Iraq after Saddam

10. Reflecting back on more than six years of a disastrous occupation of Iraq we can now safely say that what has been achieved is diametrically opposed to the original hypothesis of the wars ideological promoters. The principle myth underlying the illegal 2003 invasion lies now in ruins. It has proved to be America's greatest foreign policy failure ever, effecting the whole of the ME and undermining prospects for political change for decades to come. What replaced Saddam is a corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state, far worse than before the invasion. The largest winners were the Islamist Shiite parties which are now dominating the scene and could well in coming years align themselves to Teheran. The present Iraqi "government" is guilty of the same - if not worse - human rights violations than what the previous regime - allegedly - had been accused of.

collective punishment

9. Israel to-day has one of the most despicable regimes in the world, masquarading behind a facade of being democratic. Israel is a purely Jewish state and only Jews (with a few exceptions) can apply for citizenship. The ultra conservative Likud party is even considering compulsary circumcision rituals for Ethiopian Jews applying for citizenship. How democratic is that ?

The Israel occupation of the West Bank is one of the most brutal and cruel occupations of our times. Armed Jewish settlers, illegally colonizing the occupied territories have been terrorizing the local Palestinina population for decades, supported by the IDF, meeting out collective punishments by blowing up Palestinian houses and bulldozing them down into to the ground; uprooting Palestinian olive groves and thus depriving the local Arab population from their livelyhood; long queues at roadblocks even preventing people urgent medical care including pregnant women; constant harrassments by armed settler thugs; indiscriminate shooting and killings of innocent people even children and closing schools. These brutalities have been going on for the last sixty years. Anyone wanting more information on this I strongly recommend reading Philip C. Winslow "Victory to us is to see you suffer" . Winslow of UNWRA worked for three years in the West Bank and Gazastrip.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED WEBSITE

< www.palestineremembered.com >

About double standards

8. America claims - as it does - to stand or Freedom and Justice in the world and devoted to "liberating the oppressed in occupied countries". The big question that springs to mind is why then does it not liberate the Palestinian people in the by Israeli for the last forty years occupied West Bank ? It would take the American military probably five minutes to chase the armed Jewish settlers out. That would earn Obama the noblest of Noble Prizes. Or can olive oil not compete with Iraqi oil ?

SWASTIKA ANTICS

7. Contributed by T.T. from Christchurch.
The irony about the swastika controversy is that when history about the present day is written, the Star of David flag is being displayed alongside it. The sixty years harassment, persecution and displacement of the Palestinians will earn Israel a place in infamy alongside
Nazi Germany. Both have persued ruthless policies, justified - to themselves at least - by their exclusivity, one using the title Master Race, the other The Chosen People. After the Gaza massacre most people in the world finally realised there is not much to choose between them.

PIPEDREAMS

6. Obama's "two state" solution (Press 20/05/09) has all the hallmarks of a PR stunt. It will prove to be a pipedream. Over the last sixty years and longer, there have been numerous proposals for partition by both sides. To-day there are some 121 settlements in the occupied West Bank - illegal under international law (Art 49 Geneva Convention) - housing some 470,000 Jews. This Jewish expansionist policy has always been backed and supported by Natanyahu. Obama talks about halting further expansion of settlements, but not a word about the removal of these illegal settlements, the removal of eight meter high concrete walls and a return to the pre-1967 situation in accordance with U.N. Resolution 242. It's unrealistic and foolish to think that the Jewish squatters of Palestinian land are going to withdraw peacefully. It's too late for a two state solution now and mark my words Obama is not going to change that. !

Jewish origins

5. Zionists base their questionable rights to expel Palestinians from their ancestral land on the Old Testament. (See Numbers 33:50-56). Modern research has shown these claims to be quite untenable. The majority of Israelis currently living in Israel are of East European origin. They are in fact not Semites, but Khazars, Mongols and Huns. Hence most Israelis to-day do not have ancestors who ever lived in Palestine, nullifying all claims, biblical or Zionist, to any traditional, ancestral or religious ownership of the land. Recent DNA testing of both native Palestinian Jews and Arabs indicate that many have common ancestry, leading to speculation that both groups were in fact Canaanites, who later split in Jews and Arabs. Many of these Jews converted to Islam round 630 ad. The Jewish Israeli historian Tom Sagev reviewing the book :"When and How Was the Jewish People Invented ?" by Shlomo Zand (or Sand) from TelAviv University in the Jewish newspaper Ha'retz wrote: "There never was a Jewish people, only a Jewish religion, and the exile also never happened, hence there was no return" (of the Jewish diaspora).
Thanks to P.C. for this information