Gaza War

Eid message from the media review network

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Fasting during the month of Ramadhaan is a form of worship and prayer which allows Muslims a form of intercourse with Allah (SWT) in which his/her world and the self are absolutely denied. The human personality is dissolved; it disappears and is absorbed in the infinite unity of Allah Rab-ul-Izzat. This interaction with Allah Almighty is designed to bring the believer abundant spiritual enlightenment. We pray that Muslims throughout the world have experienced this closeness and that this bonding finds expression beyond this Holy Month.

The restrictions of Ramadhaan and the expansion of our relationship with our Creator should not end abruptly with the sighting of the new moon; this signifies the beginning of the month of Shawwal and the day of Eid- ul- Fitr on the 1st. This day of celebrations, festivities and extravagance is also a day of thanksgiving.

The believing men and women are reminded that while we celebrate the day of Eid-ul-Fitr, there are millions of Muslims all over the world who will be observing this day while under the yolk of oppressive, discriminating and unrelenting regimes. We remember all of them in our prayers.

Glory be to Allah. Praise be to Allah. Allah is most high.

We wish all Muslims a pleasant and joyous day of Eid-ul-Fitr

When the oppressed become the oppressor

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: Sunday Times Review – Jul 18, 2010 12:00 AM – Pg10)

Another View: Israel and the perpetrators of xenophobic violence are guilty of culpable amnesia regarding South Africa, writes Eusebius McKaiser

Human beings have complicated moral psychologies. Sometimes we respond empathetically to the plight of those worse off than ourselves; think of the global response to the earthquake that hit Haiti, for example. At other times, we are oblivious to or even implicated in the suffering of others. Hence the jarring reality of many victims of anti-black racism often ignoring their own experiences of discrimination when engaging in xenophobic attacks or violence against black lesbians. These are violent expressions of culpable amnesia.

States are no different to human beings. They, too, are susceptible to shameful variations in moral judgment. A case in point is the devastating revelations that have surfaced about military ties between Israel and apartheid South Africa in the ’70s. Israel was also guilty of culpable amnesia.

In his brilliant new book, The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s relationship with apartheid South Africa, Sasha Polakow-Suransky tells of massive military co-operation between the two countries. A 1976 visit to Israel by Prime Minister John Vorster, for example, helped seal a military deal worth more than $700-million, according to Admiral Binyamin Telem, who was the commander of Israel’s navy during the Yom Kippur War. This trip expanded on an earlier munitions contract worth $100-million.

Rabbi tells erdogan no peace without hamas

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

A prominent rabbi from a settlement in the West Bank has informed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that there can be no real peace in occupied Palestine or the wider Middle East without the involvement of Hamas, the Islamic Palestinian liberation movement.

The Rabbi, Menahem Fruman, met with Erdogan in Istanbul a few weeks ago. Fruman believes that since Hamas more or less represents Islam, there can be no lasting peace between Jews and Muslims without recognizing the central role of Islam in peace-making in the region and the world at large.

The rabbi also believes that since Jews lived a good part of their history under Islam in peace, there is no reason why they can’t have the same experience again. Fruman said he emphasized to Erdogan that all current peace efforts, led by the United States, were doomed to failure since people who really represent the Palestinian people, namely the Hamas movement, were not involved in the process.

Fruman, who lives at the settlement of Tkeou near Bethlehem, added that any peace deal that ignores the centrality of Islam in the region wouldn’t succeed in the long run. "I think Jews have to make peace with Islam first and foremost. Peace with secular forces in the Arab world would lead to nowhere. Only peace with Islam would be genuine and long-lasting."

The rabbi added that Erdogan agreed with him that without the involvement with Hamas in peace talks, the entire peace process would be dubious and fruitless. Fruman had met with prominent Palestinian leaders such as the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Martyr Ahmed Yasin, the late leader of Hamas, who was murdered by Israel more than 6 years ago.

Throw a shoe at Obama’s betrayal

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Ilan Pappe

(source: The Electronic Intifada)

At 4:17pm GMT on Sunday, I threw a shoe at my television screen, aimed at US President Barack Obama, precisely at the moment he began to explain that the reference in his Thursday speech at the State Department to the 1967 borders was in accordance with the Israeli interpretation of these borders.

Not that I was thrilled with that speech either but it was at least as meaningless as his previous speeches on the topic. But at 4:17 he said there will be “no return to the borders of June 4, 1967” and the thousands who attended the AIPAC convention cheered wildly. Annexation of Israeli settlement blocs built illegally in the occupied West Bank and the creation of a small Palestinian bantustan in the spaces in between was the essence of Obama’s real vision for peace.

It was a soft shoe and all it did was to bounce off the screen. Being such a harmless weapon it was also directed at my Palestinian friends who since Friday explained, publicly, how unusual and important was Obama’s speech at the State Department.

It is tough enough to know that in the White House sits someone who betrayed not only the Palestinians, but all the oppressed people in the world and in the US he promised to engage and represent.