How Zionists Outmaneuvered and Replaced State Department Experts
| by Amb. Andrew I. Killgore
Courtesy: The Counter Punch
( November 5, 2014, Washington DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) Alison Weir writes at the beginning of her book, Against Our Better Judgment: The hidden history of how the U.S. was used to create Israel, that while many people are led to believe that U.S. support for Israel is driven by the American establishment and U.S. national interests, facts do not support that belief. The reality is that while for decades almost all U.S. experts opposed Israel and its founding, they were outmaneuvered and eventually replaced by Zionists.
Palestinian man shot dead after killing one pedestrian and injuring 14 others, as clashes erupt across the holy city.
Last updated: 05 Nov 2014
At least one Israeli has been killed and 14 others injured, after a car rammed pedestrians in occupied Jerusalem, before the driver was shot dead by police, according to Israeli officials.
Police described Wednesday's incident as a "hit-and-run terror attack" and said it took place in the same area as a similar attack two weeks ago, in which a Palestinian man rammed a car into a crowd killing a woman and a baby.
"A commercial vehicle hit and ran over pedestrians at a light rail station," Luba Samri, police spokeswoman, said, indicating the incident took place on the seam line between west and occupied East Jerusalem.
After the car came to a halt, the driver, who was wounded, "got out of the vehicle and started to hit people with an iron bar", she said.
He was shot by police who were in the area at the time, she said.
The incident comes amid continued tensions over right-wing Jewish demands to be able to pray inside the compound and the expansion of Israeli settlement building in East Jerusalem.
In the East Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah, Palestianian demonstrators clashed with Israeli police, partially blocking a street and burning some trash.
Series of confrontations
Earlier Israeli security officers clashed with Palestinian protesters after far-right Israelis tried to storm the al-Aqsa mosque in the first of a series of confrontations in Jerusalem.
"There is still a lot of tension and a huge police presence here," Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab reported from Jerusalem.
Timeline: A review of the critical events that have marked the history of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Israeli security forces briefly entered the al-Aqsa compound as clashes broke out between Palestinian protesters and far-right Israelis trying to enter the compound.
"In a rare move, we understand that Israeli security forces entered the mosque at al-Aqsa," our correspondent said.
Israeli police told Al Jazeera that they had only entered briefly to close the door, but our correspondent said the move was likely to heighten tensions in the Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.
"These provocations, as it's seen by Palestinians at the al-Aqsa mosque, will certainly not do anything to calm the situation."
Israeli police said protesters threw stones and firecrackers at police officers minutes before the mosque compound opened.
"Police entered the area, pushed the masked rioters back, and they fled back into al-Aqsa. Police closed the front gate of the mosque but did not enter," Micky Rosenfeld, Israeli police spokesman, said.
Daily clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in the streets of East Jerusalem and the Old City compound have stoked fears of a new Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.
The al-Aqsa mosque is managed by Jordan as part of a 20 year old peace deal.
On Tuesday, Jordan recalled its ambassador in protest at what it calls "unprecedented Israeli escalation" in Jerusalem, Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh, who is in Amman, reported.
She also reported that Jordan is filing a formal complaint against Israel before the UN Security Council, on the al-Aqsa incident.
Situation still tense
Reuters television footage showed a few Israeli border policemen running through the compound while a group of Jewish worshippers and tourists waited outside to enter.
Al Jazeera's Tyab said the situation was still tense even if the compound had been reopened.
Read more of our coverage on Palestine
He said Israeli action amounted to "a crackdown in occupied East Jerusalem".
Israeli officers used stun grenades to disperse the crowd and the situation was now under control, Rosenfeld said.
Omar Alkeswani, a Palestinian manager of al-Aqsa, said police entered the compound and that 20 people were wounded in the clashes.
In an attempt to crack down on stone throwers, the Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved an amendment to the country's criminal law that, if passed by the Knesset, would toughen punishments for those who throw objects at vehicles.
This change could mean prison sentences of up to 20 years. The proposed law must first go to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, followed by three Knesset votes.
If the bill goes through, it would allow for a punishment of 10 years in prison for throwing objects at a moving vehicle.
If it is proved that the offender meant to cause harm to the driver or passenger, then they could face up to 20 years in prison.
In early 2010, I visited the Swat Valley in Pakistan's mountainous north, shortly after the Pakistani army retook control of the district from Taliban fighters. I went to try to understand why Maulana Fazlullah -- now head of the Pakistani Taliban -- had attracted such widespread support among the region's youth.
Western countries are at the gates of a new cold war with Russia sparked by the Ukraine crisis and a continuing failure to grasp the depth and seriousness of Vladimir Putin’s grievances with the US and EU, the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, has warned.
Speaking to the Guardian at his official residence before a conference in Helsinki on Thursday attended by the UK prime minister, David Cameron, and leaders of the Nordic and Baltic states, Niinistö said Finland had a long tradition of trying to maintain friendly relations with Russia. But it was not prepared to be pushed around.
“The Finnish way of dealing with Russia, whatever the situation, is that we will be very decisive to show what we don’t like, where the red line is. And that is what we are prepared to do,” Niinistö said, referring to a recent spate of violations of Finnish airspace by Russian military aircraft.
“We put the Hornets [US-made Finnish air force F-18 fighter aircraft] up there and the Hornets were flying alongside the Russian planes … The Russians turned back. If they had not, what would we have done? I would not speculate.”
A Finnish Air Force photograph shows a Russian AN-72 transport plane, taken by a Finnish aircraft pilot. Finland’s Defense Ministry said it suspects a Russian military aircraft on Thursday violated Finnish airspace Photograph: AP
Cameron will join eight Nordic and Baltic leaders at the one-day Northern Future Forum hosted by Alexander Stubb, Finland’s prime minister. Sources said they would discuss how to respond to Moscow’s official recognition of “illegitimate” weekend elections won by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, at a private dinner at Stubb’s residence at Kesäranta.
Cameron will be told Britain is seen as an essential player in formulating Europe’s policy towards Russia and that the Ukraine crisis shows how the EU is much stronger when its members work together, the sources said.
Finland, formerly a grand duchy of the Russian empire, declared its independence in 1917 after the Russian revolution. It survived two separate conflicts with the Soviet Union during the second world war. During the cold war Finland followed a policy of “active neutrality” to keep Moscow at bay. The two countries share an 830-mile (1,300km) land border.
Many Finns worry that the insecurity and uncertainties of the cold war years are returning as the standoff with Russia over its annexation of Crimea and destabilisation of eastern Ukraine continues.
“We are in the position in the west of asking what is Putin up to,” Niinisto said. “Putin keeps saying the west and Nato are hostile. [He says] they have deceived Russia with Nato enlargement and they are undermining and humiliating Russia.
“So this is a situation that is not promising. I have said we are almost at the gates of a new kind of cold war” that could suck in all of Europe.
Niinisto discussed the Ukraine situation with Putin in person in August and said he remained in touch with the Russian leader. He said the US and EU were partly to blame for not paying enough attention to Putin’s assertions that the west was weak, hedonistic and hostile to Russia’s values, including religious values. The EU had failed to appreciate its plans for closer ties with Ukraine posed a “huge problem” for Putin.
Putin, under pressure from Russian conservatives and ultra-nationalists, may have been emboldened by last year’s last-minute US decision not to launch bombing and missile attacks in Syria. Russia believed its diplomatic intervention at that time had been a great success, Niinisto said.
For Russia, Syria was only the latest example of perceived western weakness, an influential government insider in Helsinki said.
“A bigger factor is the consistent softness shown by the EU and the US when it comes to Russian actions. They [the Russians] have got away with murder since the first Chechen war and especially since [the Russian military intervention in] Georgia [in 2008],” the insider said.
Despite the rise in international tensions with Russia, a clear majority of Finns continues to oppose joining Nato, in part out of concern about Moscow’s possible reaction. Russian officials have repeatedly warned Finland, which is 100% dependent on Russian gas supplies, against taking up Nato membership.
Niinisto said Finland was supportive of Nato as a member of its Partnership for Peace programme and, for example, as a contributor to Nato operations in Afghanistan. It also maintained large land forces, unlike some other EU countries. He rejected accusations that Finland was taking a free ride behind Nato’s protective shield. “We are not passengers,” he said.
“We have a long tradition of keeping out of conflict with Russia … though we did not succeed in the second world war. We can’t change geography. We have a 1,300km border. That is more than all other EU countries together. The Nato-Russia border would be doubled [if Finland joined]. We have to consider that too.
“My main worry is the larger picture of getting close to a cold war. That would be a very uncertain situation and that worries us. But if you are asking are we afraid, directly or indirectly, of Russia, I would say no.”
By Griff Witte and Anna FifieldNovember 5 at 1:56 AM LONDON — A Republican romp in U.S. midterm elections that was built in part on American anxiety about an increasingly dangerous world prompted concerns from overseas Wednesday that President Obama’s global role will only be further diminished.. The GOP gained control of the Senate Tuesday night, taking hold of the legislative agenda in that chamber. Here are three of the policies Republicans are likely to tackle as they take the reins in January 2015. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post)
A Thai student was sentenced to 5 years in jail Tuesday for posting comments on Facebook deemed insulting to the Southeast Asian nation’s revered monarchy.
Prachathai reported that ‘Akaradej’, a 24-year-old undergraduate student at Mahanakorn University of Technology, had his sentence reduced to two-and-a-half years as he had pleaded guilty to the offence.
The defendant was arrested on June 18 at his university dormitory after a complaint was filed by a fellow Facebook user in March. ‘Akaradej’ initially denied the charges, before pleading guilty in September.
Prachathai reports:
The court ruled that the defendant used a Facebook username “Uncle Dom also loves the King” to post lèse majesté comments on the Facebook status of a friend.
Akaradej’s father has submitted 150,000-200,000 baht bail requests five times. The court, however, has never granted bail citing flight risk.
The case began after one of Akaradej’s Facebook friends, supposedly the owner of the Facebook status, filed a police complaint in March 2014.
Thailand’s draconian lèse majesté law, Article 112 of the Criminal Code, states that it is a criminal offense to “defame, insult or threaten” the king, queen, heir to the throne or regent. If convicted, offenders can face up to 15 years in prison.
Last month, Asian Correspondent blogger Saksith Saiyasombut reported on the rising number of lèse majesté cases under the military junta, which took power in a coup on May 22 this year:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures while speaking at Madison Square Garden in New York, during a visit to the United States, September 28, 2014
BY MANOJ KUMAR AND TOM MILES--Wed Nov 5, 2014
(Reuters) - India defied the world on Wednesday in a row over food stockpiling that has crippled attempts to reach a global trade agreement, raising doubts that backroom talks can reach a compromise before a Group of 20 summit this month.
At the end of July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulled the plug on implementing a so-called trade-facilitation deal struck in Bali last year, linking it to the emotive issue of rural poverty in his country of 1.25 billion people.
India wants to keep a so-called 'peace clause' that protects its huge state food purchases until the World Trade Organization can strike a definitive deal on stockpiling. As originally envisaged in Bali, the clause would expire in four years.
Critics say the food stockpiling amounts to paying farmers to produce food, which is likely to lead to food surpluses that will get dumped on world markets.
New Delhi's blockade has plunged the WTO into its worst crisis in two decades, leading Director General Roberto Azevedo to float the idea of abandoning the consensus principle on which the 160-member group operates.
Modi's tough line jars with the 'Make in India' pitch he has taken to investors abroad in his first five months in charge. Having failed to make progress on trade when he met U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, he could find himself isolated at his first G20 summit of world leaders in Brisbane, Australia, on Nov. 15-16.
"India's position on trade facilitation has been completely misunderstood because of unreasonable positioning by some of the developed countries," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told a World Economic Forum conference in New Delhi.
Jaitley repudiated suggestions that India was fundamentally opposed to trade facilitation, which would entail easing port and customs procedures and, by some estimates, add $1 trillion and 21 million jobs to the global economy.
QUIET DIPLOMACY
India has begun backroom efforts to break the deadlock, sending a top trade ministry official to Geneva this week for talks with Azevedo and key WTO members.
Trade diplomats said that there was no hint, however, that a compromise could be reached on India's demands, which have been vague and varied in the months since its veto.
On Monday, Modi held a meeting of trade ministry officials to discuss how the deadlock could be broken without compromising India's food-security concerns.
"If India has to submit a proposal, it would be presented at the right time," a senior trade ministry official with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
India refuses to bow to foreign calls to scale back a scheme to buy wheat and rice that it distributes to 850 million people. In a recent disclosure to the WTO, India said those purchases cost $13.8 billion in 2010-11 - part of the $56.1 billion it spent in total on farm support.
"All that we are requesting is the settlement of the dispute with regard to the food stock holdings, and the peace clause must continue to co-exist," Jaitley said.
Diplomats say that without a WTO deal on trade facilitation, countries could simply tack the draft agreement onto their existing membership terms, putting the onus on India to object - and explain why its interests had been damaged by such a move.
Yet economists say WTO members lack any effective means to bring pressure to bear against Asia's third-largest economy, which is home to a sixth of the world population.
"It's an issue that in India is so politicised - you have hordes of the population living in poverty and depending on food aid," said Shilan Shah, an economist who covers India at Capital Economics in London.
"The WTO hasn't really shown the kind of will to move on without India's agreement. What it demonstrates is how important India is to the global trading community."
As a new report points out serious failings in children's mental health services, one teenager tells Channel 4 News about being sent to A&E by his headteacher and told to stop "blackmailing" teachers.
The photo above is posed by a model (Getty)
Sam*was 15 when he was treated for suicidal thoughts and psychotic hallucinations. Over the course of nine months he was seen by two psychiatrists and two therapists, having to start from scratch with treatment each time.
"It was a constant cycle of ups and downs with mood," he told Channel 4 News. "Your therapy gets into the same cycle as your symptoms. It was a repetitive cycle of not getting anywhere."
Hi school in Birmingham wasn't much better. "When I was suicidal, I would often break down in school. I would tell my form teacher: 'I'm really struggling, I feel close to crisis'," he says now. "He referred me to the headteacher, because he didn't know how to deal with me. The head got very angry and asked why I was blackmailing my teachers."
During one particularly bad episode, in which he says he was hallucinating, talking a lot, and "wasn't really in touch with reality", the school called an ambulance and he was sent to A&E.
They said he couldn't come back until he was "stable" and he became an in-patient over Easter - just before his GCSEs. At this mental health hospital, he didn't come into contact with any health professionals for 12 whole days.
"It was an incredibly emotional time," he said. "It's very isolating, especially when you don't have the nurses there or the professionals who aren't supposed to be designated to you."
Sarah Brennan, chief executive of YoungMinds on the health select committee report on child and adolescent mental health services: "For far too long we have heard over and over again from young people and their families about the overwhelming distress caused by lack of access to mental health services.
"We have been told countless times of the intense frustration of mental health professionals as they attempt to do their best for children, young people and their families who are suffering on a daily basis. We hear from teachers facing a tidal wave of mental health problems, and deep frustration from professionals and commissioners asking us how can they plan and deliver services when information on the scale of young people's mental health problems is ten years out of date and their resources are devastated.
"The health select committee report proves beyond all doubt that children and young people's mental health services are facing a major crisis. The publication of this report must be a pivotal moment in addressing this crisis, our response has got to change, no longer can we sit back and pretend this isn't happening."
Now 19, he says his treatment improved significantly once he was on the right anti-psychotic drugs. He was able to go and take his GCSEs and A-levels.
But he welcomes today's report, particularly the call for more teacher training and more joined up care, with communication between the various strands of CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services) support.
"The people I saw and my teachers, they wanted to help and wanted the best for me," he said. "But it was a case of not knowing where to turn.
"Training on that and more confidence from teachers to know where to go would mean the situation could be handled much better."
Transparency International, the global anti-corruption movement, condemns the continued harassment of its chapter in Sri Lanka, including a growing number of death threats to the staff, and demands the government investigate.
Transparency International Sri Lanka’s work is centred on fighting corruption in Sri Lanka. To this end it has monitored elections, trained local government officials on budget transparency and has run a series of workshops to train journalists how to uncover corruption in the both the public and private sectors.
In the past few months there has been an escalation in the number of threats the chapter has faced, although it has been under attack for several years. Family members of the staff have been threatened and people working for the chapter have had to be temporarily relocated. So far the security services have done little to help.
“The government should actively protect the space for civil society and condemn the continued attacks on Transparency International Sri Lanka. Its silence makes it complicit. We call on the authorities to both speak out against these actions and to investigate the threats,” said Elena Panfilova, vice-chair of Transparency International.
This year three journalist training workshops and two other events organised by the chapter have been disrupted with threats of violence, forcing some venues to cancel the events. Transparency International Sri Lanka staff has been singled out and threatened.
This comes at a time when the government is actively trying to close the space for civil society in Sri Lanka and is threatening to introduce restrictive regulations.
“The role of civil society is to hold those in power to account and to do this it must be allowed to function free from intimidation. The anti-corruption work that Transparency International Sri Lanka undertakes strengthens the trust that citizens have in their leaders by calling for more transparent government and educating citizens how to fight corruption,” said Panfilova.
In October Transparency International’s membership passed a resolution calling on all governments to act now to safeguard the space for civil society in the fight against corruption and for basic rights to work free from fear, harassment and intimidation.
Families of missing persons in Sri Lanka’s north have told a Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Monday and Tuesday that they handed over their missing husbands, sons and brothers to the Sri Lankan army during the final days of the war via the mediation of Rev. Father Frances, who is also reported missing. We Handed Them to Army With Father by Thavam
By R. Sampanthan , MP--04/11/2014
President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as the Minister of Finance and Planning also, has presented his 10th Budget. In my view, the Budget seeks to ensure that he would present many more Budgets. The Budget seeks to please and placate wide segments of society in an effort to ensure their political support for him at an election to be held very soon. It must not be denied that there are benefits that accrue to the people in the matter of development, in the matter of relief, in the matter of employment and other facilities. Lions Share of the Budget Goes to Rajapaksa Family – R. Sampanthan by Thavam
[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2014, 23:43 GMT] “While several actors including US, UK, China, UN involved in different ways in the conflict in Sri Lanka which led to genocide of Eelam Tamils, the actor most severely and the most consistently perplexed in the Sri Lankan war has been India,” says University of Bergen Research Fellow, Vijayshankar Asokan in a submission he sent on “Indian complicity in the genocide of Eezham Tamils” to OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka. A native of Tamil Nadu and studying in Norway since 2008, Mr. Vijayshankar in his submission was extensively citing Mr. Ku. Ramakrishnan, General Secretary of Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam, Mr. Erik Solheim, the failed peace facilitator and various reports as well as statements.
The Inter-University Students' Federation (IUSF) charged that degrees were being sold in State universities at exorbitant prices under the guise of external degrees. In the school education system, money is also being charged unofficially from parents and students, the IUSF noted. Convener of the IUSF, Najith Indika, added the degree in Arts at the Ruhuna University was being sold at Rs 67,000, while plans are afoot to sell the university's degree in management for Rs 300,000. "The degree in management at the Rajarata University is being sold at Rs 150,000. The degree in aesthetic studies is being sold at the Aesthetic Studies University at Rs 79,000, while there are plans to sell the degree in music at Rs 81,000. The degree in arts at the Kelaniya University is being sold at Rs 75,000, the degree in nursing at the Jaffna University is being sold at Rs 500,000 and the degree in management at the Peradeniya University is being sold at Rs 300,000. These are exorbitant rates. This is a profit-making venture," he observed. The IUSF started its campaign of pasting banners, signing a petition, distributing leaflets and addressing people about the privatization of education and the curbing of free education yesterday, in front of the Colombo Fort Railway Station. Over the next three weeks, the IUSF plans to cover 150 cities and towns across the country, thusly, followed by protests alongside other trade unions. "Through an extraordinary gazette issued in January 2014, the amount of fees charged in schools was increased to Rs 600. Aside to this money is being collected for the maintenance of school buildings, a new coat of paint, to pay the salaries of security guards and for construction purposes. Even for Mahindyodaya Technical Laboratory opening ceremonies, money is charged (Thambuththegama Makuluwa Maha Vidyalaya – Rs 500 collected from parents, Haldummulla Walahaputhenna Maha Vidyalaya – Rs 250 was collected from students and St. Joseph's Girls' School in Kegalle – Rs 7,600 was collected as annual payments, for paint and other facilities)," Indika alleged.
How Zionists Outmaneuvered and Replaced State Department Experts
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