Archive for August 4th, 2018
Boat flotilla Leader of Al Awda, ‘The Return’ is freed: Zohar Chamberlain Regev tells her story
Posted by: adonis49 on: August 4, 2018
Boat flotilla Leader of Al Awda, ‘The Return’ is freed: Zohar Chamberlain Regev tells her story
Zohar Chamberlain Regev (Israel)
Freedom Flotilla Coalition
FFC Boat Leader of Al Awda, ‘The Return’
Zohar has now been released from unlawful detention in Israel.
Read an interview with her here, which describes the attack on ‘Al Awda’ and its participants and Press Freedom.
Please continue to demand release of all Political Prisoners and #DemandPressFreedom
#SOSjustfuture4Palestinehttps://www.facebook.com/hashtag/sosjustfuture4palestine?source=feed_text
Zohar Chamberlain Regev is an Israeli citizen (born and raised in Kibbutz Kfar Hahoresh, near Nazareth) who has lived in Spain for the last 14 years, and has participated in the coordination of Rumbo a Gaza, the Spanish component of the Freedom Flotilla, since 2012.
Zohar is the owner of the Women’s Boat to Gaza Zaytouna-Oliva, seized in 2016 and still the object of court proceedings in Israel.
Currently, she represents Rumbo a Gaza in “Right to a Just Future for Palestine” Steering Committee and is the Flotilla’s boat leader on board Al Awda.
“As a human being first of all, but also as an Israeli of Jewish origin, I am appalled by what is being done by Israel in Palestine in general and in Gaza in particular.
We have always been told ‘how could the world be silent during the Holocaust’, now we know how…
we have to stand by our Palestinian sisters and brothers in Gaza to save our own humanity.
As an amputee, I can only begin to imagine what it is like for people in Gaza who have lost their limbs in the brutal attacks and are still waiting to be fitted with prosthetic limbs, as one of the many consequences of the illegal Israeli blockade.”
Zohar can be interviewed in English, Hebrew or Spanish.
Here is some recent media that features Zohar: https://truthout.org/articles/freedom-flotilla-sails-again-to-gaza-in-support-of-the-palestinian-great-march-of-return/
Interview with Noam Chomsky: “Israeli intervention in US elections ‘vastly overwhelms’ anything Russia has done,
Posted by: adonis49 on: August 4, 2018
Israeli intervention in US elections ‘vastly overwhelms’ anything Russia has done, claims Noam Chomsky
Veteran activist Noam Chomsky has accused Israel of “brazenly” interfering in US electoral politics in a way that vastly outweighs any efforts that may have been carried out by Russia.
In comments in which he accused much of the media of concentrating on stories he considered marginal and ignoring issues such as the “existential threat” of climate change, the 89-year-old linguist said in much of the world, the US media’s focus with Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 was “a joke”.
“First of all, if you’re interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support,” he said.
Speaking to Democracy Now, Mr Chomsky added: “Israeli intervention in US elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done, I mean, even to the point where the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, goes directly to Congress, without even informing the president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try to undermine the president’s policies – what happened with Obama and Netanyahu in 2015.”
In March 2015, at the invitation of then Republican House Speaker John Boehner, and assisted by Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the joint houses of Congress about the yet to be signed Iran nuclear deal.
He did so without formally informing the White House, something said to have infuriated Barack Obama, whose administration would the following month join a seven-party agreement to limit Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.
In a speech to Congress that was boycotted by more than 50 Democrats, Mr Netanyahu made clear his opposition to the deal.
“This deal won’t be a farewell to arms,” said Mr Netanyahu, to loud applause. “It would be a farewell to arms control. And the Middle East would soon be crisscrossed by nuclear tripwires. A region where small skirmishes can trigger big wars would turn into a nuclear tinderbox.”
Attacking Mr Obama proposal of dealing with Iran, he added: “We must all stand together to stop Iran’s march of conquest, subjugation and terror.”
Mr Chomsky said Mr Putin had never made such a speech to Congress, which political observers said was unique in the way a foreign leader so acidly attacked the policy of the US government.
“Did Putin come to give an address to the joint sessions of Congress trying to…calling on them to reverse US policy, without even informing the president,” he said.
“And that’s just a tiny bit of this overwhelming influence. So if you happen to be interested in influence of- foreign influence on elections, there are places to look. But even that is a joke.”
The power of the pro-Israel lobby has long been one of the contentious, and disputed, issues in Washington.
In 2007, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, published The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, which described the lobby as “loose coalition of individuals and organisations who actively work to steer US foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction”.
World news in pictures




51show all
The coalition includes groups such as the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) a US-based pro-Israel lobbying group this year has spent $1.75m to promote pro-Israel policies.
The group’s annual convention is a frequent stopping off point for politicians seeking election or reelection, and Mr Netanyahu has addressed it several times.
In 2016, top speakers included Vice President Joe Biden, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Governor John Kasich, Senator Ted Cruz, and Speaker Paul Ryan.
The group’s website says: “The mission of AIPAC is to strengthen, protect and promote the US-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”
Neither the Israeli Embassy in Washington or AIPAC immediately responded to enquiries about Mr Chomsky’s claim.
In his comments to Democracy Now, Mr Chomsky said the media was “focusing on issues which are pretty marginal. There are much more serious issues that are being put to the side”.
“Of all Trump’s policies, the one that is the most dangerous and destructive, in fact poses an existential threat, is his policies on climate change, on global warming,” he said.
“That’s really destructive. And we’re facing an imminent threat, not far removed, of enormous damage. The effects are already visible but nothing like what’s going to come.”
He added: “These are the kinds of issues that should be under discussion. Instead…here is a focus on what I believe are marginalia.”
Paradoxes: So many of them… Attention, Decision, Life, Clean bathroom, and Seth…
Posted by: adonis49 on: August 4, 2018
Paradox: Attention, Span, Decision, Life, Clean bathroom, Seth…
1. The attention paradox: Online, mass marketers
You can’t buy attention Online as easily as you can with traditional advertising. Most commercial media has this imperative of being interesting built in.
The assignment is to make it viral, make it something people will watch or click on or even better, share.
This is hard for mass marketers, marketers who are used to making average stuff for average people and promoting heavily in media where they can buy guaranteed attention.
And so, we see organizations buying likes and pageviews, pushing for popovers and popunders and all sorts of new ways to interrupt online.
Smart advertisers are realizing that they have to make content worth watching to decide. A few are making media so entertaining that we not only want to watch it, but spread it.
The challenge is that all those hoops you need to jump through to attract attention might be precisely the opposite of what you need to do to cause action, to get someone to change her mind or to connect.
A squadron of singing ferrets might make your video spread, but that approach isn’t going to cause the action you seek.
And, alas, you have to do both.
2. Paradox on Decisions: Make more not less
You don’t run a punch press or haul iron ore. Your job is to make decisions.
The thing is, the farmer who grows corn has no illusions about what his job is. He doesn’t avoid planting corn or dissemble or procrastinate about harvesting corn.
And the farmer certainly doesn’t try to get his neighbor to grow his corn for him.
Make more decisions. That’s the only way to get better at it.
3. Paradox of “This might not work” (working on something new)
Since June, I’ve been working flat out on creating the four books that were part of the Kickstarter and the big launch that climaxed with an event here in New York.
Along the way, I experienced what many people feel as they work on something new–I was spending part of my time (against my better judgment) exhausting myself trying to predict and then control what people would think about my work.
Will they get it? Will this chapter hit home? Am I too far out on a limb?
This might not work.
At some level, “this might not work” is at the heart of all important projects, of everything new and worth doing.
And it can paralyze us into inaction, into watering down our art and into failing to ship.
I do my best work when I practice what I write about, and this time, I decided it was important to go as far out on a limb as I could.
The Icarus Deception argues that we’re playing it too safe, hence my need to go outside my comfort zone.
Changing the format, changing the way I interacted with some of my readers (using Kickstarter) and changing the timeframe of my work all combined to make this project the most complex one I’ve ever done.
Lots of moving parts, of course, but more scary, lots of places to fail. All very self-referential in a series of books about failure and guts and flying closer to the sun, of course. That’s the entire point, right?
Of course, trying to control what other people think is a trap. At the same time that we can be thrilled by the possibility of flying without a net and of blazing a new trail, we have to avoid the temptation to become the audience, to will them into following us.
Not only is it exhausting, it’s counterproductive. Sales (of concepts, of services, of goods) don’t get made because you’ve spent a sleepless night working on your telekinesis. They happen because you’ve made something worth buying, because you’ve outlined something worth believing in.
“This might not work” is either a curse, something that you labor under, or it’s a blessing, a chance to fly and do work you never thought possible.
As I slumped into my car, I turned on the radio. Stuck in the CD player, forgotten in the rush to get to the event, was the audio copy of Icarus.
I don’t usually listen to my books after I’ve made them, but the recording sessions had been so arduous that I didn’t even remember making the recording. So there it was in my car, left behind as a quick refresher before I went onstage to give my first public talk about the book.
It turns out that I don’t just write for you. I also write to remind myself of what I’m hoping to become as well. Hearing myself, months later, reading something I didn’t remember writing or reading, I shed a few tears. Yes, this is work worth doing. Yes, being out on a limb is exactly where I want to be.
That’s where we’re needed… out on a limb.
Clean bathrooms
The facilities at DisneyWorld are clean. It’s not a profit center, of course. They don’t make them clean because they’re going to charge you to use them. They make them clean because if they didn’t, you’d have a reason not to come.
Paradox: It turns out that just about everything we do involves cleaning the bathrooms.
The facilities at Disney World are clean. It’s not a profit center, of course. They don’t make them clean because they’re going to charge you to use them. They make them clean because if they didn’t, you’d have a reason not to come.
Paradox: When you are trusted because you care, it’s quite likely the revenue will take care of itself.
Creating an environment where care and trust are expressed. If you take a lot of time to ask, “how will this pay off,” you’re probably asking the wrong question. When you are trusted because you care, it’s quite likely the revenue will take care of itself.
Paradox: You know something is important when you’re willing to let someone else take the credit if that’s what it takes to get it done.
When a conference works (and doesn’t)
When we get together with others, even at a weekly meeting, it either works, or it doesn’t. For me, it works:
…If everything is on the line, if in any given moment, someone is going to say or do something that might just change everything. Something that happens in the moment and can’t possibly be the same if you hear about it later. It might even be you who speaks up, stands up and makes a difference.
(At most events, you can predict precisely what’s going to be said, and by whom). In the digital age, if I can get the notes or the video later, I will.
…If there’s vulnerability and openness and connection. If it’s likely you’ll meet someone (or many someones) that will stick with you for years to come, who will share their dreams and their fears while they listen to and understand yours. (At most events, people are on high alert, clenched and protective. Like a cocktail party where no one is drinking.)
…If there’s support. If the people you meet have high expectations for you and your work and your mission, but even better, if they give you a foundation and support to go even further. (At most events, competitiveness born from insecurity trumps mutual support.)
…If it’s part of a movement. If every day is a building block on the way to something important, and if the attendees are part of a tribe that goes beyond demographics or professional affiliation. (At most events, it’s just the next event).
The first law of screenwriting is that the hero of a great movie is transformed during the arc of the story. That’s the goal of a great conference, as well. But it’s difficult indeed, because there are so many heroes, all thinking they have too much to lose.
Two people you might need in your professional life
An agonist. While an antagonist blocks an action, the agonist causes it to happen. Even more than a muse, a professional agonist might be exactly what you need to provoke your best work.
And of course, a procrastinatrix. Someone who’s only job is to hold you accountable for getting it done, now, not later.
In a world with fewer bosses than ever, when we are our own boss, these two functions are more important than ever. If you can’t find a way to do it for yourself, spend the time and the money to find someone to do it for you.
Neither job is particularly difficult to do, but it’s hard to do to yourself. Two more job titles for the future…
As long as the cash rolls in, the West appears untroubled by Gulf monarchies’ ideology
Note: Remember this article was published in 2013. The world parties engaged in the war in Syria all knew the financial resources of the funding for terrors. The Western nations just delivered the purchased weapons and training and logistical support.
The West has portrayed Gulf leaders as natural allies in promoting democratic revolutions.
France is expecting the “Arab” monarchies of the Gulf to help the campaign against jihadi Islamist rebels in Mali, its Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (a Zionist) said today.
On a visit to the UAE, Mr Fabius outlined different ways of helping; through materials, or through financing – an ironic request given that private donors from these countries are believed to be the main supporters of al-Qa’ida in Iraq and Syria.
The US and Western states have long looked to the Gulf monarchies to fund their actions in the Muslim world and beyond. Sometimes the funding has been direct, such as the financial and material aid Qatar gave the Libyan rebels in 2011.
At others, it has been indirect subsidies to groups, such as the Afghan mujahideen who were fighting the Soviets, with whom the West did not want to be quite so publicly associated.
Mr Fabius said that donors would meet towards the end of January in Addis Ababa, to finance an African push against al-Qa’ida. He said: “Everybody has to commit to fighting against terrorism. We are pretty confident that the Emirates will go in that direction as well.”
Relations between the US and its West European allies on the one side and the absolute monarchies of the Gulf on the other have been highly contradictory since the “Arab” Spring began two years ago. The West has portrayed the kings and emirs of the Gulf, ruling some of the most undemocratic states in the world, as natural allies in promoting and financing democratic revolutions in Libya and Syria.
A further contradiction is that Saudi Kingdom and the Sunni rulers have encouraged the salafis across the Muslim world – fundamentalist militants advocating a literal interpretation of the Koran – through paying for schools and mosques. While most of the salafi are non-violent, their ideology is similar to that of al-Qa’ida. (From where did Cockburn get this statement?)
Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya was an important donor and investor in sub-Saharan Africa and it is unlikely that the Gulf Arabs will be prepared to spend as much money.
Even Syrian rebels say the funds they receive come episodically and are inadequate, leading to widespread looting by rebel commanders.
While France is justifying its intervention in Mali by claiming it is all part of the “war on terror” its action may stir up further turmoil in the region. Interestingly, one rebel group in the north, the separatist MNLA that wants a homeland for Tuareg in northern Mali, is reported to have backed the French intervention
Note: As the Syrian army has practically re-conquered most of Syria and reached the Golan Heights and all the southern border with Jordan, Qatar, The Emirates and even Saudi Kingdom are conducting secret negotiations to re-open their embassies in Damascus.