2009-01-15
Gilad Atzmon - Israel Has Managed to Lose Again
By Gilad Atzmon • Jan 14th, 2009 at 23:55
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Haaretz reported today [link] that IDF Senior officials "believe that Israel should strive to reach an immediate cease-fire with Hamas, and not expand its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist group in Gaza."

This shouldn't take us by great surprise. Though Israel has proved beyond doubt that it is rather capable of conducting large-scale genocide, it also proved that its military forces do not have the answer to Islamic resistance. The Israeli chief military officials admitted as well that "Israel achieved several days ago all that it possibly could in Gaza." The IDF, so it seems, finished its role in Gaza. It turned its neighbourhoods into piles of rubble. Relentlessly, it even murdered the civilian population in broad daylight by means of air raids and attacks from warships. Images of white phosphorus artillery shells bursting over schools and hospitals are now part of our collective memory. Tanks firing into schools loaded with evacuees seeking refuge from the bombing of their buildings is now the image associated with the Hebraic soldier and yet, the Israelis failed to achieve any of their objectives. I must admit that it must take a special talent to be an Israeli general. As much as they are good in committing war crimes, they somehow fail in everything else.  Read More

2009-01-14
Who will save Israel from itself?
By Mark LeVine

One by one the justifications given by Israel for its latest war in Gaza are unravelling.

The argument that this is a purely defensive war, launched only after Hamas broke a six-month ceasefire has been challenged, not just by observers in the know such as Jimmy Carter, the former US president who helped facilitate the truce, but by centre-right Israeli intelligence think tanks.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, whose December 31 report titled "Six Months of the Lull Arrangement Intelligence Report," confirmed that the June 19 truce was only "sporadically violated, and then not by Hamas but instead by ... "rogue terrorist organisations".

Instead, "the escalation and erosion of the lull arrangement" occurred after Israel killed six Hamas members on November 4 without provocation and then placed the entire Strip under an even more intensive siege the next day.  Read More

2009-01-12
Included in this bunch of Lightlink Fun is an essay by Flemming which I think some might find to be of more than just passing interest whilst others might find it to be of no interest at all. I've also including some other articles by other people whom I really like and who help me, from time to time, clear away the extraneous mental flotsum which builds up all too readily as I surf the web year after year netrunning with my PDP 11 and my VAX herders (Called:Vaxen).

With all the many wars and illuminations going on in this dinky little planet out on the edge of the Galaxy I find it necessary to remember that it is all an illusion of agreements made by insane beings who have never been to Galactic Core nor met with the Council of Thirteen who there do reside and who also never come out this far for any reason whatsoever remaining locked, as it were, in dreams of ascension to even higher universes where they, of course, will exert their collective will and control, eventually, all that ever was, is, or will be. Such marvelous beings are they...

So without further adieu delve into this mess of pottage I've collected here, it won't strain your mental faculties at all, and see if you can come up with a gem, a facet, a diadem of brilliance scraped from the Gem of Knowledge (A trap!) and the Tree of Life.

I do hope that those of you who tarry here a little while will thoroughly enjoy yourselves in this new/old year. We do, And...we aren't limited by concepts such as time but travel throughout it and all dimensions quite freely. Be it so. Here ya go, then, enjoy...  Read More

2009-01-08
Richard Falk - Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming


The article that caused the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories to be DENIED ENTRY to Israel 2 weeks ago… [link] he was predicting exactly what we are seeing today…more death and destruction and occupation.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

There is little doubt that the Nazi Holocaust was as close to unconditional evil as has been revealed throughout the entire bloody history of the human species. Its massiveness, unconcealed genocidal intent, and reliance on the mentality and instruments of modernity give its enactment in the death camps of Europe a special status in our moral imagination. This special status is exhibited in the continuing presentation of its gruesome realities through film, books, and a variety of cultural artifacts more than six decades after the events in question ceased. The permanent memory of the Holocaust is also kept alive by the existence of several notable museums devoted exclusively to the depiction of the horrors that took place during the period of Nazi rule in Germany.

Against this background, it is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as 'holocaust.' The word is derived from the Greek holos (meaning 'completely') and kaustos (meaning 'burnt'), and was used in ancient Greece to refer to the complete burning of a sacrificial offering to a divinity. Because such a background implies a religious undertaking, there is some inclination in Jewish literature to prefer the Hebrew word 'Shoah' that can be translated roughly as 'calamity,' and was the name given to the 1985 epic nine-hour narration of the Nazi experience by the French filmmaker, Claude Lanzmann. The Germans themselves were more antiseptic in their designation, officially naming their undertaking as the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Qestion.' The label is, of course, inaccurate as a variety of non-Jewish identities were also targets of this genocidal assault, including the Roma and Sinti('gypsies), Jehovah Witnesses, gays, disabled persons, political opponents.

Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty. The suggestion that this pattern of conduct is a holocaust-in-the-making represents a rather desperate appeal to the governments of the world and to international public opinion to act urgently to prevent these current genocidal tendencies from culminating in a collective tragedy. If ever the ethos of 'a responsibility to protect,' recently adopted by the UN Security Council as the basis of 'humanitarian intervention' is applicable, it would be to act now to start protecting the people of Gaza from further pain and suffering. But it would be unrealistic to expect the UN to do anything in the face of this crisis, given the pattern of US support for Israel and taking into account the extent to which European governments have lent their weight to recent illicit efforts to crush Hamas as a Palestinian political force.  Read More

2009-01-07
Tel Aviv University historian, Professor Shlomo Sand, opens his remarkable study of Jewish nationalism quoting Karl W. Deutsch:

A nation is a group of people united by a common mistake regarding its origin and a collective hostility towards its neighbours" [1]

As simple or even simplistic as it may sound, the quote above eloquently summarises the figment of reality entangled with modern Jewish nationalism and especially within the concept of Jewish identity. It obviously points the finger at the collective mistake Jews tend to make whenever referring to their 'illusionary collective past' and 'collective origin'. Yet, in the same breath, Deutsch's reading of nationalism throws light upon the hostility that is unfortunately coupled with almost every Jewish group towards its surrounding reality, whether it is human or takes the shape of land. While the brutality of the Israelis towards the Palestinians has already become rather common knowledge, the rough treatment Israelis reserve for their 'promised soil' and landscape is just starting to reveal itself. The ecological disaster the Israelis are going to leave behind them will be the cause of suffering for many generations to come. Leave aside the megalomaniac wall that shreds the Holy land into enclaves of depravation and starvation, Israel has managed to pollute its main rivers and streams with nuclear and chemical waste.

"When And How the Jewish People Was Invented" is a very serious study written by Professor Shlomo Sand, an Israeli historian. It is the most serious study of Jewish nationalism and by far, the most courageous elaboration on the Jewish historical narrative.

In his book, Sand manages to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the Jewish people never existed as a 'nation-race', they never shared a common origin. Instead they are a colourful mix of groups that at various stages in history adopted the Jewish religion.
In case you follow Sand's line of thinking and happen to ask yourself, "when was the Jewish People invented?" Sand's answer is rather simple. "At a certain stage in the 19th century, intellectuals of Jewish origin in Germany, influenced by the folk character of German nationalism, took upon themselves the task of inventing a people 'retrospectively,' out of a thirst to create a modern Jewish people." [2]
Accordingly, the 'Jewish people' is a 'made up' notion consisting of a fictional and imaginary past with very little to back it up forensically, historically or textually. Furthermore, Sand - who elaborated on early sources of antiquity - comes to the conclusion that Jewish exile is also a myth, and that the present-day Palestinians are far more likely to be the descendants of the ancient Semitic people in Judea/Canaan than the current predominantly Khazarian-origin Ashkenazi crowd to which he himself admittedly belongs.Khalid Amayreh and many others regard as the "Nazis of our time".Astonishingly enough, in spite of the fact that Sand manages to dismantle the notion of 'Jewish people', crush the notion of 'Jewish collective past' and ridicule the Jewish chauvinist national impetus, his book is a best seller in Israel. This fact alone may suggest that those who call themselves 'people of the book' are now starting to learn about the misleading and devastating philosophies and ideologies that made them into what Khalid Amayreh and many others regard as the "Nazis of our time".  Read More

2009-01-06
I just ran across this article at Merlyn Silks' place that he had written ages ago and posted here at NCN. He has since moved on. I was researching the Edenic Myth and the Flandrian Transgression and... voila!

There was this little gem hiding. I'm really storing it here for my own perusal but the comments that were profferred are a lot of fun for those who are into such things. Have fun kiddos if you choose to wade through the waters.

Thanks Gezi. Miss you.

Vax

Afraid of God

Filed Under Thoughts |

l might have mentioned it before that I started to read the “Disappearance of the Universe”. This is a book describing and leading to the book “A Course in Miracles” which I now started. The ideas are great and feel really true but I keep having this problem with the words God, Holy Spirit, Christ and in particular all this upper-cased Him and His.

What is that - am I afraid of something?

I was in my mid to late teens that I started to reject all the Christian up-bringing, partially because there were really cute girls in the communistic basis group at school but also because in long discussions with my father as the contra-point I found out that there is no possible proof that there is something like a god. I did not have a god-experience and I did not see what it was good for so why have it.

This was a rather short phase (maybe because nothing worked out with these basis-group chicks) and my path to spiritual development started for real. I had no problem accepting Jesus as a cool guy who understood the workings of the world pretty well, but the idea of him being a son of god was right out.

And so was god himself too. God as an idea, as that what was good in man, was acceptable, but in no way could and would I speak of him or even Him - it was an it.

Scientology came along and made that very easy. There was theta, and that was certainly an it. So no problem here. The only trouble I had was with the worship of Mr. Hubbard but I managed to look around that in order to get the rest.

The fact that Mr. Hubbard said that Scientology does not deal with the 8th dynamic - which is defined as ones existence as the higher being - never really sank in - because I did not want to let that sink in - the world was perfect as it was.

But somehow suppressing the whole idea does not seem to work because now it’s back in form of the Course in Miracles (The Course) and this book is not very shy talking about all my NO words. So I better face that now and forever.

The big question for me is what side am I working for. It could be the dark side of the force telling me that the idea of this god being in heaven is something for grannies and nannies but don’t make yourself ridiculous as a well educated man, or this whole concept of a holy creator is really complete humbug - or is it just some fear in me that tries to hide behind rejecting that which is feared?

It is getting clearer and clearer that there really does not seem to be any stable datum outside of me that would help me to decide, which then by pure logic makes the third possibility the most likely: There is nothing really there outside of me, so all of the possibilities are equally valid, meaning that what The Course advocates - the whole universe as an illusion that we ourselves create - is very likely.

One of the concepts in The Course is that this (ungrounded) fear of god stems from the initial separation from him (it?). A separation in form of a fleeting moment that is already over before it really began - but this moment is our so-called universe.

In other words, if I can’t find anything outside of me to refer to as a stable datum, then it looks as if this whole thing is really my illusion. Which gives the testimony of The Course more credibility, and which, in turn, makes it more credible when it describes the origin of fear and the rejection of god.

I like to find out things for myself - that’s why I joined Scientology - and so I will do this in this case too - I’m now on day 4 of the workbook of The Course, 365 lessons - one per day - to find out where this leads me.

I know, the dark side of the force will tell me that I let myself brainwash and there is no validity in what I will find out - so be it.

PS: tried some high-tech on this article: grabbed my wacom tablet, fired up the handwriting recognition in M$ Office and started to write this article by hand - but have now witched back to the keyboard. It would have taken me five times as long with the tablet - that should convince me that I don’t really need a tablet PC - - - even though I really would like to have one ;-))  Read More

2009-01-05
MSP's diary of a factfinding mission to Gaza

THREE MEMBERS of the Scottish Parliament recently successfully ran the blockade of Gaza - described as the biggest prison camp in the world' - in a small boat to deliver emergency medical aid and equipment to the besieged inhabitants.  Read More

2009-01-04
Saudi Arabia: Who is to blame for Gaza?
A small portrait of the translator
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 @ 22:16 UTC
by Ayesha Saldanha


As in the rest of the Arab world, Saudi Arabia's blogs have been full of commentary on the events in Gaza. However, there is no consensus as to who is politically responsible.

Saudiwoman is pleased to see what her country [link] is doing:

It makes my heart swell with pride to know that my country is trying to do something for the Palestinians in Gaza. A friend who works in the military hospital here in Riyadh told me that for the past two days the hospital has been discharging people left and right to accommodate the wounded from Gaza and today the first airlift arrived. Everyone here in Saudi feels helpless and frustrated when we see the photos of the Israeli air raids aftermath. The photos of bleeding children and leveled buildings are driving us crazy. We need to have something to do. It's so bad that many people went to government hospitals wanting to donate blood to the Palestinians. So many that the Health minister had to issue a statement saying that the Palestinians need supplies not blood.

But Ahmed Ba-Aboud has a different perspective:
كل شخبطاتنا لن تغير من الواقع شيئا لكنني لا أملك إلا أن أضحك أمام محاولات الترقيع التي نراها، فهناك من يريد فتح الحدود لسيارات الإسعاف و هنا من يعلن علاج الجرحى، يعنى نحن لا علاقة لنا بالأصحاء من أهل غزه المحاصرين، بل ننتظرهم مصابين و قتلى لكي نقدم لهم يد المساعدة.

All our scribblings will not change any anything, but I can only laugh at the piecemeal efforts I see. There are those who want to open the borders to ambulances, and those who announce treatment of the injured. That means we have no connection to the healthy amongst the besieged people of Gaza, just wait for the injured and dead to offer them a helping hand.  Read More

2008-12-31


Israel Consulate

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Israel Politik

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Israel Fm

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Tweetgrid #askisrael #gaza #israelconsulate

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Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Israel Intelligence Heritage
& Commemoration Center (IICC)

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[link]  Read More