From PressTV
US anti-nuke talk hypocrisy: Shakespeare
The United States voting against a UN resolution urging Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) belies Washington’s anti-nuclear arms discourse as hypocrisy, says a political commentator.
On Tuesday, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted the Arab-backed resolution, which was voted against by the US and Canada among other countries.
The resolution urged the Israeli regime to put its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and expressed deep concern over Tel Aviv’s nuclear capabilities.
“This is how the USA works. And the whole world now knows exactly how it works,” Prof. Rodney Shakespeare told Press TV.
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From PressTV
UN adopts resolution urging Israel to join NPT
The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted an Arab-backed resolution urging Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The assembly approved of the resolution in a 161-5 vote, with 18 countries abstaining, on Tuesday.
The United States and Canada were among the countries that opposed the resolution.
The resolution urges the Tel Aviv regime to join the NPT and put its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.
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From PressTV
Death toll from Syria conflict surpasses 200,000: Report
A so-called human rights monitoring group has said that the death toll from the nearly four-year-long foreign-sponsored militancy in Syria has now gone beyond 200,000 mark.
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Tuesday that his agency has documented the killing of 202,354 people since March 2011.
“Of the total, 63,074 of the killed were civilians, including 10,377 children,” he added.
Abdel Rahman stated that more than 130,000 foreign-backed militants, including 37,324 Syrian nationals, have also lost their lives in the Syrian conflict, while a total of 76,223 Syrian army troopers and pro-government fighters have been also killed in the fighting.
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From PressTV
Israel killed 9, detained 650 Palestinians in November: Report
The Israeli regime killed nine people and arrested 650 others in November, a Palestinian rights organization says in a report.
The report published on Monday by Ahrar Center for Detainees’ Studies and Human Rights exposed human rights violations committed by the Tel Aviv regime against Palestinians.
It noted that six journalists, 17 women and 42 children, were among those detained last month mostly in the occupied West Bank, the besieged Gaza Strip, and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
The figures came a few days after Israeli authorities threatened to arrest the Palestinian activists who post anti-Israeli remarks on Facebook.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
UPDATE: Bibi Fires Lapid, Livni — Elections Coming
By J.J. Goldberg
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday fired the heads of the two center-left parties in his coalition, finance minister Yair Lapid and justice minister Tzipi Livni. He’s expected to address the media at 10:10 p.m. Israel time (3:10 Eastern) to discuss the political situation.
The dramatic event came less than a day after Netanyahu and Lapid had met Monday evening, ostensibly to patch up their differences. Sources in Lapid’s Yesh Atid party said Netanyahu had presented Lapid with a list of demands that were designed cause the talks to fail, allowing the prime minister to go to the public and point his finger at Lapid. Among them were support of the controversial Jewish Nation-State bill.
From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
House votes to deny Social Security benefits to ex-Nazis
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would end Social Security payments to former Nazis.
The No Social Security for Nazis Act passed Tuesday by consent. It closed a loophole that had allowed ex-Nazis who lied about their past when immigrating to the United States — and been identified and deported by the Justice Department — to continue receiving Social Security and other benefits.
The bill was sponsored by Reps. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) and Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) along with Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and its ranking member, Sander Levin (D-Mich.),
A similar bill in the Senate sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is under consideration.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
State Dept.: Qatar pledges not to fund Hamas
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration says it has received assurances from the Arab nation Qatar that its assistance to the Palestinians will not reach Hamas.
“Qatar has pledged financial support that would be directed to the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Julia Frifield, the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, wrote in a Nov. 21 letter to Rep. Pete Roskam (R-Ill.) first revealed this week by the Free Beacon news website. “Qatar assured us that its assistance would not go to Hamas.”
In July, during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Roskam had written to the U.S. secretaries of State and the Treasury expressing “grave concerns” about the State Department’s cooperation with Qatar in its bid to end the fighting, noting the emirate’s past support for Hamas.
In her letter, Frifield noted the continuing U.S. policy of not dealing with Hamas, but added that Qatar was valuable in part because of its influence with the group.
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From PressTV
Hezbollah to continue backing resistance against Israel: Qassem
Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general says the Lebanese resistance movement will continue its support for Palestinian groups resisting against the Israeli regime, Press TV reports.
“We support all forms of resistance that the Palestinians used. This is their legitimate right to confront their enemy. Hezbollah is based on resisting occupation, this is our main goal,” Sheikh Naim Qassem told an international conference held in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Senior members of Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements as well as representatives from around the world took part in the Second Global Convention of Solidarity with Palestine on Tuesday.
The participants at the conference expressed support for the Palestinian cause, discussing ways to increase resistance against the Israeli regime.
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From PressTV
ISIL has no future in region: Nasrallah, Maliki
The ISIL Takfiri group is doomed to suffer defeat, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Iraq’s Vice President Nouri al-Maliki say.
Nasrallah and Maliki expressed their “absolute trust in the inevitability of the victory of the people and the governments of the region against the IS[IL] and groups resembling it,” the statement issued by the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah said.
Groups like ISIL and “their destructive plans don’t have a future in any country in the region,” the statement read.
The two officials also underscored “the importance of cooperation to confront sectarian strife and Takfiri movements,” according to the statement.
Al-Maliki arrived in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Saturday for talks with senior officials on developments in the region.
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From PressTV
ISIL’s dirty bomb has 40kg of uranium, Takfiris claim
The ISIL Takfiri militants claim that they have built a “dirty bomb” from 40 kilograms of uranium stolen from a university in Iraq, reports say.
The terrorists are said to have produced the device using radioactive uranium that they took from Iraq’s Mosul University after capturing the city in June, the Daily Mirror reported.
According to the report, the Takfiri militants also sent threatening messages on social media, bragging about the destruction the bomb would cause if it went off in London.
British explosives expert, Hamayun Tariq, who left his home in Dudley, West Midlands, to join the Takfiri terrorists in 2012 and is now training fellow Brits in Syria, was among the extremists making online threats.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Senate approves Dem fundraiser Noah Mamet as U.S. envoy to Argentina
(JTA) — The U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Democratic Party fundraiser Noah Mamet as the new U.S. Ambassador to Argentina.
The confirmation came despite criticism during the hearing that he has never visited the county to which he would be envoy.
The long-time Democratic Party fundraiser was approved for the post Tuesday by a vote of 50-43.
If he is not invited to meet Jewish leaders sooner, Mamet reportedly will be invited to the Buenos Aires Jewish center AMIA in September, for the ceremony that has been organized since 2011 to remember the victims of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Report: Belgian government to support recognizing ‘Palestine’
(JTA) — The parties that make up Belgium’s federal government have agreed to recognize Palestinian statehood unilaterally, a Belgian daily reported.
The four parties reached an agreement earlier this week, the Le Soir daily reported Wednesday. They intend to submit a motion to parliament formulating support for recognizing Palestinian statehood, which the parties intend to pass in parliament and which the government is planning to implement.
However, the text for the draft of the planned motion does not set a date for recognition, Le Soir reported. The paper quoted from the text, which it says states that recognition will happen “at a moment deemed appropriate.”
If Belgium’s government adopts the motion and recognizes a Palestinian state, it will become Europe’s second country to do so, after the Swedish government’s recognition of a Palestinian state in October.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
French parliament passes symbolic motion recognizing Palestine
(JTA) — The French parliament’s lower house passed a nonbinding motion that encourages the government to recognize Palestinian statehood without delay.
In Tuesday’s vote, 339 National Assembly lawmakers supported the motion submitted last month by lawmakers from the ruling Socialist Party and 151 opposed it, the news website of the Europe1 radio stationreported.
The motion “invites the French government to use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to bring about a definitive resolution of the conflict.” The text calls for Jerusalem to be the Palestinian state’s capital, as well as Israel’s. It further calls on the government to act “urgently” on the matter.
Last month, similar motions were passed by Britain’s House of Commons, the parliament’s lower house, and by the upper house of the Irish parliament.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
American Groups Line Up Against Israel ‘Jewish State’ Bill
By Ron Kampeas
Washington — (JTA) — It’s not unusual to hear U.S. Jewish groups speaking out against laws that discriminate and framing their protests as protecting Jewish interests.
What’s unusual is that the target this time is the Israeli government and the proposed law emphasizes Jewish rights.
At issue is Israel’s nation-state bill, which if passed by the Knesset would enshrine Israel’s status as a Jewish state into law. Proponents say the bill would reinforce the Jewish character of Israel, but opponents charge that it would jeopardize the state’s democratic character and undermine Israel’s Arab minority.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
Why I’m Boycotting the ‘Exodus’ Movie — It’s Racist
By Sigal Samuel
Christian Bale plays Moses in “Exodus.” What’s wrong with this picture?
On November 25 — one day after the Ferguson grand jury decision sparked a national outcry over race relations in this country — “Variety” ran an interview with Ridley Scott, justifying the director’s decision to cast white actors in the key roles of his new movie, “Exodus.”
If you’re thinking, charitably, that perhaps Scott just never got the memo about how people in ancient Egypt (which is, you know, part of Africa) weren’t exactly alabaster-skinned, think again. He’s fully aware that he whitewashed his movie — oh, except for the servants and thieves, for which roles he did see fit to pick black actors — and he’s not even sorry about it
From the Jewish Daily Forward
Not Afraid To Be a Girlie Girl
On Amy Schumer and the Evolution of the Funny JAP
If I sound like a slightly nutty Schumer fan girl, well it’s probably because I am. Some of this can be chalked up to the fact that I really love her, and some of it is because of the communal symbolic victory I see in her ascent. For brassy Jewish women, Schumer isn’t just another blow to the idiotic question of whether women are funny, but proof of a tectonic shift in how people see us, and how we see ourselves. For Schumer, the fact that she is a JAP isn’t part of the joke. She isn’t the punch line. The world around her is.
