MRN

The aspiration of the Media Review Network is to dispel the myths and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims and to foster bridges of understanding among the diverse people of our country. The Media Review Network believes that Muslim perspectives on issues impacting on South Africans are a prerequisite to a better appreciation of Islam.

Israels nukes harmUSnational interests

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By John Mearsheimer

(source: AntiWar.com)

Transcript of John J. Mearsheimer’s remarks at the IRmep conference at the International Spy Museum "Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal: Espionage, Opacity and Future" Washington, DC, 7/7/2010

What I want to do is ask four questions, and then answer them.

The first is, "why did Israel develop nuclear weapons to begin within the 1950s and 1960s?" Second, "does it make sense today for Israel to have a nuclear deterrent?" Third, "does opacity make good strategic sense for Israel?" "Does it matter for the United States?" And four, "is it in America’s interest for Israel to have nuclear weapons?"

Those are the four questions I want to answer.

You want to remember, when I answer those first two questions about why Israel developed nuclear weapons I’m going to approach it from Israel’s point of view. This will become clear as I go along, but Israel and the United States are separate countries. And sometimes what’s good for Israel is not good for the United States.

On the question of Israel and nuclear weapons, let me start with a general point. The reason that states want nuclear weapons in almost all cases is because they are the ultimate deterrent. They make it almost impossible for an adversary or an opponent to attack your homeland and threaten the survival of your state for the obvious reason that if you have nuclear weapons and your survival is at risk, that’s one clear circumstance under which you’re likely to use those nuclear weapons. Many people now argue, here in Washington especially, that nuclear weapons have offensive capability, and if Iran were to get nuclear weapons it could use those weapons to dominate the Gulf and establish hegemony in the region.

Hillary clintons latest lies

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Paul Craig Roberts

(source: The Wisdom Fund.org)

The BBC reported on July 4 that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US ballistic missile base in Poland was not directed at Russia. The purpose of the base, she said, is to protect Poland from the Iranian threat.

Why would Iran be a threat to Poland? What happens to US credibility when the Secretary of State makes such a stupid statement? Does Hillary think she is fooling the Russians? Does anyone on earth believe her? What is the point of such a transparent lie? To cover up an act of American aggression against Russia?

In the same breath Hillary warned of a “steel vise” of repression crushing democracy and civil liberties around the world. US journalists might wonder if she was speaking of the United States. Glenn Greenwald reported in Salon on July 4 that the US Coast Guard, which has no legislative authority, has issued a rule that journalists who come closer than 65 feet to BP clean-up operations in the Gulf of Mexico without permission will be punished by a $40,000 fine and one to five years in prison. The New York Times and numerous journalists report that BP, the US Coast Guard, Homeland Security, and local police are prohibiting journalists from photographing the massive damage from the continuing flow of oil and toxic chemicals into the Gulf.

Read More »Hillary clintons latest lies

Exposed the truth about Isaraels land grab in the west bank

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem and David Usborne

(source: www.independent.co.uk)

As President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet, a report reveals 42 per cent of territory is controlled by settlers

Jewish settlers, who claim a divine right to the whole of Israel, now control more than 42 per cent of the occupied West Bank, representing a powerful obstacle to the creation of a Palestinian state, a new report has revealed.

The jurisdiction of some 200 settlements, illegal under international law, cover much more of the occupied Palestinian territory than previously thought. And a large section of the land has been seized from private Palestinian landowners in defiance even of an Israeli supreme court ruling, the report said, a finding which sits uncomfortably with Israeli claims that it builds only on state land.

Drawing on official Israeli military maps and population statistics, the leading Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, compiled the new findings, which were released just as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived in Washington to try to heal a gaping rift with US President Barack Obama over the issue of settlements.

"The settlement enterprise has been characterised, since its inception, by an instrumental, cynical, and even criminal approach to international law, local legislation, Israeli military orders, and Israeli law, which has enabled the continuous pilfering of land from Palestinians in the West Bank," the report concluded.

Creative resistance shatters Isaraels image

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Iqbal Jassat

(source: Palestine Chronicle)

There cannot be any dispute that Israel’s image has been severely battered

The Gaza aid flotilla has come to symbolize a breathtaking type of creative resistance. Ingenious, challenging and as Israel has learnt much to its folly, devastating!

Clearly the Mavi Marmara has changed the Zionist worldview of a tiny Jewish state besieged by hostile terrorists forever. No longer is Israel able to lean on deceptive arguments of the past to justify its policies of repression and vengeful occupation.That and the latest full-blown standoff between the family of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, their thousands of supporters and the rightwing Netanyahu regime, is additional evidence of a public mood displaying signs of frustration, hopelessness and despair.

Ties with the Obama administration, despite desperate public attempts seeking to reassure each other that these are solid, are clearly showing signs of deep-seated divisions. Blowing hot and cold with no decisive urgency to restore ties to the Bush era, the current US government is evidently showing signs of fatigue even as having its role downgraded embarrasses it.

It not surprising therefore to read that the Chief of the Mossad told the Knesset as recently as June 2010: “For the US, we have ceased to be an asset and become a burden.”