Israel's Latest Ritual Slaughter

By Stephen Lendman for Information Clearing House

Four days of Israeli terror bombing left at least 25 Palestinians dead and dozens injured, some seriously. Human rights groups expressed outrage. So did Arab League states, Iran, Turkey, and Malaysia.

Israel's UN envoy Ron Prosor wants the Security Council to condemn Palestinian victims. Like Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, his audacity gives chutzpah new meaning.

On March 12, Egypt's lower parliamentary house unanimously approved a text declaring Israel Egypt's number one enemy. It called for expelling its ambassador, halting gas exports at below market prices, and reevaluating its 1978 peace treaty. It followed the 1978 Camp David Accords.

Its text said:

"Revolutionary Egypt will never be a friend, partner or ally of the Zionist entity, which we consider to be the number one enemy of Egypt and the Arab nation."

"It will deal with that entity as an enemy, and the Egyptian government is hereby called upon to review all its relations and accords with that enemy."

No Israeli comment followed.
 

Four days of Israeli terror bombings were unprovoked. Assassinating Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) head Zuhir al-Qaisi and PRC member Mahmoud Hanani began them. Both men died when two IDF missiles struck their car.

Gazan resistance groups launched Grad missiles, home-made rockets, and mortar shells defensively in response. Israel and Washington pointed fingers the wrong way. Absolving Israeli crimes takes precedence.

Naked aggression's called self-defense. Resistance freedom fighting is called terrorism. Facts on the ground are inverted. Whatever Israel does it right. Legitimate Palestinian responses aren't tolerated. Victims get no rights.

Israel's bloodstained history reflects decades of ritual slaughter and targeted killings. The latest incident shows what Palestinians endure regularly, including from media scoundrels ignoring their suffering and denouncing them.

Usually, Haaretz produces responsible journalism. Not on March 13. An editorial headlined, "War in Israel's south will not defeat Gaza terror," asking:

Was killing al-Qaisi worth "disruption....economic damage, (and) danger of plunging into a military ground operation in Gaza?"

Unasked was how targeted killings are ever justifiable. Haaretz approves against alleged "ticking bomb(s)." By whose standard when no evidence linked al-Qaisi to past or claimed planned attacks. Saying so isn't proof. Israel never supplies it. Why is clear. There's none, but Haaretz didn't explain or denounce premeditated murder.

Instead, it sided with southern Israelis living under threat of Gazan rockets. They're used defensively in response to Israeli attacks. International law permits it.

"The war in the south must end immediately. It will not defeat terror nor reduce the Gaza threat." Nor will Cast Lead II. Sensibly the editorial ended saying negotiations, not violence, produces solutions.

But how can Palestinians negotiate in good faith without a willing partner! For decades, Israel chose violence, not peace or honest diplomacy. Relations with Netanyahu's like dealing with a snake. It's futile, toxic and dangerous. He proves it by committing cold-blooded murder, claiming self-defense.

A same day Haaretz article was just as shameless, headlined, "TIMELINE/A breakdown of number of Gaza rockets fired at Israel over past year."

Enumerating numbers fired by month from January 2011 through the latest March confrontation, it listed 200 this month alone. Gazans were blamed, not IDF belligerents. Unexplained was that Palestinians respond defensively to Israeli aggression.

Instead, the blame game shamelessly named victims. It also ignored their decades long liberation struggle against lawless, repressive occupation, and for Gazans years of suffocating siege.

Moreover, as Btselem documents, Palestinian rockets killed only 19 Israeli civilians from June 2004 through September 2011. In contrast, from September 29, 2000 through December 26, 2008, Israeli forces killed 4,788 Palestinians. Israeli settlers killed 45 more.

Cast Lead killed over 1,400 Gazans in three weeks, mostly civilians. Only five IDF soldiers died in the conflict, no civilians. Since Cast Lead ended in January 2009, Israeli forces killed another 300 Palestinians. Settlers killed five more. Palestinians killed 15 Israelis.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said Israeli drone attacks killed 825 Palestinians, mostly civilians, from June 2006 through October 2011. PCHR deputy director Hamdi Shaqqura said:

“For us, drones mean death....When you hear drones, you hear death,” and know it’s coming.

Haaretz omitted this balance sheet from its equation.

Notably, hundreds of Israelis die annually from traffic related accidents. In 2008, it was nearly 450, in 2011, almost 400. Deaths at the hands of Palestinians pale by comparison.

Haaretz's article was cruel and deceptive. It distorted facts in portraying an entirely one-sided picture. Gazans are wrongfully called terrorists. They're human beings suffering horrifically from lawless Israeli oppression. It's not typical Haaretz style. For US major media scoundrels, it's de rigueur.

Hopefully today's report and opinion prove aberrant. Hopefully those producing them learn from their mistakes. Haaretz features wonderful writers like Gideon Levy and Amira Hass. They consistently offer responsible journalism. America's major print media have none like them. If any tried, they'd be fired. Only scoundrels need apply.

It shows up daily in reports like The New York Times headlining, "As Rockets Fly, New Conditions Shape Fight in Gaza," saying:

Ahead of an Egyptian-brokered truce, Israeli airstrikes continue and Palestinian "militants' rockets (are reaching farther into Israel." IDF head Gen. Benny Gantz was cited, saying Palestinian violence will require another Cast Lead type operation. Israeli finance minister Yuval Steinitz said eventually Israel will have to do a "root canal."

In other words, victims, not perpetrators, deserve blame. Times writers play the same game. Right and wrong are reversed. Aggression's called self-defense. Legitimate responses are terrorism. Israel's point of view alone matters. It's typical Times journalism, betraying their readers through lies, deception, and willful misreporting.

The same article falsely suggested Iran's an existential threat. Serial liars don't quit. It's habit forming. Too many people believe it. It lets Israel and America get away with murder.

Complicit media scoundrels facilitate it. So does scurrilous UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. He condemned Palestinian self-defense as "unacceptable," while urging Israel to "exercise maximum restraint."

Hillary Clinton expressed Washington's official response, "condemn(ing) Gazan victims "in the strongest terms" while urging "all sides...to make every effort to restore calm."

In other words, killing Palestinians is OK. Responding to premeditated aggression defensively is terrorism. Views like that secure scurrilous reprobates like her and Ban top jobs. Denouncing Israeli lawlessness assures rebukes.

America and Israel have "shared values." None support right over wrong. One wonders what's next.

A Final Comment

After an agreed truce, Israeli forces attacked a funeral procession east of Gaza City. Three Palestinians were injured. Medical spokesman Adham Abu Salmiyah said soldiers fired indiscriminately at mourners. Wounded victims were taken to al-Shifa Hospital.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers "operating along the security fence identified around 50 Palestinians gathered and in accordance with army procedures fired warning shots."

Some warning! Soldiers fired directly at nonviolent Palestinians threatening no one. It's "in accordance with army procedures!"

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Russian v. US Elections

by Steve Lendman

Russia's December 4 elections filled 450 State Duma seats, Russia's Federal Assembly lower house.

Claims of electoral fraud followed. All elections have irregularities. At issue is whether results are comprised. Election monitor Golos accusations were spurious. America's National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funds it. It supports regime change in non-US client states.

It backs opposition groups, conducts propaganda campaigns, and does openly what CIA operatives do covertly to destabilize sitting governments.

Its mission is subverting, not promoting democracy. It operates with State Department funding and direction. It serves US imperial interests destructively against targeted countries.

So do USAID, the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute (NDI). They meddle internally against sitting governments. One way is by funding Golos.

It calls itself a Russian NGO established in 2000 to defend democratic rights and civil liberties. Claiming it's Russia's only "independent" electoral watchdog is duplicitous. It represents imperial Washington's interests against those of Russia's people and government. Moreover, by taking foreign funding, it violated Russian law.

Since early December, Russia's seen on and off street protests. On December 25, RIA Novesti headlined, "Tens of thousands rally in new election protest in Russia," saying:

Peaceful crowds filled "Moscow's Sakharov Avenue on Saturday to demand a rerun of parliamentary elections they claimed had been rigged, as well as liberal reforms in Russia, turning the temperature up on Vladimir Putin and his plans to return to the Kremlin."

Nonetheless, a VTsIOM December 10 - 11 poll showed most Russians support him. However, his 51% job approval rating dropped from 61% in late November and 68% in January. Street protests and legitimate social justice grievances are responsible.

Even though Russia's GDP rose 70% and living standards improved markedly during his tenure as president, millions of Russians still suffer from Yeltsin's post-soviet era "shock therapy."

As a result, 80% of Russian farmers went bankrupt, 70,000 state factories closed, an epidemic of unemployment raged, half or more of all Russians became impoverished, a permanent underclass was created, and crime, suicides, mortality, alcoholism, drug abuse, and HIV/AIDS soared to intolerable levels.

GDP plunged 50%. Life expectancy fell. An oligarch class accumulated enormous wealth at the expense of millions of harmed Russians.

Ignoring essential needs, Yeltsin let corruption and criminality flourish. One scandal followed another. Money-laundering became sport. Billions in stolen wealth were hidden in Western banks or offshore tax havens.

Many problems remain unresolved, especially given today's global economic crisis. In April, Pravda.ru headlined, "Poverty in Russia grows faster than expected," saying:

According to the Russian Federal Statistics Agency, another 2.3 million joined the ranks of Russia's 22.9 million impoverished population. However, "(m)any experts believe that official statistics (don't) reflect the real state of affairs and (are) very often" understated.

Therefore, poverty remains a major growing problem. For millions, wages and pensions aren't enough to get by. Economic weakness exacerbates conditions. As a result, street protests perhaps reflect hard times more than anger over election results.

In contrast to Russia, America's electoral process is scandalously flawed. More on it below.

Major Media Scoundrels Bash Russia

America's media target all non-US client states, including China and Russia. On December 8, a New York Times editorial headlined, "Mr. Putin Seeks a Scapegoat," saying:

He's "determined to resurrect the Soviet playbook. His United Russia Party tried to steal a parliamentary election on Sunday, and, when the results still delivered a stinging rebuke, he claimed the United States was whipping up protests and demonstrations."

Fact check

Though not a decisive majority, United Russia won 49.67% of the vote, compared to the Communist Party's 19.15% second place finish. Hardly a "stinging rebuke." Moreover, independent analysts and observers explained a free and fair process. Results weren't compromised by relatively few regularities.

As explained above, Washington very much interfered as it's done repeatedly in numerous other elections. In Haiti's 2010 first round and 2011 runoff, brazen manipulation rigged the process to install stealth Duvalierist Michel (Sweet Micky) Martelly president. New York Times editorials ignored his illegitimacy, backed fraud, and effectively said Haitians need to move on.

Washington indeed may be behind on and off Russian street protests. The pattern's familiar. Over decades, America advanced the technique. In the 1990s, RAND Corporation strategists developed the concept of "swarming" to explain "communication patterns and movement of" bees and other insects which they applied to military conflict by other means.

Washington used it successfully against Serbia's Milosevic. NED, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute were involved.

It repeated during Georgia's Rose Revolution, ousting Edouard Shevardnadze for Mikhail Saakashvili. A US-installed stooge, he's governed ruthlessly and repressively in office.

Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution was similar, ousting Viktor Yanukovych for Viktor Yushchenko, Washington's man.

America's manipulated 2007 Myanmar Saffron Revolution and Iran's 2009 Green Revolution failed. Both countries remain targeted for regime change.

Very possibly, Russia's street protests are made-in-the-USA. It wouldn't be the first time nor last. Supportively, America's media pretend otherwise. Putin accused Hillary Clinton of meddling. The Times editorial called his charge "bizarre," saying:

"Mrs. Clinton and the White House did the right thing (by) critici(zing Russia's) vote. She also expressed support for the 'rights and aspirations' of the Russian people."

In fact, political Washington abhors democracy at home and abroad. Imperial wars, numerous coups, internal subversion and destabilization, homeland repression, and rigged elections prevent it. Major media scoundrels approve.

On December 24, they featured Russian protests. New York Times writers Ellen Barry and Michael Schwirtz headlined, "Vast Rally in Moscow Is a Challenge to Putin's Power," claiming 120,000 turned out. Other reports estimated crowd size at from 50 - 80,000.

Ria Novosti said "tens of thousands." So did the Washington Post in an article headlined, "Protesters flood Moscow demanding reforms." It focused on social needs, not electoral fraud in contrast to The Times highlighting comments about dissolving Parliament, holding new elections, and comparing Putin to Brezhnev.

Managed news, misinformation, and hyperbole characterize America's media. Truth and full disclosure aren't their long suit. Or Washington's.

Notorious US Electoral Fraud

Duopoly power runs America. Democrats are interchangeable with Republicans. Differences between them are minor.

• On major issues mattering most, they agree, including: war and peace;
• capital's divine right to exploit workers, new markets, and global resources;
• enriching the nation's aristocracy;
• forced austerity when stimulus is needed; and
• targeting dissenters challenging political corruption, corporate crooks, or abuse of power lawlessness.

Moreover, today's technology makes election rigging easy. The entire process lacks legitimacy. Elections and their run-up are mere kabuki theater. Major media and PR industry scoundrels play lead roles. Everything's pre-scripted.

Secrecy and back room deals substitute for a free, fair and open process. Candidates are pre-selected. Big money owns them. Key outcomes are predetermined. Power brokers share fault.

Partisan politics serve privileged elites. They get the best democracy money can buy. Elections give them cover. Independents are shut out. Major media scoundrels ignore them.

Issues are unaddressed. Horse race journalism and trivia substitute. Voter disenfranchisement is rife. Many are peremptorily stricken from rolls. Others are intimidated not to vote or are detered by various illegal practices.

"Vote caging" is one. It suppresses minority voters by delisting them for not answering "do not forward" registered mail sent to homes they're not living at - because they're at school, in the military, or away for other reasons.

Millions can't vote because of past criminal records or current incarceration in the world's largest gulag at around 2.4 million. Around two-thirds are Blacks and Latinos. Most committed minor nonviolent crimes, including illicit drug possession.

Moreover, half of eligible voters opt out because their concerns aren't addressed. Today they include impoverishment, unemployment, homelessness, hunger, and government ignoring their needs.

Post-9/11, elections were privatized. Touchscreen electronic machines vote, not citizens. Over 80% of all 2004 and 2008 votes were cast and counted on corporate-owned, programmed, and operated ones. No verification receipts were provided, and no vetting of corporate "trade secret" software was permitted.

Corporate-run machines are easily manipulated. Votes can be erased, added or changed electronically. As a result, losers are declared winners, and not just for president. Power wins. People lose, and America's democracy is pure fantasy.

Moreover, Western and other governments have proportionally representative (PR) government unlike America's winner-take-all system. PR represents all voters and political parties commensurately with their electoral strength. Thus if candidates from one party win 30% of the votes, they get 30% of legislative seats so that government represents all segments of society fairly.

In contrast, America's system gives a 50.1% majority total power. The other 49.9% is shut out. Democracy is fantasy, not real, especially when results are rigged.

In presidential elections, America's Electoral College system is also systemically flawed, especially when popular totals exceed its count. Examples include Bush v. Gore in 2000 (before months later recount totals showed Gore winning both ways), 1824, 1876, and 1888.

Moreover, in 16 presidential elections, winning candidates fell short of majorities. Under a winner-take-all system excluding runoffs, potential second round favorites lost out.

Bush v. Gore: 2000

On December 12, the Supreme Court hijacked Election 2000. In choosing Bush over Gore, it was the first time in US history a High Court reversed a popular vote (5 - 4) to install its own favorite.

It settled a rigged process to elect Bush. Its outcome hung on Florida's electoral vote. Gross irregularities corrupted it, including:

• Floridians purged (without verification) because their names, gender, birthplace and race matched countless ex-felons who show up multiple times in state phone directories;
• alleged crimes listed as committed in future years; and
• ex-felons of other states removed whose voting rights were restored.

As a result, thousands of names were incorrectly listed and removed from voter rolls pre-election.

Under orders from Governor Jeb Bush, other obstructive practices occurred before and on election day, including:

• African-American district ballot boxes missing and uncounted;
• in black precincts, state troopers (near polling sites) intimidating and delaying voters for hours by searching cars and setting up roadblocks;
• some precincts asking for two photo IDs; Florida law requires only one;
• obstructing African-American students illegally at polling stations;
• turning away Black voters for fabricated reasons;
• failing to mail requested absentee ballots; and
• forging those received for Bush.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act bans discriminatory practices, disenfranchising blacks, other minorities or anyone. Florida did it egregiously.

Bush v Kerry: 2004

Election 2004 was worse than 2000. The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) smoothed the way with electronic ease. It was the first electoral law designed to facilitate fraud. It initiated privatized voting.

Kerry was heavily favored. Florida and Ohio proved decisive. Both were stolen for Bush. Incontrovertible evidence proved it. Voter  disenfranchisement was rife.

Nearly half those requesting absentee ballots never got them. However, military personnel expected to support Bush received theirs.

The Republican National Committee hired consulting firm Sproul & Associates to register voters in six battleground states. They refused to register Democrats.

Malfunctioning New Mexico voting machines wiped out 20,000 votes to let Bush carry the state by a 5,988 margin.

Faulty voting equipment spoiled one million or more ballots. Another three million Black and Latino district ones weren't counted.

Exit polls in 30 or more states differed from final results by amounts beyond margins of error. In all but four states, discrepancies favored Bush. Exit polling is acknowledged to be highly reliable. Election 2004 was the exception to reelect Bush when, in fact, Kerry won handily.

Ohio was especially rigged. Tens of thousands of eligible voters were illegally purged from rolls. Nearly 360,000 overwhelmingly Democrat voters were prevented from casting ballots or didn't get theirs counted. Bush's victory margin was 118,599.

Republican precincts outnumbered Democrat ones. Democrat precincts got fewer voting machines than Republican ones. People waited up to 12 hours to vote. Some gave up and went home. Others were told they were at the wrong precinct.

One in four registrants were told they weren't listed. Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell purged them illegally.

These and other practices were rampant in Ohio, Florida, and other key battleground states. As a result, voter preferences didn't count. Major media scoundrels suppressed truth to reelect Bush over Kerry who won handily but gave it up without protest.

A Final Comment

America's democracy is pure fantasy. Rigged elections lack credibility. Either way, duopoly power runs things. People have no say whatever.

In September, OWS erupted. Change depends on them. Organized people can beat organized money when they fight back and won't quit.

It's how all great battles are won. Millions are in this together. Given the state of today's America, the stakes are too high for failure. There's no turning back now, and they know it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.   Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/

From Goldstone to Uribe

by Stephen Lendman for the Steve Lendman Blog

Despite a credible start, the fix is in. Expect justice again to be denied. After the Gaza War (Operation Cast Lead), the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) appointed Justice Richard Goldstone to lead an independent four-person fact-finding Commission to investigate human rights and humanitarian law violations committed on both sides, Israel doing everything possible to obstruct him in vain.

The Commission conducted 188 interviews, got over 300 reports, submissions and other documents, comprising more than 10,000 pages, 30 videos, and 1,200 photographs, much of it gathered first-hand. Secondary sources added corroboration, in total providing clear evidence of Israel crimes.

On September 15, 2009, the Commission concluded that:

"there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity."

"While the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right of self-defense, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole."

Rocket attacks were a pretext for well-planned naked aggression. The Commission's findings were conclusively damning despite Israeli war criminals not punished, justice still denied but not forever.

Daily, Israel commits crimes against humanity through targeted assassinations, street violence, mass arrests, torture, regular incursions, land theft, dispossessions, and other law violations, including suffocating Gazans under siege, then attacking humanitarian missions breaking it, most recently on May 31 against Freedom Flotilla participants, murdering targeted activists in cold-blood in international waters, claiming self-defense, a clear bald-faced lie, the evidence overwhelming, conclusive, and damning.

Two UN Commissions Investigating the Flotilla Massacre

On June 2, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) approved formation of an international commission comprised of lawyers and international law and human rights experts, its findings to be presented in September during the Council's three week Geneva session.

Its members include:

-- Desmond de Silva, a UK lawyer and former chief prosecutor for the Sierra Leone Special Court investigation into widespread killings there;

-- Karl Hudson-Phillips, a former International Criminal Court (ICC) judge and former Trinidad and Tobago attorney general and parliament member; and

-- Malaysia's Mary Shanthi Dairiam, active in gender equality issues, including on the UN Development Program's gender equity task force.

In emergency session, the HRC criticized Israel's "outrageous attack on aid ships attempting to breach a blockade on the Gaza Strip," calling it "piracy, (an) act of aggression, (a) brutal massacre, (an) act of terrorism, (a) war crime, (a) crime against humanity - unprovoked, unwarranted, atrocious, (and) brutal," calling activists onboard "peaceful, innocent, noble, unarmed, (and) defenseless, setting a hopeful tone for a Goldstone Commission-like investigation and conclusions.

However, on August 2, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named his own commission, unsurprisingly showing obvious bias toward Israel after earlier criticizing the HRC for "picking on Israel," a Reuters June 7 report quoting him saying:

"The Secretary-General is disappointed at the council's decision to single out only one specific regional item given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world," the statement omitting Israel or Palestinian Authority (PA) by name.

At the same time, Alejandro Wolff, deputy US permanent UN representative accused the council of "a pathological obsession with Israel," saying "I think the record is starting to speak for itself," a clear reference to the Goldstone Commission.

On July 11, on Press TV, former Iraq UN Humanitarian Coordinator Denis Halliday and former UN chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter accused Ban Ki-moon of being a Security Council (SC) instrument, meaning, of course, a US imperial tool. Halliday said the SC corrupted him, undermining his credibility, shown numerous times, his latest announcement clear evidence.

According to AFP, Ban's commission includes:

-- Geoffrey Palmer, former New Zealand Prime Minister, the commission's chairman;

-- Joseph Siechanover, former head of Israel's Defense Mission to the US and Canada, and Israel's Defense and Agriculture ministries' general counsel;

-- Ozdem Sanberk, former Turkish ambassador and Foreign Ministry Undersecretary; and

-- Alvaro Uribe, former Colombian president, the commission's vice-chairman, a man tainted by corruption and scandal, with close links to his country's drug cartels and paramilitary death squads, responsible for murdering thousands of trade unionists, campesinos, human rights workers, journalists, and others opposing Colombia's narco-state terrorism and ties to US imperialism.

James Petras accused him of conducting "a scorched earth policy (against) Colombia's countryside," murdering thousands criticizing his regime. "Entire regions of the countryside were emptied - like the US Operation Phoenix in Vietnam, farmland was poisoned by toxic herbicides. Over 250,000 armed forces (allied with death squads) decimated vast (areas) where (FARC-EP resistance fighters) exercised hegemony."

Human Rights First accused him and his administration of calling human rights activists "terrorist sympathizers and have insinuated that illicit connections exist between human rights NGOs and illegal armed groups."

Former UN Human Rights Rapporteur, Margaret Sekaggya, visited Colombia in September 2009, then reported in March 2010 on the "Stigmatization (of human rights activists) by public officials and non-State actors; their illegal surveillance by State intelligence services; their arbitrary arrest and detention; their judicial harassment; raids (against their) premises and theft of information," ordered by Uribe, calling them:

-- "rent-a-mobs at terrorism's service who cowardly wave the human rights flag;

-- human rights traffickers;

-- charlatans of human rights;

-- bandits' colleagues; and

-- (the) intellectual front (for) FARC" resistance fighters.

Contemptuous of human rights, international law and justice, his appointment destroys the commission's credibility, guaranteeing bias and whitewash. It's results will be announced in mid-September. HRC's conclusions will be marginalized, Ban's assured top-featured prominence, sanctifying cold-blooded murder.

A Hopeful Sign

On August 10, Haaretz Service reported that Turkey has set up its own Flotilla inquiry to "investigate the attack and the treatment the activists faced." The commission will include "officials from the foreign, justice, interior and transport ministries as well as from the country's maritime agency."

Turkey holds Israel responsible for the massacre, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu saying "No one else can take the blame for killing civilians in international waters." President Recep Erdogan agrees, harshly condemning Israel for the crime.

A Final Note

In late May, Israel's Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi vowed to block the Gaza aid Flotilla, stopping short of explaining how. On August 11, before Israel's Turkel commission, he defended the massacre as "proportional and correct," praising his commandos' calm and morality.

On August 12, he repeated the warning, telling a naval graduation class he'll block future flotillas, saying "There is no doubt that you will manage to stop the nearing threats." Now we know what he has in mind.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.