Earnings of American Men Are Shrinking
Los Angeles Times

American men in their 30s earn less than their fathers' generation did at the same age, potentially reversing longtime assumptions that each successive generation will be better off than their predecessors, according to a study released Friday. ... In 2004, the median income for a man in his 30s was $35,010, twelve percent less than that of men in their 30s in 1974, adjusted for inflation, according to the study, which was based on Census Bureau data. By contrast, thirtysomething men in 1994 earned five percent more than their older counterparts. Outsourcing and the demise of higher-paying manufacturing jobs have contributed to the stagnation in men's incomes, Morton said.  

Irving to Sue Warsaw Book Fair
Focal Point

David Irving, the British historian and publisher of Focal Point Publications announced today that he will instruct Warsaw lawyers to sue Ars Polona S.A., organiser of the annual Warsaw International Book Fair, for damages for breach of contract, after its president Mr Grzegorz Guzowski ordered him to remove his stand immediately from the exhibition on May 18. Security officials immediately started breaking up the Focal Point display. Mr Guzowski explained that he had come under outside pressures. Mr Irving protested that neither he nor his books on display had broken any laws, and that he had a fully paid exhibition contract with the company...

British Academics' Union Endorses Anti-Israel Boycott
Alan Cowell

The main union representing 120,000 British college teachers voted Wednesday to endorse a Palestinian trades' union call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The boycott resolution, approved at the inaugural congress of the University and College Union, called on British college lecturers to "consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions." In theory, a boycott could sever academic contacts and exchanges of personnel between British and Israeli academic institutions.

Japanese Film Honors World War II Kamikaze Pilots
Agence France Presse

In the wake of "Yamato," a 2005 blockbuster depicting a famous Japanese battleship that sailed to its death against a US enemy fleet in 1945, comes a new film glorifying the lives of World War II kamikaze pilots -- this time penned by Tokyo's nationalist governor.  "For Those We Love" is emblematic of the Japan of young conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has campaigned to build "a beautiful country" built on guilt-free patriotism and traditional values. And few would be better suited than Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara to produce an ode to the young kamikaze who killed themselves in an ultimately futile attempt to prevent Japan's defeat in 1945.

How Many More Will Die for Bush's Ego?
Paul Craig Roberts

As long as Bush remains in office, the neoconservatives will demand more wars. In the current issue of "Foreign Policy," neocon Joshua Muravchik stridently insists that Bush bomb Iran before he leaves office. Muravchik urges his fellow neocon warmongers to "pave the way" for the bombing of Iran and to "be prepared to defend the action when it comes." As Middle East expert Anthony Sullivan writes, the neoconservatives are "fifth columnists" whose "real concern is not the United States but Israel." Sullivan writes that "it is past time that neoconservatives and their movement be left to drown in the deepest reaches of the ocean."

Is Imperial Liquidation Possible for America?
Chalmers Johnson

The United States, today, suffers from a plethora of public ills. Most of them can be traced to the militarism and imperialism that have led to the near-collapse of our Constitutional system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, none of the remedies proposed so far by American politicians or analysts addresses the root causes of the problem… Imperialism and militarism have thus begun to imperil both the financial and social well-being of our republic… I believe that there is only one solution to the crisis we face. The American people must make the decision to dismantle both the empire that has been created in their name and the huge (still growing) military establishment that undergirds it. 

Two New Books Present Critical Portraits of Hillary Clinton
The Washington Post 

Two new books on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton offer fresh and often critical portraits of the Democratic presidential candidate that depict a tortured relationship with her husband and her past, and challenge the image she has presented on the campaign trail. ["A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton," by Carl Bernstein, and “Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton," by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.] The Hillary Clinton who emerges from the pages of the books comes across as a complicated, sometimes compromised figure who tolerated Bill Clinton's brazen infidelity, pursued her policy and political goals with methodical drive, and occasionally skirted along the edge of the truth along the way.  

Losing Mythic Authority
Michael Vlahos

Most now acknowledge that America has failed in its war. Some see that failure limited to Iraq, while others describe a larger strategic liability. Thus the question is in part: How big is America’s failure? But more significantly, what are the consequences? In broad terms, we have squandered the World War II canon. We have lost its mythic authority. We are at the historical end of its protective embrace. We are on our own now… Myth legitimated and endowed sixty years of American world authority, founded on the celestial certainty of American altruism. Nowhere was this conviction stronger than in the breasts of Americans themselves. Our modern identity was forged in World War II  

The Neocon Moment is Over
Paul Mulshine -- Star-Ledger (New Jersey)

So-called "neo" conservatism has its roots in a Marxist view of the world. So it is not surprising that the neocons are trying to silence their most prominent conservative critic. That would be Texas Rep. Ron Paul. He outraged the neocons during the Republican presidential debate last week by advocating that the GOP return to the traditional conservative stance of noninterventionism … As it now stands, all of the leading GOP contenders endorse some version of the neocon view of the world. They agree that it is the proper duty of the president to administer not just the United States but the Persian Gulf states. … Out in the heartland, however, isolationism is the default setting.

Russia’s Jews: Where Are They Now?
Yasha Levine and Mark Ames

… Ninety years later, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a funny thing happened: Russia's media and finance was overwhelmingly controlled by Jews. Paranoia and fiction became reality. Of the seven oligarchs who controlled more than 50 percent of Russia's economy during the 1990s, six were Jews: Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Alexander Smolensky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Mikhail Friedman, and Vitaly Malkin. Berezovsky also controlled the state television station and several newspapers, while Gusinsky's media empire controlled NTV, Russia's only national independent TV station, as well as major radio and print outlets. 

Why Congress Caved to Bush
Patrick J. Buchanan

The anti-war Democrats are crying betrayal – and justifiably so. For a Democratic Congress is now voting to fully fund the war in Iraq, as demanded by President Bush, and without any timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal … Why did the Democrats capitulate? Because they lack the courage of their convictions. Because they fear the consequences if they put their anti-war beliefs into practice. Because they are afraid if they defund the war and force President Bush to withdraw U.S. troops, the calamity he predicts will come to pass and they will be held accountable for losing Iraq and the strategic disaster that might well ensue.

Why Bush Hasn’t Been Impeached
Gary Kamiya -- Salon

… Why was Clinton, who was never as unpopular as Bush, impeached for lying about sex, while Bush faces no sanction for the far more serious offense of lying about war? The main reason is obvious: The Democrats think it’s bad politics. … But there’s a deeper reason why the popular impeachment movement has never taken off — and it has to do not with Bush but with the American people. Bush’s warmongering spoke to something deep in our national psyche … To impeach Bush would force us to directly confront our national core of violent self-righteousness — come to terms with it, understand it and reject it. And we’re not ready to do that.

Rommel’s Reputation Assaulted in New Documentary
The Independent (Britain)

Erwin Rommel's reputation as one of Nazi Germany's few chivalrous generals has been blackened by a new documentary film which depicts the legendary "Desert Fox" as an unscrupulous commander who spearheaded Hitler's attempts to take the Holocaust to the Middle East … A new two-part documentary series being broadcast on Germany's ZDF television channel provides evidence that Rommel played a key role in the Nazis' drive to invade Palestine and exterminate the Jews of the Middle East.

The Pro-Israel Lobby and US Middle East Policy
James Petras

… To date the Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) has consistently lined up its Congressional and White House backers and steamrollered domestic opposition in securing unconditional US backing for Israel’s position in the Middle East … Manifestations of Zionist cultural authoritarianism is found at the local level and is closely linked with national campaigns to monopolize the entire discussion of US Middle East policy, and in particular, to exclude any criticism of Israel and the powerful role of the Zionist Lobby. 

Does the Pro-Israel Lobby Stifle Debate About Israel?
Doha Debates at the Oxford Union (Video)

Video of the Doha Debate held at the prestigious Oxford Union in Britain on May 1, at which two-thirds of the student audience approved a motion claiming that Israel's supporters are stifling Western debate about Israel's actions. Runtime: 46 minutes. Norman Finkelstein and Andrew Cockburn spoke in favor of the motion, and Martin Indyk and David Aaronovitch spoke against.

Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran
ABC News

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran 's currency and international financial transactions.

Bush May Still Strike Iran
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)

While arguing that economic sanctions against Teheran still have a chance of bearing fruit, a top strategic expert predicted on Tuesday that the Bush administration could conduct a military strike against Iran 's nuclear facilities toward the end of its term in office. "I, for one, don't exclude the possibility that the US will act," Shai Feldman, currently director of the Crown Center for Middle East studies at Brandeis University , told an editorial meeting of The Jerusalem Post. "My feeling, though, is that if it will act, it will act in the last months of the administration, mostly because I think that they are inclined to try to give the other options the fullest possible chance." 

Most Israelis Would Back US Military Strike Against Iran
NewsMax

Fully 71 percent of Israelis think the U.S. should launch a military strike on Iran if diplomacy fails to stop Tehran’s nuclear program, a new poll reveals. The survey commissioned by Bar-Ilan University’s BESA Center and the Anti-Defamation League, also found that 59 percent of Israelis still believe the war in Iraq was justified, while 36 percent think it was not.

The China Challenge: An Emerging Alternative to US as Political Model
The Washington Post

The Iraq war isn't over, but one thing's already clear: China won. As the United States has been bleeding popularity and influence around the world, China has been gaining both. That's largely because it has been coming into its own as the first full-blown alternative since the end of the Cold War to Washington 's model of free markets and democracy. As the U.S. model has become tarnished, China's has gained new luster. For authoritarian leaders around the world seeking to maintain their grip on power, China increasingly serves as a blueprint. We're used to thinking of China as an economic miracle, but it's also becoming a political model … This all adds up to a startling new challenge to the future of liberal democracy.

China Looks to Future Role as a Great Power
The New York Times

China’s Communist Party has a new agenda: it is encouraging people to discuss what it means to be a major world power and has largely stopped denying that China intends to become one soon. In the past several weeks China Central Television has broadcast a 12-part series describing the reasons nine nations rose to become great powers. The series was based on research by a team of elite Chinese historians, who also briefed the ruling Politburo about their findings. 

Italian University Bars Lecture by Prof. Faurisson
Associated Press

An Italian university closed one of its campuses for the day Friday to prevent a planned lecture by a retired French professor who denies gas chambers were used in Nazi concentration camps. Robert Faurisson, who has been convicted five times in France for denying crimes against humanity, had been expected to speak at a local hotel instead but that conference too was later canceled after scuffles with protesters. Faurisson had been invited to lecture at the University of Teramo, in central Italy, by Claudio Moffa, a professor of Asian and African history and director of a master's program in Middle East studies.

Faurisson Loses Paris Court Case
Agence France Presse and EJP

A Paris court has rejected charges by French “Holocaust denier” Robert Faurisson, who sued former French Minister of Justice Robert Badinter for defamation after the latter accused him of falsifying history. Faurisson, 77, a retired university professor, asked to pay 5,000 euros to the cover the court proceedings. Neither Faurisson nor Badinter were present at the court hearing. The court responded to calls from the public prosecutor, who asked for Faurisson’s demands to be rejected.

Jewish Terrorism in France
Institute for Historical Review

…Under these various names, Jewish activists for 15 years have unceasingly sown terror [in France ] with total impunity. Provocations that have no other aim than to incite reprisals. As if certain people wanted the [French] Jewish community to feel threatened … The victims of the 50 cases listed by Le Choc du mois, who number in the hundreds, suffered: loss of life, an eye put out, acid throwing, numerous hospitalizations, injuries followed by deep coma, lifetime disabilities, and serious post-traumatic conditions, "the commission of barbaric acts," severe beatings in the presence of policemen who refused to intervene, and numerous ambush attacks …

Congress Continues to Evade Its Responsibility
Rep. Ron Paul

Many of my colleagues, faced with the reality that the war in Iraq is not going well, line up to place all the blame on the president. The president "mismanaged" the war, they say. "It's all the president's fault," they claim. In reality, much of the blame should rest with Congress, which shirked its constitutional duty to declare war and instead told the president to decide for himself whether or not to go to war. More than four years into that war, Congress continues to avoid its constitutional responsibility to exercise policy oversight, particularly considering the fact that the original authorization no longer reflects the reality on the ground in Iraq.

Weber on 'Political Cesspool' With Edwards
The Political Cesspool (Audio)

During a fast-paced, stimulating half-hour session, host James Edwards and IHR director Mark Weber speak about the Jewish-Zionist grip on our media and political life, the crucial importance of free speech in a free society, some encouraging trends, the legal oppression of scholars who express dissident views on the 'Holocaust' issue, and more. Weber is on the air during the second half of this hour-long broadcast. “The Political Cesspool,” broadcast on WLRM radio (Memphis, Tenn.), is the country’s foremost populist radio program.

War-Torn Iraq 'Facing Collapse,' Says British Think Tank
BBC News 

Iraq faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation, UK foreign policy think tank Chatham House says. Its report says the Iraqi government is now largely powerless and irrelevant in many parts of the country. It warns there is not one war but many local civil wars, and urges a major change in US and British strategy, such as consulting Iraq's neighbours more …

Students in Australia Resent History 'Guilt'
The Australian

High school students resent being made to feel guilty during their study of Australia's indigenous past and dislike studying national history in general. The History Teachers Association called yesterday for a rethink of the type of Australian history being taught in schools and the way in which it is taught. History Teachers Association of NSW executive officer Louise Zarmati said her experience teaching in western Sydney was that students were resistant to learning about Australian politics and, in particular, indigenous history.

Blair’s Fatal Attraction: A Reputation Destroyed
Eric Margolis -- Toronto Sun

“All political careers end in failure,” noted British parliamentarian, Enoch Powell, famously observed. Never has his grim maxim been more poignantly demonstrated than in Tony Blair’s announcement that he will resign next month as prime minister of Great Britain … Blair ended up as a shill for the Bush Administration’s grotesque lies about Iraq. He facilitated the Bush/Cheney war by providing Washington with credibility, diplomatic cover, and the pretence of a “coalition.” Britain, as America’s premier historic ally, naturally felt pressure to join the war … In the end, Blair had almost no influence over the Bush administration. He was derided everywhere as America’s “poodle” … Blair’s formerly brilliant reputation was destroyed by Iraq.

Iran’s Jews Live in 'Relative Freedom'
The Christian Science Monitor

Some 25,000 Jews still live in Iran and many say that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fiery anti-Israeli rhetoric is about politics, not religion… But despite what appears to be a dwindling minority under constant threat of persecution, Iranian Jews say they live in relative freedom in the Islamic Republic, remain loyal to the land of their birth, and are striving to separate politics from religion. They caution against comparing Iran's official and visceral opposition to the creation of Israel and Zionism with the regime's acceptance of Jews and Judaism itself.

Bush Proclaims 'Jewish Heritage Month'
Jewish Telegraphic Agency    

President Bush proclaimed May to be Jewish American Heritage Month. "The faith and hard work of Jewish Americans have played an integral role in shaping the cultural fabric of America," Bush said in the proclamation issued Monday evening.

Giuliani’s Attack on Ron Paul Falls Flat
Jacob G. Hornberger

Ron Paul once again roiled Republican presidential politics on the issue of foreign policy during Tuesday night’s debate, finishing second in the post-debate poll conducted by Fox News and first in the poll conducted by MSNBC. Pointing out that U.S. foreign policy is the root cause of the anger and hatred that has engendered terrorism against the United States, including the 9/11 attacks, Paul suggested that America would be better off ending the U.S. government’s role as world policeman as wells its longtime policy of interventionism. … Paul’s point ignited an attack by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who indignantly announced that he had never heard such a theory in his life and asked Paul to retract it. 

Rudy Giuliani v. Ron Paul, and Reality
John Nichols -- The Nation

Rudy Giuliani made clear in Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate that he is not ready to let the facts get in the way of his approach to foreign policy. The most heated moment in the debate, which aired live on the conservative Fox News network, came when the former New York mayor and current GOP front-runner angrily refused to entertain a serious discussion about the role that actions taken by the United States prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon may have played in inspiring or encouraging those attacks. Giuliani led the crowd of contenders on attacking Texas Congressman Ron Paul …

David Irving Expelled From Polish Book Fair
Associated Press

Organizers of a Polish book fair on Friday asked British writer David Irving, who was sentenced to prison in Austria for denying the Holocaust, to leave the event. Irving had been scheduled to present his books at an event organized by British publisher Focal Point, said Grzegorz Guzowski, head of the Ars Polonia company, which organized the Warsaw International Book Fair. Guzowski said that, when organizers were alerted to the nature of Irving 's work, he told the writer to go. "I told him his message was in violation of Polish law and that I would not allow him to deliver it at the book fair premises, and I asked him to leave," Guzowski said.

Israeli Democracy: For Jews Only?
Sonja Karkar 

The time will have to come for Israel to declare its hand: is it "a state of the Jewish people throughout the world" as it defines itself, or a state of all its citizens, both Jewish and non-Jewish? So far Israel has managed to convince the Western world that it is the only democracy in the region, but neglects to add that this democracy works only for its Jewish citizens. This is the conundrum: Israel has been unable to reconcile what it says it is, with want it wants to be ­ democratic and exclusively Jewish. All of Israel 's one million plus Palestinian residents ­ the survivors and descendants of the 1948 Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine - have long felt discriminated against, despite Israel paying lip-service to their democratic rights. 

From the Sepoy Revolt of 1857, Lessons for Today’s Imperialists
William Dalrymple -- The Guardian (Britain)

A century and a half after the Indian mutiny, echoes of the arrogance and lies that sparked insurgency could not be clearer / The sepoys entered Delhi , massacred every Christian man, woman and child they could find and declared the 82-year-old emperor to be their leader. Before long the insurgency had snowballed into the largest and bloodiest anticolonial revolt against any European empire in the 19th century … No one likes people of a different faith conquering them, or force-feeding them improving ideas at the point of a bayonet. The British in 1857 discovered what the US and Israel are learning now, that nothing so easily radicalises a people against them, or so undermines the moderate aspect of Islam, as aggressive western intrusion in the east. 

Empire or Republic
Jacob Hornberger 

We now live in a country in which the president wields the power to send the entire nation into war on his own initiative, without the congressional declaration of war required by the Constitution. We live in a country in which the president and the military wield the power to arrest an American citizen and incarcerate him in a military installation for the rest of his life on suspicion of being a terrorist, denying him due process of law, trial by jury, and other procedural rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights ... How did it all come to this? ... It’s not as if we haven’t been warned. Our Founding Fathers warned us repeatedly what would happen if we abandoned the founding principles of our nation.

A German Girl’s Wartime Diary: Anne Frank With a Difference
The Times (Britain)

She was 12, and she has just started a diary, probably her first. “To this diary I will entrust both my joys and my sorrows,” she writes, with shy excitement. A month later it is the sorrows she confides: “Today I have been away from home exactly eight months and one day. I am missing Mummy and Daddy desperately.” ... The diary conveys a young girl’s sweet balance of slight formality with sudden rushes of childish feeling ... Like most girl’s diaries, Hilke’s has never been published, but it was shown to my brother in Warwick recently by his (originally German) neighbour, Hilke’s sister, who has translated it. The diary runs from July 27, 1940 to August 4, 1945.

Rising Anti-Semitism in Israel
Agence France Press

The number of incidents with a neo-Nazi, fascist or anti-Semitic streak has increased dramatically over the past 15 years in the Jewish state, which prides itself of being a safe haven for Jews from all over the world, according to the Dmir Centre, which monitors and assists victims of such attacks. Although the Jewish state is no stranger to anti-Israeli attacks, a new trend has developed since the 1990s -- anti-Semitic attacks carried out by "Jewish" citizens, says the centre's chief Zalman Gilichenski. The vast majority of these incidents are thought to have been carried out by Russian nationalists who identify with anti-Semitic ideology, says Gilichenski.

Israel's Last Chance
Gabriel Kolko -- Counterpunch

The United States has given Israel $51.3 billion in military grants since 1949, most of it after 1974 -- more than any other country in the post-1945 era. Israel has also received $11.2 billion in loans for military equipment, plus $31 billion in economic grants, not to mention loan guarantees, joint military projects like the Arrow missile, and such ... Most of Israel today is only not Zionist but it well on its way to becoming a failed state. Were it not for the fact that this outpost of fewer than five million Jews is a critical factor of war and peace in the much larger and vital region it would not be important or at all unusual. But it is terribly confused and has a very mixed identity ...

Soviets Engineered 1967 'Six Day War,' Say Two Israeli Historians
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)

In a new book that "totally contradicts everything that has been accepted to this day" about the Six Day War, two Israeli authors claim that the conflict was deliberately engineered by the Soviet Union to create the conditions in which Israel's nuclear program could be destroyed. Having received information about Israel’s progress towards nuclear arms, the Soviets aimed to draw Israel into a confrontation in which their counterstrike would include a joint Egyptian-Soviet bombing of the reactor at Dimona. They had also geared up for a naval landing on Israel's beaches.

Blair’s Cravenly Pro-US Policy Ended in Catastrophic Failure
Avi Shlaim – The Guardian (Britain)

… Blair failed to understand that America’s really special relationship is with Israel, not Britain. Every time that George Bush had to choose between Blair and Ariel Sharon, he chose the latter. Blair’s special relationship with Bush was a one-way street: Blair made all the concessions and got nothing tangible in return … The premise behind American policy was that Iraq was the main issue in Middle East politics and that regime change in Baghdad would weaken the Palestinians and force them to accept a settlement on Israel’s terms … This premise was wrong … The real issue was Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and America’s support for Israel in its savage colonial war against the Palestinian people.

Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence
Princeton University Press

How Roman Towns Were Built on Star-Aligned Grids
Discovery News

Ancient Romans built their towns using astronomically aligned grids, an Italian study has concluded. Published recently on the physics Web site, maintained at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, the research examined the orientation of virtually all Roman towns in Italy. "It emerged that these towns were not laid out at random. On the contrary, they were planned following strong symbolic aspects, all linked to astronomy," Giulio Magli, of the mathematics department at Milan’s Polytechnic University, told Discovery News. 

Billionaire Jewish 'Boychiks' Battle for Media Empire
Forward (New York)

When Sam Zell, a Chicago real estate mogul and soon-to-be media magnate, was a junior counselor at a Jewish summer camp, he regularly transfixed his campers with tales of his family’s escape from Nazi-occupied Poland. … Zell’s storytelling skills may be put to a new use when he becomes the owner and CEO of one of America ’s most powerful media companies, Tribune Company, which owns 23 televisions stations, a baseball team and many major newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. His winning bid for the $8.2 billion company comes after a career in which he has made himself rich – to the tune of $4.5 billion…

Israeli Group Seeks 'Second Generation' Holocaust Money from Germany
Der Spiegel (Germany)

An Israeli charity is making plans to launch a class action suit against Germany on behalf of thousands of children of Holocaust survivors who need psychological treatment. But the German government says it will only make payments to those directly affected… For decades, the German government has paid out billions to Holocaust survivors in an attempt at recompense for the brutal crimes committed by the Nazis. But even as the World War II generation is rapidly shrinking, a new conflict is looming over who is responsible for the suffering of the next generation. And Germany may soon find itself having to pay millions for the psychological treatment needed by the children of Holocaust survivors.

Jews Set US Policy in the Middle East, Say Many Europeans
Associated Press

Many Europeans believe the Jews dictate US policy in the Middle East, wield disproportionate global economic influence, and talk too much about the Holocaust, according to a report released Monday by the Anti-Defamation League. The report's findings found that significant numbers of people in five European countries continue to hold anti-Jewish stereotypes, said Abraham Foxman, national director of the US group … The survey of 2,714 people in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland found that 51 percent of respondents believed that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the countries in which they live. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a confidential report about East Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, accuses Israel of a “general disregard” for “its obligations under international humanitarian law – and the law of occupation in particular.” The committee, which does not accept Israel ’s annexation of East Jerusalem, says Israel is using its rights as an occupying power under international law “in order to further its own interests or those of its own population to the detriment of the population of the occupied territory.”

Republicans Retreat From Their War History
Steven Chapman

… The truth is, Republican presidents are not known for staying the course in the face of adversity … Richard Nixon negotiated a peace agreement with the North Vietnamese government, which provided for a U.S. pullout. Gerald Ford presided over the fall of Saigon and the final, humiliating American evacuation. In those instances, the presidents came to grips with the unpleasant truth that sometimes, you can't achieve the desired outcome without an excessive sacrifice, if at all … What Republicans stood for in the past was a sober realism about the limits of our power and our good intentions. That spirit is absent today. They act as though slogans are a substitute for strategy. What they claim as steadfast resolve looks more like blind obstinacy.

Not So Cool Facts About Israel
Video

An impressive presentation of startling facts about Israel, Zionist occupation, the Israel-Palestine issue, and more, in this ten-minute video, with background music.

Fewer in Britain are Proud of Being British
Daily Mail (Britain)

Fewer than half of us say we feel proud to be British, an official survey revealed yesterday. At the same time the numbers of those seeing themselves as English first and foremost have shot up. The figures confirm the drift away from support for Britain and the growth in nationalism in England as well as in Scotland. Twenty-five years ago 55 per cent said they felt "very proud” to be British but that figure has dropped to 45 percent. Researchers said older people had a strong attachment to Britain but that the young were more prone to listen to the appeals of nationalists.

New Wave of Multinational Companies Poses
Challenge for US
International Herald-Tribune

A new wave of foreign competitive pressure is beginning to ripple through the U.S. economy, from companies in emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China. These companies are seeking to become world-spanning multinationals - just as Samsung Electronics emerged from South Korea and Toyota sprang from Japan in earlier phases of globalization … Russian companies like Gazprom, Lukoil and Rusal are using Russia's natural resources to leap into the United States and other countries. India is producing powerhouses in technology services … The world's largest steel company is now controlled by Lakshmi Mittal, an Indian living in Europe. China may be the largest single source of new multinationals.  

Dresden Redux: Historians Debate the 1945 Attack
Andy Spencer

Towards the end of the tenth and final contribution to this collection of essays [Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945], derived initially from a colloquium hosted by Edinburgh University in May 2003, co-editor Paul Addison notes that "the debate over Dresden is likely to end in a stalemate.” By this he means that some will always defend the actions of the Allied air commanders who ordered the Dresden raids in February 1945, just as some will always condemn them. In his contribution to the present volume, Donald Bloxham succinctly fleshes out this state of affairs, writing of the other essays collected here: "Besides revealing the deliberate targeting of civilians, they have pinpointed Churchill's leading role…”

China is Building a Large Navy
The Age (Australia)

… China announced a 17.8 percent increase in its military spending for this year. That was after a 14.7 per cent increase last year, a 12.6 percent increase in 2005, an 11.6 per cent increase in 2004, a 9.6 percent increase in 2003 and a 17.6 per cent increase in 2002. … Even with these increases, China 's declared spending on its military is relatively low compared with the US . … China is upgrading its submarines … China is also emerging as the world's most important builder of merchant shipping. It will overtake South Korea by 2015 to become the world's biggest producer of all classes of ships … 

Israeli Jews Anxious About the 'Enemy Within'
BBC News 

"There's one thing in common between Arabs and Jews in Israel," says Amnon Rubinstein with a wry smile. "They can't stand each other. It's sad but it's true". The former Israeli education minister, now at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Herzliya is not the only Israeli anxious about deteriorating relations between Jewish Israel and its Arab minority. A series of events since last summer's war in Lebanon have reawakened fears in Israel of an enemy within. At the time, some Israeli Arabs were very critical of Israel's actions … Arabs make up nearly 20 percent of the population, but they have long complained of discrimination …

Minister Calls for Obligatory 'Holocaust' Studies in Swedish Schools
Agence France Presse

Swedish Schools Minister Jan Bjoerklund has said he would recommend that the Holocaust and crimes committed in the name of communism in the Soviet Union be mandatory elements of the history curriculum. He made the statement after a poll, published on Wednesday, revealed that a majority of Swedish teenagers don’t know what communism is and don’t know which countries neighbour their own. The poll has raised questions about Sweden ’s education system. Ninety percent of teens aged 15 to 20 don’t know which foreign capital is closest to Stockholm, 90 percent don’t know what the Gulag is, and 40 percent think communism has increased prosperity in the world. 

Palestinians 'Routinely Tortured' in Israeli Jails
The Guardian (Britain)

Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces are routinely tortured and ill-treated, according to a new report published by Israeli human rights groups yesterday. The ill-treatment, which includes beatings, sensory deprivation, back-bending, back-stretching and other forms of physical abuse, contravenes international law and Israeli law, the report says. The Centre for the Defence of the Individual and B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, compiled the report after interviewing 73 Palestinians who had been arrested in 2005 and 2006. The report found that almost 50 percent of detainees who were arrested in raids or at random were beaten by the army or police before they were handed over to the Shin Bet security agency for interrogation. 

Japan Rejects Reparations Claims by Chinese War Victims
Associated Press

Japan's Supreme Court rejected compensation claims by Chinese victims of atrocities committed by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which included the use of biological weapons and a massacre in the city of Nanjing … The top court upheld rulings by lower courts since 1999 that the current Japanese government was not liable for compensation demands from foreign citizens for wartime actions … The plaintiffs from the two cases, who totaled 198 people including the families of the victims, had demanded apologies and combined compensation worth $15.8 million for death and suffering caused by wartime biological experiments, the so-called "Rape of Nanjing," and the firebombing of Yong'an city in China's Fujian province.

A New Generation Sues Germany for Holocaust Money
Ynet News (Israel)

More than 60 years after the Holocaust, the children of the survivors are demanding compensation from the German government for their suffering … Following an initiative to file a joint class action to second generation members from Israel, Germany and the United States, the Fisher Fund is holding talks with senior German officials in a bid to receive financing for mental treatments required by some second-generation Holocaust survivors.

Germany’s Payoff of Billions in Holocaust Reparations
Mark Weber

Since 1951 Germany has paid more than 102 billion marks, about $61.8 billion at 1998 exchange rates, in federal government reparation payments to Israel and Third Reich victims. In addition, Germans have paid out billions in private and other public funds, including about 75 million marks ($49 million) by German firms in compensation to wartime forced laborers, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported. These figures are based on calculations by the German Finance Ministry.

France's New President: A Friend of Israel
Raanan Eliaz – European Jewish Press

In an interview Nicolas Sarkozy gave in 2004, he expressed an extraordinary understanding of the plight of the Jewish people for a home: "Should I remind you the visceral attachment of every Jew to Israel, as a second mother homeland?..." ... It may be a far leap to consider that Sarkozy's Jewish ancestry may have any bearing on his policies vis-à-vis Israel . However, many expect Sarkozy's presidency to bring a dramatic change not only in France 's domestic affairs, but also in the country's foreign policy in the Middle-East. One cannot overestimate the magnitude of the election of the first French President born after World War II, whose politics seem to represent a new dynamic after decades of old-guard Chirac and Mitterrand.

Why Israel is After Me
Azmi Bishara – Los Angeles Times

When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that escaped that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long lived. The Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked immediately on transforming us into foreigners in our own country… Today we make up 20 percent of Israel 's population. We do not drink at separate water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and can serve in the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and informal discrimination in all spheres of life. More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews.

China Overtakes US as Second-Largest Exporter
The Washington Times

China surpassed the United States as the world's second-largest exporter last year and now makes more cars than Detroit, among the latest signs that the Asian giant is rapidly ascending to what many analysts expect will be the world's largest and most influential economy as soon as a decade from now. The road of China 's ascent has been paved with exports of a broad range of goods from cars to computers and toys sent to countries around the world, with the U.S. being its top export market. But China 's huge population of 1.3 billion also promises to become the world's biggest consumer market, and it already is sucking in imports and shaping world markets for commodities like oil and copper.

Jews Celebrate Sarkozy Victory in France
JTA (New York)

Nicolas Sarkozy, the grandson of a Greek Jew, has been elected president of France. Optimistic and celebratory, Jewish groups were quick to offer congratulations to Sarkozy after his victory in French presidential elections. Sarkozy, of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), defeated Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal in Sunday's runoff. He garnered some 53 percent to Royal's 47 percent in the election, which featured a huge voter turnout. The former interior minister was seen by Jewish voters as a friend to Israel and an important figure in the fight against antisemitism.  

Dying for...Estonia?
Patrick J. Buchanan

…Behind this nasty quarrel is the decision by Estonia to move the giant statue of a Red Army soldier, and the remains of Soviet soldiers, from the center of its capital, Tallinn, to a military cemetery. In Tallinn, patriots and nationalists have clashed with citizens of Russian ancestry over the perceived insult to Mother Russia and the "liberators" of Estonia from the Nazis. Both points of view in this quarrel are understandable… If President Putin decides the Estonians need a lesson, and sends troops to  teach it, the United States, under NATO, would have to treat Russian intervention in Estonia as an attack upon the United States, and declare war on behalf of Estonia.

Palestinian Christians: An Endangered Species
Prof Abe W Ata

When the modern state of Israel was established there were about 400,000 of us [Palestinian Christians]. Two years ago the number was down to 80,000. Now it's down to 60,000. At that rate, in a few years there will be none of us left. When this happens non-Christian groups will move into our churches and claim them forever … So why do American Christians stand by while their leaders advocate the expulsion of fellow Christians? Could it be that they do not know that the Holy Land has been a home to Christians since, well, since Christ?

The destruction of Dresden and Hiroshima marked the beginning of the Cold War. The Allies wrestled for control of the world while the civilian population was taken hostage.

For Jews, Is It 1938 All Over Again?
JTA (New York) 

With threats to the Jewish people emanating from so many directions – a nuclear Iran, the demographic challenges of American Jewry, the rise in anti-Semitic attacks around the world – a succession of leaders has warned that Jews face as much peril today as on the eve of the Holocaust. But when the Center for Jewish Studies at Queens College in New York City convened a conference this week on the state of world Jewry – ominously titled "Is it 1938 again?" – the consensus was a resounding "No." …   

Four years ago, I stood in this very spot and warned against an ill-advised invasion of Iraq. Today, the situation in Iraq has spiraled out of control into a bloody, deadly sectarian civil war. Yet, the President and his team continue to hold fast to their stay-the-course nonsense. While they do, thousands of brave young Americans place their lives in jeopardy everyday. That reality is one that this nation and the world did not have to experience. It is a tragic reality brought on by a war of choice and an occupation that has yielded neither stability nor reconciliation.

Hollywood Tackles Hitler's Leni
The Observer (Britain)

Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster will play the leading role of Riefenstahl in a work that is bound to generate immense argument, as it examines the beautiful woman who became Adolf Hitler's favourite director and whose slick propaganda helped the Nazi war machine. The on-again, off-again project has been in the works for at least seven years, but now a script is being written - by British writer Rupert Walters - and a director is being negotiated … Few parts in modern Hollywood history will generate as much debate as Riefenstahl. It will open Foster to charges of lionising an anti-Semite who played a key role in the Third Reich.

The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy: A Debate
James Petras and Norman Finkelstein – KPFK Radio  

… I think you can’t dismiss the fact that Feith, Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams have a lifetime commitment to putting Israel’s interests as their prime consideration in the Middle East. I think it is absurd to think that somehow they just happen to be right-wing policy makers that happen to support a militarist policy. Wolfowitz designed the program. Feith put together the Office of Special Plans, the policy board that fabricated the information for the Iraq war. They were constantly consulting on a day-day, hour-to-hour basis with the Israeli government. This has absolutely been documented a hundred times … 

Why There Was No Exit Plan
Lewis Seiler and Dan Hamburg – San Francisco Chronicle

For all the talk about timetables and benchmarks, one might think that the United States will end the military occupation of Iraq within the lifetimes of the readers of this opinion editorial. Think again. There is to be no withdrawal from Iraq , just as there has been no withdrawal from hundreds of places around the world that are outposts of the American empire. As UC San Diego professor emeritus Chalmers Johnson put it, "One of the reasons we had no exit plan from Iraq is that we didn't intend to leave." The United States maintains 737 military bases in 130 countries across the globe …The United States is spending billions on the construction of at least five large permanent military bases throughout that country.

Dying for W
Robert Parry

… A long, bloody stalemate is the likely result from Bush's stubbornness. With little fanfare, the Bush administration has essentially abandoned its earlier "exit strategy" of training a new Iraqi army so as "they stand up, we'll stand down."  Bush's much-touted "surge" - beefing up American forces in Baghdad and other hot spots - is an indirect acknowledgement that the training was a flop. The "surge" is a do-over of the war's original approach of relying on American troops to bring security to the country … Military and intelligence analysts have told me that the "surge" is already recognized as a failure by U.S. military officers stationed in Iraq.

Putting Jamestown into Context
BBC News

The Queen has arrived in the US to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia – although many Americans will still tell you it was in Plymouth, Massachusetts - 13 years later… "Historians in the 19th century were looking for a more noble beginning and opted for The Pilgrim Fathers," Bly Straube explained. "They landed in Plymouth in 1620. They had their women and children, and were determined to forge a new life with religious freedom in a new England." That read much better than the story of the commercially driven Virginia company with its slaves and tobacco in the background, and reports of violence and cannibalism.

Strife Continues Over Soviet-Era Symbols in Eastern Europe
Associated Press

… These days, throughout formerly Soviet-controlled eastern Europe, a battle of symbols and memories is being waged – over statues, street names, the hammer and sickle, even Auschwitz. Now firmly entrenched in the West through NATO and European Union membership, many countries are showing renewed eagerness to erase the more visible vestiges of communism. The dispute underscores the opposing views of the Soviet legacy in Russia and its former satellites. Russia 's resurgent patriotism under President Vladimir Putin has only widened the gap as countries from the Baltics to the Balkans seek to shed the last vestiges of communism. 

Tenet Battled With The 'Office of Special Plans'
Matt Renner

In his book, "At the Center of the Storm," former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet describes efforts by Pentagon and White House officials to subvert pre-Iraq war intelligence assessment by the CIA. Tenet focuses on the actions of a group inside the Pentagon that sent the Bush administration bogus intelligence on Iraq's weapons program and ties to terrorist organizations that supported the administration's policy. This group was recently criticized by a Department of Defense inspector general report … which found that a policy-shop known as "the Office of Special Plans," headed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, acted "inappropriately" by cooking intelligence …

After Thousands Have Died, Tenet Comes Clean
Robert Scheer

The three short sentences at the beginning of Chapter 17 of former CIA Director George Tenet’s memoir, “At the Center of the Storm,” tell it all: “The United States did not go to war in Iraq solely because of WMD. I doubt it was even the principal cause. Yet it was the public face that was put on it.” Consider the deep cynicism of that statement, playing as it does on the gravest threat to humanity’s survival … Tenet, knowing the administration was willfully leading our nation into a horrific war in Iraq that would detract from the real fight against terrorism, had an obligation to resign and go public with his knowledge when the war could have been prevented.  

Iraq: A War For Israel
Mark Weber 

So if the official reasons given for the war were untrue, why did the United States attack? Whatever the secondary reasons for the Iraq war, the crucial factor in President Bush’s decision to attack was to help Israel . With support from Israel and America’s Jewish-Zionist lobby, and prodded by Jewish "neo-conservatives" holding high-level positions in his administration, President Bush – who was already fervently committed to Israel – resolved to invade and subdue one of Israel’s chief regional enemies.

How Three Million Germans Died After the End
of World War II
Nigel Jones – Telegraph (Britain)

Giles MacDonogh [in his new book, After the Reich: From the Liberation of Vienna to the Berlin Airlift] argues that the months that followed May 1945 brought no peace to the shattered skeleton of Hitler's Reich, but suffering even worse than the destruction wrought by the war. After the atrocities that the Nazis had visited on Europe, some degree of justified vengeance by their victims was inevitable, but the appalling bestialities that MacDonogh documents so soberly went far beyond that. The first 200 pages of his brave book are an almost unbearable chronicle of human suffering … His best estimate is that some three million Germans died unnecessarily after the official end of hostilities…

George Tenet on the Staircase with the Neocons
Juan Cole -- Salon

… In the end, Tenet exhibits all the symptoms of an abused spouse. He praises Bush and even has good things to say about Cheney. He never could pick up the phone and call the police in the midst of being beaten up. He never cared enough about the fate of the country to stand up and say that the country was being driven to war on the basis of obvious falsehoods and a tissue of lies. Even now, his high dudgeon concerns affronts to his own reputation, and that of his agency, rather than the deaths of more than 3,300 U.S. troops and hundreds of thousands