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$2775 billion inUSaid supports Isaraeli nuclear weapons program

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$2.775 Billion in US Aid Supports Israeli Nuclear Weapons Program

By Grant F. Smith
Online Journal Guest Writer

June 29, 2009 "Online Journal" — President Barak Obama’s fiscal year 2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel is proceeding smoothly through the Congress.

On June 17, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs held a “mark-up” session on the budget. The subcommittee came under pressure from an antiwar group that sought to suspend or condition foreign aid over Israel’s use of US weapons which left 3000 Palestinians dead during the Bush administration. The subcommittee held its session in a tiny Capitol room denying activists and members of the press access. The budget quickly passed and is now before the full House Appropriations Committee.

Israel enjoys “unusually wide latitude in spending the [military assistance] funds,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Unlike other recipients that must go through the Pentagon, Israel deals directly with US military contractors for almost all of its purchases. This gives the US based Israel lobby, particularly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an influence multiplier on Capitol Hill. Large contractors proactively segment military contracts across key congressional districts to make them harder to oppose. As contactors and local business interests fight for Israel’s favor, AIPAC can turn away from shepherding the massive aid package to dedicate considerable resources toward Iran sanctions.

Representative Mark Steven Kirk (R-Illinois) sponsored an amendment to the foreign operations bill that would prevent the Export-Import Bank of the United States from providing loan guarantees to companies selling refined petroleum to Iran. According to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Kirk is the top 2008 recipient of Israel political action committee (PAC) contributions (PDF). Kirk received $91,200 in the 2008 election cycle and more than $221,000 over his career.

Kirk’s AIPAC sponsored sanctions legislation passed the House Appropriations Committee on June 23. While tactically positioned as a rebuke to the crackdown on Iranian election protesters, the measure is only the most recent of strategic long-term AIPAC sponsored sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel contends Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons under the auspices of a civilian program, though no hard evidence has emerged. However, an illicit nuclear arsenal in the region has been positively identified.

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When the oppressed become the oppressor

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(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.

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Stronger palestinian resistance needed to fight attacks

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By Tasneem Mohammed

(source: Voice of the Cape fm Online)

“Where is the democracy that Israel claims to uphold? Where are the peace-loving people that Israel claims to have? Where is the respect and tolerance for religious sensitivities?” These are the pertinent questions raised by Al Quds Foundation SA president Maulana Igsaan Hendricks, in response to brutal attack on a mosque Beit Fajjar in Bethlehem in the early hours of Monday morning.

 

A group of Israeli settlers forcibly entered the mosque, desecrated its walls and set the carpet alight. The perpetrators also burnt copies of the Holy Qur’an, sprayed graffiti blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) on the walls of the mosque, and later held a demonstration demanding the military demolish a mosque in Burin, Nablus. 

 

Speaking to VOC this week, Hendricks denounced the attack as a “violation of religious sanctity and total disregard for a place of worship”. This assault was an attempt to provoke a religious fracas and to disrupt and sabotage any efforts made by foreign governments to resume peace talks, he said.  

 

“This is a typical example of what happens under Zionist occupation. For the last 40 years, since the occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza, there has been a systematic attack on Palestinians by Jewish settlers. They have constantly exercised violent, malicious and brutal attacks against Palestinians. This is something that must be condemned in the strongest terms.”

 

From 1967 to date, there have been approximately 650 recorded attempts to destroy Masjidul-Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest site. On the 22 August 1969, the sacred mosque was brutally attacked by Michael Rohan, an extremist Australian Christian. A few years ago, medical doctor Dr Baruch Goldstein massacred 19 Muslims and injured 150 in a mosque in Hebron whilst performing Fajr salaah.

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