Burma - Once Again Israel Extends the Hand of Friendship to a Genocidal Regime

Israel's lessons from the Holocaust - Never miss an opportunity to sell arms - the nastier the regime the more profitable it is!

Once again Israel is up to its neck in supplying weaponry to a state engaged in genocide.  One might have thought that Israel, since it claims its legitimacy from the Holocaust might conclude that it is wrong to supply a barbaric and genocidal regime with weaponry.  However that would be to have illusions in the ‘Jewish’ state.  The only lesson Israel draws from the Holocaust is that Jews too should have the right to engage in genocide.

If Israel could trade arms with the Argentinian Junta from 1976-1983, which was busily murdering and torturing Argentinian Jews, then it is unlikely that the murder of the Rohinga people, who are after all Muslims, is going to weight on Netanyahu’s conscience.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin greets the Head of Burma's genocidal junta

Activists in Israel took the issue of Israel's arm sales to the High Court.  Not only did the court rule in favour of Israel's right to sell arms to any Nazi-like regime it wanted to but it tried to keep its verdict secret by issuing what is called a 'gag order'.  Israel, despite being  the 'only democracy in the Middle East' has comprehensive censorship.

Below is an article from Haaretz.

Tony Greenstein

Israel, Partner in Genocides

Sending weapons to a government that’s guilty of genocide is very similar to sending weapons to Germany during the Holocaust

Yair Auron Oct 02, 2017 11:10 AM

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing meeting in Jerusalem, September 10, 2017. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing's Facebook

This is the independent Israeli High Court in action

 The State of Israel is sending weapons to a country that’s carrying out ethnic cleansing. Once one couldn’t even imagine such a thing, but then it turned out that during the 1990s the Rabin-Peres-Meretz government was selling weapons to the genocidal governments of Rwanda and Serbia.

To send weapons to a government that’s guilty of genocide is very similar to (excuse the comparison) sending weapons to Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Our leaders nevertheless did this knowingly and desecrated the memory of the Holocaust in the process. It’s important to stress that they turned both you and me into criminals, into accessories to a crime and to abettors of genocide.

In Myanmar there is now a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” going on, as per the United Nations. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman can equivocate and lie, but the bitter reality is sad. Israel is the only democratic country, at least according to press reports, that is still sending weapons to Myanmar. European and North American countries have stopped doing so, even though there is no official embargo.

Eitay Mack, who has for years been leading the struggle against the criminal weapons exports by Israel – not private weapons merchants, but the State of Israel – to dubious regimes, petitioned the High Court of Justice to stop the defense exports to Myanmar. His petition was rejected and in an unprecedented move there was a gag order imposed on the full ruling, even though the case was handled in open court.

I had the privilege of submitting petitions with Mack against the sales of weapons by Israel to the murderous regime in Serbia, which conducted ethnic cleansing campaigns in the early 1990s, and at least one massacre in Srebrenica in Bosnia, and another petition against the weapons deliveries to the Hutu government in Rwanda, which conducted the fastest genocide in human history.

There’s a connection between the rejection of our petitions back then and the current reality. The petitions then were submitted after the fact, regarding crimes that had already been committed. The current petition and struggle is about the present. Today there are children and elderly people being murdered and women raped in Myanmar. There will almost certainly be more tomorrow.

We told the “leftist” High Court that exposing documents under the Freedom of Information Law could signal to the Israeli government that there are limits and restrictions on the sale of weapons to murderous regimes. The petition was rejected on grounds that it would undermine state security and the state’s security exports. But the success of the current struggle can save lives.

I’ve learned one thing from dealing with the Holocaust and genocide, and that’s the sacred value of human life and the equal value of human life, because we are all human beings created in God’s image. When we remember this basic fact, a lot of things become simple.

Prof. Auron is a genocide researcher who works to get the genocides of other peoples recognized.

Yair Auron

Wikipedia Faces Calls to Answer Why it Acts as Israel’s Censor

Israel Lifts Gag Order on Capture of 2 Israelis – an Ethiopian and a Bedouin Israeli

On Sunday I wrote about the gag order that Israel had placed on news of the capture, by Hamas, of Averu Mengistu, an Israeli Ethiopian.  What is the Difference Between Gilad Shalit and Avera Mengistu? One is White the other is Black

Mengistu family apartment in Ashkelon

On the Mint Press web site, where Richard Silverstein had broken the story I wrote:

TIME FOR ZIONISTS TO EAT HUMBLE PIE
Q. Why won't Hamas announce they captured an Israeli?
A. B/c it isn't true
Q. Does Israel leave only alleged 'blacks' captives?
A. Elhanan Tannenbaum, a white Ashkenazi was Hezbollah captive for over 3 years.
Harvela  If his lips moved he's lying . Much like you Greenstein
KilkulOlam  This gag order can be just another dilution of Silverstein. He has no proof this actually exist. He just says so.  This whole article is full of anti-Israel propaganda in the usual Silverstien tradition. If he truly believes in what he writes about Mengistu.....
Let us hope that KilkulOlam has the honesty to admit he was comprehensively wrong and apologise.
Harvey Garfield, being a friend of every anti-Jewish fascist, has long ago shed every ounce of moral decency, including the ability to discern the truth.
See The Times of Israel 9.7.15. Hamas holding two Israelis hostage in Gaza for months

Mengistu's parents

Of course the Israel right or wrong trolls won’t apologise, not least the fascists’ friend Harvey Garfield, but it shows them, once again, to be the liars they are.

Since the Israeli courts have now lifted the gag order, after an application by Ha’aretz, (whose own role in this affair has been atrocious) it appears that there is a second Israeli captive.  He is an Israeli Bedouin i.e. an Arab god forbid and clearly doesn’t count as a genuine citizen of Israel.  We cannot expect any efforts on the Israeli government’s behalf to get him released.  I mean, he’s not even Jewish!

Avraham Mengistu

The most disgraceful aspect of all is the utter bankruptcy and cowardice of Wikipedia which REMOVED an article on the capture of two Israelis by Hamas, because of the determination of Israeli Wikipedia to preserve their government’s censorship. 

Let us hope that Wikipedia takes a hard look at its role in this affair and ceases bowing to Israeli censorship, including the rewriting and ‘editing’ of articles on Palestine.

Israeli Police Obtain Gagging Order Preventing the Naming of Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg Arrested Fleeing an Accusation of Rape

Rabbi Shenburg is accused of raping fellow Jewish Israelis.  He is of the far-right, even in terms of the Israeli rabbinate.  He was ordained by Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who was Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel for 10 years and a follower of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the Zionist Nazi Kach movement.

Usually it’s the practice to protect the names of the victims of rapists.  But in this case Israeli Police have acted to prevent the naming of the perpetrator.  A gag order even prevents Israeli papers from knowing of the existence of such an order.

Orthodox Rabbi Accused of Rape Arrested Fleeing Israel, His Identity Under Police Gag Order (Except Here)

by Richard Silverstein on July 3, 2015

Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg, deposed after accusations of rape among married female followers

Israeli Orthodox Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg, until recently head of a yeshiva and other institutions in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, was arrested by Israeli police at Ben Gurion Airport as he attempted to flee the country.  His name may not be reported in Israel according to a judicial gag order obtained by the police.  He stands accused by married women among his followers of engaging in sexual acts and rape.  He was removed from his state-funded post after the investigation began.

Sheinberg was ordained by Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, then the chief rabbi of Tzfat.  The former founded a pre-military yeshiva in Tzfat in 1999.  This phenomenon has contributed markedly to the massive increases in settler officers and a rightist slant among the IDF officer corps.  He also led 3,000 settlers in prayer at Joseph’s Tomb a holy site in Nablus under contention between radical settlers and Muslims.

Rabbi Berland on his way to court in full religious regalia (EPA)

Sheinberg has cultivated relationships with the Israeli Orthodox women’s community.  This rebbetzin even boasts of taking spiritual and halachic supervision from him.  I imagine this passage may disappear from her website soon (unless she is one of his victims).

The yeshiva he founded, Yeshivat Ha’Ari, has removed his biographical page, which is preserved here (in Hebrew).

In a similar development, Rabbi Eliezer Berland is resisting deportation from Holland to Israel, where he stands accused of similar sexual crimes.  Berland has taken to donning his full religious regalia in court hearings, including tallit and tefillin.  This is certainly not just an exploitation, but a perversion of Judaism in order to save the neck of an accused sex abuser.  It would make Moses roll over in his grave and should make most Jews sick to their stomach.

Druze attack Military Ambulance Carrying al-Qaeda Terrorists

Military Ambulance that was attacked

Israeli papers are calling it a 'lynching'.  Another word might be justice.  Those who slaughter civilians aren't entitled to the benefits of Geneva Convention protection - be they al-Nusra or ISIS.

UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) troops move through Israel’s Golan Heights before crossing into Syria, August 31.. (photo credit:REUTERS/BAZ RATNER)

Despite the continuing pretence that Israel is only providing humanitarian assistance to Syrians, regardless of political affiliation, the truth is now widely known.  Israel has a de facto agreement with the Al Qaeda Al Nusra Front along the Syrian border.

Military Ambulance

This was highlighted a few days ago in a rather spectacular fashion when Syrian Druze from the village of Majdal Shams, who live in the Occupied Golan Heights, attacked an Israeli ambulance conveying 2 Al Nusra fighters to hospital, killing one and severely injuring another.  The reason for this was a recent massacre in North-West Syria near Idlib.

Meeting between al-Nusra and Israeli army earlier this year

Twenty-thousand Druze live in the Golan Heights as well as 110,000 in Israel.  Earlier in the year a Druze Sedki al-Maket, who photographed a meeting between Al Nusra and the Israeli security services, was arrested by Israel, which promptly instituted a gag order preventing news about it being published.  http://azvsas.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/israel-supports-isis-and-al-qaeda-in.html

The feeble Israeli explanation beggars belief.  Does Israel provide ‘humanitarian medical assistance’ to fighters from Hamas or Hezbollah?  Does it return them to Gaza and Lebanon afterwards?  No, what it does do is hold up pregnant Palestinian women at checkpoints until they or their child dies.

Tony Greenstein

lynching

Total of 12 people detained for suspected involvement in ambulance attack that left one Syrian dead and another hurt

Israeli police said Thursday they arrested three more suspects in attacks by members of the Druze minority on military ambulances transporting wounded Syrians to the hospital.

In one of two incidents Monday, one Syrian was beaten to death and a second was hurt in an unprecedented outbreak of violence by Druze on the Golan Heights that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “lynching.”

 Two soldiers were also injured in the incident while trying to protect the wounded Syrians. Both soldiers were also members of the Druze community, according to a report in Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth Thursday.

Syria’s Druze are traditional allies of President Bashar aAssad, and have become caught up in the fighting.

“During the night, police and border guards in the north arrested three more suspects from the Druze community suspected of involvement in the events,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

She said a gag order had been imposed on all other details of the investigation.

Police said they carried out a “wave of arrests” Wednesday, with media saying nine people had been detained.

Monday’s deadly incident took place hours after Druze in the neighboring Galilee region of Israel blocked and stoned a military ambulance they suspected was taking Syrian rebels to the hospital.

Both incidents demonstrate the anger felt by Druze towards the rebels and towards the Israelis, whom they suspect of providing medical help to the fighters.

Israel does not rule out the possibility that some of those given medical care are rebels.

Syria has said the two men in the ambulance were members of Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Israel says they were civilians.

The Druze are a secretive offshoot of Shiite Islam. Officials say there are 110,000 of them in northern Israel and another 20,000 on the Golan Heights.

New UN report reveals collaboration between Israel and Syrian rebels

NEW YORK – The Syrian ambassador to the UN has long complained of a Zionist conspiracy working with the Syrian rebels to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

Now, a report from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) reveals that Israel has been working closely with Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights and have kept close contact over the past 18 months. The report was submitted to the UN Security Council at the beginning of the month.

The documents show that Israel has been doing more than simply treating wounded Syrian civilians in hospitals. This and a few past reports have described transfer of unspecified supplies from Israel to the Syrian rebels, and sightings of IDF soldiers meeting with the Syrian opposition east of the green zone, as well as incidents when Israeli soldiers opened up the fence to allow Syrians through who did not appear to be injured.

At one point, a small tent city was erected around 300 meters away from the Israeli sector for about 70 families of Syrian deserters, the report said.

The Syrian army then sent a letter of complaint to UNDOF, warning them to evacuate the camp or it would be considered a target, and claiming that terrorists were using the camp to cross into Israel.

Israel’s health ministry says around 1,000 Syrians have received treatment in Golan hospitals, but maintains that only civilians are treated. The UNDOF report, on the other hand, says they have seen Israelis treating civilians as well as insurgents, including members of al-Qaida and Islamic State.

The report said UNDOF “observed at least 10 wounded persons being transferred by armed members of the opposition from the Bravo side across the cease-fire line.”

UNDOF has monitored the Golan Heights buffer zone between Israel and Syria since 1974. Six countries contributed to the 1,200-strong brigade.

UNDOF peacekeepers have been the target of kidnappings and attacks carried out by al-Qaida on the Syrian side since September, causing hundreds of troops to withdraw to across Israeli border.