Eideard

OK to pass through the checkpoint to fight a forest fire
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Israel’s refusal Tuesday to allow four Palestinian firefighters to cross the border from the West Bank to attend a ceremony for their role in putting out the country’s largest-ever fire has prompted a torrent of criticism.

Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of Israel’s Knesset who helped organize the ceremony, said he was shocked when when he received a call from one of the firefighters, informing him that he and three others were being denied entry into Israel because of security concerns.

The ceremony was to salute 11 Palestinian firefighters who were among the many foreigners volunteering to help Israelis put out the worst fire in the nation’s history. The blaze killed 43 people this month.

The ceremony, which was being held in the northern town of Isifya, near where the fire began, was canceled in protest of Israel’s decision.

The Israeli government office that oversees the crossings with the Palestinian territories issued a statement expressing “regret” over the incident but asked that “a fuss” not be made.

For its part, the Palestinian Authority government was quick to lambaste Israel in a statement, asking why “the same Palestinian firemen who where permitted to enter Israel last week to put the fire out are not permitted to enter today to be honored?”

The egregious thugs in charge of the Israeli government are without peer since the days of South Africa’s apartheid dictatorship. They prattle about democracy and freedom. They open their arms to men willing to risk their lives battling the nation’s worst-ever forest fire.

Cripes, I didn’t think it possible; but, the Israelis are more corrupt than Congress.

An Arab man convicted in Israel of rape because he pretended he was a Jew when he had consensual sex with a Jewish woman has called the verdict racist. Sabbar Kashur, 30, was found guilty of “rape by deception” by the Israeli court and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

According to the complaint filed by the woman, the two met in a Jerusalem street in 2008 and had sex that day. When she discovered he was not Jewish, but an Arab, she went to the police.

Kashur was arrested and charged with rape and indecent assault, but the charges were later replaced by a different charge of “rape by deception”…

“If I were Jewish, they wouldn’t have even questioned me,” the Haaretz newspaper quoted him as saying.

“That’s not called rape, I didn’t rape her in the forest and and throw her away naked. She agreed to everything that happened…”

“The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price – the sanctity of their bodies and souls,” the court judgement was quoted as reading.

Can you imagine what would happen, say, if a German court convicted a Jew of “rape” if he lied when having sex with a German woman.

Oh. That’s right. They did. Under Hitler.

The world is marking the first Nelson Mandela International Day to commemorate the birthday of South Africa’s first black president, who turns 92 on Sunday.

The United Nations had last year agreed to commemorate Mandela’s birthday every year to recognise the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s contribution to resolving conflicts and promoting race relations, human rights and reconciliation…

Mandela was jailed for 27 years by the country’s white minority government for resisting apartheid rule.

On his release in 1990, he led negotiations with apartheid rulers, a process that culminated in his election as the country’s first black president in 1994.

He stepped down as president in 1999, after serving one term in office and is still revered around the world for promoting peace and fighting against racism and HIV/Aids.

Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela.

You have always been a beacon of hope for anyone on this small planet who holds freedom and opportunity to be the birthright of human beings. Your fortitude through so many years of imprisonment is an inspiration.

Shimon Peres, now president of Israel, and P W Botha of apartheid South Africa

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state’s possession of nuclear weapons.

The “top secret” minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa’s defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel’s defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them “in three sizes”. The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that “the very existence of this agreement” was to remain secret.

The documents, uncovered by an American academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in research for a book on the close relationship between the two countries, provide evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons despite its policy of “ambiguity” in neither confirming nor denying their existence.

The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa’s post-apartheid government declassifying the documents at Polakow-Suransky’s request and the revelations will be an embarrassment, particularly as this week’s nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York focus on the Middle East.

They will also undermine Israel’s attempts to suggest that, if it has nuclear weapons, it is a “responsible” power that would not misuse them, whereas countries such as Iran cannot be trusted…

RTFA. Once again, the truth will out.

Israel’s willingness to support one of the most violent, racist governments since Hitler’s Germany is something that most scholars of international policy already know about. It’s only our government that lies about the fact – and the gullible who believe the lies.