<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Grains of sand: perspectives on roles of Israel and USA in Middle&nbsp;East]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>By <a href="http://www.redress.cc/about/writers#pjballes_bio" target="_blank">Paul J. Balles</a></p>
<p>16 January 2011</p>
<p><em>Paul J. Balles highlights six writers whose work in the alternative  media has brought important perspectives to one major issue: Israel and  the role of America in the Middle East.</em></p>
<p>In an article entitled &#8220;<a href="http://www.redress.cc/global/pjballes20110105" target="_blank">Weapons of mass deception</a>&#8220;, I suggested that there has been too much control of the mainstream media by too few people.</p>
<p>The result? Much gets left out, covered up or distorted to suit special interests like those of Rupert Murdoch.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.redress.cc/global/pjballes20110112" target="_blank">subsequent article</a>, I suggested reading writers in the alternative media, a facility that has grown significantly on the internet.</p>
<p>As might be expected, a few knowledgeable commentators suggested that  they had better choices of both websites and authors than those I  offered. No doubt.</p>
<p>My pick of both writers and venues is based on several criteria: (1)  they&#8217;re honest and reliable, (2) they often provide information  unavailable in the mainstream media and (3) they focus on political,  social, environmental, aesthetic or educational issues that concern me.</p>
<p>Thus, other readers&#8217; different interests will naturally lead to different writers in different places.</p>
<p>In my article “<a href="http://www.redress.cc/global/pjballes20110112" target="_blank">Grains of sand: highlights from the alternative media</a>”,  I quoted a number of my favourite authors on a variety of issues coming  through my lens: the establishment press, international relations, wars  and threats of war, Palestine and Israel, American weaknesses and  WikiLeaks.</p>
<h3>Israel and the role of America in the Middle East</h3>
<p>This week, I&#8217;d like to share my interest in writers who have brought  important perspectives to one major issue: Israel and the role of  America in the Middle East. Incidentally, six of my choice authors  (three here) are Jewish.</p>
<h4>Uri Avnery</h4>
<blockquote><p>”The country [Israel] is embracing the racist demon. After millennia  as the victims of racism, it seems as if Jews here are happy to be able  to do unto others what has been done to them.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h4>Franklin Lamb</h4>
<blockquote><p>“The 522 hour indiscriminate carnage, ‘Cast Lead’ that killed 1,417  Palestinians, mostly civilians, 352 of them children, injuring for life  more than 5,300 , indicts Israel as well as those countries that  continue to supply it weapons, diplomatic cover and to enforce Israel’s  illegal siege on sealed Gaza.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h4>Debbie Menon</h4>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;There will never be peace in the Middle East unless the US, the major  force which sustains Israel, withdraws its support, and Israel loses  its most important and essential crutches for its survival, the money of  the American people and the lives of American soldiers!&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h4>Mike Whitney</h4>
<blockquote><p>“US foreign policy doesn&#8217;t change. It is immutable, relentless and  vicious. America owns the world and demands that foreign leaders obey  Washington&#8217;s directives. ‘Follow orders, or else’; that&#8217;s all one needs  to know about US foreign policy.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h4>Jeff Blankfort</h4>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;&#8230;thanks to the unconditional backing by the US for all its crimes,  and given its arsenal of nuclear weapons, I consider Israel to be the  most immediate threat to the future of the planet.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h4>Alan Hart</h4>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;If it is the case that American presidents are frightened of  provoking Israel, the conclusion would have to be that the Zionist state  is a monster beyond control and that all efforts for peace are doomed  to failure.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h4>Gilad Atzmon</h4>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Israeli behaviour should be realized as the ultimate vulgar biblical  barbarism on the verge of cannibalism. Israel is nothing but evilness  for the sake of evilness. It is wickedness with no comparison.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h4>James Petras</h4>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;We are a people colonized and directed by a small, extremist and  militarist ‘ally’ [srael] which operates through domestic proxies, who,  under any other circumstance, would be openly denounced as traitors.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h4>Richard Falk</h4>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;We have witnessed the carnage of &#8216;pre-emptive war&#8217; and &#8216;preventive  war&#8217; in Iraq, but we have yet to explore the moral and political  imperatives of &#8216;pre-emptive peace&#8217; and &#8216;preventive peace.&#8217; How long must  the peoples of the world wait?&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.redress.cc/global/pjballes20110116">Grains of sand: perspectives on roles of Israel and USA in Middle East &gt; Global &gt; Redress Information &amp; Analysis</a>.</p>
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