The Arab Conscience operetta

You can use everything in the following post where ever you want.

On 27th of February 2008, I watched "Al Dhameer Al Arabi" (The Arab Conscience) operetta premiere on Zoom TV, which is considered part two of "Al Hilm Al Arabi" (The Arab Dream) operetta which was produced in 1998.

It's extends for more than 40 minutes, I according to the director, it's might get into the Guinness book for longest non stop song in the world.

It features more than 100 Arab artist, singers, actors, hosts...Etc, and talks about war using real archival videos of events took place in the whole world between 1998 to 2008.

The song is very touching I translated it to English but some parts made non sense because as I always says translating an Arab poem will make it loses the power of it.

Here is a list of some topics been brought up in the operetta:

9/11 attacks, Danish cartoons, Israeli massacres in Lebanon and Palestine, Desert fox, Sharon entrance to Al-Haram Al-Qudsi and the second Intifadha, Assassination of Muhammad Al-Durrah, War on Iraq, Kenya and Tanzania bombings, Bombing of southern Lebanon, War on terror, Resistance, World Peace, Terrorism, Arabism, Freedom of religion, Freedom of expression, Turning ethinic groups against each others, Civil wars, the Arab Dream Operetta, Separation wall in the Palestinian territores, Golan heights, Abu Ghraib prison, Human rights, Democracy, Al-Haram Al-Qudsi...Others

The operetta begins with two legends Wadee'a Al Safi (وديع الصافي) and Mohammad Al Ezabi (محمد العزبي) performing "Mawwal" (An Arab music genre), the actual operetta begins at 6:13 minutes.

It features Arab singers from many Arab countries such as Latifa (لطيفة), Hani Shaker (هاني شاكر), Nancy Ajram (نانسي عجرم), Khaled (خالد), Sherine (شيرين), Saber Al Rebai (صابر الرباعي), Redha Al Abdullah (رضا العبدالله), Amal Maher (آمال ماهر), Khaled Selim (خالد سليم), Ahlam (أحلام), Diana Karazon (ديانا كرزون), Abdullah Al Rowaished (عبدالله الرويشد), Wa'ad (وعد), Ehab Tawfeeq (إيهاب توفيق), Mostafa Mahfooth (مصطفى محفوظ), Amal Hejazi (أمل حجازي), Wa'el Jassar (وائل جسار), Omniyah (أمنية), Ammar Hassan (عمار حسن), Asalah (أصالة), Jailani (الشاب جيلاني), Nancy Za'abalawi (نانسي زعبلاوي), Majid Al Muhandis (ماجد المهندس), Amnah (آمنه), Lotfi Boshnaq (لطفي بوشناق), Yara (يارا), Omar Al-Abdullat (عمر عبداللات), Nawal (نوال), Noor Mhna (نور مهنا), Fatin Helal Baik (فاتن هلال بك), Mo'amin (مؤمن) and celebrities from many Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait.

You can watch full length music video below, uploaded on google video with English subtitles.

I have no idea where did they get all those lyrics for all those singers, you can find them below with English translations (they are not as good as the original Arabic though; I made them just to give you a general idea about what they are saying)

لطيفة

أنا عايزة العالم كله يمد كفوفه سلام
السلم العربي يكون سلام مش إستسلام

Latifa
I want everybody in the world to reach the palms of peace
Arab peace should be a real peace not surrender

هاني شاكر
أنا عربي و رافض صمتي كاتم إحساس جوايا
و الشعب العربي فصفي ح أقول و يردوا ورايا

Hani Shaker
I am an Arab who refuses silence; I am depressing emotions deep inside of me
The Arab people are taking my side, I'll speak up and all of them will repeat after me

نانسي عجرم
يا صاحبي يا إنسان...هنا أو في أي مكان
ببعت رسالتي ليك...نطوي بها الأحزان

Nancy Ajram
Hey human friends…Here or anywhere else
I am sending my message to you, to fold (forget) our sadness

خالد
نبني مع الملايين بالعدل و الإيمان
يالله أنا و أنت نبني العالم أمان

Khaled
Millions of us will build the world together with fair and faith
Let me and you built (spread) the world with safeness

شيرين
أصل البشر إنسان كل الرسل إخوان
موسى و عيسى و محمد بيرفضوا العدوان

Sherine (Shereen)
All people are humans; All messengers are brothers
Moses, Jesus and Mohammed refuse tyranny

صابر الرباعي
و بيرفضوا ذلنا و بيمجدوا الإنسان
الله هو المحبة دينا هو السلام

Saber Al Reba'ei (Saber Rebai)
They refuses our humiliation, they glorify human beings
God is love; Our religion is peace

رضا العبدالله
قلنا شعاع النور في حلمنا الأول
يوصل سما و بحور يا للأسف طول

Redha Al Abdullah
We thought in our first dream that the ray of light, Will reach skies and seas...
But apparently it's taking forever

آمال ماهر
طول لأن الليل خلى الضمير أبكم
لو باقي فينا يوم لابد أن نحلم

Amal Maher
It's taking forever because the darkness of the night muted our consciences
If we had one day left for us a life...We will keep dreaming in that day too

خالد سليم
مات الإحساس جوانا و إلا إحنا إللي أموات
و إلا ضمير العالم خلاص إحساسه مات

Khalid Seleem
Did our feeling die, or are we the dead ones?
Or the world's conscience is the dead one?

أحلام
و سلاح الشجب معانا شايلينه للأزمات
و الناس بتعاني معانا بدايات من غير نهايات

Ahlam
We are always carrying the weapon of deploring to use it in crises
People are being in constant agony, it starts but never ends

ديانا كرزون
قم يا أخي بالدم و إستنهض الهمة
و إصرخ و قل بالفم ما غاب بالقمة

Diana Karazon
Hey brother, stand up
Shout out load what they (presidents) didn't say in the summit

عبدالله الرويشد
سنقاوم مهما قالوا إرهاباً أو عدوان
لن يهدأ قلب فينا حتى نلقى الجولان

Abdullah Al Rowaished
We will resist no matter if they kept calling us terrorists or tyrants
We will never settle down until we retrieve the Golan Heights back

وعد
أنا رافضة أنا هيمنتك تحت ستار الحرية
أنا رافضة رأيك نصحك بإسم الديموقراطية

Wa'ad
I refuse your dominance under the cover of freedom
I refuse your opinion and tips under the name of democracy

إيهاب توفيق
الحرية مش منحة تتفضل بيها علي
إرادتنا تمحي المحنة إصحي يا أمة يا عربية

Ehab Tawfeeq
Freedom is not a grant you dedicate to me
Our will take over our Plight, wake up Arab nation

مصطفى محفوظ
عمر السلام ما كان أحلام بنشوفها منام
الظلم في كل مكان يا ناس كفاية كلام

Mostafa Mahfooth
Peace was never a dream which we see while we are sleeping
Injustice is every where; hey people stop talking and take an action

أمل حجازي
حربك ضد الإرهاب عنوان ظالم كذاب
مفهومك للحرية ضد حقوق الإنسان

Amal Hejazi
Your war against terror is unfair and false logo
Your definition of freedom is against human rights

وائل جسار
أطفال شيوخ نساء تصرخ و محدش سامع
أشلاء دماء شهداء و ضمير العالم ضايع

Wa'el Jassar
Children, old people, woman are screaming while nobody is listening
Pieces, blood and dead people…While the world's subconscious is lost

أمنية
يا أمة صحي الهمة وصلي صوتك للكون
قتلوا رموز الأمة و لا حرك فينا سكون

Omniyah
Hey nation, wake up and let your voice be heard
They killed the symbols of the nation while no one took an action

عمار حسن
هي عادة فينا نرعى حقوق الجار
هذه الشعوب غدت عزماً بغير قرار

Ammar Hassan
It's one of our habits to look after our neighbors
People became a determination without a decision

أصالة
نبكي و دمع الناس دمع بغير رياء
فإذا غفى الإحساس ماذا يفيد بكاء

Asalah (Assala, Asala)
We are crying with the people who are crying for real
If our emotions slept (If we lost our emotions)[br]What our tears will be good for?

الشاب جيلاني
عذراً رسول الله في حرمة الأديان
لو لي مدى أحياه فسأطلب الغفران

Jailani
Sorry the messenger of God, they transgressed the inviolabilities of religions
I will ask for forgiveness for the rest of my life

نانسي زعبلاوي
فبعزة التوراة و محبة الإنجيل
بحكمة القرآن تبقى الأديان دليل

Nancy Za'abalawi
In the name of the Torah's appreciation and the love of the bible…
In the name of the Qur'an's wisdom; religions will always be a guide

ماجد المهندس
غزة بغداد بيروت الحزن بكل مكان
عزيمتنا لا ما تموت راح تقوى بالإيمان

Majid Al Muhandis
Gaza, Baghdad and Beirut…Sadness is everywhere
Our determination will never die; it will get stronger with faith

آمنة فاخر
كلنا إخوان في الأزمة إيد وحدة عالعدوان
كلنا واعيين للفتنة كلنا ملك الأوطان

Amnah Fakher
Our determination will never die; it will get stronger with faith
We are all one family during crisis standing up in the face of tyranny

لطفي بوشناق
لعبتهم هي الفتنة و لازم نكون صاحيين
للفتنة و نار الفتنة و لابد نكون واعيين

Lotfi Boshnaq (Lutfi Bo Shnaq)
Their game is turning us against each others, we have to be awake
We have to realize that and the fire (subsequences) of it

يارا
لا تقول مسلم و مسيحي كلنا واحد إخوان
لا تقول سني و لا شيعي كلنا إسمنا لبنان

Yara
Don't say I am a Muslim nor Christian, we are all one family
Don't say I am Sunni nor Shitte, we are all Lebanon

عمر العبداللات
يا خويا يا عربي إحنا بقينا أغراب
يا صمتنا العربي إنطق كفاية غياب

Omar Al Abdullat
Dear Arab brother, we became strangers
Our silence, return back and speak up

نوال
إرفع جبينك فوق خلي الكلام فعل
يا ضميرنا يا عربي محال موتك محال

Nawal
Raise your forehead (face) in pride and express your words into action
Our Arab conscience, it's impossible for you to die

نور مهنا
الله يا الله عاث بنا الأعداء
ناديت يا الله ما خاب فيك رجاء

Noor Mhna
Dear God, they are spreading around us like lice
I am seeking for your help; I know you will never let me down

فاتن هلال
أيقظ ضمير الأمة رجع لها الإحساس
يا رافع الغمة صحي ضمير الناس

Fatin Helal Baik
I am seeking for your help; I know you will never let me down
Dear God, wake our nation's conscience up…[br]Let her (the nation) feel backs

مؤمن
صحي قلوب الناس صحي بها النخوة
إصرخ بكل إحساس إن العرب أخوة

Mo'amin
Dear God, Let people's hearts wake up...Let their preference for each others wakes up
Shout out load emotionally..."Arab are a family"

23rd of Feb. protest for Gazza, Palestine

To everybody in the world, join us to protest to end the siege of Gazza in the occupidide Palestine.

http://www.freegaza.ps/english/

USA, democracy and the Middle East

Can you see any links between those three things?

USA been going blah blah blah all the time about spreading what they refer to as democracy in the Middle East, they also been talking about words such as The Great Middle East which includes Zionists entity (Israel).

So USA thought of executing that plan in Palestine for a start, and they asked all parts including Hamas and Fat'h to participate in the Palestinian elections.

Fat'h always won the previous elections, they do recognize the existence of the Zionists entity so called Israel.

While Hamas never participated in one before, and they do NOT recognize the Zionists entity and that's why they are considered to be Terrorist group by USA and the Zionists.

That days I was watching ABC news, and they were saying Hamas won the elections...
They kept repeating that specific line every three seconds between every single other story, and I think that was weird.

Hamas won the Palestinian elections fairly, supported by the votes of the Palestinian people.

Then they were pressured to recognize the exisitance of the Zionists entity but they rejected that constantly. Saying that people of Palestine voted for us (Hamas) knowing that we don't recognize them in the first place.


As a result they decided to get back Fat'h to role Palestine despite all the voted Hamas got from the Palestinian people. Then they forced a siege on Gazza, cut off power, Gas in the middle of winter to turn the people against Hamas.

Do you think this is democracy?
Is this democratic enough?

Apparently USA is not really interested in spreading democracy in the Middle East...
They are interested in puppet Arab leader to say YES or NO whenever they wanted!

One thing to say...

And they call their self "CIVILISED"!

Avaaz.Org

Stop the Clash of Civilizations

IfAmericanKnew.org helps to reveal the truth!

Ever wondered what is the real difference between the Zionists entity (aka Israel) and every other Arab/Islamic states?

Such a thing would never happen to anybody in any Arab and Islamic state no matter what's your nationality, name, Skin color, language and religion.

And some people says Israel is a real democracy?!

The following video created by www.ifamericansknew.org watch it and you'll get what I am talking about.

Outlandish - Look into my eyes song

I was "Googleing" today and I found by accident the lyrics of Outlandish song Look into my eyes, the song reflects the way many Arab and Muslims feels.

I searched about the song and I found out more informations about it...It was originally written on 21st of August 2003 by a Palestanian little girl called "Gihad Ali", the original poem's title is "Eye to Eye: A Palestinian talking to Americans".

You can read the lyrics and watch the music video below.




Look into my eyes
Tell me what you see
You don't see a damn thing
'cause you can't relate to me
You're blinded by our differences
My life makes no sense to you
I'm the persecuted one
You're the red, white and blue

Each day you wake in tranquility
No fears to cross your eyes
Each day I wake in gratitude
Thanking God He let me rise
You worry about your education
And the bills you have to pay
I worry about my vulnerable life
And if I'll survive another day
Your biggest fear is getting a ticket
As you cruise your Cadillac
My fear is that the tank that has just left
Will turn around and come back

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let your media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows
Has our world gone all blind?

Do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let your media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Someone tell me...

Ooohh, let's not cry tonight
I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters

See I've known terror for quite some time
57 years so cruel
Terror breathes the air I breathe
It's the checkpoint on my way to school
Terror is the robbery of my land
And the torture of my mother
The imprisonment of my innocent father
The bullet in my baby brother
The bulldozers and the tanks
The gases and the guns
The bombs that fall outside my door
All due to your funds
You blame me for defending myself
Against the ways of my enemies
I'm terrorized in my own land
But am I the terrorist?

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let your media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows
Has our world gone all blind?

Do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let your media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Someone tell me...

Ooohh, let's not cry tonight, I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,

America, do you realize that the taxes that you pay
Feed the forces that traumatize my every living day
So if I won't be here tomorrow
It's written in my fate
May the future bring a brighter day
The end of our wait

(pause)

Ooohh, let's not cry tonight, I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,

Ohh let's not cry tonight I promise you one day is through
Ohh my brothers! Ohh my sisters!
Ooh shine a light for every Soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers! Ohh my sisters!

Israelis IDF uprooting Arab Olive trees

[CENSORSHIP] DIE AND THEY'LL MAKE SURE NO ONE WILL KNOW ABOUT YOU!
Originally uploaded by radiant guy.

According to Islam, burring dead people is a way to respect them but I think that rule doesn't work in War situation.
People should know what's going on around them no matter how hard and disturbing it is.

I understand that porn is allowed in the media while knowing the truth is not, I wonder if showing a peni* up to a puss*/as* is more important than showing justice and the truth to the world...
Isn't that against "so called" DemocrASSy?
I thought democrASSy is having the right to express your self, to be heard and seen by others while the truth is being buried because of some silly rules created by HUMANS.

Arab female and her two little terrorists!
Originally uploaded by radiant guy.

Last week IDF "Israel destruction forces" killed 18 people most of them were relatives.

Fourteen years old "Asma's Al Athamnah" is a girl who was sleeping when she wake up by the strikes on the 7 houses so she tried to escape with her mother and sister and that's when they were haunted in the street by the IDF...She lost her mother, her sister, uncles and cousins.

video from palestine

The Dream Philosophy of Paranoids

Kill Arabs, Cry Anti-Semitism

By NORMAN FINKELSTEIN
http://www.counterpunch.org/finkelstein09122006.html

A central thesis of my book Beyond Chutzpah is that whenever Israel faces a public relations debacle its apologists sound the alarm that a "new anti-Semitism" is upon us. So, predictably, just after Israel faced another image problem due to its murderous destruction of Lebanon, a British all-party parliamentary group led by notorious Israel-firster Denis MacShane MP (Labor) released yet another report alleging a resurgence of anti-Semitism (Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry Into Antisemitism, September 2006). To judge by the witnesses (David Cesarani, Lord Janner, Oona King, Emanuele Ottolenghi, Melanie Phillips) and sources (MEMRI, Holocaust Education Trust) cited in the body of the report, much time and money could have been saved had it just been contracted out to the Israel Foreign Ministry. (The report's statement that "we received no evidence of the accusation of anti-Semitism being misused by mainstream British Jewish community organizations and leaders" perhaps speaks more to the selection of the witnesses than the reality.)

The single novelty of the report, which mostly rehashes fatuous allegations already disposed of in Beyond Chutzpah, is the new thresholds in idiocy it breaks. Consider the methodology deployed for demonstrating a new anti-Semitism. The report defines an anti-Semitic incident as any occasion "perceived" to be anti-Semitic by the "Jewish community." This is the school of thought according to which it's raining even in the absence of any precipitation because I feel it's raining. It is the dream philosophy of paranoids, especially rational paranoids, for whom alleged victimhood is politically serviceable. The report includes under the rubric of anti-Semitic incidents not just violent acts and incendiary speech but "conversations, discussions, or pronouncements made in public or private, which cross the line of acceptability," as well as "the mood and tone when Jews are discussed." The wonder is that it didn't also tabulate repressed anti-Semitic libidinal fantasies. In the category of inherently anti-Semitic pronouncements the report includes "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" (only comparisons of contemporary Arab policy to that of the Nazis are permissible) and "theories about Jewish or Zionist influence on American foreign policy" (even if Jewish and Zionist organizations boast about this influence).

Much of the evidence of pervasive British anti-Semitism requires real strains in credulity. * The lone item listed under the ominous subheading "The Blood Libel" is a Syrian television series "that would be possible for viewers in the UK to seeif they had suitable satellite receiving equipment." It also notes the unreferenced "case of a Jewish university lecturer who was subjected to an anti-Semitic tirade from a student in the middle of a lecture and subsequently asked to explain to the university authorities why he ha upset the student." Is it anti-Semitic to wonder whether this is a crock? And then the report cites the warning of the London Assembly Conservative Group that "there is a risk that in some political quarters 'views on international events can, almost subconsciously, lead to subtly different attitudes to, and levels of engagement with, different minority groups.'" The new anti-Semitism business must be going seriously awry when British conservatives start sounding like Lacan. Finally, it is anti-Semitic for student unions to advocate a boycott of Israeli goods because this "would restrict the availability of kosher food on campus." Maybe Israel can organize a "Berlin airlift" of gefilte fish.

Although claiming that, in the struggle against anti-Semitism, "none of those who gave evidence wished to see the right free speech eroded," and "only in extreme circumstances would we advocate legal intervention," the report recommends that university authorities "take an active interest in combating acts, speeches, literature and events that cause anxiety or alarm among their Jewish students," and it registers disquiet that "classic and modern anti-Semitic works are freely available for ordering on the Amazon.com website," and that "the United States in particular has been slow to take action" in closing down "anti-Semitic internet sites." It is at moments like this that even the least patriotic of souls can take pride in being an American.

* The police data on an increase in anti-Semitic incidents in itself proves little because, as the report concedes, the spike might be due to more incidents being reported and a coarsening of British life generally, as well as the "spillover" from the Israel-Palestine conflict. In addition, there is little evidence of "organized," "politically motivated" anti-Semitic attacks; there is no evidence that perpetrators of anti-Semitic attacks were disproportionately Muslim; and most of the suspects in the incidents were adolescents. For 2005 the report cites a couple incidents that were "potentially" life-threatening. It cites no comparative data for other minorities in Britain, although tacitly acknowledging that "the level of prejudice and discrimination by Jews in Britain remains lower," a considerable understatement . On a related note, it deplores that "less than one in ten [anti-Semitic] incidents reported to the police resulted in a suspect becoming an accused" , but cites no comparative data indicating whether this ratio is aberrant.

Norman Finkelstein's most recent book is Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history (University of California Press). His web site is www.NormanFinkelstein.com.

By Ghali Hassan*

For its entire existence, Israel has been portrayed as a “civilised” society with Western “liberal democratic principles”, defended by an “heroic” army. Western media coverage has been bluntly biased in favour of Israel regardless of the enormity of Israel’s war crimes and Israel’s violations of international law and civilised norms. This Israel, however, is a fabrication, rather than a reality. It is built on a fiction.

Decades-long vilification and dehumanisation of Arabs and Muslims by Western governments, the inherently racist media and the Zionist entertainment industry of Hollywood have conditioned successive generations of Westerners (and non-Westerners) to blind anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racist stereotypes. From the U.S. to Europe and to Australia, the increasing persecution and alienation of Muslims and Arabs has been legitimised through governments’ introducing new laws and legislation singling out Arabs and Muslims. In addition, Western governments are using the event of 9/11 and the “threat” of terrorism to instill fear, encourage Islamophobia and secure public consent to perpetuate war against Muslim and Arab nations.

In the U.S., the Zionists’ influence – led by the pro-Israel Jewish lobby and the Christian Zionists – on the U.S. media, educational system, political institutions, and national psyche is total. For example, the Palestinians “are almost completely dehumanised”, wrote the late Edward Said. However, all Muslims, regardless of nationality bear the brunt of today’s racism. According to a Washington Post poll taken in March 2006, a majority of American citizens believe that “Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence”. And so, the killing of Muslims, and the destruction of their countries becomes more acceptable to a Western public and neutralises anti-war sentiments [1]. In other words, racism mobilises the public behind war. I recount this racism because once again we face the rising threat of a new and more powerful clone of Fascism.

By contrast, the “Israelis” – Jews who live in Israel – are portrayed as “civilised” and “peace-loving” people. Israeli soldiers, who deliberately train to kill Palestinian school children and women, and use Palestinians as human shields, are portrayed as “heroes”. Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity are not only covered-up in Western media but also justified as “self-defence” operations. The so-called “Jewish State” where 25 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line with the highest child poverty rate in capitalist countries, is called the “shining light on the hill”. The high levels of corruption among Israeli politicians and military elites, and the massive military aid provided by Western governments are taboos in Western media.

Based on its current ideology of a “Jewish-only State” and its brutal treatment of Palestinians, Israel is an Apartheid state [3, 4]. Although anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism is endemic to the militarised “Israeli society”, Israeli laws also discriminate against any non-Jews. Even Jews are classified according to their ethnicity, and Americans – Israel’s unquestionable supporters – are considered “unworthy Gentiles”. In fact, Israel is the only state where racial contempt and the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians is an official ideology [5], and has been Israel’s formidable tool of occupation and expansion. Israel is doing everything to normalise and legitimise this Fascist ideology.

Like Germany under Adolf Hitler, Israel is meticulously pursuing genocide in Palestine. Israel treats Palestinians in particular, and Arabs in general, as Untermenschen [subhumans]. Israeli leaders consider all Palestinians (men, women and children) as legitimate targets, and justify the daily murder of defenceless Palestinians as “militants” and “terrorists”. As during Fascism, Western media – with relentless efforts – have normalised and legitimised Israel’s terror and brutality in the Western conscience. The illegal Israeli occupation of Arab lands, the daily murder of innocent Palestinian civilians by Israeli occupation forces, the destruction of vital civilian infrastructures, and the illegal kidnappings, imprisonment and torture of Arabs are not considered grounds for legitimate resistance. There are at least 10,000 Arab prisoners (mostly Palestinians and Lebanese) in Israeli prisons; including hundreds of women and children. Israel – backed by the U.S. and Western governments – has a total monopoly on violence in the region.

While Israel is portrayed as a “democracy”, Israel denies basic human rights to more than 1.2 million “Israeli Arabs” (20% of Israel’s population) – Palestinians who remained within Israel’s created borders in 1948. As a “Jewish-only State”, Israel abnegates the right of the Palestinian minority to national equality based on the formula of “democratic” principles. In addition, Israel is systematically dividing its Palestinian minority into separate ethnic entities in order to assimilate them into “Israel society” and removes Palestinian national identity. Israeli leaders and a large majority of “Israelis” are in favour of ethnic cleansing (‘transfer’) all Palestinians. The criminal and illegal policy is continuing in different parts of Palestine, including Jerusalem where, until recently, Palestinians made up the majority of the population [2].

Furthermore, following HAMAS’s victory in the January Palestinian legislative elections, Israel, backed by the U.S. and the EU, imposed collective punishments on the entire Palestinian population (in Gaza and the West Bank) in order to coerce the population and undermine the democratically-elected HAMAS government, on the fabricated pretext that the resistance and political movement must renounce violence and recognise Israel. But when has Israel recognised the Palestinians and renounced violence?

As I write theses lines, Gaza, the largest Concentration Camp in history, continues to be under siege and constant bombardment by the Israeli army. At least 250 Palestinian civilians, 65 of them children and at least 30 of them women, were killed by the Israeli army since June 25, 2006. The 1.4 million Palestinian prisoners in the Camp are on the verge of mass starvation. The siege is part of Western governments’ collective punishment of the Palestinians for practicing their democratic rights.

In addition, Israel has been assassinating and kidnapping the democratically-elected leadership of HAMAS. The aim of these illegal and criminal policies is to bring-down the HAMAS government and to destroy the democratic aspirations of the Palestinians. Accordingly, Palestinians have only one choice; to submit to Israel’s terror and brutal occupation or risk being terrorised and starved to death by a brutal force.

On his visit to Israel on August 30, 2006, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has for the first time urged Israel to stop the daily killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, and has called on Israel to stop the indiscriminate shelling and bombing of Gaza. “Two hundred Palestinians have been killed since the end of June … This must stop immediately”, Annan said. “The closure of Gaza must be lifted; the crossing points must be opened”, he added. It is encouraging, but it was also ineffective and deceptive. It is important to remember that Kofi Annan was in the Middle East to serve Israel-U.S. interests at the expense of the Palestinians, and Arabs in general.

Meanwhile in New York, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland told reporters; “Gaza is a ticking time-bomb … You can not seal off an area which is a little bit bigger than the city of Stockholm and have 1.4 million people, of whom 800,000 are youth and children and then have 200 artillery shells a day going in there, virtually every day, seal off the borders … for people to live or even humanitarian supplies to get in”. Egeland stopped short of condemning Israel’s terror against the Palestinians. Gaza is a concentration camp, almost completely cut off from the outside world. The only difference between Gaza and the Concentration Camps is that the Camps had electricity and water, Gaza has none.

In Lebanon, in addition to the massive and indiscriminate destruction of the economy and civilian infrastructures, a large number of civilians, mostly women and children were massacred by the Israeli army. At least 1500 Lebanese civilians, a third of them children, were massacred during the Israeli aggression, and several thousands injured. The Nazi-like criminal attacks were designed to break the will of the Lebanese people resisting Israel’s terror. The U.S.-UK governments openly supported Israel’s war crimes and purposefully delayed an immediate “ceasefire”, preferring more bloodshed and destruction.

Just as the aim of U.S.-Israel is to destroy HAMAS and the Palestinian will to resist the Israeli occupation, the aim of the U.S.-Israel war on Lebanon is the destruction of Hizbullah as a political and resistance movement against Israel’s terror and the control of Lebanon. This U.S.-Israel ideology is flawed and failed because ideological aims are not achieved by violence and terrorism. Like HAMAS, Hizbullah is a grassroots organisation and is deeply embedded in the Lebanese society.

For 34 days, Israel indiscriminately dropped tonnes of U.S.-made bombs on Lebanon. The U.S. not only backed Israel’s terror but continued shipping more bombs to Israel and allowed Israel to destroy as much of Lebanon infrastructure and economy in flagrant violations of international law and the Geneva Conventions. In several Israeli attacks on Lebanese villages on the border with Israel, the Israeli army ordered the population to leave their villages. Once the people gathered their belongings and started leaving in trucks, minibuses and cars, they were cowardly attacked by Israel’s “heroic” army on open roads. Western media were quick to cover-up the atrocities calling these war crimes “daring operations” and “surgical strikes”.

Israel used terrorism openly and deliberately without being held accountable for its actions. When asked to justify Israel’s war crimes against innocent civilians in Lebanon and Gaza, Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN Daniel Carmon said: “We cannot for sure prove that all the civilians in southern Lebanon were purely innocent civilians … There is hardly any distinction between Hezbollah and the civilian population … This whole region was a region in which you could not make the distinction between one and the other”. Carmon rightly defined Israel as a terrorist sate when he said; “Terrorism deliberately, deliberately targets civilians, innocent civilians”. This has been part of Israel’s racist ideology since its inception in 1948 on Palestinian land.

Unashamedly, Western leaders and the mass media called Israel’s aggression and war crimes, “legitimate Israel self-defence”, deliberately contradicting reports by the UN, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International showing that Israeli forces were violating humanitarian laws and deliberately targeted civilians and hence committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

To shield Israel from the responsibility of war crimes and remove Israel’s crimes from historical memory, an immediate international “donors” conference was held in Sweden on August 31, 2006. The conference was nothing more and nothing less than a shameful propaganda and had nothing to do with “aid” to Lebanon. Its aim was the removal of the suffering of Lebanese from Western conscience. The “erosion of historical memory” is very important in time of an ongoing propaganda campaign to prepare the public for another war, probably against Iran.

After allowing Israel to completely and indiscriminately destroy Lebanon, the rich West pledged $347 million (the EU promised $117 million and the U.S. $230 million) in “aid” to rebuild Lebanon. It is estimated that the destruction of Lebanon economy and infrastructure will need more than $15 billion to repair and bring to a pre-war level. The Gulf Arab states will provide the rest of the $950 million. It is suggested that the “aid” is just part of war-profiteering. The conference’s naked hypocrisy was summed-up in the statement of Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson: “Our message should be clear and firm: you are not alone … War may be the business of some, but peace will always be our common duty”, he declared. Switzerland was the only Western country to condemn Israel’s war crimes against Lebanon.

Furthermore, it is true that world public opinion has shifted in favour of resistance against Israel’s terror, however, Jews remain silent. With the exception of a very few individual Jews, the vast majority of Jews and major Jewish organisations around the world unconditionally support Israel crimes against Palestinian civilians, and Arab civilians in general. Recently, America’s main organisation of Modern Orthodox rabbis (the Rabbinical Council of America) called on the Israeli military to be less concerned with the defenceless Lebanese civilians during Israel’s indiscriminate attacks against civilians in Lebanon.

Jews around the world were quick to condemn those who criticised Israel’s deliberate destruction of Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure and economy. Any criticism of Israel is immediately linked to past crimes against Jews. The charge of so-called “anti-Semitism” is used as a tool to bully and intimidate those who dare to criticise Israel’s terror and war crimes in the Middle East. The charge proves to be a deadly tool and has been used efficiently by Israel and Zionists around the world. For example, when German Minister for Development Aid, Heidemarie Wieczoreck-Zeul called for a UN probe into Israel’s indiscriminate use of cluster bombs to attack population centres and innocent Lebanese civilians, the Minister was accused of being “anti-Semitic” by the president of the Central Council of German Jews. The same charge was labelled against Ken Roth, the director of HRW for his very minor criticism of Israel’s deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on Lebanon.

In addition to this massive and well-established propaganda campaign in favour of Israel, Western governments continue arming Israel with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. For example, successive German governments supported Israel’s terror and provided Israel with new weapons (such as nuclear submarines). The justification in creating this excessively-armed and violent monster is that Israel is under threat and that by not arming Israel, Germany will risk accusations of being “anti-Semitic” and Germans’ image will be damaged world-wide. Of course, these are falsehoods. Israel was never under any threat and remains free from threat today. It is Israel who has never stopped attacking its neighbours, and who has refused to live in peaceful coexistence.

Under the UN fig-leaf, European governments (the EU) were quick to provide the largest military force masquerading as a UN force to protect Israel from a devastated Lebanon. The recent shameful and unjust UN Resolution (1701) – crafted by the US, Israel and France – is just a case in point. Despite the enormity of Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, Israel is overwhelmingly supported by Western governments, despite Israel’s ongoing occupation of Lebanese territory and the illegal holding of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.

The indiscriminate destruction of Lebanon by Israel serves Europe’s strategic interests and provides an “opportunity” for Europe to exert its old imperialist role in the Middle East. For decades, Lebanese and Palestinian civilians remained unprotected and subjected to daily Israel’s terror. As in 1982, the UN force is on Lebanon soil to protect Israel and watch Israel commit more war crimes against the civilian population. The Israeli siege (blockade) of Lebanon has been passed to the EU forces and Europeans may die protecting Israel-U.S. interests.

Just as Resolution 1701 was announced, Israeli forces – using the occasion to avenge their defeat in a cowardly fashion – raced into Lebanon and occupied more Lebanese territory. Israeli warplanes indiscriminately dropped thousands of cluster bombs on population centres. According to the UN, there are “359 separate cluster bomb strike locations that are contaminated with as many 100,000 unexploded bomblets”. Jan Egeland, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator said: “Every day, people are maimed, wounded and are killed by these weapons – It shouldn’t have happened … What's shocking and ... completely immoral, is that 90 per cent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution”, Egeland said. The reality is that Israeli was given time to commit more crimes just after Resolution 1701 was announced. Egeland also failed to condemn the ongoing flagrant Israeli violations of the so-called “ceasefire”.

Furthermore, the “Israelis” have been killing and ‘ethnic-cleansing’ Palestinians for six decades, often with UN complicity. Tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians, mostly women and children have been needlessly murdered by the “Jewish Sate” with full knowledge of the UN, and the U.S. Since 1948, the UN has shown itself to be a tool for promoting U.S.-Zionist and Western interests at the expense of the Palestinian people and against the vast majority of world public opinion.

In all its wars against Arabs, almost all Israeli attacks were premeditated acts of aggression deliberately and indiscriminately targeting civilians. The so-called Israeli “heroic” army is a myth fabricated by Israel and the West to promote fabricated images. For six decades, Israeli soldiers are trained to kill school children, women and unarmed demonstrators, and to assassinate unarmed Palestinian men. The modern and expensive U.S.-supplied F-16s, Apache and Cobra helicopters, and the Israeli Merkava tanks have terrorised defenceless a population by bombing schools, houses, hospitals and refugee camps. It’s a different story when Israeli soldiers confront an enemy (like Hizbullah fighters) trained and prepared to fight back. Israel has rarely fought a real war and won.

The “six-day” war was a myth designed to enforce a fabricated image of Israeli military superiority over the Arabs. It is “the myth of invincibility”. In 1967 there was no “six-day” war when the Israeli army – backed by Western forces – allegedly “defeated” a “threat” by the “Arab armies”. It was a premeditated and pre-emptive act of aggression against Jordan, Syria and Egypt who were armed with primitive second-hand Russian bric-a-brac. The heavy air and land attacks were orchestrated by Western governments and Israel, which saw Arab forces, retreated. A halt to Israel’s aggression was enforced by Western powers and allowed Israel to expand by illegally occupying Arab lands in Egypt, Syria and the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza.

Whereas the pretext of WMD was a fabricated lie to justify the Anglo-American aggression against Iraq, needlessly destroying the country and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, we saw another fabricated “threat” used to annex Arab land. In 1982, Menachem Begin admitted that Israel was not threatened by the Egyptians, and that the “threat” was a fabricated lie to justify attacks on the Arabs.

Although Israel withdrew from Egyptian territory after signing a peace treaty with Egypt, Israel still illegally occupies the Golan Heights in Syria and the Palestinian Territories, including Jerusalem. UN Resolution 242 called on Israel to unconditionally withdraw from all occupied Arab land. In addition to its non-compliance of Resolution 242, Israel is in violation of countless UN Resolutions.

In recent times, the heavily-armed Israeli army was unable to break the lightly-armed Palestinian Resistance and occupy the Jenin Refugee Camp or the Gaza in six days. The recent Israeli aggression against Lebanon is another example. Despite the enormity of the war crimes committed against Lebanon, the Israeli army was defeated on the border by the heroic Resistance of Hizbullah fighters.

Furthermore, very few people know today that in 1973 Israel was defeated and the war against Egypt marked a turning point in the course of history of the Middle East. On October 6, 1973, Egyptian forces were able to cross the Suez Canal – the largest water barrier ever crossed in the history of warfare – and overcome Israel’s enormous fortified sand barriers, and broke through Israel’s Bar Lev line. Israeli General Ishi Javitch admitted on September 16, 1974 that; “The Arab armies have achieved a major portion of their objectives. They proved that they are able to overcome fear and to fight a war with unparallel valour. They proved that they are able to cross the Suez Canal barrier. They took the Canal by force”. The reality of the 1973 war is clearly displayed at the Cairo’s Museum in Egypt.

Finally, since 1948, Israel is perpetuating a myth that has led the world to believe that everything “Israelis” do is heroic, peaceful and democratic and must be supported. And so a decades-long massive propaganda campaign and billions of dollars – U.S. and European taxpayers – in aid have gone to support this fabricated Israel at the expense of the native defenceless Palestinian people. If the present Israeli genocidal policies continue to be tolerated, it would expand and initiate a Palestinian holocaust.

It is therefore incumbent upon all civilised peoples in the world not only to expose Israel as a violent and racist “Jewish-only sate” in gross violation of international law and civilised norms, but also to oppose with all their might Israel’s militarism and occupation of Arab lands.

Most importantly, however, Israel must be held accountable for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Peace does not come with perpetual violence. Israel must renounce violence and withdraw from occupied Arab lands, allows the re-emergence of independent Palestine for all Palestinians to return to.



* Ghali Hassan live in Perth, Western Australia.

Footnotes:

[1] Rami El-Amine, Anti-Arab Racism, Islam and the Left, Mrzine, September, 2006.
[2] Elodie Guego, 'Quiet transfer' in East Jerusalem nears completion, Forced Migration Review, 06 September 2006.
[3] Uri Davies, Israel: An Apartheid State. Zed Books: London (1987).
[4] Chris McGreal, Worlds Apart, The Guardian, 06 February, 2006.
[5] Gideon Levi (2006). One Racist Nation, Ha’aretz, 27 March, 2006.

Israeli Real Estate Agent
Originally uploaded by AnomalousNYC.

Hizbullah's attacks stem from Israeli incursions into Lebanon
By Anders Strindberg
Thursday, 08/03/06
Christan Science Monitor


NEW YORK – As pundits and policymakers scramble to explain events in Lebanon, their conclusions are virtually unanimous: Hizbullah created this crisis. Israel is defending itself. The underlying problem is Arab extremism.

Sadly, this is pure analytical nonsense. Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 was a direct result of Israel's silent but unrelenting aggression against Lebanon, which in turn is part of a six-decades long Arab-Israeli conflict.

Since its withdrawal of occupation forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Israel has violated the United Nations-monitored "blue line" on an almost daily basis, according to UN reports. Hizbullah's military doctrine, articulated in the early 1990s, states that it will fire Katyusha rockets into Israel only in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians or Hizbullah's leadership; this indeed has been the pattern.

In the process of its violations, Israel has terrorized the general population, destroyed private property, and killed numerous civilians. This past February, for instance, 15-year-old shepherd Yusuf Rahil was killed by unprovoked Israeli cross-border fire as he tended his flock in southern Lebanon. Israel has assassinated its enemies in the streets of Lebanese cities and continues to occupy Lebanon's Shebaa Farms area, while refusing to hand over the maps of mine fields that continue to kill and cripple civilians in southern Lebanon more than six years after the war supposedly ended. What peace did Hizbullah shatter?

Hizbullah's capture of the soldiers took place in the context of this ongoing conflict, which in turn is fundamentally shaped by realities in the Palestinian territories. To the vexation of Israel and its allies, Hizbullah - easily the most popular political movement in the Middle East - unflinchingly stands with the Palestinians.

Since June 25, when Palestinian fighters captured one Israeli soldier and demanded a prisoner exchange, Israel has killed more than 140 Palestinians. Like the Lebanese situation, that flare-up was detached from its wider context and was said to be "manufactured" by the enemies of Israel; more nonsense proffered in order to distract from the apparently unthinkable reality that it is the manner in which Israel was created, and the ideological premises that have sustained it for almost 60 years, that are the core of the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.

Once the Arabs had rejected the UN's right to give away their land and to force them to pay the price for European pogroms and the Holocaust, the creation of Israel in 1948 was made possible only by ethnic cleansing and annexation. This is historical fact and has been documented by Israeli historians, such as Benny Morris. Yet Israel continues to contend that it had nothing to do with the Palestinian exodus, and consequently has no moral duty to offer redress.

For six decades the Palestinian refugees have been refused their right to return home because they are of the wrong race. "Israel must remain a Jewish state," is an almost sacral mantra across the Western political spectrum. It means, in practice, that Israel is accorded the right to be an ethnocracy at the expense of the refugees and their descendants, now close to 5 million.

Is it not understandable that Israel's ethnic preoccupation profoundly offends not only Palestinians, but many of their Arab brethren? Yet rather than demanding that Israel acknowledge its foundational wrongs as a first step toward equality and coexistence, the Western world blithely insists that each and all must recognize Israel's right to exist at the Palestinians' expense.

Western discourse seems unable to accommodate a serious, as opposed to cosmetic concern for Palestinians' rights and liberties: The Palestinians are the Indians who refuse to live on the reservation; the Negroes who refuse to sit in the back of the bus.

By what moral right does anyone tell them to be realistic and get over themselves? That it is too much of a hassle to right the wrongs committed against them? That the front of the bus must remain ethnically pure? When they refuse to recognize their occupier and embrace their racial inferiority, when desperation and frustration causes them to turn to violence, and when neighbors and allies come to their aid - some for reasons of power politics, others out of idealism - we are astonished that they are all such fanatics and extremists.

The fundamental obstacle to understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict is that we have given up on asking what is right and wrong, instead asking what is "practical" and "realistic." Yet reality is that Israel is a profoundly racist state, the existence of which is buttressed by a seemingly endless succession of punitive measures, assassinations, and wars against its victims and their allies.

A realistic understanding of the conflict, therefore, is one that recognizes that the crux is not in this or that incident or policy, but in Israel's foundational and per- sistent refusal to recognize the humanity of its Palestinian victims. Neither Hizbullah nor Hamas are driven by a desire to "wipe out Jews," as is so often claimed, but by a fundamental sense of injustice that they will not allow to be forgotten.

These groups will continue to enjoy popular legitimacy because they fulfill the need for someone - anyone - to stand up for Arab rights. Israel cannot destroy this need by bombing power grids or rocket ramps. If Israel, like its former political ally South Africa, has the capacity to come to terms with principles of democracy and human rights and accept egalitarian multiracial coexistence within a single state for Jews and Arabs, then the foundation for resentment and resistance will have been removed. If Israel cannot bring itself to do so, then it will continue to be the vortex of regional violence.

Does a dumb Arab & Muslim guy "such as me" really have a right of speech?
Originally uploaded by radiant guy.

Yesterday while I was at work, I was checking some one's (was in my friends list and I was in his/her) photo stream.. .There I found one photo of a tied guy with the comment (A comment not the photo's description) below says That he wish to see all the Arab terrorists to be tied this way.

I replied with the comment "There is a different between terrorism and defending your own country + I will look better than that guy if I was tied LOL".
(F.Y.I. I consider 9/11 attacked pure terrorism)
In the evening I was uploading a photo, then I checked my flickr mail and there was a msg from the owner of that photos stream, I read his msg but i couldn't reply because I was blocked plus I was banned from his/her groups; since because I am a silly,dumb, terrorist Muslim & Arab with no rights of speech,no brain and dignity, who should be killed curley.

Anyway that person asked me to go and fight side by side with Hezbollah, I really would love to but I didn't for two reasons, first I don't have a camouflage outfit & the second I won't be able to login flickr anymore and upload more photos since Israel blown up everything communications, power stations and TV stations to stop them from showing the truth about what's going on in Lebanon; probably know one would ever care about what I am talking about since everybody have their own right of speech except Arabs & Muslims.

I don't blame the owner of the photos stream because he/she clearly has a stereo type idea of Muslims and Arabs delivered to him through a non objective western media and some idiots such as Osama Bin laden and Saddam Hussain, yet I do blame him for not seeking the truth him/her self.
At least he/she had to put him/her self in Arabs & Muslims shoes to realize how does killing his own family, neighbors, friends, husbands or wife makes him/ her feel.

Have any of you seen these images through any of your reliable media such as CNN, BBC or maybe NEWSWEEK?
Perhaps you'll need to few a LARGER IMAGE to make sure that those little murdered kids really belongs to Hezbollah and Hamas!

I believe it's easy for people who does not live in the Arab & Muslims countries to criticize them for taking a reaction against the daily murders they are performed by Israel..
I don't get why the Westerns only see the reaction while they skip the reason?! Since I am a dumb Arab & Muslim could someone help?

If you didn't agree about anything I said let me know because I really would love to discuss it and I do promise no hard feelings (at least my side).

Have a peaceful week..

BRO/KEN
Originally uploaded by radiant guy.

I was trying to imitate one of Gabriel's (Whipflash) photos, but clearly I ended up with something very different.

As I said in a previous photo, most of the flickrists doesn't check the photo's description unless if I was topless!
That photo might not be appropriate for this description but it's does for me.

They are saying that Hezbollah's weapons are Syrian and Iranian made while I am saying Israel's are "proudly made in USA"!
If that makes a good excuse to drag Syria, Iran and Lebanon to a massive regional war…Then it's will make a good excuse to drag USA to the war too ; since they are providing money, weapons and VETOES to Israel!

"The United States was alone in voting against the resolution. Ten of the 15 Security Council nations voted in favor, while Britain, Denmark, Peru and Slovakia abstained.

The U.S. has periodically used its veto to block resolutions critical of Israel. The last council veto, in October 2004, was cast when the United States blocked a resolution condemning another Israeli operation in Gaza." (Source: Yahoo! NEWS)

F.Y.I. Since the establishment of the UN in the year 1945 until now 18th of July 2006, USA used the VETO 77 times, 36 of them to block resolutions criticising Israel.

There is a different between the Sun and the Moon...
There is a different between defending your country and mass killing...
There is a different between innocents and tyrants...
There is a different between Jihadism and Terrorism...

Don't you agree?