3 killed, six injured in Israeli onslaught on Gaza

Israeli tanks fire at targets in the Gaza Strip. (file photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/24/268406/3-killed-in-israeli-onslaught-on-gaza/

At least three Palestinians have been killed and six others injured in attacks on the Gaza Strip by Israeli aircraft and tanks, as the wave of aggression on the besieged territory continues unabated, Press TV reports.

Two Palestinians were killed and four others injured when Israeli tank fire struck the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening.

And one Palestinian was killed and two others injured in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on the same day.

The attacks came hours after an Israeli army officer was wounded by a bomb on the Gaza Strip's northern border.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Hamas security officials said the bomb attack was carried out as Israeli troops were mounting an incursion into Gaza.

Four rockets were also fired from Gaza into southern Israel, but they caused no casualties or significant damage.

The Israeli military frequently carries out airstrikes and other attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying the actions are being conducted for defensive purposes. However, disproportionate force is always used, in violation of international law, and civilians are often killed or injured.

Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.

Ethnic cleansing continues as Tel Aviv approves building 800 new settlements in East al-Quds

 

A file photo shows a construction site in the Israeli settlement of Gilo in southern East al-Quds (Jerusalem). (File photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/18/267424/israel-oks-800-settlement-units-in-wb/

Israel has approved a plan to build 800 new illegal settlements in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) with tenders for construction expected to be announced within a few months, an NGO says.

The plan received final approval from the Israeli interior ministry on Thursday after it had been published for validation in a newspaper, AFP quoted an official for Peace Now as saying.

"It means that now, a tender can be issued to begin to build 800 housing units west of Gilo," said Hagit Ofran, referring to a large settlement in the southern part of East al-Quds.

"Two weeks from the publication of the ad in the newspapers, the plan is valid and contractors may apply for a construction permit from the Municipality," Ofran wrote on her blog.

"In the case of Gilo’s western slopes plan, which was initiated by the Israel Lands Administration, the contractors should win the bid in order to buy the rights to build, through a tender. Such a tender may be published in a few months," she explained.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and illegally annexed East al-Quds.

The Israeli settlements are considered illegal by the UN and most countries as those territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967, and are hence seen as being subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.

In his address to the UN General Assembly on September 27, Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel’s “catastrophic” settlement expansion as part of Tel Aviv’s ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians and its attempt to change the historic demography of the region.

Koch brothers threaten to fire employees if Obama wins

 

David H. Koch (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / AFP)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/news/koch-brothers-obama-vote-501/

The billionaire Koch brothers this month threatened to fire many of their more than 50,000 employees if they dare to vote for President Obama or any other Democrats in the 2012 elections.

The Kansas-based Koch brothers, who run a multi-national group of companies called the Koch Industries, sent a voter information packet to 45,000 of its Georgia Pacific subsidiary this month, threatening that “many of our more than 50,000 US employees and contractors may suffer the consequences” if they vote for Democrats. The packet also included an op-ed by David Koch endorsing Mitt Romney and one by Charles Koch slamming Obama, reported the monthly magazine, In These Times.

The brothers also warned that electing Democrats would also lead to other consequences, including higher gasoline prices, runaway inflation and “other ills.”

“This is true regardless of what your political affiliation might be,” reads the cover letter to the packet, written by Koch Industries President and Chief Operating Officer Dave Robertson.

The brothers have already donated millions to Republican candidates and conservative causes, including an $18 million fundraiser for Romney at a beachfront home this summer.

Their threat has created a culture of fear among their employees, who worry they could lose their jobs for expressing their opinions. In September, a group of unionized employees at Georgia Pacific posed for a photograph with Democratic state Senate candidate Arnie Roblan. After the packet arrived in the mail, they grew worried that if the picture fell into the hands of the Koch brothers, it could cost them their jobs – especially since the Georgia Pacific plant is in the background.

But Koch Industries is not the only company seeking to control the votes of its employees. Florida billionaire David Siegel, CEO of Westgate Resorts, recently sent out an e-mail to 7,000 employees describing possible consequences of an Obama win.

“I can’t tell you whom to vote for, and I certainly wouldn’t interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose,” Siegel wrote in an e-mail first published by Gawker. But the billionaire CEO then warned that Obama’s reelection would cost some of his employees their jobs.

“So where am I going with all this?” he asked. “It’s quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.”

This e-mail is not the first attempt Siegel has made to keep Republicans in power. Earlier this year he claimed to have been “personally responsible” for former President George W. Bush’s 2000 win, even though his methods may “not necessarily have been legal.”

The largest privately held US coal company, Murray Energy, was also found to have pressured its employees to donate money to Republican candidates, The New Republic found.

“We have been insulted by every salaried employee who does not support our efforts,” CEO Robert Murray wrote in a letter to employees, which listed names of those who had not yet attended fundraisers.

And last year, Delta Airlines offered free Washington, DC-bound flights to flight attendants who agreed to lobby for a Federal Aviation Administration bill that would make it more difficult for employees to unionize.

The Koch brothers threats are just the latest in a series of intimidation tactics by billionaire employers trying to encourage their large number of employees to vote like them.

 

Major Naval Deployment: War by Miscalculation, Mistake or Accident

 

By: Andrew Schoerke, member of “Veterans For Peace”

http://warisacrime.org/content/war-miscalculation-mistake-or-accident

The U. S. Navy is currently assembling four Carrier Strike Groups in the Arabian Sea and when in place it will be the most powerful carrier task force assembled since WW II. Although not yet announced, there is little doubt that the purpose of this sea power is to ride “shotgun” for a multi-nation countermining exercise to be held in the Gulf of Oman beginning September 24. Arguably, the exercise is also intended to show Iran that it should not attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz through which over a third of the world’s oil supply transits.

The origin of the escalating crisis with Iran goes back nearly thirty years to when it announced that it had begun a program to enrich uranium for medical research and for use as fuel for a nuclear reactor to generate electricity. Over time, and under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection, Iran’s program has advanced to the point where it has enriched significant amounts of uranium to a degree high enough that it would take very little to bring it to a high enough for a nuclear weapon. However, the international community isn’t buying the peaceful use of the material being put forth by Iran. Instead, it believes that Iran may be engaged in a rogue weapons program and has, therefore, placed more and more stringent sanctions on the country in an effort to force Iran give up its enrichment program. Because Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu believes a nuclear armed Iran is a threat to Israel’s very existence, he has vowed his determination to destroy Iran’s presumed capability to build a nuclear weapon.

However, Mr. Netanyahu has a problem. The American made F-15 and F-16 aircraft flown by the Israeli air force, have neither the range nor the bomb carrying capacity to take out Iranian air defenses or targeted enrichment facilities, most of which are deep underground. Since Israel does not have the strike force it needs, Mr. Netanyahu is trying to get the U.S. involved in his attack. But President Obama has stated, and the IAEA agrees there is no evidence that Iran has the capability to build a nuclear weapon nor is there evidence it even has one.

According to accounts being carried in Israeli newspapers and television stations, Prime Minister Netanyahu is determined to attack Iran before the U.S. national election on November 7. In response to this threat, Mr. Parviz Sarvari of the Iranian National Security Committee is quoted as saying:” If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.” Compounding the crisis, President Obama, on July 27, signed into law the United States-Israel Enhanced Cooperation Act which, among other things, mandates that the U.S. governmentprovide Israel aerial refueling tankers, missile defense capabilities, and special munitions.

It would be a gross miscalculation on Mr. Netanyahu’s part to launch an attack on Iran believing that the U.S. would come to his rescue using the firepower of the four Carrier Strike Groups in the Arabian Sea as well as other U.S. forces. Further, it would be a mistake on the part of the Iranians to strike at an American or multinational warship thinking that they had joined Israel in attacking their country. The most troubling circumstance, however, would be for some Israeli, Iranian or American, to accidentally begin shooting for no reason or without authorized command. Another Mideast war with the resulting human and economic costs for both the region and the world would be catastrophic.

Whether it is a war by miscalculation, mistake or accident, war is not the answer to this escalating crisis.

 

Explosion rocks Japan oil tanker in Persian Gulf

An undated photo released by Tokyo-based Mitsui
OSK Lines shows the Japanese oil tanker M Star.



Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=136542§ionid=351020205


An Iranian official says a Japanese oil tanker has been damaged in Oman's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf following an explosion.

"The fire which was triggered by an explosion on the deck of the vessel was contained with the help of the crew and regional forces," Fars News Agency quoted head of marine department of southern Hormozgan Province, Ali Akbar Saffai, as saying on Wednesday.

Stressing that the incident onboard the Japanese tanker, M Star, had taken place in Oman's trivial waters, Saffai said "the ship has left the region following coordination.

He rejected earlier reports saying that the accident had occurred in the Strait of Hormuz.

Japan's transport ministry has said the incident may have been an attack, noting that one crewmember had seen a flash in the horizon before the explosion.

"Since one of the crew saw a flash on the horizon immediately before the blast, the company suspects it was highly likely an attack," the ministry said in a statement, AFP reported.

Oman's coastguard has rejected the claim, saying there was no evidence of any attack on the tanker and instead cited a 3.2 magnitude earthquake in the Iranian port-city of Bandar Abbas as the source of a freak wave that hit the ship.

The Vessel's operating company, Mitsui OSK Lines, says the ship has 31 crew members -- 16 Philippines and 15 Indian.

The tanker was carrying 270,000 tons of crude oil but did not suffer a spill, Mitsui OSK Lines added.

Ahmadinejad: Israel terrified of Lebanese resistance

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=118918§ionid=351020101


Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the Zionist regime of Israel is so terrified of the Lebanese resistance and people.

The Iranian president made the remark in a phone conversation with the Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, ISNA reported on Thursday.

President Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah also discussed the latest developments in Lebanon and the region. He further praised Nasrallah's latest stance on the Israeli threats.

"The Zionists are really terrified of the resistance and people in Lebanon and the region," President Ahmadinejad emphasized. "But they (the Israelis) are looking for opportunities to make up for their past defeats in Gaza and Lebanon as they feel their credibility and existence are in jeopardy."

However, the president insisted, "They don't dare to do anything as they are afraid of the consequences."

The Iranian official further underlined the need for maintaining readiness against any potential Israeli threats adding, "If the Zionist regime want to repeat the same mistakes they previously made, they must be gotten rid of once and for all, so that the region will be saved from their nuisance for ever."

President Ahmadinejad then reiterated that to this end, the Iranian nation will remain along the side of the Lebanese and other regional nations.

The Hezbollah Secretary General, for his part, said that Lebanon and the resistance movement are in favorable conditions.

"We are not afraid of the Israeli threats and the Israeli threats will not work," Nasrallah said. "Strategically, Israel is not in a situation to wage a new war, but is after a psychological warfare with its threats… and of course, either way they will not get anywhere."