Israeli Support Dwindling

A week after the Biden administration used an emergency authority to allow the sale of 14,000 tank shells to Israel, it is now warning them about their 'indiscriminate bombing of Gaza' using the same 14,000 shells they sold them because maybe Biden thought they wouldn't use them against the defenceless civilians they have been pulverizing and murdering for the past 60 years.
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, today said the US would pressure Israel to hold 'extremist settlers accountable for violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank' and was joined by the UK, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the European Union who have signed a letter to the Israeli Government calling on them to take 'immediate steps' to tackle settler violence in West Bank which has seen more than 350 violent attacks, killing eight Palestinian civilians, injuring more than 83, and forcing 1,026 Palestinians from their homes.
The Settler violence has stepped up since the Hamas attacks in October but the settler violence has been going on for decades, usually with police and army cover who do nothing to stop the attacks and have been known to join in.
The long suspected plan has always been to force the Palestinians off their land and then move their own people into it in settlements, hence the suggestions that the Palestinians move into Egypt and surrounding nations and that has been laid bare this week when the two state solution was torpedoed by the Israeli Government who have said that there will be no Palestinian state and that Israel believes there is no prospect of a two-state solution.
The Western world continues to insist two states with Palestine and Israel side by side is the only answer but Israel seem to have decided that their is only enough room for one state, and that is Israel and they are razing the homes and infrastructure of the 2m people in Gaza and evicting the 3m people in the West Bank.
Biden has said that Israel is losing support in it's war with Hamas as the death toll nudges now 19,000 civilians with many more dead and buried under the rubble and it is although i am sure that this will be twisted into either supporting Hamas or antisemitism and that is untrue, it is more about not supporting the blatant and horrific bloody genocide of one nation by another that has been going on for far too many decades.    
The dwindling number of Israeli supporters point to Hamas wanting to wipe Israel off the map and that is true, but then Israel is escalate it's long term plan of wiping Palestine off the map whether by killing them or violently forcing them off their rightful land.

Why We March For A Ceasefire

It's just a lovely, family picture of brothers and sisters and cousins sitting outside of their Gaza home one Friday afternoon.
On 22nd October an Israeli air strike struck the family home, killing 21 people and resulting in of the 10 children in the family photo, 7 of them are now dead.
Israel says that it takes steps to mitigate civilian casualties but as almost 12,000 civilians have been killed since the bombardment began on October 8th, they are obviously not doing it very well and the French President, Emmanuel Macron, has called on Israel to stop killing babies, women and elderly people in Gaza.
The march for a ceasefire has nothing to do with backing the murderous terrorists of Hamas or the genocidal killers running Israel, it's to stop innocent people being killed because whether they are slaughtered in a Kibbutz or buried under their homes in Palestine doesn't matter to those who have had their lives so mercilessly cut short.
All they and their grieving families know is that are no longer alive so the killing has to stop, Hamas has to get out of Palestine and the ultra right wing maniacs running Israel have to be ousted and both sides need sensible people to run them and get together and search for a way for Israel and Palestine to live in peace together because it has been shamefully going on for 75 years, stirred up by people like Iran and America who need to stop supplying the weapons of war to either side and start making sure this contemptible situation is solved.

Why The Pro-Palestinian March Must Go Ahead

 I have never really understood how anyone could defend Israels action against the Palestinians over the last 75 years, to me they are giving backing to a brutal regime which has killed tens of thousands, stolen land and committed one of the worst atrocities since WW2 which ironically was against the very people who are committing the genocide now.
Whether the Palestinians will ever see their own state while America continue to back Israel is unknown, the debate is whether they will ever see North Gaza again as Israel seem to claim land and build settlements with every conflict but as the grim death toll raises above 10,000, the protests are ramping up with protests all around the World as the call for a ceasefire goes unhindered, 100,000 in Britain alone last weekend but if the Government get there way there won't be any this weekend because they are trying their hardest to get it stopped due to it being Armistice Day on Saturday.
The demonstration leaders have said that they won't be marching anywhere near the Cenotaph and are actually miles away and will march in the opposite direction and it wont start until hours after the wreath laying ceremony. The police have even said that there is no justification for banning the demonstration because there is no reasonable belief that it may result in serious disorder, damage or disruption.  
Unfortunately the Government may well get its serious disorder as far right groups are planning to turn up in central London to oppose the pro-Palestine march, many circulating a call to: 'Make sure you’re there on Saturday. It’s down to the British people to stand up for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us. If we don’t make a stand this weekend, we may as well surrender to the mob. Don’t let them win'.
Those attending the pro-Palestine marches in recent weeks have been calling for a ceasefire in the war that broke out last month after Hamas killed 1,400 people, mainly civilians, in Israel and took more than 200 hostages. Ten thousands of civilians in Gaza have been killed in the Israeli retaliation since.
The Prime Minister doesn't want a hundred thousand people protesting against his decision to give unequivocal backing to Israel so you can understand why he is keen to stop it, stating that he finds it disrespectful to march on Armistice Day when we remember those who have died in wars but to me that seems to be the perfect day to call for a ceasefire and stop the killing of more civilians, no matter where they are in the World.

Not Much Protecting Of Lives I Can See

Another day of Israeli airstrikes and every spokesman that Israel wheel out to try and defend their bombing of Gaza explain that they are doing everything they possibly can to limit Palestinian to protect the Palestinian population but as as the death toll reaches an abhorrent 4,600 dead in 16 days they are obviously not doing very much.  
Compare that to the 9,614 Ukrainian civilians killed by the Russians who are another nation with little regard to who is under the bombs they drop over the past 18 months then it is an appalling number.
During conflicts all sides lie, it wasn't that long ago that Tony Blair went along with GW Bush to blatantly lied to start wars in Afghanistan and Iraq so maybe that's why the British public are not as quick to accept the Israeli propaganda about being concerned for innocent Palestinians especially when we see the shattered streets in Gaza lined with the rubble of bombed out buildings and lifeless bodies being dragged out of them.
With hospitals being hit along with schools, amenities and 5,000 Palestinian homes, how can anyone believe that Israel is targeting Hamas members only so when despite the staggering death toll, the American President and UK Prime Minister give the green light for the continuing indiscriminate bombing of an entrapped population with nowhere to go (the US vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza, the UK abstained) then they do so with no regard for the civilians beneath the Israeli weapons dropped from high in collective punishment.
The West's leaders quite rightly condemned Hamas for their crimes against humanity but don't seem quite so ready to condemn Israel's which is why demonstrations broke out around the World yesterday, 100,000 marching for a ceasefire yesterday in London and that number was when the police stopped counting, but with troops massing on the Gaza border waiting for the nod to invade and send the death toll skyrocketing, but then Israel has had decades to talk peace with its neighbours but only took the opportunity to subjugate and steal their land.
The danger always has been that some of those on the receiving end of 65 years of one of the greatest atrocities since the 2nd World War would retaliate with some spectacular act of cruelty which happened on 7 October.
Hopefully the silver lining, once the dead have been buried and the Palestinians and Israeli's rebuild their broken lives, is that talks regarding a two state solution will be top of the agenda because what we have had for the past 6 decades hasn't worked and as it is America that bankroll Israel to continue the horrific status quo, Biden or whoever follows has to grasp the moment, condemn Israel's indiscriminate killing of civilians as much as they condemn Hamas's and end a very long running wrong.

Not A Good V Evil Thing

Israel and Palestine has always been a dividing issue, it seems you have to be either pro-Israel or pro-Palestine and in the UK it is not a left v right political thing or even a religious v atheist thing, i know people on both sides of both these divides who are pro or anti one or the other so i am not entirely sure where the line is drawn but i know where my sympathies lie and it is entirely on a human level.
I don't see an innocent child killed by a Hamas bullet fundamentally different from an innocent child killed by an Israeli missile strike on their home, both will have shattered families grieving over them.
Hamas war crimes seem to be used by some as a way to stop condemnation of Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians, you can't condemn one sides war crimes and not the other but you can have sympathy for the victims of both sides and call for the stopping of even more, that's just being human.  
It is fine to denounce yesterdays horror carried out by Hamas and express concern about the thousands of Palestinian civilians who are likely to be killed in tomorrows Israeli led carnage.
It is not good against evil however much the politicians try and paint it this way, it is natural to feel Israel’s fear and rage, horror at Hamas murdering people because it was humans beings the same as us and it will be human beings now being killed in Gaza.
Nobody with any conscience should be supporting Hamas or willing Israel to equal and surpass the death toll in Gaza in some knee jerk, ghastly revenge of mass deaths because neither bring us closer to a future in which the horrors in Israel and Gaza are less likely to recur.
Israeli's are calling it their 9/11 and in many ways it is similar but we can only hope that the response is different to America's which unleashed an orgy of mass killings in Afghanistan and Iraq and did not bring back one of the 3,000 killed that day, just made more families in both far away countries feel the exact
same way the victims families at home did.  
Unfortunately history tells us what Israel will do and also tells us that the Palestine death toll is going to be appalling and at the end of it all, once the smoke has cleared, all we will have left is tens of thousands of weeping families on both sides and if you are fine with that then your moral compass really needs some serious readjusting.

Only One Way Out Of This Never-Ending Conflict

On every news channel this past week, the main story has been the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas which horrifically killed more than 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians, and taking more than 100 hostage.
Israel then responded by ordering a 'complete siege' of Gaza Strip and cutting off their gas, electricity and water and launched massive airstrikes which has killed more than 1,600 Palestinians and displaced more than 263,000 people, the vast majority of them also civilians.
With an Israeli land offensive being lined up Gazan's, in the North have been told to move south and stories are emerging of Israeli rockets landing amongst lines of retreating people so we now have an atrocious situation with civilians on both sides suffering the consequences and the response of our leaders has been utterly despicable because instead sending supplies of much needed food & medicines, they are sending warships to aid a nation which is already armed to the back teeth and giving Israel explicitly unconditional support to collectively punish the 2.38 million people in Gaza.
It is the same situation in Ukraine where rather than calling for a ceasefire on both sides, they send arms which just means more destruction, more death and more war.
I am no friend of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians but nor can i support the extremist murderers which are Hamas, nothing justifies the slaughter of innocent people including babies but sadly, that's exactly what is happening to innocent Palestinians now and will continue to happen until the Palestinian death toll inevitably escalates to such heart wrenching levels that the World unites in it calls for a ceasefire.
Any sympathy Israel receives is immediately devalued by it's disproportionate reaction to any attack and yet they never try to consider why they are being attacked so how can there not be even more attacks on them when nobody is even asking that question?
All the time the question of the Palestinians remained unresolved the cycle of violence will continue and create even more hatred on both sides of the conflict and fuel the next war which will see us back in this same situation, the same situation which has been going on for decades and which UN figures show have led to 7,187 Israeli and 103,826 Palestinian deaths since 2008. 
Warships and aiding and abetting more killing won't help, sensible leadership and finally sorting out an issue which has been dragging on since 1948 is the only way out of further bloodshed and why leaders either can't, or refuse to contemplate, joining up the dots saddens me

And So It Goes On

Horrific scenes on TV this morning after Hamas launched an attack it named 'Operation Al Aqsa Storm' on Israel with militants crossing into Israel using paragliders, boats and on foot while raining down 5,000 missiles on it's town and cities.
The number of dead inside Israel currently stands at 250 with 1,452 Israelis wounded and civilians and soldiers taken hostage and in retaliation, Israel attacked Gaza in what it called 'Swords of Iron' and 232 Palestinians have been killed and 1,610 wounded, many from an 11 story block of flats which was hit and in the bombing of two Gaza Hospitals which have resulted in the deaths of Medecins Sans Frontieres nurses and doctors.
As the Palestinians have been under a murderous Israeli military occupation for over 70 years, the reasons behind the Hamas attack are plenty but nobody should be condoning their actions, there is never any justification for murdering innocent people going about their business but Israel has been literally getting away with murder for decades and have been backed by America and Western allies.
Immediately following the attack we had the American President and UK Prime Minister saying Israel had the right to defend itself which it certainly does, but then the same goes for the Palestinians and many have pointed out the juxtaposition of the West's support for Ukraine in their struggle against the military occupation by Russia to the reaction of the military occupation of Palestine by Israel.
To me if you are supporting the occupier in any scenario then you are backing entirely the wrong side but both sides have to be condemned for their appalling acts, Hamas for attacking Israeli citizens and Israel for occupying and murdering Palestinians in their thousands for decades.
The fear is that the battle will escalate out with Lebanon groups saying they are watching the situation and Iran who have said they will 'stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem'.
The U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken urged the Palestinian Authority to restore calm and stability in the West Bank in a call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but a return to calm and stability is the Palestinians standing by while Israel attacks them and steals their land so the cycle will continue until the International Community take steps to end the occupation, stop backing Israel so slavishly and move towards the feted two-state solution.
Until then Palestine will attack Israel, Israel will attack Palestine and the families of innocent Israeli's and Palestinians will continue to bury their dead relatives so something has to change.

Defending the Occupiers

Thursday, nine Palestinians are killed when the Israel military enters the occupied Palestinian territories and then a further two Palestinians are killed at the subsequent protests. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is due to arrive for talks next week released a statement which said both sides should seek to de-escalate tensions.
Friday, seven Israelis are shot and killed as they left a synagogue in East Jerusalem in retaliation and Joe Biden called it 'an attack against the civilised world' and Blinken stressed America's unwavering commitment to Israel’s security.
That the people hosting the talks is so obviously coming with an Israeli bias doesn't bode well and this is tragic events on both sides and we can only hope cool heads prevail but even if they do, Israel will continue to visit genocide against its neighbour and continue its military occupation and deadly incursions while it steals its lands and America will continue to bankroll it to ensure it can continue to do so.
There may be talks penciled in for next week but there have been talks for decades and we know exactly how this will end up, Israel will make impossible demands which the Palestinians refuse to adhere to and talks will collapse, Israel will blame the Palestinians for not wanting to talk peace and then continue to murder them and steal their land.     
Been there, done that, buried the many dead Palestinians.

Palestinian Peace Plan Doomed To Fail

America has long lost any legitimacy over deal with the Israel/Palestine conflict but Trump and his son-in law, Jerad Kushner, are still under the delusion that their long awaited 'deal of the century' is going to bring the warring nations together.
The Palestinians have refused to deal with the Trump administration since the president recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and even the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has reportedly admitted that many have doubts over the plan which he called 'a deal that only the Israelis could love' which was first expected in late 2018, then early 2019 but is now pencilled in to be presented at the end of June.
Leaks include plans to allow Tel Aviv to establish control over Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which remain illegal under international law which the Palestinians have said they will never accept and the head of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, said Trump’s deal can go to hell if that is a condition.
The EU, which has always been an ardent supporter of an independent and sovereign Palestine, said that splitting the West Bank between Palestine and Israel, with Israel keeping the whole of Jerusalem and Palestinians having no control over their borders is heavily skewed in favour of Tel Aviv and, therefore, is doomed to fail.
Matters were not helped when Kushner, in an interview, said the hope is that they [Palestinians], over time, will become capable of governing which outraged many who took, including many Jewish organisations, as an insult to mean that the Palestinians were incapable of running their own affairs.
The Palestinians deserve better than a deal which not only entrenches Israel's long military occupation but legitimises their illegal stranglehold over their neighbour and the plan will fall at the first hurdle but Israel will be fine with that because they will just continue their disgraceful genocide and inflict even further suffering on the Palestinians like they have for the past 70 years until America has a President not in thrall of the Israel tail wagging the American dog.

Palestinians Genocide Goes On By Israel

All people can live in peace,’ says Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner as Israeli forces shoot dead 43 Palestinian protesters and injure over 1,900 more at protests along the Gaza-Israeli border.
That is 43 people shot on their own land protesting about the military occupation of their land by the occupier of seven decades Israel which is wagging the dog that is America.
Amnesty International has called the Israeli violence in Gaza 'an abhorrent violation of international law & human rights' and the latest information includes six children among the 43 fatalities according to the human rights organisation.
The United Nations have released a statement that says: 'Shocking killing of dozens, injury of hundreds by Israeli live fire in Gaza must stop now. The right to life must be respected. Those responsible for outrageous human rights violations must be held to account'.
The United Nations is the organisation that can do it by bringing Israel to heel because as US and Israeli dignitaries are back-slapping at the Jerusalem embassy opening, Israeli snipers massacre unarmed Palestinians in Gaza.
Could there be a starker visual reminder that Israel and it's backer America are the problem and are overseeing genocide and murder in the Middle East and the World needs to tell them that they may have got away with this abhorrent behaviour in the past but enough is enough.
If America can sanction Iran and North Korea for something they could do, Israel needs to be hammered for the killing they are actually doing and have been doing for decades.

Gaza Mourns It's Dead

Huge coincidence that as Jews are berating the Left for anti-semitism, demanding that criticism of Israel is stopped, Israel is in the news for killing 17 Palestinians and wounding 1,400 demonstrating against Israel stealing their land.
Israel are claiming they are killing rioters and those performing acts of terror but that story is undermined when the first to die, a 27 year old farmer, was killed by a tank shell while picking parsley in his field before the protests had even begun.  
The terror acts include youths throwing stones at the wall where hundreds of heavily armed Israeli soldiers are sat firing down from atop the 8 metre high wall at thousands of unarmed people on the Palestinian side in Gaza.
Mahmoud Abbas said he held Israel entirely responsible for the deaths and has called on the International Community to intervene and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent and transparent investigation into the violence and the use of military weaponry against civilians while the EU diplomatic chief, Federica Mogherini, also called for for a probe into the use
of live ammunition by the Israeli military.
Human Rights Watch called the number of killed and wounded shocking and released a statement saying: 'Israel’s presumption that it can dictate the actions of Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip is absurd. The decision where and whether and how to demonstrate in Gaza is not Israel’s to make. Israel has the power to immediately change life in Gaza for the better, but has chosen not to do so.
It has made Gaza a huge prison, yet forbids the prisoners even to protest against this, on pain of death.'
Israel have decided that marching on your own side of the defensive wall is grounds to murder people which could have far reaching ramifications for the Middle East if Hezbollah join the fight on the side of the Palestinians.
Their modernised stockpile of an estimated 130,000 missiles and rockets, and its 50,000 battle hardened fighters would escalate and bring death and destruction to Israel and Hezbollah hardliners are already making noises about intervening.
American is no longer an honest broker in the region, Donald Trump has proven himself to be as ignorant as he is pro-Israel and as they have a history of defending the indefensible when it comes to Israel, Palestinians must look elsewhere for support it needs to stop yet another Israeli disproportionate attack on the nation it has imprisoned and attacks with shocking regularity.
I just hope that the expected demonstration from the left recognises that it is the barbaric actions of the Israeli Government we are against, not Jews or Israel itself because Israeli supporters will try and shut down any protests with shouts of anti-semitism, let's not give them that opportunity.

Say Can You See, Old Glory On Fire Again

American Flag burnings are like buses, you don't see one for ages and then seven of them come along at once and today the news has been full of Old Glory being introduced to a dousing of petrol and a match and it's all thanks to who else, the shit for brains President currently residing in the White House.
Not for the first time, the US President has been met with international condemnation and this time it is over reports he plans to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Even the Pope, no fan of the Orange faced racist at the best of times, has condemned the decision to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem which will inflame the Middle East as it legitimises the Israeli occupation of Palestine and illegal land grab.
Palestine has designs on East Jerusalem as their capital when they finally get their long awaited nation but Israel, has controlled west Jerusalem since 1948, but after the 1967 war annexed the east of the city and occupied the West Bank, and despite decades of UN Resolutions ordering it to give back the land it has stolen, Israel now has a friend in the White House who is either too stupid or ignorant to realise Israel is the bad guy here.
The question is why would Donald Trump want to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem knowing it will have significant and violent ramifications in the Middle East?
Probably because of the people that have supported him financially are supporters of Jewish Settlers in Jerusalem and the writing of massive cheques outweighs any warning by the quickly vanishing allies of America warning him not to go ahead with the move.
Trump is also falling in the polls, beleaguered by the ever tightening Russian investigation and desperately needs a distraction and he is willing to throw a match into the Middle East tinderbox to provide it and and to hell with the consequences. 
Suppliers of flammable American Flags had better stock up because the sight of the Stars and Stripes being reduced to ash is going to become a familiar sight for the foreseeable future as the Donald Trump train wreck rolls on.

Trump Get's Something Right Finally

Donald Trump, said of the Israel/Palestine conflict that is: 'not as difficult as people have thought over the years' and he is right.
To put it simply, stop funding Israel and it will be forced to make peace as it won't be able to afford to carry on the occupation of Palestine.
There you go, not that difficult at all really.

Stopping Israel's Unlawful Actions

Well that United Nations Resolution didn't do much as Israel waited until Obama was safely out the door before announcing it was building 560 new settlement homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
The United Nations security council adopted a resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlement in the occupied territories after Barack Obama’s administration refused to veto the resolution and reiterated that Israeli settlement was a 'flagrant violation of international law'.
Now that Obama has gone and Donald Trump is in charge, the Israeli Government have decided they can carry on snatching Palestinian land stating: 'The rules of the game have changed with Donald Trump's arrival as president. We no longer have our hands tied as in the time of Barack Obama'.
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that: 'We strongly condemn the Israeli decision to approve the construction' so what happens next now that the Israeli Government see a chance to push forward with much wider settlement programmes and force the Palestinians into an ever decreasing area.
The Palestinian leaders are already saying that they will seek International Criminal Court indictments of Israeli leaders, push for a formal probe into whether Israel is violating the Geneva Conventions, and get foreign governments to ban the import of any products made in Israeli settlements.
The EU already has a policy of clearly marking produce that comes from the disputed area and i am pleased to say that it has had an effect with a huge decrease in produce from that area much to the chagrin of the Israeli Government who predictably branded the move anti-Semitic.
So now it is over the the United Nations to see what they can do to bring Israel back into line as much as they ever have been and stop their murderous and unlawful actions with Russian style sanctions and legal action.

Too LIttle Too Late From Obama

Something that drives me to distraction is when on leaving office, politicians come out and say that they knew something was a bad idea at the time but for whatever reason they kept quiet or didn't agree with something but did nothing to stop it and so it is with Obama who has had eight years to slap down Israel but did nothing.
When it comes to Israel, America is complicit in one of the greatest crimes against humanities since they were the recipient of it during the second World War so it is about time Obama stood with the rest of the World in condemning Israeli settlements on Palestinian land with a binding UN Security Council resolution even if he didn't so much vote with everyone else but abstained.
America usually veto any condemnation of Israel and the original resolution which declares Israeli settlements illegal was put forward by Egypt but  withdrawn under pressure from the incoming President Trump but was this is a welcome step but was re-tabled by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela and voted through 14-0.
The UK said it gave 'clear reinforcement' to the illegal status of the settlements and the Palestinians called it 'a day of victory' and a 'big blow' to Israeli policy.
If Obama had shown such backbone to Israel at the start of his eight years then we could have saved so many lives and been so much further down the road to a peaceful resolution rather than far too little far too late in the dog days of his administration.
Now, as the resolution has been passed, let's see the UN reinforce it.

Disgraceful Israel

One of the claims made by Israeli supporters when they steal Palestinian land is that it is to provide a buffer between the Hamas rockets and Israeli cities.
That argument falls apart when you consider no rockets have been fired from the West Bank but still the land grab goes on and as the United Nations have reported, has actually increased.  
The UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) show that there have been an average of 165 demolitions a month since January.
In February alone, 235 buildings were taken down, and the UN agency has claimed people are being driven from the land as a result.
The Israeli military, which has occupied the West Bank for half a century, claims it carries out the demolitions because the structures are illegal and do not have the necessary planning permits, permits that the UN say are 'virtually impossible' for Palestinians to get the approval they need, only 1.5% of applications from 2010 to 2014 being granted.
All this on Palestinians own land remember...and the World pathetically stays quiet as the disgraceful genocide continues and the Palestinians suffering goes on.

Little Donkey

It is a 90 mile trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem so how different would the trip the donkey made on that dusty road 2015 years ago be today?
The Bible is unhelpful about the exact route so let's take the direct route and the donkey has a relatively straightforward plod until it reaches the first of numerous Israeli military checkpoints, this one at Jalame where the wall separates the occupied West Bank from Israel.
Once past the heavily armed soldiers, lookout towers, razor wire and gun turrets we come to Jenin, stronghold of Islamist militant groups and regular recipient of Israeli military incursions.
On the other side of Jenin lies another four Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks, then the Palestinian city of Nablus surrounded on 3 sides by refugee camps.
Israel soldiers control the entrance and exit from the city and then it's onto route 433.
Being Jews, Mary, Joseph and the plodding donkey would have no problem using this 12 mile stretch of road through the West Bank as it was only closed to Palestinians until this summer.
We get off the tarmac at Ramallah and through another set of Israeli military checkpoints who control who comes in and who goes out of the City.
South again and Jerusalem appears in the distance, entry and exit to the city through 4 military checkpoints and finally, after negotiating the way through the refugee camps of Aida and Azza, we reach the city of Bethlehem flanked by 30ft high concrete walls and military roadblocks and checkpoints.
The donkey can have a rest and Mary and Joseph can find a nice stable and hope that the 3 wise men have all the right permits and make it through unscathed.

Things Getting Hot For Israel

Finally, after 60 years of uninterrupted oppression, Israel is about to be squeezed as the Palestinians secure the long-awaited membership of the International Criminal Court at the United Nations and the chance to see Tel Aviv in the dock for it's actions in the West Bank and Gaza.
ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said that Palestine now gets all the same rights as well as obligations that member countries have and ICC prosecutors have already started a preliminary examination to decide whether or not the legal criteria are met to open investigation into Israels actions and settlement building on occupied land.
A Palestinian spokesman explained that it has: 'decided to pursue an internationalisation approach to achieve the long-overdue inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and to put an end to decades of colonisation, dispossession, forced displacement and massacres, including the 2014 aggression against the Palestinian people in the occupied Gaza Strip'.
Israel are predictably angry that the Palestinians refuse to lay down and take it and Netanyahu has already said that he would not allow Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and officers be dragged to the International Criminal Court in The Hague but while the ICC have no authority to arrest suspects in Israel, it can issue arrest warrants for the arrest of IDF soldiers and officers when they step outside of Israel making it difficult for Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, to travel abroad where they would face arrest.
Israel officials could not face a possible worst time to lose its most ardent backer in the United States with relations between the Obama administration and Israel appear to have cooled down after Netanyahu addressed the US Congress with a speech criticising Washington and his pre-election comment that there would not be a two-state solution while he is Prime Minister which angered the Obama administration further.
It has been a long time coming but Israel is finally being squeezed and things could become, quite rightly, very uncomfortable indeed.

Good Day For Palestine, Bad Day For Israel

Great News as the United Nations announce that Palestine will join the International Criminal Court on April 1, which will allow the Palestinians to sue Israel for the war crimes perpetrated against them in the 60 years of brutal military oppression.
The UN treaty website says that due to the court's procedures: 'the statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on April 1, 2015'.
Along with the ICC application, the UN has approved other sets of documents, enabling Palestine to join 16 international agreements, conventions and treaties.
The reaction to the news from the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was predictably  negative as he promised: 'We will not let Israel Defence Forces soldiers and officers be dragged to the International Criminal Court in The Hague'.
The Israeli administration also applied pressure to the Palestinian Authority by freezing the transfer of over £100 million in monthly tax revenues and the US predictably joined in (40 vetos used on Israel’s behalf to reject Palestine’s self-determination since 1975) by announcing a review of America’s annual $440 million aid package to the Palestinians and reminded Abbas that if he applies any case against Israel to the International Criminal Court, US financial help to Palestine will cease immediately.
Their greatest concern is that if the ICC decide that Israel has committed war crimes, the ever present American veto would be redundant and Israel would face the full force of International justice.
What Bibi is most worried about is that despite his words that no Israeli soldiers will be dragged to the courts, it won't be the grunts putting in an appearance in the dock, rather it would be the the Israeli leaders such as Netanyahu who have ordered the murder of thousands of women and children and the stealing of Palestinian land how we can only hope that that day comes soon.

EU Finally Acting On Israel

Not before time the tide has changing against support for Israel and the EU have threatened sanctions against the country for 'posing obstacles to a two-state solution with occupied Palestine'.
The line the Israeli's crossed which has finally got the Eu to take notice of what Israel has been up to for over 60 years, was the dismantling of several EU-funded humanitarian projects in a West Bank zone known as the E1 corridor, which were bulldozed to make way for new Israeli settlements.
Amidst warnings that this was seriously disturbing territorial coherence with the Palestinians, let alone that it was a breach of international law, the EU is getting its act together to bring to heel one of the worst human right abusers of our times.
Israel does business worth €29 billion with the EU and it may focus a few minds in the Israeli Government more sharply and find it less easy to swat away then the condemnation it receives when it breaches all manner of human right acts and international laws.
Finally, Israel is finding it can longer carry on acting as barbarically as it has, the shame is that it has taken this long for the World's Governments to wake up to it.