Skip to content

Zionism – Features

Mosque hysteria

  • by

Is Mosque Hysteria Being Ginned Up to Bolster Support for the Disastrous Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?

By Phyllis Bennis

(source: Alternet)

At its core, the controversy surrounding the proposed Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan is not about religion. It’s about war.

For some years now the fear factor that followed the attacks of September 11, 2001 and fueled public support for the “global war on terror” (or the onomatopoetic “GWOT”) has been diminishing. Along with the long and intense work of the antiwar movement and the rising levels of casualties, fear reduction has played a key role in building opposition to the wars. Part of that process has been the growing normalization of the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York. “Ground zero,” the site of the destroyed World Trade Center, is now a busy construction venue in the midst of a hectic commercial district that includes all the usual hodgepodge of convenient and useless, businesslike and tawdry aspects of Manhattan street life: Office buildings and food vendor carts, coffee shops and strip joints. There’s nothing hallowed about it.

That normalization hasn’t yet made possible the kind of serious national debate this country so desperately needs. That debate is not about September 11, but about September 12 – the day George Bush launched a war our country was now going to wage anywhere he chose against whomever he designated for as long as he wanted without any restrictions. The whole world – though most especially the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as those of Yemen, Somalia, Palestine and Kenya, and so many more places – as well as those of us here in the U.S. continue to pay the price.

Read More »Mosque hysteria

Hamas wont recognize Isarael period

  • by

By Khalid Amayreh

(source:The Palestinian Information Centre)

There have been some rumors of late alleging that Hamas is willing to recognize Israel in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Some  anti-Hamas sites indulged in more than a small amount of gloating and disinformation, effectively celebrating Hamas’s alleged ideological turnabout.

Moreover, some Fatah spokesperson seized on the rumors, claiming that Hamas and Fatah were now on equal footing. Even Hezbutahrir (the Islamic Liberation Party) which is notorious for trying to catch faults with Hamas, has castigated Hamas for following the path of Fatah and abandoning the path of Islam.

The truth of the matter is that for Hamas recognition of Israel, the Zionist entity which claims Palestine as an exclusive national Jewish homeland, represents the ultimate red line. Which means that the Islamic Liberation Movement will never ever recognize the illegitimate entity called Israel?

Hamas does recognize the physical existence of Israel, but it doesn’t attach any moral legitimacy to that existence. This principled non-recognition of the Zionist regime is not a tactical or bargaining position which might change depending on political developments. It is rather immutable bedrock upon which Hamas is based. It is a matter of religion for Hamas and all other Muslims who take their religion seriously.

Read More »Hamas wont recognize Isarael period

Israel staggered by Egypt protests social tensions at home

  • by

By Jean Shaoul

(source: World Socialist WebSite)

The right-wing Israeli government of Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has been staggered by the massive demonstrations and strike wave engulfing Egypt, its critical Arab ally in the region, and the simultaneous emergence of social opposition in Israel itself.

In recent weeks, there have been several demonstrations in Israel’s predominantly Arab towns in support of the Egypt protests, including a small one in Tel Aviv of Palestinian and Jewish Israelis. In addition, Israel’s newspapers have noted in passing expressions of public sympathy for the mass protests in Egypt calling for an end to the Mubarak regime.

Not so the Israeli government. In speech after speech, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has warned that should the Mubarak dictatorship fall, chaos will prevail. Though the Muslim Brotherhood do not have majority support and have made very clear their intention not to lead protests against Mubarak, Netanyahu constantly raises the spectre of the Islamic revolution in Iran: the Islamists, meaning the Muslim Brotherhood, will take control in Egypt, abrogate the 1978-9 peace deal at Camp David, and march on Israel. By implication, Netanyahu is suggesting that the fall of the Mubarak dictatorship is an event Israel might oppose by force.

The Israeli ruling class’s fear over the36in Egypt is two-fold. In the first place, Egypt—with its large economy, population of nearly 80 million, and control of the Suez Canal—is Israel’s key ally in the region. It has played the crucial role in strangling resistance to the dispossession of the Palestinians.

Equally as important, the conditions that led to the revolution in Egypt also prevail in Israel: youth unemployment and underemployment; spiraling prices; growing social polarization; and a corrupt and anti-democratic ruling elite personified by Netanyahu himself. Israel is a social powder keg, characterized by enormous social inequality and poverty, governed by a corrupt and reactionary kleptocracy.

Read More »Israel staggered by Egypt protests social tensions at home

Solomons cry wolf record remains stuck

  • by

By Iqbal Jassat – Chairman, Media Review Network

(source: Voice of the Cape fm Online)

Is he relegated from mainstream media’s opinion pages to a coffee-table magazine known for its spectacular coverage of largely mundane stories? This seems to be the fate of a controversial self-professed “expert” on so-called “Islamic terrorism”: Hussein Solomon.

Following years of parroting an Israeli narrative which seeks to demonise popular resistance as “terrorism”, Solomon seems to have run out of allies in the mainstream media. If it’s true, I’d be the last person to be surprised or to complain. After all, most serious media houses continuously strive for depth, accuracy, balance and credible accounts – not half-baked theories dressed up as “fact”.

Many will remember the consternation and anxiety caused by Solomon
during the run-up to the soccer world cup. He insisted that “terrorists”
were going to blow the football spectacle to smithereens and claimed
too that he knew who the targets were! What happened? The FIFA World Cup
turned out to be a resounding success without any hint of terror
strikes. A feat that South Africa prides itself with.

Read More »Solomons cry wolf record remains stuck