US president-elect, Barack Obama, has remained silent amid mounting pressure for him to speak out against the latest Israeli strikes against Palestine. Israel’s unrelenting assault on Gaza has left over 300 people dead, and some are calling Obama’s silence a form of complicity.

“Obama has said that Israel has the right to defend itself from rocket attacks but my question to him is ‘does he believe that Palestinians also have the right of self-defence?’ - Silence sounds like complicity,” said Mark Perry, the Washington Director of the Conflicts Forum group, in an interview with Al Jazeera.

So Obama, enjoy the rest of that sun, surf and sand on your Hawaiian holiday - maybe if you ignore it for long enough the crisis in the Palestine will just go away…

According to Pak Alert Press agents from India’s foreign intelligence agency have been working in the Federally Administered Tribal Area’s (FATA) of Pakistan under the guise of diplomats and embassy officials in an attempt to destabilise the region.

Indian intelligence network in Afghanistan

Yesterday, Vic Alhadeff, a “senior Zionist organisation official,” posted an article on ABC Unleashed excusing Israel’s flagrant disregard for human life, and justifying their latest actions by portraying Israel as the victims of a terrible onslaught by Hamas:

“Backed by Iran, Hamas’ widespread and systematic attacks against Israel are a crime against humanity because they are aimed intentionally at killing and maiming Israelis and maximising civilian casualties,” said Alhadeff.

Hamas rockets have only killed around 20 Israeli’s in the past two years, whereas since Israel’s latest attack on Gaza well over 300 Palestinians, mainly all innocent civilians, have been brutally killed in just five days.

Antony Loewenstein, journalist and author of My Israel Question, together with Dr Peter Slezak, a senior lecturer from the University of New South Wales, replied to Alhadeff’s piece of media relations spin with an excellent article that puts Israel’s actions back into perspective:

Israel no victim

By Antony Loewenstien and Dr Peter Slezak

Vic Alhadeff is a senior Zionist organisation official. His Unleashed article provides an opportunity for analysis that is instructive about our media and intellectual culture. The very persuasiveness of Alhadeff’s case for Israel is the reason it deserves attention. It misrepresents the uncontroversial facts and the moral issues at stake.

Alhadeff rehearses official lies of the Israeli government that are, moreover, uncritically repeated by our politicians and “free press”.

Alhadeff portrays Israel as a victim of implacable, irrational foes who are bent on gratuitously “killing, maiming and terrorising as many civilians as possible”. At a time when Israel is committing unprecedented violence, such reversal of the facts requires contempt for an audience who is expected not to know better. Israel’s actions are comparable to their killing of stone-throwing children with rifles and tanks.

Israeli victim-hood is the premise on which the public relations machine relies to warrant their military actions. On this picture, a well-meaning, peace-loving Israel offers generous treaties and truces that are rejected by fanatical, fundamentalist terrorists in favour of murdering Jews. The story line is that, finally, Israel had no choice but to invade the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas.

This story can only convince an audience that does not know the facts and these are either falsified or left out altogether by Alhadeff.

First, the central factual claim on which the entire campaign rests concerns the relentless rocket fire against Israeli citizens that finally became intolerable and the justification for large-scale air-force strikes. As Israel’s own newspaper Haaretz reminds us: “Six months ago Israel asked and received a cease-fire from Hamas. It unilaterally violated it when it blew up a tunnel, while still asking Egypt to get the Islamic group to hold its fire.”

Haaretz reports Israeli ministry of defence sources who reveal that plans for the operation were made over six months ago, at the same time as Israel was beginning to negotiate the truce agreement with Hamas. Nevertheless, the media and politicians have consistently reported the official Israeli lies, re-writing history effectively as it happens.

However, even if the Palestinian violation of the cease-fire were true, it would not justify the current intense military assault on Gaza which is the most destructive since 1967. Israel has declared Gaza to be a “special military zone”, a classification that is one degree below a declaration of total war against an enemy state.

While the rocket fire is illegal under international law, it does not give Israel the right to respond against the population of Gaza since collective punishment is unequivocally prohibited by the Geneva conventions. This comes after the collective punishment of Israel’s devastating blockade for which it was condemned by the UN and human rights groups around the world. The blockade had already created a severe humanitarian crisis with shortages of bread, fuel, ink, paper, electricity, medications and hospital equipment among other elementary necessities of life.

A separate violation by Israel concerns the targeting of civilians. Since Hamas is a legitimate, democratically elected political party that controls the government, security-related institutions are civilian targets including police departments and uniformed officers. Other targets are incontestably civilian such as factories, mosques, a television broadcasting centre, university and other sites that have been demolished with loss of innocent life.

The excuse that Hamas is to blame for placing military sites among the population would not justify killing civilians even if it were true.

Another clear violation of international law is the grossly disproportionate scale of the military attack. Alhadeff’s rehearsing of official Israeli excuses for a massive military over-reaction to the supposed provocation is an attempt to excuse the inexcusable.

The rocket fire has claimed altogether a handful of Israeli lives despite Israel’s unprecedented military assault - clear evidence of how little threat Hamas rockets pose for Israel. To put Israel’s aggression into perspective, we must juxtapose the claims of urgency and “no choice” with the entire history of harm caused by home-made rockets: altogether around 20 fatalities in the past two years.

Alhadeff is certainly correct in noting that Hamas is listed as a “terrorist” organisation - but this just reflects the Orwellian terminology used by Western commentators to exclude Western crimes by definition, regardless of their scale. By any meaningful definition, Israel is responsible for large-scale terrorism, if the facts make any difference.

In 1982 during the first Lebanon war, Israel killed around 17,000 civilians - by far the largest act of terrorism in the Middle East, but conveniently forgotten by Alhadeff and media commentators. The 2006 Lebanon war cost around 1,000 lives and involved cluster bombs against civilians and other forms of terrorism including gross violations of international law.

Another revealing omission from Alhadeff’s version of history is the 40-year military occupation and its toll on Palestinian lives. However, perhaps most glaring is Alhadeff’s failure to even hint at the crushing blockade of Gaza. Contrary to the picture retailed by Alhadeff, Hamas showed remarkable restraint under the most desperate conditions and extreme provocation.

The exaggeration of the danger posed by home-made missiles leaves no doubt that the Israeli attack on Gaza was driven by political and not security motives. The posturing before forthcoming Israeli elections is widely cited as motivation for this military adventure.

The mainstream understanding of what goes on in the world is often the reverse of the truth. In light of the facts, it is regrettable that the Australian government has uncritically echoed Israeli-American talking points.

Contrary to standard perceptions, since its election in 2006 Hamas has consistently offered negotiation with Israel and expressed a willingness to accept a two-state solution based on 1967 borders. As Harvard Middle East expert, Sara Roy, has pointed out, Israel pretends that they have no partner for peace precisely because they know that the reality is quite the opposite.

Even the Australian Jewish News (AJN) recently expressed the need for friends of Israel to be critical of the Jewish state. This view was widely shared by around 500 signatories of a statement published by Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) () in 2007 who urged a wider and more honest debate over Israel and Palestine.

Alhadeff’s article has interest as an example of apologetics in the service of power and state crimes. He does not contribute to the well-being and security of Israelis or Palestinians.

Israeli peace group Gush Shalom published a statement in Haaretz on December 30 calling for an immediate cease-fire, arguing that the war is “inhuman, superfluous” and that “nothing good for Israel will come out of it”. They further point out that the attack will deepen hatred for Israel, “arouse the whole civilized world against us” and “undermine even more the status of peace-seeking Palestinians”.

12 dead, 201 cases of repoted abuse, 41 cases of assault, 74 journalits sustained injuries, 118 cases of intimidation and threats.

Intermedia, an independant NGO operating in Pakistan, has released a report on the state of the Pakistani media in 2008.

The report highlights the dangers journalists face on a daily basis whilst doing their jobs and details the mounting abuse journalists face who currently work in Pakistan.

Intermedia are advocates for freedom of speech and information within the Pakistani media. They also keep a close eye on any violations to media freedoms and any forms of abuse endured by journalists working in Pakistan.

The report (below) was also written up in The Frontier Post, a daily newspaper published in Peshawar and Quetta:

“ISLAMABAD: Attacks against media in Pakistan in 2008 reflected the general
trend of violence in the country with 12 journalists killed and over 201 cases of
abuses recorded against the media in the year, a new annual report on the
state of media reveals.

Three journalists each were killed in violence in Punjab and North West Frontier
Province, two each in Balochistan and Sindh and one each in Islamabad and
the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the research report produced by
Intermedia, a Pakistani media research and development non-governmental
organization, and released here Sunday, reveals.

A separate case was recorded of a journalist based in Punjab who committed
suicide because of financial problems.

The research report, available along with other annual media research reports
on www.intermedia.org.pk, also recorded 13 cases of arrest or abduction in
which a total of 40 journalists were victims during the year. Of these, five
incidents were recorded in Sindh in which five journalists were arrested by law
enforcement agencies or abducted by unknown persons.

Similarly, 27 journalists were arrested or abducted in FATA in three incidents, five
journalists in two cases in Balochistan and one journalist each in single cases in
NWFP and Islamabad.

The research also recorded at least 41 cases of assault or injury in 2008 in which
at least 74 journalists sustained serious or minor injuries. Of these there were 27
victim journalists in 16 cases in Punjab, 12 journalists in five cases in Balochistan
and 12 journalists in eight cases in NWFP, five cases in Sindh and four cases in
Islamabad.

At least 118 cases during 2008 were also recorded of intimidation and threats
reported by journalists. Of these 39 journalists belong to Punjab, 34 to Islamabad,
22 to Sindh, 10 to NWFP, nine to FATA and four to Balochistan.
The report also recorded four cases of attacks on media property, one each in
Islamabad, Punjab, Sindh and FATA.

A total of 20 cases were also recorded on ban on publications or gag orders by
the government authorities of which 10 were in Islamabad, four in Sindh, three in
Punjab and one each in NWFP, Balochistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
The Intermedia research report reveals that at least 208 cases of violations
against media in Pakistan occurred during 2008 and the most dangerous place
to practice journalism was Punjab with a total of 64 cases of violations against
media recorded in the province.

The next most dangerous place was Islamabad with a total of 51 cases of
violations against media based in the federal capital, 39 in Sindh, 22 in NWFP, 16
in FATA, 14 in Balochistan and one each in AJK and Northern Areas.

The statistics also reveal that during 2008, on an average every month one
journalist died, more than three were arrested or abducted, six were injured in
assaults, about 10 were threatened or intimidated, nearly two media
organizations were issued gag orders and overall more than 17 cases of
violations against the media occurred each month.”

Upon the Surrender of thousands of Taliban prisoners to US allied troops in Afghanistan in 2001, Jamie Doran, former BBC producer, reports in his film Afghan Massacre - The Convoy of Death, on the humanitarian atrocities that took place under the watchful eyes of The US military.

Some three thousand prisoners were loaded into sealed metal containers to be transported by truck to Sheberghan prison.

Roughly 20 minutes later cries could be heard coming from inside the containers as oxygen began to run out.

US allied Afghan soldiers then fired shots into the containers, killing prisoners indiscriminately.

The road trip lasted for up to four days. Many of the prisoners were dead on arrival, the rest were re-directed into the desert by US Special Forces, murdered and dumped into mass graves.

This massace happened in 2001 - Its now only six days away from 2009 and still very little has been done about this and other US led war crimes.

Pakistan’s military is now in a state of high alert, as a possible attack by India becomes more probable.

Blogger, writer and close friend, Danielle Ali Shah, who now lives in Pakistan, informed me today that it is “Looking like a war will erupt here at any minute - We have had war planes flying over all day every day this week. We are all expecting to hear bombs dropping at any time,” she said.

Aljazeera English reported that the only surviving attacker from the Mumbai hotel blasts last month had handed over a letter saying that all 10 attackers were from Pakistan.

“Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Pakistan, said Pakistan’s media had attributed its reports to military sources, who were confirming that the navy, air force and army were on red alert

Hyder said that the chiefs of Pakistan’s three armed forces were holding what had been described as an emergency meeting at general headquarters in Rawalpindi.”

The peace process between the two nations, initiated in 2004, has become heavily strained since the Mumbai attacks - Pakistan and India have fought three wars since the partition and independence from Britain in 1947 and are now looking down the barrel of a fourth.

As the US continue to bomb parts of Pakistan and wage asymmetric warfare in the border regions, an additional 30,000 US troops are to be deployed to Afghanistan by mid 2009.

The increase in military might, according to the US commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, is to combat the swell of insurgent forces coming predominantly from Pakistan.

So why has Washington promised to provide more than $300 million a year in military aid to Pakistan over the next five years when it looks like an invasion is on the cards?

An increase of US incursions into Pakistan, an increase of US troops into Afghanistan, an increase of US military aid into Pakistan - go figure.

CNN report on US missle strikes in Pakistan

The following article was published in Online Opinion on December 15, 2008:

Bush’s democracy of hypocrisy

Two rigged elections, 9/11, the hunt for Osama, Saddam’s WMDs, a pre-emptive strike and the war on terror. A b-grade Hollywood movie? Or the past eight years of Bush in the White House? Writes Reuben Brand.

The new millennium was ushered in with the Y2K bug and the inauguration of the 43^rd President of the United States of America.

One of these was a malicious virus that would spread throughout the world wreaking havoc wherever it went; the other was a computer related problem.

A lengthy election campaign saw Vice President Al Gore officially beat George W. Bush in the National Popular vote by over half a million. But Gore’s polar ice caps were soon to be melted as Bush fired up his election warming campaign and coerced the state of Florida to victory.

Bush’s brother Jeb was conveniently positioned as the Governor of Florida and his campaign co chair Katherine Harris by some fantastic twist of fate just so happened to be Florida’s Secretary of State.

Harris was responsible for purging 57,700 people from the electoral role on the premise that they were all convicted felons; even ex-offenders whose rights had been legally restored were illegally erased.

There were also numerous accounts of people being convicted of crimes years into the future; one man was convicted of a felony on January 30 2007. Don’t ask me how these masters of time and space did it, but as a result of this slight clerical error as Harris put it; over 4000 alleged conviction dates were then deleted from Florida’s electoral role.

It turned out that roughly 90 per cent of these people were not felons after all, and not so surprisingly over 50 per cent of them were of African American and Hispanic descent. A mere coincidence that they were all predominantly Gore supporters and had little to no intention of voting for Bush and his purging posse.

So the votes were counted, eyebrows were raised and they were recounted, until an adherent Republican majority on the U.S Supreme Court had it stopped and George W. Bush was un-triumphantly sworn into office.

On September 11 2001, an estimated 2762 people tragically lost their lives; a city lost two iconic towers and the Bush administration lost what little credibility it had left as the war on terror and pre emptive strike doctrine was announced to the world.

The USA PATRIOT Act was passed without hesitation or question in the darkest hours of the night and gave the Bush Administration the legal right to listen in on its own citizen’s phone calls, to read their emails, intercept their text messages and faxes, access personal health and financial records, and enter homes and offices without the consent of either owner or occupier. Not bad for a days work, especially when it’s all in the name of freedom and democracy.

Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, W.M.D. and Terrorist had become the four most over used words in Bush’s vocabulary as he escalated his pro war rhetoric. And the world began to shudder at the recognizable sound of his oil hungry war machine.

In a brilliant piece of public marketing one year later on September 12^th 2002, President Bush addressed the United Nations Security Council regarding military action against Iraq. Not that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11 or Bin-Laden for that matter, but that didn’t seem to bother anybody at the time.

Suddenly Iraq was stockpiling Weapons of Mass Destruction. Hans Blix, the United Nations chief weapons inspector couldn’t find any, but Bush and his buddies were certain Saddam was hiding them somewhere in that big sand pit of his.

Operation Iraqi Liberation was to be a great success and finally the cowboy commander in chief would be able to liberate all of the oppressed oil from Saddam’s tyrannical regime.

I guess the small and ever so trivial fact that the US had already ratified and signed the Iraqi Liberation Act in 1998 had nothing to do with their intentions in the region, or the imminent invasion.

The US and the coalition of the willing ignored UN Security Council procedures and pursued without any authorisation, an invasion deemed illegal under international law. Operation Iraqi Liberation or Operation Iraqi Freedom as it was quickly renamed to avoid the acronym of OIL had given itself the green light.

In the early hours of the morning on March 20 2003, the skies over Baghdad were stained with the blood of Bush’s biblical battle. The city was burning as innocent civilians were blown to bits and the pre emptive strike shock and awe was hailed as a military success.

With the fall of Baghdad and Bush’s triumphant ‘mission accomplished’ speech, the world had forgotten about the already decimated Afghanistan and it’s freshly hand picked puppet government. This was a convenient breather for the wartime President, as he had unfinished business back in the homeland.

Masses of e-voting glitches, voter intimidation and suppression, a larger number of votes than there where voters and foreign monitors being barred from polls; It’s not election day with Robert Mugabe, but rather the 2004 US election.

Computers were loosing entered votes and there were multiple accounts of machines producing a vote for Bush when the voter pressed the button for his opponent John Kerry. The Bush administration was definitely leading by example in its moral battle for freedom and democracy.

In one of his many speeches about Iraq, President Bush addressed the world and said “We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas”, but the only chemical agents found in Iraq were those that US marines had used on Iraqis.

White Phosphorous or WP as it is known as by the marines is a chemical weapon usually used as a dense smoke screen; but the effects upon human contact prove to be fatal. Exposure to WP results in extensive second and third degree deep tissue burns, as the phosphorous is absorbed into the body it causes major internal organ damage and even multi organ failure. But it doesn’t count as a chemical weapon when the ‘good guys’ use it… does it?

In his term as President, George W. Bush has invaded and overthrown two countries, threatened an imminent strike against a third and has illegally detained hundreds of innocent people in concentration camps like Abu Ghraib, systematically stripping them of all basic rights and subjecting them to routine humiliation and torture.

From a supposed retaliation to the 2762 lives lost in the 9/11 attacks George W. Bush and the coalition of the willing have caused the violent deaths of over 1.2 million people, mainly all civilians. On average that is 657 innocent deaths per day for the past five years, and for every one person that lost their life on September 11 2001, US led forces have killed approximately 434 Iraqis.

Bear in mind that in the time it has taken you to read through this article on average five innocent Iraqis have just been killed.

The following cartoon was selected for heat eight of the inaugural New Matilda Political Cartoon Competition… Didn’t make it passed heat eight, but it was a good laugh none the less:

"US Riding the World" - Reuben Brand

The following is a ceramic plate I painted and donated for the annual FONAS Charity Plate Show - A one night only auction of over 150 hand made plates painted by eminent artists and public figures.

"US Foreign Policy" - Reuben Brand