I love the way the following headline sensationalisises a story to just become prompaganda.

I guess we all pay our taxes to NewLabour here.

Apart from that the Iranians never do themselves any favours...

Quote:

[size=18]Muslim world urged to fund Hamas[/size]

he Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called on the Muslim world to help the Palestinian people and their Hamas-led government.

Both he and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched strong attacks on the West as a three-day forum on Palestinian solidarity began in Tehran.

The US Treasury has this week further tightened Palestinian cash flows.

But Palestinian PM Ismail Haniya said on Friday the cuts in funds would not weaken the people's resolve.

Late on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow had agreed to provide "urgent financial aid" to the Palestinian Authority.

The US and European Union cut off aid to the authority after Hamas took power on 30 March, because the militant group refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.

[b]'Rotten tree'[/b]

Ayatollah Khamenei, opening the Tehran conference, said all Muslims had a duty to help the Palestinian people and should not remain indifferent to tyranny.

He launched a scathing attack on the West, saying its liberal democracy was like a poison.

He said global imperialism led by the US president openly threatened the Muslim world by talking about launching a crusade against it

President Ahmadinejad widened the attack to include Israel, which he said was "a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm".

The president provoked an international outcry last October when he cast doubts on the Holocaust and said Israel should be "wiped off the map".

On Friday he said there were no doubts about the holocaust suffered by the Palestinian people in the past 60 years and that the Palestinians should not pay the price for what the West said were crimes against Jews.

"Believe that Palestine will be freed soon," he said.

The conference came as the US Treasury banned its nationals from doing business with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

It said the militant Islamist group had a vested interest in the transactions of the authority.

The US is making exceptions for government entities under the direct control of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah movement is a rival of Hamas.

[b]'Oil and olives'[/b]

Mr Haniya said on Friday the suspension of Western aid to the Palestinians would never defeat the Hamas-led administration.

He said the West would not succeed in isolating the government because it had the full support of Palestinians.

"We will eat cooking oil and olives," he said.

Mr Haniya was addressing Friday prayers in Gaza before the start of a series of rallies aimed at demonstrating support for the Hamas-led administration.

In response to the financial crisis, the Russian foreign ministry said Moscow would grant the Palestinian Authority urgent financial aid.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the pledge to Mr Abbas in a telephone call, a ministry statement said.

Russia says Hamas should recognise Israel and enter negotiations but it believes denying aid is a mistake.

The militant group's political leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, is attending the Tehran conference to gain funding pledges.

Iran has said it will fund the Hamas-led government but so far no figures have been publicly pledged and no concrete deals have yet been announced at the conference.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4911150.stm]BBC News[/url]

Quote:

[size=18]Flash Back: A Tale of Two Cities[/size]

saw the headlines recently - a bomb blast in Haifa. Shocking; the death; the destruction; the blood. The women screaming, the innocent looking shoe. Wow, horrible. Terror. And then my mind switched to the agenda. Israel had used this martyrdom operation as a media excuse. Israel is playing using the lives of its own children in a sick game of media spin. Why are camera crews told to focus on women? Why is the human angle with names and aspiration told to us?

A few days ago there was a Palestinian woman. She had a name. She, had aspirations, hopes, dreams, she was human. I use the word was, carefully; Let me tell you about her.

Her name was Nuhi Maqadama. She was a housewife who lived with her extended family. She lived in a town called Buruji. Her aspirations in life were as most people’s are; to live in peace and improve her lot, she wanted to see her children grow up, get married get educated, she laughed, she cried, she cooked and she must have, on occasions, been unreasonable. After all she was human.

I wonder what her dreams were when she bled to death waiting for an ambulance; I wonder what she was thinking about, her children, her in-laws, her family, and the hereafter? Maybe a higher cause, maybe she was thinking “If this is one more life to get freedom for Palestine then I gladly give it”.

Maybe, though I doubt it very much. I think she was thinking; if she was conscious, (as the media never reported it- we don’t know). “Allah, help me not for me but for my nine month old baby, that’s due in 10 days time.” I think she was thinking “Oh Allah let me die I can’t stand the pain of being crushed!” I think her aspirations were to live at that moment, at that moment when the angel of death arrives you’re in Allah’s hands, but until then your mind is alive and death is not welcome. The ambulance didn’t arrive as the Israeli army stopped them.

Funny isn’t it how many of us knew that. Yes in the liberal press it was reported and in a few smatterings of BBC reports; but now compare that with the bombing of Haifa. See the panic, see the fear, and see the devastation. Israel will use this as an opportunity to impress on the world how important and how akin they are to the West in their constant war against terrorists. They will make the link between Islam and Terror.

And all the while we wring our hands, and cup our heads and cry a bit. We talk a good talk but the BBC will still carry on being biased, B-Sky-B and the Telegraph will still push a one-sided view, influencing opinion and policy. And we gnash our teeth and feel helpless.

Our only weapon is our mind and we have allowed it o become dull. When we most need to use it we don’t. We haven’t been trained and we haven’t been exposed to our sister Nuhi’s death. Well the truth is we have chosen not to be exposed, we have chosen to hide, and we have chosen not to donate.

And I for one don’t just blame the Israelis I blame the Muslims in equal measure. The Israeli kill and manipulate the media, and we sit by. MPACUK asks for funding and we neither get help nor money. Nuhi died while nine months pregnant and we watch the news reports promoting Israeli loss as if it’s greater than the Palestinian’s loss. As an Ummah stop asking MPACUK to stop criticizing, Ask Nuhi what she would say, and ask yourself how many more Nuhi’s have to die before you fund us so we can stop UK tax money supporting Israel or UK media fighting the Israelis propaganda War.

Life’s About Choices, Choose To Give

[url=http://www.mpacuk.org/content/view/1458/1/]MPACuk[/url]

either way, what will happen IMO is that because we have both sides ruled by hardliners, a short term escalation, and then (hopefully!) both sides, after staring at the abyss will come to their senses.

Otherwise this will continue with violence begetting violence.

One thing I gotta say though was that the Israeli gov trated the Hamas gov with more respect than they had previously treated the Fatah lead gov... they were decidedly more reasonable.