A forward from Tony Blair's sister in law

Tony Blair's sister in law (his wife's sister) writes him a note from Tehran. A must read and a must share mail. Please spread it all round. Christian Zionists will call her all kinds of names, but what the heck....what do you expect.
Hameed

An Al Quds day letter to Tony Blair. From Lauren Booth, in Iran

Posted: 04 Sep 2010 08:57 AM PDT

Gilad Atzmon: I guess that Tony Blair’s sister in law, Lauren Booth, could easily use the phone and tell Tony what she thinks of him, his politics and his new memoir. However, being a peace activist she decided also to share it with the rest of us.

Dear Tony,
Congratulations on your political memoir becoming an instant bestseller. I’m in Iran and have the only copy in the country. I can tell you, its so fiercely fought over, it’s worth its weight in WMD’s. Note to Random House; have ‘A Journey’ translated into Farsi and Arabic asap, it’ll fly off the shelves in this part of the world.

Tony, yesterday I went the Al Quds day protest in Tehran. You may have heard of it? It’s the rally where Iranians gather to protest against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, including the Holy city of Jerusalem.

I’m being sarcastic by asking if you’ve heard of Al Quds day, because I know you have. It is after all your very worst nightmare right? It must be horrifying with the ‘world view,’ you express in your memoirs to watch scenes on the BBC news showing the precise meeting point of politics and Islam.

Personally I’ve never understood this fear of ‘political Islam’ it seems to me that religious people should always be educated on world events rather than kept in ignorance like say, Mid West Christian Zionists in the US who can’t even find their home city on a map of their state.

Anyway, yesterday, I stood in the midst of more than one million Iranian Muslims all chanting in unison ‘Marg Bar Isre-hell!’ and ‘Marg Bar Am-ri-ca!’ You know what that means Tony I’m sure ; ‘Down with Israel, down with America’. The men, women and children around me withstood a day of no water and no food (it’s called Ramadan, Tony, it’s a fast). Coping with hunger and thirst in the hundred degrees heat, as if it were nothing. They can withstand deprivation in the Muslim world, and think it a proud thing to suffer in order to express their fury at the continued slaughter of Palestinians. To protest the theft of what little remains of Palestinian land by settlers. To protest the blockade of Gaza causing immense suffering to millions.

Now, the Christian Zionists in the US and the Jewish Zionists in Israel would have you believe that I was am in danger in Iran, especially on a day like Al Quds. Well here again Tony, you’ve been fed and have consumed in its entirety, a massive lie. The lie that says that when Muslims march they march against infidels (like me I suppose) in some kind of Middle Eastern homage to the ancient crusades.
Yet the crusade Tony is yours, not ‘theirs.’

Today I spoke with many women on the Tehran protest. One mother who wept, not out of hatred for ‘the West’ but out of empathy for the mothers of Rafah, Khan Younis, Nablus and Jenin. Do you recognise these place names Tony, as Middle East peace envoy you really should. Israel has massacred children in all of these cities in recent years. Didn’t you know?

Anyway the women I met were gentle, frustrated by the refusal of the international community to stop the arrests of Palestinian children, to stop the routine bombing of the tunnels (the main access still for food and essential items in the Gaza strip). We embraced in the streets of Tehran like sisters. Not in Islam Tony, but in the fight against your brand of extremism and prejudice.

And today when the streets of London reverberate with cries of ‘Allahuakbar!’ and ‘Down Down Israel.’ Christians and Jews will join the thunderous cries of ‘Down Down Israel, marching against the ‘political’ Muslims you say you fear so much, That you would have me fear too if you could.

Having spent a good deal of time in Palestine in recent years, certainly more than you and your the ‘peace envoy’ supposedly. It repulsed me to read your blatant swallowing of the Israeli narrative regarding Palestine and its people.

The ‘conflict’ between Palestine and Israel is according to you all about religion and has nothing at all to do with the ethnic cleansing of the Arab population, nor the degredation of those who remain by their Israeli occupiers. You say that Arabs have and always will see ‘Jews’ as enemies. For God’s sake Tony do your history. And if you’re going to run a ‘Faith Foundation’ then better gen up on Islam 101 don’t you think? Did your pals in Tel Aviv forget to tell you how many thousands of Jews lived in Historic Palestine in harmony with their Arab neighbours before 1948? Do you really not know that even today tens of thousand of Jews reside contentedly in Iran?

I’ve sat with dozens and dozens of Muslim families, those whose children have been burned by Israeli/US phosphorous bombs. Those who are still suffering hunger due to the Israel siege of Gaza. Those who have lived through the early days of sanctions against Iran when they needed food vouchers just to live. And every single Muslim in these suffering families has the same message ; ‘We don’t hate anyone for their race or their religion. We cannot hate Jews they are in our holy book it is against the teachings of the Koran.’ But Tony let me ask you this. Why should any people Muslim or otherwise have NO right to justice and NO right to challenge an evil being done to them and their children? or to those who share a set of common beliefs? Do you have no understanding of what it is like to live in Gaza? Under siege, attacked with chemical weapons, your children’s schools razed to the ground by Israeli missiles, your hospitals shelled, your electricity limited, your water undrinkable?
Or do understand the ‘idea’ of the hardships suffered by millions in the Middle East as a direct result of your support for Israel and just think they deserve it?

In your book you say you knew full well how many Beirut homes were flattened, how many civilians died in Lebanon in 2006. Yet you dismiss Lebanese rage about Israeli land theft of ‘Shebas Farm’ as being an irrelevance, about a ‘tiny’ amount of land. You cannot see it as part of an attack on Lebanese life as a whole, by it’s heavily armed aggressive neighbour. You see it as: ‘Israel is attacked. Israel strikes back.’ As if Israel lives in placid peace, being kindly to all around it in between these massacres.

As other world leaders came out to demand Israel immediately cease its 2006 bombing raids on Lebanese cities, you stayed silent.

‘If I had condemned Israel’ you say ‘I would have been more than dishonest. It would have undermined my world view.’

Your world view that Muslims are mad, bad, dangerous to know. A contagion to be contained. Your final chapter is a must read here in the Middle East Tony, congratulations! For it lays out the ‘them’ and ‘us’ agenda of your friends in Washington and Tel Aviv and in David Milliband, the ambassador of Zionism that he is.

In the final chapter you say; ‘we need a religious counter attack’ against Islam. And by ‘Islam’ you mean the Al Quds rallies, the Palestinian intifada (based on an anti Apartheid struggle Tony, NOT religious bigotry), against every Arab who fails to raise a flag as the F16s rain on their homes and refugee camps and breaks out singing ‘Imagine all the people…’

When you say ‘extremism’ must be ‘controlled and beaten’ you mean the message of solidarity shared by Non Muslims alike on the streets of London and across the world today, joining the Al Quds day protests.

‘Not only extremism must be defeated’ you say but ‘the narrative that has to be assailed.’

Iran is indeed the place where Islamic tradition meets political action.

But I’m not afraid here Tony. The people are kind, friendly, full of good humour.
They are also highly aware of the history of this region, the wrongs perpetrated by Israel against Palestine and the political machinations of the US and the UK governments.

And as your book remains highly sought after here in Tehran. It’s that and not Islam, that you and your Israeli chums should be afraid of because it reveals you in all your ignorant glory.

Lauren Booth
Broadcaster and Journalist
Mail on Sunday
Press TV, UK
Source: Gilad Altzmon

A mere apology is silly compared to the lost of lives

The Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk) published comments by the Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron about him describing Gaza as a prison camp and appealing to the Israeli Government to allow free flow of humanitarian goods and people in and out of the Palestinian territory.

Today Mr Cameron said: ''The situation in Gaza has to change. Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions.

''Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.''

And he added: ''The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable.

''And I have told PM Netanyahu we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous.''

Addressing the raid on the flotilla, he said: "This attack in international waters can only be termed piracy. There is no other word to describe it.

"I hope we can remedy this situation and Israel turns back from this mistake. They must apologise to Turkey and compensation has to be paid and the blockade must be lifted so we can all contribute to regional peace."

A mere apology is not enough as many had perished under the siege and brutal attack of a group of well armed commandos.

Israel has to be taken to the International Criminal Court for the atrocities.

Breaking the siege of Gaza

I am a bit dissappointed when I looked at some of the behaviours of the participants of the Perdana Gloabal Peace Organisation International Conferance today.

Some of the students representing one local universities were doing their own thing during the speeches by the speakers. Some are reading other books in Malay. I wonder if they understand what the speakers are talking about due to the lack of interest in it. Some was dozing off to dreamland.

Maybe the boring speeches were lulling them off to sleep? Those speeches might be boring but that are the facts of life in the other part of the world. You are so lucky to live in a war free country but if you keep on sleeping like that, one day our country could end up like Gaza.

If I mentioned which university they are from, this will degrade the goodwill and good name of the university. Most were sitting at the back.

That is why most Malaysian are not interested in going to international conferences overseas.

Surely one of the reasons is that firstly it is educational and will be BORING for those who are not interested in the subject mattter discussed by the panel speakers.

Secondly, maybe they lack the command of the English language so they don't know the heads and tails of what was being said. They also cannot give a presentation on the subject in the international conference in English even if they went overseas for it.

Going overseas without giving a presentation in an international conference will be just a waste of the taxpayers money. I know this happen in real life too though I can't say where because my sibling told me about it when she went to one international conference in Paris, France about someone from a local university in Terengganu just going there without giving the scientific presentation when that was what he/she was supposed to do.

I bought one book on the Malaysian Youths Speak Out on leadership (a compilation of 21 winning essays of "Nurturing the Minds of Future Leaders" Essay Contest 2007) and most students who entered the contest who are mostly Malays wrote in Malay due to their lack of command of the English language.

Only Amir Fareed bin Abdul Rahman from Kolej Yayasan UEM, Perak for the Upper Secondary School Level who won 1st prize and Soraya binti Salim from International Islamic University who won the 4th prize were the only Malay who wrote for the contest in English. Other Malays wrote in Malay (which proves that they are lacking the command of the English language) while other non-malays wrote in English.

Maybe the government should bring back the English stream after we look at the poor command of the English language in the youths nowadays. It is so pathetic!

Breaking the siege of Gaza was a conference on factual details of what Israel are doing towards the people of Gaza, the Palestinians.

Therefore, for most youths who might not be concerned about what is happening around the world, what more of war in Gaza, will not care about the speeches given by the speakers.

They would be more interested to go and see entertainment programmes such as 'Akademi Fantasia' or 'Tunjuk Ajarku Sifu' which gives out exorbitant prizes to the grand winner.

The trend is so sad. What will happen to the future generation if they do not care about the more serious issues in life and stress more on entertainment?

Life is not all beds and roses. There are wars in other parts of the world, some people are starving, others are homeless. We have to think about other people who are not as lucky as we are here.

Media Invitation to the PGPO's International conference "Breaking the Siege: In the Spirits of Rachel Corrie and Mavi Marmara"

Dear Editor / Blogger,

The Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO), chaired by YABhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is organising "Breaking the Siege: In the Spirit of Rachel Corrie and Mavi Marmara Conference" that will be held this Sunday, 11 July 2010 at Dewan Tun Abdul Razak 1, Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur. The programme will start at 9am and will end at 6pm.

The aims of the Conference are to counter the Israeli propaganda of what took place on the Mavi Marmara and to build awareness of the three-year siege against Gaza. The conference will also outline necessary action steps for Malaysians to take to aid the cause of the Palestinians.

The programme will feature local and international speakers who will comprise of representatives aboard the Mavi Marmara, as well as humanitarians who have experienced life under the Israeli blockade against Gaza.

On behalf of the PGPO we would like to invite your organisation to the event. Please find attached several related documents which might be of interest to guide you through the programme.

Press room for the event will be located at Mezzanine Room 2 (Mezzanine Floor), Dewan Tun Abdul Razak 1, PWTC.

Should you have any questions, please revert to this email or contact the following;

Shamsul Akmar Musa Kamal (0199100090) or shamsulakmar@gmail.com

Sufi Yusoff (0122088601) or sufi71@gmail.com

Rose Halim (0122809486) or rosehalim@gmail.com

Open border

An article published in msnbc titled "Egypt to keep open border with Gaza" dated 7th June 2010 is a good news indeed.

The decision to ease the restrictions erected by Israel to isolate and punish Hamas comes a week after a deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla bound for Gaza.

"We have said since the first day that the blockade on Gaza will end, and we can see that on the ground right now. And we voice our hope that all other restrictions will be removed," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Look at the statistics here and here.

Hanin Zoabi, an Israeli Arab lawmaker who was on the flotilla stopped by an Israeli commando raid last week, has since been verbally abused by other members of the Knesset.

The group "gave me 180 days to live, and (said to) prepare your will," Tibi said.

"I am used to getting such intimidation and threats all year but in the last days it has increased and the type of threats are more serious," Tibi said, adding that they came from "radical Jewish organizations here in Israel and from overseas."