Will this increase or decrease the likelihood of terrorist actions in America, Europe and the rest of the world?

If you were a member of a family murdered in this conflict, would you be seeking revenge?

Should Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert, be tried for war crimes if or when this conflict comes to an end?

What will the price of oil be in 4 weeks time?

Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Hawking, 71, the world-renowned theoretical physicist and former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, had accepted an invitation to headline the fifth annual president's conference, Facing Tomorrow, in June, which features major international personalities, attracts thousands of participants and this year will celebrate Peres's 90th birthday.

Hawking is in very poor health, but last week he wrote a brief letter to the Israeli president to say he had changed his mind. He has not announced his decision publicly, but a statement published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine with Hawking's approval described it as "his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there".

Hawking's decision marks another victory in the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions targeting Israeli academic institutions.

In April the Teachers' Union of Ireland became the first lecturers' association in Europe to call for an academic boycott of Israel, and in the United States members of the Association for Asian American Studies voted to support a boycott, the first national academic group to do so.

In the four weeks since Hawking's participation in the Jerusalem event was announced, he has been bombarded with messages from Britain and abroad as part of an intense campaign by boycott supporters trying to persuade him to change his mind. In the end, Hawking told friends, he decided to follow the advice of Palestinian colleagues who unanimously agreed that he should not attend.

Bet they're gutted.

They were certainly pretty annoyed. It is another good example of academic boycotts.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/europe-sticks-a-warning-label-on-the-settlements.premium-1.529826

The European Union is inching towards issuing EU-wide guidelines on the labeling of produce from Israeli settlements in the West Bank; agreement could be reached as early as later this month at the regular meeting of EU foreign ministers.

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/UNs-Ban-calls-Israeli-settlement-plans-illegal-316566

UN's Ban calls Israeli settlement plans 'illegal'

WASHINGTON -- United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon remains "deeply concerned" over plans to construct hundreds of new housing units in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, his spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

"These are unhelpful decisions that undermine progress towards the two-state solution," the statement reads. "They constitute a deeply worrisome trend at a moment of ongoing efforts to re-launch peace negotiations."

The secretary-general's office explicitly calls such construction of "illegal settlement outposts" a "violation of international law."

"The Secretary-General calls on Israel to heed the calls of the international community to freeze settlement activity and abide by its commitments under international law and the Road Map," the statement concluded.

Sir Bob Russell Accuses Israel Of 'Ethnic Cleansing' Of Bedouin

Lib Dem MP Sir Bob Russell has accused Israel of committing a "crime against humanity" for the planned eviction of thousands of Bedouins from the Negev desert.

"The removal of such a large number of humanity will only be undertaken at a point of a gun," he told the Commons on Thursday.

"If ethnic cleansing was going on anywhere else in the world, the world's leaders would be voicing outrage ... and it is the United States who allow this sort of thing to go on and have done since 1948."

He added: "President Obama has failed to ensure the ethnic cleansing does not take place by the Israelis, by the Israeli parliament, against the Bedouins."

And he said the British and international media should feel "shame" for failing to report "this crime against humanity".

According to Haaretz, some 1,500 people demonstrated against the plan to move around 30,000 Bedouins.

The protestors were fighting a Bill that would move thousands of Bedouins in the Negev desert into government-recognised areas.

The Israeli authorities insist the resettlement is needed to provide the Bedouins with previously denied basic public services. But the Bedouins argue the plan destroy their way of life.

Sir Bob's comments were supported by Conservative MP Bob Stewart. The former Army colonel told MPs: "It's disgraceful that there are two kinds of people in the West Bank, Israelis and others. This is appalling."

Amnesty International has also condemned Israel for the demolitions.

"The Israeli authorities must halt demolitions in these communities and change course completely to guarantee all citizens’ right to adequate housing,” said Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“The Israeli government’s Prawer-Begin plan would lead to the forced eviction of tens of thousands of Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel. The plan is inherently discriminatory, flies in the face of Israel’s international obligations and cannot be accepted in any circumstances.”

Hitler will be happy !

Dil,

They are the chosen few.

Dozens of Jewish anti-Israel activists have written an open letter in support of Nigel Kennedy's apartheid comments made at the Proms.

They attacked the BBC's decision to censor a broadcast of the violinist's Royal Albert Hall performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons in which he launched a thinly-veiled attack on Israel.

Among the signatories of the letter published in today's Telegraph, were veteran activists Deborah Fink, Tony Greenstein, Abe Hayeem, Moshe Machover, Miriam Margolyes, Jonathan Rosenhead, Alexei Sayle and Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi.

They represent groups including Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods and the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine.

A number of the signatories attended the concert, which they describe in the letter as "exhilarating".

They wrote: "As Jewish campaigners for equality, justice and freedom for all in Israel/Palestine, we urge the BBC to acknowledge his comments as an integral part of a performance which was warmly received by an enthusiastic Proms crowd.

"The BBC owes television viewers the right to see the event uncensored, in its entirety."

The letter also referred to last week's JC story which broke the news of the censorship, and they claimed that the BBC had been "subjected to pressure from pro-Israel advocates".

At the performance earlier this month, Mr Kennedy had told the audience: “It’s a bit facile to say it, but we all know from the experience of this night of music that giving equality and getting rid of apartheid gives a beautiful chance for things to happen.”

The BBC owes no one a right to use it as a propoganda medium for their own agenda so go do one Kennedy.

Oi Haystack , can't believe you haven't blamed the Jews for the mess in Syria. Must be an angle to do so somewhere surely ?

There is an angle involving Israel. They have been lobbying for attacks on Syria in recent days, particularly with the US. You should avoid saying Jews as it is not relevant. The problems arising from Israel are not religious or ethnic specific. It is the Israeli government and the Zionists.

"There is an angle involving Israel. They have been lobbying for attacks on Syria in recent days, particularly with the US." ... and , France , UK etc etc.


"The problems arising from Israel are not religious or ethnic specific. It is the Israeli government and the Zionists." ... not sure what problem your referring to so can't comment.

Copied from NOWT.

Worth reading and considering.

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MaxK - 09 Sep 2013 23:45 - 29135 of 29139



Obama's rogue state tramples over every law it demands others uphold

For 67 years the US has pursued its own interests at the expense of global justice – no wonder people are sceptical now


George Monbiot

The Guardian, Monday 9 September 2013 20.30 BST


You could almost pity these people. For 67 years successive US governments have resisted calls to reform the UN security council. They've defended a system which grants five nations a veto over world affairs, reducing all others to impotent spectators. They have abused the powers and trust with which they have been vested. They have collaborated with the other four permanent members (the UK, Russia, China and France) in a colonial carve-up, through which these nations can pursue their own corrupt interests at the expense of peace and global justice.

Eighty-three times the US has exercised its veto. On 42 of these occasions it has done so to prevent Israel's treatment of the Palestinians being censured. On the last occasion, 130 nations supported the resolution but Barack Obama spiked it. Though veto powers have been used less often since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the US has exercised them 14 times in the interim (in 13 cases to shield Israel), while Russia has used them nine times. Increasingly the permanent members have used the threat of a veto to prevent a resolution being discussed. They have bullied the rest of the world into silence.


More: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/09/obama-rogue-state-tramples-every-law

================

and as i wrote on NOWT, for once and possibly the only time, i concur fully with what this article in the gurniad says

however, the chances of the protocols within the security council now being rewritten remain less than zero, and not just because it would not (necessarily) suit america to have them changed ..... can you even envisage russia and china agreeing to any changes in the veto system?

Fergal Keane explores the use of terrorist techniques in Algeria and Mandatory Palestine to find out if they were the crucial factor in the defeat of the colonial powers.

On now R4, interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBYkBqY1-LM

Interesting views of President Harry Truman from his diary

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/diary/page21.htm

A smuggler carries food from Kentucky Fried Chicken to be delivered through an underground tunnel linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt