Readers' Letters, Videos, & Announcements, February 8, 2010

We've recently added new videos to our YouTube site (http://www.youtube.com/WHTTdotORG)  Be sure to check them out:

1.  View our coverage of our our vigil at John Hagi's CUFI (Christians United for Israel) Pastors' Luncheon held in Mesa, AZ.  CUFI is working to give scholarships to college students to send them to their national convention in Washington, DC. to create a new generation of Christian Zionists. 

View at:  http://www.youtube.com/WHTTdotORG#p/a/u/1/pv6Q-mOWLcI

2. Watch first hand, deadly, Israeli rocket attacks witnessed and filmed by Chuck Carlson during a visit to Gaza in 2002, 5 years before Hamas came to power.  As Congressman Ron Paul has pointed out, Hamas was helped into existence by Israel to provide opposition to the PLO.  This video includes a moving interview with Shiirin, a young Palestinian woman trapped in Gaza. 

To watch:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAqbij4oWNc

Tom Compton

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Zionist Bashing of Howard Zinn Even After his Death

Letters to the Editor
THE BOSTON GLOBE
Boston, MA
 
Re: Martin S. Goldman's Letter to the Editor, February 1
    His Bashing of Howard Zinn, "Zinn misled generations of students"
 
Dear Editor:
 
Martin S. Goldman's letter is a totally slanted and unfair opinion of Howard Zinn.
 
Perhaps Goldman can spare some time to read the truth in "Open Veins of Latin America" by Eduardo Galeano. There is much more
proof within these pages, proving that Zinn was entirely correct.
 
Sincerely,
 
Carol Rae Bradford

Oh! How I wish war supporters like Art Saboski (letter: "Burying head in sand won't stop terrorists") would don a "tin hat" and go over himself to fight the so-called "terrorists".

Did he once ever ask the $64 thousand dollar question: "Why'?"

Why have we earned the animosity of those who hate us so much, that some of them are willing to sacrifice their lives to hurt us?

Could it be that we have over 700 military bases throughout the world, most of them in Moslem countries (it used to be called "imperialism"); that we support, financially, militarily and diplomatically,  the continuing occupation and subjugation by Israel of over 1.7 million Palestinians (Moslems and Christians) in the Gaza Strip for over 45 years including the West Bank to the tune of US taxpayers' dollars of $3 billion plus a year; the occupation of Iraq, now Afghanistan; tomorrow Yemen, etc.

If you're so jingoistic, Mr. Saboski, I will gladly escort you to the nearest recruiting station and sign you up.

You need to own up to peace and not war!
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
George M Karsa.1054 Hyland Circle, Prescott, Az 86303  771-9426

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Arab Population Accuses: Israel Systematically Acting to Impose Violent Confrontation
 
On Friday, 5 February 2010, a public campaign was launched to defend the Palestinian Arab population under Israeli rule, under the slogan “Meeting challenges and defending existence.” The campaign is organized by the Public Committee for ؛the Protection of Freedoms, under the auspices of the Higher Arab Monitoring Follow Up Committee. All political parties and movements, in addition to civil society organizations, are partners in this campaign.
 
The public campaign will be a systematic and collective working method, the goal of which is to halt the institutional and political Israeli escalation as expressed in the demolition of Arab homes, political persecution against the leadership of the Arab population and an escalation of occupation policies in everything concerning East Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa Mosque. Additionally, the campaign will act to prevent the malicious use of legal mechanisms in an attempt to exhaust the Arab leadership.
 
The campaign will include, amongst other things, a series of regional public meetings and rallies that will commence in the Naqab village of Laqiya on Friday 5 February 2010 at 5:30 pm, in addition to a national mass rally on the eve of the beginning of the sentence of Sheikh Raed Salah, Chairperson of the Islamic Movement. Additionally, it was decided to organize demonstrations that will accompany the court hearings in the political trial against MK Mohammad Barakeh, which will commence on 10 March 2010, in addition to that of MK Sa’id Naffaa.
 
The campaign will also include a call to the international arena, including the submission of complaints to United Nations committees and demands to discuss the specifics of these complaints, in addition to recognizing the Arab population as a population in danger and at risk as a result of the escalation of Israeli oppression policies.
 
Within the campaign there will be a number of messages, first and foremost that we will not recoil from the systematic policy of oppression and that we place full responsibility on the state and its institutions for pushing toward the imposition of a violent confrontation on the Arab population. 

Public Committee for the protection of freedoms

Within the framework of the Higher Arab Follow Up Committee

Ameer Makhoul

Chairperson

The  Puplic Committee for the Protection of Freedoms

General Director

Ittijah -Union of Arab Community Based Associations
(UN ECOSOC Special Consultative Status)
Email: ameer@ittijah.org
www.ittijah.org

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Meeting in House Of Commons upon a visit to Gaza
 
Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East (LFPME) and Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) are holding a report back event on the successful trip to the occupied Gaza Strip. The meeting will take place on Monday 1st March 2010, in the House of common from 7 to 9pm in the Committee Room 11
 
Various speakers who managed to enter the Gaza Strip in mid-January to assess the situation will describe what they saw and discuss the future of Palestine. 55 Parliamentarians from across Europe toured the devastated Strip and met many of the victims of Israel’s massacre.
The visit was organised by the Palestinian Return Centre and the European Campaign to End Siege on Gaza and included a number of MP members of LFPME.
 
The event will focus on humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, the issue of refugees and the role of international community, particularly Britain. Additionally, some speakers will focus on the Goldstone report and other methods that can be used to bring about an end to the occupation.
 
There will be time for a question and answer session.
 
Gaza has been living under crippling siege for the past few years.
Many people have died due to the lack of basic medication. An assault by Israel in early 2009 left thousands dead and injured, most of whom were civilians.
 
Join the event in the Facebook:
http://nlp.prc.org.uk/lists/lt.php?id=bE1UBgFUUgFVSgAFABhTAAgFCw%3D%3D
 
 
For Enquiries:
 
Tom: tom@labourfriendsofpalestine.co.uk 07884182408
 
Sameh: sameh@prc.org.uk, 07949725139
 
www.labourfriendsofpalestine.co.uk
 
http://nlp.prc.org.uk/lists/lt.php?id=bE1UBgFUUgFWSgAFABhTAAgFCw%3D%3D
 
 

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CAABU Letter in the Evening Standard Monday 1 February 2010

Blair's hollow arguments on Iraq


On the strategic front, Blair's primary arguments at the Chilcot Inquiry hearing on Friday were that 9/11 changed the game, Saddam would always be a threat and the same decision he faced in 2003 will have to be faced with Iran sooner rather than later. His 9/11 argument was hollow given the total lack of linkage to Iraq.

Blair will never win over the 45-minute claim. Most people will continue to beleive that Blair was quite happy that for the media to prop up his pro-war crusade by portraying this to mean a direct threat to people in Britain, rather than just battlefield munitions?

As alarming was his argument that the military planned for different outcomes to what actually happened. He suggested that there was planning for a humanitarian crisis that did not occur; yet there was a massive humanitarian crisis in Iraq before and after the war. This only serves to emphasise his total lack of understanding of the country.

Ultimately Blair was on questionable legal ground, wrong on weapons, wrong on his post-war predictions, and Britain lost strategically as both Iran and al Qaeda gained.

Chris Doyle, director, Council for Arab-British Understanding.

For further information and interviews please contact the CAABU office 0207 832 1321 - doylec@caabu.org.

Chris Doyle can be reached on 07968 040 281.

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