The Geneva Convention

█ It is widely accepted that under international law, the Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel are illegal.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war states:

►"The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies."

Within the international community the overwhelming view is that Article 49 is applicable to the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The United States has in the past called the settlements illegal, but has more recently used milder language, at least in public.

However, the Mitchell report into the causes of Palestinian-Israeli violence that began in September 2000 said:

►...customary international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, prohibits Israel (as an occupying power) from establishing settlements in occupied territory pending an end to the conflict."

Israel argues that the international conventions relating to occupied land do not apply to the Palestinian territories because they were not under the legitimate sovereignty of any state in the first place. ◘

Why We're Not Celebrating Israel's Anniversary

Seymour Alexander and others -- The Guardian (Britain)

▐ We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations. More »»

▐ The Balfour Declaration

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was the first significant declaration by a world power in favour of a Jewish "national home" in what was known as Palestine. Historians disagree as to what the then British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, intended by his declaration. The letter has no mention of the word "state", and insists that nothing should be done "which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine".

The letter was addressed to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the Jewish community in Britain. It became an important arm of the movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine.◘

---------------

The letter: Foreign Office - November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours, Arthur James Balfour

Surviving the traitors

▓ “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.
      He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.
      A murderer is less to fear”◙
-Marcus Tullius Cicero 42 BC

Masonic Influence in the EU

By The Brussels Journal

Created 2008-04-17 11:11

A quote from a communiqué of the French Federation of Le Droit Humain, one of France’s major anti-Christian [“liberal and adogmatic”] Masonic lodges, 11 April 2008 [English translation here]

The French Federation of Le Droit Humain represented by its president, Michel Payen, met on April 8, 2008 with the president of the European Commission, José-Manuel Barroso, [...] This meeting constitutes a major event regarding the place of Freemasonry in the construction of Europe; this place was underscored not only by the interest and attentiveness that President Barroso showed to the delegation and the time he accorded them, but also by the commitments he made to the values espoused by liberal and adogmatic Freemasonry, its positions and its opinions on subjects of concern. It was the first time that Freemasonry, as such, was able to express itself to such a high level European institution.

The delegation received assurances from President Barroso of his attachment to the spirit of "laïcité" and to the principle of separation of religion from the State. The delegation stressed the importance of the Enlightenment in the history of Europe, a dimension to be taken into account at least equally with its religious roots, and certainly more closely tied to the roots of antiquity.

Finally, a principle of communication between the liberal and adogmatic Masonic Orders and the services of the European Commission, to be used whenever needed, was decided upon. Thus the French Federation of Le Droit Humain will propose, in the near future, a recommendation concerning the principle of emancipation that ought to form the basis of all European education systems, in direct relation to a recognition of the contribution of the Enlightenment to the common culture of the peoples that compose Europe, and in accordance with the principles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

---

Source URL:
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3184

US Interests and Israel/Palestine

▓ Although it is not often reported by the press, a large proportion of American diplomatic and military experts have long held that U.S. support of Israel is often contrary to and, in fact, extremely damaging to U.S. interests.

Support for Israel interferes with: American relations with the oil-producing nations, with whom we previously had friendly ties; with Muslim consumers, who represent 1.2 billion people world-wide; and removes much-needed money from domestic American requirements — tax revenues that could be addressed to domestic needs are instead sent abroad to prop up a system of discrimination that is antithetical to American principles of equality and democracy.

In addition, the ‘special relationship’ between the U.S. and Israel is increasingly imperiling American lives.

Why, then, is this done? Close examination of the history and current situation reveals that U.S. policies in the Middle East are rarely driven by U.S. interests. Rather, they are largely driven by two very different factors:

1. Special-interest lobbying of the sort that is common to Washington. The only difference from typical lobby groups is that this lobbying is on behalf of a foreign government. Fortune Magazine rates one of the many lobby organizations working on behalf of Israel, AIPAC, as the second most powerful lobby in Washington. In total, many experts rate the pro-Israel interest group as the most powerful lobby in Washington.
2. The efforts of a growing number of individuals with close ties to Israel (known as neoconservatives) who have attained key positions at high levels of the U.S. administration, State Department, and Pentagon.

Interestingly, the oil and weapons industries, although very influential over parts of American Middle East policy, are not responsible for our relationship with Israel. In fact, quite often both of these industries find our support for Israel undermines their corporate interests in the region.

If Americans Knew What Israel Is Doing! VIDEO WAS CENSORED!

▓ "It is the goal of If Americans Knew to provide full and accurate information on this critical issue, and on our power -- and duty -- to bring a resolution." -

Jimmy Carter's visit to the Middle East is creating a resurgence of interest in Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. -- The video linked above was censored. America's leading authority on International Law, Francis Boyle, appears in the video, and he testifies that Israeli authorities acknowledge their policies of torture while they explain that they are insulated from international pressure by PR agents based in the United States. --Michael Carmichael www.IfAmericansKnew.org

Veterans' perspective on the war

April 14, 2008
Editor
NATIONAL POST, Toronto
Dear Sir,
Veterans' perspective on the war
All veterans who volunteered for combat roles in the Second World War deserve the admiration that your correspondent Gary McGregor has expressed towards his "Uncle Jack" who risked his life in Aircrew in the War to Save Civilization.  Not all Veterans however, upon reflection, would agree that the War on our German kinfolk was unequivocally a Noble Cause or that the Allied record in conducting the War was without blemish.
The CBC's controversial film "The Valour and the Horror", reflected in the War Museum's sign questioning the deliberate slaughter of German civilians, prompted an outcry by former RCAF members, almost all of whom disparaged the documentary as insulting and untrue, at least in its implication that the Aircrews wittingly committed mass murder.  Among the Veterans' submissions was one from Wing Commander C. G. "Giff" Gifford, of St. John, N.B., whose RCAF Squadron took part in the bombing of Dresden in 1945, when the war in effect was already won.  He wrote that the Briefing Officer for the raid announced: "We have a real juicy one for you tonight, gentlemen, it's Dresden - and it's packed with refugees".  Indeed it was, and many tens of thousands of mothers with children, fleeing for their lives from the rapacious Red Army, were incinerated in the intensive fire-bombing, along with an irreplaceable treasure-trove of Europe's finest baroque architecture. 
Gifford confided to a friend, not long before he died, that the remorse of having been a party to the mass murder of innocent Christian civilians had haunted him every day of his life.
As for the relative wisdom of Vets and historians, there can be no question that the Vets had the better grasp of military actions in which they were directly involved, but, for better or for worse, they were kept in the dark regarding the political maneuvering that was responsible for their plight and had no opportunity to analyze in depth the worthiness of their cause nor the validity of command decisions that would seal their fate.  Many, facing death on the ground or in the air, would have had second thoughts had they known that treacherous politicians had ensured that Stalin, a far greater threat to Christian civilization than Hitler, would be the main beneficiary of their sacrifice.  Nor could they have known that acquisitive warmongers in high places, beholden to secret paymasters, would perpetuate conflict and oppression -ultimately forfeiting the precious freedoms and security the young idealists had fought so courageously to preserve.
Yours sincerely,
Ian V. Macdonald
ex-RCAF, RNFAA

Nuggets

▓ "The Trilateral Commission doesn't run the world, the Council on Foreign Relations does that!"-- Winston Lord, Assistant Secretary of State, the U. S. State Department

▓ "I think there are 25,000 individuals that have used offices of powers, and they are in our Universities and they are in our Congresses, and they believe in One World Government. And if you believe in One World Government, then you are talking about undermining National Sovereignty and you are talking about setting up something that you could well call a Dictatorship - and those plans are there!" -- Congressman Ron Paul at an event near Austin, Texas on August 30th, 2003

▓ "...In short, the 'house of world order' will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great 'booming, buzzing confusion,' to use William James' famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault." -- Richard N. Gardner, in "Foreign Affairs," April 1974

▓ "The near monopoly of power once enjoyed by sovereign entities is being eroded ... states must be prepared to cede some sovereignty to world bodies ... Globalization thus implies that sovereignty is not only becoming weaker in reality, but that it needs to become weaker ... The goal should be to redefine sovereignty for the era of globalization, to find a balance between a world of fully sovereign states and an international system of either world government or anarchy." -- Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Feb. 21st, 2006

▓ "The true equation is 'democracy' = government by world financiers...The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We see the politician and not his backer; still less the backer of the backer; or what is most important of all, the banker of the backer. Enthroned above all, in a manner without parallel in all past, is the veiled prophet of finance, swaying all men living by a sort of magic, and delivering oracles in a language not understanded [sic] of the people." -- J.R.R. Tolkien, Candour Magazine, 13 July 1956, p. 12