UN to Probe Israeli Drone Strikes
January 27, 2013 16:33 by Pesach Benson
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Today’s Top Stories
1. A UN lawyer is investigating fatal drone strikes by Israel, the US, and Britain. Bottom line, it’s a UN probe that Israel won’t cooperate with, and that the US will block. More at the Times of Israel:
The main focus of the investigation will be 25 reported drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and the Palestinian territories, he said.
No Israelis or Palestinians were listed among the experts who will help prepare the report, and Emmerson did not say he would visit Israel or the Palestinian territories.
Emmerson listed the US, UK, Pakistan and Yemen as countries he expected to cooperate with the probe, but did not mention Israel or the Palestinian Authority.
Predator drone flies above the USS Carl Vinson in 1995.
2. Israeli media picked up on a WorldNetDaily report of a massive sabotage at Iran’s Fordow nuclear site:
An explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime . . .
The regime believes the blast was sabotage and the explosives could have reached the area disguised as equipment or in the uranium hexafluoride stock transferred to the site, the source said. The explosion occurred at the third centrifuge chambers, with the high-grade enriched uranium reserves below them.
The information was passed on to U.S. officials but has not been verified or denied by the regime or other sources within the regime.
3. Egyptians riot after court pronounces death penalty on 21 people involved in last year’s deadly soccer violence. Security forces regained control of Port Said on Sunday, but not before 31 people were killed. See CNN, and The Lede‘s roundup of related material.
4. Published in the Sunday Times while Europe marked Holocaust Memorial Day, this cartoon‘s imagery is an assault on the real victims of genocide, demeaning their suffering and insulting their memory.
5. BBC “Forgets” Holocaust Memorial Day
Israel and the Palestinians
• Hamas is setting up a military academy. For kids. Some 3,000 Gaza teens already finished a weekly program. AP picked up on the brainwashing. The Jerusalem Post writes:
[Haniyeh] said that children in grades 7-9 could join the school and graduate with a diploma or a BA in military affairs.
• After digging in his heels on Sky News, British MP David Ward apologized for remarks about Israel, the Palestinians and the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel slammed Ward, whose comments were made ahead of European commemorations of the Holocaust. Ward had said he was
“saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza”.
• The PA is actively pushing for Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki to cancel an upcoming visit to Gaza. The Jerusalem Post explains why:
The PA fears that such visits would bolster Hamas’s stance among Palestinians and give legitimacy to its control over the Gaza Strip.
A Metis with his two wives.
• Ryan Bellerose, a member of the Metis people, one of Canada’s First Nations, explains why he’s A Native and a Zionist, resisting comparisons between the First Nations and Palestinian causes:
I hope the Metis keep walking the same road as the Jewish people. Through their efforts, the Jews were able to preserve their identity despite terrible persecution and to revive their culture and language once back in their homeland. They never lost their sense of who they were, but neither did they lose sight of the importance of looking forward. Given their history, it would have been natural for them to become insular and reactionary. But instead, they work hard to be productive and are friendly even to countries that have caused them tremendous suffering. I want us to similarly make education and the preservation of our ancient culture a priority. I want us to continue to strive for peace and productivity.
Many claim that we Natives have more in common with the Palestinians, that their struggle is our struggle. Beyond superficial similarities, nothing could be farther from the truth. Beyond the facile co-opting of our cause, the comparison with the Palestinians is absolutely untenable. It trivializes our suffering.
Co-opting today’s native struggle to the Palestinian propaganda war is a fallacy.
• Daily Telegraph: Britain’s Foreign Office ranked Israel with Iran, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan as having a human rights record “of particular concern.”
• For more commentary, see Aaron David Miller (Foreign Policy).
spartacus !!!!!!!
8:46 pm
Jan 27, 2013
mankind ‘s futile attempts to govern itself should be seen for what it is ! , without our “CREATOR” running the show we will eventually extinguish ourselves from this planet with righteous ” stupidity ” and all knowing indifference ! , humans !!!!! , what fools we are !!!!!!!
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Frank Adam
10:09 pm
Jan 27, 2013
“Spartacus” should read some history. Trouble starts when people abuse power and office for theft and glory; and the worst are the maniacs who set about the “Glory of God” with arguments over ideas that cannot be convoked in a witness box and rituals that are symbolic rather than obviously practical and so best tolerated.
As for Irving… the Empire was on the way out anyway. Churchill who could be flaky did a disservice in filibustering the 1935 (6?) Government of India Bill which would have given India dominion startus by 1940 and saved Britian a lot of politcal embarassment and humiliation during the war and after.
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Frank Adam
10:20 pm
Jan 27, 2013
The Irvings should remember whatever they delude themselves with in Britain, the colonial subjects did not enjoy being patronised. The Empire was fading out in the 20′s and 30′s. Self government was given to Canada in 1867 after the US Civil War victory precisely because independence pulled the rug under Yankee schemes to take it in the name of “Liberty” as in 1812. When the Boer War showed the dangers of “splendid isolation” the UK cleared decks for the show down with Germany by giving dominion status to Australia, NZ and S.Africa, and in 1919 -21 Ireland took itself off too but to no actual material advantage since.
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Inessa
1:14 pm
Jan 28, 2013
I feel sorry for Andre Pshenichnikov’s family, living in Israel. He’s probably not well, but it must also be difficult to organise a defence for him.
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Moll
10:18 pm
Jan 28, 2013
Re: Stories
#2–Joel Rosenberg, in his book The Twelfth Immam, described such an incident. Think of it, how accurate JR;s prophesies are, even in his fiction writing!
#3 The Mizrachim are self-destructing, person-by-person. When the children of Israel walked out of Egypt in the 1440′s BCE, Egypt was finished — for all the rest of time as we know it. Now they are putting the finishing touches on it.
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Moll
10:19 pm
Jan 28, 2013
#4 David Ward’s comments don’t jibe with Angela Merkel’s avowals. Ward’s loose lips will sink him — stand aside and watch him walk through the “valley of the shadow of death” for himself and his. Words, when uttered, are like seeds — they germinate into the events the speaker finds himself walking through. Ward is most likely finished as a credible MP.
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Moll
10:20 pm
Jan 28, 2013
Re: the story titled Israel’s Elections, What Next? We ought to be forever grateful to the religious jews. These are the men and women, who in their daily ritualistically practising of Torah-revealed lifestyles, keep on reminding the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that “the apple of His eye” is still being persecuted by the gentiles. That they, the “children of Israel” are still longing for the 1000 year reign of messianic peace, as promised them in the Hebrew scriptures.
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iris claire blutreich
11:50 pm
Jan 28, 2013
When the UN probes Israel … claiming that they had conducted drone strikes against Pakistan, Afganistan and all the rest… but President Obama did this very thing. Why IS HE PART OF THE ACCUSERS AS WELL AS THE UN AND NATO. The time has come again for the Jewish people and the Jewish state to act like they should have acted when Hitler and his friends started working their mouths.
Israel is a bright, successful nation. In one generation surpassing many of the member nations at the UN.They think “How dare the Jews, whom we defamed, degraded, robbed, tortured and murdered almost out of existence have the nerve to rise up from the flames and succeed in their ancient dreams and prosper.”
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iris claire blutreich
12:02 am
Jan 29, 2013
Israel be strong as steel and resilient. Do everything you can think of to protect Israel and the Jewish people.
You are not here for this from THEM.
Be alert, be active, keep your eyes open and take any and all actions to defeat these dastardly and deadly schemes of jealous, craven people.
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