Who Started It?:
Chronology of the Latest Crisis in the Middle East
Sharat G. Lin

The Bush administration, Congress, and the press repeatedly echo the Israeli government’s position that the current warfare between Israel versus Palestinians and Lebanese is a consequence of the “kidnapping” of  Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit by Hamas-led militants on June 25, 2006 and the “abduction” of two more Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah on July 12, 2006. Yet every hostile action in this part of the Middle East is seen by someone as a response to a prior action by the other side. 

Support for Hezbollah Growing in Middle East
The Associated Press

Rising Arab anger over the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah appears to have pushed conservative rulers in the region to refocus their criticism away from the Shiite guerrillas and onto Israel. The most dramatic turn has come from Saudi Arabia.… "Oh Sunni! Oh Shiite! Let's fight the Jews!" a crowd chanted outside Cairo's Istiqama Mosque on Friday. "The Jews and the Americans are killing our brothers in Lebanon." The protesters carried photos of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah alongside those of Gamal Abdel Nasser, whose Arab nationalist policies helped lead to the 1967 Mideast War.

They Plundered Iraq for Fun and Profit
Froma Harrop

The Iraq occupation has become a "free fraud zone," in the words of a former top official at the Coalition Provisional Authority. Washington has simply left the cash register open. Hundreds of millions seem to have vanished into corrupt contractors' pockets, according to US audits. And the government shows little passion for going after the crooks. The only case to have gone to a jury involved a civil suit filed by former workers.

A World Split Apart
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1978)

The Western way of life is less and less likely to become the leading model. There are telltale symptoms by which history gives warning to a threatened or perishing society. Such as, for instance, a decline of the arts or a lack of great statesmen. The fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started… If the world has not approached its end, it has reached a major watershed in history, equal in importance to the turn from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. It will demand from us a spiritual blaze; we shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life…

Israel’s Criminal Accomplice
Paul Craig Roberts

There never was any doubt of the Bush regime's complicity in Israel's naked aggression against the Lebanese civilian population. Bush has protected Israel from world condemnation. Bush has blocked those who attempted to bring a stop to Israel's bombing of residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, and now Bush rushes more bombs for Israel to drop on Lebanon… The American people need to understand what everyone else in the world understands: The Bush regime is empowering the Israeli state to push out its borders by stealing land from other people. This Israeli policy is the source of the Middle East conflict. It is ignorant and immoral to blame the conflict on Hamas and Hezbollah.

Who’s Arming Israel?
Frida Berrigan and Wm. D. Hartung -- Foreign Policy In Focus

Much has been made in the US media of the Syrian – and Iranian – origin weaponry used by Hezbollah in the escalating violence in Israel and Lebanon. There has been no parallel discussion of the origin of Israel's weaponry, the vast bulk of which is from the United States. The United States is the primary source of Israel's far superior arsenal. For more than 30 years, Israel had been the largest recipient of US foreign assistance and since 1985 Jerusalem has received about $3 billion in military and economic aid each year from Washington. US aid accounts for more than 20% of Israel's total defense budget. Over the past decade, the United States has transferred more than $17 billion in military aid to this country of just under 7 million people.

All Hell Breaks Loose in the Middle East
Leon Hadar

US President George W. Bush and his neoconservative advisers had pledged that after ousting Saddam Hussein they would succeed in transforming "liberated" Iraq into a prosperous democracy that would serve as a model of political and economic freedom for the Middle East.… More than three years after the inauguration of President Bush's project to remake the Middle East, it's becoming clear that the New Iraq did become, indeed, a model for the entire Middle East, a model of sectarian violence, religious extremism and growing anti-American and anti-Western sentiments. If anything, as the recent developments in the region are demonstrating, Bush's policies have made the Middle East more safe – not for democracy, but for ethnic and religious strife. 

Stop Now, Immediately
Gideon Levy – Haaretz (Israel)

This war must be stopped now and immediately. From the start it was unnecessary, even if its excuse was justified, and now is the time to end it.… Every day increases international criticism of Israel and hatred of it. That is also an element in "national security." As opposed to the choir in Israel that makes a false presentation as if the world is cheering Israel, the images from Beirut are causing Israel enormous damage, and rightly so. Not only in the streets of the Arab world is more and more hatred being sown, but also in the West. Not only hundreds of thousands of Lebanese but tens of thousands of Westerners fleeing from Lebanon are contributing to the depiction of Israel as a violent, crude and destructive state.

Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11
CBS News

CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq – even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks. That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 – notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

Denmark is Happiest Country, US is 23rd
Reuters

If you're looking for happiness, move to Denmark. It's the happiest country in the world, according to a new report by British scientist Adrian White, an analytical social psychologist at the University of Leicester in England.… The main factors that affected happiness were health provision, wealth and education, according to White.... Following behind Denmark came Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and the Bahamas. The United States came in at 23rd, Britain was in 41st place, … “Smaller countries tend to be a little happier because there is a stronger sense of collectivism and then you also have the aesthetic qualities of a country," White said.

Iran: The Next War
James Bamford

Even before the bombs fell on Baghdad, a group of senior Pentagon officials were plotting to invade another country. Their covert campaign once again relied on false intelligence and shady allies. But this time, the target was Iran.… The Bush administration's National Security Strategy -- the official policy document that sets out US strategic priorities -- now calls Iran the "single country" that most threatens US interests. The shift in official policy has thrilled former members of the cabal. To them, the war in Lebanon represents the final step in their plan to turn Iran into the next Iraq . 

India's Openness Can't Match China's Efficiency
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes -- BBC News

Every time you turn on the television or pick up a magazine, it is no longer the rise of China, it is now the rise of China and India. The desire to make comparisons is understandable. Both have more than a billion people. Both are growing at 10% a year.… China is not a free society, and it has immense problems. But its successes should not be underestimated. They are ones that India, even with its open and democratic society, is still far from matching. 

There is an Alternative to This Unnecessary War
Adrian Hamilton – The Independent (London)

Eisenhower ended the Suez war in 1956, and America could do it now.… The coincidence of the 50th anniversary of the Suez crisis (Nasser nationalised the canal on 26 July 1956) and the latest outbreak of war holds some terrible lessons not so much in what is the same as in how much has changed over the past half-century. The most obvious difference is in the extent to which the US has moved from an arms-length relationship with Israel under President Eisenhower, who threatened to withdraw all aid to Tel Aviv, and even get it expelled from the UN if it didn't withdraw its invading troops from Egypt, to President Bush, who has openly supported Israeli assault on Lebanon and refused to back calls for a ceasefire.

Why Is Israel Destroying Lebanon?
Patrick Seale

Israel’s strategy in Lebanon seems to be to empty the south of its population, driving the Shi'ites out of their traditional homeland, where they have lived for centuries, in much the same way as it continues its pitiless onslaught on Gaza. In Lebanon, some 600,000 people have already been displaced, while the entire country is being brutalized and strangled.

Silence about the immoral core of Israeli statehood makes us all complicit in breeding the terrorism that threatens a catastrophe which could tear the world apart.… The very creation of Israel required an act of terror. In 1948, most of the non-Jewish indigenous people were ethnically cleansed from the part of Palestine which became Israel. This action was carefully planned. Without it, no state with a Jewish majority and character would have been possible. Since 1948, the "Israeli Arabs", those Palestinians who avoided expulsion, have suffered continuous discrimination. Indeed, many have been internally displaced, ostensibly for "security reasons", but really to acquire their lands for Jews.

Howard Dean Calls Iraqi Prime Minister an 'Anti-Semite'
Associated Press

Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki an "anti-Semite" for failing to denounce Hezbollah for its attacks against Israel. Al-Maliki has condemned Israel's offensive, prompting several Democrats to boycott his address to a joint meeting of Congress and others to criticize him.… “The Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite," the Democratic leader told a gathering of business leaders in Florida. "We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion dollars bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hezbollah."

The 1956 Suez Challenge of Egypt’s Nasser
BBC News

Western powers decide that the ruler of a major Arab state has become an intolerable threat. They launch a concerted attack to topple him, but provoke a storm of international controversy over the wisdom - and legality - of their action. Half a century on from the Suez crisis, the contemporary echoes are unmistakable. In 1956 the Western powers were Britain and France. The Arab ruler was President Nasser of Egypt. The two European powers reached a secret agreement with Israel to attack Egypt, regain the canal and overthrow Nasser. But it all went disastrously wrong. 

Five Myths That Sanction Israel’s War Crimes
Jonathan Cook

This week I had the pleasure to appear on American radio, on the Laura Ingraham show, pitted against David Horowitz, a “Semite supremacist” … It was a revealing experience, at least for a British journalist rarely exposed to the depths of ignorance and prejudice in the United States on Middle East matters … Horowitz’s response to every question, every development in the Middle East, whether it concerns Lebanon, the Palestinians, Syria or Iran, is the same: “They want to drive the Jews into the sea”. It’s as simple as that. Not even a superficial attempt at analysis; just the message that the Arab world is trying to finish off the genocide started by Europe. And if Laura is any yardstick, a lot of Americans buy that stuff.

Fifty Percent of Americans Think Iraq Had WMDs
The Washington Times

Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 -- up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds.  Pollsters deemed the increase both "substantial" and "surprising" in light of persistent press reports to the contrary in recent years. … Meanwhile, the Harris poll offered some positive feedback on Iraq. Seventy-two percent of respondents said the Iraqi people are better off now than under Saddam Hussein's regime -- a figure similar to that of 2004, when it stood at 76 percent. In addition, 64 percent say Saddam had "strong links" with al Qaeda, up from 62 percent in October 2004.

Morality is Not On Our Side
Ze'ev Maoz -- Haaretz (Israel)

There's practically a holy consensus right now [in Israel] that the war in the North is a just war and that morality is on our side. The bitter truth must be said: this holy consensus is based on short-range selective memory, an introverted worldview, and double standards. This war is not a just war. Israel is using excessive force without distinguishing between civilian population and enemy, whose sole purpose is extortion. That is not to say that morality and justice are on Hezbollah’s side. Most certainly not. But the fact that Hezbollah “started it” when it kidnapped soldiers from across an international border does not even begin to tilt the scales of justice toward our side.

Disaster in the Making
Charley Reese

You can observe three important things simultaneously in the Middle East: One, Israel's total disregard for the lives and property of the Arab people; two, the effectiveness of the Israeli propaganda machine; and three, the utterly craven support for Israel by the US government. A fourth thing, if you can stand to watch television news, is how casually the talking faces dispense falsehoods because of their ignorance, which is understandable. Middle East history is too complex for a fly-in TV star to avoid the trap of failing to separate fact from propaganda.

Israel Assault on Lebanon Planned More Than a Year Ago
San Francisco Chronicle

Israel's military response by air, land and sea to what it considered a provocation last week by Hezbollah militants is unfolding according to a plan finalized more than a year ago… More than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to US and other diplomats, journalists and think tanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail. Under the ground rules of the briefings, the officer could not be identified. In his talks, the officer described a three-week campaign...

US Rushes Precision-Guided Bombs to Israel
Reuters

The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, The New York Times reported on Saturday. Citing US officials who spoke on Friday on condition of anonymity, the Times said the decision to ship the weapons quickly came after relatively little debate within the administration, and noted in its report that its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others who could perceive Washington as aiding Israel in the manner that Iran has armed Hezbollah.

The West Must Recognize That Israel's Agenda is in Conflict With its Own
David Clark -- The Guardian (Britain)

It's high time western governments grasped the fundamental truth that Israel is pursuing an agenda that conflicts directly with their own. In the context of the fight against terrorism and the need to promote international cooperation, the west's interest must be to remove the Palestinian question as a source of grievance among mainstream Muslims in a way that guarantees justice for the Palestinians and security for Israel. A settlement of this kind is perfectly feasible and has been outlined in countless documents and initiatives over the years, most recently in the Geneva accords. But the main reason it has proved illusive is that Israel is not, and never has been, prepared to make the territorial compromises required. 

Recalling 1946 Zionist Plan to Assassinate British Minister
BBC Radio

In 1946, not long after the Second World War was won, Britain was again under threat. Jewish insurgents, who had long been fighting a bloody insurgency campaign against British troops in Palestine, were about to take their war to London. Previously top secret documents reveal that assassination squads were being sent to the capital armed with a hit list. On it were the names of several top government figures. These included Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin. Extremist groups like The Stern Gang (or Lehi) and Irgun, were determined to end the British mandate in Palestine and replace it with a Jewish homeland.

Israel’s 1982 'Peacekeeping' Assault on Lebanon
James Bovard

As the Israeli government continues bombing throughout Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s seizure of two Israeli soldiers and rocket attacks upon Israeli cities, it may be helpful to recall prior Israeli invasions and attacks on Lebanon. The Rules of Engagement that Israel appears to be using now look similar to the rules adapted for the 1982 invasion and subsequent occupation of Lebanon.… Few people recognize that the Israeli invasion of Lebanon was one of the biggest failures in the history of antiterrorism. 

Neocons Are Instigating a Wider War
Paul Craig Roberts

Isolated in their evil, the neoconservatives are frantically and shrilly demanding that Bush join Israel in military attacks on Syria and Iran in order to “build democracy” and to clear the Middle East of any opposition to Israel’s unbridled self-interest. The crazed David Horowitz writes that “Israel is doing the work of the rest of the civilized world.”

Neoconservatives believe that the US and Israel can extirpate Islam with fire and sword and that the present opportunity to escalate the current conflict into generalized war in the Middle East must not be missed. Neocon warmongers have stolen the conservative name, the Republican Party, and a portion of the evangelical movement.

The Challenge of Jewish-Zionist Power
Mark Weber

What is emerging is a new bi-polar world, with the United States and Israel on one side, and the rest of the world on the other. This new alignment of forces, this shift in power relationships in the world, is strikingly reflected in the United Nations, where, time and time again, votes on issues in both the General Assembly and the Security Council pit the United States and Israel on one side, and virtually the entire rest of the world on the other.… By supporting Israel and its policies, the United States betrays not only its own national interests, but the principles it claims to embody and defend.… In the years to come, the cost of the US alliance with Israel is certain to rise much more.

US Covert Action in Japan in the 1960s Disclosed
Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy

"In the 1958-1968 decade, the US government approved four covert programs to try to influence the direction of Japanese political life," the State Department revealed this week in the latest volume of Foreign Relations of the United States, the official history of US foreign policy. "Concerned that potential electoral success by leftist political forces would strengthen Japanese neutralism and eventually pave the way for a leftist government in Japan, the Eisenhower administration authorized the Central Intelligence Agency before the May 1958 elections for the Japanese House of Representatives to provide a few key pro-American and conservative politicians with covert limited financial support and electoral advice,".…

Weber, Fromm Tackle Current Issues
at IHR Meeting in Arlington
Institute for Historical Review

Mark Weber and Paul Fromm tackled headline-making current issues in spirited talks at an IHR meeting on Saturday evening, July 8, 2006. Among the 30 or so persons who filled the restaurant meeting room in Arlington, Virginia, were men and women who had driven from as far away as Canada and New York City. Among the attendees were several younger people, as well as professional writers. More than 200 persons listened to the talks as they were broadcast through a live internet feed.

Familiar Lies for a New War:
Fighting for Truth in an Age of Deceit
Mark Weber -- Institute for Historical Review

...Now the world is anxiously following the so-called crisis over Iran…. Once again we are told lies so similar to those we heard in 2002 and 2003, and from the same people, that it’s amazing that anyone takes them seriously.… No issue is of greater urgency than breaking the Jewish-Zionist grip on American political, social and cultural life. As long as that power remains entrenched, there will be no end to the systematic Jewish-Zionist distortion of history and current affairs, the Jewish-Zionist domination of the US political system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli threat to peace.

The Drums of War Sound for Iran
Jim Lobe – Inter Press Service

The week-old Israeli-Hezbollah conflict is likely to boost the chances of US military action against Iran, according to a number of regional experts who see a broad consensus among the US political elite that the ongoing hostilities are part of a broader offensive being waged by Tehran against Washington across the region. While Israel-centered neo-conservatives have been the most aggressive in arguing that Hezbollah's July 12 cross-border attack could only have been carried out with Iran 's approval, if not encouragement, that view has been largely accepted and echoed by the US mainstream media, as well as other key political factions.

F. J. P. Veale
Revisionists.com

Frederick John Partington Veale (1897-1976) was an influential twentieth-century English historian. Certainly his most important and influential work was Advance to Barbarism, which … earned praise from some of the most astute thinkers of the age. 

Harry Elmer Barnes wrote: “The best general work on the Nuremberg Trials. It not only reveals the illegality, fundamental immorality and hypocrisy of these trials, but also shows how they are bound to make any future world wars (or any important wars) far more brutal and destructive to life and property. A very readable and impressive volume and a major contributor to any rational peace movement.”

No, This is Not ‘Our War’
Patrick J. Buchanan

"Today, we are all Israelis!" brayed Ken Mehlman of the Republican National Committee to a gathering of Christians United for Israel. One wonders if these Christians care about what is happening to our Christian brethren in Lebanon and Gaza, who have had all power cut off by Israeli air strikes, an outlawed form of collective punishment, that has left them with no sanitation, rotting food, impure water, and days without light or electricity in the horrible heat of July.… No, Kenny boy, we are not "all Israelis." Some of us still think of ourselves as Americans, first, last, and always. And, no, Mr. Kristol, this is not "our war." It's your war.

Exhibition of Arno Breker Sculptures Stirs Controversy
Daily Telegraph (London)

An art gallery has provoked outrage in Germany by staging the country's first post-war exhibition of Hitler's favourite sculptor, Arno Breker. Breker was to Nazi sculpture what Leni Riefenstahl was to film and made a fortune from Hitler's love of his work, which features enormous, naked Aryan models. Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, planned his grandest buildings to be decorated with Breker's distinctive pieces. Breker, who died in 1991 aged 91, has never been fully rehabilitated in the eyes of the German public and the decision by cultural authorities in the northern city of Schwerin to host a major retrospective, which opens on Saturday, has caused upset.

Israelis Commemorate 1946 Zionist Terror Attack in Jerusalem
The Times (London)

As Israel wages war against Hezbollah “terrorists” in Lebanon, Britain has protested about the celebration by right-wing Israelis of a Jewish “act of terrorism” against British rule 60 years ago this week. The rightwingers, including Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister, are commemorating the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of British rule, that killed 92 people and helped to drive the British from Palestine. They have erected a plaque outside the restored building, and are holding a two-day seminar with speeches and a tour of the hotel by one of the Jewish resistance fighters involved in the attack.

Few American Papers Find Fault With Israel Assault
Greg Mitchell -- Editor and Publisher

While it’s not surprising that nearly every editorial page in the US has offered support for Israel's right to retaliate against Hamas and Hezbollah, it’s a disgrace that few have expressed outrage, or at least condemnation, over the extent of death and destruction in and around Beirut -- and the attacks on the country’s infrastructure, which harms most citizens of that country.… Even if readers here don’t fully appreciate it, the US and Israel are indivisible in the eyes of many if not most in that region. Every bomb that kills civilians in Lebanon might just as well have emerged from our war planes or artillery, in their eyes.

Not So Smart When it Comes to the Middle East
Lou Dobbs – CNN

We Americans like to think we're a pretty smart people, even when evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. And nowhere is that evidence more overwhelming than in the Middle East. History in the Middle East is everything, and we Americans seem to learn nothing from it. President Harry Truman took about 20 minutes to recognize the state of Israel when it declared independence in 1948. Since then, more than 58 years of war, terrorism and blood-letting have led to the events of the past week.  

How Eisenhower Stopped Illegal Immigration From Mexico
Christian Science Monitor

George W. Bush isn't the first Republican president to face a full-blown immigration crisis on the US-Mexican border. Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America 's southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas, and points beyond. President Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents - less than one-tenth of today's force. The operation is still highly praised among veterans of the Border Patrol.

The Final Say
Eric Margolis -- Toronto Sun

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict lies at the heart of Mideast troubles, and is the primary generator for anti-Western violence known as terrorism. It is a weary truism that no nation can bring about Mideast peace except for the United States . But the Bush administration has been too obsessed by its losing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to pay attention to the Levant. US Mideast policy is dominated by neoconservatives and Protestant fundamentalists aligned with Israel's expansionist right wing, leaving would-be peacemakers in Israel and the Arab World out in the cold. The White House has given Israel a very public green light to go on pounding Lebanon .  

Bush’s Collapsing Middle East Policy
Patrick J. Buchanan

Israel's rampage against a defenseless Lebanon -- smashing airport runways, fuel tanks, power plants, gas stations, lighthouses, bridges, roads and the occasional refugee convoy -- has exposed Bush's folly in subcontracting US policy out to Tel Aviv, thus making Israel the custodian of our reputation and interests in the Middle East. When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert unleashed his navy and air force on Lebanon, accusing that tiny nation of an "act of war," the last pillar of Bush's Middle East policy collapsed.... That Tel Aviv is maneuvering us to fight its wars is understandable. That Americans are ignorant of, or complicit in this, is deplorable. 

Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land
Media Education Foundation (Video)

This video documentary provides a striking comparison of US and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in US coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict....  Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, it carefully analyzes and explains how the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied territories appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that US journalists have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign.

Israel's Path to Total War
Kaveh L. Afrasiabi – Asia Times

One of the most malignant aspects of the new chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict is the myth of Israel as the assaulted party, lavishly propagated by the White House and the infinite pro-Israel pundits in the US media, including the editors of the New York Times, who have labeled Israel's blatant aggression against the nation of Lebanon as "legally and morally justified". Never mind that the rest of the world, including the European Union, does not share this perception of who is mainly at fault for the deadly cycle of violence that has gripped the Middle East again.

US Gives Israel One More Week to Blast Hizbullah
The Guardian (Britain)

The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources. The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting.… “It's clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.

Bush Fiddles While Middle East Burns
Andy Martin

President Bush said Friday through press secretary Tony Snow that Bush is "not going to make military decisions for Israel." Well our president better start making decisions because Israel is destroying his presidency and setting the Middle East on fire. Like the Emperor Nero, Bush fiddles while Israeli warmongers destroy America 's foreign policy.… Bush claims to be the most "pro-Israel" president in history. In terms of letting Israelis commit atrocities and engage in acts of self-destruction with impunity, he's right. No other president has allowed Israel to terrorize the entire region.… Israel has endangered every American in Iraq and blown a hole in the Iraqi government that Bush & Co. have worked so hard to create.

United States 'Could Be Going Bankrupt'
The Daily Telegraph (London)

The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the country's central bank. A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb could send the economic superpower into insolvency, according to research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve. Prof Kotlikoff said that, by some measures, the US is already bankrupt.… According to his central analysis, "the US government is, indeed, bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors, who, in this context, are current and future generations to whom it has explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various kinds''.

We’re Being Set Up for Wider War in the Middle East
Paul Craig Roberts

The old adage, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" does not apply to Americans, who have shown that they can be endlessly fooled. Neoconservatives deceived Americans into an illegal attack and debilitating war in Iraq.… Palestinians have suffered for a half century at Israel's hands. Israel's land-stealing policy is the source of Middle Eastern instability. America is hated because American money and weapons are what enable Israel to steal Palestine from Palestinians. As numerous Middle East experts have pointed out, what is decried as "Arab terrorism against Israel" is, in fact, the only tactic Muslims have for calling the world's attention to the plight of the Palestinians, about which Americans are generally ignorant.

Attention Deficit Americans Are Being Misled to War
Paul Craig Roberts

A terrible thing is happening, and not enough Americans are aware to be able to do anything about it. Zionists in Israel and in the Bush administration are leading America into war with Iran, Syria, Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. The consequences for America, Israel and the Middle East will be disastrous, but as long as Washington is in thrall to Zionist paranoia, nothing can be done about it. Bush made this clear on July 14 when he rejected the plea from Lebanon’s prime minister to pressure Israel to stop its attack on Lebanon.

A Beautiful Friendship?: Israel’s Influence in Washington
Glen Frankel -- The Washington Post

On Capitol Hill the Israel lobby commands large majorities in both the House and Senate. Polls show strong public support for Israel -- a connection that has grown even deeper after the September 11 attacks. The popular equation goes like this: Israelis equal good guys, Arabs equal terrorists. … AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] is the best-known of a handful of groups that have made support for Israel a centerpiece of their agendas, including the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. But when it comes to Washington, AIPAC wields the real clout.

Russia Is Not a Lost Cause: Putin and Bush
Patrick J. Buchanan

[Russian president] Putin is not Blair. A patriot and nationalist, he has set about restoring Moscow's independence and self-respect, and started looking out for Russia first. He was determined to stand up for Russia, even if it meant standing up to the United States, which is why so many Russians respect him. He imposed a flat tax, stripped the oligarchs of their assets and jailed them or ran them out of the country, liquidated the Chechen murderers of Beslan, started using his oil wealth the way great powers always do, and began to reorient his foreign policy without consulting Washington, as Washington never consulted him.

His face is one of the best known in the art world, and as the Netherlands celebrates the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt's birth, his life and work retain few secrets. But did you know he was once a Nazi icon? An exhibition at the Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam recalls the Nazis' largely forgotten mission to incorporate the Dutch painter into fascist ideology, and win sympathy in the Netherlands, which they occupied in 1940. The artist appeared on Dutch stamps issued during the occupation, a "Rembrandt" prize was awarded for artistic contribution to National Socialist culture, and a Rembrandt opera and film were written.

Rating the IQs of American Presidents
Chronicle of Higher Education

President Bush is definitely intelligent, but his IQ is "below average" when compared to that of his 41 predecessors, according to a new study by Dean Keith Simonton, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis … John Quincy Adams, a graduate of Harvard College, was the president with the highest estimated IQ. He had a score that ranged between 165 and 175. Other high scores came from Presidents Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton. Some of the lowest-scoring presidents included James Monroe, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant.

Vatican Plans to Beatify Martyrs of Spanish Civil War
Daily Telegraph (Britain) 

The Pope has provoked controversy with plans to beatify 168 Catholic martyrs of the Spanish civil war. Historians believe that about 10,000 priests, brothers, nuns and laity were killed during the civil war from 1936-39, as Leftists fighting to defend Spain's secular republic tried to wipe out what they saw as Catholic resistance. Beatification, a step towards sainthood, will help preserve the memory of those victims. But as Spain wrestles with conflicting versions of its history in the run up to the 70th anniversary of the start of the civil war next week, members of the committee for the Recovery of Historical Memory yesterday called on the Vatican to do more to clarify the Church's role in the bloodshed.  

Jews Call For New Handling of Third Reich History in German Schools
European Jewish Press

Germany’s Central Council of Jews has criticised the extent to which the history of the Third Reich is taught in German schools and has called for National Socialism to be made its own subject. New Council President Charlotte Knobloch said: "It is urgently necessary to rearrange history lessons as the topic of National Socialism is not being given enough space."  She added that many of the teachers teaching the subject did not know enough about the period themselves, a situation that did nothing to curb the rise of neo-Nazi sentiments, particularly in the east of the country.

Bush’s Indifference Drives Conflict
Simon Tisdall -- The Guardian (Britain)

US leverage with many of the regional [Middle East] protagonists is poor or non-existent. The US has effectively cut diplomatic relations with Syria and encouraged talk of regime change in Damascus. It regards Palestine's elected Hamas government, like Hizbullah's political wing, as a wholly terrorist grouping and refuses to deal with either.… The Bush administration alone can rein in Israel. Its reluctance to do so may mean there is no quick end to the fighting -- and even less chance that Washington will be trusted in the longer term to forge a just and lasting regional settlement.

Television News Reports from the Middle East
Mosaic -- Link TV

Unedited television portrayal of dramatic, bloody developments in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, from Arab and Israeli television news broadcasts.

Denmark Vesey: Freedom Fighter or Terrorist?
Cox News Service

The slave rebellion he allegedly plotted -- which would've been the largest in US history -- was scotched before it happened. Some historians believe there was no plot -- that the insurrection said to have called for the murder of every white in Charleston [South Carolina] was concocted by white leaders for political advantage. … Denmark Vesey, a freed slave, was hanged in 1822 with 34 co-conspirators. It's believed to be the largest set of executions ordered by a US court. Scholars regard Vesey as a precursor both to the Civil War and the civil rights movement… Many blacks exalt him as a freedom fighter, while some whites condemn him as a terrorist.

Doing Better with Less
Robert Lion – Le Monde (Paris)

In the France of the "thirty glorious years [1945-1975]," all the lights were green. Everyone saw his material situation improve from year to year: households equipped themselves, took to the road, sat down in front of their first television set, attained decent lodgings in their millions. … No one asked about growth; it was seen as unending and would soon be equivalent to abundance for everyone. No one talked about unemployment, or scarcity, or environmental degradation -- or even, quite simply, about the environment; the Third World, after de-colonization, was not a problem. Those days are long gone.

It Is Broke So Fix It
Arnaud De Borchgrave – United Press International

The sheer magnitude and scope of the dangers, challenges and problems facing the United States have never been greater both at home and abroad. The explosive ingredients putting us at risk combine the excesses of culture, crusade and partisanship. Popular culture has distorted and corrupted politics from governing to seizing power by destroying the opposition. The adversarial nature of politics is out of hand. Its purpose used to be good government. Now it's an attack weapon that has crippled the democratic process. The unalienable right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness has become alienable. For a politician to tell his/her constituents the truth in a democratic country -- here the United States is no exception -- is to ensure defeat at the next election.

Smithsonian Shows Signs of Neglect
Los Angeles Times

The Smithsonian Institution, our national museum and also a scientific research complex, is at a crisis point. Many of its 20 venues, such as the National Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum, need tens of millions of dollars in work. … How bad is the situation? Last year, the Government Accountability Office, a bureaucracy not given to hyperbole, found "major structural deterioration" in Smithsonian buildings and "chronic leaks." At least two historic aircraft at the Air and Space Museum have been water-damaged. Several buildings are rife with mold. Water has flowed into at least four museums, well before last month's rains.

Britain Falls Out of Love With America
Daily Telegraph (Britain)

There has probably never been a time when America was held in such low esteem on this side of the Atlantic . A majority of Britons think American culture and the actions of the present American administration are making the world a worse place to live in, and almost no one believes America is now, if it ever was, a beacon to the world. Well over half of those interviewed regard the US as an imperial power bent on dominating the world by one means or another. … Many Americans like to think of the US as a beacon to the world - as its "last, best hope". That view is not shared in this country. Only one in nine Britons, 11 per cent, accepts that view.

US Middle East Policy in Disarray
Rupert Cornwell -- The Independent (Britain)

Rarely can United States policy in the Middle East have been in such disarray as now. Events in Iraq are a fair approximation of civil war, while after a brief display of smiles, Iran is more truculent than ever over its nuclear ambitions. As for Israel, far from moving towards peace with its neighbours, the Jewish state is embroiled in an escalating, two-front confrontation with Lebanon and Syria to its north, and with the Palestinians in its midst. Three years ago when the US invaded Iraq, vowing to install a stable peaceful democracy that would be a model for the region, such a state of affairs was unthinkable in Washington.  

In Mongolia: Reverence for Genghis Khan
Daily Telegraph (Britain)

The Mongolian capital has been swamped with images of its former potentate, Genghis Khan, in honour of the anniversary of his unification of the nation in 1206. At the climax of celebrations in Ulan Bator yesterday, soldiers in traditional uniform and bearing yaks' tail standards heralded the unveiling of an enormous statue of the Great Khan in the main Sukhbaatar Square . … Genghis has always had his cultish admirers, those on the remote steppe who believe that he will return 800 years after his death to rescue the world from decay. But the reverence in which he is held by mainstream Mongolians comes as a shock to visitors from the West, where his name is associated with bloodshed and terror.

In Europe, Islam Rises, Christianity Falls
Chicago Tribune

In France and in almost every other European country, Christianity appears to be in a free fall. Although up to 88 percent of the French identify themselves as Catholic, only about five percent go to church on most Sundays; 60 percent say they "never" or "practically never" go. But Islam is a thriving force. The 12 million to 15 million Muslims who live in Europe make up less than five percent of the total population, but the vitality of their faith has led some experts to predict that Islam will become the continent's dominant faith. Princeton University historian Bernard Lewis, the dean of American Middle East scholars, flatly predicts that Europe will be Muslim by the end of this century.

Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor: One-Third of the Holocaust

An ambitious video presentation focusing on three of the most notorious German wartime “death camps” – Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor -- where more Jews were supposedly put to death than at Auschwitz. In 30 parts. Total length: 4 hours and 15 minutes. Includes a look at forensic evidence for mass extermination claims, and the Nuremberg Tribunal “evidence.” Finishes with a look at how Holocaust propaganda shapes American perceptions of Israel and the Middle East, and US foreign policy.

In the Beginning There Was Terror
Ronald Bleier – The Link

Much of the history of terrorism in today's Middle East has been thrust down the Orwellian memory hole due to the highly effective campaign over the past 50 years to suppress information prejudicial to Israel. Blowing up a bus, a train, a ship, a café, or a hotel; assassinating a diplomat or a peace negotiator; killing hostages, sending letter bombs; massacring defenseless villagers; this is terrorism, as we know it. In the modern Middle East it began with the Zionists who founded the Jewish State.

Iran's Jews Learn to Live With Ahmadinejad
The Guardian (Britain)

Maurice Motamed has one of the loneliest jobs in the Middle East . ... Mr Motamed represents Iran's 25,000- strong Jewish community, the largest such group in the Middle East outside Israel. Since 1906, Iran's constitution has guaranteed the Jewish community one seat in the Majlis. The Armenian, Assyrian and Zoroastrian minorities together hold another four seats. ... Members of the Jewish community in Iran today, for the most part, keep a low profile and many Iranians are unaware of their presence. Mr Motamed said there were about 14,000 Jews in Tehran, which has 20 active synagogues.

The Jewish Grip on the Major US Media
Rev. Ted Pike – National Prayer Network

Jewish control of the media is a taboo topic. In Congress, among evangelicals and mainline conservative talk radio, it is never mentioned. It is discussed only in snatches on far Right alternative talk radio. This is astonishing, considering that almost every substantial library in America contains a number of books confirming such Jewish control. ... These encyclopedic histories of Jewish control of the American media outdo any efforts by so-called “anti- Semites” to document an astonishing, frightening fact: The majority of media news and information to the American public comes from Jews. An authoritative Jewish website, “Judaism Online,” in in its article, “Jewish Success in the American Media,” documents Jewish media preeminence.

A Look At The 'Powerful Jewish Lobby'
Mark Weber

To sum up: Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States. The "Jewish lobby" is a decisive factor in US support for Israel. Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict. As long as the "very powerful" Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the systematic Jewish distortion of current affairs and history, the Jewish-Zionist domination of the US political system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli threat to peace.

Faurisson Trial Set for July 11 in Paris
Robert Faurisson

My own trial is to take place on Tuesday July 11 [in Paris] … I am accused of having granted, last year, an interview of revisionist nature to the Iranian radio and television station Sahar … On March 3, 2006 Georges Theil, 65, a retired telecommunications engineer, had seen his conviction for "Holocaust denial" upheld by the court of appeal of Limoges. … On May 17 in Lyon he was convicted on appeal for having made a brief revisionist statement on October 14, 2004 in front of a local television journalist's camera, and sentenced to a new six-month prison term without remission, fined another 10,000 euros, and ordered to pay 40,500 euros in damages as well as to cover the costs of having the judgment published in two newspapers…

Weber, Fromm To Speak in Northern Virginia, July 8
Institute for Historical Review

At a special IHR meeting on July 8 in northern Virginia, Mark Weber will put the Iran showdown in perspective, and explain what it means for our future. The IHR director will speak on “Familiar Lies for a New War: A System in Crisis.” Paul Fromm, director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression will also speak. He’ll report from the front lines in the global fight for free speech, with an update on the headline-making trial in Germany of Ernst Zundel, and the imprisonment of historian David Irving in Austria. 

US Losing War on Terrorism
Cox News Service

The United States is losing its fight against terrorism and the Iraq war is the biggest reason why, more than eight of ten American terrorism and national security experts concluded in a poll released Wednesday. One participant in the survey, a former CIA official who described himself as a conservative Republican, said the war in Iraq has provided global terrorist groups with a recruiting bonanza, a valuable training ground and a strategic beachhead at the crossroads of the oil-rich Persian Gulf and Turkey, the traditional land bridge linking the Middle East to Europe. "The war in Iraq broke our back in the war on terror," said the former official, Michael Scheuer...

Why Americans Are So Angry
Rep. Ron Paul

The cost of war since 1945, and our military presence in over 100 countries, exceeds two trillion dollars in today’s dollars. The cost in higher taxes, debt, and persistent inflation is immeasurable. Likewise, the economic opportunities lost by diverting trillions of dollars into war is impossible to measure, but it is huge. Yet our presidents persist in picking fights with countries that pose no threat to us, refusing to participate in true diplomacy to resolve differences. Congress over the decades has never resisted the political pressures to send our troops abroad on missions that defy imagination. When the people object to a new adventure, the propaganda machine goes into action to make sure critics are seen as unpatriotic Americans or even traitors.

The High Price of American Gullibility
Paul Craig Roberts

What explains the gullibility of Americans, a gullibility that has mired the US in disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and which promises war with Iran, North Korea and a variety of other targets if neoconservatives continue to have their way? Part of the explanation is that millions of conservatives are thrilled at the opportunity to display their patriotism and to show their support for their country. Bush’s rhetoric is perfectly designed to appeal to this desire. "You are with us or against us" elicits a blind and unquestioning response from people determined to wear their patriotism on their sleeves. "You are with us or against us" vaccinates Americans against factual reality and guarantees public acceptance of administration propaganda.

Like Verdun for the French, the Somme has become the abiding symbol for Britain -- and the British Commonwealth – of the 1914-18 war. The two conflicts were almost one, 150 miles apart but overlapping in time. There were murderous battles in 1914 and 1915, but in 1916, at the Somme and at Verdun, the power of modern industry was applied in inexhaustible force to human flesh for the first time. There were more than 1,000,000 casualties at the Somme – roughly 400,000 British and Commonwealth, 400,000 German and 200,000 French. Of these, maybe one in four died. ...The Somme was the most destructive single battle of that war – or of any war.

The Vatican is to open its archives to allow historians to access documents from 1922 to 1939. Documents from the pontificate of Pius XI will be made available, and could provide an insight into the Vatican's attitude towards the growth of Nazism. New information about the Catholic church's views on the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s may also be unearthed. Pius XI's successor, Pius XII, has long been accused of failing to help Jews during the Nazi genocide during WWII. But the key records potentially contained in Pius XII's archive will remain closed, despite requests from rabbis and Jewish historians when current Pope Benedict XVI was elected.

A Brussels criminal court sentenced two employees of the Belgian Islamic Centre to ten months jail... They were convicted for inciting race hatred against Jews by spreading revisionist and xenophobic texts via the centre's website. Abdel Rahman Ayachi, 26, and Raphaël Gendron, 30, run the centre's website. When leaving the courtroom, they said the “Jewish lobby” had “inspired” the complaint. Besides the jail terms, they were each ordered to pay a fine of 15,000 euros ...The two defendants were convicted for denying the Holocaust, minimalising the extent of Nazi crimes and inciting race hatred, especially against Jews, via a video report and prosecutable statements.

For generations, Republican politicians have spoken reverently of the rule of law. But since 2001, this hoary doctrine has been redefined to mean little more than the enforcement of the secret thoughts of the commander in chief. George W. Bush has added more than 750 “signing statements” to new laws since he took office. Earlier presidents occasionally appended such comments to new statutes, but Bush is the first to use signing statements routinely to nullify key provisions of new laws. He perennially announces that he will not be bound by limits on his power and that he will scorn obligations to disclose how federal power is being used.