Israel is above international law
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Syrian opposition picks delegation to Geneva talks
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Ford played a central role in developing the “extremism threat” scenario including the channeling of military aid to the Al Qaeda affiliated rebels. Ford was from the outset in the months leading up to the March 2011 insurrection among the key architects involved in the formulation of a US “Terrorist Option” for Syria including the recruitment and training of death squads in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. (Global Research 6-6-2014) |
Some people think that our insistence on America’s enmity towards us originates from our prejudice and bias. No, it originates from knowledge and experience!
It is 37 years now that we have been experiencing these enmities. From the beginning of the Revolution, they have showed enmity towards our great movement. From the beginning of the Revolution, they began hatching plots. And they are continuing to do so in the present time. They tried to pit Iranian tribes against the Islamic Republic.. They tried to pit dependent elements against the people. They succeeded in doing so to some extent, but the people defeated them in the end. They have continued these efforts until today..
Global arrogance wants to busy this region with itself so that the Zionist regime can breathe easily. They want to consign the issue of Palestine to oblivion. They want to deny the existence of a geographical entity and a nation.
Palestine is not a fake country that has come into being today. Palestine has a thousand-year history. The people of Palestine are a nation. They own a land and they own a geographical area. However, arrogance wants to deny all these things. It wants to deny the people of Palestine.
The issue of Palestine is the pivotal issue for the world of Islam. The issue of Palestine is an issue that no country should forget. No Islamic country and no country that has a human conscience should forget that this is a pivotal and fundamental issue.
We learned a few days ago that 19 rabbis were arrested in NYC during a protest at Trump International Hotel. The Rabbi operates within the T’ruah organisation, a rabbinical human rights group that was formed (in 2002) to convey an image of Judaic ethical and universal awareness. But T’ruah do not just oppose Trump’s policy as ordinary human beings or American patriots. They actually operate as ‘Jews.’
But if they are actually talking as American Patriots who care for American universal values, why are they protesting ‘as Jews’? They should really protest as proud Americans.
"As Jews, who know what it means to be targeted by discriminatory laws, we stand firmly with refugees fleeing war, persecution, and economic strife," T’ruah Rabbis said in a statement.
Along the years I have developed an allergy to “as a” statements in general and “as a Jew” proclamations in particular. For one reason or another, rather often ‘as a Jew’ constructions happen to be grossly duplicitous.
If Jews know so much about persecution how come their Jewish State is institutionally racist and discriminatory towards minorities and gentiles?
If Jews are pro immigration, how come their Jewish State is vile in its attitude towards illegal immigration. If the Jews ‘stand firmly with refugees’ isn’t it about time their Jewish State invites millions of Palestinian refugees to return to the land that belongs to them and them alone? Do T’ruah rabbis openly support the Palestinian right of return? If they do, they manage to keep quiet about it.
But let’s take it further, can the T’ruah rabbis report to us how many Syrians have found a refuge in Jewish homes? Considering the wars were part of a Zio-Con project, can the Rabbis tell us when is the last time they sat down in the street in front of Paul Wolfowitz’ or Bernard Henri Levy’s homes? After all, Henri Levy claimed that ‘as a Jew’ he ‘liberated’ Libya.
Shouldn’t the T’ruah rabbis at least occupy the streets in front of the Israeli Embassy and AIPAC offices? After all, it was Israel and its lobby that pushed for war in Syria. It was Israel and its lobby that are directly involved in the creation of the refugee crisis in Syria.
I kindly advise T’ruah and other Jewish human rights groups to be slightly more economical with their duplicity...
Mohammed Gaddafi - Escape to Hell Libyan Free Press, 3-4-2012
Read also: US Ambassador killed |
"The protagonists have not understood that no single ideological branch or political or tribal clan can govern the country on its own" in the post-Kadhafi era, said Rachid Khechana, director of the Mediterranean Centre for Libyan Studies in Tunis. "This is why the country is not ready for 'classic' democratic competition" through elections, he said.
In the absence of a strong regular army, the oil-rich country with long, porous borders has turned into rich terrain for smugglers of arms and people from sub-Saharan Africa desperate to reach Europe via perilous Mediterranean crossings.
Hopes for a recovery and return to an era of security raised by a Government of National Accord (GNA), set up under a December 2015 agreement brokered by the United Nations and signed in Morocco, proved short-lived. It set up shop in Tripoli in March 2016 but has failed to extend its authority, even in the capital which is controlled by dozens of militias of shifting allegiances.
The authority of the GNA headed by Fayez al-Sarraj is challenged by a rival administration in east Libya, much of which is under the control of armed forces commanded by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
Haftar, a sworn foe of Islamist militants, is accused by detractors of aiming to establish a new military dictatorship and has so far failed to woo Western support. But a rapprochement with Russia and the backing he enjoys from regional states such as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are prompting the international community to review its position.
"It's now been six years that the international community is trying to impose a democratic, united government when there is nothing on which they can build it," said Federica Saini Fasanotti, an analyst with the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Fasanotti stressed that "not a single remotely unifying political leader has emerged for the country".
Read also: America's Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East
President Donald Trump has dropped Washington's commitment for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, backing away from a long-held position of the US and the international community in the Middle East.
In a joint press conference on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said he would back a single-state solution if the two sides agreed to it.
"Looking at two-state or one-state, I like the one that both parties like. I'm very happy with the one both parties like. I can live with either one," Trump told reporters after meeting Netanyahu in Washington.
"The United States will encourage a peace and really a great peace deal ... We will be working on it very, very diligently. But it is the parties themselves who must directly negotiate such an agreement," Trump said.
A two-state solution - the idea of Israel and Palestine living side-by-side and at peace - has been the bedrock of US and international diplomacy for the past two decades.
Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from the White House, said Trump's comments marked "a very dramatic development" in the search for peace in the Middle East. "Now, for the first time upending long-standing US policy, Trump says he is not wedded to a two-state solution, and that's a fundamental change - basically ripping up the longstanding roadmap. "It's going against UN Security Council resolutions; it's going against the agreed position of the international community."
Earlier on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned that there was "no alternative" to a two-state solution to the conflict: "There is no alternative solution for the situation between the Palestinians and Israelis, other than the solution of establishing two states and we should do all that can be done to maintain this," Guterres said during a visit to Cairo on Wednesday.
Palestinian officials also issued their warnings to the US against abandoning a two-state solution.
"If the Trump administration rejects this policy it would be destroying the chances for peace and undermining American interests, standing and credibility abroad," Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), said in response to the US official's remarks.
The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, with the capital in East Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war.
On Trump's comments about accepting a One-State solution:
-- The problem is Netanyahu doesn't agree to two states and does not agree to one state. The one state thing means that Jews, Christians and Muslims, Palestinians and Israelis will live together in one democratic state (with equal rights for all). But Netanyahu and his coalition do not agree to one (democratic) state and they reject the two-state solution.
-- The Palestinians agree to one (democratic) state and they are happy with two states. What they disagree to is an apartheid (Master-Slave) system where there is two systems in one land: one superior for Jews (Israel is the State of the Chosen People) and one inferior for the Palestinians (residents with limited rights who are allowed to live in the State of the Chosen People).
The One State Solution was in fact the PLO's official stance until 1988
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"Let's call it Isratine" |
“Only democracy in the Middle East”?
Don’t make me laugh. Israel became a military theocracy long ago.
B. Michael, Haaretz, 14-2-2017
Calling on the wider international community to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with Palestinians to protect the two-state solution, Saeb Erekat, senior Palestinian negotiator, warned that undermining the long-standing strategy was no joke.
“We want to tell those who want to bury and destroy the two-state solution that the only real alternative to a Palestinian state living alongside an Israeli one on the 1967 lines is a democratic, secular state where Jews, Christians and Muslims can live together,” he said.
Emerging from a meeting with the speaker of the UK parliament, John Bercow, in Jericho, he added: “Those who believe they can leave the two-state solution and replace it with one state and two systems, I don’t believe they can get away with it. It is impossible. I believe undermining the two-state solution is not a joke and that would be a disaster and tragedy for Israelis and Palestinians.”
Referring to far-right Israeli ministers who have called for an end to the two-state solution and an annexation, Erekat added: “People can hallucinate and believe they can create one state with two systems but this this is not sustainable.”
Husam Zomlot, strategic affairs adviser to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, also noted that Palestinian statehood had long been at the heart of international peace efforts.
“The two-state solution is not something we just came up with. It is an international consensus and decision after decades of Israel’s rejection of the one-state democratic formula,” Zomlot told Reuters...
“If the Trump administration rejects this policy it would be destroying the chances for peace and undermining American interests, standing and credibility abroad,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
“Accommodating the most extreme and irresponsible elements in Israel and in the White House is no way to make responsible foreign policy,” she added in a statement.
Albert Einstein, Manhattan Opera House 22-4-1935:
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The idea of the minority Israelis in the occupied territories ruling the majority Palestinians is called apartheid and is considered a war crime according to international humanitarian law.
Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti responded to this idea by stating in a press release, following the Feb. 15 White House meetings, “Palestinians are unwilling to live as slaves to the occupiers in an apartheid racist system.” (Al-Monitor, 16-2-2017)
Clashes between the Syrian government and moderate opposition forces have fully stopped, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated during his meeting with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. He also stated that the fights were fully eliminated with the help of the conflict sides and the mediators.
"We hope to further build a constructive dialogue with the opposition. All in all, progress we made after December 29 [nationwide ceasefire], progress we have now — this scenario is much better than it used to be. The amount of shellings has significantly fallen, direct clashes have stopped completely," he stated.
Russia hopes for a roadmap on separating terrorists from the moderate opposition in Syria at ongoing ceasefire talks in Astana, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also said.
He underscored the importance of locating the positions of the Daesh jihadist group and the ex-Nusra Front, and stressed that Russia will continue anti-terrorist efforts in alliance with the moderate Syrian opposition, Turkey, and Iran.
Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Syrian government forces and Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army have agreed on a demarcation line in the city of al-Bab, where both Damascus and the rebels are currently conducting an operation to free the area from Daesh.
Today (Sunday), is the 68th anniversary of the assassination, and martyrdom, of Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Al-Banna established the largest group that has been standing firm for 90 years, spread geographically in more than 80 countries...
Al-Banna was very clear from the first moment: "We know what we want, and we know the way to achieve it. We want the Muslim individual, the Muslim household, the Muslim people, the Muslim government, and the Muslim state, which leads Islamic countries, unifies all Muslims, regains their glory, gives them back their lost territories and usurped homelands, and flies the flag of jihad and the call to God until the whole world is truly happy, through the teachings of Islam".
Hence, the forces of evil gathered from every corner of the world to fight this group which seeks to liberate all humans from all authority except that of God, seeks to end the exploitation and enslavement of man by man, and strives to build a strong united Islamic nation...
Al-Banna was aware that the road was long and winding and difficult, with many troubles and tribulations. Seventy years ago he said:
"Dear Brothers… the people's ignorance of real pure Islam will stand an obstacle in your way. You will find people of faith and official scholars bewildered by your perspective of Islam." "They will blame you for your struggle or jihad for your faith. Presidents, leaders, the wealthy and the powerful will begrudge you. All governments alike will stand in your path..." "Are you prepared to be Allah's supporters?!"
While studying in Cairo, Hassan al-Banna immersed himself in the writings of the founders of Islamic reformism (the Salafi movement), including the Egyptian Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905), under whom his father had studied while at Al-Azhar.
But it was Abduh's disciple, the Syrian Rashid Rida (1865-1935), who most influenced Al-Banna.
Al-Banna was a dedicated reader of Al-Manar, the magazine that Rida published in Cairo from 1898 until his death in 1935. He shared Rida"s central concern with the decline of Islamic civilization relative to the West. He too believed that this trend could be reversed only by returning to an unadulterated form of Islam, free from all the accretions that had diluted the strength of its original message.
Muhammad Rashid Rida was a key supporter of the Caliphate, the Islamic state led by the Caliph, modelled on the earliest form of Islamic government in the Arabian peninsula.![]() After the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924, Rida resisted the idea that the Caliphate should be a purely spiritual authority, and promoted sharia, or Islamic law, as an integrated, coherent social and political programme for Muslims. His insistence that all-encompassing sharia is a fundamental part of a Muslim state continues to inform one strand of contemporary political Islam. At the domestic level, he railed against the Christian missionaries who appeared in the colonies, accusing them of "attacking Muslim beliefs" and pointing to their "ambiguous verses" to undermine Islam. He also argued that Europe's claim to Christian identity was contradicted by the continent's materialistic culture. |
In the early centuries of Islam, the term Caliph was referred to the highest leader of the Muslim community. He had two roles; firstly as a ruler practicing the roles of the Prophet and secondly as a religious leader leading the communal prayers. The Caliphate has appeared for fourteen centuries and was abolished by Mustafa Kemal in 1924. In June 2014, the leaders of the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) proclaimed that the Caliphate had been re-established and declared Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi is the Caliph of Muslims |
Banna stated: "Islam does not recognize geographical boundaries, not does if acknowledge racial and blood differences, considering all Muslims as one Umma.
The Muslim Brethren do not oppose every one’s working for one’s own fatherland. They believe that the caliphate is a symbol of Islamic Union and an indication of the bonds between the nations of Islam. They see the caliphate and its re-establishment as a top priority, subsequently; an association of Muslims people should be set up, which would elect the imam".
Created in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood became the first mass-based, overtly political movement to oppose the ascendancy of secular and Western ideas in the Middle East.
The brotherhood saw in these ideas the root of the decay of Islamic societies in the modern world, and advocated a return to Islam as a solution to the ills that had befallen Muslim societies.
Al-Banna tried to stop the flood of the Western cultural invasion... Islamism meant the reform of the society. This goal has been expanded to include the full establishment of shari’ah law.
While the idea of political Pan-Islam was less central to his thinking than that of religious Pan-Islam, Banna recommend the union of Islamic nations around the precept of Qur’an and he held in high esteem political organization, propaganda and active involvement.
Al-Banna, the chief ideologue of the Ikhwan, declared that the mission of his organization was to accomplish two objectives: the independence of the Muslim land from foreign domination, and the establishment of an Islamic sociopolitical system (unitiy of ummah).
There was no room in his thinking for compromise with other manners or customs, Islam presented to him a unified and perfect system and the introduction of foreign elements on a large scale into Muslim society should be avoided.
yusuf qaradawi, qatari-turkey backed muslim brotherhood cleric, 2012
To achieve the Ikhwan’s goals, al-Banna called for a gradualistic approach in which the desired reform could be attained through three stages.
First is the stage of communication and propagation. Second is the stage of mobilization and organization in which the movement would select and train its active members. Finally comes the stage of executing and implementing the Islamic rules and principles in which a society is completely transformed into an Islamic one
His approach aimed at neutralizing any form of local nationalism. Al-Banna did not see his organization as a political party, but as a prototype of an Islamic society. Nor did he consider the Ikhwan’s political participation within the context of sharing power with other parties. Rather, he believed that it was imperative that the Ikhwan movement grew until it encompassed the entire Egyptian society (the One-Party State).
Generally speaking, although the Ikhwan’s approach appeared to be for the most part peaceful and gradualistic, it was potentially violent. Al-Banna, for example, clearly asserted that he would not hesitate to use violence if he were forced to do so, or when the Ikhwan were ready to seize power: "The Brethren will use practical force whenever there is no other way and whenever they are sure the implement of faith and unity is ready."
Alternative worlds or parallel universes are well known theories by scientists depicted in countless works of art, literature as well as movies and TV series. In most of these depictions, the world we know has a parallel alternate, whereby similar human beings exist except in different conditions, professions and alternative ways of life.
On 8 February 2017, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued one of the most bizarre statements attempting to condemn US President Trump forecasted plans to ban the Muslim Brotherhood organisation as a terrorist group...
The bizarre HRW report preposterously concludes that banning the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organisation will stifle democracy abroad and will limit the work of other civic Muslim organisations in US.
The report, titled “Don’t Target the Muslim Brotherhood”, seemed for most who read it as if was written in one of those aforementioned parallel universes and not issued from this earthly realm.
The report depicts the Muslim Brotherhood as some sort of United Nations charitable organisation for Muslims and not a terrorist group with offices and cells in over 80 countries around the world.
Moreover, the delusional report goes on to describe Muslim Brotherhood activities in Egypt as “peaceful” and that these peaceful activities are met for some reason by a crackdown from Egyptian authorities...
Since the ignition of the Arab Spring revolutions in 2011, the researchers and administrators of HRW seem to have been trapped in one of these alternate universes. From that alternate universe they are issuing one report after another whereby they are turning terrorists into heroic victims while turning victims into aggressors.
The deluded report fail to mention that Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of the group in 1928, denounced any democracy based on multiple political parties in his Rasael “Letters” to group members and even falsely claimed that it is prohibited to have political parties in Islam.
The reports shows clear ignorance of the literature of the Brotherhood and their leaders, starting from Al-Banna and the writings of the Brotherhood Godfather of modern terrorism Sayed Qutb, who inspired the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
Democracy is an abhorred word in Muslim Brotherhood discourse as they would only utilise a free election to rise to power and then change the constitution to end any democratic practices.
Striking examples of this took place in Egypt, Gaza, Turkey and Iran with Egypt being the only country that managed to topple Islamists through the 30 June 2013 Revolution.
Since the 1940s, the Muslim Brotherhood has wreaked havoc all across Egypt and has caused dozens of killings, bombings and assassinations. These assassinations included Egyptian Prime Minister Al-Noqrashi Pasha in 1948, through the assassination of President Sadat in 1981, and lately the assassination of the General Attorney Hicham Barakat in June 2015.
Furthermore, the Muslim Brotherhood organisation and other Islamists are the main obstacle facing Muslims immigrants trying to integrate within Western societies. They have kept Muslim immigrants from integrating into Western societies by forming ghetto-like secluded communities... Consequently, the above seclusion leads to further discrimination and stereotyping by the natives of these Western societies towards new Muslim immigrants. I
Should US President Trump list the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, it will deal a massive blow to efforts to legalise and whitewash international terrorism under the pretext of integrating political Islam (Islamism) as a mainstream ideology.
As to Human Rights Watch, it would certainly help if those who never studied Muslim Brotherhood history or their catastrophic effect on Middle East politics, revise Brotherhood literature and review their documented long history of violence, extremist discourse and terrorism in the region.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s imperialist master plan for the resurrection of the Caliphate is still in effect. This master plan is featured in all their literature in Arabic and even other languages as it is the ultimate goal of the group.
Hany Farouk Ghoraba is an Egyptian political writer, businessman and freelance Journalist. He obtained a BA in Mass Communication from the American University Cairo in 1997; with a specialisation in Journalism and a Minor in Political Science.
His book "Egypt’s Arab Spring: The long and winding road to democracy" is a culmination of several years’ work, starting from the beginnings of the Egyptian revolution. This analysis of the revolution is a seminal piece that provides insight into recent events in Egypt and the Middle East.
"The silver lining around the mess that burst forth in Egypt and the rest of the region is that the majority of citizens of the region are now completely convinced that the “caliphate” and religious systems of governance only belong to the history books and the Arabian Nights fairy tales.
Moreover, now more than ever, they are convinced that only a secular system of governance can extract Egypt and the rest of the region from the abyss that it fell in." Hany Ghoraba, 19-1-2017
netanyahu, lindsey graham, the magical bomb & the forces of evil
2006: George W. Bush meets Sayyed Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim Al-Hakim played a leading role in the 'Safar Intifada' in Iraq in 1977 and was imprisoned by the Iraqi government in 1972, 1977 and 1979. He went into exile in Iran in 1980, where he was a founding member in 1982 of Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a group set up under Iran's auspices to bring Islamic revolution to Iraq. |
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Friday called on Israeli officials to “cool down” on plans for imposing sovereignty in the West Bank and building in the settlements, in comments that seemed to be directed at his colleagues in the government.
“We cannot progress without understandings with the US, regarding construction as well as regarding imposing sovereignty, and therefore I suggest that everyone cool down...”
“Regarding annexation and building in Judea and Samaria, we’d better understand well that this is not something achieved by declarations or attempts to make short-term electoral gains,” the minister said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
His comments were apparently mainly directed at Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the pro-settlement Jewish Home party, who has been championing demands for Israel to annex settlement blocs and large parts of the West Bank...
The defense minister said “we need Israel as a Jewish state, and not a binational state.”
“In my opinion we need to separate from the Palestinians, also those who live in Wadi Ara (a largely Arab populated area in the Haifa district of northern Israel). There is no reason for us to agree to a Palestinian state with not one Jew, 'Judenrein', while we become a country with a more than 20 percent Arab population,” he said.
In the past, the defense minister has often proposed a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict in which the two sides would carry out “population exchanges.”
The defense minister has been often criticized by the opposition for his suspicious attitude toward Israel’s Arab citizenry.
cool down: likud election video
Flashback: September 2016 Avigdor Liberman called for the transfer of some of Israel’s Arab population to a future Palestinian state as part of any peace plan, in an apparent split with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who last week claimed “no one would seriously” consider such a move.
“I don’t see a reason why the ‘Triangle’ [a predominantly Arab region of northern Israel] and Umm al-Fahm need to be a part of Israel,” Liberman said, during a question and answer session at Ariel University in the West Bank.
This “lands and populations” transfer is not a new position for Liberman. It has been a central aspect of his peace plan since 2004. (Times of Israel, 12-9-2016)
A December 2010 survey by the Brookings Institution found that 58 per cent of Israeli Arabs oppose the sorts of swaps proposed by Lieberman and Livni. The Jewish-Arab Relations Index, an annual publication from the University of Haifa, consistently finds majority support for that view (57 per cent in the most recent survey, in 2008). Similarly, a 2000 poll of Umm al-Fahm residents found that 83 per cent want their city to remain Israeli. (Al-Jazeera, 25-1-2017)
freddie king - play it cool |
West Side Story: Play it cool boy |
ANKARA - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his supporters are increasingly demonising voters thinking of rejecting a plan to grant him greater powers in an April referendum, raising fears of a further polarisation of society.
Turkey will on April 16 vote in a referendum on constitutional changes to create a presidential system which Erdogan argues is needed for better governance but critics fear will lead to one man rule.
Polls are indicating a tight race with approval for the plan by no means a foregone conclusion, opening the way for the kind of no-holds-barred campaign in which Erdogan revels.
Erdogan has already accused those who plan to vote 'no' of siding with the failed July 15 coup plot blamed by the authorities on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.
"To be honest those who say 'no' are on the side of July 15," he said in a speech this week. "Who are the ones saying 'no'? Those who want to break up the country. Those who are opposed to our flag."
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim meanwhile has said a 'no' vote is what is wanted by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the group of Gulen, which Ankara terms the Fethullah Terror Group (FETO).
"The terrorist groups are campaigning in chorus for the 'no' vote," he said. "My citizens are not going to stand alongside terrorist groups."
Analysts say the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is falling back on a tried and tested strategy of stigmatising those who vote against its domination.
The referendum is coming with tens of thousands awaiting trial on charges of assisting the putsch, in an unprecedented crackdown. The authorities however insist citizens are free to vote as they wish.
"If a single person is detained or arrested for saying vote 'no' in the referendum then I will resign today," said Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag. "There is nothing of the sort."
Prominent Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan -- no relation of the president -- said the referendum was not about the constitution but being for or against Erdogan: "If you say 'no' you are a demon. This is the essence of their strategy and it is clever," Asli Erdogan, who was this month released after four months in prison, said.
Israel and Saudi Arabia presented a united front on Sunday, issuing almost identical warnings of caution against Iranian aggression...
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir closed ranks, despite their respective countries having no official diplomatic relations, as they rebuffed statements made by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif calling on Sunni Muslim Gulf states to help reduce violence in the area.
Among the accusations levelled against Iran by Israel and Saudi Arabia, who were subsequently joined by Turkey, were its involvement in the Syrian civil war on behalf of the country’s President Bashar al-Assad, its development of ballistic missiles, its funding of Shi'ite rebels in Yemen and its efforts to undermine various regimes in the region.
Al-Jubeir called Tehran the main sponsor of global terrorism and a destabilising force in the Middle East. The international community needed to set clear "red lines" to halt Iran's actions, he said, calling for banking, travel and trade restrictions aimed at changing Tehran's behaviour.
He sidestepped a question about Israel's call for concerted action with Sunni Arab states amid growing speculation that the two countries could normalize relations and join forces to oppose Tehran, much as Turkey has done.
Lieberman said Iran's ultimate objective was to undermine Riyadh, and called for a dialogue with Sunni Arab countries to defeat "radical" elements in the region.
"The real division is not Jews, Muslims ... but moderate people versus radical people," Lieberman told delegates.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also criticized what he called an Iranian "sectarian policy" aimed at undermining Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. "It's good that we are now normalizing our relations with Israel."
Zarif opened Sunday's session with the call for dialogue to address "anxieties" in the region. This followed a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Oman and Kuwait last week to try to improve ties, his first visit to the Gulf states since taking power in 2013.
Asked if Iran's envisioned regional dialogue could include Israel, Zarif said Tehran was looking at a more "modest" approach. "I'm focusing on the Persian Gulf. We have enough problems in this region so we want to start a dialogue with countries we call brothers in Islam," he said.
Doha shares Moscow’s stance that it is only up to the people in Syria to decide on the country’s future president, Russian Ambassador to Qatar Nurmakhmad Kholov told TASS on Monday.
“As we have repeatedly told our partners, the issue of Bashar Asad’s presidency in Syria is not in the competence of Russia or Qatar or any other country,” Kholov said in an interview with TASS.
“This issue must be decided by the Syrian people only by means of transparent and legitimate elections,” the Russian ambassador said.
“Our colleagues in Qatar completely share this stance with us and believe that Moscow’s approaches in this regard are very constructive,” Kholov added.
According to the Russian diplomat, Qatar did not receive an official invitation to join the talks on the inter-Syrian settlement, which were held in the capital of Kazakhstan on January 23-24.
"However, the authorities of Qatar expressed their interest in joining this format, since the country, as one of the key players in the region, exercises major influence on the situation in Syria," Kholov said.
The Russian diplomat said that despite different approaches and disagreements on other issues, both Moscow and Doha pursue the final aim of achieving ceasefire in Syria with the preserved integrity of the country and restoration of all state and municipal authority institutions.
"In political sense, Qatar has a certain influence on the moderate opposition in Syria," Kholov said. "For instance, former president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces Ahmad Moaz Al-Khatib is currently residing in Doha and he is an ideologist for certain groups of the moderate opposition, including Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham," he said.
"Last year, Russian president’s special envoy on Syrian reconciliation Alexander Lavrentyev paid three visits to Doha, where he held a number of meetings with senior officials of the emirate," Kholov said.
The ambassador told TASS that there were no anti-Russian sentiments in Doha despite different approaches of Russia and Qatar on the issue of the Syrian conflict settlement.
"As for media criticism against Moscow regarding the Syrian issue, I should say that no attention should be paid to ‘ordered analytics’ of certain western political circles, which seeks benefit from the protracted conflict in Syria," the ambassador added.
Flashback - Ex-Opposition Leader Admits Mistake
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Senator Rand Paul on Sunday urged President Trump against choosing former U.N. ambassador John R. Bolton as his national security adviser.
Mr. Paul, whose anti-interventionist stance aligns closely with what the president has espoused, said he fears that Mr. Bolton’s go-it-alone mindset would lead to “secret wars” around the globe.
“The problem with John Bolton is he disagrees with President Trump’s foreign policy,” the Kentucky Republican said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“John Bolton still believes the Iraq War was a good idea. He still believes that regime change is a good idea. He still believes that nation-building is a good idea,” said the senator.
“I think that his history of sort of acting on his own, my fear is that secret wars would be developing around the globe. And so, no, I think he would be a bad choice.”
Mr. Bolton, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and frequent commentator on Fox News, has bucked the neoconservative label but has been associated with many groups advocating those views. His foreign policy stance, however, is undoubtedly more hawkish than Mr. Paul’s.
Flashback - Project for the New American Century
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The Iranian capital, Tehran, is set to host a two-day international conference on Palestine in a show of solidarity with the oppressed nation in the face of Israel occupation and atrocities.
The 6th International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada (uprising) will open in Tehran on Monday, with 80 delegations from around the world expected to be in attendance. Around 700 foreign guests and representatives of the pro-Palestinian organizations are slated to take part in the event.
Among other participants are senior Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, according to Lawmaker Kazem Jalali, the spokesman of the conference.
Jalali said the conference will be held at a time when 'the Zionist regime' [Israel] is waging proxy wars in the region in an attempt to distract the Muslim world from the Palestinian cause.
In an interview with Al Mayadeen news channel, Abbas Zaki, a senior member of the Palestinian Fatah movement, praised the upcoming forum in Tehran as a “real victory for the Palestinian nation.” The official also criticized the Arab governments for their failure in dealing the Israeli regime’s occupation of Palestinian lands.
The conference will be held in Tehran amid ongoing tensions between Palestinians and the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.
The tensions are viewed as the third intifada against Israel. The first intifada took place between 1987 and 1993, and the second one in the 2000s.
"Then if they should be inclined to make peace, do thou incline towards it also,
and put thy trust in Allah." Quran, 8:62, cited by Yasser Arafat in his Nobel Lecture, 1994
Flashback - Ariel Sharon 2002
- If an agreement on ending the conflict with the Palestinians is not possible and if a peace agreement with the Syrians is dangerous, what alternative are you proposing? What hope?
- "From the strategic point of view, I think that it's possible that in another 10 or 15 years the Arab world will have less ability to strike at Israel than it has today. That is because Israel will be a country with a flourishing economy, whereas the Arab world may be on the decline.
True, there is no guarantee of this, but it is definitely possible that because of technological and environmental developments, the price of oil will fall and the Arab states will find themselves in a crisis situation, while Israel will be strengthened
The conclusion is that time is not working against us and therefore it is important to achieve solutions that will take place across a lengthy period.
"But if you ask me what hope I am offering to the Israeli public, I propose setting a series of national goals: bringing a million Jews within 12 years, so that by 2020 the majority of the Jewish people will be living in Israel; and renewing education according to Zionist principles, which will restore the sense of the justice of the struggle and the feeling that we have a full right to this land, ideas which have been very much eroded in recent years." (Interview met Ariel Sharon, Ha'aretz - Ari Shavit)
Did you read about the deadliest attack in more than two years in Pakistan? A suicide bomber struck a crowded Sufi shrine, killing at least 75 people, including women and children. Hundreds of others were wounded in the attack as they performed a ritual at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in the southern Sindh province.
It is believed that the shrine, built in 1356, is by the tomb of Muhammad Osman Marwandi, the Sufi philosopher poet, better known as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, one of Pakistan's most respected scholars....
In Turkey we too have a Sufi philosopher poet. In the Western world he is known as Rumi; we call him Mawlana Jalaluddin.... You might know that Rumi's book of poems, "Mathnawi al-Ma'nawi" is the second top selling book in the U.S. after the King James Bible.
The non-mainstream, Wahhabi exegesis of Islamic thought says that the veneration of a mortal human being in the form of erecting shrines for him, visiting his tomb, et cetera, is not acceptable...
So, a group of men gathered in Raqqa in northern Syria and said that if you accept such behavior they would have the right to kill you.
They called themselves the Islam State in Iraq and Levant (East) and Sham (Damascus) (ISIL, ISIS or Daesh). They thought the terror they resorted to would scare Muslims into accepting their interpretation of Islam...
In fact they are a bunch of terrorists, using religion as a facade to camouflage their true intentions... That's why Raqqa must be retaken.
"Qalandar’s belief in all humans as equals still stands the test of time, where all sects, religions and genders are present at Sehwan. Everyone is considered a devotee there, regardless of where the religious and political affiliation otherwise lies. It is a public space in Pakistan that defies our ordinary understanding of restricted public spaces for women. Women, clad in rich colours, are seen everywhere, inside and outside of the shrine." Benazir Jatoi, Express Tribume, 18-2-2017
When the Islamic State stormed the city of al-Mayadeen in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zour along the Euphrates River, they struck with particular vengeance at the homes of Syrian Sufis. Members of the Sufi order were arrested; their clerics were flogged, their spiritual corners torn down.
Sufism, after all, is the exact opposite of ISIS and its distorted interpretation of Sunni Islam.
Both are Muslims of course, just like Hitler and Churchill were Christians. If allowed to run society, Syrian and Iraqi Sufis can probably rally millions, crafting a wide power base for themselves that exposes the religious flaws and deficiencies of ISIS.
Only Sufis have the religious tools, intellectual skills, and political cunning to dismantle ISIS. That is precisely why they are excommunicated by ISIS.
Sufism is an order of peaceful mystics that once reigned in both Damascus and Baghdad during Ottoman times. It discards ISIS Salafism as un-Islamic.
Throughout history Damascus and Baghdad were the breeding ground for Sufism. Because of their Sufi past, neither city produced fanatic clerics and nor did they absorb Salafi Islam or its offspring, Wahabism.
During Ottoman times, the Sufi clerics of Damascus mentored Sultan Abdulhamid II. So influenced were the Ottomans by Sufism that they toyed with the idea of elevating it into an official sect of Islam and making it the official hallmark of the Ottoman State.
Damascus was once home to two extremes — the spiritual founder of Salafism Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) and the “Great Teacher” of Sufism, Ibn Arabi (1165-124).
Both figures are iconic to their religious following and both were buried in Damascus.
ISIS holds Ibn Taymiyya in high esteem; the Damascenes speak very little of him. No street is named in his honor, certainly no neighborhood. Ibn Arabi was seemingly tailor-fit for the Damascenes, peaceful, spiritual, practical, and non-violent.
Unable to find a wide audience in Damascus, Ibn Taymiyya’s influence traveled to the desert, where it survived the harsh winds of Arabia and laid foundations of the modern Saudi Kingdom.
His words were rough and rigid, just like the desert. The Sufis were soft and flexible, just like Damascus.
There are 15 million Sufis worldwide, with Damascus and its Grand Umayyad Mosque as their capital. They need to be promoted at schools and mosque pulpits, given prime access to television networks worldwide.
Erich Fromm: The Art of Loving"
Reuven Rivlin & the 'liberation of Judea and Samaria' | |
Hebron, Palestine – a City Divided
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Opening his heart for Settlers
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In his book "Free to Be Human" David Edwards expands Fromm’s description of authoritarian religion (which he renames power religion). He writes:
“Power religion, unlike true religious endeavour [for which Fromm used the term ‘humanistic religion’], has nothing at all do with the search for fundamental, adequate answers to human life, but is purely a means of justifying, enforcing and facilitating the exercise of power.
Power religion does not consist in a particular set of beliefs, but in a set of functions supporting power.
Because these functions remain essentially constant, we discover close similarities between versions of power religion widely separated by historical time, geography and superficial appearance...
In contrast, Erich Fromm’s description of humanistic religion is as follows:
“Humanistic religion, on the contrary, is centered around man and his strength. Man must develop his power of reason in order to understand himself, his relationship to his fellow men and his position in the universe.
He must recognize the truth, both with regard to his limitations and his potentialities. He must develop his powers of love for others as well as for himself and experience the solidarity of all living beings. He must have principles and norms to guide him in this aim.
Religious experience in this kind of religion is the experience of oneness with the All, based on one’s relatedness to the world as it is grasped with thought and with love.
Man’s aim in humanistic religion is to achieve the greatest strength, not the greatest powerlessness; virtue is self-realization, not obedience.
Faith is certainty of conviction based on one’s experience of thought and feeling, not assent to propositions on credit of the proposer. The prevailing mood is that of joy, while the prevailing mood in authoritarian religion is that of sorrow and of guilt.”
President Donald Trump's first National Security Advisor Mike Flynn got kicked out of office for talking with Russian officials. Such talks were completely inline with Trump's declared policies of détente with Russia.
Allegedly Flynn did not fully inform Vice-President Pence about his talk with the Russian ambassador. But that can not be a serious reason. The talks were rather informal, they were not transcribed. Why would a Vice-President need to know each and every word of it?
With Flynn out, the War hawks had the second most important person out of the way that would probably hinder their plans. They replaced him with a militaristic anti-Russian hawk: Herbert R. McMaster.
In a 2016 speech to the Virginia Military Institute, McMaster stressed the need for the US to have "strategic vision" in its fight against "hostile revisionist powers" — such as Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran — that "annex territory, intimidate our allies, develop nuclear weapons, and use proxies under the cover of modernized conventional militaries."
"Confronting these revisionist powers [powers who don't accept the 'Status Quo'] is challenging because they employ sophisticated strategies, they combine military efforts with propaganda, disinformation, espionage and political subversion.
Thus turbulent and dangerous time requires strategic vision... We have to protect our nation, not only from terrorists organisations..., but also from antagonistic states, such as Russia, China, Iran and North-Korea. These hostile actors don't operate in isolation from one another... As threats to US International Security are increasing I believe our strategic competency is diminished...
Because war is a competition, a competition involving life and death, and in which the nation's security or vital interests are at stake, establishing an objective other than winning is not only counterproductive, but also irresponsible and wasteful.
Winning does not require a commitment to unconditional surrender or the lifting of all restrictions on force applied or resources committed. What we need is a political outcome consistent with our vital interests...
General McMaster, the new National Security Advisor, gets sold as a somewhat rebellious, scholar-warrior wunderkind.
McMaster was peddled to the White House by Senator Tom Cotton, one of the most outlandish (anti-Iranian) Republican neocon war hawks.
Trump has now been boxed in by hawkish, anti-Russian military in his cabinet and by a hawkish Vice-President. The only ally he still may have in the White House is his consigliere Steve Bannon.
The next onslaught of the "serious people" around Trump is against Bennon and especially against his role in the NSC. It will only recede when he is fired.
Ali Gharib (The Nation, 10-3-2015): "When Tom Cotton ran for a Senate seat last year, Kristol’s far-right pressure group, the Emergency Committee For Israel, threw almost a million dollars into his race.
Cotton won, and Kristol and company immediately started getting their money’s worth. In December, at a forum hosted by Kristol’s Foreign Policy Initiative (another pressure group modeled on the Project For a New American Century that pushed the Iraq War), Cotton said that the United States should allow the sale to Israel of the bombers and advanced bombs it would need to make an attack on Iran more feasible.
In February, at the CPAC summit, he reportedly called for not just regime change in Tehran, but "replacement with a pro-Western regime..."
John McCain, 20-2-2017: "Lt. General H.R. McMaster is an outstanding choice for national security advisor... He knows how to succeed... I could not imagine a better, more capable national security team than the one we have right now.”
Among the reasons Donald Trump is president is that he read the nation and the world better than his rivals.
While Bush II and President Obama plunged us into Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Trump saw that his countrymen wanted to be rid of the endless wars, and start putting America first.
He offered a new foreign policy. Mitt Romney notwithstanding, said Trump, Putin’s Russia is not “our number one geopolitical foe.”
Michael Jackson, born 29-8-1958. Astrological signs: Sun in Virgo, Moon in Pisces
Read also: Trump's Remarkable Anti-War-Statement
In the summer of 2014, Steve Bannon – US president-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist – gave a speech to the Human Dignity Institute, a conservative religious group that was holding a conference at the Vatican.
It’s fascinating. It shows Bannon’s view of the world is much more complicated than most people have thus far assumed. He finds aspects of capitalism “very disturbing,” for instance, and cites Marx in his analysis of the free market’s faults.
In the Vatican talk, Bannon described in length and detail how he views the biggest issues of the day:
He wants to tear down “crony capitalism”: “a brutal form of capitalism that is really about creating wealth and creating value for a very small subset of people. And it doesn’t spread the tremendous value creation throughout broader distribution patterns that were seen really in the 20th century...: when you have this kind of crony capitalism, you have a different set of rules for the people that make the rules.”
He is against Ayn Rand’s version of libertarianism:
“The second form of capitalism that I feel is almost as disturbing, is what I call the Ayn Rand or the Objectivist School of libertarian capitalism. And, look, I’m a big believer in a lot of libertarianism.... However, that form of capitalism is quite different when you really look at it to what I call the “enlightened capitalism” of the Judeo-Christian West. It is a capitalism that really looks to make people commodities, and to objectify people, and to use them almost...
He believes the capitalism of the “Judeo Christian West” is in crisis: “If you look at the leaders of capitalism at that time, when capitalism was I believe at its highest flower and spreading its benefits to most of mankind, almost all of those capitalists were strong believers in the Judeo-Christian West. They were either active participants in the Jewish faith, they were active participants in the Christians’ faith, and they took their beliefs, and the underpinnings of their beliefs was manifested in the work they did.
And I think that’s incredibly important and something that would really become unmoored. I can see this on Wall Street today..
People are looked at as commodities. I don’t believe that our forefathers had that same belief.”
The Christians Will Fight Islam
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"Now we are entering into a new era in which Israel single-handedly dictates everything it needs to dictate. Not just on Palestinians but on the United States, thus the so-called international community. So I see this kind of as a celebration of the Israeli political triumph, over the American foreign policy, and the balancing act that they have been playing in the Middle East..." Ramzy Baroud
The President of the United States can hardly be taken seriously, saying much but doing little. His words, often offensive, carry no substance, and it is impossible to summarize his complex political outlook about important issues. This is precisely the type of American presidency that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers...
Israel expects blind support. It needs a US administration that is as loyal as the US Congress, always praising Israel, degrading Palestinians, dismissing international law, calling to stop funding the UN for daring to demand accountability from Israel, feeding Israeli “security” phobias with monetary and absolute political backing, demonising Iran, undermining the Arabs and repeating all Israeli talking points fed to them by Tel Aviv and by the fifth column lobbyists in Washington.
Trump is striving to be that person, the messiah that Israel’s army of right-wing, ultranationalists and religious zealots have been calling for..
What does Netanyahu want? We know he does not want a Palestinian state and plans to annex all Jewish colonies, while continuing to expand over stolen Palestinian land. He wants Palestinians to exist, but without political will of their own, without sovereignty, forced to accept that Israel is a Jewish state (thus signing off on their historic right to their own land); to remain subdued, passive, disarmed, dehumanized.
Netanyahu’s end game is Apartheid, racist segregation where one party, Israeli Jews, dominates and exploits the other – Palestinian Arabs: Muslims and Christians.
But human dignity is not open for negotiation... Palestinians have resisted Israel for nearly 70 years because they challenge their servitude. They will continue to resist.
Israel has the military means to punish Palestinians for their resistance, to push them behind military checkpoints and trap them behind walls.
Having Trump by his side, Netanyahu will work diligently to perfect the Palestinian prison in the name of Israel’s security.
Israel has laid out its dark vision. Palestinians must present the antithesis to that destructive vision: a road map towards justice, equality and peace for all.
Qazvin, Feb 24, IRNA – Some 500 Iranian scientists graduated from prestigeous universities across the world returned Iran after the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Secretary-General of Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) Saeed Sarkar made the announcement during the inaugural ceremony of a development project for Parsa Polymer Sharif Production Unit in Abyek late on Tursday. He further noted that 100 of the scientists have graduated from the top 20 international universities.
Planning for attracting Iranian foreign-trained scientists is among the programs of the Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology, he said, noting that efforts are underway to get the scientists back home to promote creativity and innovation in the country.
Sarkar further noted that 160 knowledge-based companies are operating in the country in the field of nanotechnology, which are currently supplying 360 confirmed products.
Products of the companies have so far been exported to 17 countries including Australia, Russia, China, Malaysia, South Korea and Turkey, Sarkar said.
TEHRAN, Sep. 08 (MNA) – Saeed Sarkar, the Secretary of Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council, recounted the growing status of nano-industry in Iran.
“Currently, 17 countries import Iran-made nano products,” said Saeed Sarkar, the Secretary of Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council, on Thursday, recounting that the last year (Iranian colander year of 1394) export of products reached the volume of $35 million worth.
He boasted that Iran not only in the scientific area of nano-technology but also in development and range of products of nano-technology is among the top countries of the world.
“Presently, products like laboratory equipment, industrial machinery, and nano materials manufactured in Iran are exported to the foreign countries and the volume of Iran’s exporting of nano-products is growing onn a yearly basis,” asserted the official.
According to the public relations and information center of the
With regard to the development of entrepreneurship ecosystem, based on innovation and modern requirements of new businesses, acceleration and innovation center, the brainstorming meeting will be held on February 22nd in the building of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, attended by the vice president for science and technology affairs and a number of activists in the field of innovation ecosystem.
All compassionate brainstorming is prayer
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Brainstorm: "This Must Be Heaven" |
God brainstorms, too. The future is open for God, because human decisions are not made until they are made.
God doesn't know what we will do until we do it. After we do it, God must scan the divine imagination and offer us fresh possibilities for responding to the new situation.
God needs our ideas. Even as God offers novelty to us, so we offer novelty to God. If not in the content of our ideas, then at least in the very act of coming up with them, something new is added to God.
God needs something to respond to. God needs topics; we give them. So do the stars and planets, the hills and rivers, the molecules and atoms. It is true that God creates the universe by offering it fresh possibilities, and it is also true that the universe creates God by offering God such possibilities. God and the Universe co-imagine themselves in relation to one another.
Brainstorming can be healthy or unhealthy, constructive or destructive, holy or unholy, selfish or compassionate.
Unhealthy brainstorming is disrespectful of introverts, overly frenetic, aimed toward selfish ends, and overly preoccupied with ends. It has adventure without peace. It is novelty without love.
Healthy brainstorming is respectful of introverts, tinged with a contemplative dimension, enjoyable in its process, and aimed toward constructive ends. It combines adventure and peace. It is novelty with love.
Constructive ends are ends that serve the well-being of people, other living beings, and the planet... They include "how to build healthy community" and "how to organize the economy in ways that are beneficial to human beings and the earth" and "how to reform education so that it serves wisdom."
All compassionate brainstorming is prayer. It is a relinquishment of rigidified ideas that block the mind, a sharing in the imagination of others, and a shared journey into a realm of fresh possibilities whom some name "God."
Those who undertake the pilgrimage may not believe in God as a monarchical being separate from the world. Instead they may imagine God as a womb-like mind within whose life the universe lives and moves and has its being. Or they may not believe in God at all. Still, in compassionate brainstorming, they are praying.
What we do
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"Gilad Atzmon realized that one cannot be a tribalist and a humanist simultaneously, so he chose humanism and universal values. He severed his ties with racism and supremacy, he departed from loyalty to the tribe, he refused to be a sayan at the expence and suffering of others. He offered his loyalty to the whole of humanity. The high values of equality, justice and humanism became his passion." (From tribalism to humanism, 2011)
-- Gilad Atzmon: Contemporary Jewish identity involves a certain element of binary qualities due to choseness. As we know, Jewish assimilation and secularization, starting in the 19th century, led to the evolution of a Jewish concept of biological exceptionalism that is racist in nature. The supremacy we detect in Jewish political discourse, both Zionist and so-called anti, points to an inclination towards a Jew/Goy ‘binarism.’
-- Rich Forer: I agree that the supremacy in Jewish political discourse, Zionist and non-Zionist, points to an inclination towards ‘binarism.’ I would also say that the idea that “Choseness” conveys supremacy, is (in my opinion) a perversion of original Jewish teachings. I agree that Jews who actively participate in or passively defend Israel’s inhumane treatment of the “other” are guilty of a belief in Jewish exceptionalism, whether that belief is conscious or not.