Some of my blogs this past month or so.
Category: News and Politics

Hi all,

As I said before, due to time constraints I've not been frequenting myspace anymore. However, I invite people to read some blogs I've written over the past month or so for 

Wake Up from your Slumber, and encourage people to get news from that site.

Olmert's Connection to 9/11

Fake Terror: Jose Padilla, not so dirty after all

Hidden History: Why did the Jews flee Iraq?

The Significance of Saddam's Slaughter on the Muslim Day of Sacrifice

10:28 AM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

Why Condemning Israel and the Zionist Lobby is so Important
Category: News and Politics

Monday, 25 December 2006
by James Petras

It's no great secret why the Jewish agencies continue to trumpet support for the discredited policies of this failed administration. They see defense of Israel as their number-one goal, trumping all other items on the agenda. That single-mindedness binds them ever closer to a White House that has made combating Islamic terrorism its signature campaign. The campaign's effects on the world have been catastrophic. But that is no concern of the Jewish agencies."

6:10 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Wake Up From You Slumber

Merry Christmas, Enjoy the holidays.

In the past, I've promoted a good site for news:
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/

Hopefully I'll be contributing to the site. It's part of my move out of myspace, so bookmark the website and look out for MonkeyZerg! That's MZ on WUFYS.

Here's some of the blogs I already have up:

Olmert's Connection to 9/11
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/302

The Bush Administration's Dual Loyalties
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/310

The Able Danger Cover-Up
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/312


Enjoy the holidays. Never stop learning, and keep up the good struggle.

Peace,
-MZ

4:06 AM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Pinochet in Palestine - MUST READ
Category: News and Politics

If you are interested in the Palestine/Israel issue, and want to understand what's going on right now, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND reading through this whole article. The writer is highly qualified, I've read many of his works, and he goes on to show/prove what some of us have been saying/realizing for years: Fateh has been corrupted and is now effectively a puppet. Just like how the governments of Jordan/Egypt/Saudi are puppet traitors (and have proved this with their disgraceful stand against the Lebanese resistance this summer, along with years of other such positions), Fateh was the respective Palestinian puppet 'government' that did Israel's police work for the past 15 years, and are now collaborating to undermine the democratically elected government of Palestine, Hamas. IOW, Abbas is... Pinochet in Palestine http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/819/op2.htm by Joseph Massad* looks at the similarities between regime change in Chile and Palestine and condemns the collaboration between Fatah and Palestine's enemies Before the United States government subcontracted the Chilean military to overthrow the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in 1973, it carried out a number of important missions in the country in preparation for the coup of 11 September. These included major strikes, especially by truck owners, which crippled the economy, massive demonstrations that included middle-class housewives and children carrying pots and pans demanding food, purging the Chilean military of officers who would oppose the suspension of democracy and the introduction of US-supported fascist rule, and a major media campaign against the regime with the CIA planting stories in newspapers like El Mercurio and others. This was in a context where also the Communist Party and the Leftist Revolutionary Movement (MIR) criticised and sometimes attacked the Allende regime from varying leftist positions. The Chilean example is important to keep in mind when one looks at the Palestinian situation today, as it functions as a sort of training video for US-planned anti-democratic coups elsewhere in the world. Not only are the US and Israel financially backing the open preparation for a coup to be staged by the top leadership of Fateh (and in the case of Israel allowing weapons' transfers to Palestinian Authority [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas's Praetorian Guard), but so are the intelligence services of a number of Israel-and US-friendly Arab countries whose intelligence services have set up shop openly in Ramallah more recently, making their longstanding and major, though understated, involvement in running the Palestinian territories more open and shameless. Indeed the intelligence "delegation" of one such Arab country has rented out a multi-story building in Ramallah to conduct their operations there. Israel has helped this effort all along by kidnapping and arresting Fateh members who resist the collaborationist policies of the top leadership. As for the leadership itself, it has periodically purged members of Fateh who oppose its policies, and marginalised those in the Diaspora who continue to resist them. The Fateh/PA coup leaders consist of Abbas and the ruling triumvirate of Mohamed Dahlan, Yasser Abd Rabbo, and Nabil Amr. The profiles of these three make them well suited for the tasks ahead. Dahlan is universally known as America's and Israel's main corrupt military man on the ground. Abd Rabbo (aka Yasser Abd Yasser, literally "Yasser worshipper of Yasser" on account of his subservience to Arafat) is the architect of the Geneva accords, which recognise Israel's right to be a racist Jewish state as legitimate and reject the right of Palestinian refugees to return as illegitimate. He recently upheld the Israeli position when fighting with the Qatari foreign minister and his staff during the latter's visit to the occupied territories. Amr is the former PA information minister, and a former visiting fellow at the Israel lobby think tank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is also the speechwriter for Abbas and Dahlan. Abbas and these three have undertaken not only to launch massive strikes by the Fateh security thugs that they have armed to police the territories on behalf of Israel, and strikes by the bureaucracy that staffs the PA ministries, but also have coerced large numbers of Palestinians, including teachers and professors, under the force of guns, to uphold a strike against Hamas, when most of them had voted for Hamas in the first place and refuse to strike. Palestinians who have fought for decades to keep their schools and universities open against Israeli draconian closures and suspension of Palestinian education, are now forced by Fateh and its armed thugs to stop the Palestinian educational process with strikes against Hamas, and threaten to shoot people if they refuse to follow Fateh's coup directives. In addition, Abbas and the Fateh/PA triumvirate have organised demonstrations in Ramallah by middle-class Palestinians, including housewives, who brought out their pots and pans, in a scene borrowed from 1973 Santiago, in demonstrations against Hamas. The Fateh-controlled press, especially Al-Ayyam is fomenting major anti-Hamas propaganda campaign in preparation for the coup and is thus playing the same role as El Mercurio did in Chile. Al-Ayyam is aided in its efforts by the anti-Hamas secular Palestinian intelligentsia, most of whose members are on the payroll of the bankrollers of the Oslo process and its NGOs. These old leftist Palestinians, like their counterparts in Lebanon, are better known today as the right-wing left, as they take up right-wing positions while insisting that they are still leftists based on positions they had held in the 1980s or earlier. The plan is that the Fateh/PA rulers would do their utmost to provoke Hamas to start the war at which point Fateh, with the aid of the intelligence services of friendly Arab countries, as well as assistance from Israel and the US, would crush Hamas and take over. Indeed, the first unsuccessful round took place when the Israeli government kidnapped a third of the Hamas government, both cabinet ministers and parliament members, and placed them in Israeli jails. This was not sufficient to bring Hamas down, and not for lack of help that Fateh rendered the Israeli occupiers. Aside from the initial burning of the Legislative Council building, Fateh thugs have also burned the prime minister's office, shot at his car, burned offices in different ministries several times, harassed and threatened Hamas ministers and parliamentarians whom Israel failed to kidnap and arrest, refused to allow the government ministries to operate, and so forth. Hamas however, is wisely adamant that it will respond by force only when Fateh launches an all-out war to bring about its planned coup, but not before. Fateh's planned coup is not only based on the popularity of Hamas and its electoral victory but also on Hamas's increased ability to defend itself against Fateh forces. If the US and Israel armed Fateh thugs under Arafat's leadership to crush the first Palestinian Intifada and any remaining resistance to the occupation since 1994, today, Hamas is almost as well- armed as Fateh forces and can defend the rights of the Palestinians to resist the Israeli occupation and the well-armed Palestinian collaborators that help to enforce it. This is where the situation today differs measurably from that of the mid-1990s. To offset this new balance of forces, the United States government, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, has been training Abbas's Praetorian Guard in Jericho for over a month with American, British, Egyptian, and Jordanian military instructors, and is providing arms to them in preparation for the confrontation with Hamas. The Israeli cabinet in turn has recently approved the transfer of thousands of rifles from Egypt and Jordan to Abbas's forces. The Israelis also approved a US request that Israel allow the Badr Brigade -- part of the Palestine Liberation Army currently stationed in Jordan -- to deploy in Gaza. These steps have been conceived by General Keith Dayton, the American security coordinator in the occupied territories, who wants the Badr Brigade to function as Abbas's "rapid reaction force in Gaza". As a possible step to increase its security and military roles in the occupied territories, the Jordanian government recently established a legal committee to review the provisions of Jordan's decision to "disengage" from the West Bank announced on 31 July 1988, effectively suggesting the possibility of a reversal of part or all of these provisions. More recently, the Israelis intensified their bombings and killings in Gaza, most recently in Beit Hanoun murdering over 50 Palestinians in a few days. Mahmoud Abbas and his ruling triumvirate are reticent at the moment to start an open war for fear of a public backlash. They prefer to remove Hamas through imposing a "national unity" government that would undercut Hamas gradually and peacefully. However, Abbas and his triumvirate are quickly losing patience. Indeed, in a hastily-arranged meeting of the Diaspora-based Fateh Central Committee set to convene in Amman three weeks ago to ratify the coup plans, members of the committee opposed Abbas's US and Israel-supported coup, which forced Abbas to cancel the meeting altogether claiming falsely lack of quorum as the reason. This speaks to Abbas's desperation in engineering the coup without adequate preparation. Indeed, rumour has it across the occupied territories that the desperate attacks committed recently against Palestinian Christian churches were the work of undercover thugs. Those who sent them want Palestinian Christians and the world at large to think that these were Hamas acts in response to the pope's racist pronouncements against Islam. Hamas duly condemned the attacks. Few in the occupied territories believe that Hamas was behind them and most know that they were the work of undercover agents. The Fateh plan is simple: where Israel and its Lebanese allies failed to crush Hizbullah in the Sixth war, Fateh and its Israeli allies will succeed in crushing Hamas, even if the ongoing Israeli war against Hamas and the Palestinian people becomes an all-out Seventh war. The flurry of visits by Condoleezza Rice to the area in the last few weeks hoped to put the final touches on this plan. If Hamas, like Hizbullah, could be provoked into a military response, the coup planners believe, then Fateh's and Israel's wrath (backed by the US, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia) would be unleashed to finish Hamas off. The Fateh leadership and its thugs are sharpening their knives for the showdown. Hamas has remained calm despite the pressure. In the meantime, Ramallah proper (excluding the surrounding villages), continues to be what many now refer to as the Palestinian Green Zone, sheltering, in addition to the intelligence staff of Israel and Israel-friendly Arab countries, those Palestinians who are paid and protected by the Oslo process, whether the Oslo bureaucracy, its technicians, and hired intellectuals, or the business and middle classes recently habituated to the new name-brand consumerism that the Green Zone can offer. This opulent life contrasts with the life of the rest of the Palestinians outside Ramallah who live in misery, hunger, and under the bombardment of the Israelis and the attacks of savage Jewish colonial settlers, not to mention the harassment by Fateh thugs. In Ramallah itself, the trigger-happy thugs shoot at random during their demonstrations, injuring and sometimes killing passers by "in error". Even the few secular intellectuals who deign to oppose Fateh inside Ramallah are harassed in different ways. Some of them experience mysterious robberies that are repeated every time they make anti-Fateh statements. The preservation of Ramallah as the Green Zone is paramount to Abbas and the Fateh/PA triumvirate, whose fear of any reform introduced by Hamas would strip the elite of the benefits of corruption and the dolce vita that Fateh-rule has ensured for them. Meanwhile, Abbas and his triumvirate will continue to treat Hamas the way Israel has treated the PLO and other Arab countries all along. In the interminable negotiations that Hamas held with Fateh to avert a showdown, whenever Hamas would agree to a Fateh demand, Fateh would up the ante and insist on another concession or claim that its initial demands always included the now expanded terms, even though they did not. Moreover, Fateh would also publicly interpret Hamas's concessions as having included things that Hamas had not agreed to at all. If this is reminiscent of the post-Oslo negotiating strategy that the Israelis used successfully with Arafat, this is because it is the same strategy. Abbas has gone so far as to walk away from negotiations, and refuse to speak to Hamas leaders, just as the Israelis have done often with the PA. Moreover, if the Israelis would often carry undercover attacks against Western interests to implicate Arab governments, the clearest example being the infamous Lavon Affair of the mid-1950s targeting Egypt, similar operations are being committed to implicate Hamas by undercover agents, like the recent example of the attacks on the churches illustrates. There may be many more such operations being planned. Whatever fig leaf still covered the Fateh leadership's complete collaboration and subservience to Israeli interests has now fallen off. As a result, there is very little left that can restrain Fateh's actions. The next few weeks will be decided by how much Fateh leaders are itching for a fight to save their skins and fortunes, and how much patience Hamas can muster in the face of so much thuggery. In the meantime, what has been unfolding in the Palestinian territories is nothing short of the Chilean script. Pinochet is in Palestine. His success however remains far from certain. * The writer is associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University. He is the author of The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians (Routledge, 2006).

4:20 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

So it's been 40 days in the mountain...

... And that's where the resemblance between me and Moses (pbuh) stops. Astaghfirullah, that just came out, I'm not claiming that I received any revelations on my 40 days away from myspace, but a few things did happen.

First of all, I would like to thank you all so much for being so friendly and thoughtful. I never expected so many to wish me 'Happy Birthday', or 'Blessed Ramadan', especially since I haven't had any contact with any since the end of August. Guys, and you know who you are... THANK YOU DEEPLY, and may you also have a RAMADAN KAREEM, a month where, inshaAllah, we can remind each other of our deen, and to take advantage of it to evaluate our lives, where we're going, and how we can improve ourselves and our state in this world and the next. Excuse me, I'm talking to a mixed crowd here, but all you atheists are also welcome to use this time for self-evaluation :P

Alhamdulillah, I expected my friends' to plummet after so long away, but only a few left, and many more added. So to all my new adds: Welcome! Hope to learn something useful from you, and I hope you benefit a bit from my page. And if you're here just to sell something my mom wouldn't approve of, you can 'unfriend' me now. Here I would like to add, that with the amount of people I have as friends, and with my new work commitments, I apologize in advance if I'm not always quick to reply, or for not being able spend as much time for each person as I would like, but I'll make an effort. Again, I got on myspace primarily for newssharing, and so don't expect me to be a socializing bee all the time.

So... 40 days it's been, about. I returned to Edinburgh to continue my studies, and for about three weeks I had a cousin stay with me as he was doing an elective in my university. That time was busy with me finding and furnishing some lodgings, and preparing to start a new academic year. My cuz is a football fan. As in fanatic! I learned more about Scottish/English football (that's soccer for you Americans :P) in three weeks than from my British friends in 2 years! The benefits were I got to see my first ever match live in a stadium! (Newcastle U vs Everton!), and got to see Newcastle upon Tyne. Beautiful little city, you should visit if ever in England.

Also was busy working in Uni Societies. Edinburgh now has a Palestine Solidarity Society! And I plan to give talks on Zionism/Palestine in a few weeks, put a bit of DBS knowledge into the mainstream. Take note DBS buddies, I'll probably call on you for resources soon. Also this year we started a 'Stop the War' society. All you uni myspacers, take advantage of uni to help promote the info you promote on myspace. Also, I got involved in a community radio station just for Ramadan. You can listen to us online at:
http://www.ummahedinburgh.co.uk/radio/
I do the Horizons program around half the days of the week, 5.30-7.30pm Edinburgh time. (I'm the Moh of the program.)

The major thing, though, that's been keeping me busy, is uni itself. We've moved to studying practically on the wards, and have a very busy day, with radio, study, taraweeh (and some anime to relax) at night. I've had the net connected for a couple weeks now, but haven't dared to check on myspace due to my time limitations. Today I got lucky and stayed home (as people are coming to fix my shower, long story), so I'm using this time for a bit of catch up. Speaking of Anime, you anime buffs out there: Does anyone know where I can get Coyote Ragtime Show fansubs further than episode 10? It's a great show, btw :)

Well, that's a bit of a skeletal outline of some of the things I've been up to in my 40-day hiatus. But back to the issues. I originally started this page to promote this site:
http://www.iamthewitness.com/index.html
While I have many interests, I think it's important to stay focused and not make my profile a hodgepodge of everything I think. Recently, the interviews have been arranged by date, and by person, so check them out! Infobattles are necessary, but we also need to win the war, and that takes action. What war am I talking about?
War against political corruption and traitor/puppet governments.
War against Zionist dominance in Jerusalem and Washington.
War against 'War on Terror/Islam'
War against Occupation and Oppression of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, etc.
War against biased, racist and prostituted media.
Etc.
So all you new friends (and you forgetful ones too), these are some of the things this profile is about. I invite you to learn about these subjects and do your own digging too. Heck, I learn a lot about these subjects from you myspacers as well. We don't have to agree about everything, but we can put these issues to light.

So once again, I invite you to take sometime to look through the links and resources I have up on my page. For deeper historical understanding, listen to some of these guys talk on this page:
http://www.iamthewitness.com/InterviewsByPerson.html
Listen to 'em before you come to conclusions, then do your own research too. Here's some I recommend:

Eric Hufschmid - you don't need JE Jones' voice to speak powerful truth.

Dr Sahib Mustaqim Bleher - 'The Flying Imam' of http://flyingimam.blogspot.com/ .

Christopher Bollyn - brave journalist, a rarity in investigative reporting. He actually does his own field research! As opposed to just rehash info, which is what most 'alternative news' people do (myself included). Source of little known but significant info.

James Dickie - a Scottish professor (of history I think). One of Glasgow's Muslim pioneers, a fountain of knowledge on the history of Zionism.

David Musa Pidcock - scholar and author, founder of the 'Islamic Party of Britain'. Also a historian and activist, read some of his works (as well as Bleher's) at http://www.mustaqim.co.uk/ipb-archive/default.htm

Mohammed Rafiq - must hear interviews to understand important aspects of Jewish Khazarian and Messianic history, which lead to Zionism.

Rev Ted Pike - Christian scholar who is also a wealth of info on Zionism, Talmudism, and other important issues.

Barry Turner - wealth of history in his interviews

Riah Abu El-Assad - Christian Bishop in Jerusalem. If you're a Christian Zionist, maybe you should listen to this guy.

Rabbi Weiss - and if you're a Jewish Zionist, maybe you should listen to this guy.

Christopher Jon Bjerknes - finally, this man has dug up loads of little seen historical documents, I'm still reading through his book. Free online here:
http://www.jewishracism.com/SaintEinstein.htm

Well, there are many sites that I read, as well as blogs, but I think a little known one that I highly recommend (for it's scholarship, not to mention its non-commercialized Christianity) is http://www.revisionisthistory.org/ . Michael Hoffman II is a legend, read his books and newsletters.

So it seems my 'hi, life...' post has turned into political activism and infosharing. Hope you benefit.

Keep up the good struggle people,
Salam, take advantage of Ramadan,
-MZ

6:50 AM - 10 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

July in Jordan
Category: Life

July in Jordan

Were driving down the airport road, one of the greenest, cleanest highways in Jordan. I guess its to impress the tourists who visit Amman. Driving north, I follow Uncle T, whos driving ahead of us in an identical rented Hyundai Elantra. Ive got mom next to me and two little ones behind. Every now and then Uncle T sticks a hand out of his window and waves. I stick mine out, give him the thumbs up, and confirm that Im right behind him. In the darkness of night, its easy to end up following the wrong car.

Its July 1^st, we just landed in Queen Alia International Airport, after a two hour plane ride from Athens, Greece. My family minus dad, as well as our good friend Uncle T and his family, arrived in the same plane, and now he was leading us to Amman, where wed split up.

Speeding down the highway, we catch glimpses of the expanse of rocky desert through the rows of trees planted parallel to the road. Every now and then were met with billboards adorned by the face of Jordans king Abdullah: goofy smile, squinty blue eyes (betraying his English parentage) and incomplete facial hair. Sometimes he is with his late father King Hussein, reminding us who he inherited the country from; other times hes in a picture with his wife Rania, who is so much taller than Jordans midget that she sits while he stands on a stool for the photo. Rania, that self-styled philanthropist promoted by Oprah, turns out to have much in common with me. For one, shes way taller than the King. Shes also a Palestinian born in Kuwait. Her parents are also from the Diaspora, from my town Tul Karem. And shes way taller than the King.

Other than the Kings face plastered everywhere, theres also lots of subtle advertising for Jordan. Theres a popular one with a bunch of hands holding a Jordanian flag, with the words Al-Urdon Awwalan! (Jordan First). And theres another one, with a dim-looking lady poking at her eye. She has a drunken-friendly face accompanying the words We will serve you from our eyes. Arab expressions....

My mom interrupts my gazing at all the Jordan First! Posters and asks, Isnt Uncle Ts mom next to him?

Yeah. And those are his two kids in the back seat.

Ok, just making sure, I thought it was someone else.

Uncle T slows down so we can catch up to him, and sticks his hand out the window. I give him the thumbs up.

When we reach the outskirts of Amman, we pull in next to Uncle T, but to our horror, it turns out weve been following complete strangers for the past hour. Crap! His mom has a beard, his kids are girls, he looks wrinkled and old, it wasnt them! Theyve been leading us on why was he sticking his hand out the window every 10 minutes? Just as my mom started laughing at the absurdity of the situation, Uncle T pulls in from behind us, and gives us the directions to our flat in Amman. We split after explaining why we sped in front of him for most of the drive.

2^nd day in Jordan, and its me and mom in our rented Elantra. The kids are in our flat in Amman, which we bought as a base for the family in Jordan. Its proved useful last year, its proved useful for my sister who studies in Jordan, and it proved useful this summer. But before it proved useful, we had to prepare it, and that sent me and my mom driving around Ammans north west areas, buying food, cleaning supplies, and tidbits that well need, such as sim cards for the mobile phones. Next to Amman Mall at the end of Gardens street, is an office complex, where we found the Agency, dealing with bringing in domestic workers. With the amount of house work anticipated in the next month, we made arrangements to have a lady stay with us, and picked her up from there. A young woman, Lynne, in her mid-20s: she was a Pilipino who left her husband and five children to work abroad, sending money back to support them. She was very shy at first, calling my mom Maam, and calling me Sir. I would tell her not to call me Sir, as I was only a kid, younger than her. Yes Sir, she would reply. Ok so Im not only a kid, but when youre called Sir at 20, you feel old. Later I found out she thought that I was the dad in the family! Thus the insistence on calling me Sir. We had to explain that Sir will be coming to join us in a week, and that shell recognize him from his extra large belly, bald head, and grey beard. That one is Sir! Im just a kid.

It reminded me of the last time someone thought I was my mothers husband. I always accompany my mom as a driver and pack llama. That time we were at the local Laiki (open-air weekly vegetable market) in Athens, and we were plying over the dried apricots and nuts stall. My mom wears the niqaab, a face covering veil extra to the basic hijab dress code that many Muslim women wear in observance of the religion (the ninja code, as the kids call it). I had my beard scruffy and long, untouched for weeks since I returned to Athens for the summer break, so may have looked older than I was. My mom left and I was packing our purchases into our cart, when the lady at the stall stopped me. Are you her son? she asked, pointing at my mother.

Yes, I answered.

Ha! I told you he was her son. Look, hes just a kid, the lady at the stall gloated at her husband.

Oxi, (No), he doesnt look like a paidi (kid), he was contesting, hes her andras!

Look at that face, she pinched my cheek, hes just a kid. And he has his mothers eyes. I also have other features from mom, but the lady only saw the niqaab.

Oxi, mntera mou (no, my mother), I assured the man, in my broken Greek. The lady pinched my now red cheek again, gave me a lollipop and sent me on my way.

When I caught up to mom she asked, Whered you get that lollipop? Did you get it from a stranger?

Im just a kid, huh? and I stuck it in my mouth.

So With Lynne and mom cleaning and cooking, and me going out daily to run errands and buy supplies, we started to get real busy as people started to arrive. Our flat serves as a place in Jordan for family and friends scattered around the world, where many of us would come to see each other. Weve been doing this every summer for the past few years, because my grandpa wants to see as many of us as possible. Grandpa, or Seedo (as we all call him), lives in occupied Palestine, in the West Bank town of Tul Karem, in the house he built decades ago before the 1967 occupation. Since the second Intifada he hasnt allowed us to come visit him in Tul Karem, fearing for our safety, but would come out to Jordan where we would all gather. Being an old man (in his 80s now), he buys special transportation to ease his passing across the borders, including the many checkpoints, searches, delays, and background checks the Israeli army subjects people to. He gets VIP treatment in an ambulance, which helps him bypass most obstacles due to his medical condition, which happens to be old age exhaustion.

The first to arrive was Seedo, and for a few days all I did was drive him around to see extended (and I mean mothers cousins brothers inlaws extended) family. He lived in Jordan for a couple years ago, yet still has a sharp memory, and seems to know where everyone is despite the massive build-up of the city in the past several years. Ah yes, Amman is growing like crazy. You see with Jordan, its always Jordan First! Every country that neighbors Jordan has had disasters, tragedies, wars, etc, and Jordan was always there to benefit. In the first Gulf War, most Palestinians in Kuwait were forced out of the country, and most came to Jordan (the goal was to get as many Palestinians out of the Gulf as possible). Jordan was there to take all the refugees, and this lead to a big boost and drive to its economy as they settled and opened businesses. This lead to a huge growth in the 1990s, making Jordan one of the top countries in the region in the fields of medicine, higher education, and other things. This lead to large amounts of students, patients, and others from the Gulf countries, Syria, and beyond to start coming to Jordan for university education, medical treatment, or tourism. This only fueled Jordans economic growth and Ammans expansion. The second Gulf War and subsequent occupation in Iraq lead to a huge influx of Iraqis into Jordan. Im speaking about a million Iraqi refugees entering Jordan which only has about 6 million people! Most Iraqis came to Amman, and the rich amongst them bought flats and houses, lots of flats and houses. This new rise in demand lead to a real estate boom in Amman and an acceleration in its build up. Every summer since 2003 Ive seen new buildings pop up, construction everywhere, and more cars congesting the streets. The Lebanon war would only add to this.

Over the next weeks, we visited and saw many family members and friends living in Jordan, as well as many family and friends that came to Jordan and stayed with us. First Seedo came, then my dad, then my two aunts from the West Bank, then my aunt from Abu Dhabi, with her husband and five of her six daughters, then our friends from Lebanon, then my uncle from Kuwait, then my aunt from Kuwait, then one of my dads uncles and a cousin from the West Bank. And those were the people who stayed with us from overseas, add to them family and friends based in Jordan who were always coming in and out, saying hi here and bye there, and you could imagine how busy we were. Poor mom and Lynne were working full time cooking, dishwashing, cleaning, while I was the only one amongst them with a car, and did the driving for everyones errands. The flat is on a hilltop (and Amman is a city originally on 7 hills, now its spread over 100 valleys and hills) close to the University of Jordan in north west Amman, close to an area called Sweileh. I learned many roads in the area, as well as some closer to downtown Amman, as I drove Seedo around to see relatives, drove the ladies around to do their cheap shopping, drove people to doctors, got groceries and supplies, etc, etc.

Theres a street in Amman thats just packed with private clinics. People come from all over the Middle East for medical tourism, getting operations and treatments done not available in their countries. I brought my mom once for a minor operation for a day (and spent six hours sitting next to her bed waiting for her to wake up), and also brought one of my aunts to discuss her cosmetic surgery with a specialist there. This aunt of mine has Treacher Collins syndrome, a genetic disease that leads to one messed up enzyme. Unfortunately this enzyme is important in many enzyme pathways involved in building the face during development. TC people end up with similar facial disfigurations, which affect the jaw, ears, cheeks, eye sockets, and the ability to eat, speak and hear. Alhamdulillah, my aunt had several successful operations, and now she has no trouble eating, and looks much better, shes looking forward to more. Whats funny is that shes hard of hearing, and so is Seedo with age, so whenever theyre in the house everyone becomes really noisy, and we all end up screaming at each other so they can hear.

We took our Playstation to Jordan for fixing; its lens had malfunctioned again. There the fixing and the games are cheap! A game there costs 1 Jordanian Dinar (JD), but of course you get it under the table or in the basement of even the most high-brow electronics shops. A couple years ago the authorities cracked down on the trade of pirated games and movies. Many shops after that started putting up a façade of legitimacy, but the legit market for electronic entertainment never existed before, and still doesnt exist after, the crack down. Original copies are simply way to expensive compared to the incomes of most Jordanians, and many visitors take advantage of the cheap copies which they dont find in their respective countries. So we got a couple games, both turned out excellent. Id play Shadow of the Colossus in the early mornings before my errands/family visits started. In that game you take the role of a normal guy (or was it a girl? Japanese style animation really makes it hard to tell) who must defeat sixteen colossi to bring his loved one back to life. And by colossi, I mean OMG LOOK AT THAT HUGE COLOSSI! Armed with tiny sword, bow and arrow, and often riding around the colossus feet on your trusty steed, each monster was great fun figuring out, finding its weak spots, climbing on it like lice in the fur of a dog, and finally poking at it into submission. Unfortunately I reached the 14^th colossus when the Playstation broke down again. The fixing was cheap, not good. But before that, we played many matches and inter-family tournaments in the excellent soccer game Winning Eleven. That was addictive football, and what I felt made it stand above games such as EAs FIFA was the physics of the ball itself, and the Japanese commentators (we bought the early pirated Japanese version, apparently the English one wasnt out yet.)

With an abundance of cousins (and not to mention: neighbours kids) we played many group games as well. Tarneeb and Kents were popular card games, while Mafia was a popular game that I introduced (imported from my mates in Edinburgh), even the parents played it with us. The best was when Rana (my littlest sister), the youngest kid amongst us, was able to get everyone to lynch each other while playing innocent. It boiled down to me and Rami (my next brother) both begging her to vote against the other, when she was the only guilty one among us. Shes turning out to be quite a performer, always entertaining us with acting, singing, dancing, shes great! The only faults are that shes getting heavy to carry on my shoulders, and she drives me insane when I try teaching her math.

My aunt lives in Irbid, a university town north of Amman, close to the Syrian border. My older sister studies there, doing Graphic Art and Design. We had a big gathering at my aunts house, having lunch on her patio, eating watermelons and melons, talking and reminiscing. Suddenly we hear zaghrata from upstairs. Lalalalalalalalalalalalaleeeeeee! It was my aunt doing the zaghrata, which is a loud celebratory sound in Arab societies, which consists of screaming at the top of your lungs while flailing your tongue.

Lalalalalalalalalaleeeeeeeeeeeeee!

We all rushed upstairs to find out the results. Her youngest son had just finished the Tawjihi exams, the painful end of high school graduation exams whose results get you into university. Every summer in Jordan, we congratulate someone whos done well in his Tawjihi (or mourn someone who failed). Its a hugely significant event, as how well a person does in the exam determines what s/hell be eligible for in Jordanian universities. And with everyone wanting to become doctors or engineers in a very competitive society, the pressure to do well and the tension waiting for results is some of the most nerve-racking experiences a Jordanian ever faces. To be amongst the top students in the country, a student has to start studying since the summer before the final year, spend his free-time studying, suffer vitamin D deficiency, and cram! Its unhealthy and unwarranted, but those who suffer in this year become doctors and engineers, which is what everyone else wants to become.

So we all rushed up to see my aunt hugging and kissing my cousin, who just got his result off the internet. Hes capped Tawjihi at 93.6/p>

Just tell your friends you got 94. Lalalalalalalaleeeeeee! my aunt was celebrating.

We all congratulated him on the good mark; it should be good enough to get him comfortably into any course, except maybe medicine. (There are robots in Jordan, and the doctors it produces are machines.) In our new lighter mood, we all went down stairs to have knafah, of the Nablus type, best knafah in the region. After eating the rich pastry knafah, with its orange flaky dough, made rough or smooth, and its rich sweet cheese, all soaked in syrup, we sat around talking.

Alright, lets go celebrate, said Hani, my oldest cousin. Lets go for a drive.

Drive? I asked him what he meant.

You know, the guy just got 94àLets go have a drive around Irbid.

Ok, Irbid is a small town, I didnt get what he was on about, thats until we reached Irbids university road.

We went out in 2 cars, ten of us in total, with Hani driving in the first, our pride who just graduated next to him. As we approached the University Road we started to hear an amalgamation of countless horns beeping and tootng. Hani joined right in, blaring primitive tunes out of his Toyota. And then I saw it, hundreds of cars, filled with young people, all beeping and making noise, and nearly all the cars had people sitting out of their windows, on the sills. Ive never seen a sight like it. Young men, kids, girls, boys, were all having a huge party out on the street, from the windows of their cars. People were singing, some were dancing with their upper bodies only, arms flailing about, others were waving their shirts in the air, all were making noise. Every time two cars got close enough their window popping occupants would reach out and shake hands, ask about the Tawjihi results of each others graduates, congratulate each other, etc.

An explosion of emotion befitting of the angst and hardship the Tawjihi students endured for a year. People were having conversations out the car windows, passing out sweets, dancing, beating tabl (an Arabic drum) tunes on the roofs of their cars. It was an open-air party that was moving down the streets, where no one had a foot on the ground. The police were out in force in anticipation of this (apparently annual ritual) celebration of the Tawjihi results. We were stopped once by them and told to get into the car (yes, we also joined in the celebration out of the car windows), but we popped right back out as soon as we passed. Despite all the police, the celebrations couldnt be stopped, and instead driving around for a good half hour, the convoys of students and their friends and families, simply popped in and out in waves as they passed by police. It was great fun, celebrating with a rush of wind blowing through your hair (or sliding off my head, I had mine closely cropped). Our convoy returned that day, all of us with sore throats from all the shouting and zagrata. Tawjihi has been passed by yet another batch.

One of my fathers closest friends growing up in Kuwait is a Lebanese man named Hasan. Hes a Shia Lebnani from a village in the south, and moved to Beiruts Southern District when we moved to Amman during the first Gulf War. Its been years since weve seen Hasans family, and they came to Jordan to visit us for a few days. They drove from Lebanon to Jordan via Syria, on the day Hezbollah caught two Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon. They came for an initially planned three days to see us, but that all changed.

Already before they came, most gatherings we had that included a TV inevitably lead to Seedo shouting and cursing at the world, for what was happening in Gaza. The Israeli forces, now outside Gaza with no Jewish settlers inside, were pounding and bombing the whole population, killing whole families every week in military mistakes, kidnapping and assassinating both resistance and political leaders, and all that because the Palestinians voted for the wrong people (Hamas).

You see this shoe, Seedo would say, pointing at his foot, this shoe is more honourable than all the cowardly Arab leaders that are silent and let this crime go on.

Everyone was already angry when Hezbollah captured the two soldiers, and the subsequent destruction of Lebanon only made us angrier. Several times in the past few years, Hezbollah captured Israeli soldiers, and exchanged them for Lebanese prisoners (many of whom have been in Israeli dungeons for decades). When they did it this time though, the response was different. The Israelis used the incident as a pretext for a war of aggression against Lebanon thats been planned for years. The Israelis under Olmert decided that not only will they retake their soldiers, but will also destroy Hezbollah and occupy South Lebanon again while theyre at it. And what was their strategy to achieve this? Destroy Lebanon: its infrastructure, bridges, roads, power plants, fuel, farms, apartment buildings, and people. In hindsight, with over 1000 Lebanese civilians murdered, and Hezbollah virtually untouched, the Israelis are now trying to achieve politically what they miserably failed to achieve militarily (unless death and destruction was a goal in itself). But at the time, when Hasans family reached Jordan, the bombing was just beginning, and Lebanon became the focus of our tirades when watching the news channels.

Hasans family stayed their 3 days in the hotel rooms they had reserved, but with all the roads bombed to Lebanon, werent able to return. They came and stayed with us. For most of the month we were several families living in the same flat. When bedtime came, the bedrooms would be packed, the couches occupied, and futons would be spread all over the living room floors. We tried to enjoy ourselves and get on with our activities and visits, but in our gatherings or whenever we sat with a TV, conversations always lead back to Lebanon. I cant imagine what Hasan, or his wife, or his son Ali, who studies in university in Beirut, or their three young daughters, were going through. Always trying to call home, checking on their relatives, being uncertain about what might happen, constant worry. Many times wed be sitting in a room and just sit there, deep in thought, not knowing what to say. It was especially bad when they heard their house in their village, and those of their relatives, were destroyed in the mass bombings. Whole villages were destroyed in those weeks, with the pathetic claim that killing countless civilians is Hezbollahs fault, even though theres no proof Hezbollah was hiding among them. It was bad when Hasan or Ali would recognize places Beirut, where whole neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble. Their whole area in Beirut is uninhabitable now, much of it leveled like it was in 1982.

It was hard, but the Lebanese are an impressive bunch. Theyll smile in your face, call you the love of their heart (habib albi) and tell you not to worry. Dont worry, homes can be rebuilt, and we accept the sacrifices and martyrs. Its the price of honour and freedom. Our relatives left gradually back to their respective homes, till it was us and Hasans family left. It was the hardest saying goodbye to them (and definitely the most tearful), and now Im writing from Greece (where we have another Lebanese family stuck here with us) while Dar Hasan are still living in our flat. Its proven very useful indeed. With the ceasefire now, theyll probably insist on returning to Lebanon to help in the rebuilding. Unfortunately things dont seem to be over, tensions are still high. Hezbollah came out stronger and more popular than ever, and I doubt Israel would stand for it for long, after its first major defeat and humiliation in its short history. All plans indicated that Lebanon would be the first step in Israels war (which some analysts say was a war planned to destroy Hezbollah, spread to Syria, then drag Iran and the USA into neutralizing Iran, the ultimate target.) Only God knows what may happen next.

Thats all for now. Lebanon and Gaza has been the centre of our attention during the month. To the point that all else pails in comparison. It was a good month though, considering all the circumstances. I saw family, lots of them, too many to mention here, and thats always a good thing.

10:11 AM - 9 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

Christopher Bollyn Beaten & Harassed by Undercover Cops!
Category: News and Politics

This is unprecedented! (to my knowledge). Earlier today, investigative journalist Bollyn calls cops complaining of suspicious car. Occupants of suspicious car turn out to be undercover cops, beat him, taser him, abuse him, arrest him, lock him up for several hours, and then release on bail. And he called the cops!

I first found about this outrage from The French Connection

11:42 AM - 15 Comments - 15 Kudos - Add Comment

I found this very amusing... 3 x-Israeli soldiers humiliated
Category: News and Politics

from http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/

Israelis expelled from Fiji
I just got this from Ynet.

3 Israelis evicted from paradise

" Three Israelis told by Fijian immigration officer that they cannot enter country for mistreating Palestinians during military service

Itamar Eichner

Three Israeli backpackers were evicted from Fiji after a Muslim immigration officer ruled that they had humiliated Palestinians during their military service in the territories.

The three Amit Ronen, Eldar Avracohen, and Nimrod Lahav left Israel in February for a tour in Australia.

In July they decided to spend a week in Fiji. On July 13 they arrived at Fiji airport where a surprise awaited them.

"We gave our passports to the officer, and when she saw we are Israelis she asked for ID cards. We told her we don't understand why we need ID cards and she responded shouting: 'You know very well how to ask Palestinians for IDs and humiliate them for three years."

That's what Avracohen wrote in a complaint letter he sent to Israel's Ambassador to Australia Nati Tamir.

The three were held at Fiji airport for six hours and officials rebuked their pleas to be allowed to make a phone call.

Armed policemen took them to a cell at the airport where they spent the night before being sent back to Australia.

"I don't look like a terrorist and there is no reason to point a gun at me," Nimrod Lahav wrote in a letter to ambassador Tamir.

Avracohen wrote that the incident was the most humiliating experience he had ever gone through.

The Foreign Ministry said the matter is being dealt with."

-------------------
The saps just got treated the way thousands of Palestinians have been treated at checkpoints for decades. Humiliation, delays, ID cards, etc.

"I don't look like a terrorist"? I love the irony in this whole story.
-MZ

1:54 PM - 12 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

British Jews go to fight jihad for Israel

British Jews go to fight jihad for Israel Yesterday I heard a news report on TV about 3 American Jewish military men who went to occupied Palestine to fight with the Zionist army against Hezbollah, and aid in the rape of Lebanon. Today I find an article that shows some British Jews doing the same thing:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2302119,00.html

The article was brought to my attention by Osama Saeed of http://www.osamasaeed.org/osama/ under his title "British Jews go to fight jihad for Israel"

The article seems to be glorifying these volunteers as self-less heroes. Could you imagine how the same media would be reporting if it were American or British Muslims who were going over to Lebanon to help fight the Israelis? There would be screams of 'International Terror!'

Not to mention the Zionists are claiming that there Iranians fighting with the Lebanese, something Hezbollah is denying. It's as if they're trying to explain why they can't seem to be able to hold a couple of villages next to the borders. 'They have help from big countries!' the Israelis complain, ignoring the fact that they're getting Jewish volunteers from 'big' countries, not to mention weapons and political protection for their ongoing crimes (US vetos at their finest).

This is a Zionist war of expansion, not an Israeli war of self-defence, and world Zionism, from the little idealist footsoldiers, to the big neo-cons in Washington, are fully behind it.

5:04 AM - 9 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

The Anti-Semitism Of The (Present) Government
Category: News and Politics

Below is the text of a missive written by the British Secretary of State to India, Mr Edwin Samuel Montagu, in August 1917. Montagu was "not only a member of the British Cabinet, but was also a practicing Orthodox Jew and a leading personality amongst British Jewry." (from The Satanic Voices, p91) He wrote this essay after the Balfour declaration was made, as a warning to Britain against Zionism. He considered British support for Zionism to be anti-Semitic 'in result' (thus the title of his missive), and demostrates how most British Jews at the time were anti-Zionist. This historical document was made available to the public in 1966, and shows how a small coterie of internationalist/Jewish bankers were pushing for Zionism with little popular Jewish support. That is before Zionist collaboration with the Nazis and the subsequent flight of Europe's poor Jews to Palestine (and other places).

This text and info I found in the book 'The Satanic Voices', by David Pidcock. Pidcock is an excellent researcher of Zionism, secret societies, and the occult, and is a Muslim scholar in England.

Listen to Pidcocks interviews with Daryl Smith here:
David Pidcock interviews at The French Connection

Note at the bottom of the page are three previous interviews, all worth listening to for a deeper understanding of current world events and their historical precursors. You can download the book, 'The Satanic Voices', for free at this site:
The Satanic Voices online book

Anyways, here's the text of the document:

The Anti-Semitism Of The Present Government

 (Circulated by the Secretary of State for India)

"1. I am sorry to bother the Cabinet with another Paper on this subject, but I have obtained some more information which I would like to lay before them.

2. We have received at the India Office a series of valuable papers on Turkey in Asia from the pen of Miss Gertrude Lowthian Bell, the remarkable woman who, after years of knowledge gained by unique travel in these regions, is acting as Assistant Political Officer in Baghdad. She writes:-

Not least among the denationalising forces is the fact that a part of Syria, though like the rest mainly inhabited by Arabs, is regarded by a non-Arab people as its prescriptive inheritance. At a liberal estimate the Jews of Palestine may form a quarter of the population of the province, the Christians a fifth, while the remainder are Mohammedan Arabs. Jewish immigration has been artificially fostered by doles and subventions from millionaire co-religionists in Europe [the Rothschilds and Baron Hirsch]: the new colonies have taken root and are more or less self supporting...

The pious hope that an independent Jewish State may some day be established in Palestine no doubt exists, though it may be questioned whether among the local Jews there is any acute desire to see it realised, except as a means of escape from Turkish oppression: it is perhaps more lively in the breasts of those who live far from the rocky Palestinian hills and have no intention of changing their domicile.

3. The Cabinet has been informed that the French Government are in sympathy with Zionist aspirations. It has recently come to my knowledge officially that the French Ambassador has approached our Foreign Office with a proposal to establish a Jewish Nation in El Hasa in Arabia, oblivious of the fact that although this is technically Turkish territory, we have concluded so recently as 1915 a treaty which roughly promises to support Bin Saud and his followers in the occupation of that country...

4. I have obtained a list of a fe