prejudice has really changed, but the advent of the age of high technology has brought private prejudices into the public arena. In commenting on the Galliano outburst, Michael Goubert, a French DJ and music designer, observed that "virulent views like those expressed by [Galliano] are not rare." But "the public expression" of intolerance is unusual and particularly troubling, according to patrons of the bar in which Galliano expressed his bigoted views. The pervasiveness of cell phone videos and the widespread use of the social media have blurred the line between private and public expression. What used to be only whispered to friends at a bar is now broadcast around the world.
There is a second, a far more troubling answer to "Why the Jews?" Prominent public figures have blurred another line as well—the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, between attacking the Jewish state and attacking the Jewish people. Consider widely publicized remarks made by Bishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the American Model of Freedom, and a man openly admired and praised by President Obama. He has called the Jews "a peculiar people" and has accused "the Jews" of causing many of the world's problems. He has railed against "the Jewish Lobby," comparing its power to that of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin.
He has said that "the Jews thought they had a monopoly of God: Jesus was angry that they could shut out other human beings." He has said that Jews have been "fighting against" and being "opposed to" his God. He has "compared the features of the ancient Holy Temple in Jerusalem to the features of the apartheid system in South Africa." He has complained that "the Jewish people with their traditions, religion and long history of persecution sometimes appear to have caused a refugee problem among others." Tutu has minimized the suffering of those murdered in the Holocaust by asserting that "the gas chambers" made for "a neater death" than did Apartheid. He has complained of "the Jewish Monopoly of the Holocaust," and has demanded that its victims must "forgive the Nazis for the Holocaust," while refusing to forgive the "Jewish people" for "persecute[ing] others."
He has complained that Americans "are scared…to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful—very powerful." He has accused Jews—not Israelis—of exhibiting "an arrogance—the arrogance of power because Jews are a powerful lobby in this land and all kinds of people woo their support."
Tutu has acknowledged having been frequently accused of being anti-Semitic," to which he has offered two responses: "Tough luck;" and "my dentist's name is Dr. Cohen."
Former President Jimmy Carter too has contributed to this new legitimization of Jew-bashing, by echoing Tutu's derisive talk about the Jewish domination of America ("powerful political, economic and religious forces…that dominate our media") and his use of the term "Apartheid" in his book about Israel.
By thus blurring the line between legitimate political criticism and illegitimate bigotry, widely admired people like Tutu and Carter tend to legitimate the kind of anti-Semitic attitudes that manifest themselves in the rants of celebrities like Galliano, Sheen, Gibson and others.
This blurring has also affected the tone on university campuses around the world, where Tutu and Carter are particularly admired and imitated. I speak on campuses throughout the world and I had never, until recently, heard and seen the kind of language now being directed against Jewish students and faculty who support Israel. So I was not as surprised as some by the recent celebrity rants. The oldest prejudice has never quite disappeared. It just went underground and has now resurfaced as a result of new technology and new legitimization by the likes of Bishop Tutu and Jimmy Carter.
Fortunately there are intelligent and principled young celebrities like Natalie Portman who are trying to offset this development by speaking out against bigotry.
This article originally appeared in a different version in the New York Post, March 6, 2011.
Arab residents of Israel have all the rights of Israeli citizens and many ARE Israeli citizens themselves. Does this look like an apartheid state to you? via barenakedislam.wordpress.com
Creating a chain of upscale coffee shops in the West Bank, this savvy Palestinian-American businesswoman plans to expand into other cities, further shattering the Palipropaganda myth of the “starving Palestinians.”
Rather than follow the Starbucks’ chain store trend, she incorporated the Israeli model of independent shops with an upscale look and quality products to create a unique business with a variety of expansion possibilities. Hamas is horrified.
There is a growing Canadian backlash against Israeli Apartheid Week, the on-campus campaign to delegitimize Israel.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney issued a strongly worded statement Friday, asking students to think twice before joining activities tied to the week, taking place across Canada and internationally this month.
The events, which seek to promote Palestinian human rights, are frequently “accompanied by anti-Semitic harassment, intimidation and bullying,” Mr. Kenney said, and are at times planned and promoted with disregard for the safety of Jewish students, professors and others on campus.
“These activities can cultivate an atmosphere exactly the opposite of one that is open to the free exchange of ideas and the development of the mind with the aid of facts and logic,” he said. Repeatedly singling out and condemning Israel year after year creates a “hateful environment” that “offends not only our sense of fairness, but also our core Canadian values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”
“Such scapegoating becomes yet another symptom of a worrying new acceptance of the vilification of Israel and of Jews around the world.”
At a Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Community fundraiser Thursday evening, Prime Minister Stephen Harper slammed anti-Semitism on Canadian campuses, saying the organized Israeli Apartheid Weeks had become increasingly sophisticated and “intellectually acceptable.”
“At one time, friends, we could’ve expected threatening behaviour toward Jewish students to be rejected in any form at institutions of higher learning,” he told a crowd gathered at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. “Unfortunately, it is now often the behaviour of the anti-Israeli mob that is allowed to prevail.”
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who also spoke at the event, said it’s time activists stop comparing Israel to South Africa, where apartheid was in place for approximately 45 years and finally abolished in 1993. He, too, released an official statement Monday condemning the week as a “dangerous cocktail of ignorance and intolerance” that threatens “the mutual respect” of Canadian society.
The Ignatieff statement led to controversy at Queen’s University in Kingston after a student-elected education advocate published a politically charged response and signed it with his official title. Queen’s Principal Daniel Woolf distanced the university from Nick Day’s letter, which was posted on left-wing news site rabble.ca on Wednesday. At a meeting Thursday night, the student government voted to hold a referendum Mar. 22 and 23 in which students will decide whether they want him removed from the position.
Mr. Day told the Queen’s Journal he regretted signing the letter as Queen’s rector, but doesn’t regret writing it.
“I made a public statement based on principles and ideas that I think are extremely important, speaking as myself and not claiming to speak for every student,” he told the student paper. “It’s the principal’s right to clarify that the university doesn’t share my opinion.”
National Post, with files
from Tamsin McMahon
Israeli Apartheid Week events, which started about seven years ago on college and university campuses, wrapped up in Toronto Friday night. Events will continue to take place on campuses across Canada in the next two weeks as well.
Israeli Apartheid Week is taking place in over 90 cities around the world this year, organizers say.
I just got off the phone with an old friend. His son was one of the victims of University of California at Berkeley. Not sure if this person wants that public, so for now I'm withholding the name.
-Noah
Jewish Student Jessica Felber Sues UC Berkeley for Not Protecting Her from Radical Muslim Students
Good for her. You can read the entire Complaint HERE.
this is going on in every sector of society... the University merely gets more attention. from gymnasiums to libraries... the attack of Jews this decade is an epidemic. sometime even the courts and jails themselves are part of the abuse.
A first of its kind federal civil rights case has been filed in United States District Court in Oakland, California, against the University of California at Berkeley, the Regents of the University of California and their ranking officials, by a Jewish student who had been assaulted on campus last year by a leader of a Muslim student organization during a pro-Israel event.
On March 5, 2010, Jessica Felber, a twenty year old Jewish student at Berkeley, was attacked and injured on campus because of her Jewish ancestry and religious affiliation. At the time she was holding a sign stating “Israel wants Peace.” Her assailant, Husam Zakharia, also a UC Berkeley student, was the leader of Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) at Berkeley.
Defendants were fully aware that Zakharia, the SJP and similar student groups had been involved in other incidents on campus to incite violence against and intimidate Jewish and other students. Nevertheless, in clear dereliction of their legal responsibilities, Defendants took no reasonable steps to protect Ms. Felber and others.
The Complaint further describes how the SJP conspires and coordinates with the Muslim Student Association (“MSA”), which has a publicly documented history of affiliation with and support of organizations deemed “terror organizations” by the United States Department of State. That they have resorted to intimidation and harassment is evidenced most recently by the fact that the District Attorney of Orange County, California, has indicted eleven students from these groups for inciting and disrupting a speech given by the Israeli Ambassador to the United States at the University of California, Irvine.
The Complaint charges that the assault was the result of the university having: (1) fostered and encouraged campus terrorist incitements by the SJP and the MSA) ; (2) turned a blind eye to the perpetrators of illegal activities; (3) failed to effectively discipline the MSA and SJP for their pro-terrorist programs, goals and conduct; despite having ample notice that such violence was foreseeable; and (4) failed to provide adequate security to prevent the violence, harassment and intimidation which occurred on March 5, 2010.
Ignoring complaints from students about the poisonous climate on campus, defendants condoned, allowed and enabled groups such as the MSA and the SJP to threaten, harass and intimidate Jewish students and to endanger their health and safety. Their tolerance of the growing cancer of a dangerous anti-Semitic climate on its campuses, and their failure to take adequate measures to quell it, violated the rights of Ms. Felber’s and other students to enjoy a peaceful campus environment free from threats and intimidation.
As the Complaint reminds us, the on-campus activities of the SJP and MSA against plaintiff and other students of Jewish religion and ancestry - and the university's failure to confront them - present a disturbing echo of the darkest period in history: the incitement, intimidation, harassment and violence carried out under the Nazi regime and those of its allies in Europe against Jewish students and scholars in the leading universities of those countries during the turbulent years leading up to and including the Holocaust.
There is a genuine fear by Ms. Felber and other students of Jewish ancestry on campuses throughout the University of California system that the tragic lessons of history have not yet been learned by these defendants. They fear that the University of California campuses are no longer places of hope and dignity, of academic and personal freedom, or of peaceful life and personal safety.
Ms. Felber is represented by Joel H. Siegal a civil rights attorney in San Francisco, and New York attorney Neal M. Sher, who for many years was the Director of the Justice Department’s Nazi prosecution office.
If anyone wants more information, the email came with the lawyers' phone numbers and a copy of the complaint that was filed in court.
it isn't enough that the University did not protect the safety of their students... what makes it frightening is the fact that Berkeley apparently was in conspiracy with these Muslim groups.
(Haaretz) Just three days into the job, Germany's new interior minister is already causing his government a headache after wading into a highly delicate debate about multiculturalism and claiming Islam was not a key part of the German way of life. "Islam in Germany is not something supported by history at any point," Hans-Peter Friedrich told journalists on his first day as Thomas de Maiziere's replacement on Thursday.
Friedrich was speaking in the context of a probe by German authorities into last Wednesday's killing of two U.S. airmen at Frankfurt Airport, in which it is believed the 21-year-old Kosovan suspect Arid Uka was a lone operator motivated by radical Islamist beliefs. His comments were a play on words, turning on its head an earlier remark made several months ago by German President Christian Wulff, who said Islam now "belongs to Germany" because of the 4 million Muslims who live there.
Friedrich's foray into the subject of immigrant religion and multiculturalism is in tune with comments made by other European leaders recently. British Prime Minister David Cameron said last month that multiculturalism has failed in Britain and left young Muslims vulnerable to radicalization, arguing for a more active policy to heal divisions and promote Western values.
Germany is home to Western Europe's second-biggest Islamic population after France. The single biggest minority is Turkish. In contrast to the situation in Britain or France, where simmering racial tensions sometimes explode into violence, German Muslims live relatively peacefully alongside mainstream society, but a lack of integration has long posed a problem.
Opposition member Dieter Wiefelsputz of the Social Democratic Party referred to Friedrich's comments as "rubbish," saying that the minister began his term with "poor judgment."
BINGO! It doesn't belong anywhere but in role play in back street fetish clubs. Here is Rihanna just because... I think it is healthier then this sicko Islam shit.
nice and juicy. nice and juicy. Egyptians have more perversions then anywhere else in the world. I don't know why... It just is that way. Sorry other male cultures are not as outward with their sexuality. Even the Machismo of Latin America is guised in a kind of chivalry, but Middle Eastern culture is provacative and male dominated. It isn't just their religion. It is the way they are. Now the juciest stories will surface and my word... what they might find. Oy Gavalt. ...yeah I know... I know. I'm a fucking BIGOT to you, but seriously Egypt is very much into facebook and social media where all this stalking crap goes on. A personal story was that I was promoting my father's business teaching Shakespeare and I went to talk to KingLear on AOL... and KING LEAR (as it turned out was not KING LEAR), but rather had the behavior of a sex offender (and this KING LEAR was EGYPTIAN). just one out of a gazillion stories.
I don't think it's gotten much play outside of Egypt except on Twitter, but hundreds of Egyptians invaded their state security headquarters on Saturday. Despite the fact that reports indicated that the state security was shredding documents for 'days,' there were still some juicy finds like the tape pictured above, which is said to be a 'sex tape' involving a Kuwaiti princess and an Egyptian businessman.
Egyptian protesters have stormed the headquarters of Egypt's state security force in Alexandria, with several people suffering injuries in scuffles with riot police.
Around 1,000 people encircled the State Security Agency building late on Friday, demanding that the officers inside come out or they would storm the building.
Protesters then entered into the building and scuffled with riot police before military forces intervened and took control of the building.
Demonstrators said officers inside had been shredding and burning documents that may have proven past abuses.
...
The activists, who called the protests were demanding the abolition of the state security apparatus and an end to emergency laws.
Egypt's internal security services and police forces, which were given a free hand to suppress dissent under the rule of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, remain to be a powerful symbol of the former regime.
Activists say security agencies arrested and tortured thousands of activists and killed many during the 30 years Mubarak stayed in power.
Ismael Alexanderani, a journalist and protester at the scene in Alexandria, told Al Jazeera that a minority of protesters were seeking "revenge" against the security forces, as several political activists who were present at the demonstration had been arrested or tortured inside the building earlier.
For those who read Arabic, you can find some of the documents here. The military prevented most of the documents remaining from being removed. If you find anything good, please translate and send it to me.
One of the things that the demonstrators claim to have found is belly-dancing suits. But many of the computers that were found had their hard drives ripped out.
The security services even kept files on the Mubarak's themselves. But I doubt much will come out about anyone else.
come on Obama! you didn't learn a thing from
Egypt, Libya and the rest of the MidEast?
Israel is not the source of the problem.
The problem is Europe and Obama's progressive allies that
gave power to totalitarianism.
These countries were never allies of Israel
Now if you have any doubt that U.S. policy is still on another planet altogether and seems incapable of learning from facts, events, and experience, just read this:
After meeting with President Obama, several Jewish leaders recounted that he, "Implied that Israel bears primary responsibility for advancing the peace process. They interpreted the president’s comments either as hostile, naive or unsurprising. Obama said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is eager to secure his legacy by establishing a Palestinian state and would accept a decent offer if one were on the table....`The Palestinians don't feel confident that the Netanyahu government is serious about territorial concessions.'..."
That's the problem in a nutshell. The Palestinian leadership never listens to what America asks while the U.S. government believes everything these leaders tell them.
President Obama's obsession with the 'Palestinians' is getting worse. Now, he's demanding 'dramatic statements' from Prime Minister Netanyahu, including a reference to the 1949 armistice lines '1967 borders.'
The Obama Administration will not make do with statements that are "not dramatic" alongside a new peace initiative reportedly planned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, officials in Jerusalem say.
The political sources said they fear that the US Administration will demand clear reference to the 1967 borders as part of the plan and a subsequent Netanyahu speech.
The officials said the PM would not be able to address sensitive issues such as Jerusalem's division or Palestinian refugees. Hence, the sources estimated that the issue of borders "must be on the table," with America expecting Netanyahu to refer to the 1967 borders as the basis for a final-status agreement and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In the past, the prime minister has refrained from addressing the issue of borders, for fear that any statement on the matter would obligate Israel to agree to such boundaries in a future agreement.
'US mistrusts Bibi'
At this time, Washington is boosting the pressure on Netanyahu to produce diplomatic momentum. For the time being President Barack Obama is refraining from presenting a diplomatic plan and forcing it upon Israel and the Palestinians. Instead, the Americans are expecting Israel to undertake significant steps that would revive the diplomatic process, especially in the face of current Mideast turmoil.
Talks between Israel and the US continued in recent months in an effort to find ways to renew negotiations; however, the contacts have not been successful. Now, officials at the White House and State Department, as well as members of Washington research institutes are saying that the US is expecting Netanyahu to take action.
Political sources said that while ties with America have not been harmed, the relationship between President Obama and PM Netanyahu is "not as intimate as it should have been. An Israeli source said that the White House holds "great mistrust" towards Netanyahu and "has not granted him one minute of mercy."
