LONDON - MASSIVE GAZA PROTEST

LONDON GAZA PROTEST Caption: 'View from roof of BBC'   Source - Twitter

That's massive!

GERMANY - Die Linke (the Left) - GAZA Rally - Factions, Infighting and Farce

Germany’s Left Party suppresses opposition to militarism By Ulrich Rippert 9 August 2014 The Left Party in Germany is using the war in Gaza to place itself unconditionally behind the national government’s foreign policy. It is deploying its resources against anti-war demonstrations, and seeking to isolate and suppress the Palestinian struggle. [...] Left Party federal managing director Matthias Höhn demanded the rally be cancelled. When the NRW section refused, he turned to the press and initiated a media campaign against his own party’s members. In a press release cited by Junge Welt August 5, he warned of anti-Semitic attacks before the demonstration and rally had even taken place. Höhn demanded that the protection of Jewish institutions be stepped up and stated that the synagogue in Essen would be a target of anti-Israeli participants in the rally—a thoroughly unjustified claim. At the same time, Höhn organised a pro-Israeli counter-rally at which his party colleague, Left Party leader in Brandenburg and parliamentary deputy Harald Petzold, appeared as the main speaker in support of Israel against the Gaza support demonstration. In spite of the tense atmosphere which had been incited, the protest in Essen against the Gaza war ultimately passed off peacefully, with around 3,000 participants. This figure was officially confirmed by the police. There were only a few anti-Semitic statements on the sidelines of the protest, which were immediately isolated and excluded by the organisers. [...] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/08/09/left-a09.html

MATTHIAS HOHN - wikipedia link - here.

Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)

Military service
Journalism and Communications studies
Registered partnership (same sex).

Party of Democratic Socialism link - here.

Die Linke Posted on April 2, 2014 by Chris Terry Die Linke (literally ‘The Left’). Die Linke is Germany’s newest parliamentary party. The party was formed from a merger between two left-wing parties, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative (WASG) The PDS was the legal successor of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), the former East Germany’s ruling communist party. The party continued to retain significant popularity in the East, winning up to a quarter of the vote in some Lander. The party’s support was negligible in the West, however, and the party won seats in the Bundestag because of the mixed nature of Germany’s electoral system.   [...]   The party was controversial in Germany for its links to the former communist regime, with leading members, including its leader, Lothar Bisky, accused of being connected to the Stasi (East Germany’s notorious secret police force, Bisky was an informer). The WASG was launched as a left-wing alternative to the SPD in 2005 in the wake of the controversy over the Agenda 2010 reforms. The party was boosted when it was joined by the former SPD leader, Chancellor-candidate, Saarland premier and finance minister Oskar Lafontaine later that year. Lafontaine was finance minister ...  clashed personally with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. He resigned from cabinet and his party positions in 1999. ... critiqued the party’s centrist course under Schroeder. Lafontaine became co-leader of Die Linke, with the former PDS leader, Lothar Bisky. Die Linke campaigned on a platform of opposition to economic liberalism in all its forms. Anti-capitalist, the party has a somewhat left-populist orientation. The party has attracted as a pole of attraction for far-left activists and the party has several ‘internal caucuses’ which vary from left-wing social democrats through to Communist and Anarchist factions. In several areas the party has run in alliance with far-left parties such as the German Communist Party. These links to the far-left have led to sections of the party, including around a third of MPs, being under observation by the Verfassungsschutz, Germany’s domestic security agency, which is charged with observing potential threats to the German constitution.  [What happened to democracy?] The party is deeply controversial amongst Germans for this reason, and although a left-wing SPD-Linke-Green coalition was theoretically a possibility in 2013, polls showed that SPD supporters actually preferred a grand coalition with the right-wing CDU. Bad blood between the SPD and former SPD members, such as Lafontaine, also complicate relations. Die Linke is generally held to divide along East/West lines itself. In the East, where it is stronger, and descended from the SED, the party has a more pragmatic, social democratic profile.  [...] In several East German states, CDU/SPD anti-Linke coalitions are common. The party’s Western component is generally formed by activists originating from the far-left and is perceived as much more extreme and radical. As an illustration of these tensions the party’s East German former co-leader, Gregor Gysi, was shown by a wikileaks leak of a diplomatic cable to have told the US ambassador that the party’s official policy of opposition to NATO was principally a ruse to keep the left of his party happy.  [...] Nonetheless, with the collapse of the FDP and the formation of the grand coalition, Die Linke is now Germany’s largest opposition party. While the party takes some support from the CDU, it is principally a headache for the SPD and Greens.  Since its arrival on the scene in 2005 the federal government has seen one right-wing government (2009-2013) and two grand coalitions, (2005-2009 and 2013 onwards). With Die Linke taking significant votes on the left and remaining beyond the pale for coalition it sometimes seems the best the German centre-left can hope for is a junior role in coalitions with the CDU. Die Linke claims to broadly support European integration, but opposes what it seems as neoliberal EU policies, it also seeks to democratise the EU. [...] http://europe.demsoc.org/2014/04/02/die-linke/

Political parties sound like crap!

It's not a bunch of people with solid core values.  It's a bunch of factions with quite different values.

And it looks like people are putting time and effort into presumably working for a group that's just playing at an 'official policy' (re NATO) ... that it has no intention of honouring!

I'd be really pissed off if I was in this party and I'd want out.

How's the German Verfassungsschutz (constitution security agency) watching these people?

Surely the system (ie government of Germany) is not THAT fragile.  

What do they think is going to happen if a bunch of these not-so-lefties are left to their own devices?

I'm really disappointed.  I had this romantic view of (leftie) politics and it's just been shattered by mediocrity, factions, backstabbing and what amounts to policy falsehood, going by the WikiLeaks cable.

 
.................................................................

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Gysi


GREGOR GYSI

Lawyer
SUP > PDS (post Communist)
Swiss-German name origin / part Jewish ancestry
Denied Stasi allegations.
Matter dropped, largely b/c parliamentary immunity.
Member of Bundestag - The Left / Die Linke

GAZA - Israel Cracks Down on People Speaking Against Gaza Offensive

HEY, WHERE'S THAT 'WESTERN' DEMOCRACY?

VIDEO - Is Israel's IRON DOME Defence System a Hoax?

Is Israel's IRON DOME Defence System a Hoax? SOURCE - The Paulstal Service - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uM0J0LI1ymA

No idea.  Is that possible or is that far fetched?

Video's interesting.

Don't know what to make of it.

........................................................................

Just checked out the rest of the videos of the source.
Looks like there's a heap of hoax type videos on the site.
So I'm going to guess that anything can be made to look like a 'hoax' on video.
Therefore, I doubt the Iron Dome is a hoax.

JIMMY CARTER: CALLS FOR RECOGNITION OF HAMAS

Israel-Gaza crisis: Jimmy Carter calls for recognising 'terrorist group' Hamas as a legitimate 'political actor Wednesday 06 August 2014 Jimmy Carter, the former president of the United States, has called on Western powers to recognise Hamas as a legitimate “political actor”. The 39th President said that the Palestinian group, which America defines as a terrorist organisation, cannot be "wished away" in an article he co-wrote with the former Irish president Mary Robinson for Foreign Policy magazine. “There is no humane or legal justification for the way the Israeli Defence Forces are conducting this war,” Carter and Robinson wrote. "Hamas cannot be wished away, nor will it co-operate in its own demise," they continued. "Only by recognising its legitimacy as a political actor — one that represents a substantial portion of the Palestinian people — can the West begin to provide the right incentives for Hamas to lay down its weapons.” [...] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jimmy-carter-calls-for-recognising-terrorist-group-hamas-as-a-legitimate-political-actor-9651450.html

Knew that he was supportive of Palestine but I had no idea he was also supportive of Hamas.
Well, of recognising Hamas.

That's mindblowing, considering his an American.

GAZA - Israel lobbying Germany for checkpoint guards - Germanys Christian Democrats want disarmement of Hamas

German approval for Gaza mission Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called on Germany to lead a control mission on the borders of the Gaza Strip. Politicians in Berlin say they can imagine giving their approval. Politicians from various parties can imagine Germany participating in a mission to control the Rafah checkpoint between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. "I personally believe that it's our duty, and that we must not turn a blind eye to what's going on," said Reinhold Robbe, the chairman of the German-Israeli community and a former parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces. "Germany has a special responsibility because of its history."  [What?  Is this exploiting a German guilt trip? Or am I missing the point?  And what's wrong with the US?  Why don't *they* stand guard?] Lieberman wants German leadership European border guards have controlled the Rafah checkpoint before. The first European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) to Rafah went from 2005 to 2007, after Israel ended its occupation of the Gaza Strip. But the European Union ended the mission after Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 and took control of Gaza in 2007. Over the past few days, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his counterparts in France and the United Kingdom have hinted at the possibility of taking up control of the crossing once again. Israel's foreign minister Lieberman sees Germany as 'Europe's leading political nation' [Flattery will get you anywhere.] The idea was welcomed by Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman in an interview with the German mass-circulation broadsheet Bild: The EU should "send inspectors that control trade between Gaza and its neighbors," he told the newspaper, adding that because of its "role as a politically leading nation in Europe" Germany ought to "assume responsibility as the leader of such a mission." Fresh escalation would have to be prevented by all means, Lieberman added. The question was "how to make sure that Hamas doesn't collect its terrorist strengths again and smuggle new weapons into the country." In an article to be published Friday in Bild, Steimeier said that he could see Germany having a role in Gaza following Israel's monthlong war there. "Together with our European partners, we are ready to make a contribution, for example with an EU monitoring mission of the border crossing," Steinmeier told Bild. "We are holding intensive talks with all sides to work out what would be necessary for this," he added.  [Partners?  Where have I heard that before?  Oh, yes, the US is big on 'partnerships'.] ... Will all sides agree? It remains unclear what Hamas thinks of the idea and whether Egypt would even agree to open the checkpoint. Leaders in Cairo have taken a tough stance on Islamists within Egypt, and they want to see Hamas isolated internationally. "The condition for Germany to take part is that all sides agree," said Niels Annen, the spokesman on foreign policy affairs for the Social Democrats (SPD). The news agency Reuters quoted deputy SPD group chairman Rolf Mützenich as saying that a relatively safe environment would have to be guaranteed and that that was not the case at the moment. Robbe, the president of the German-Israeli community, favors a UN mandate for such a mission. It was important to have military protection, he said: "I'm not sure it would be enough to send customs officials supported by ordinary policemen," Robbe told German public radio Deutschlandfunk. Roderich Kiesewetter, a security expert for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said that "having German soldiers on the ground is not an option because that would be unacceptable for Israel." Philipp Missfelder (CDU) wants Germany to help Israel disarm radical groups.  [Good luck.] The SPD's Annen said he still believes that opening the checkpoint under international control is the right way to go. "If you keep up the blockade, there will only be more tunnels in future," he warned. Members of the opposition Left party have already signaled their approval, even if the faction has traditionally been critical of German security forces' missions abroad. "If the EU can help, it should do so," Left foreign policy expert Stefan Liebich said. And he added that he would support Germany's doing its share of the work. Philipp Missfelder, of the CDU, suggested that Germany go a step further. "A control mission could help disarm radical groups in the Gaza Strip," he said.

Why are these foreigners interested in getting involved in the internal affairs of Palestine - ie the Hamas disarmament factor?

How long are foreigners expected to be checkpoint guards? 

Why are the Palestinians even corralled off on a tiny slither of land?

And good luck with the Christian Democrat plan on disarming Hamas.

US & NATO STAND BY ISRAEL - NO MATTER WHAT

Retired General Explains Why The US Military Puts Israel And The Arab States Under Different Command Structures Bryant Jordan, Military.com Aug. 7, 2014, 3:49 PM Most Middle Eastern countries, including Lebanon, Syria and Jordan fall under U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility (AOR). But Israel and the Palestinian territories, meaning Gaza and the West Bank, fall under U.S. European Command's AOR. One reason is that American military officials in the Middle East want to cultivate relationships with their counterparts in the region with some degree of isolation from the political strife between Israelis and Palestinians, according to retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, who commanded Centcom from 1997 to 2000. "When I got complaints from Arab nations that the U.S. policy leans to much toward Israel, I would say, 'Look at our relationship — we have a relationship separate from the Israel-Palestinian issue,'" he said in an interview with Military.com. Separating the conflict areas from Centcom helps the different factions in the region see the U.S. personnel they work with as their advocates, Zinni said. "They kind of think of us as 'my guys'," he said. "It makes it a lot easier than the distrust and competing for attention [that would come with having the same personnel dealing with adversaries], wondering what you're giving up about 'me' to 'them'."  [So this is merely impression management?  Ultimately, no separation can exist ... it's the US.] The latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militants that control Gaza, highlights the difficulty the U.S. military faces in balancing security interests in the region. The Pentagon rushed to rearm Israeli defense forces with American-made munitions — even while rebuking them for the conflict's lopsided death count. ...Even before the most recent conflict, the U.S. military reportedly toyed with the idea of putting Gaza and the West Bank under Centcom. In 2010, the head of the command, Army Gen. David Petraeus, asked the White House to approve such a move so the U.S. military could "be perceived by Arab leaders as engaged in the region's most troublesome conflict," according to an article by Mark Perry of Foreign Policy. While Petraeus later denied that he made such a request, he did say the idea comes up regularly among military officials during discussions of the command's area of responsibility: "Typically, there's a question of should we ask to have Israel and Palestinian territories included, because what goes on there is obviously of enormous interest to the rest of the Central Command area, which is the bulk of the Arab world," he said, according to an article by Philip Klein of The American Spectator. Splitting adjacent but rival countries into separate combatant commands isn't unique to the Middle East. The Pentagon already puts Pakistan in Central Command and India in Pacific Command. Again, the organization is less about geography and more about politics, Zinni said. "Pacom is seen as India's advocate and Centcom as Pakistan's advocate," he said. Even so, Zinni said keeping Israel and the Palestinian territories within Eucom has worked well so far and pointed to his own experience in the region as reason for continuing to do so. During the first Gulf War, he deployed to Israel with American Patriot missile defense batteries to try and destroy Iraqi Scud missiles before they hit the country. Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, then the Centcom point man, was trying to hold together a broad Arab coalition to push Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait, Zinni said. The last thing the American general needed was Israel wading into the war against Iraq — a move that would likely have collapsed the alliance, he said. "It was easier doing all that out of Eucom rather than Centcom, with Gen. Schwarzkopf holding together a fragile coalition in the region," Zinni said. Years later, when he himself took over Centcom, Zinni said, "the Israelis constantly wanted to come [in]." "They knew we had basically the Arab-Islamic world [in the command], but I pushed back," he said. "If they came to my headquarters, we would be suspect — the Arab countries would suspect we were releasing [to Israel] information that we gained from them." Chas Freeman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, said it was "a great struggle to keep Israel out of the fight" with Iraq during the Gulf war, and it remains unacceptable as a military ally for neighboring countries, including Egypt and Jordan. Even Israel's peace with Egypt is "a very cold peace, though warmer now that there is a military dictatorship," said Freeman, who later served as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. "So from a strategic point of view, [Israel] has no role in the region." Freeman also said that European Command falls under NATO, "which tends to line up the Europeans behind American support [for Israel], but that is becoming for difficult because of Israel's behavior in Gaza."  [Another shifty move, then?] The Economist reported last week that Israel's "pummeling of Gaza" has cost it dearly in the minds of many Europeans and even Americans. In one illustration of how israel is perceived in Europe, the magazine listed 17 countries and how they fared when people were asked if a country's influence on the world is "mainly positive" or "mainly negative." Israel came in at No. 14 for "mainly negative," just above North Korea, Pakistan and Iran. This week, Spain and Britain threatened to halt weapons sales to Israel over its bombardment of Gaza. Neither country is a major arms supplier to Israel, but the actions follow a spike in popular protests across Europe, with thousands demanding Israel withdraw and end its seven-year embargo on Gaza.  [Empty 'threats' to appease the protesters/voters, then?] Also in Britain, a minister with the Foreign Office resigned Tuesday after informing Prime Minister David Cameron that she could not support the government's Gaza policy. Cameron, who heads up the Conservative Party, has come under fire by the Labour Party for not coming down stronger against Israel, according to reports. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius offered tough words for Israel, saying on Monday that the country's right to self-defense doesn't justify "the killing of children and the massacre of civilians." These development could be a problem for Israel and, by extension, the ability of the European Command to meet its obligations, Freeman said. "If our allies in Europe take a different stand on Israel and Gaza [than we have], then the support for Israel becomes very, very difficult because you have to stage supplies there before they go to Israel," he said. [As if the US allies will ever go against US-ISRAELI interests.] Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., who served as assistant secretary of defense for manpower during the Reagan administration, said moving the territories into Central Command "would cause more trouble than it would be worth." "You'd be protecting them [Palestinians] from whom? And the 'whom' in many cases would be Israel," he said. "What would you have done in 2012 [when Israel invaded]? Would you move in and stop them from doing that? That's not going to happen." http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-us-military-considers-israel-and-gaza-european-2014-8?IR=T

So why are the US even involved in other people's business?

Why don't they put that same effort and expense into helping their own people -- like, how about provision of universal health care?

Oh, silly me.  It's all about the oil and the corporate interests and, ultimately, Imperialist Corporate USA.

Separate commands mean nothing.  As if anything that goes on in the Arab world is unknown to those in Israel.  

Guessing that those that deal with the US want make out like they're distanced from Israel.

The bottom line - literally - is that the Palestinians have no hope ... US will never intervene in their favour, and the NATO allies are bound to just stand by.

....................................................
See also 


US UNIFIED COMBATANT COMMAND - here.

European Command - here.

Central Command - here.

Pacific Command - here.

Could be interesting reading.  Will check out later on.

GAZA - PALESTINE - ISRAEL

HAARETZ Article In the July war Hamas fired 3,356 rockets at Israel, some of them short range, some long range, some medium range. But the most dangerous rocket Hamas launched in Operation Protective Edge was the 3,357th one. This invisible rocket was intercontinental. It struck hard at Israel’s most important support bases in five continents. It reached every home in America, caused huge damage in every European state and brought its deadly cargo even to South America, East Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Iron Dome failed to intercept the secret rocket. The air force did not succeed in diverting the destructive arrow head from its course. Neither the government nor the army knew how to block the blow that this rocket delivered to Israel’s strategic home front. They allowed the terrible sights of dead children, bombarded schools and shattered mosques to hand Hamas the biggest achievement – creeping delegitimization of Israel. We should not be confused. Israel was and remains in the right in this awful war. Hamas is a fascist organization, which attacked the neighboring democracy without justification, in a criminal attempt to kill Israeli citizens and cause the deaths of Palestinian residents. Israel did its best not to be embroiled in the violent struggle and to reduce to a minimum the harm to innocents during its course. So there’s no room for moral comparison between the two entities – one of them is moral and enlightened, the other tyrannical and murderous. But, regrettably, Hamas planned the campaign and prepared for it better than Israel in certain ways. It developed a malicious strategy intended to make Israel implement its terrifying power against itself. Since Israel had no decisive intelligence, it acted as Hamas expected it to act – it implemented its fire power in a way that harmed its international image. EXTRACT ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.609259

Looks like the Israeli's don't seem to get it.  Their focus appears very narrow and self-centred.

Israeli newspaper opinion seems to be that Hamas somehow waged a really good PR campaign, discrediting Israel internationally ... and even 'made' Israel 'implement' it's state of the art arsenal against itself, in some grand scheme to turn the tide against Israel (or something like that).

But it wasn't merely the evidence of the killings, injuries and damage done; it's the knowledge that the Palestinians are on the losing end, in every respect, in relation to Israel (with the blessings and support of the US and US allies) -- as they have been for decades -- and that the Palestinians really are open air prisoners of an occupation.

Anyway, that's how I see it.

CARNAGE UNLEASHED ON PALESTINIANS DEPENDS ON WESTERN SUPPORT

Gaza is a crime made in Washington as well as Jerusalem The carnage unleashed on the Palestinians is part of a decades-old routine that depends on western support Seumas Milne The Guardian, Thursday 7 August 2014 ... while the overwhelming majority of Palestinian dead are civilians – 430 of them children – and 64 of the Israeli dead are soldiers, it is Hamas that is branded terrorist, rather than the Israeli armed forces armed with the most sophisticated targeting technology in the world. It’s only necessary to consider for a moment what the reaction would have been if the death toll had been the other way round to realise how loaded are the scales of western moral outrage and selective the appetite for action. And it’s only by ignoring the entire history of the conflict that it can be portrayed as the result of some wearisome ancient ethnic hatred. This week’s centenary of the outbreak of the first world war should help. David Cameron claims it was fought for freedom. In reality, it was a savage industrial slaughter perpetrated by a gang of imperial powers to carve up territories, markets and resources. Far from defending democracy or the rights of small nations, Britain and France ended the war divvying up the defeated German and Ottoman empires between them, from Iraq to Palestine. A century on, we’re still living with the consequences. ... a British foreign secretary had signed the Balfour declaration, which on behalf of one people promised to a second the land of a third. Palestine would be a “home for the Jewish people” provided that nothing would prejudice the rights of the “existing non-Jewish communities”, as the Palestinians were described. So began its full-scale colonisation by mainly European settlers – something that could have happened only under colonial rule – which three decades later would lead to the establishment of Israel and the dispossession or expulsion of the majority of the Palestinian people. Four Arab-Israeli wars on, the 44% of Palestine allocated to the Palestinian majority under the 1947 UN partition plan had been entirely occupied by Israel – and the Palestinians were fighting a guerrilla war for self-determination and the refugees’ right of return. The other day I came across a copy of Newsweek magazine from March 1978, with a picture of an Israeli tank on the cover under the headline “Israel strikes back”. Then it was south Lebanon that Israel was punishing, not Gaza – and the “terrorists” of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation, not Hamas, that its forces were targeting. Israel staged an even larger-scale invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and occupied the south for another 18 years. Since the Oslo agreement of the early 1990s failed to produce the Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza it was supposed to, Israel has colonised, bombed and reinvaded the Palestinian territories it illegally occupies (along with Syria and Lebanon) time and again: in 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2012. The justification is always the same: the security of the occupier must be upheld against the resistance of the occupied and blockaded population. And at every stage Israel has had the military, financial and diplomatic support of the west, the US above all. Despite the hand-wringing, that backing has been unwavering throughout the past month’s devastation of Gaza. Not only is Israel’s right of “self-defence” in a territory it illegally controls upheld, while the same right is denied to the Palestinians, but the US, whose military aid to Israel runs to $3bn a year, has been re-supplying it with weapons as its troops and aircraft pulverised and massacred their way through an impoverished territory from which its captive people are unable to escape. Europe is in the same game. Britain has licensed the sale of a startling £8bn worth of military or dual-use equipment since 2010, and £42m of direct arms sales – including parts for drones and tanks used in the destruction of Gaza. ... EXTRACTS ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/06/gaza-crime-washington-jerusalem-carnage-western-support

Wow, good article from The Guardian.

Well worth a read.

Also gratified that the imperialist aims of WWI participants was mentioned.

Nothing has changed since WWI.  

US and its allies are bound to go to war for territories, market and resources -- just watch Ukraine.

IRAQ - ISLAMIC STATE - ISIS - KURDS - SINJAR

TWITTER New Yorker link - here.

Noticed this appears to be Carnegie Endowment retweeted.

Imagine Carnegie Endowment aren't friends of Palestine.

Carnegie Endowment is a foreign policy 'think tank'.  Would you believe they've got a Moscow centre?

Don't know about these NGOs (or is it a GO ... haven't checked funding).  Who would want foreign influence in their countries?

Sinjar is a town on the Iraq-Syria border.

Like what's happening anywhere else in the world changes what's happened in Gaza!

Gaza's like shooting fish in a bucket.

Sinjar's either Iraq or Kurd.

ISIS has a fair bit of weaponry by the sound of it.  Hey, they've also changed their name, I think.  Now they're the Isamic State, as far as I know.

The New Yorker writes:

Yesterday, a senior U.S. official told me that the Obama Administration is contemplating an airlift, coördinated with the United Nations, of humanitarian supplies by C-130 transport planes to the Yazidis hiding in the Sinjar mountains. There are at least twenty thousand and perhaps as many as a hundred thousand of them, including some peshmerga militiamen providing a thin cover of protection.  The U.N. has reported that dozens of children have died of thirst in the heat. ISIS controls the entrance to the mountains. Iraqi helicopters have dropped some supplies, including food and water, but the refugees are hard to find and hard to reach.

ISIS rolls over local forces and consolidates power. ISIS is not Al Qaeda. It operates like an army, taking territory, creating a state. The aim of the Sinjar operation seems to be control of the Mosul Dam, the largest dam in Iraq, which provides electricity to Mosul, Baghdad, and much of the country. According to one expert, if ISIS takes the dam, which is located on the Tigris River, it would have the means to put Mosul under thirty metres of water, and Baghdad under five.

One way to protect the innocent and hurt those who are terrorizing them would be for the U.S. to launch air strikes on ISIS positions. That option has been discussed within the administration since the fall of Mosul, in June, but it runs against President Obama’s foreign-policy tendencies. “The President’s first instinct is, ‘Let’s help them to do it,’ ” the official told me. “The minute we do something, it changes the game.” This time, unlike in Syria, it isn’t hard to figure out how to “help them to do it”: send arms to the Kurds, America’s only secular-minded, pluralistic Muslim allies in the region, and the only force in the area with the means and the will to protect thousands of lives.  

It seems delusional to imagine that there is such a thing as an Iraqi central government that should be given priority over stopping ISIS and preventing a massacre. That dream of the American project in Iraq is gone. But perhaps the Obama Administration is being more realistic. Yesterday, I also learned that the U.S. is, in fact, sending arms to the Kurds—just not openly. This was even more welcome news, though it’s too bad that the weapons didn’t reach the peshmerga in time to defend Sinjar. The U.S. Joint Operation Center in Erbil is helping peshmerga ground troops and the Iraqi air force to coordinate attacks on ISIS, providing intelligence from the sky. It’s a breakthrough that the Kurds and the Iraqis are cooperating at all. “For the moment,” the senior official said. “And it could all fall apart, because it’s lightning in a bottle.”

*Yazidi is Kurdish people linked to Zoroastrianism.  I think Zoroastrianism was the original faith in Iran (Persia).  How cool's that!  Didn't think there were any beyond India, where they fled to centuries ago, I think it was.  Find them interesting.

That sounds pretty full on.

If ISIS/IS operate as an army, what do al-Qaeda do?

It would seem odd to overtake territory and then to just leave it, which I'm guessing is what happens.

US - JEN PSAKI - GAZA - US JUSTIFIES ISRAEL KILLING OF PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS

NEW YORK POST ARTICLE Egging Hamas on By Post Editorial Board August 5, 2014 Note to John Kerry: If America is serious about protecting innocent Palestinians, get your State Department to stop encouraging Hamas to use them as human shields. This was the inadvertent effect of spokeswoman Jan Psaki’s remarks Sunday. ... FULL @ SOURCE http://nypost.com/2014/08/05/egging-hamas-on/

COMMENT

So what happened to the Israeli 'Iron Dome' ... is it on the blink?

Psaki is just providing the Israelis with the same 'excuse' for kill Palestinian civilians.

Don't know that I'd take anything Jen Psaki's got to say about Hamas as gospel.

......................................................................................

Here's Jen Psaki briefing the press on behalf of the US State Department -- but the brief is full of holes and based on 'evidence' that does not stand up to examination of the FACTS:

YouTube

Psaki: “Masters of saying one thing & doing another.” 28 July 2014 (Ukraine)

Published on 28 Jul 2014

Jen Psaki, State Department Spokesperson.
U.S. Department of State - Daily Briefing: July.28.2014
... 28 July - The US government has been desperate to produce information to back up its claims, but it would not release important information in such an unprofessional way if it was true, the head of the Institute for Political Economy Paul Craig Roberts told RT.

On July 27 the US State Department released satellite images via email “proving” that Russia was firing rockets at Ukrainian troops across the border. The images were posted on Twitter by the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. The four-page document, titled 'Evidence of Russian Shelling into Ukraine,' contains four satellite images, all dating between July 21 and July 25/26. The slides were prepared by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), and have a short description.
Read more: http://rt.com/op-edge/176072-us-image...

Source - ARKANAR (YouTube) - here.

......................................................................................

RT NEWS ARTICLE

‘Wrong time, altered images’: Moscow slams Kiev’s MH17 satellite data

Published time: August 01, 2014 10:27
Edited time: August 03, 2014 16:11 

Satellite images Kiev published as ‘proof’ it didn’t deploy anti-aircraft batteries around the MH17 crash site carry altered time-stamps and are from days after the MH17 tragedy, the Russian Defense Ministry has revealed.

The images, which Kiev claims were taken by its satellites at the same time as those taken by Russian satellites, are neither Ukrainian nor authentic, according to Moscow's statement.

The Defense Ministry said the images were apparently made by an American KeyHole reconnaissance satellite, because the two Ukrainian satellites currently in orbit, Sich-1 and Sich-2, were not positioned over the part of Ukraine’s Donetsk Region shown in the pictures.

Moscow claims weather and lighting conditions in the images were not possible at the dates and times Ukraine claims they were made, the Russian ministry said.

At least one of the images published by Ukraine shows signs of being altered by an image editor, the statement added. 

...

FULL @ SOURCE

SOURCE - RT NEWS - HERE.

 RT NEWS VIDEO

SOURCE - RT NEWS - HERE.

Kiev's (SBU secret services) evidence does not hold up to examination of FACTS. 

So it's fake.  LOL

I'm inclined to believe everything coming out of the US is FAKE.

 ......................................................................................

SBU - The Security Service of Ukraine (Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrayiny), or SBU, is Ukraine's special purpose law enforcement agency and main government security agency in a sphere of counter-intelligence activity and combating terrorism. [wikipedia]

Sounds like the Ukraine SBU should be renamed 'The Propaganda Ministry'.

GAZA - UK CONSERVATIVES - DAVID CAMERON'S MINISTER QUITS

UK minister quits over gov’t Gaza policy Tue Aug 5, 2014 Sayeeda Warsi, a British Foreign Office minister and the first Muslim to sit in the UK cabinet, has resigned over the UK government’s policy on Gaza. Warsi wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that, “With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister (David Cameron) and tendered my resignation. I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza.” Warsi is the first minister to resign on principle from the British government since the coalition was formed between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats in 2010. This comes as Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government has drawn criticism, including from the main opposition Labour Party, for not taking a tougher line against Israel over its military attacks on Gaza. On August 3, Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband criticized Cameron for failing to take a firm stance on Israel’s aggression against Gaza, saying the prime minister had failed to speak out about the Israeli atrocities. In addition, the British government recently came under fire after reports showed that the Israeli regime has been using weapons containing British-made components in the fatal aggression against the Gaza Strip. According to British media, arms export licenses worth $70 million have been granted to 130 British defense manufacturers since 2010 to sell military equipment to Tel Aviv. The Israeli military launched its recent offensive against the Gaza Strip on July 8. At least 1,867 Palestinians, including around 430 children, have so far been killed and over 9,500 others injured during the onslaught. Tel Aviv says 64 Israelis have been killed in the war, while Hamas puts the number at more than 150. Source - Press TV - here.

Good for her.  Right thing to do.

Unlikely Cameron's going to win the Muslim vote next election.

GAZA - GARNIER USA

TWITTER SOURCE - HERE.