Plant 2,000 Olive Trees, Open UNGA fully to Palestinians

Beyond reach of law, Israeli armed forces, settlers commit continual assault on Palestinian farm families; Palestinians reach for UN status

Palestinian woman hugs
olive tree
uprooted by Israelis

Edited by Carolyn Bennett

  

U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation reports.

Israel’s military occupation enters year 45 and the work of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is more vital than ever. Contributions to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation help:

Produce and distribute educational resources to tens of thousands of people throughout the United States and support the community organizing work necessary to change U.S. policies.

West Bank village
Man picks olives

Continue support for boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns and build on recent successes in those campaigns.

Challenge U.S. military aid to Israel at every level of government ─ from city councils and school boards to Capitol Hill and the White House

Plant trees for Palestinian farming families.

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is the largest and most diverse coalition working to change U.S. policy toward Palestine/Israel to support human rights, international law, and equality.

Israeli Occupation repression:

Palestinian farmer

Increase in settler violence against Palestinian civilians since 2010:  39 percent

Increase in settler violence against Palestinian civilians since 2007: 315 percent

Palestinian trees vandalized (estimated number) by Israeli settlers in 2012: 7,500

Palestinian trees uprooted (estimated number) by Israel since 1967: 1.2 million

Palestinian families in the occupied territories who rely on farming for their livelihood:  80,000

Palestinian farmers’ applications for permits to access olive groves behind Israel’s apartheid wall DENIED: 42 percent

Gaza’s agricultural land rendered inaccessible because of Israel’s ‘buffer zone’:  30 percent

Suspects indicted out of 162 documented complaints of settler attacks against Palestinian trees: 1

Israeli settler burns
Palestinian olive trees

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has partnered with the Palestinian fair trade association to plant olive trees for Palestinian farming families.  

Toward a goal of 2,000 olive trees this year, the Campaign needs help to fund the planting of an additional 1,804 trees for Palestinian farming families.

UN General Assembly
193 Member States

In today’s news, the China Daily reports

Palestinians' UN bid

Despite the U.S. opposition to the Palestinian bid for non-member observer status in the United Nations, President Abbas affirms, “There is nothing preventing us from getting the incomplete membership in the UN.”

The permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said yesterday in a press conference ─ 

You give me an impression that you are ready for a historic event on the 29th of November.

Palestinian rights
Palestinian liberation

[The] historic event will take place when our president, President Mahmoud Abbas, with a large Palestinian delegation contribute to the efforts with all our friends and the General Assembly to legislate recognition of the State of Palestine at the United Nations and also change our status to a non-member observer state.

That will be a historic moment in the struggle of the Palestinian people, and a historic moment in the history of the United Nations.

The UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947, adopted Resolution 181, the China News article recalls, “which recognized the need to establish a Jewish state alongside an Arab state in the former British Mandate territory of Palestine.”

As soon as the Palestinian state’s membership is secured, President Abbas said, “The Palestinian side is ready to return to the negotiating table.” Before more time passes, he said, “This might be the last chance for making peace in the Middle East.”

Sources and notes

Contact information: officemanager@endtheoccupation.org or call 202-332-0994.

https://npo1.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1004565

Education for Just Peace in the Middle East (registered to do business as the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Tax-ID # 42-1636592).

http://www.endtheoccupation.org/section.php?id=300

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation conducts boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns and needs help to redouble its efforts in opposing unconditional military aid and diplomatic support for Israel.

“Palestine’s UN bid ‘historic moment’: envoy ─ UNITED NATIONS - Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, said yesterday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will submit the Palestinian bid for a non-member state status to the UN General Assembly tomorrow as planned. This will be ‘a historic moment’ for both the Palestinians and the 193-member states body.” (Updated: 2012-11-28 07:45, Xinhua), http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-11/28/content_15964928.htm

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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U.S. in Middle East: Kill until all disagreeing are killed; abandon Palestine ─ Kucinich, Carter

Acute and constant U.S. Foreign relations disasters

Re-reporting, editing by 

Carolyn Bennett

Referencing this week’s Washington Post article on the White House’s calculated global killing program, Kucinich writes, the United States’ “‘targeted killing is now so routine that the Obama administration has spent much of the past year codifying and streamlining the process that sustains it.’ …  The current policy creates new U.S. enemies and our government wants to make this program permanent.”

This is a “short-sighted policy,” Kucinich says, that “has been likened to mowing the grass. As soon as you stop cutting the grass down, it comes right back.”

U.S. drone
Human costs
Somalia

But, Kucinich warns, “Nations are not made of grass. They are made of people” ─ as many as 3,378 people including 885 civilians killed by more than 350 U.S. drone strikes.

Innocent civilians, thousands of people dead [not to mention the maimed and demoralized, the displaced, the terrified and insecure, the destabilized]; and we “continue to kill ‘top leaders’”: repeatedly, we have “killed ‘Al Qaeda’s number 2’… and significant questions persist as to whether the United States is conducting [assassination drone] strikes in accordance with the law. The evidence suggests not.

“We are not solving our problems or making the world safer,” Kucinich says. We are staining our own global image, undermining our ethical place to lead and descending into moral depravity.

U.S. drone
Pakistani backlash

 

“Will we keep killing until everyone who disagrees with us is dead?”

U.S. drone launch

W

hile the elected government in Washington was killing people in the Middle East, the Elders were fact finding in the Middle East, talking peace and a two-state solution in Palestine.

The Elders is an independent group of ten global leaders who no longer hold public office (they are independent of any national government or other vested interest), leaders who have earned international trust, demonstrated integrity, and built a reputation for inclusive, progressive leadership.

Palestinian woman
Child
Rubble

The Elders work together for peace and human rights. They were brought together in 2007 by Nelson Mandela, who is not an active member of the group but remains an Honorary Elder. The Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was also an Honorary Elder, until her election to the Burmese parliament in April 2012. Current active Elders are Martti Ahtisaari, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Fernando H Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson.

Three of the Elders, former Norway Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Ireland President Mary Robinson, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, made a two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank this week.

Elders’ findings in Occupied Territories

Elders left to right
Gro Harlem BrundtlandJimmy Carter
Mary Robinson.

The former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, said:

“The aspirations of Palestinians are being crushed, not only by the complete failure of negotiations with Israel but by a lack of unified political leadership.

“They deserve much better,” she said. “Reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas remains an essential ingredient in Palestinian self-determination [and] the leaders have to be more attuned to the demands of the people, especially given the broader changes sweeping the region.” 

 

The former Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland, said:

“It has been very sad to hear of the considerable problems that long-standing Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem face in their everyday lives –

having to reapply every year for the right to stay,

businesspeople waiting years for licenses,

[loss of] their homes to settlers or demolition.

“The effect of this system,” she said, [creates] great suffering, and erode[s] the diverse character of this city, which is so important for people of all faiths and traditions from all around the world.”

As a physician, Gro Harlem Brundtland said she “was particularly affected by our visit to Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian model of excellence for the entire region which faces enormous difficulties in treating those people nearest to it from the West Bank – never mind Palestinians from Gaza – due to Israeli travel restrictions.” This is a tragic illustration, she said, of “the direct human impact of the present deadlock.” 

Middle East
Occupied Territories

The former President of the United States, and the leader of this Elders’ delegation, Jimmy Carter, said:

“We are heading towards a one-state outcome, which will fail to ensure 

• the security and democratic rights of the people of Israel and

• renege on the promise of self-determination for Palestinians.

The two-state solution is vanishing. We urgently need a fresh approach by all parties if a Palestinian state is to be achieved.

Jimmy Carter said, “The Elders share the view that the two-state solution is the only realistic path to peace and security for Israel and the Palestinians but changes on the ground ─ including the construction of settlements beyond the Green Line and the growing isolation of East Jerusalem from the West Bank ─ make a Palestinian state unviable.”

In the reporting press on the Elders’ Middle East trip, Mr. Carter reportedly chastised U.S. leadership “for the lack of progress toward a two-state resolution:

The United States ‘has withdrawn commitment to be the major negotiator.’

Sources and notes

“The Kill Matrix ─ State-sponsored murder has killed so many people that it is becoming routine, bureaucratized and pathological” Washington, October 24, 2012, http://kucinich.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=311425

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released a statement (text and video) opposing the codification and the streamlining of the United States’ ‘Kill Matrix’ which determines when and where the United States uses drones to conduct targeted killings.

“State-sponsored murder has killed so many people that it is becoming routine, bureaucratized and pathological,” Kucinich added.

American for nonviolence

Dennis John Kucinich (b. October 8, 1946) has been a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Ohio’s 10th congressional district since 1997 (2012, current Congress, ends his tenure). He was a candidate for the U.S. presidency in 2004 and 2008; and before entering Congress, Kucinich was Cleveland, Ohio’s 53rd mayor (1977-1979).

In the U.S. Congress, Dennis Kucinich sits on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. In a Congressional career in which he has stood for bringing articles of impeachment against former U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard (Dick) Cheney; and against the 2003 invasion of Iraq and consistently for nonviolence, for diplomacy, for peace, Kucinich will end his congressional career in January 2013, following a redistricting by Ohio’s Republican-controlled state legislature that abolished the congressional district in which he serves.

Todays Insight News: “Toward U.S. global Tiananmen?”  Tuesday, June 5, 2012 

The Elders, http://theelders.org/about

“We are heading towards a one-state outcome” (press release) October 22, 2012, http://theelders.org/article/we-are-heading-towards-one-state-outcome

‘The two-state solution is vanishing’ – Jimmy Carter, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Mary Robinson urge a fresh approach to achieving lasting peace in the Middle East

The Elders concluded a two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank by saying that the two-state solution is in deep peril and may soon be out of reach. They urged a fresh, concerted approach to explore all alternatives to the current stalemate in negotiations, stressing that a two-state solution is the only realistic path to lasting peace in the Middle East.

During this visit, the Elders met the Israeli President Shimon Peres, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, international officials and a range of Israeli and Palestinian groups. Their discussions on this issue will continue in the coming days in Cairo, Egypt.

“Carter joins two other members of The Elders on visit to Israel and the West Bank and sees worsening situation for Palestinians” (Common Dreams staff), October 23, 2012, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/23-4

“Jimmy Carter downplays U.S. influence on Israel and Palestine” (Press TV), October 23, 2012,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/23/268308/carter-downplays-us-influence-on-israel/

Elders’ Part II Egypt

“The Elders begin two-day visit to Egypt” October 23, 2102:  In the second part of their trip to the Middle East, The Elders were in Egypt for two days meeting with President Morsi, senior officials, religious leaders and members of civil society. The Elders praised the Egyptians for their success in using non-violent protest to bring about sweeping political changes and expressed their support for the country’s democratic transition.

Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson offered encouragement and support for an inclusive democratic transition. http://theelders.org/article/elders-begin-two-day-visit-egypt

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Another U.S. war looms in Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf
Major oil fields

As new Freedom Flotilla heads to Gaza, post-Libya USA, Britain, Israel punish Palestinians, heat up  provocation against Iran

Editing, re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett

Punitive measures continue

DESPITE 99 PERCENT

Israel yesterday in the wake of UNESCO’s vote to admit Palestine, announced continued punishment of a people whose land it occupies. Democracy Now reports in today's headlines that U.S.-allied Israel has announced plans to build 2,000 new settlement homes and to freeze the transfer of tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority. “Most of the new settlement homes will be built in occupied East Jerusalem, an area Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state.

“One Israeli official admitted the Israeli actions were agreed to as punishment after the vote at UNESCO.”

On Monday, the UNESCO General Conference admitted Palestine as a Member State. Palestine’s entry brings the number of UNESCO’s Member States to 195.

Gaza-bound ‘Freedom Waves’ 2011 flotilla
Irish ship Saoirse

Agence France Presse is reporting, “Two ships carrying medical aid and activists have set sail from Turkey in a new bid to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.” A statement issued today “by the Freedom Waves group said the mini-flotilla made up of one Irish ship and one Canadian ship had left Fethiye on Turkey’s south coast on Wednesday afternoon and planned to arrive in Gaza on Friday.

“The group said the two boats, the Canadian Tahrir and the Irish Saoirse, were carrying 27 people, including journalists and crew members, along with $30,000 worth of medicines.”

AND THREATS INCREASE AND DEEPEN

Pushed from their land, Plug Pulled 

Also from the Occupied territories, Democracy Now reports, “Hacker Attack Cuts Off Phone and Web Service for Palestinians: Phone and internet service in the West Bank and Gaza has been largely cut off after all Palestinian IP [Internet Protocol]  addresses came under a sustained hacker attack.

“Palestinian officials said the sites were attacked in an ‘organized’ manner, using mirror servers. It is unclear who was behind the attack but some Palestinian officials blamed Israel.”

U.S. Britain, Israel pushing provocation against Iran

2003 U.S. led war
Persian Gulf State
Iraq

U.S. allied against Iran continues— “Israeli leaders are gathering support to attack Iran

“The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz is reporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are trying to muster a majority in the cabinet in favor of military action against Iran.

“Netanyahu and Barak have reportedly persuaded Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to support such an attack. Early Tuesday, Israel reportedly test fired a ballistic missile.”

IRAN

Guardian today reports U.S., Britain amassing enormous power for another war, “Israel has successfully test-fired a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and striking Iran, fanning a public debate over whether the country’s leaders are agitating for a military attack on Tehran’s atomic facilities.

“While Israeli leaders have long warned that a military strike was an option, the most intensive round of public discourse on the subject was ignited over the weekend by a report in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot that said the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the defense minister, Ehud Barak, favored an attack.

“That was followed by a report in the Haaretz on Wednesday that Netanyahu is lobbying cabinet members for an attack, despite the complexity of the operation and the likelihood it would draw a deadly retaliation from Iran. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu did not yet have a majority.

“An Israeli defense official told the Associated Press that the military tested a ‘rocket propulsion system’ in an exercise planned long ago.

“Further information about the test was censored by the military. However, foreign reports said the military test-fired a long-range Jericho missile – capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and striking Iran.”

Also in the Guardian, “Last weekend, the New York Times reported that the U.S. was looking to build up its military presence in the region, with one eye on Iran. According to the paper, the United States is considering sending more naval warships to the area, and is seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

“The Ministry of Defense believes the U.S. may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead, it [Britain] will seek and receive UK military help for any mission — despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.

“In anticipation of a potential attack, British military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the coming months as part of what would be an air- and sea-launched campaign.

“Last year, the UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran to try to deter Tehran from pursuing any nuclear ambitions.”

Sources and notes

Democracy Now November 2, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/2/headlines

UNESCO Member States

List of the 194 Member States (and the 8 Associate Members) of UNESCO and the date on which they became members (or Associate Members) of the Organization, as of October 27,   2011

Flag	Country	Date (yyyy/mm/dd)
	Afghanistan	1948-5-4
	Albania	1958-10-16
	Algeria	1962-10-15
	Andorra	1993-10-20
	Angola	1977-3-11
	Antigua and Barbuda	1982-7-15
	Argentina	1948-9-15
	Armenia	1992-6-9
	Australia	1946-11-4
	Austria	1948-8-13
	Azerbaijan	1992-6-3
	Bahamas	1981-4-23
	Bahrain	1972-1-18
	Bangladesh	1972-10-27
	Barbados	1968-10-24
	Belarus	1954-5-12
	Belgium	1946-11-29
	Belize	1982-5-10
	Benin	1960-10-18
	Bhutan	1982-4-13
	Bolivia (Plurinational State of) (1)	1946-11-13
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1993-6-2
	Botswana	1980-1-16
	Brazil	1946-11-4
	Brunei Darussalam	2005-3-17
	Bulgaria	1956-5-17
	Burkina Faso	1960-11-14
	Burundi	1962-11-16
	Cambodia	1951-7-3
	Cameroon	1960-11-11
	Canada	1946-11-4
	Cape Verde	1978-2-15
	Central African Republic	1960-11-11
	Chad	1960-12-19
	Chile	1953-7-7
	China	1946-11-4
	Colombia	1947-10-31
	Comoros	1977-3-22
	Congo	1960-10-24
	Cook Islands	1989-10-25
	Costa Rica	1950-5-19
	Côte d'Ivoire	1960-10-27
	Croatia	1992-6-1
	Cuba	1947-8-29
	Cyprus	1961-2-6
	Czech Republic	1993-2-22
	Democratic People's Republic of Korea	1974-10-18
	Democratic Republic of the Congo	1960-11-25
	Denmark	1946-11-4
	Djibouti	1989-8-31
	Dominica	1979-1-9
	Dominican Republic	1946-11-4
	Ecuador	1947-1-22
	Egypt	1946-11-4
	El Salvador	1948-4-28
	Equatorial Guinea	1979-11-29
	Eritrea	1993-9-2
	Estonia	1991-10-14
	Ethiopia	1955-7-1
	Fiji	1983-7-14
	Finland	1956-10-10
	France	1946-11-4
	Gabon	1960-11-16
	Gambia	1973-8-1
	Georgia	1992-10-7
	Germany	1951-7-11
	Ghana	1958-4-11
	Greece	1946-11-4
	Grenada	1975-2-17
	Guatemala	1950-1-2
	Guinea	1960-2-2
	Guinea-Bissau	1974-11-1
	Guyana	1967-3-21
	Haiti	1946-11-18
	Honduras	1947-12-16
	Hungary	1948-9-14
	Iceland	1964-6-8
	India	1946-11-4
	Indonesia	1950-5-27
	Iran, Islamic Republic of	1948-9-6
	Iraq	1948-10-21
	Ireland	1961-10-3
	Israel	1949-9-16
	Italy	1948-1-27
	Jamaica	1962-11-7
	Japan	1951-7-2
	Jordan	1950-6-14
	Kazakhstan	1992-5-22
	Kenya	1964-4-7
	Kiribati	1989-10-24
	Kuwait	1960-11-18
	Kyrgyzstan	1992-6-2
	Lao People's Democratic Republic	1951-7-9
	Latvia	1991-10-14
	Lebanon	1946-11-4
	Lesotho	1967-9-29
	Liberia	1947-3-6
	Libya (2)	1953-6-27
	Lithuania	1991-10-7
	Luxembourg	1947-10-27
	Madagascar	1960-11-10
	Malawi	1964-10-27
	Malaysia	1958-6-16
	Maldives	1980-7-18
	Mali	1960-11-7
	Malta	1965-2-10
	Marshall Islands	1995-6-30
	Mauritania	1962-1-10
	Mauritius	1968-10-25
	Mexico	1946-11-4
	Micronesia (Federated States of)	1999-10-19
	Monaco	1949-7-6
	Mongolia	1962-11-1
	Montenegro (3)	2007-3-1
	Morocco	1956-11-7
	Mozambique	1976-10-11
	Myanmar	1949-6-27
	Namibia	1978-11-2
	Nauru	1996-10-17
	Nepal (4)	1953-5-1
	Netherlands	1947-1-1
	New Zealand	1946-11-4
	Nicaragua	1952-2-22
	Niger	1960-11-10
	Nigeria	1960-11-14
	Niue	1993-10-26
	Norway	1946-11-4
	Oman	1972-2-10
	Pakistan	1949-9-14
	Palau	1999-9-20
	Panama	1950-1-10
	Papua New Guinea	1976-10-4
	Paraguay	1955-6-20
	Peru	1946-11-21
	Philippines	1946-11-21
	Poland	1946-11-6
	Portugal (5)	1974-9-11
	Qatar	1972-1-27
	Republic of Korea	1950-6-14
	Republic of Moldova	1992-5-27
	Romania	1956-7-27
	Russian Federation	1954-4-21
	Rwanda	1962-11-7
	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1983-10-26
	Saint Lucia	1980-3-6
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1983-1-14
	Samoa	1981-4-3
	San Marino	1974-11-12
	Sao Tome and Principe	1980-1-22
	Saudi Arabia	1946-11-4
	Senegal	1960-11-10
	Serbia (6)	2000-12-20
	Seychelles	1976-10-18
	Sierra Leone	1962-3-28
	Singapore	2007-10-8
	Slovakia	1993-2-9
	Slovenia	1992-5-27
	Solomon Islands	1993-9-7
	Somalia	1960-11-15
	South Africa (7)	1994-12-12
	South Sudan	2011-10-27
	Spain	1953-1-30
	Sri Lanka	1949-11-14
	Sudan	1956-11-26
	Suriname	1976-7-16
	Swaziland	1978-1-25
	Sweden	1950-1-23
	Switzerland	1949-1-28
	Syrian Arab Republic	1946-11-16
	Tajikistan	1993-4-6
	Thailand	1949-1-1
	The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia	1993-6-28
	Timor-Leste	2003-6-5
	Togo	1960-11-17
	Tonga	1980-9-29
	Trinidad and Tobago	1962-11-2
	Tunisia	1956-11-8
	Turkey	1946-11-4
	Turkmenistan	1993-8-17
	Tuvalu	1991-10-21
	Uganda	1962-11-9
	Ukraine	1954-5-12
	United Arab Emirates	1972-4-20
	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (8)	1997-7-1
	United Republic of Tanzania	1962-3-6
	United States of America (9)	2003-10-1
	Uruguay	1947-11-8
	Uzbekistan	1993-10-26
	Vanuatu	1994-2-10
	Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	1946-11-25
	Viet Nam	1951-7-6
	Yemen	1962-4-2
	Zambia	1964-11-9
	Zimbabwe	1980-9-22

Associate Members

Flag	Country	Date (yyyy/mm/dd)
	Aruba	1987-10-20
	British Virgin Islands	1983-11-24
	Cayman Islands	1999-10-30
	Curaçao	2011-10-25
	Faroes	2009-10-12
	Macao, China	1995-10-25
	Sint Maarten	2011-10-25
	Tokelau	2001-10-15

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/member-states/countries/

“UK military steps up plans for Iran attack amid fresh nuclear fears — British officials consider contingency options to back up a possible US action as fears mount over Tehran’s capability” (Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk), Wednesday November 2, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/uk-military-iran-attack-nuclear

“Israeli army test-fires missile capable of reaching Iran — Defense official says military tested rocket propulsion system as reports suggest country's leaders in favor of attacking Tehran” (Associated Press in Jerusalem, guardian.co.uk), Wednesday November 2, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/israeli-army-test-fires-missile

Monday October 31, 2011, UNESCO’s General Conference voted to admit Palestine as a Member State of the Organization

FREEDOM SHIP to GAZA

“Aid ships in new bid to run Gaza blockade: activists,” AFP, November 2, 2011, http://news.yahoo.com/aid-ships-bid-run-gaza-blockade-activists-165321563.html

From Ha’aretz on Israel:

“Netanyahu trying to persuade cabinet to support attack on Iran — Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who previously objected to attacking Iran, was recently persuaded by Netanyahu and Barak to support such a move” (Barak Ravid, Amos Harel, Zvi Zrahiya and Jonathan Lis), November 2, 2011,

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-trying-to-persuade-cabinet-to-support-attack-on-iran-1.393214

“Israel Navy tracks new Gaza-bound flotilla — Two ships leave Turkey carrying between 20 to 30 pro-Palestinian activists; IDF says plans to intercept vessels, offer them to dock at Ashdod or port in Egypt” (Anshel Pfeffer), November2, 2011, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-navy-tracks-new-gaza-bound-flotilla-1.393365

CAPTIONS

Britannica maps

Iraq War flames 2003:

Explosions illuminating the skies of Baghdad during the U.S.-led air bombardment of the city, March 2003.

The Persian Gulf

Photo Irish ship Saoirse

“The Irish ship Saoirse is seen in the Turkish port of Gocek, Mugla, June 2011. Two ships carrying medical aid and activists have set sail from Turkey in a new bid to to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, pro-Palestinian activists said on Wednesday. (AFP)

“The Gaza-bound ‘Freedom Waves’ flotilla set sail from the Turkish port of Fethiye earlier today. The flotilla plans on illegally delivering supplies to Gaza. They hope to reach Gaza by Friday”

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/11/gaza-bound-flotilla-freedom-waves-sets-sail-from-turkish-port/

Terms Wikipedia note

The Internet Protocol (IP) is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams (packets) across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite. Responsible for routing packets across network boundaries, it is the primary protocol that establishes the Internet.

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire

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