They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity: Secular "Anti-Zionist" Jewish groups echo Zionist groups

"...There is a rottenness of the "movement" if it does not recognise when the moment to put aside their personal qualms or conflicts with Atzmon and accept that something magnificent has happened, and the humanitarians of the world feel it and know it. Persisting in the campaign to silence Atzmon now would not only be LESS effective than it was before, but it drops down the final mask, that these people operate as crypto Zionists. Their agenda, and the agenda of the American Jewish Committee is one and the same..."




WRITTEN BY MARY RIZZO

A very strange thing is happening at this moment within a circle of people who like to consider themselves at the cutting edge of the struggle for the Palestine, and we are referring to the individuals who classify themselves as Secular Anti-Zionist Jews, and consider themselves to be the "independent" Jewish voices, and as thus, the avant-garde of "the Pro-Palestinian movement". Following what can only be classified as a unique international event of major media importance, and perhaps also of a certain historical significance, they are protesting and stomping their feet in anger at the intervention of Erdogan on a stage shared by the General Secretary of the UN, the leader of the Arab League and the President of Israel.

These unhappy critics are in a few marginal sites and tiny discussion groups to practically take up the cause of the American Jewish Committee in criticising Erdogan. The interesting and very positive fact that Erdogan would not allow the stream of lies uttered by Shimon Peres to go unchallenged in the World Economic Forum (Davos) Conference on Gaza seems to have eluded them all. They hardly seem to notice that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan obviously had come prepared for the sort of arguments he would be hearing, the kind of justifications that Israel gives for its killing sprees, as he took paper from his folder and read off of a sheet, (or tried hard to before the moderator attempted to stifle the Prime Minister and whisk the waiting public to their dinner) three quotes: the first, from the Jewish Torah, the second, from Gilad Atzmon and the third from Avi Shlaim.

Obviously, the Torah is quite authoritative, and even if some atheist Jews don’t mind that God, someone they claim does not exist, is being quoted, what counts is the message, after all. They have decided that Erdogan did something terrible in quoting Gilad Atzmon. What is their problem, with the message or the messenger?

First of all, the message: It stated pretty much the facts that everyone who claims they are for the Palestinians should know by now: "Israel’s barbarity exceeds ordinary cruelty." If anyone is ready to state that Israel used anything less than the most crude disproportionate force, may they speak now or forever hope for "peace".

It is also surprising that rather than state what Erdogan did "right", they are bringing up Kurds, Armenia and other atrocious aspects of Turkish affairs, past or present. This is true of the attacks on Erdogan in the Zionist media right now, and it’s being echoed by those who for a long time have been claiming they are the forefront of the movement, even without the credentials for it, unless their being Jewish so they can add their name to an appeal is the dubious credential. It does seem odd that while the discourse is Palestine, they are very happy to drag it to Anti-Semitism, which obviously did not appear at all in what they are trying to destroy, or to geo-political arenas far from Israel and Palestine. There is NO difference between the Zionist campaign and the anti-Zionist Jewish campaign. Both are to decide what the parameters of discourse are and to destroy the messenger, while making the issue of how Jews feel about themselves and how they think the world should speak about them THE issue.

The messenger: Erdogan is being scoffed at for his belonging to an Islamist party. Well, why should anyone be surprised that this is a deadly sin for Jews who are Zionists and anti-Zionists alike. It is as if it automatically means totalitarian religious regime that is the enemy, and thus, the conditional support or the open criticism of Hamas and Hezbollah. Whether or not that is the case of Turkey, one has only to go there to find out. Women there are actually prohibited from wearing hijab (how fundamentalist is that?) in public offices, to cite but one example of the secular character of this state. Oh, the other problem, that he’s bourgeois. Well, it seems that the only ones acceptable are ones that are just like them, Secular Marxists. Or Secular Liberals. Or Jewish Atheists. Or secular Jewish Liberals… well, you get the picture.

Well, they wonder, how could Erdogan have gotten such an "obscure" writer fall into his folder and be carried from Ankara to Davos and directly to the stage? The critics maybe don’t know that papers by Gilad Atzmon are widely circulated, and not only in the alternative media, but actually they have entered the public discourse through the front door. One of his recent papers was read aloud in full on SkyTurk. Walking around Florence, today we found his papers in Italian stuck under windscreen wipers, turn on your radio and you are hearing him interviewed about Gaza. I suppose it is great to be published in Socialist Unity, but if the argument used is that Atzmon is fringe, margin, obscure, well, that argument once and for all has bit the dust. It is not out of a sense of pride, and we admit, it is indeed a matter of pride to hear your words or words of your friends and allies used to tear down the shameful wall of lies by Peres, while he can just sit and take it. It feels incredibly good. It is enabling. If we can do it, not financed by anyone or doing anyone’s business, everyone’s voice can be heard. As a matter of fact, Erdogan made a lot of people happy. Almost across the board Palestinians and Turks admired his bravery and determination. When he returned home, he was welcomed "As a World Leader". Yet, some will try to undermine that by calling it demagogy, with Turkey nearing elections.

Let’s stop to think for a moment. If it is an electoral tactic to be as bloodthirsty as possible to win votes in Israel, and expressing the humanitarian cries for a beleaguered people in Turkey is the "winning choice". Which country would you rather live in?

And if it is indeed so that the people as a whole believe that Israel is killing and killing in a way that exceeds anything necessary, then the discourse of Atzmon is by no means marginal or fringe, it is at the heart of the discourse. No one has to bombard people with information or letters or campaigns to know how to call things as they see it. They don’t need this Jewish organisation or that one to tell them who to listen to and how to think, cornering them into some kind of bizarre admission that identifying with these words is in some way damaging to Jews and anti-Semitic and some of these movement "leaders" will say, damaging to the movement or cause. In fact, the conclusion to draw is that these writings must be touching nerves, touching the deepest feelings of humanitarian concern and not ones of political or personal expediency. The diffusion of these writings has been by spontaneous proliferation, there is no press office or political group lobbying, there’s just a person at his own computer and the spread of information from there.

There is a rottenness of the "movement" if it does not recognise when the moment to put aside their personal qualms or conflicts with Atzmon and accept that something magnificent has happened, and the humanitarians of the world feel it and know it. Persisting in the campaign to silence Atzmon now would not only be LESS effective than it was before, but it drops down the final mask, that these people operate as crypto Zionists. Their agenda, and the agenda of the American Jewish Committee is one and the same.

Is an Israeli Jewish sense of victimization perpetuating the conflict with Palestinians?

By Akiva Eldar

A new study of Jewish Israelis shows that most accept the 'official version' of the history of the conflict with the Palestinians. Is it any wonder, then, that the same public also buys the establishment explanation of the operation in Gaza?

A pioneering research study dealing with Israeli Jews' memory of the conflict with the Arabs, from its inception to the present, came into the world together with the war in Gaza. The sweeping support for Operation Cast Lead confirmed the main diagnosis that arises from the study, conducted by Daniel Bar-Tal, one of the world's leading political psychologists, and Rafi Nets-Zehngut, a doctoral student: Israeli Jews' consciousness is characterized by a sense of victimization, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanization of the Palestinians and insensitivity to their suffering. The fighting in Gaza dashed the little hope Bar-Tal had left - that this public would exchange the drums of war for the cooing of doves.

"Most of the nation retains a simplistic collective memory of the conflict, a black-and-white memory that portrays us in a very positive light and the Arabs in a very negative one," says the professor from Tel Aviv University. This memory, along with the ethos of the conflict and collective emotions such as fear, hatred and anger, turns into a psycho-social infrastructure of the kind experienced by nations that have been involved in a long-term violent conflict. This infrastructure gives rise to the culture of conflict in which we and the Palestinians are deeply immersed, fanning the flames and preventing progress toward peace. Bar-Tal claims that in such a situation, it is hard even to imagine a possibility that the two nations will be capable of overcoming the psychological obstacles without outside help.

Scholars the world over distinguish between two types of collective memory: popular collective memory - that is, representations of the past that have been adopted by the general public; and official collective memory, or representations of the past that have been adopted by the country's official institutions in the form of publications, books or textbooks.

The idea for researching the popular collective memory of Israeli Jews was raised by Nets-Zehngut, a Tel Aviv lawyer who decided to return to the academic world. At present he is completing his doctoral thesis in the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University's Teachers College. The study, by him and Bar-Tal, entitled "The Israeli-Jewish Collective Memory of the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian Conflict," examines how official collective memory in the State of Israel regarding the creation of the 1948 refugee problem has changed over time.

Bar-Tal became enthusiastic about the idea and, with funding from the International Peace Research Association Foundation, he conducted a survey in the summer of 2008 among a representative sample of 500 Jewish Israeli adults. The study demonstrated that widespread support for the official memory testifies to a lower level of critical thinking, as well as belief in traditional values, high identification with Jewish identity, a tendency to delegitimize the Arabs, and support for taking aggressive steps against the Palestinians.

In a telephone interview from New York, Nets-Zehngut says it is very clear that those with a "Zionist memory" see Israel and the Jews as the victims in the conflict, and do not tend to support agreements or compromises with the enemy in order to achieve peace. This finding, he explains, demonstrates the importance of changing the collective memory of conflicts, making it less biased and more objective - on condition, of course, that there is a factual basis for such a change.

Bar-Tal, who has won international awards for his scientific work, immigrated to Israel from Poland as a child in the 1950s.

"I grew up in a society that for the most part did not accept the reality that the authorities tried to portray, and fought for a different future," he says. "I have melancholy thoughts about nations where there is an almost total identity between the agents of a conflict, on the one hand, who nurture the siege mentality and the existential fear, and various parts of society, on the other. Nations that respond so easily to battle cries and hesitate to enlist in favor of peace do not leave room for building a better future."

Bar-Tal emphasizes that the Israeli awareness of reality was also forged in the context of Palestinian violence against Israeli citizens, but relies primarily on prolonged indoctrination that is based on ignorance and even nurtures it. In his opinion, an analysis of the present situation indicates that with the exception of a small minority, which is capable of looking at the past with an open mind, the general public is not interested in knowing what Israel did in Gaza for many years; how the disengagement was carried out and why, or what its outcome was for the Palestinians; why Hamas came to power in democratic elections; how many people were killed in Gaza from the disengagement until the start of the recent war; and whether it was possible to extend the recent cease-fire or even who violated it first.

"Although there are accessible sources, where it is possible to find the answers to those questions, the public practices self-censorship and accepts the establishment version, out of an unwillingness to open up to alternative information - they don't want to be confused with the facts. We are a nation that lives in the past, suffused with anxiety and suffering from chronic closed-mindedness," charges Bar-Tal.

That describes the state of mind in 2000, when most of the pubic accepted the simplistic version of then-prime minister Ehud Barak regarding the failure of the Camp David summit and the outbreak of the second intifada, and reached what seemed like the obvious conclusion that "there is no partner" with whom to negotiate.

Bar-Tal: "After the bitter experience of the Second Lebanon War, during which the memory of the war was taken out of their hands and allowed to be formed freely, the country's leaders learned their lesson, and decided that they wouldn't let that happen again. They were not satisfied with attempts to inculcate Palestinian awareness and tried to influence Jewish awareness in Israel as well. For that purpose, heavy censorship and monitoring of information were imposed" during the Gaza campaign.

The professor believes that politicians would not have been successful in formulating the collective memory of such a large public without the willing enlistment of the media. Almost all the media focused only on the sense of victimization of the residents of the so-called "Gaza envelope" and the south. They did not provide the broader context of the military operation and almost completely ignored - before and during the fighting - the situation of the residents of besieged Gaza. The human stories from Sderot and the dehumanization of Hamas and the Palestinians provided the motivation for striking at Gaza with full force.

Nets-Zehngut and Bar-Tal find a close connection between the collective memory and the memory of "past persecutions of Jews" ("the whole world is against us," and the Holocaust). The more significant the memory of persecution, the stronger the tendency to adopt Zionist narratives. From this we can understand the finding that adults, the religious public and those with more right-wing political views tend to adopt the Zionist version of the conflict, while young people, the secular public and those with left-wing views tend more to adopt critical narratives.

The atmosphere in the street and in the media during the weeks of the Gaza war seems to have confirmed the central finding of the study: "The ethos of the conflict is deeply implanted in Jewish society in Israel. It is a strongly rooted ideology that justifies the goals of the Jews, adopts their version, presents them in a very positive light and rejects the legitimacy of the Arabs, and primarily of the Palestinians," notes Bar-Tal.

For example, when asked the question, "What were the reasons for the failure of the negotiations between [Ehud] Barak and [Yasser] Arafat in summer 2000?" 55.6 percent of the respondents selected the following answer: "Barak offered Arafat a very generous peace agreement, but Arafat declined mainly because he did not want peace." Another 25.4 percent believed that both parties were responsible for the failure, and about 3 percent replied that Arafat did want peace, but Barak was not forthcoming enough in meeting the needs of the Palestinians. (Sixteen percent replied that they didn't know the answer.)

Over 45 percent of Israeli Jews have imprinted on their memories the version that the second intifada broke out only, or principally, because Arafat planned the conflict in advance. Only 15 percent of them believe the viewpoint presented by three heads of the Shin Bet security services: that the intifada was mainly the eruption of a popular protest. Over half those polled hold the Palestinians responsible for the failure of the Oslo process, 6 percent hold Israel responsible, and 28.4 percent said both sides were equally responsible.

Among the same Jewish public, 40 percent are unaware that at the end of the 19th century, the Arabs were an absolute majority among the inhabitants of the Land of Israel. Over half of respondents replied that in the United Nations partition plan, which was rejected by the Arabs, the Arabs received an equal or larger part of the territory of the Land of Israel, relative to their numbers; 26.6 percent did not know that the plan offered the 1.3 million Arabs a smaller part of the territory (44 percent) than was offered to 600,000 Jews (55 percent).

Bar-Tal claims that this distortion of memory is no coincidence. He says that the details of the plan do not appear in any textbook, and this is a deliberate omission. "Knowledge of how the land was divided could arouse questions regarding the reason why the Arabs rejected the plan and make it possible to question the simplistic version: We accepted the partition plan, they didn't."

However, his study shows that a larger percentage of the Jewish population in Israel believes that in 1948, the refugees were expelled (47.2 percent of respondents), than those who still retain the old Zionist version (40.8 percent), according to which the refugees left on their own initiative. On this point, not only do almost all the history books provide up-to-date information, but some local school textbooks do as well. Even on the television program "Tekuma" ("Rebirth," a 1998 documentary series about Israel's first 50 years), the expulsion of the Arabs was mentioned.

Nets-Zehngut also finds a degree of self-criticism in the answers relating to the question of overall responsibility for the conflict. Of those surveyed, 46 percent think that the responsibility is more or less evenly divided between Jews and Arabs, 4.3 percent think that the Jews are mainly to blame, and 43 percent think that the Arabs and the Palestinians are mainly to blame for the outbreak and continuation of the conflict. It turns out, therefore, that when the country's education system and media are willing to deal with distorted narratives, even a collective memory that has been etched into people's minds for years can be changed.

Bar-Tal says he takes no comfort in the knowledge that Palestinian collective memory suffers from similar ills, and that it is also in need of a profound change - a change that would help future generations on both sides to regard one another in a more balanced, and mainly a more humane manner. This process took many decades for the French and the Germans, and for the Protestants and the Catholics in Northern Ireland. When will it finally begin here, too?


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=1060061

They Shoot Children from Womb to Cradle to Grave

"...Zionism is a political, moral, and spiritual corruption of Judaism. Like Nazism it's based on the supremacy of one race above another. Like Nazism, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and theft of property is a de facto ideology to create a "Jewish Only" State at the expense of expelling Muslims and Christians from the Holy Land. Like Nazism, its power stems from a powerful military and a most powerful propaganda machine that indoctrinates the masses with the ideology that killing a people is an act of self defense that ultimately will benefit the world and protect western civilization..."


Mohamed Khodr

"There are only two powers in the world…the sword of the oppressor and the spirit of the oppressed. In the long run, the sword is always defeated by the spirit." - Napoleon Bonaparte

"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands." – Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972.

"May the Holy Name visit retribution on the Arabs' heads, and cause their seed to be lost, and annihilate them, and cause them to be vanquished and cause them to be cast from the world. It is forbidden to be merciful to them, you must give them missiles, with relish - annihilate them. Evil ones, damnable ones." – Ultra-Orthodox Shas Party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in a sermon discussing Passover and God's wrath at Israel's enemies, 8 April 2001. Some months ago he distinguished himself by describing Arabs as "snakes" whom "God regrets having created".

"On the morrow of a persecution in Europe in which they had been the victims of the worst atrocities ever known… the Jews' immediate reaction to their own experience was to become persecutors in their turn… In 1948, the Jews knew, from personal experience, what they were doing; and it was their supreme tragedy that the lessons learnt by them from their encounter with the Nazi German Gentiles should have been not to eschew but to initiate some of the evil deeds that the Nazis had committed against the Jews…." "Right and wrong are the same in Palestine as anywhere else. What is peculiar about the Palestine conflict is that the world has listened to the party that has committed the offence and has turned a deaf ear to the victims." – Professor Arnold Toynbee, famed British Historian, in "A Study of HIstory"

Note:

Israel and its subservient American supporters always and deliberately sabotage and embarrass U.S. Presidents, U.N. officials, and American or European peace envoys, whenever they visit Israel or the region or placate and appease the Arab world that they're looking to jump start the "thief of land piece by piece peace process".

Last night, January 28, ABCNEWS reported that a CIA chief in Algeria drugged and raped two Muslim women. What was most curious was the timing of the story given that the investigation began last fall. It smacks of a conspiracy to embarrass Obama's outreach to the Muslim world and the fact that he gave his first TV interview to an Arab Satellite network where he spoke fondly of his family's Muslim heritage, his respect for the Muslim world and his desire to develop a harmonious relationship between the U.S. and Muslims worldwide.

So Obama thinks he can bypass Israel and reach out directly to the Muslim world. Not a chance. Many Presidents have tried and failed. These American Presidents just don't get it.

As soon as Obama's MidEast envoy arrived in Israel, Israel launched a massive naval and air strike on Gaza hoping to derail his mission even before it began. He was asking for a forceful ceasefire and his answer was more dead Palestinians.

While UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was in Israel for ceasefire talks Israel deliberately bombed the U.N. headquarters of its Relief Agency burning it and its warehouses stocked with food supplies. All he could do was express outrage and leave deeply embarrassed knowing full well he's impotent to deal with Israel. Israel doesn't just kill Palestinian children it demands the rest starve to death.

An example from the past is the experience of Former Secretary of State James Baker's deep frustration that whenever he visited Israel for peace discussions he would always be met with a new illegal settlement in the occupied territories.

On May 22, 1992 he expressed his anger by saying:

"Every time I have gone to Israel in connection with the peace process on each of my trips I have been met with the announcement of new settlement activity. This does violate United States policy…. I don't think there is any greater obstacle to peace than settlement activity that continues not only unabated but at an advanced pace."

Not even an American President can face down Israel given its ownership of Congress, the massive Jewish ownership and directorship of the media, and a tsunami of a well funded, organized, rapid response attack army spread across all institutions and in every state. It's become shamefully apparent that Washington D.C. is the capitol of Israel not of America.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two days ago The Guardian newspaper had a story entitled "Fuelling the Cycle of Hate" The first paragraph of the article reads:

"Israeli soccer matches were suspended during the assault on Gaza. When the games resumed last week, the fans had come up with a new chant: "Why have the schools in Gaza been shut down?" sang the crowd. "Because all the children were gunned down!" came the answer."

Such is the nurtured hate among Israel's youth by a nation that can only see its worth, value, and supremacy in the cold blooded genocide and murder of little children. A rogue nation of mostly vampires who vote with blood stained ballots dipped in the hearts and minds of innocent children who find no safety from bombs, rockets, missiles, and bullets whether they are in their homes, schools, hospitals; and most shockingly, not even in their graves, for they bomb graves too. What kind of a people are capable of bombing little graves?

Never in the sixty years since Israel's genocidal establishment and massive ethnic cleansing of Palestinians has the world, especially the western world that gave birth to this illegitimate nation, been given the opportunity to study and understand the historical context of Israel's formation and the dispossession of millions of Palestinians from their homes and land to be condemned to live in refugee camps and tents for decades.

Israel's military prowess unleashed at opportune times to kill, destroy, bulldoze, and sabotage every U.N. Resolution, every peace effort, every aspect of humanitarian law and respect for the life of the "other" be it an American, European, or Palestinian is only exceeded by its media, public relations, propaganda machine, and it powerfully intimidating lobbies, like AIPAC, that have silenced the conscience of governments and western citizenry.

It is the untouchable nation, a nation above all divine and human law, a nation that can drop with total impunity a white phosphorous missile upon a U.N. school massacring children who'll never see daylight again.

We're all complicit and guilty in our fear, silence, and aversion to face an aggressive intimidating political and media power that slimes those who dare to speak for peace, justice, and the sanctity of all lives. We seek comfort and security in our cowardly silence. We wish to avoid the career ending smear of the Neo-Scarlet Letter: A for Anti Semite, although hardly any Jew living today is a Semite.

We must find our voice, we must find our courage to fight the corruption of truth, history, and establish our commitment that all lives are sacred and equal; that there are no chosen people, no supremacy or superiority of one race to another, that all mankind is treated equally under divine and human laws; that the white man's superiority complex doesn't become the dark man's eternal burden.

I congratulate and respect Professor Tariq Ramadan's initiative and all who support it around the world.

See:
http://www.tariqramadan.com/spip.php?article10497< =en#pagination_signatures
Please sign this laudable effort, it's the least we can do to regain some semblance of our humanity. In addition please boycott all Israeli goods products. If you can, complain to the store owners and managers that you won't be buying such products. To identify products from Israel look at the BAR CODE on the product and look for the number "729", usually precedes the remaining numbers)

It's shocking but not unexpected that the most impotent, incompetent, and corrupt governments toward the massacre and suffering of the Palestinians are the Arab leaders themselves; none more so than the "moderates" who'd rather fight their fellow Muslims than switch from their subservience to the Israeli American axis.

Zionism is a political, moral, and spiritual corruption of Judaism. Like Nazism it's based on the supremacy of one race above another. Like Nazism, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and theft of property is a de facto ideology to create a "Jewish Only" State at the expense of expelling Muslims and Christians from the Holy Land. Like Nazism, its power stems from a powerful military and a most powerful propaganda machine that indoctrinates the masses with the ideology that killing a people is an act of self defense that ultimately will benefit the world and protect western civilization.

Zionism is pure unadulterated racism and a system of Apartheid that many morally courageous Jews in and out of Israel believe has threatened not only Israel but Jews around the world and for generations to come. God forbid, one can blame Zionism for any future persecution of Jews.

Has the west lost its conscience? Has its threshold for inquisitiveness, knowledge and reasoned study been lost? Has its threshold for empathy and caring for the less fortunate, the oppressed, the killed, the homeless, the injured, the hungry, the poor, sick, and the hungry been sabotaged by the daily bombardment of noise that our brains become teflonish or simply tabula rasas for the lie du jour.

We shall all die. The ultimate question upon our death would be—did we see an evil and tried to stop it; did we see a chance to do good and not do it.

The Holy Land is worthy of our love, caring, and any sacrifice that will bring peace and justice to all who claim it Holy.

Count me among those who've found the courage and voice of my conviction that Israel's atrocities must stop, that we do all we can in civil disobedience to change the policies of our paralyzed governments, and that we spread the word to Jews and gentiles around the world—Join us to Free Palestine—Join us to save the world
from its inhumanity.

God bless, Amen.

Source for James Baker Quote:

http://www.liberationgraphics.com/ppp/Stop_Israeli_Settlements.html

PTT pride: Erdogan at World Economic Forum cites our editor Gilad Atzmon

By Mary Rizzo

The World Economic Forum at Davos had an incredible moment of truth...After Shimon Peres was allowed to justify the wanton killing that the Jewish State engaged in over the territory they have strangled with their inhumane blockade, (and received applause for it by the men and women waiting for their champaign glasses to be filled after the dinner that of course was more important to them than hearing the words of the Prime Minister of the largest European State with a Muslim majority and one of the most strategic areas on the face of the earth), Tayyip Erdogan begins to respond to the barrage of filth poured out by Peres.

At the moment, our Turkish translators in www.tlaxcala.es are getting a verbatim translation of the intervention, which we will post up here as soon as it is available, but in the meantime,

Here is a translation found here: http://video.aol.com/video-detail/turkish-prime-minister-erdogan-leaves-the-debate-in-davos-translation/3833761515/?icid=VIDURVNWS06

Moderator: There was a heated debate here. This is a discussion that can last for hours. We are already out of time.
Erdogan: One minute.
Moderator: Mr. President, well, you know
Erdodan: One minute, one minute! No! One minute.
Moderator: Ok, but I want you not to speak more than one minute.
Erdogan: Mr. Peres, you are older than me. Your voice is very loud. I know that you are speaking aloud because of the requirement of a sense of guilt. My voice will not be that loud. About murdering, you know killing very well. I am well aware how you murdered children on beaches. Two former prime ministers of your country had important sayings to me. You have former prime ministers who say When I entered Palestine over armed combat cars, I consider myself more and more pleased. I can give their names, maybe some of you wonder. Besides, I condemn those of you who applaud this persecution. Because applauding these killers who murdered those children, who massacred those people is, I believe, also another crime committed against humanity. Look, we cannot disregard a reality here. Here, I jotted down a lot of notes, but I dont have time to answer all of them. But, I will say you only two things:
Moderator: Excuse me Prime Minister, we can't start the debate again.
Erdogan: Excuse me. First, excuse me, do NOT interrupt me! First, The Old Testament says in the 6th commandment: You shall not kill! But there is murder here. Second, this is also very interesting. Gilad Atzmon, a Jew himself, says: Israeli barbarity is far beyond even ordinary cruelty. Besides, Avi Shlaim, Professor of Oxford who performed his military duty in Israeli army, says in the Guardian the following:
Moderator: Prime Minister, Prime Minister. I wanna ask to our host.
Erdogan: Israel became a gangster state. (to the moderator) I thank you, too. For me, Davos is done for me from now on. I will not come again. You all know this in this way. You are not letting us speak. (Showing Peres) He spoke for 25 minutes, but you let e speak 12 minutes. No way!

********************

Well, we at PTT think several things must be said:

1) More leaders should have the courage to speak out about the atrocities and to isolate Israel from sitting on a stage and endorsing their violence, which has no justification. That Erdogan did this, (and used also as his source writing by one of our editors, Gilad Atzmon), can only encourage us in our belief that sooner or later even people responsible for the guiding of a country numbering almost 63 million people, will stand up to Israel and say enough is enough. We are waiting for other Leaders to follow, the ice has been broken.

2) To state the obvious is no longer verboten. Things have to be called with their names, a State that is a menace to humanity and violent beyond all decency MUST be denounced in the loudest terms possible. We can't walk on eggshells anymore. For a leader to express the thoughts of his people (finally) rather than to kowtow to some impossible situation of sitting on the fence (and Turkey in many ways is a nation that has a lot to answer for in past and recent atrocities, as well as its position of support for the invasion of Iraq) moves a step in the right direction. It is NOT in the interests of Turkey to acquiesce all horrors and violence just to stay in the club. It is sometimes BEST to walk off when you realise the platform is there to present a justification for what cannot be justified. We believe that this brave action, widely appreciated by millions, is the first of a series. Of the entire Davos Forum, this was the moment cited in the news.. It is food for thought.

3) NO normalisation with Israel until they accept the rules of International Law. Thank you PM Erdogan, for listening to us, for using our words, and for using that international platform for expressing the views that we know millions of humanitarian people hold. You are enabling all of us.
Palestine Think Tank

Erdogan gets hero's welcome upon his return to Turkey

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50T20E20090130?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

(excerpt)

By Paul de Bendern

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan received a hero's welcome on his return to Istanbul on Friday after accusing Israel of "knowing very well how to kill" during a heated debate at the World Economic Forum.

Erdogan stormed out of a debate on Israel's Gaza offensive on Thursday, and vowed he might never return to the annual gathering of the rich and powerful in Davos.

President Shimon Peres had launched a fiery defense of his country's offensive in Gaza over the past month, and with a raised voice and pointed finger, questioned what Erdogan would do if rockets were fired at Istanbul every night.

"When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill," Erdogan, visibly angry, responded as he sat next to Peres at the debate, which also included United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but secular country that historically has had good ties with Israel and the Arab world, played a role in helping broker an end to the Gaza offensive this month, particularly by lobbying the Islamist Hamas group to declare a ceasefire.

Thousands of people gathered at Istanbul's Ataturk airport to greet Erdogan when he returned, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and chanting "Turkey is proud of you."

"Our people would have expected the same reaction from any Turkish prime minister," he told a news conference at Ataturk airport on Friday morning after speaking to the crowd.

"This was a matter of the esteem and prestige of my country. Hence, my reaction had to be clear. I could not have allowed anyone to poison the prestige and in particular the honor of my country," he said.

"Our reproaches are not against the Israeli people or Jews. Our reproach is totally against the Israeli administration," Erdogan said.

Political Correctness - Rules of Democracy

(Author unknown)

Rule #1: In the Middle East, it is always the Palestinians that attack first, and it's always Israel who defends itself. The name of this is "retaliation".

Rule #2: The Palestinians are not allowed to kill Israelis. The name of this is "terrorism".

Rule #3: Israel has the right to kill Palestinian civilians; the name of this is "self-defense" or "collateral damage".

Rule #4: When Israel kills too many Palestinian civilians, the Western world calls for restraint. This is called the "reaction of the international community".

Rule #5: Palestinians do not have the right to capture Israeli military, not even 1 or 2.

Rule #6: Israel has the right to capture as many Palestinians as they want (around 10,000 to date being held without trial). There is no limit; there is no need for proof of guilt or a trial. All that is needed is the magic word: "terrorism".

Rule #7: When you say "Hamas", always be sure to add "supported by Hezbollah, Syria and Iran".

Rule #8: When you say "Israel", never say "supported by the USA, the UK, European countries and even some Arab regimes", for people (God forbid) might believe this is not an equal conflict.

Rule #9: When it comes to Israel, don't mention the words "occupied territories", "UN resolutions", "Geneva Conventions". This could distress the audience of Fox, CNN, etc.

Rule # 10: The Palestinians are always "cowards" who hide behind a civilian population that "they don't care about". If they (militants) sleep in houses with their families, the name of this is: "cowardice". Israel has the right to annihilate the towns where they sleep using bombs and missiles. The name of this is "high precision surgical action".

Rule #11: Israelis speak better English than Arabs. This is why we let them speak out as much as possible, so that they can explain rules 1 through 9. The name of this is "neutral journalism".

Rule #12: If you don't agree with these rules or if you favor the Palestinian side over the Israeli side, you must be a very dangerous anti-Semite. You may even have to make a public apology if you express your honest opinion.

THIS NAME OF THIS IS: DEMOCRACY!!
(Isn't democracy wonderful?)

Now that you have read the rules (a Spanish language version of them says the author was God, and I've translated an Italian version you can read tomorrow on www.tlaxcala.es), see what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [Lies and Deception] has issued in today’s briefing. It's their denouncement of War Crimes and Death of civilians, of thievery and use of weaponry. Obviously, they project all evil onto their enemies, and here is a classic example of the Hasbara of Israel's “Good War in a Nutshell”. If you read it, you will see that they are accusing Hamas of all and sundry, War Crimes, even! See how well they apply these rules, going beyond the beyond! They tout about words such as “Truth”, the use of exaggeration and hyperbole alone is staggering, “Eight years of constant rocket barrages”, "I don't think there's ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza.", and the whopper, “...I was struck by how cosmetically unchanged Gaza appeared to be.”

Count how many times they use each rule and share your results with the rest of us! Find a few rules that were hidden… in essence, for lovers of science fiction or fairy tales, this genre will be right up your alley.