alanjjohnstone
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Interesting article on why Gaza has so many Palestinians.https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/06/necessity-to-expose-israels-self-indictments-in-gaza-protests/Also related to the rights of [Jewish] refugees to return upheld in Israeli courts
Quote:Under Israeli law, Jews who can prove their families lived in East Jerusalem prior to 1948 can claim ownership rights to property. One, of many examples ─ in 2013, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Jewish person as owner of a house occupied by the Palestinian Shamasneh family for 50 years.The "liberal" Pope Francis demonstrates that on some issues his Papacy has not reformed itself.https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pope-abortion/abortion-to-avoid-birth-defects-is-like-nazi-eugenics-pope-idUKKBN1JC0WU"… the practice of having an abortion after pre-natal tests have discovered possible birth defects a version of Nazi attempts to create a pure race by eliminating the weakest. Children should be accepted as they come, as God sends them, as God allows, even if at times they are sick,” he said "
Gordon Nardell QC will adopt only part of the internationally recognised definition of antisemitism – reportedly omitting examples relating to Israel.It seems a non-zionist Jewish lawyer isn't qualified to investigate anti-semitism … who are the real anti-semites, i wonder.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/holocaust-song-auschwitz-alison-chabloz-sentenced-jail-jewish-antisemitic-social-media-a8398611.html"… the sentence “sends a strong message that in Britain, Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories will not be tolerated”. “Chabloz is a remorseless and repulsive antisemite who has spent years obsessively inciting others to hate Jews, principally by claiming that the Holocaust was a hoax perpetrated by Jews to defraud the world,” he added, calling her a “pathetic and insignificant figure”…."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-town-arab-house-sale-racism-protests-afula-nazareth-a8398326.html“The residents of Afula don’t want a mixed city, but rather a Jewish city, and it’s their right. This is not racism,“ Mr Malihi, deputy mayor, said, according to Haaretz.The deputy mayor of the northern Israeli town of Afula has joined a demonstration calling for a house in the community not to be sold to an “undesirable” Arab-Israeli family. Approximately 150 people marched through the town’s streets on Wednesday afternoon to protest against the owners of a house in the Yizrael neighbourhood who decided to sell to Arabs.
Just on the question of Jewish assimilation-integrationism, this i think can be linked to class.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_German_National_Jews 80 percent of the analyzed activists were self-employed. Physicians and lawyers constituted the dominant professions. They blamed the migrant Jews from the East, the Ostjuden, as the cause of anti-semitismhttps://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11140
A related itemhttps://countercurrents.org/2018/06/12/freethinking-writer-and-politician-shot-dead-in-bangladesh/Shahzahan Bachchu was known locally and within the secular Bangladeshi movement as an outspoken, sometimes fiery activist for secularism. He printed poetry and books related to humanism and freethought via his publishing house Bishaka Prakashani (Star Publishers) was shot and killed near his village home at Kakaldi in Munshiganj district near the capital Dhaka by four men riding two motorcycles.Various government official including the prime minister Sheikh Hasina have blamed the attacks on atheists criticizing religion, and threatened prosecution under the ICT Act, which criminalizes “hurting religious sentiments”.
An article going into more detail of how the right-wing anti-semitic governments are backing Israelhttps://truthout.org/articles/why-antifascist-and-pro-bds-work-go-hand-in-hand/
Credit where credit is due. Anything that reduces the threat of war is to be welcomed. Regardless of Trump, this is perhaps his greatest foreign policy achievement, something akin to Nixon's ping-pong diplomacy, or Reagan's Evil Empire strategy to bring don the Soviet Union.However, we have to ponder the difference in approach to Iran and wonder if, as many suspect, the US is acting in the interests of Israel in regard to Iran.The agreement with North Korea has no verification process for de-nuclearisation and there was no insistence upon access to North Korea's nuclear facilities. In an interview i watched, Trump says the US will be able to monitor the dismantling but then contradicts himself a little bit later by admitting the US has very limited intelligence capability when it comes to North Korea. He also said the question of no human rights in the dictatorship was not an issue for him.When asked about the difference with Iran, Trump could only refer to the so-called $170 billion Iran is receiving and the interviewer failed to explain that this cash being given to Iran is its own funds frozen and stolen by sanctions.As i said, anything that reduces the threat of confrontation is something we can applaud and i await Trump to talk directly with Iran's ayatollahs….but we know Israel will not endorse such talks…
How accurate the saying is, i have no idea, but people say you judge people by their friends.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Austria's Chancelor Sebastian Kurz as "a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people."He made no mention of the fact that the Kurz government is in coalition with the neo-Nazi Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), founded by former Nazis in the 1950s. The FPÖ controls the foreign, interior and defense ministries, and although foreign minister Karin Kneissl is not officially a member of the FPÖ, they nominated him for the post. In exchange for possible Israeli tolerance towards the FPÖ, there has been speculation Kurz might agree to follow the US, Guatemala and Paraguay in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Austria was one of four EU countries which attended the event celebrating the US embassy move to Jerusalem in May. The others were the Czech Republic, Romania, and Hungary.http://www.dw.com/en/austrian-chancellor-sebastian-kurz-in-israel-vows-to-fight-anti-semitism-promote-israeli-security/a-44164344
Another article worth a read – the manipulation of the Israeli publichttps://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/11/have-you-been-brainwashed-about-gaza/
Quote:Not a single one of the hundreds of TV news program presenters ever corrects such statements by correspondents. Because the directors, presenters, commentators and correspondents are themselves thoroughly brainwashed. The army spokesman knows the truth, of course, but he is a central cog in the brainwashing machine.Just to nit-pick but the CEO himself does not determine his worth but the whole board of directors and more often than not some sort of appointed committee. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2015/11/18/who-really-determines-ceo-salary-packages/#21f7bbf1a32bhttps://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/how-companies-decide-ceo-pay/530127/What does a CEO do in return for his generous remuneration? They do not in any real sense run the company, since big corporations are far too complicated to be managed by individuals. Rather, they concern themselves with the company as a profit business, often having little-detailed idea about what it actually produces, and give orders that others have to implement. If the share price keeps rising, irrespective of any medium- or long-term benefits to the company, then shareholders and directors are happy. And what is the main criteria to make a profit? Keep wages low.Of course, different national capitalists have different benchmarks. "Socially necessary labor-time is a myth." If after three days work you have produced sufficient value to replace your wages But if the workers in the factory down the road can reproduce the value of their wages in 2 days, while producing the same product, then one day of your work is not socially necessary, and you are working for a doomed company.ALB has answered this question on another thread.
Quote:The amount of socially necessary labour time in a commodity is not something that is, or can be, established mathematically. It's established by the market. Sometimes more is produced than the market requires; in which case the labour time involved in producing the unsold surplus is wasted and would not enter into your average (arithmetical mean). Also, it is not the cost of having produced a commodity that is relevant but the cost of reproducing it. As in most industries (mining and extraction are exceptions), with the introduction of more efficient machines or ways of organising production, this will tend to fall.You can read the whole exchange herehttps://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/general-discussion/what-really-snltThere are many other references for you to view, if you care to use the search function. I know this may require some effort but the answers should be helpful.
A good critique of the Economist's bio of Marx and may be relevant to some on another threadhttps://dissidentvoice.org/2018/06/the-economist-on-marxs-200-years/A helpful quote from the author to understand Marx
Quote:Marx recognized the possibilities of reforming capitalism, ultimately based on relative surplus value. He himself refers to them in the Preface to the 1st edition of Capital, pointing out that “present society is not a solid crystal, but an organism capable of change, and is constantly changing”. Marx, however, showed at the same time the limits of these possibilities.The author's Leninist roots though become apparent in the essay
Quote:all realities of our time cry in chorus that the necessary progressive reforms, even those in principle theoretically possible within capitalism, can only be fulfilled in a revolutionary way. And their fulfillment is only conceivable as a step, a starting point in the process of transition to socialism.76 percent rejected the Sovereign Money Initiative which would have put the Swiss National Bank in charge of all money creation and radically altered the banking system, Swiss broadcaster SRF reported after the polls closed. The Swiss government and the SNB opposed the initiative.Potential risks to the Swiss economy by introducing a "Vollgeld" system convinced voters to reject the proposal, leaving private banks with the right to create money."We are pleased, this would have been an extremely damaging initiative," said Heinz Karrer, president of business lobby Economiesuisse.http://www.dw.com/en/swiss-referenda-approve-betting-regulation-reject-monetary-system-reform-and-olympics/a-44148196
