49 Israeli commandos with experience in Palestine and Colombia are training Honduran Army

(1) Toben gets 3 months' jail for publishing Denial material in defiance of earlier court order
(2) Israeli commandos with experience in Palestine and Colombia are training Honduran Army
(3) Obama caves in on Settlements: Jerusalem imposes its will on Washington
(4) Iran charges 7 Baha'is with spying for Israel
(5) Israeli-Born Children of Foreign Workers present Quandary for Jewish State
(6) Orthodox Women choosing Natural Birth

(1) Toben gets 3 months' jail for publishing Denial material in defiance of earlier court order

From: Josef Schwanzer <donauschwob@optusnet.com.au>  Date: 13.08.2009 05:35 AM

Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben to serve time in jail

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25924475-12377,00.html
Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben to serve time in jail

By Tim Dornin

The Australian August 13, 2009

Article from:  Australian Associated Press

HOLOCAUST denier Fredrick Toben has been taken into custody to serve a three-month jail term over publishing offensive material on the internet.

The 64-year-old was taken from the Federal Court in Adelaide by Australian Federal Police today after losing his appeal against his conviction for contempt of court.

The Full Court of the Federal Court also ruled that his jail term, originally imposed in May this year, was in no way excessive.

"In our opinion, the sentence of three months cannot, on any stretch of the imagination, be considered excessive or unwarranted," the three-judge panel said.

The judges said Toben also had a disregard for the orders of the court and had acted to undermine the authority of the court.

Earlier this year, Toben was found guilty on 24 counts of contempt for ignoring a previous court order preventing him from publishing racist material on the Adelaide Institute website. When he later imposed a three-month sentence, Justice Bruce Lander said Toben had continued to breach those 2002 orders, which prevented him from publishing specific anti-Semitic material.

The 2002 orders stemmed from a racial discrimination case brought against him by Jeremy Jones, a former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

In his final submissions today, counsel for Toben, David Perkins, suggested the material published on the Adelaide Institute website, which questioned whether the holocaust even occurred, was just a "drop in the bucket" compared to the amount of revisionist material available on the internet.

But in their verdict, the judges said the case before them was not about the holocaust, gas chambers or the execution of Jews during World War II. They said it was about whether or not Toben had complied with orders of the court.

"Obedience to the court is not optional," they said.

As the court rose, Toben asked if he could say something to the judges, only to be cut off by Justice Jeffrey Spender who simply said, "No".

(2) Israeli commandos with experience in Palestine and Colombia are training Honduran Army

From: Kristoffer Larsson <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: 16.08.2009 05:26 PM

http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=8345&lg=en

Interview with René Andrés Pavón, President of the Honduran Human Rights Commission (CODEH)

Israeli Commandos with Experience in Palestine and Colombia are Training the Honduran Armed Forces

Original article published on 3 August 2009

AUTHOR:  Dick EMANUELSSON Translated by  Machetera

There are paramilitary structures that are working in coordination with the armed forces, says the undisputed leader of the human rights struggle in Honduras, Andrés Pavón, in regard to the latest casualty of the dictatorship of the Honduran putschists.

It's not that strange.  The main professors of state terrorism come from the Zionist state in order to teach their methods of death, intelligence and terror, and they know how to sustain a state against a population that is fighting for its constitutional rights or recognition. Or, as in Honduras's case, for the re-establishment of democracy. The interview with Andrés Pavon follows and can also be heard here.

Tegucigalpa - August 2, 2009 - We're facing the COPEMH building, which is the professional association for middle education, and we also are speaking with Dr. René Andrés Pavón, who is the President of the Honduran Human Rights Commission (CODEH).

Dick Emanuelsson (DE):  Yesterday CODEH put out a news release denouncing a variety of things, among them that Micheletti's de facto government has contracted with Israeli commandos or people to train the Honduran military/police forces.  What we know from the civil war in Colombia is that these commandos have also been advising the Colombian military forces.  What are the Israelis doing here?

Andrés Pavón (AP): Until now what we know is that their mission is to prepare the Armed Forces and the police to aggressively and violently dissuade the demonstrations, by committing crimes of a selective nature in order to build fear, staged terror, and achieve a dismantling of the resistance.  Other actions they are undertaking involve certain employees of private security firms putting on police uniforms and acting aggressively against the demonstrators.  The police have already sort of been trained to dissuade demonstrations and are a bit fearful about attacking the demonstrators so that it's as if a bit of their human rights training lingers.  On the other hand, the security guards are being paid double and their immunity is guaranteed.  These are the practices that they are developing, using the experience of the conflict in Palestine and after having put into practice some of these actions in Colombia.

DE: What's the count up to now, we're five weeks out from the coup d'etat - how many people have died and how many have been detained, tortured, beaten?

AP: We have a register that since the beginning of the curfew has registered more than 2,200 people arbitrarily detained and deprived of their freedom.  And in direct actions undertaken to break up demonstrations we have registered more than 600 people.  There are more than 120 people wounded, and three people have been killed in direct actions during demonstrations, with another three whose deaths are characteristic of deaths planned and directed by these groups.

For the first time we're going to announce the fact that during the curfew more than 37 homicides via firearms took place while the police and the army were in control of the streets.  We are going to ask for the names of those victims in order to make the pertinent investigations in light of the fact that the main suspect is the State.

DE: As for the death of the young man, Pedro Magdiel, in El Paraíso on the 24th and 25th of July, now there's also a photo that came out in the La Tribuna newspaper the same day as the uprising, where a soldier can be seen dragging this boy who showed up dead the following day.  How far has the investigation gone in this case?

AP: Yes, we have an investigation going in regard to Magdiel's case; he was the first to be taken by the police and it has the obvious characteristics of an extra-judicial murder.  We know that in Danli, in el Paraiso, there are paramilitary groups who are working in coordination with the armed forces and the police there; we believe that this boy was delivered by the police to these groups who committed this barbaric crime.  We already know that there is a State boss who is well known for his aggressive conduct.

Another strategy is that the Israelis are training a group to instill in people's minds the idea that those of us who are leaders in this movement have a terrorist past or that we're tied to the same structure as the police.  That's what somebody told me yesterday who was trying to put up posters, sticking them on walls in order to create distrust in the part of the population that still lacks awareness about the leaders in this country.  According to them, they want the people to think that way; it's a historic strategy in Latin America, and later they try to justify the death of certain leaders as a result of this contradiction.

DE: The reason all these people are here outside the COPEMH headquarters is that yesterday at 1 a.m., the 38 year old Roger Vallejo, a leader of this association, died as a result of a sniper's attack last Wednesday when the National Front Against the Coup D'Etat took the Tegucigalpa North Highway.  What is known of that? Because it's already the second sniper-caused death.  The first was at the airport on July 5 and now we have another death where a sniper supposedly shot this man.

AP: It's a premeditated killing with certain selective characteristics.  They chose a teacher in order to affect one of the associations that presently makes up part of the resistance and has a lot of people tied to the resistance.  Everything indicates that it was premeditated.  The doctrine of the Rome Statute under which this may come to the International Criminal Court establishes that it's not necessary that the shooter's name be known - it is sufficient to know the name of the person who is directing the repressive policies against a large grouping of the civil population, with the intent to provoke a certain natural psychological reaction among the people.  In that regard, well, no doubt, there will come a time when the premeditated act will be the object of a formal denunciation against the organizations who, certainly, in this country are tied to the repressive structures of the State.  But that will allow us to prove to the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court that there is something happening here and that what's happening is State policy and that this State policy contributes to the generation of all the repressive acts we're presently experiencing.

DE: Could the selection of this gentleman [as a target] also have been an expression of the advice given by the Israelis?

AP: Yes, of course!  It has much in common with the characteristics of the Colombian conflict where there is a confrontation with correlated forces that are somewhat similar to an armed conflict.  Here in Honduras, the correlation of forces is not similar to those in Colombia, here there are civilians who are armed with a courageous conscience, truth, and the only type of self-defense exercised once in awhile is that of a stick or a stone.  They also have their methods for intervening in situations like this, similar to what has happened in Gaza and and the Westbank.

DE: Speaking of Colombia, when Obama became president, a lot of people had hopes that the warmongering policies of the United States would radically change.  But what we've seen is that the Fourth Fleet, re-activated in July of last year, continues to sail from Alaska in the north to Patagonia in the south.  Five new military bases are to be built in Colombia, among them three on the border with Venezuela and one in Málaga Bay, on the Pacific coast, between Central America and Ecuador.  There's no sign that this war policy is going to end.  If Hillary Clinton had wanted to do something with the Micheletti government, why have only the visas of four officials in the Micheletti government been canceled, something cosmetic?  Or how should this be interpreted?

AP: What Obama says reflects a reality, and what his closest collaborators at the business level or this group known as the hawks have, is another discourse and practice.  We read this as Mr. Obama encountering a conflict similar to that faced by other leaders in Latin America; here one has to bear in mind that there could also have been a coup in Bolivia, in Ecuador, in Nicaragua and El Salvador.  It also is worth considering that there could be a coup in the United States sooner or later; these are things that seem impossible to dream of, but they could actually happen.

On the other hand there's still another reading of the conflict and this reading could be that the advisers closest to Obama are selling the idea that this is an opportunity to change policy and retake influence as Latin America's policeman.  Because when we asked him not simply to withdraw visas we were practically asking for intervention in Honduras, so that we'd have a military intervention similar to what went down in Haiti and it's possible that in this way, Obama's government would try to gain prestige for itself in a situation like this.

I'm sure that if the Marines were to intervene in Honduras, they'd be applauded by a whole bunch of people that aren't here, without dreaming that we are opening the door to future interventions in Latin America and bringing back the Latin American police.

These are all possible details.  Of course if that's what Obama's thinking, he's not going to do it right away, it would be a couple of months from now so that elections in Honduras could take place, completely tying up any possibility that President Zelaya might succumb to the social pressure which is demanding the creation of a national constituent assembly.

Source: LATINAMERIKA I DAG / LATINOAMÉRICA DE HOY (Dick Emanuelsson's blog)-Comandos israelíes con experiencias de Palestina y Colombia capacitan a las FF.AA. de Honduras: Entrevista a René Andrés Pavón, Presidente del Comité de Derechos Humanos de Honduras, CODEH 

About the author

Machetera is a member of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity and editir of the bloghttp://machetera.wordpress.com/. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author and translator are cited.

(3) Obama caves in on Settlements: Jerusalem imposes its will on Washington

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1107603.html

Sun., August 16, 2009 Av 26, 5769 |  |  Israel Time: 01:43 (EST+7)

Obama's America is not delivering the goods

By Gideon Levy, Haaretz Correspondent

With great sorrow and deep consternation, we hereby declare the death of the latest hope. Perhaps rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase the famous quote by Mark Twain, but the fears are being validated day after day. Barack Obama's America is not delivering the goods. Sharing a glass of beer with a racist cop and a pat on the back of Hugo Chavez are not what we hoped for; wholesale negotiations on freezing settlement construction are also not what we expected. Just over six months after the most promising president of all began his term, perhaps hope has a last breath left, but it is on its deathbed.

He came into office amid much hoopla. The Cairo speech ignited half the globe. Making settlements the top priority gave rise to the hope that, finally, a statesman is sitting in the White House who understands that the root of all evil is the occupation, and that the root of the occupation's evil is the settlements. From Cairo, it seemed possible to take off. The sky was the limit.

Then the administration fell into the trap set by Israel and is showing no signs of recovery.

A settlement freeze, something that should have been understood by a prime minister who speaks with such bluster about two states - a peripheral matter that Israel committed to in the road map - has suddenly turned into a central issue. Special envoy George Mitchell is wasting his time and prestige with petty haggling. A half-year freeze or a full year? What about the 2,500 apartment units already under construction? And what about natural growth? And kindergartens?

Perhaps they will reach a compromise and agree on nine months, not including natural growth though allowing completion of apartments already under construction. A grand accomplishment.

Jerusalem has imposed its will on Washington. Once again we are at the starting point - dealing with trifles from which it is impossible to make the big leap over the great divide.

We expected more from Obama. Menachem Begin promised less, and he made peace within the same amount of time after he took office. When the main issue is dismantling the settlements, the pulsating momentum that came with Obama is petering out. Instead, we are paddling in shallow water. Mitchell Schmitchel. What's in it for peace? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will once again meet him in London at the end of the month. A "magic formula" for a settlement freeze may be found there, but the momentum is gone.

Not in Israel, though. Here people quickly sensed that there is nothing to fear from Obama, and the fetters were taken off. Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quick to declare that there is no Palestinian partner, even after the Fatah conference elected the most moderate leadership that has ever been assembled in Palestine. Afterward, in a blatant act of provocation, he brought a Torah scroll into the heart of the Muslim Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, in full view of television cameras, just so America can see who's boss around here.

Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, another two politicians who smell American weakness, were quick to declare during a visit to Ma'aleh Adumim that Israel will not freeze any construction. To hell with Obama. The settlers continue to move into more homes in East Jerusalem, Netanyahu is silent and Israelis sense that the "danger" has passed. Israel is once again permitted to do as it pleases. The landlord has once again gone insane. Except that the landlord has gone insane because the real landlord is showing signs of weakness, signs of folding, signs of losing interest in events in the region that most endangers world peace.

Nothing remains from the speeches in Cairo and Bar-Ilan University. Obama is silent, and Yishai speaks. Even "Israel's friends" in Washington, friends of the occupation, are once again rearing their heads.

One source familiar with Obama's inner circle likened him this week to a man who inflates a number of balloons every day in the hope that one of them will rise. He will reach his goal. The source compared him to Shimon Peres, an analogy that should insult Obama. The trial balloons the U.S. president sends our way have yet to take off. One can, of course, wait for the next balloon, the Obama peace plan, but time is running out. And Israel is not sitting idly by.

The minute Jerusalem detected a lack of American determination, it returned to its evil ways and excuses. "There is no partner," "Abu Mazen is weak," "Hamas is strong." And there are demands to recognize a Jewish state and for the right to fly over Saudi Arabia - anything in order to do nothing.

An America that will not pressure Israel is an America that will not bring peace. True, one cannot expect the U.S. president to want to make peace more than the Palestinians and Israelis, but he is the world's responsible adult, its great hope. Those of us who are here, Mr. President, are sinking in the wretched mud, in "injury time."

(4) Iran charges 7 Baha'is with spying for Israel

By Reuters

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1107650.html

 Last update - 17:13 15/08/2009 

Iran will put on trial seven detained Baha'i believers on Tuesday accused of spying for Israel and insulting sanctities, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Six of the seven Baha'is were detained in May 2008 on security-related charges, while another was arrested in March of last year. Iran had previously linked the group to Israel, saying they had received orders from Israel to undertake measures against the Islamic system.

Iran does not recognize Israel.

"The trial of the seven Baha'is accused of spying for the Zionist regime [of Israel] and insulting sanctities will be held on Tuesday," IRNA quoted Hassan Haddad, in charge of security affairs of Tehran's prosecutor office, as saying.

Baha'is regard their faith's 19th-century founder as the latest in a line of prophets including Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad. Iran's Shi'ite religious establishment considers the faith a heretical offshoot of Islam.

Haddad had previously said the seven had confessed to the formation of an illegal organization and to having ties to Israel. The Baha'i International Community has denied the charges.

The Baha'i International Community has said the detainees were members of a committee that tends to the needs of Baha'is in Iran.

The Baha'i International Community represents the faith worldwide, operating under a governing council that is based in Israel, according to its Web site www.bahai.org.

Baha'is say hundreds of their followers have been jailed and executed since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. The government denies it has detained or executed people for their religion.

The Baha'i faith originated in Iran 150 years ago and Baha'is say the faith has 5 million adherents worldwide, including an estimated 300,000 or more in Iran.

Iran earlier this month began two mass trials of detainees arrested over unrest that erupted after the country's disputed June presidential election.

(5) Israeli-Born Children of Foreign Workers present Quandary for Jewish State

By Dina Kraft (JTA)

Published August 14, 2009.

http://forward.com/articles/112209/

TEL AVIV — The round-faced boy given the unusual first name of Rabbi by his Filipino parents was born 11 years ago in Israel and has never known another home.

He speaks only Hebrew and has never traveled to the Philippines, but along with some 1,100 other children of foreign workers without work permits in Israel, the boy faces possible deportation along with his family.

“I feel Israeli in my heart and in my soul,” said the boy, Rabbi Eliazar Cruz.

His parents initially came to Israel legally, as caretakers for elderly clients, but overstayed their visas.

“The Land of Israel is my land,” Rabbi said. “But these days I stay mostly at home, inside. I don’t want to be caught outside and asked by the police where my parents are and deported.”

In late July, a government order to deport the children and their families as part of a larger expulsion of migrants was delayed for three months by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the last minute under pressure from the public, local human rights groups and even President Shimon Peres.

Still, the question of government policy on the issue of the Israeli-born children of foreign workers, most of whose parents entered the country legally but stayed after their work permits expired, remains unresolved.

Like other countries in the industrial world, Israel faces the dilemma of how to deal with the families created on its soil by the foreign workers it invites in. But Israel, which has no immigration policy for non-Jews, finds itself in uncharted territory.

“On the one hand, Israel encouraged foreign workers to come for short-term stays and participate in the labor market in fields where there were not enough workers,” said John Gal, a professor of social work at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

“But there was no contingency for them staying and raising families here,” he said. “So Israel is now faced with a situation where we have children of workers born here but who lack citizenship or clear status.”

Sabine Hadad, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, said deporting illegal residents is a matter of law enforcement.

“These people have broken the law and they know that,” she said of foreigners who overstayed their visas. “The law needs to be applied.”

Instituting a policy that allows the parents of children born in Israel to stay in the country permanently also would open a route for illegal immigrants to stay in Israel forever: simply have a child here.

In the meantime, some 2,000 children of foreigners have come of age in Israel. They speak fluent Hebrew, attend Israeli schools and have joined youth movements. Some have even served in the military.

In 2006, a one-time government ruling gave 900 of the children permanent residency status. Those whose futures are now in question are the 1,100 others.

“I’m not Jewish, but I am Israeli,” said a teenager whose parents came to Israel from Turkey.

The boy was speaking at a meeting of such children Tuesday at the offices of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, which is one of the main organizations lobbying against deportation.

Israeli rights groups also take issue with what they call the government’s revolving-door policy of forcing foreign workers out of the country and then bringing in new workers instead of just keeping those who are here and want to stay.

Most of the country’s foreign workers are from the Philippines, Thailand, Colombia, China and Africa. The vast majority work as caregivers for the elderly or physically impaired.

After the second intifada began in 2000, large numbers of permits were issued to bring in foreign workers in agriculture and construction to replace Palestinian workers.

In announcing the decision to halt the deportation orders for the children and their parents, Netanyahu’s office released a statement explaining the administration’s stance on illegal residents generally.

“The never-ending flow of illegal residents into Israel during the last few years has led to a situation whereby the percentage of illegal residents in the country is one of the highest in the world, relative to the local population and the number of employees in the job market,” the statement said. “This fact increases unemployment among Israelis and significantly alters Israel’s internal demographics.”

Harel Kohen, an aide to Yaakov Katz, the lawmaker who heads the Knesset’s committee on foreign workers, said that taking a firm line on foreign workers illegally in Israel is about preserving the Jewish character of Israel.

“We need to ensure they do not stay in Israel, otherwise Israel is at risk of having its own people assimilated,” he said. “We could lose our Jewish identity.”

The Interior Ministry says there are some 300,000 illegal migrants and approximately 70,700 legal foreign workers in Israel.

Education Minister Gidon Sa’ar is drafting legislation that would prevent the deportation and imprisonment of minors aged 3 to 18, along with their parents and siblings. Sa’ar also proposes outlining conditions in which permanent-resident status can be granted to children integrated into Israeli life.

Israel’s daily Ha’aretz endorsed such a bill in a recent editorial.

“A nation that has experienced expulsion orders and refugee status is not allowed to expel the children of refugees and turn its back on the distress of children who want to become part of the country,” the editorial said.

(6) Orthodox Women choosing Natural Birth

http://blogs.forward.com/the-sisterhood/112036/

August 12, 2009, 5:56pm

Why Orthodox Women Are Choosing Natural Birth

By Deborah Kolben

Looking for a doctor to deliver your baby when you’re 30 weeks pregnant isn’t exactly ideal. But when I moved back to Brooklyn earlier this month, after living in Europe for the past year, that’s exactly what I had to do.

In my perfect world I wanted to find a caring midwife who could deliver my baby in a non-hospital setting. After some extensive Google research, I found myself driving out one rainy morning to the Brooklyn Birthing Center, a small freestanding practice of midwives on an otherwise dim residential strip in the Midwood section of Brooklyn.

The practice had invited interested pregnant women and their partners to come tour their facility, which consists mainly of two bedrooms and a bathtub where women can labor and birth. I expected the assembled crowd to be other Park Slope women like myself who extol things like organic food and natural childbirth. But half of the women there that day were actually Orthodox Jews.

One man wore a yarmulke with the words “Long live the Rebbe King Moshiach Forever” written across the top. He and his wife and another Orthodox couple had traveled from Crown Heights. As it turns out, a good number of patients at this birthing center come from the Orthodox Jewish community. It was explained to me that many Orthodox Jewish women adamantly try to avoid C-sections.

According to Dr. Deena Zimmerman, a physician who also advises women on Jewish law, or halacha, the halachic issue associated with having a C-section is the possibility of taking a risk for an elective surgery. Many Orthodox women insist on consulting with their rabbis before undergoing elective procedures. “[I]f the surgery is really needed, it can of course be done, but religious women may be more inclined to check into the need before they agree to the surgery,” Zimmerman said.

But the desire for vaginal births can also be related to something more practical: large families.

“From a cultural point of view, religious women are, in general, more likely to want large families and are thus more likely to question the need for a C-section,” Zimmerman said, noting that once a woman has a C-section, it is more complicated to have a vaginal birth with the next child. And for safety reasons, some doctors will only perform a limited number of C-sections on a woman. So, if you want to have a large family, C-sections could get in the way.

I was told that was one of the reasons why Maimonides Medical Center, in the heavily Orthodox neighborhood of Boro Park in Brooklyn, had one of the lowest C-section rates of any hospital in the city.

I also read online that more women in the Orthodox community are turning to homebirth. Has anybody else heard about this?