Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.
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The NY Times:
"Arguing that boycotting Israel is intrinsically anti-Semitic is not only false, but it also presumes that Israel and 'the Jews' are one and the same. This is as absurd and bigoted as claiming that a boycott of a self-defined Islamic state like Saudi Arabia, say, because of its horrific human rights record, would of necessity be Islamophobic.
The B.D.S. movement’s call for full equality in law and policies for the Palestinian citizens of Israel is particularly troubling for Israel because it raises questions about its self-definition as an exclusionary Jewish state. Israel considers any challenge to what even the Department of State has criticized as its system of 'institutional, legal and societal discrimination' against its Palestinian citizens as an 'existential threat,' partially because of the apartheid image that this challenge evokes. ...
Israel remains the only country on earth that does not recognize its own nationality, as that would theoretically avail equal rights to all its citizens, undermining its 'ethnocratic' identity. The claim that B.D.S., a nonviolent movement anchored in universal principles of human rights, aims to 'destroy' Israel must be understood in this context.
Would justice and equal rights for all really destroy Israel? Did equality destroy the American South? Or South Africa? Certainly, it destroyed the discriminatory racial order that had prevailed in both places, but it did not destroy the people or the country. Likewise, only Israel’s unjust order is threatened by boycotts, divestment and sanctions." -Omar Barghouti
-->The NY Times printed this amazing article in its op-ed section. We give credit to our newspaper of record for doing the right thing.
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Huffington Post::
"We think the American media is too weak in relation to the government, large corporations and other powerful groups. They are afraid. They do not meet the basic requirement of journalism, which is to investigate the behavior of these groups. Our organization was created in order to practice journalism without fear and to support its independence. Journalism is done with passion. ...
The more people know about information that was previously hidden, the more journalists and people will be inspired to carry out this type of work. It is also essential that a journalist's relationship with sources and issues occur without interference. Otherwise, the journalist may be afraid of being prosecuted or going to jail. Spying exacerbates it. Without trust between the source and the journalist, journalism will die and the information we consume will be compromised." -Glenn Greenwald
-->Maybe The NY Times will get around to printing some of the views of Glenn Greenwald too. Like Omar Barghouti, his ideas have been deemed just to "dangerous" for American readers.
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Common Dreams:
"Though Obama has promised cleaner energy at home, his policies are rapidly expanding the export of the world's dirtiest fuels. While the Obama administration continues to boast reductions in U.S. carbon emissions through the incorporation of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar, the darker side of America's changing role as a 'dirty energy dealer' and one of the world's top carbon pollution exporters is seldom told.
As journalist Tim Dickinson explores in a new feature-length piece for Rolling Stone, Obama's rhetoric of a reduced U.S. carbon footprint is betrayed by the increasing amount of carbon-intensive fossil fuels that are now being exported all over the world. And as critics of his energy policies continue to point out, the president is in danger of having the destructive realities of his climate related policies overwhelm the promises that he's made about addressing the dangers of a rapidly warming planet. ...
'The Obama administration wants to be seen as a climate leader, but there is no source of fossil fuel that it is prepared to leave in the ground,' said (Lorne) Stockman (research director for Oil Change International). 'Coal, gas, refinery products – crude oil is the last frontier on this. You want it? We're going to export it.' "
-->The NY Times supports Obama's energy policies, mostly because Wall Street does. The very rich run both parties, and control most of the nation's media as well. America's role of "dirty energy dealer" just isn't going to make it into mainstream news.
UPDATE: We reported last week on the Israel Lobby's "war with Iran" bill that had both Democratic and Republican sponsors in the Senate. Yesterday, The NY Times did a complete article on the bill and the Israel Lobby. Better late than never, although support for the bill has now collapsed, and our two NY Senators who both co-sponsored the bill were never mentioned in the story.
