U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley Threatens World War III.

By Jerry Alatalo

as it only “coincidence” that U.S. President Donald Trump’s spokesman Sean Spicer announced the administration’s discovery of a potential chemical attack by Syria’s Bashar Al Assad, just hours after Seymour Hersh’s devastating-to-Trump article (now internet viral) was published in Germany? Those with any significant knowledge of the Syrian conflict and confidence in their own intuition will answer that question:

“No, it was not by coincidence.”

There is an aspect to this unfortunate, disheartening development far more important than understanding Trump’s chillingly threatening, war propaganda announcement was meant to defeat to the greatest extent possible the impact of Mr. Hersh’s explosive article. The Trump administration’s war threat to Syria, Russia and Iran is clearly a dangerous sign of the extreme risk Trump and his administration’s officials represent to international peace and security.

Some may underestimate the critical state of world affairs this development has created, brush it off as just something that will blow over, and that anyone making a big issue of it is engaging in either hyperbole or exaggeration, or making unwarranted assertions. However, when the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley threatens Syria, Russia and Iran with military force – three sovereign nations possessing tremendous joint military power, in particular nuclear weapons –  the profoundly dangerous nature of the current situation becomes clear as day.

Mr. Hersh’s article points out that Donald Trump was aware his intelligence and military experts did not have irrefutable proof/evidence that Syrian military officers on orders of Bashar Al Assad intentionally dropped a chemical bomb on its own people in early April. Without evidence, why did Donald Trump order 59 Tomahawk missiles launched into the sovereign nation of Syria – and why did he, Ms. Haley and so many others assert they “held the evidence” without eventually making it public?

Ms. Haley told reporters shortly after the early April chemical event that the administration possessed “the evidence”, that it was classified, and that it was a matter of days before it would become declassified then available for all to see. The “evidence” after nearly three months has never been declassified nor published – according to Mr. Hersh’s article because it never existed in the first place. Perhaps it is hyperbole, or otherwise completely legitimate, to assert Donald Trump, Nikki Haley and the many others owe an honest, thorough explanation to the people of America, Syria, Russia and the world on why they made extremely serious, dangerous accusations without real evidence.

What some analysts are saying now is that the United States coalition in Syria is attempting to “annex” or partition Syria, revealing another aspect to the situation, in particular as it relates to deterioration of international relations after Crimea’s people held a referendum, decided to leave Ukraine, and joined the Russian Federation in 2014. Crimea’s joining the Russian Federation has resulted in economic sanctions hurting both the Russian and European Union economies over the period since, and recently renewed in the United States Senate by an overwhelming majority of votes.

It is yet to become seen emergent comparisons between Ukraine/Crimea and Syria among the world’s leaders, but if the United States is leading a Crimea-like annexation of part(s) of Syria the accusations of double standards are certain to follow.

Unfortunately international law has essentially been “thrown out the window” during the long Syrian warring ordeal, thus people wishing for peace in that suffering nation of fellow brothers and sisters in the human family can only pray – and act wisely to prevent a wider, immeasurably more destructive war.

(Thank you to RT at YouTube)

Seymour Hersh | SYRIA: Trump‘s Red Line

Internationally respected, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh’s recent article on the April 2017 alleged sarin attack in Syria was published in Germany. Read the shocking article, then understand why U.S. President Donald Trump owes Americans, Russians, Syrians and humanity an honest explanation for his dangerous actions.

Rise Up Times

“He’s a risk-taker. He can accept the consequences of a bad decision in the business world; he will just lose money. But in our world, lives will be lost and there will be long-term damage to our national security if he guesses wrong. He was told we did not have evidence of Syrian involvement and yet Trump says: ‘Do it.'”

Von Seymour M. Hersh  Welt  AUSLAND  June 25, 2017

Retaliation: Tomahawk missiles from the “USS Porter” on the way to the Shayrat Air Base on April 6, 2017 ♦ 

Quelle: picture alliance / Robert S. Pri/dpa Picture-Alliance / Robert S.

President Donald Trump ignored important intelligence reports when he decided to attack Syria after he saw pictures of dying children. Seymour M. Hersh investigated the case of the alleged Sarin gas attack.

On April 6, United States President Donald Trump authorized an early morning Tomahawk missile strike on…

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Ilan Pappe: “Israel Has Lost The Moral Argument.”

By Jerry Alatalo

any academics, political analysts, peace activists, experts in global affairs and others consider the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict the most important international relations challenge of our time. Israel-born Jewish Professor Ilan Pappe (currently lecturing in the United Kingdom) is one of thousands of men and women academicians on Earth who firmly hold that belief. He has written a new book “Ten Myths About Israel”, a (in his words) “concise pocketbook” for those interested in learning about the situation. He visited Seattle, Washington in the northwest region of the United States recently to speak about the long-endured, at times seemingly insoluble problems – along with his vision for a solution.

During an interview while in Seattle, Professor Pappe shared both his personal experiences and knowledge of the conflict as well as some little-known facts making it clear that major changes in Israel’s political system are necessary. His view is authoritative as its foundation is the raw historic truth: Israel is the only national government on Earth implementing apartheid policies and conditions, with the example most recently seen – and rightly abolished – of South Africa.

Professor Ilan Pappe draws similarities between the settler colonialist history of America, the inhumane, genocidal treatment of Native Americans and Israel’s Zionist factions’ treatment of the indigenous Palestinian people, in particular since 1967. With experience as a professor in Israeli universities before becoming essentially thrown out of his country, he describes the role of education in Israel as a large factor responsible for perpetuation of the conflict.

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“The whole education system is built on dehumanization of the Palestinians, so even liberal Israelis are Israelis who regard the Palestinians as aliens, but they are tolerant enough to let them be there, or have some of the land. There’s a basic misunderstanding… even the more liberal Zionists – that Zionism emigrated into the homeland of someone else, not that these natives emigrated. They’re not immigrants.”

“Not that we should treat immigrants in some bad way… Of course, we shouldn’t. But it’s funny that the whole liberal discourse in Israel about the Palestinians is the discourse of immigrants. So, if you’re a liberal person… you tolerate immigrants. You’re willing to let them be absorbed into the society. But this is not the situation – these (Palestinians) are not immigrants. You (Israelis) are the immigrants, and you have to ask the Palestinians to allow you to stay.”

“And this is something very difficult; after 100 years of oppression, to understand that the oppressor needs the legitimacy from the oppressed is very difficult to accept.”

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Often Israel is described as the “only democracy in the Middle East”. This is one of the myths which Professor writes about in his new book, “Ten Myths About Israel”, upon which he by use of analogy says:

“If one-fifth (20%) of the American population would have been under military rule, meaning that only a military person would determine your basic rights, you would not call the United States a democracy.”

“In many ways Israel reminds me of South Africa because whites in South Africa enjoyed a certain level of democracy but the Africans did not enjoy any level of democracy. And the same is true of Israel. So, you can say that for the Jews in Israel, Israel is a democracy, but anyone who is not a Jew is a 2nd-rate, if not a 3rd-rate citizen.”

“There are practices which are not officially admitted, but very known to everyone, that discriminate against you. I will give you one fact that I think is very important, and which most of your listeners probably do not know. I’m talking pre-1967 borders, to make it clear. According to Israeli law most of the land belongs to the Jewish agency. According to the law of the Jewish agency, it is not allowed to sell land to non-Jews. So, 97% of the land of Israel is not for sale to the Palestinian citizens of Israel who are 20% of the population.”

“So they have no access to buy land, to purchase land, to expand… In fact, in the past 70 years only Jewish settlements and Jewish towns have been built – not one Palestinian citizen. Another example… We have a law in Israel which allows a Jewish community to reject the presence of a Palestinian citizen, or citizens, from their midst because they are… the only reason is they are Palestinians – they are not Jewish.”

“Imagine if there would be a neighborhood in Seattle which could be by law decided that African-Americans could not live there. I’m talking about official racism. I’m not talking about informal racism that exists in every society; I don’t think Israel is unique in that. But I think it’s quite unique for a country that pertains to be the only democracy in the Middle east to have laws that discriminate against people just because of their identity.”

“That for me is the definition of an undemocratic society.”

***

After the interviewer asked Professor Pappe toward the end of the interview for his views on what is the best option to resolve the conflict, he responded:

“The first thing I believe even before one-state solution – and I’ve devoted my life to this – is to convince the international community, that it’s in the interests of the international community, to put pressure on Israel to first of all change its immediate policies of oppression, even before we talk about a solution, in order to create conducive circumstances for a solution. We need to get the Israelis out of the life of the Palestinians in the West Bank, to lift the siege of the Gaza Strip, to stop the discrimination against the Palestinians in Israel, and to seriously consider the right of the Palestinian refugees to come home.”

“Now, if I take all these three basic rights that Israel violates, the rights to live in peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in a democracy inside Israel, and the right to come back home for the refugees, I can only see one political outcome that will enable us to implement these right – and that’s one democratic state for all. Because I think, otherwise, any other political solution would perpetuate it, would make it even worse than it is today. When I say worse it means mainly for the Palestinians, but I also think it’s not very positive for the Jews.”

“So I think that for everyone we should live democratically as you here in the United States, as human beings regardless of our identity, religious identity, national identity, gender or color. One person, one vote… I’m willing to take a bi-national state if that is what people want. It’s much better than what we have today. Maybe people would want a collective identity; I can appreciate it, especially on the Jewish side because they’ve built a culture of their own. I think a lot of Palestinians would go along with this. “

“But the state has to be a state for everyone, and should not be divided, or be partitioned. And the 3rd generation of settlers and the native people have a very good chance of making Palestine, and Israel – or whatever we will call it – one of the best places on Earth.”  

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(Thank you to TalkingStickTV at YouTube)