GEORGE W.BUSH: "ISRAEL IS EXERCISING ITS LEGITIMATE RIGHT FOR SELF-DEFENCE

"AFTER 19 DAYS, I STARTED TO CRY" MAZEN KERBAJ, AN ARTIST BLOGGER FROM BEIRUT

“Day 19″, From Mazen Kerbaj’s blog

THE VICTIMS OF THE QANA MASSACRE OBTAIN A TEMPORARY CEASEFIRE

Monday July 31
20th day of the Israeli attack
at least 545 dead Lebanese, mostly civilians, at least 30% of them children
plus an estimated 750 dead still lying in rubble

No more weddings in Qana of Galilee, only funerals

REUTERS – Mon Jul 31, 2006 3:10am ET: The attack on the southern village of Qana prompted Lebanon to call off scheduled talks with Rice on Sunday and tell her she was not welcome until an unconditional ceasefire was in place.

Rice stayed on in Jerusalem and won a 48-hour suspension from Israel of its aerial bombardment of south Lebanon. Israel also agreed a 24-hour window for residents to leave the battered area and let aid workers reach the worst hit villages.

REUTERS Sun Jul 30, 2006 2:14pm ET: QANA, Lebanon
An Israeli air strike killed more than 60 Lebanese civilians,
including at least 37 children, on Sunday

FOOTNOTE BY MAVROS GATOS: Let me remind you that on Saturday (before the Qana massacre)Israel had rejected once more the repeated UNITED NATIONS plea for a 72 hour ceasefire
that would allow the evacuation of the civilians from southern Lebanon and would allow help squads to reach the wounded…

NOAM CHOMSKY UNCOVERS THE ISRAELI BULLY

From the official Noam Chomsky website. I first saw it here.

July 19, 2006

Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine

Signed by Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein,
Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago & Howard Zinn

The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner – and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis – there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.

That this “kidnapping” was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources – most particularly that of water – by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.

Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly – who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?

Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.

This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.

NO MORE WEDDINGS IN QANA. ONLY MASSACRES, SIGNED "MURDERED BY ISRAEL"

QANA, Lebanon (Reuters)
Sun Jul 30, 2006 2:14pm ET
An Israeli air strike killed more than 60 Lebanese civilians,
including at least 37 children, on Sunday

Yesterday Israel rejected again the repeated UN plea for a 72 hour ceasefire
that would allow the evacuation of the civilians
Today Israel declared “deep sorrow” for the dead

The Wedding in Qana

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ ‘Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My time has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’ They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’ (John 2:1-10).

Qana, July 30th, 2006

PLAYING WITH FIRE

AMOS OZ ON THE ISRAELI INVASION IN LEBANON: "HOW TO MAKE AN OMELET WITHOUT BREAKING ANY EGGS"

Saturday 29-7-06:
453 Lebanese civilians dead, thousands injured,
over a million refugees, and rising

Amos Oz is is an Israeli novelist and essayist, a member of the Israeli peace movement. His most recent work is “How To Cure a Fanatic”. He has repeatedly condemned the occupation of Palestinian lands and the implantation of Jewish settlers there. But this time he backs up the Israeli invasion in Lebanon.

I find his reasoning much worse than Olmert’s.

Olmert says, “we are the Chosen, we are strong, we have God (Yahve) and the US along, so we can righteously act as we like, you resist and you threaten us, therefore you are our enemies, and we’ll righteously exterminate you”.

Oz says, “you are right, we have been opressing you all these years, stealing your land, denying you a homeland, acting like a bully in the region, giving the Islamic fundamentalists the perfect allibi for blowing up any hope of peace, and you are right, we should hand over the Occupied Territories and dislocate the settlers we’ve been bringing there all these years. But you have the right to be right, only as long as you don’t react. I told you, you are right, what else could you possibly desire??? You are right only as long as you don’t threaten us, and if you do, then you lose your right and you become our enemies, so we’ll righteously exterminate you“.

Amos Oz’s tactic reminds me of some cunning people I know, who smile at you and play friends, only to let you down when their friendship demands the slightest ACTION or SACRIFICE from their part.

They could be saying “I will do ANYTHING for you, my friend, provided that you never ask me to“

So someone would be right to ask: What would *you* do, Mr Gatos, if you were in Amos oz’s position? Your country at war, rockets falling around?

First of all, I would ask my government to stop the war immediately. And give at last an end to the situation of instability in the Middle East that they have created all these years, along with the radical Islamists from the Palestinian side, by immediately withdrowing from the Occupied Territories and offering at last a REAL and SINCERE hand of friendship to the Palestinians.

Greeks and Turks, after centuries and centuries of continuous wars, after terrible massacres and atrocities and ancient hatred and lost homelands for millions of people, shook hands in 1922 and live in peace ever since, with problems, yes, but in peace. Why can’t possibly the Israelis and the Palestinians do the same????

I won’t say more. Here is Amos Oz’s declaration. Judge for yourselves.

Hezbollah Attacks Unite Israelis
The usual domestic divide dissolves in the face of rockets.

By Amos Oz,
July 19, 2006

Many Times in the past, the Israeli peace movement has criticized Israeli military operations. Not this time. This time, the battle is not over Israeli expansion and colonization. There is no Lebanese territory occupied by Israel. There are no territorial claims from either side.

Last Wednesday, Hezbollah launched a vicious, unprovoked attack into Israeli territory. This was also an attack on the authority and integrity of the elected Lebanese government, as Hezbollah has, by attacking Israel, hijacked the prerogative of the Lebanese government to control its territory and to make decisions on war and peace.

The Israeli peace movement objects to the occupation and colonization of the West Bank. It objected to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 because the invasion was aimed at distracting world attention from the Palestinian problem. This time, Israel is not invading Lebanon. It is defending itself from daily harassment and bombardment of dozens of our towns and villages by attempting to smash Hezbollah wherever it lurks.

The Israeli peace movement should support Israel’s attempt at self-defense, pure and simple, as long as this operation targets mostly Hezbollah and spares, as much as possible, the lives of Lebanese civilians (not an easy task, as Hezbollah missile launchers are too often using Lebanese civilians as human sandbags).

There can be no moral equation between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah is targeting Israeli civilians wherever they are, while Israel is targeting mostly Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s missiles are supplied by Iran and Syria, sworn enemies of all peace initiatives in the Middle East.

The real battle raging these days is not at all between Beirut and Haifa but between a coalition of peace-seeking nations — Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia on the one hand — and fanatic Islam, fueled by Iran and Syria, on the other.

If, as we all hope — Israeli hawks and doves alike — Hezbollah is going to be defeated soon, Israel and Lebanon will be the winners. Moreover, a defeat of a militant Islamist terror organization may dramatically enhance the chances for peace in the region.

AMOS OZ

ΚΆΘΑΡΣΙΣ

Ξέπλυνα το κορμί μου από την αβάσταχτη αλμύρα σου, Θάλασσα,

όμως πώς

πώς να ξεπλύνω την ψυχή μου από την ανήσυχη απελπισία σου

πώς να ξεπλύνω από τα μάτια μου
την απέραντη ερημιά σου

.
Ν.Ποτείδαια
28 Ιουλίου 2006

ΑΓΑΠΗΣΕ ΜΕ, ΑΚΟΜΑ ΛΙΓΟ, ΜΕΛΙΣΣΑΝΘΗ…ΤΩΡΑ, ΠΟΥ ΓΥΡΩ ΧΑΝΕΤΑΙ Ο ΚΟΣΜΟΣ…

.

Αφιερωμένο στον μαρτυρικό λαό του Λιβάνου

ΠΡΟΣΟΧΗ: Το τραγούδι που ακολουθεί είναι πρωτότυπο και ακυκλοφόρητο. Υποβλήθηκε στο Φεστιβάλ Θεσσαλονίκης 2006 αλλά δεν πέρασε τα προκριματικά, ελπίζω ειλικρινά τα 12 τραγούδια που επιλέχτηκαν να είναι καλύτερα.

Επιτρέπεται η ελεύθερη αναπαραγωγή με κάθε τρόπο (δημόσιο ή ιδιωτικό), καθώς και η δημόσια εκτέλεση, ΜΟΝΟ ΟΜΩΣ ΜΕΤΑ ΑΠΟ ΠΡΟΗΓΟΥΜΕΝΗ ΕΝΗΜΕΡΩΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΜΑΥΡΟΥ ΓΑΤΟΥ ΣΤΟ miltiadis_s@yahoo.gr .

Μελισσάνθη
(7,23 Mb mp3)

Στίχοι-μουσική-πιάνο: Μαύρος Γάτος
Τραγούδι: Κυκλοδίωκτον

Λορελάι, ιτιθάτις κρενός, ελλεβόρου στιά
Λορελάι, η αθάδη ταυνός, ανδιλίνη σενά
Λορελάι, τινηθάνη φεμός, λαρανός η ταλθιά
Φωτεινός η αγάπη καημός, και τα πάντα νικά

*
Κρέμασε τα μαλλιά σου από τη νύχτα
Ράγισε το σκοτάδι μ’ ένα σου χάδι
Χάραξε στην καρδιά μου ένα σημάδι
Αγάπησέ με, ακόμα λίγο, Μελισσάνθη

Φώτισε τη Σιωπή μας να μη σκοτώνει
Σκέπασε τ’ Όνειρό μας να μην παγώνει
Μοιάζουν απόψε όλοι κλειστοί οι Δρόμοι
Και γύρω, χάνεται ο κόσμος, Μελισσάνθη

Μελισσάνθη…

Άλλοι αντικρίζουν το χαμό και τραγουδάνε, κι άλλοι σπαράζουν, θλιβερά παρακαλάνε
Άλλοι αγαπούν όσο κρατάει ένας σπασμός, κι άλλους χωρίζει ο τελευταίος ασπασμός

Κι εγώ φοβάμαι, πώς φοβάμαι μη σε χάσω
Τον εαυτό μου προσπαθώ να ξεπεράσω
Τον εαυτό μου, Μελισσάνθη
Μελισσάνθη!

MIDDLE EAST CRISIS: ISRAEL, US AND UK MORALLY ISOLATED BY THE REST OF THE WORLD

MIDDLE EAST: WHO BACKS IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE?

Source: THE INDEPENDENT

YES: THE WORLD (MINUS THREE)

NO: THREE (MINUS THE WORLD)

Reaction: ‘If Israel is behaving like a psychotic bullying child,
Britain and the US are like its mad tattooed parents’
From “THE INDEPENDENT” website
.