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Today's Stories November 2, 2010 Vincent Navarro November 1, 2010 Ted Honderich Steven Higgs John Ross Dean Baker Ralph Nader Justin E. H. Smith Marjorie Cohn Scott Boehm Brian Tierney Trish Kahle Martha Rosenberg Bathrobe Erectus: Feting Hugh Hefner Website of the Day
October 29 - 31, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Joe Bageant Peter Lee David Rosen Mike Whitney David Smith-Ferri Afghanistan: "Is This Normal?" David Macaray Chamber of Horrors: Turbo-Lobbyists for the Ruling Class Rannie Amiri Jonathan Cook Ramzy Baroud Ellen Brown Dr. Nina Pierpont Dave Lindorff Brian Horejsi Daniel Raventós Worldwide Concentration of Wealth: What the Figures Say Richard Anderson-Connolly David Thomson Christopher Brauchli Bob Fitrakis / Harvey Wasserman Charging Rove With Racketeering Roberto Rodriguez Arizona Blues: a Time and Decade of Betrayal Ron Jacobs Farzana Versey Michael Donnelly Gerald E. Scorse John Grant Mickey Z. Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini Peter Stone Brown David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
October 28, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts Joseph Grosso Kirkpatrick Sale Michael Winship Sherwood Ross Mark Weisbrot Sam Smith Washington: Where Smart People Go to Do Stupid Things Nicholas Arguimbau Sheldon Richman Franklin Lamb Website of the Day October 27, 2010 Conn Hallinan Michael Schwalbe Dave Lindorff Gareth Porter Dean Baker Clancy Sigal Ram Etwareea Stewart J. Lawrence Alan Farago Binoy Kampmark Offshoring Middle Earth: Prostituting the Hobbit Website of the Day
October 26, 2010 Pam Martens Joann Wypijewski Clarence Lusane Sold Brothers: the Bizarro World of Juan Williams and Clarence Thomas Gareth Porter Stephen Soldz Lawrence Davidson Alan Farago Dean Baker Jerica Arents Gerald E. Scorse Messing with Mankiw: Whining About Taxes and Work Website of the Day
October 25, 2010 Nancy Scheper-Hughes Patrick Cockburn Kathy Kelly Mike Whitney Bill Quigley Winslow T. Wheeler David Macaray Stewart J. Lawrence Ray McGovern Missy Beattie Website of the Day
October 22 - 24, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Lee Ballinger Franklin C. Spinney Rannie Amiri Ralph Nader Laura Carlsen Avi Shlaim Mike Whitney Josh Stieber Kathy Kelly Sasan Fayazmanesh Conn Hallinan Linn Washington, Jr. Christopher Brauchli Mark Weisbrot Stan Cox Ramzy Baroud Dave Lindorff Benjamin Dangl Peter Stone Brown Julie Hilden David Ker Thomson Missy Beattie Suzy Dean Charles M. Young M. Shahid Alam Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 21, 2010 Diana Johnstone Joanne Mariner Mike Whitney Lawrence Davidson Bill Quigley / Alan Farago David Smith-Ferri Tolu Olorunda Educational Heroes and Myths Website of the Day October 20, 2010 Philippe Marlière Tariq Ali Anthony Pahnke / Mark N. Hoffman David Smith-Ferri Patrick Madden Ishmael Reed Dean Baker Mike Roselle Dave Marsh Pete Redington Website of the Day October 19, 2010 Pam Martens Uri Avnery Ralph Nader Clarence Lusane Sherwood Ross Trudy Bond Sherry Wolf Yves Engler Camilla Fox / Erin McManus Website of Day October 18, 2010 Mike Whitney Jonathan Cook Martha Rosenberg Stewart J. Lawrence P. Sainath James Zogby Ken Cole, Ralph Maughan / Brian Ertz Patrick Brennan Jack Heyman John Grant Website of the Day October 15 - 17, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Slavoj Žižek Paul Craig Roberts Adrienne Pine / Peter Lee Jonathan Cook Bitta Mostofi Franklin Lamb Rannie Amiri Robert Alvarez Joe Paff David Rosen David Correia Sam Hitchmough Ramzy Baroud Dave Lindorff Graham Usher Gary Leupp David Macaray Ron Jacobs Peter Cervantes-Gautschi Lawrence Swaim Linn Washington David Ker Thomson Norman Solomon Michael Dawson John Stanton Jayne Lyn Stahl Paul Buchheit Ziad Abbas Anthony Papa Hardy Jones Missy Beattie Charles R. Larson Peter Stone Brown David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 14, 2010 Mike Whitney Jonathan Cook Dean Baker Marjorie Cohn Stewart J. Lawrence Carl Finamore Dave Lindorff Raúl Zibechi Willie L. Pelote Website of the Day October 13, 2010 Vijay Prashad Uri Avnery Dean Baker Winslow T. Wheeler Patrick Bond Michael Winship Myles B. Hoenig Tom Turnipseed Website of the Day October 12, 2010 Ralph Nader Franklin C. Spinney Mike Whitney Robert Alvarez Deepak Tripathi Chris Genovali / Camilla Fox Harvey Wasserman Robert Jensen Mark Weisbrot Charles R. Larson Website of the Day
October 11, 2010 Michael Hudson Bill Quigley Linn Washington Paul Krassner Jonathan Cook Cal Winslow Sherry Wolf Peter Stone Brown David Michael Green Jayne Lyn Stahl Website of the Day October 8 - 10, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Alain Gresh Patrick Cockburn Rannie Amiri Conn Hallinan Ramzy Baroud Saul Landau Sam Smith Yvonne Ridley Ellen Brown Santwana Dasgupta David Macaray Labor Secretaries: Frances and Elaine Gerald E. Scorse Tony Newman David Ker Thomson Christopher Brauchli Jon Mitchell Kevin Zeese Steven Best Missy Beattie Binoy Kampmark Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini Dave Marsh David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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November 2, 2010 A Sad SpectacleCanada and the Jewish National FundBy YVES ENGLER Ten days ago, Greg Selinger, the New Democratic Party (NDP) Premier of the Province of Manitoba, and two of his ministers visited Israel. Among other things, the official delegation strengthened the longtime "progressive" government's ties to the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The trip was a sad spectacle that should embarrass every Canadian who opposes racism. Indeed, J.S. Woodsworth, the Winnipeg-based founder of Canada's social democratic party, must be turning in his grave. The province and JNF signed an accord to jointly develop two bird conservation sites while Manitoba water stewardship Minister Christine Melnick spoke at the opening ceremony for a park built in Jaffa by the JNF, Tel Aviv Foundation and Manitoba-Israel Shared Values Roundtable. During the trip Mel Lazerek, a regional JNF president, was also appointed Manitoba's special representative to Israel for Economic and Community Relations. Manitoba's ties to this openly racist institution are shocking, but also part of a decades-old pro-Israel policy of the NDP that must be challenged by real progressives. Shutting out Palestinian citizens of Israel, JNF lands can only be leased by Jews. A 1998 United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights found that the JNF systematically discriminated against Palestinians in Israel. According to the UN report, JNF lands are "chartered to benefit Jews exclusively," which has led to an "institutionalized form of discrimination." In 2005, Israel's high court came to similar conclusions. It found that the JNF, which owns 13 percent of the country's land and has significant influence over most of the rest, systematically excluded Palestinian citizens from leasing its property. JNF Canada officials are relatively open about the racist character of the organization. In May 2002, Mark Mendelson, JNF Canada's executive-director for Eastern Canada, explained that "We are trustees between world Jewry and the land of Israel." This sentiment was echoed by JNF Canada's head Frank A. Wilson in July 2009. Wilson stated that the "JNF are the caretakers of the Land of Israel on behalf of its owners, who are the Jewish people everywhere around the world." Established in 1910, JNF Canada is one of the most important Israel-focused charities registered in Canada. It raises about $10 million annually in tax-deductible donations. Despite projecting itself as "an environmentally friendly organization concerned with ecology and sustainable development," it is a linchpin of Zionist colonialism. The Canadian branch of the JNF has been directly complicit in Palestinian dispossession. At the end of the 1920s, a JNF representative came to Canada to raise $1 million for the lands of Wadi al-Hawarith (or Hefer Plain). A 30,000 dunam (roughly 7,500 acres) stretch of coastal territory located about half way between Haifa and Tel Aviv, the land was home to a Bedouin community of 1,000 to 1,200 persons. Without consulting the Palestinians living on the land, in 1928 the JNF acquired legal title to Wadi al-Hawarith from an absentee landlord in France. For four years the tenants of Wadi al-Hawarith resisted British attempts to evict them. In All That Remains historian Walid Khalidi explains that "The insistence of the people of Wadi al-Hawarith to remain on their land came from their conviction that the land belonged to them by virtue of their having lived on it for 350 years. For them, ownership of the land was an abstraction that at most signified the landlords' right to a share of the crop." The conflict at Wadi al-Hawarith became a lightning rod for the growing Palestinian nationalist movement. In 1933 a general strike was organized in Nablus to support the tenants of Wadi al-Hawarith. Palestinians, especially those without title to their lands, resented the European influx into their homeland. After the June 1967 War, JNF Canada raised $15 million to build Canada Park on illegally occupied land. Three peaceful villages (Beit Nuba, Imwas and Yalu) were demolished to make way for the park. Despite repeated attempts, the 5,000 expelled Palestinians were not allowed to return home. A 1986 UN Special Committee reported to the Secretary-General that it considers it "a matter of deep concern that these villagers have persistently been denied the right to return to their land on which Canada Park has been built by the JNF Canada and where the Israeli authorities are reportedly planning to plant a forest instead of allowing the reconstruction of the destroyed villages." The JNF Canada, which launched a $7 million campaign to refurbish the park in 2007, replaced most traces of Palestinian history with signs devoted to Canadian donors such as the Metropolitan Toronto Police Department, the City of Ottawa and former Ontario premier Bill Davis. Inaugurated by former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in 1975, the Diefenbaker Parkway bisects the park. In the early 1980s JNF Canada helped finance an Israeli government campaign to "Judaize" the Galilee, the largely Arab northern region of Israel. "The government is building Jewish settlements on our land, surrounding us and turning our villages into ghettos," Khateeb Raja, mayor of Deir Hanna, a Palestinian-Israeli town in the Galilee, told The Globe and Mail in 1981. Ishi Mimon told the paper that he planned to move his family to the newly settled "Galil Canada" area because "the Galilee should have a Jewish majority." JNF Canada's representative in Israel, Akiva Einis, described the political objective of Galil Canada stating that "The government decided to stop the wholesale plunder (by Israeli Arabs) of state lands [conquered in the 1947/48 war]. ... The settlements are all on mountain tops and look out over large areas of land. If an Arab squatter takes a plow onto land that is not his, the settlers lodge a complaint with the police." JNF Canada spent tens of millions of dollars ($35 million was the total fundraising target) on 14 Jewish settlements in Galil Canada. In the contested valley of Lotem a stone wall and monument was erected, reported the Globe, with "hundreds of small plaques etched with names and home towns of Canadians who have contributed money to the Galilee settlements." Most of the donors to Galil Canada were Jewish, "but a Pentecostal congregation in Vancouver, the Glad Tidings Temple, has given $1-million." Tawfiz Daggash, Deir Hanna's deputy mayor, denounced Canadian financial support for the settlements. "I want to say to the people of Canada that every dollar they contribute [to JNF] is helping the Israeli government in its attempt to destroy the Arab people here." The JNF has long been supported by key figures in the Canadian political elite. Former Prime Ministers John Diefenbaker, Lester Pearson and Brian Mulroney have all spoken at JNF events and leading politicians continue to endorse the organization. In addition to this political support, the JNF is a registered charity, which means that up to a third of its budget effectively comes from public coffers. Yet Canada is supposed to outlaw institutional racism. In 2007, Lebanese-Canadian Ronald Saba filed a detailed complaint concerning the JNF's charitable status with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The claim was leveled at the "Government of Canada for violating the Canadian Human Rights Act and Canada Revenue Agency Policy Statement CPS-021 by subsidizing racial discrimination through granting and maintaining charitable status for the Jewish National Fund." Considering the group's political connections, it's not surprising that Canadian officials refused to address Saba's complaint or follow-up ones (all the documents can be found at Montreal Planet Magazine). With the government's failure to address Saba's legitimate complaint, it is now time to launch a political campaign to push the Canada Revenue Agency to revoke the JNF's charitable status. Victory won't be easy but the educational work involved in such an endeavor will be invaluable. With quasi-state status in Israel, the JNF is at the heart of Israeli apartheid and drawing attention to this institution is a way to discuss the racism intrinsic to Zionism. Real progressives in Canada have never shied away from difficult, but important tasks such as fighting racism wherever it raises its ugly head. Yves Engler is the author of The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy and Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid. He'll be touring in Mid November to speak on "Why Canada lost its bid for a Security Council seat". Anyone interested in organizing a talk please e-mail: yvesengler@hotmail.com.
CounterPunch Print Edition Exclusive! CLASS WAR IN THE U.K. AND FRANCE Susan Watkins, editor of New Left Review, reports on Britain’s Tri-partisan Electoral Monolith and how the Slash-and-Burn Tory Coalition is picking up from where New Labour left off. Larry Portis reports from France on the mass protests and the shrivelling of Sarkozy. Peter Lee gives us an rivetting piece on the awful tragedy of China’s Yellow River.
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