Rebels Had Double Agent in Gadhafi's Security Force - Mahmoud Ben Jumaa tells his story

(Newser) – How did Libyan rebels take Tripoli with such apparent ease? It was thanks in part to men like Mahmoud Ben Jumaa, a senior member of Moammar Gadhafi’s personal security force and secret rebel agent, the Wall Street Journal reports. Since February, Ben Jumaa had been tipping resistance leaders in his neighborhood off to every arrest warrant he signed. “I directed one of the great oppressive organs of Gadhafi’s government,” he says. “And all the while, I was doing everything I could to make sure this revolution succeeded.”

Nor was Ben Jumaa alone; police commanders in his Fashloom neighborhood were part of the resistance as well, which is expected to make it easier to get police back on the streets. And when Ben Jumaa’s own name showed up on an arrest list a few weeks ago, it was another friend in the security forces who tipped him off, allowing him and his family to flee their home just hours before Gadhafi’s troops arrived.

Rebels Had Double Agent in Gadhafi's Security Force - Mahmoud Ben Jumaa tells his story

Farmers work hard only to have Produce burned just before Harvest!!! CRIMINAL.

There is no justice for Palestinian Farmers. Settlers can invade a town from their illegal settlements and then destroy others property with no consequences. They are burning trees just before the harvest. Palestinians are poor, oppressed, discriminated against, and victimized. When will this stop? How can we allow this to continue and just look the other way.

Every canister of tear gas, every bullet that injures and maims a Palestinian, every bulldozer that demolishes a home and their owners belongings, and every bomb that annihilates is from the USA. FROM THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER!!!

Jewish settlers set Palestinian olive trees on fire | Occupied Palestine | فلسطين

Israeli settler gang beats 10-year old Palestinian boy with iron bars

 MAY GOD HELP THIS VICTIM AND 

ALL OF THE VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE.

          Palestinian 10 yr old boy from West Bank beaten by Settlers. 

"In an assault that they claimed was 'in revenge' for the killing of eight Israelis on Thursday by unknown gunmen, a group of around fifteen Israeli settlers in the West Bank surrounded a Palestinian child and beat him nearly to death. They also attacked three farmers, injuring them badly."

"Israeli media sources report that thirteen settlers, mainly teenagers, were arrested by Israeli police in relation to the incident. According to the report, the youth refused to cooperate with the Israeli police."

Things seem to be escalating in Palestine. Apartheid Israel are throwing their muscle around and making life as uncomfortable and challenging as possible - as usual.  Settlers in another illegal settlement went into Palestinian groves and pulled up Olive trees that belonged to farmers.


Israeli settler gang beats 10-year old Palestinian boy with iron bars - International Middle East Media Center

FLAGMAN - Ahmed El-Shahat scaled the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, Egypt

On Aug. 20, 2011, Ahmed El-Shahat, an Egyptian, risked his life by climbing up the outside of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo (approximately 23 stories). He was aiming to remove the Annoying flag of the Apartheid State of Israel.

Yesterday after Israel's citizens and soldiers were attacked in Southern Israel near the border with Egypt - Israel replied by attacking across the Egyptian border and this resulted in the killing of 5 Egyptian police officers. For two days now protests are being held outside of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. The protesters are demanding that the Israeli Ambassador in Egypt - go home.
Video of his Feat (Music in Arabic):



This is believed to be the same guy:

‫

Corporations are running our Counties, States, and Country. If an Elected official pleases corporations with laws, then the corporations donate and DONATE BIG.

I don't know how our laws allow politicians to get paid for their policies that favor corporations. The money is easy to trace but nothing is done about it and now it looks like more and more of our government is being run "by Big Corporations;" not "by The People."

According to the NY Times Article: "Rick Perry’s Donors Reap Benefits From Texas State Aid"

Mr. Perry leapt into the Republican presidential primary this month preceded by his reputation as a thoroughbred fund-raiser. But a review of Mr. Perry’s years in office reveals that one of his most potent fund-raising tools is the very government he heads.
Over three terms in office, Mr. Perry’s administration has doled out grants, tax breaks, contracts and appointments to hundreds of his most generous supporters and their businesses. And they have helped Mr. Perry raise more money than any politician in Texas history, donations that have periodically raised eyebrows but, thanks to loose campaign finance laws and a business-friendly political culture dominated in recent years by Republicans, have only fueled Mr. Perry’s ascent.

In 2003, after a rash of mold-related lawsuits against home construction companies, Mr. Perry championed the creation of a state board, the Texas Residential Construction Commission. The new commission was a priority of Mr. Perry’s most generous contributor: Bob Perry, a homebuilder who has contributed more than $2 million to the governor over his career. (The two men are not related.)
The legislation creating the board also sharply limited the rights of homeowners to sue contractors for faulty construction, shunting most disputes to the commission. After its passage, Bob Perry and his wife sent two $50,000 checks to the governor’s campaign. Three weeks later, the governor appointed an executive of Perry Homes, Bob Perry’s company, to the commission, which was abolished in 2009.

Everything is so blatant and easily traced - why do we continue to just observe and shake our heads. Wrong is wrong and this is something that has to be fixed.  I think the only way to fix this is to make politicians run on issues and not on the amount of money they can raise - how to do this?  I haven't a clue [shaking head]. 

Libyan Rebels getting closer to ousting Gaddafi one small city at a time.

The fight for Freedom in Libya is going well. The Rebels are inching closer, they have learned to be thorough and patient, and they remain steadfast through their loses. My God help this country to a quick victory, help those in charge to stay away from corruption and move forward to a Just Democracy, and help the people find a stable, secure Peace... God Willing.


Libyan rebels 'take control' of Brega - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Why Are Republicans Turning Against the Environment? (Video) : TreeHugger

I don't know how anyone today can deny global warming. It is happening and we must take steps to protect the place that protects us: EARTH. By sticking our heads in the sand it does not change what is going on and in the past we didn't stick our heads in the sand - Lead caused health problems when it was in our gas, so we took it out and now we don't have that problem; We learned that germs exist and are spread, so we started to wash hands more regularly and if we do it often enough, we have less viruses and bacterial infections; etc.  When we face our problems and look for the answers, we have accomplished many wonderful successes. But if we ignore what is going on we can't make things better and will have to live (or die) with the consequences.

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was created by a republican?      Yes, Richard Nixon.

Today, the Republicans seem to be turning away from protecting our environment and bowing to corporation's profits, the Tea Party demands, and plain old sticking their heads in the sand and denying science. 

Why Are Republicans Turning Against the Environment?

"Short answer: 1) In an attempt to impress its Tea Party base. 2) Because two of its front-runners are prescribe to a religious ideology wherein it's unfathomable that man could foul the big G's creation -- this is also why Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann literally believe climate science is a hoax. 3) The money's pouring in from industry interests."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Zionist Crimes Against Christianity | Occupied Palestine | فلسطين

Zionism is not just against Muslims - it is against Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian. Zionism is against anything that is not Jewish, except of course - American Dollars.


In the 1940's thousands of Christians were displaced and many of their holy sites were damaged and disrespected by the invading Jewry terrorists. I didn't know before but the Israeli authorities censor media to make sure to exclude the name of "Jesus." I want to find a better source for this information but I find that hard to believe - you know it being a Democracy and all. Ha.

Still today Palestinian Christians are discriminated against by the Israelis.

Read more about the Nabka (Catastrophe) in Palestine for the Christians.

Texas Governor Rick Perry for President? of USA or Spin City.

 Rick Perry (R-TX), has now thrown in his hat to run for President in 2012. Is he qualified? Will he be able to help the country with job creation and a struggling economy?  Well, if Texas is any example, then we can look forward to a Republican once again talking about a Small Government - while actually increasing the government. Under Perry, Texas' public sector increased by 125,000 jobs in just three years ... but his state lost 178,000 jobs in the private sector.  Nothing to brag about especially when he has a "$27 billion budget deficit for the 2012-2013 budget," which will cause the lay-off of tens of thousands of workers in the upcoming budget cycle. 

"Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), since he launched his presidential campaign on Saturday, has paraded around the stat that 'since June of 2009, Texas is responsible for more than 40 percent of all of the new jobs created in America.' 'Now think about that. We’re home to less than 10 percent of the population in America, but 40 percent of all the new jobs were created in that state,' Perry says."

"In fact, 'Texas has done worse than the rest of the country since the peak of national unemployment in October 2009.' The unemployment rate in Texas has been steadily increasing throughout the recession, and went from 7.7 to 8.2 percent while the state was supposedly creating 40 percent of all the new jobs in the U.S."

"Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has been basing his nascent presidential campaign on his anti-government views and Texas’ supposed job creation miracle. As we noted today, when labor force growth is taken into account, Texas actually has the worst job creation record in the nation (though it does lead the country in minimum wage jobs). But there is one sector that has been booming under Perry: the public sector."

"he relied more on the 2009 Recovery Act than any other governor and faced a $27 billion budget deficit for the 2012-2013 budget,"

Read More:  Between 2007 And 2010, 47 Percent Of Government Jobs Were Created In Texas | ThinkProgress

Amazing Display by Rescued Whale | Eartheasy Blog

God has given the earth such wonderful splendor and this video footage of a Humpback Whale is inspirational and touching. Use less plastic, less plastic, and less plastic to help save our oceans. This whale was caught in a fishing net but plastic is increasingly found in the stomachs of whales.
Save the oceans, Save the Planet.

Article

How in the WORLD did we sit back and Assist what happened to the Palestinians. The water on THEIR Lands is not THEIRS? Make Sense? NO!!!

On what planet does a so-called "Democracy" occupy others land and control their water, their resources, their movements, their economy, their livelihoods, THEIR VERY LIVES.

The article that I am getting some of my information from is talking about the injustices that the Israelis are putting on the Palestinians access to their own water - just because they are not Jewish!

Does it sound like Israel is about to talk Peace and Freedom?

"And when I talk about the importance to Israel’s security, this is not an abstract concept… It means that a housewife in Tel Aviv can open the tap and there's water running to it, and it's not been dried up because of a rash decision that handed over control of our aquifers to the wrong hands."107 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 17 May 1998. Amnesty 1

"Israel must hold on to the West Bank 

to make sure that Tel-Aviv’s taps don’t run dry."
Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff to Israeli Army (1978 to 1993) and 

subsequently Minister of Agriculture and Environment 

(cited in Lonergan and Brooks, 2004).

AND

Mr. Katz-Oz, Israel’s negotiator on water issues 6
 "There is no reason for Palestinians to claim that just because they sit on lands, they have the rights to that water."  

It doesn't seem that they ever intended to talk peace.

 WATCH THIS VIDEO OF NETANYAHU WHEN HE DIDN'T KNOW THE CAMERAS 

WERE ON HIM:

 In it, he boasts that he deceived the US president at the time, Bill Clinton, into believing he was helping implement the Oslo accords, the US-sponsored peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, by making minor withdrawals from the West Bank while actually entrenching the occupation.

It also doesn't feel or look like Israel 

wants to talk Peace from the actions on the ground:

 AND ALL BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT JEWISH!!!

Israelis protesting for Social Justice? What kind of Social Justice?

Social Justice in Israel - what are they talking about? What INJUSTICE are they fighting for?  No One knows.  Better housing?  Housing like the settlers in the West Bank?  Nice low cost housing built right over the Ancient Palestinian towns.  Right next to Palestinians whose houses are being demolished.  Housing with abundant water while the Palestinians, who are just down the hill, have to ration the little water they have access to (on their own land, mind you).  Housing with easy access roads to quickly go where they want while the Palestinians have to wait in line for hours just to see if they can go to the next city.  When will the Protesters say what SOCIAL JUSTICE they are protesting for?

In the first six months of 2011, this policy (of discrimination) led to the destruction of the homes of 656 Palestinians in Area C in the West Bank, 351 of them children. This figure emerged from the figures of the UN Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA ). Yes, the same Area C to which the Yesha Council wants to tempt the tent protesters, and where it believes the solution to Israel's housing problem lies.
The number refers to 342 Palestinian structures, including 125 houses (the majority of them tents and corrugated tin huts ). OCHA found this to be an increase of almost five-fold over the number of demolitions and the number of people who lost their homes, in comparison with the same period last year. In July, another 100 Palestinians or so whose houses were destroyed were added to these figures.

But in Area C, the single large land reserve for Palestinian villages and cities - or rather, for a Palestinian state - in the West Bank, there are only some 150,000 Palestinians living. Why so few? Because Israeli restrictions on Palestinian development in those areas have been in effect since the early 1970s, long before Oslo and its tracks. In that way, potential population growth was blocked. Here is the "adherence to a path" of the Israeli policy makers.

Read Amira Hass's article: Otherwise Occupied / The spirit of sacrifice - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Ramadan in the Buffer Zone | International Solidarity Movement

The buffer zone is a place of death.  300 meters of destroyed land, land that used to be alive, that used to be filled with orchards, houses, and fields, now, all dead.  To enter the buffer zone is to risk your life, even to come close to it, the Israeli’s shoot farmers, shepherds, scrap collectors, anyone who comes close to the buffer zone is in danger.

 On Aug. 1st Ramadan began and about 30 protesters went to the Buffer Zone to pray. They were fasting and walked in the hot sun. They were able to complete the prayer without interruption of gun fire. It was peaceful and "For a short while, something lived in it, people prayed in it, may justice come soon."

 Read full article: Ramadan in the Buffer Zone | International Solidarity Movement

VIDEO: Security Guards At ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) Conference Physically Attack ThinkProgress Reporters

VIDEO: Security Guards At American Legislative Exchange Council Conference Physically Attack ThinkProgress Reporters | ThinkProgress

ALEC Watch: Rep. Mark Pocan's Special Report From New Orleans | The Progressive

ALEC - something every American needs to know about. Very important article to read by Mark Pocan:
ALEC Watch: Rep. Mark Pocan's Special Report From New Orleans | The Progressive

I really thought it would take more than five minutes in New Orleans before I realized the conservative movement had landed.

But it didn’t.         As I was waiting for my bags, I heard a mid-thirties woman talking on the phone. “Yah, I’m down in New Orleans for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting. We write legislation, and they pass our ideas. It’s the free market.”

A Courageous Republican willing to Stand up Against the Rhetoric

GET READY TO GIVE HIM A STANDING OVATION!!!

FOR HAVING COMMON SENSE.

 CHRISTIE: They are criticizing him because he is a Muslim American…I was disgusted, candidly, by some of the questions he was asked by both parties at the Senate judiciary committee…Sharia Law has nothing to do with this at all — it’s crazy! It’s crazy. The guy’s an American citizen…This Sharia Law business is crap. It’s just crazy, and I’m tired of dealing with the crazies. It’s just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background.

 Read full Article:  Gov. Christie ‘Disgusted’ By Criticism Of Muslim Judge: ‘This Sharia Law Business Is Crap’ | ThinkProgress

Answering Israeli Propoganda.

When I heard Netanyahu address our Congress I was confused when he said that they were not occupying the West Bank because those areas belong to them. He went on to say that area is called Samaria and Judea and is Jewish Land. The Congress clapped. What?
Israel's argument is:

Because Jordan never had any right to the territory, and there had never been an independent Palestinian state, the last legitimate claim to the West Bank was Israel’s, dating back to the League of Nations Mandate, via the Balfour Declaration. Therefore, there is a dispute over the land, but Israeli settlement is legal and the territory is not considered occupied under the law.

Read the full article: His Own Private Fantasy | Souciant
to find out the real answers and know how to answer Israeli's propaganda.

An example of one of Israeli's Argument is that there NEVER was a Palestinian Independent State:

Was there ever a Palestine? There has never been an independent state of Palestine. It’s also true that Jordan had no legal authority over the West Bank between 1949 and 1967. That does not mean Israel has a claim to that land. It also does not mean, as Ayalon implies, that the land cannot fall under the law of military occupation. It can, and as nearly every international law expert agrees, it does.

First Iftar in White House was over 200 yrs Ago with Jefferson

“Ramadan,” said President Obama at a White House iftar dinner in 2010, “is a reminder that Islam has always been a part of America. The first Muslim ambassador to the United States, from Tunisia, was hosted by President Jefferson, who arranged a sunset dinner for his guest because it was Ramadan — making it the first known iftar at the White House, more than 200 years ago.”

Thomas Jefferson’s Iftar | IIP Digital

VIDEO: Hidden video camera inside Israeli prison

“They (Israeli guards) always lied to let you know how much power they had.”

Destroying a 5,000 year old Olive Tree

A tree named Al-Badawi is in the path of the separation wall in Palestine. Bull Dosers are getting closer and it is unclear whether it will be uprooted along with other Olive Trees. Read more: Israeli bulldozers edge ever closer to… Al Badawi

I am still appalled that the USA and Caterpillar support this kind of action. I think if everyone of the legislators that stood up and clapped for Netanyahu went to the Occupied Territories for just a day they may have enough consciousness to really think about what they are giving our tax dollars to Israel for.

SAY NO TO APARTEID!!!

Just Another Hole in the Swiss Cheese

The Interior Minister of Israel is looking for ways to appease the protestors demands for more affordable housing. According to Omri Efraim  

The Interior Ministry announced on Thursday that the Jerusalem Municipality's Zoning Commission authorized the construction of 930 housing units in the Har Homa neighborhood, which is located beyond the Green Line.

(in East Jerusalem)

The project is considered particularly sensitive as it will effectively create contiguity of Jewish neighborhoods and will disconnect Sur Baher from Bethlehem.

(Sur Baher and Bethleham are of course Palestinian towns and will become islands to one another again restricting the free movement of people. Maybe the better term instead of "islands" is another "cell" in their prison.)

Peace Now said in response that the authorization was given particularly quickly. "The interior minister is exploiting the housing crisis to force young couples to move to settlements for financial reasons," it was claimed.

Read More: 930 Har Homa housing units okayed - Israel News, Ynetnews

Israel Taking Yet another Step Away from the Little Democracy they Had.

According to Noam Sheizaf:

People were concerned about the Boycott Law, which aimed to eliminate one of the most well known methods of opposition to the occupation, or by the Nakba Law, which prohibits certain institutions from marking the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948.

But this new bill takes the game to a whole new level, by formally making 20 percent of Israel’s citizens—a native population that predates the state—as second class citizens. They won’t be segregated in the way blacks were in the South or in South Africa (yet?), but Israel won’t even pretend to be their state anymore, and they will have even fewer rights than Jewish citizens. Israel will truly become, to use a phrase by Ahmad Tibi, “a Jewish democracy: Democracy for Jews and a Jewish state for everyone else.”

Knesset bill would formalize second-class status for Arab citizens

Attack on the children playing ball in Palestine

This video is of a Palestinian child being kidnapped but don't worry you will see the IDF come running to help.

‫الهجوم على اطفال يلعبون الكره في فلسطين‬‎ - YouTube

Did you see that???!!!  They helped the kidnappers!! 

 This child was doing nothing and after they took 13-year-old Islam Jaber, "to a graveyard and beaten up, the PA said, adding that he suffered severe anxiety attacks since the incident."

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday warned that Israel’s attacks on Palestinian children were escalating at “an alarming rate” and urged the UN to step in. Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed nine children so far in 2011, and almost 200 children have been injured by settler violence and the Israeli military... Read more.

IDF soldiers open fire on photojournalists Restricting photos in order to do as they please.

 IDF soldiers open fire on photojournalists

In an effort to deal with the continuing demonstrations, the IDF’s Central Command began to issue orders on an almost weekly basis declaring Nabi Saleh a closed military zone. This order is designed to prevent Palestinian and other activists from reinforcing local resident protesters and it also allows the military to control press coverage by blocking the media’s entry into the village.

With press cameras out of the way, army and Border Police forces operating in Nabi Saleh began to employ increasingly violent tactics against protesters and local residents – both during the weekly demonstrations and in arrest raids and incursions during the course of the week.

Incidents of physical and verbal intimidation of journalists by Border Police officers in Nabi Saleh have occurred periodically over the past 18 or so months, but a red line was crossed at the end of July when Israeli troops deliberately targeted media personnel with firearms.

Further, the IDF’s ongoing decision to declare Nabi Saleh a closed military zone on a weekly basis is a clear and unjustified move to suppress press freedom.

In the past, even when orders declared Nabi Saleh a closed military zone, commanders operating in the village have largely adhered to an unspoken agreement with the media: while not granting journalists easy entry into the village, accredited members of the press who did manage to infiltrate Nabi Saleh were largely ignored by troops and allowed to work freely and without restriction – as should be the case in any democratic state.

IDF soldiers open fire on photojournalists

Victory for Palestinians or NOT?

The Good News:

Israel's Supreme Court orders state to dismantle largest West Bank outpost

Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Unprecedented ruling states that Migron must be razed by April 2012; Israeli government had admitted outpost was built on lands belonging to Palestinians, but has thus far failed to dismantle it. 

 The Bad News:

The decision to dismantle an outpost as large as Migron is likely to cause a political storm in the West Bank settlements. 

This has been going on for years will the military really force them out? We will have to wait and see. Will Israel just increase its land confiscation?  You know: "settlement natural growth," declaring more "state land" from an Ottoman law (LOL- I can't help but laugh at this one), and "purchasing" land from Palestinians but they can't show the paper work for fear of Palestinian aggression. All of this is sickening.

More Bad News:

Dozens of MKs to Netanyhu: Solve Israel housing crisis by building in West Bank

MKs, cabinet ministers call on Netanyahu to consider all possible options to solve housing crisis, including settling of 'tens of thousands of citizens in Judea and Samaria, as well as Jerusalem'.

IDF prevents Israeli activists from escorting Palestinians to their lands in West Bank that they have been cut off from for 10 yrs.

This article just says it all.

IDF - totally controls who goes where in the West Bank and Declares "Militarized Zones" when and where it wants.
Settlements - illegally built even according to Israel's Laws.
Land Possession - Israelis don't have to prove they bought land... they just say that for security reasons they can't show the purchase papers.

Must read to believe the injustices that go on and the lies and manipulations.
IDF prevents Israeli activists from escorting Palestinians to their lands in West Bank - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Why did Tunisia and Egypt fall so fast and Libya, Yemen, & Syria are not?

I have wondered why Libya, Yemen, and Syria can't do what the Tunisians and Egyptians did. I am very afraid for the Syrians - I fear he may do what his father did and massacre over 100,000 people. God Forbid.

While the military sided against the dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, the situation in Libya, Yemen and Syria is complicated by the fact that their regimes' militia, special forces and republican guards have been better organised, better armed and better financed - and hence more potent and in control of their national armies.
These "mini armies" are headed by, and are loyal to, influential family members of the regimes that have long groomed them to fight in defence of the regime, not for state or society.
These soldiers' indoctrination and privilege blind them from noticing the changing reality. Instead, they continue to kill and destroy their countries to try to save their expired regimes.
As these ruling families monopolised security and business, they've emptied their countries of independent state agents capable of taking a neutral or mediating position. This has led to direct and ugly confrontations between people and the escalation of brute force.
Be that as it may, Libya, Yemen and Syria face complete economic shutdown, economic sanctions, and poor supplies. There is a limit to their resources.

Read full article by Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, answers questions about the current escalation - and what some see as setbacks - surrounding the uprisings in Libya, Syria, and Yemen.  A rude Arab awakening - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Encountering Peace: I should be a millionaire!

Some of the programs I have watched and articles I have read have stunned me at the way that the Israelis live with little awareness of the Palestinians that they oppress. I have seen programs where Palestinian youth have reached out to the Israelis who don't seem to have the time or will to continue a relationship.
I am a little surprised about these protests that the Israelis are having about the cost of Cottage Cheese.  Now it is more about housing and cost of living.  When I heard it was about housing - I sighed and said that they ought to do what the Palestinians are doing - living 2 to 3 or more families in one house. Netanyahu keeps talking about natural growth in the settlements and such but what about the Palestinians? They are not allowed to build houses next to one another much less get more land to expand for natural growth.  Israel is having such a hard time financially and that is with them receiving 3 or 4 BILLION dollars from the US. every single year! What are they doing with all of that money? They are not suppose to use it on settlements and there are other restrictions on it not being used against the Palestinians.


Mr. BASKIN, whom I follow on Twitter, writes very insightful articles and below is information he shares about these protests.

I remember a conversation I had with an Israeli Jew some 33 years ago, when I told him I was going to live in the Palestinian- Israeli village of Kafr Qara and do volunteer community work for two years. He asked why I would want to do that. I said: “I think there are a lot of things worth learning about our Arab neighbors,” to which he responded: “what could we possibly learn from them?” “There is nothing the Arabs can teach us!” he asserted.

As some of the speakers said on Saturday night, this is not about Left and Right, religious and secular, etc. etc. But, unfortunately, it really is. Israel will not meet its full potential until Jews and Arabs are equal here, and until Israel no longer rules over millions of Palestinians who reject that rule.

I was slightly encouraged when Aviv Geffen sang his most famous protest song “Until it is” with the words “let’s conquer the peace and not the territories,” and the crowd in Jerusalem cheered and applauded. Social justice will only be achieved when we achieve peace.

08/01/2011    The writer, GERSHON BASKIN, is founder and co-director of IPCRI, the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information. He hosts a weekly radio show in Hebrew on All for Peace radio, and is a voluntary columnist for The Jerusalem Post.

Read the full article:  Encountering Peace: I should be a... JPost - Opinion - Columnists

Somali women fleeing famine preyed on by rapists - USATODAY.com

This is such a heart wrenching story of strength, fear, helplessness, and struggle. I can't imagine life like this. I pray that all of the Aid gets to those in need and that help comes to bring peace that surmounts the war and pain.
Somali women fleeing famine preyed on by rapists - USATODAY.com

9/11 created a suspicion of Muslims based on the actions of a fanatical few, is this what it's like to walk a mile in the shoes of stereotype?

After Sept. 11, many of us Muslims felt isolated and afraid, I think esp. for those of us born in the US. I was mortified by what I had witnessed on TV, I was initially afraid to venture outside, and I found that I was afraid of every car and door that had the American Flag. I am part of the American Fabric, I have always been grateful for being born here in America, I used to even get stares and comments when at a ball game and the National Anthem played because I always cried, and I have always prayed for the whole world to have the kind of life that I enjoy.

It took about 2 years to get life a litlle bit back to the way it was before that dreadful day. During those 2 years, I couldn't get away from the TV without feeling a little panicky, at times I had to take sleeping pills in order to go to sleep, and one of the strange things that I regret the most that changed was I stopped reading to my kids at bedtime. I just couldn't seem to be able to sit down or focus or maybe it was staying away from the TV, I really don't know. I began to drink coffee throughout the day (I was never a coffee drinker before) and I was on defense mode outside (well, I still do this). Anyway, my main point is that people don't think that we (Muslims) were affected by what happened. Well, many of us were in ways that are understood and many ways that just don't make sense; but we were affected none-the-less.

MY country was attacked, I was mourning the loss of life, and I was as angry as the next woman. But MY religion was also attacked and in many ways is still being attacked.

I believe that this article can help others see a little of what we felt. Below is a snippet. READ the full article: 'Christian terrorist'? Norway case strikes debate | Latest National Headlines

When the "enemy" is different, an outsider, it's easier to draw quick conclusions, to develop stereotypes. It's simply human nature: There is "us," and there is "them." But what happens when the enemy looks like us - from the same tradition and belief system? That is the conundrum in the case of Norway and Anders Behring Brevik, who is being called a "Christian extremist" or "Christian terrorist."McVeigh and Breivik were both "good-looking young Caucasians, self-enlisted soldiers in an imagined cosmic war to save Christendom ... and both were Christian terrorists," Juergensmeyer wrote. In a column for Salon.com, Alex Pareene said Breivik is not an American-style evangelical, but he listed other connections to Christianity. "All of this says 'Christian terrorist,'" Pareene wrote. Such claims drew strong resistance. "Breivik is not a Christian. That's impossible. No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder," Bill O'Reilly said on his Fox News show. That makes sense to Joyce Dubensky, CEO of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. She said it also makes sense that "millions of Muslims say Osama bin Laden is not a Muslim, that no one who believes in the prophet Muhammad commits mass murder." "We need to hear Bill O'Reilly, but we also need to hear and understand the voices of the overwhelming Muslim majority around the world who condemn those who are terrorists in the name of their faith," she said.