EU Considering Aid to Israeli Military

A leading Israeli supplier of warplanes used to kill and maim civilians in Gaza is in the running for two new scientific research grants from the European Union.

Israel's attacks on Gaza in late 2008 and 2009 provided its air force with an opportunity to experiment with state-of-the-art pilotless drones such as the Heron. Although human rights groups have calculated that the Heron and other drones killed at least 87 civilians during that three-week war, EU officials have tentatively approved the release of fresh finance to the Heron's manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

Two projects involving IAI have recently passed the evaluation stages of a call for proposals under the EU's multi-annual programme for research, which has been allocated 53 billion euros (65.4 billion dollars) for the 2007-13 period.'

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An Exclusive on: Israel’s Dr. Strangelove – Uzi Arad

This is the man who probably should be criminally indicted for Israel’s high-seas massacre of people on the Peace Flotilla.The latest total is 64 badly wounded, killed, or missing.Turkey, Egypt, and other countries should certainly blacklist him from any further visits. He is Israel’s Dr. Strangelove.

Like with so many other sensitive things about Israel, the question needs to be asked: Why are the major US newspapers and TV networks not telling the American people about Uzi Arad, arguably the most important and most dangerous man in Israel when it comes to war and peace, the man who really has his finger on Israel’s nukes, the man who has publicly threatened to totally destroy Iran, as well as the man thought to be most responsible for the 31 May massacre?'

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The Lone Ship of the Freedom Flotilla: The Rachel Corrie MV Continues to Sail Towards Gaza in Defiance of Israeli Threats

Following Israel's criminal raid in international waters on May 31st, the Rachel Corrie MV continues to sail towards the Gaza coastline in defiance of Israeli threats.

In an act of tremendous courage, the Rachel Corrie MV is determined to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.'

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Israel: International activists Cause Their Own Deaths by Attacking Nonconfrontational Israeli Commandos

At a press briefing this morning following the massacre by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commandos of passengers on board the Mavi Marmara, one of the boats pertaining to the Freedom Flotilla attempting to break the siege of Gaza, IDF spokeswoman Avital Liebovitch claimed that the passengers had engaged in "severe violence against our soldiers."

According to Liebovitch, the violence was premeditated and was administered via live fire, sharp items such as knives, and weapons "grabbed" from the IDF commandos. While underscoring Israel’s unique ability to portray its armed forces as victims, the analysis failed to provide a compelling reason for why—if the alleged attack using grabbed weapons was indeed premeditated—the IDF did not throw a wrench in the works by simply refraining from raiding the ship.

Apparently not satisfied with sporadic violations of logic, Liebovitch reiterated that the IDF had not desired a confrontation with the activists but that the justness of the confrontation— which she herself admitted occurred "not in Israeli territory"—had since been proven given the passengers’ alleged reaction. The Israeli tendency to award retroactive justification to its actions was also evident during the 2008-2009 attack on Gaza, which Israel advertised as a defensive war against Palestinian rockets by severing the portion of the cause-and-effect timeline that involved deliberate Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. The inversion of aggressor and victim did not of course prevent Gazan civilians from perishing in this particular confrontation at a rate of approximately 400:1 vis-à-vis their Israeli counterparts.

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Obama Gives Israel All-Out Support

After the United Nations ratified a resolution calling for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, the US president gives Israel "concrete guarantees" to prevent the decision from harming Israeli interests.

Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post quoted senior political sources in al-Quds (Jerusalem) as saying that President Barack Obama's assurances to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came with the promise of a significant upgrade to Israel's military capabilities.

President Obama gave Prime Minister Netanyahu "concrete guarantees that the US will strengthen Israel's strategic capabilities," the report said.'

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Sixteen Dead, Sixty Injured: Rothschild Zionist Israel Attacks and Takes Over Gaza Aid Convoy in International Waters

Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the country's siege on Gaza.

Up to 16 people were killed and dozens injured when troops stormed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, the Israeli Army Radio said.



The flotilla was attacked in international waters, 65km off the Gaza coast.

Footage from the flotilla's lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, showed armed Israeli soldiers boarding the ship and helicopters flying overhead.

Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, on board the Mavi Marmara, said Israeli troops had used live ammunition during the operation.

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US Begins Massive Military Build Up Around Iran, Sending Up To 4 New Carrier Groups In Region

As if uncontrollable economic contagion was not enough for the administration, Obama is now willing to add geopolitical risk to the current extremely precarious economic and financial situation. Over at Debkafile we read that the president has decided to “boost US military strength in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf regions in the short term with an extra air and naval strike forces and 6,000 Marine and sea combatants.” With just one aircraft carrier in proximity to Iran, the Nobel peace prize winner has decided to send a clear message that peace will no longer be tolerated, and has decided to increase the US aircraft carrier presence in the region by a 400-500% CAGR.'

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Israel 'Mulling Reoccupation of Gaza'

With the settlement row still rumbling on, the Israeli army is reportedly preparing several scenarios for a possible reoccupation of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli military officials held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss a possible full occupation of Gaza, Israel's Maariv daily said on its website.

The officials also mulled over appointing a "military governor" should Israel decide to redeploy its army to the coastal sliver.'

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Turkish Air Defense System Deployed to 'Defend Syria, Iran gainst Israel Raids' A

High-ranking sources in the Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed displeasure with Turkey over deploying anti-aircraft batteries along the Syrian border in the Iskenderun district.

The Turkish daily Hurriyet meanwhile, quoted a military source as saying that “this move aims at repelling a US or Israeli attack against Iran or Syria.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry sources noted that if the news published in the Turkish media were true, then Ankara would be taking a side with Damascus and Tehran, instead of preventing the nuclearization of Iran.'

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Gazans Cut Through Egypt's Border Barrier

"Every problem has a solution. The Egyptian steel barrier was a problem but we found a solution," says Mohammed, a grimy-faced Gazan tunnel digger who didn't want to give his real name.

Mohammed, covered in dust and dirt, is in the process of digging a 750m (2,460ft) smuggling tunnel from Gaza into Egypt. He says he's been digging it for 18 months.

As he hauls up a plastic container of sand with an electric winch from the metre-wide tunnel shaft, he says the new underground Egyptian barrier aimed at stopping smuggling is a "joke."

"We just cut through it using high-powered oxygen fuelled blow torches," he says.

The Egyptian government says it began constructing the barrier along the Gaza-Egypt border last year. When finished it is meant to be 11km-long (seven miles), stretching down 18m (59ft) underground.

According to Egypt it is made of bomb-proof, super-strength steel and is costing millions of dollars to build.'

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Two Little Girls: Murder in the Jordan Valley

That April day Emad Fakha had taken three of his four children to help in the fields after school, something they enjoyed, a treat. The children had climbed into the “basket” on the ground at the rear of the tractor, ready to be lifted up. Emad was preparing to start the motor when an Israeli military jeep swerved off the road, at speed, and rammed into the tractor from behind. While Hussein was thrown clear and suffered only a broken leg, the little girls didn’t stand a chance. With the body of one sister draped obscenely over its front bumper, the jeep reversed for five or six metres and then rammed once again into the tractor. What might have been a tragic accident is thus revealed for what it was – a cold-blooded murder.

Their jeep undriveable and so unable to escape, the soldiers threatened Emad with their rifles. More soldiers arrived but it was 25 minutes before the Israeli police reached the scene. The soldiers claimed that it was “an accident”, but Israeli citizen Eliazer Salam, from the settlement at Yama, who had witnessed the entire incident from his car, testified that the jeep driver had not applied his brakes at any stage and had, indeed, swerved off the road and accelerated into the tractor.'

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'Palestinian Authority to Press UN for Palestinian State'

The Palestinian Authority is to call on the United Nations to recognize the Palestinian state, "marginalizing" the US so-called peace efforts, an Israeli paper claims.

The Israeli government is becoming increasingly fearful that the PA pushes through a new related UN Security Council Resolution, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The resolution, which is yet to be voted on, would oblige Israel to retreat behind the borders it invaded in 1967.

Upon implementation, it would also avalanche Israel with the Palestinian refugees which would invoke their right to return. Some 750,000 Palestinians were displaced and forced to live in refugee camps in the aftermath of Israel's occupation of Palestine in 1948.'

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Media Disinformation: Syria Threatens Israel’s Security. One Big Smokescreen

In the self-sensationalising world of modern media, some truths are better witnessed than told. Over the past fortnight, major media outlets have converged on Syria’s alleged delivery of scud missiles to the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah. By examining how the story first came to limelight, as well as the manner in which media sources have uncritically covered the story, one can begin to notice the vastly degenerated state of today’s media and its deeply polarising effects.

On 11th April, Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Al-Aam broke the ‘scud missiles’ story. Relying solely on American sources, the author Husain Abdul-Husain claimed that both western and Israeli intelligence had uncovered the training of Hezbollah resistance fighters in Syria in the use of scud and surface-to-air missiles. This, we are told, occurred some time during last summer. Subsequent to the alleged discovery, the article adds, Israel threatened Syria through official Turkish and Qatari channels warning against the transfer of either of the two armaments to Hezbollah.

Western coverage of the story has been an unquestioned regurgitation of the original claims made in the Al-Rai Al-Aam article. Further signified by an overriding infatuation with Israel’s security, political commentators have even sought to draw parallels between Saddam and the alleged Syrian scud missiles delivery. Amidst the suffocating miasma of yellow journalism redolent in western reporting, the parallel was not lost on Lebanese prime minister. Speaking to a group of Lebanese citizens in Rome, Saad Hariri noted: “All this is similar to what was said previously about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that were never found".'

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Israel Threatens Syria With War

Israel has tried to justify a war on Syria, claiming it could be attacked by Syrian-supplied missiles of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement.

Based on allegations that Syria is equipping Hezbollah with Scud missiles, Tel Aviv communicated a menace-laden message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, the British weekly newspaper The Sunday Times reported Sunday.

In the 'secret' message, Israel alleged that Hezbollah may launch an attack on Israel using the projectiles, threatening to engage Syria in a war if such missile offensive by the Lebanese movement materializes.'

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Israel Shuts West Bank Borders Again

Israel has decided to seal off West Bank border crossings from midnight Saturday until midnight Tuesday.

The Israeli army announced on Saturday that the third closure of the past few weeks would be implemented in a region of the West Bank for the duration of this week's Israeli holidays, the Maan news agency reported.

On Tuesday at midnight the closure will be lifted "in accordance with security assessments," the Israeli army said in a statement.'

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Jordan's King Warns Mideast War 'Imminent'

This is rather frighting information. The Jordanian Royal Family is always well up-to-date on the intelligence of what is happening and about to happen in their "neighborhood". A war against Hezbollah and Lebanon is one of the main scenarios for trigging a war with Iran/General Middle East War/World War III.

There are somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 or so rockets and guided missiles in Lebanon, placed there by Iran and Syria. These are normally under the 'command' of Hezbollah, but in reality are effectively controlled by Iranian and Syrian commanders. These rockets and guided missiles constitute a large percentage of the MAD (mutually assured destruction) strategic counter-force 'throw weight' from the Iranian/Syrian/Hezbollah alliance. Of course, the really 'big guns' are the Iranian Advanced Biological arsenal of genetically engineered viruses and these do not require rockets/missiles for delivery and in fact are a global strategic WMD (weapon of mass destruction) comparable in potential kill levels to global strategic thermonuclear warfare weapons.'

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AIPAC Confronts Its Worst Fear - Daylight

In that radical handbook on the workings of American society, the Wizard of Oz never recovered once Dorothy pulled back the curtain of her own innocence. One would like to believe that AIPAC will never recover from a brutal spring that has exposed its real interests to the American public. Even supporters of the Jewish state have criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for fully taking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's side in his battle with Barack Obama over settlements, and during its recent annual conference, the lobby looked wobbly and defensive.

Yes, there was the usual procession of weak-kneed politicians professing love for Israel, not to mention AIPAC board members explaining how they cultivate "relationships" with the powerful. Yes, Sen. Chuck Schumer gave a bloodcurdling yowl, Am Yisroel Chai-the Jewish people live!-as he pledged to be Israel's guardian. But a large shift in American policy and opinion has left the lead institution of the lobby exposed, and worse, mocked.'

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Turkey Move Deters Netanyahou From Nuclear Meet

Israeli Prime Minister has decided not to partake in the forthcoming Nuclear Security Summit in Washington over Egypt and Turkey's plan to file a motion demanding that Tel Aviv open its nuclear facilities for international inspection.

According to a report broadcast on Israel's Army Radio on Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu has called off the trip to the US capital and is sending Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor instead.'

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The Major Jewish American Organizations Defend Israel’s Humiliation of America

When Israel announced a major new Jews-only building project of 1600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem, it was not only “spitting in the face” of visiting Vice President Biden, it was demonstrating its power to humiliate America and Americans. Netanyahu was sending a message to world: Israel backed by its billionaire-financed Presidents of the 51 Major American Jewish Organizations, leads the US by the nose. The Jewish State can make an agreement with the White House one day and revoke it the next (with characteristic arrogance), US public opinion be damned. No sooner did the Obama Administration react to this most public show of impudence with Biden privately telling the Israeli Prime Minister that, “What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.", than Netanyahu openly called on the “American Jewish community” (the major Zionist organizations) to come to the defense of Israel and its claim on all of Jerusalem. And respond they did: turning the insulted victim (America) into the bully and blaming the US, not the Israeli government, for the “crisis” and for the breakdown of Israel’s agreement not to expand colonial settlements on occupied Palestinian land. As we shall describe, the entire Zionist power configuration in the United States (with a few notable exceptions) defended Israel’s effrontery and condemned any attempt by the US government to peacefully resolve a conflict, which threatened US lives, economic interests and prestige. This just confirmed world public opinion, which sees an American electorate willing to be humiliated by this economically insignificant state.'

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Don't Declare State, Lieberman Warns Palestinians

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Tel Aviv would annul previous peace accords with Palestinians if they decide to go ahead with plans to unilaterally declare an independent state.

Speaking to Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Tuesday, Lieberman threatened Palestinians that such a move could prompt Israel to annex parts of the West Bank and revoke 1990s Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.

"Any unilateral decision will release us from all of our commitments and will allow us also to make unilateral decisions," Lieberman said. "For example, imposing Israeli sovereignty on certain areas, cutting off all kinds of ties and transfers of money and a string of benefits and agreements put into place since the (peace) accords".'

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