Resistance by Gaither Stewart

by Gaither Stewart
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
8 January 2009
Previously published 1 January 2008

(Buenos Aires) A book by the dean of Argentine writers, the 96-year old Ernesto Sabato, bears the title, La Resistencia, though the word Resistance itself is used sparingly in his 150-page book-essay. Yet, his message is clear: man must resist against injustice. I began this essay from that point.

Resistance begins in doubt. Then it grows into the adolescence of skepticism and matures into defiance, confrontation and struggle. Resistance is above all the determination to say, no. No! to euphemism and deceit. No! to falsehood and lie. No! to promises of comfort and ease and assurances that ours is the right way of life.

Resistance is real life as opposed to virtual life. Resistance is the precise opposite of acceptance of what society offers and the resulting retreat into comfort and ease, into the assurances that your lifestyle is the right one, that your way of life is the right way of life. Resistance is the rejection of Power’s version of life. It is rejection of wide-eyed acquiescence to Power’s lure.

No Victors in the War on Dissent

by William Cox and Coleen Rowley
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
www.thevoters.org
January 8, 2009

Among the wars currently being fought by the American government is one in which there can be no winners. Our prior law enforcement experiences warn us that the “war on terrorism” has spawned an internal “war on dissent” in which everyone loses.

Author William John Cox’s law enforcement career spanned 40 years, the early part of which was spent as a Los Angeles police officer and which included direct policing of both the riots and terrorist incidents in that city in the late 60’s to early 70’s. One of the first assignments given to author Coleen Rowley as a new FBI agent was to help in the processing and releasing of the numerous files improperly gathered by J. Edgar Hoover after the National Lawyer’s Guild won its FOIA lawsuits against the FBI in the early 1980’s.

Mosaic News – 1/7/09: War on Gaza – Day 12

Dandelion Salad

Warning

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This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

linktv

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“Israel Uses Cluster Bombs and Phosphorus Shells Against Civilians,” Press TV, Iran
“The Psychological Warfare Between Israel and Hamas,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“US Media Gives Priority to Israeli Position,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
“Egypt Proposes Ceasefire Initiative for Gaza,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“Israel Suspends Bombing Campaign Between 1pm and 4pm,” IBA TV, Israel
“Hamas Rejects Deployment of International Forces in Gaza,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“French President Arrives in Syria Seeking Gaza Ceasefire,” Syria TV, Syria
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.

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Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Gaza Catastrophe: Resource Conflict? By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed

Dandelion Salad

By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
January 07, 2009 “Information Clearinghouse”

Natural Gas, Palestinian Elections, and Israel’s Subversion of the ‘Peace Process’

Israel claims it is fighting in Gaza to stop Hamas rocket-fire against Israel, the continuation of which constituted a flagrant breach of the six-months ceasefire. Hence, the objective of the military operation is limited by the aim of putting an end to the rocket-fire. In fact, the current outbreak of violence cannot be understood without analysing the asymmetries in military violence between the two parties; the dynamic structure of the conflict in the context of the character of the Israeli occupation; the central role of recent discoveries of substantial natural gas reserves in Gaza; and joint Anglo-American and Israeli attempts to monopolise the lucrative (and strategic) energy resources through a political process tied to a corrupt Palestinian Authority run by Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party. Hamas’ unprecedented victory in democratic elections in 2006 fundamentally threatened these plans. Operation Cast Lead, the concurrent Israeli military venture, was operationalised as a war plan in early 2008, and already finalised in detail as far back as 2001 by Israeli military intelligence. Its execution in late December 2008 into January 2009 is designed to head-off not only domestic Israeli elections, but more significantly, the outcome of further incoming Palestinian democratic elections likely to consolidate Hamas’ power, to permanently shift the balance of geopolitical and economic power in its favour. The long-term goal is the “cantonization” of the Occupied Territories making way for increased Israeli encroachment, and ultimately the escalation of Palestinian emigration.

War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields by Michel Chossudovsky

Dandelion Salad

by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, January 8, 2009

The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves.

This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.

British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.

The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21,  2007).

The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline.(Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001).

The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine.

No Gaza exit strategy – Dion Nissenbaum: It is difficult to see how this ends

Dandelion Salad

TheRealNews

Jewish girl beaten in Paris over Gaza

Dandelion Salad

January 7, 2009

PARIS (JTA) — A Jewish girl was beaten in a northern Paris suburb by schoolmates who claimed revenge for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

A group of youths kicked and pushed to the ground the 14-year-old as she left school in Villiers-le-Bel on Monday with a friend. They broke the teen’s glasses and shouted, “You’ll pay for what the Israelis are doing in Gaza.”

“Tell your Jewish brothers that we won’t be pushed around,” the schoolmates also said, according to reports recounting the victim’s version of events.

[…]

via Jewish girl beaten in Paris over Gaza | JTA – Jewish & Israel News.

see

Racism Against Jews Is Not Acceptable

Temporary halt to Gaza bombing a paltry response, says Médecins Sans Frontières + What MSF is seeing

Kucinich: WAKE AMERICA! Israel is Killing Children With Your Tax Dollars!

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Temporary halt to Gaza bombing a paltry response, says Médecins Sans Frontières + What MSF is seeing

Dandelion Salad

Crossposted with permission from Médecins Sans Frontières; thanks Pete.

07/01/2009 08:54

Temporary halt to Gaza bombing a paltry response as extreme violence victimizes civilians

The military offensive in the Gaza Strip is affecting civilians indiscriminately, while medical teams continue to face serious obstacles to providing assistance, the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today. The international community must not be content with a limited truce, which MSF said is largely inadequate for providing life-saving assistance.

As the Israeli military offensive continues, the toll, estimated at 600 deaths and 2,950 wounded in just 11 days, is reaching alarming proportions and is indicative of extreme violence indiscriminately affecting civilians.

“Today, 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, almost half of them children, are the victims of incessant shooting and bombing,” said Franck Joncret, MSF’s head of mission. “How can anyone believe that such a steamroller attack would spare civilians, who are prevented from fleeing and are crowded in a densely-populated enclave?”

Kucinich: WAKE UP AMERICA! Israel is Killing Children With Your Tax Dollars!

Dandelion Salad

CSPANJUNKIEdotORG

http://cspanjunkie.org/
January 08, 2009 C-SPAN

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Dennis Kucinich and Eliot Engel: 2 congressman with very different views

Send a message to the new Congress asking for a ceasefire (action alert)

Jewish Peace News: Media and the war on Gaza

Mosaic News – 1/6/09: War on Gaza – Day 11

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Martial Law, the Financial Bailout, and War by Prof. Peter Dale Scott

Dandelion Salad

by Prof. Peter Dale Scott
Global Research, January 8, 2009

Paulson’s Financial Bailout

It is becoming clear that the bailout measures of late 2008 may have consequences at least as grave for an open society as the response to 9/11 in 2001. Many members of Congress felt coerced into voting against their inclinations, and the normal procedures for orderly consideration of a bill were dispensed with.

The excuse for bypassing normal legislative procedures was the existence of an emergency. But one of the most reprehensible features of the legislation, that it allowed Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to permit bailed-out institutions to use public money for exorbitant salaries and bonuses, was inserted by Paulson after the immediate crisis had passed.

According to Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vermont) the bailout bill originally called for a cap on executive salaries, but Paulson changed the requirement at the last minute. Welch and other members of Congress were enraged by “news that banks getting taxpayer-funded bailouts are still paying exorbitant salaries, bonuses, and other benefits.”1 In addition, as AP reported in October, “Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. questioned allowing banks that accept bailout bucks to continue paying dividends on their common stock. `There are far better uses of taxpayer dollars than continuing dividend payments to shareholders,’ he said.”2

One Giant Rez by William Norman Grigg

Dandelion Salad

Crossposted at Thomas Paine’s Corner thanks, Jason.

“What’s happening in my country is also happening in your country…. You don’t even know it, but you’re the Indians of the 21st Century, and that’s very sad.”

– Russell Means, Indian Activist and Facilitator of the newly created Independent Republic of Lakota.

Pat Buchanan: US on the edge of the abyss

Dandelion Salad

RussiaToday

The financial crisis put the U.S. and the whole world on the edge of an abyss says American political commentator Pat Buchanan.

Israel ‘fires into Lebanon after rockets’ + Israel Claims Lebanon Shot Rockets Into Northern Israel

Dandelion Salad

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Reuters
The Independent
Thursday, 8 January 2009

At least three rockets fired from Lebanon exploded in northern Israel today wounding two people, said police and medics, in an attack seen as linked to Israel’s offensive against Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

Israel hit back with artillery shells in what an Israeli military spokesman described as “a pinpoint response at the source of fire”.

It was not immediately clear whether Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas – against whom Israel fought a 2006 war – or Palestinians fired the rockets, presenting a new challenge to Israeli leaders who have waged attacks on Gaza for 13 days.

[…]

via Israel ‘fires into Lebanon after rockets’ – Middle East, World – The Independent.

h/t: CLG

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Israel Claims Lebanon Shoots Rockets Into Northern Israel

VOTERSTHINKdotORG

http://cspanjunkie.org/
January 08, 2009 BBC World

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Dennis Kucinich and Eliot Engel: 2 congressman with very different views

Send a message to the new Congress asking for a ceasefire (action alert)

Jewish Peace News: Media and the war on Gaza

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Stop Censoring International News in America! By Timothy V. Gatto

Dandelion Salad

By Timothy V. Gatto
January 07, 2009 “Information Clearinghouse”

I was preparing for my radio show after watching CBS News with Katie Couric. I already knew that my show was to be about Gaza and the hostilities there. As I read the different stories I became increasingly angry. Why is half of the story always left out of the American Mainstream Media? If I were only getting my news from the MSM, I would believe that Hamas started everything by raining down missiles on hapless Israeli citizens. Is that what some of you reading this believe?

Let me set the record straight. The UN fact finding mission to Gaza has a different story. The people of Gaza (and not just Hamas) have been enduring a blockade on three sides and a navel blockade on their Mediterranean coast. This is a violation of International Law and a blockade is considered to be an act of war by International standards. This means that Israel has been effectively waging war against the Gaza Strip since last September when they were supposedly adhering to a six-month ceasefire. People in Gaza ran short of medical supplies, food and fuel. This was uncalled for and Israel was the prime aggressor. Every time the Security Council tried to deal with this problem the United States cast a veto on any sanctions against Israel.

Obama prepares sweeping cuts in social programs

Dandelion Salad

by Patrick Martin
http://www.wsws.org
8 January 2009