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An idf jihad?

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 An IDF Jihad? Religious Extremists Rising Through the Ranks
 
By JONATHAN COOK

    February 4, 2009
 
Nazareth.
 
Extremist rabbis and their followers, bent on waging holy war against the Palestinians, are taking over the Israeli army by stealth, according to critics.
 
In a process one military historian has termed the rapid “theologisation” of the Israeli army, there are now entire units of religious combat soldiers, many of them based in West Bank settlements. They answer to hardline rabbis who call for the establishment of a Greater Israel that includes the occupied Palestinian territories.
 
Their influence in shaping the army’s goals and methods is starting to be felt, say observers, as more and more graduates from officer courses are also drawn from Israel’s religious extremist population.
 

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Islamist groups merge to fight sheikh sharif

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Somalia: Islamist Groups Merge to Fight Sheikh Sharif
 
Yusuf M. Hassan
 
4 February 2009   
 
Mogadishu — Opposition to Somalia’s newest leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, gained disturbing momentum Wednesday after four factions announced plans to merge and declare war on the new government.
 
Sheikh Hassan Mahdi, a senior member of ARS-Eritrea faction, told reporters that all the groups merged to fight new President Sheikh Sharif and the anticipated ‘unity government.’
 

He said the new group’s name is Hisbi Islam ("Islamic Party") and described the four group as: Islamic Courts-Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys faction; Jabhatul Islamiya ("Islamic Front"); Mu’askar Ras Kamboni; and Anole.
 

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The tale of two apartheids

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The Tale of Two Apartheids

February, 07 2009

By Paul D’Amato

IN APRIL 1976, John Vorster, president of the then-racist apartheid regime of South Africa, paid an official state visit to Israel, where he was given the red-carpet treatment.

 Israeli television showed him on his first day, visiting the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. At an official state banquet held for Vorster, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin toasted the "ideals shared by Israel and South Africa."

 Why was an outspoken member of a Nazi militia in South Africa during the Second World War and a leading member of the party that crafted official apartheid policies in South Africa being feted in Israel?

 

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Media release victory for worker solidarity

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Media Release: Victory for worker solidarity

Issued by Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC)
6 February 2009

 The Congress of South African Trade Union is pleased to announce that its members, dock workers belonging to the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) achieved a victory last night when they stood firm by their decision not to offload the Johanna Russ, a ship that was carrying Israeli goods to South Africa. This, despite threats to COSATU members from sections of the pro-Israeli lobby, and despite severe provocation.

The Johanna Russ, flying an Antigua flag, is owned by M. Dizengoff and Co., an established "pioneer of the modern era of shipping business in the Middle East" and shipping agent for the ironically named Zim Israel Navigation Company. (Ironic because, last year, the same SATAWU members refused to offload the Chinese ship An Yue Jiang, which was carrying arms and ammunition destined for Robert Mugabe’s army.)

 

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