Zukerberg @FinkD caught on an open mike telling Merkel that he was stifling negative stories about refugees

As reported in September, he was caught on an open microphone telling German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he was working on ways to stifle negative stories about migrants in the country.
Within the last few days, many said Facebook anned them for simply posting anti-Hillary articles or articles opposed to gun control.  One writer, an investigative journalist in Israel, said she was given a three-day ban for literally nothing. She went on to say that she was placed back into “Facebook jail” just two hours after the initial ban was over.
There’s the damning video released by Shurat HaDin — The Israel Law Center.  That video documents for perhaps the first time the site’s biased treatment in favor of pages against Israel and Jews, something many have complained about for some time.
Blogger Jeff Dunetz said Monday that Facebook finally took down the anti-Israel page in Shurat HaDin’s experiment, but only after the blatant bias was exposed for all to see.  A Facebook spokesperson said it was due to a “mistake.” (MORE)

Bibi and Merkel Despise Each Other - but Only if You Read the Times

Leo Rennert

The New York Times, along with most other Western media, has kept up a drumbeat of criticism of Israel's decision to build 3,000 more housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, along with planning and zoning work on an area known as E-1 that links East Jerusalem and the nearby Jewish town of Maale Adumim, population 40,000.

So it comes as no surprise that the Times would eagerly await a summit in Berlin between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Dec. 5-6.  Germany disappointed Israel by abstaining from a U.N. vote to grant statehood recognition to "Palestine" -- instead of casting an outright "no" vote.  Merkel long has differed with Israel on settlements, and the summit was widely anticipated as an event dominated by this issue.

 
Merkel on the attack and Bibi on the defensive?  So it might seem from Kulish's article, which focuses mainly on Netanyahu and settlements.  Pouring it on, Kulish tells readers that "the usually warm relations between Israel and Germany have been especially strained in recent days."  As for the E-1 area, he writes, "critics said future construction in E-1 could irreparably harm the chances for a viable, contiguous Palestinian state."

A contentious summit, n'est-ce pas?  Actually, au contraire.

Except for settlements, where both leaders "agreed to disagree," it was a very harmonious summit.  It's just that Kulish blanks out a profusion of very friendly and very positive declarations by Merkel about the Israeli-German relationship -- now and in the future.  In fact, in spotlighting Bibi, Kulish totally neglects Merkel's determination to put settlements aside -- "this is a point that already has been discussed many times" -- and concentrate instead on a lengthy agenda of Israeli-German cooperation.

Here are some of her statements at the post-summit press conference that never made it into the Times:

The chancellor told reporters that they could refer to her website, "which points out once again how wide our cooperation is."  She stressed that Germany is looking forward to the 50^th anniversary of German-Israeli diplomatic relations to advance "greater cooperation in all areas -- from culture, the economy and even financial issues and much more."

Merkel also pointedly noted joint Israeli-German development projects to assist countries in Africa like Ethiopia and Kenya.

Referring to Israel's recent eight-day war with Hamas in Gaza, Merkel said it was important to recognize that "the starting point was Hamas" with its rocket attacks against Israel.

Summing up her views, the German chancellor said that "there is a wide, deep sense -- namely that our two countries work together amicably, intensely. Israel is the only democracy in the region with which we have a strategic partnership."

Not exactly a case of the chancellor taking Bibi to the woodshed, as the Times and other media sought to portray the summit.

Kulish's anti-Israel tilt also is evident in his treatment of the controversy over possible future construction in the E-1 area.  He eagerly quotes unnamed "critics" as charging that this would "irreparably harm" chances of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.  Actually, this is pure bunk.  Kulish overlooks the fact that Israeli officials and other "supporters" of E-1 development have pointed out that contiguity can and would be easily guaranteed with a bypass highway around Maale Adumim that would connect Ramallah and other Palestinian cities to the north with Bethlehem and Hebron in the south within a contiguous Palestinian state.

The Times is flogging Bibi and Israel with a canard.  Development of E-1 has been supported by every Israeli prime minister since Yitzhak Rabin.  And Bibi already has signaled that he would only go beyond zoning and planning in E-1 if Mahmoud Abbas, instead of joining in direct negotiations, continues with unilateral campaigns against Israel.

Leo Rennert is a former White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief of McClatchy Newspapers.

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/12/bibi_and_merkel_despise_each_othe... at December 07, 2012 - 11:06:10 PM CST

via writingtw.blogspot.com

'Israel released PA funds under German pressure'

Get the sub elsewhere. The Oslo agreement was broken and there is no fixing it

(jpost) German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with the halting of a German plan to deliver a submarine to Israel if the latter refused to resume the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported on Sunday.

According to the report, Israel yielded to pressure from Berlin and unfroze the funds. Immediately after, a German government official announced her country would build and pay up to one-third of the cost of a sixth Dolphin-class submarine to be delivered to the Israeli navy.
The agreement in principle to provide the Dolphin-class submarine, which foreign reports say enhances Israel’s second strike capability since it can carry nuclear warheads, comes a month after reports that Germany was reconsidering the deal because of anger at the announcement of plans to build some 1,100 housing units in the capital’s Gilo neighborhood, over the Green Line.
The German official said she did not know whether those reports were accurate. She said Germany will pay up to 135 million euros toward the submarine, which will cost between 372m. and 520m. euros.
Talks on the deal for the sub stalled last year after the Germans declined to underwrite it, as they had done with previous submarine purchases.

To avoid criminalization of Hamas because of Gilad Shalit, France and Germany offer de facto recognition of the Hamas government in Gaza which would allow for European investment in the territory

STFU, Merkel!

...Why is France getting involved with this? Gilad Shalit and his parents also hold French citizenship (they're dual citizens). Earlier in June, Noam and Aviva Schalit appealed to the French judicial system to hold Hamas, including its Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal, responsible for kidnapping their son Gilad and keeping him hostage in Gaza for the past five years. If their legal effort in France is successful, arrest warrants could be issued against members of Hamas, including Mashaal. A suit can be filed in France due to Schalit's dual citizenship.

As part of the initiative France and Germany are offering Hamas extra incentives in addition to the release of approximately 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. These incentives include easing restrictions on Gaza's border crossings as well as de facto recognition of the Hamas government in Gaza which would allow for European investment in the territory. France and Germany are working with Egypt on the deal, according to the report. via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

hypocrisy. This is wrong.  Hamas will use their free terrorists and open borders to kill thousands of Gilad Shalits... all so the Europeans won't have to do what they should to terrorists.

Anti-Semitism on the Rise in Germany

A highly-anticipated new report, "Anti-Semites as a Coalition Partner," which examines the increasing anti-Israel activism of politicians belonging to the German Left Party (Die Linke), has sparked a debate over the rise of anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism in post-modern Germany. The study has been welcomed for drawing attention to the re-emergence of anti-Semitism in public discourse in Germany, and has even triggered a debate about Israel bashing in the German parliament.
Excerpts of the study, subtitled "The Left Party: Between Anti-Zionist Anti-Semitism and the Wish to Govern," were published by the center-left Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper on May 19. The report says: "A power has established itself within the parliamentary spectrum of the Left Party, which tolerates anti-Semitic positions.... Our thesis is that anti-Zionist anti-Semitism has become the dominant consensus position within the German Left Party."
The authors conclude: "The 'Left' is moving ever closer to governing and – as a result of vote-getting potential above all in eastern Germany – the possibility exists that for the first time in the history of the German Federal Republic a political party – which since 2010 has clearly positioned itself as anti-Semitic could gain power."
In a separate essay, "The Left Party Has an Anti-Semitism Problem" and published by the center-right Die Welt newspaper on June 8, 2010, German sociologist Samuel Salzborn wrote: "The Left Party has an anti-Semitism problem which can no longer be ignored. For the number of incidents – which originate from an anti-Semitic worldview – has increased dramatically since the beginning of the year. The pattern is always the same: ostensibly it is couched as criticism of Israel, but the arguments reveal themselves as anti-Semitic to the core. This can be seen by the participation by two current and one former Left Party representatives from the Bundestag in the Gaza Flotilla and thus with open collaboration with violent Islamists. The fact that Left Party functionaries are cooperating with radical Islamists, who have never concealed their anti-Semitic motives, is the result of a widespread radicalization of the party."
The accusations prompted a heated debate in the German Bundestag [parliament] on May 25. The debate, "Recent social scientific research into the potential anti-Semitic and anti-Israel positions and practices in the Left Party," addressed what many experts consider to be the dominant form of modern anti- Semitism in Germany: the loathing of the Jewish state. Hans-Peter Uhl, from the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union, a sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, accused the Left Party of "fishing for votes in anti-Semitic voter groups."
The German Left Party is an amalgamation of former East German communists, disaffected former Social Democrats and western German Marxists. In recent years, the Left Party has turned itself into an important fixture on Germany's political landscape. It garnered 12% of the vote in the last national elections in September 2009 and is now the fourth-largest political party in Germany. It is the most popular party in eastern Germany, and is in coalitions with the Social Democrats in the regional governments of Berlin and Brandenburg.
In recent months, members of the German Left Party have been involved in a series of aggressive anti-Israel activities.
In May, Left Party deputy Inge Höger appeared at a pro-Hamas conference in Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia wearing a keffiyeh showing a map labelled "Palestine" on the entire territory of the State of Israel. At the 9th Palestinians in Europe Conference, which was titled "The Generation of Return Knows Its Way," Höger spoke about the "misuse of the Holocaust" in silencing criticism of Israel's "occupation policies." She also said that Israel has for "many years starved and indiscriminately bombed the population of Gaza because they voted democratically [for Hamas in January 2006]. The legend of Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East is a farce."
Also in May, Hermann Dierkes, the leader of the Left Party in Duisburg, penned an "Open Letter" in which he compared Israeli policy towards the Palestinians with the Nazi regime. Dierkes accused the Israelis of using methods against Palestinians that look "damn close to what the Nazis did in the 30s." In 2010, Dierkes termed Israel's right to exist as "petty."
In April, the Duisburg branch of the German Left Party posted a flyer on its website with a swastika morphing into a Star of David, and called for a boycott of Israeli products. The flyer, which calls Israel a "rogue state" and a "warmonger" states: "Oppose the moral blackmail of the so-called Holocaust! Truth makes free!" This is a pun on the "Arbeit macht Frei!" sign which is located above the entrance gate to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
In March, a group called the "Bremer Peace Forum" in the northern Germany city of Bremen staged protests in front of supermarkets urging Germans to boycott Israeli products. The Forum protesters distributed leaflets showing pictures of bloody oranges and held posters with the slogan: "Save the Palestinian people."
In a Call to Action dated March 3, 2011, the German Left Party declares: "Israel has occupied the West Bank for decades, contrary to numerous UN resolutions. More and more illegal Jewish settlements are being built and Israel exports the fruits that are harvested from there. This is against international law and the exports from the occupied territories are illegal. A boycott of Israeli products will move public opinion in order to increase international pressure on Israel, just as happened in South Africa."
In May 2010, two members of the German Left Party, Inge Höger and Annette Groth, and a former Left Party deputy, Norman Paech, participated in the so-called Gaza Freedom Flotilla that attempted to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. Under the guise of providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the three joined forces with Turkish Islamists in support of Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel. The Left Party publicly applauded their efforts: "We are very proud," said party-leader Gesine Lötzsch said at the time.
Later that May, Höger, Groth and Paech filed a "war crimes" complaint against Israel with the German public prosecutor. The complaint accuses Israel of "numerous potential offences, including war crimes against individuals and command responsibility ... as well as false imprisonment."
The Left Party's foreign policy spokesman, Wolfgang Gehrcke, has been accused of attending pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah rallies in Germany, and he also has a track record of making anti-Israel statements to the German media.
Over the years, leading members of the Left Party have also waged an anti-Israel campaign. Left Party deputy Christine Buchholz has been a member of the party's "Shift to the Left" faction, which supports the "legitimate resistance" of Hamas and Hezbollah in their terrorist attacks against Israel. She has also played down the Iranian threat against Israel.
Left Party Vice President Sahra Wagenknecht, in an interview with Der Tagesspiegel in February 2010, accused Israeli President Shimon Peres of spreading "lies" about Iran's drive to build nuclear weapons. Wagenknecht and Buchholz were also the only ones to remain seated during a standing ovation for Peres during his Holocaust remembrance speech in the Bundestag.
But German anti-Semitism is not limited to just the far-left Left Party. A new study published by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a think-tank affiliated with Germany's Social Democratic Party, reveals high levels of anti-Semitism in Germany and a strong presence of anti-Semitism that is linked with Israel and is hidden behind criticism of Israel.
The April 2011 report, which is titled "Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination: A European Report," questioned roughly 1,000 people in each of eight European countries. The study found that 47.7% of Germans believe "Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Jews." Nearly 50% of Germans believe "Jews try to take advantage of having been victims of the Nazi era." More than 35% of Germans agree with the statement: "Considering Israel's policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews."
A previous poll, "Iraq and Peace in the World," commissioned by the European Union in November 2003, found that 65% of Germans consider Israel to be the greatest threat to world peace, ahead of Iran and North Korea.
A leading member of the Left Party, Gregor Gysi, in an interview with the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, said the accusations of anti-Semitism within his party are "nonsense." Left Party co-chairman Klaus Ernst told the Westfälische Rundschau: "We do not need any lectures from outside parties." via hudson-ny.org

Merkel also believes Obama devalues Dollar

Castro accuses America
of attempting to devalue it's currency
and says Far-Right Takes
Over U.S. After Midterms

via cbsnews.com

wow..... I hope Castro is right.

Posted via email
from noahdavidsimon's posterous

At her meeting with Mr. Obama, the German leader repeated concerns about the Federal Reserve's controversial decision last week to buy $900 billion of U.S. Treasury debt in the next six months. European officials worry the move will provoke a round of inflation and destructive currency devaluations.

President Obama meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the G-20 summit Thursday in Seoul. She rejected a U.S. proposal to try to cap global trade imbalances. "To set political limits on trade surpluses and deficits is neither economically justified nor politically appropriate," she told the G-20 business summit. (Associated Press)

But White House aides said the president pointed out that the U.S. dollar actually is benefiting and getting stronger because of a renewed outbreak of the European debt crisis this week. Investors on Thursday forced Ireland to pay unprecedented interest rates of near 10 percent on its bonds because of growing fears of default.
The renewed European crisis is reviving a "flight to safety" to the U.S. dollar and Treasury bonds, the president pointed out. He also repeated U.S. concerns that Germany's attempts to attach more stringent conditions to loans to countries like Ireland that may need a bailout may be "spooking markets."

via washingtontimes.com

and according to this video they are buying assets from Goldman Sachs to print the money... I suppose the money comes from the loans our government made. why is Goldman Sachs selling the government stuff when we know how dirty they are? I suppose at least it is nice to know they are buying something... but how do we know Goldman isn't selling Oregano?

Islamophobia: Not the New Antisemitism

Even as Chancellor Angela Merkel pronounces the failure of "multiculturalism" in Germany, the English-language German newspaper reporter, Marc Young, writing for the English-language German news at The Local, proclaims that "bigotry towards Muslims is the new anti-Semitism."
 As the author of a book with the title The New Anti-Semitism (with an edition in German), allow me to remind Mr. Young that one of the things that is "new" about this most ancient of hatreds is that it is pandemic in the Islamic world and in Muslim communities in the West and that the multicultural relativists in the world's universities, media, and political leadership, are collaborating with it in the name of "political correctness."
 Thus, what both Young and those who run the state-subsidized Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at the University of Berlin have learned from the Nazi Holocaust is that Europeans should not discriminate against Muslims as they once did against Jews.

German scholar Clemens Heni strongly disagrees:
 "There is no other prejudice or form of racism which you can compare to this centuries-long hatred (anti-Semitism) which has no real justification. If you look at Islam today, there is a point to Islamophobia because Jihadists say, 'We want to kill the unbelievers.' Jews never said that. Because as a German I have a responsibility to deal with my own history, and if I see that other Germans want to downplay anti-Semitism and to minimize the threat of Islamic jihad and other forms of anti-Zionism--I think there is something deeply wrong, they didn't learn the lesson from the Holocaust, they are even downplaying the Holocaust itself. 

via virtualjerusalem.com

the very root of the word Antisemitism was pseudo science from Germany. It was supposed to be less hateful then the word Juden Hass meaning literally Jew Hate, but it's "science" was based on a genetic assumption of being against the children of Shem (Noah's son in the Torah). The correct term Juden Hass is harder for Muslims to co-opt to their own cause and brings more baggage with millenniums of hate towards specifically Jews. I do not like that the semiotics of Antisemitism has been co-opted as it has, but the best way to avoid this issue is to go back to the original more shocking German wording.
read the whole thing

noahdavidsimon's posterous