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Sang to the tune of "We Are The World".... There comes a time When we need to make a show For the world, the Web and CNN There's no people dying, so the best that we can do Is create the greatest bluff of all We must go on pretending day by day That in Gaza, there's crisis, hunger and plague Coz the billion bucks in aid won't buy their basic needs Like some cheese and missiles for the kids

Dear Crazy People, We’ve been given to understand that you intend to stage another media stunt, wherein you’re again going to float some empty ships – they may be full this time, they were mostly empty last time – in the general direction of the Gaza Strip. Your hope is apparently that your cameramen will capture the Israeli reaction and edit it into an overreaction or, failing that, simply reprint your feverish fantasies with slack-jawed credulity. Again. Our problem isn’t so much that your goal involves obfuscating the millions of tons of food and aid we’ve delivered to Gaza civilians,...

Knives, slingshots and night vision goggles indicate activists had less-than-peaceful goals. The array of equipment found on board the ships that made up the Gaza aid flotilla was as divergent as the flotilla’s stated aims. On the one hand there was medical equipment aimed to help ease the suffering of Gaza’s sick and handicapped, and on the other there were knives, slingshots and night vision goggles, which indicate hostile goals. Israeli military officials have said that the amount of goods found on the ships are a drop in the sea compared to the amount of goods that regularly pass into...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE TAJI — U.S. Soldiers here recently conducted a two-dimensional operation; handing out food and clothing to local residents near this base while also gathering information about area security. Sgt. Chelsie Kirkland, an intelligence analyst with Regimental Troop Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) and a Murfreesboro, Tenn., native, passes out donated shoes to an Iraqi boy during a humanitarian and intelligence gathering mission in Taji, Iraq, May 25, 2010. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael Carden.The operation was organized and overseen by Master Sgt. Melvin Brown, an Iraqi Army liaison with Regimental Troop Squadron,...

Israeli security forces have found weapons, including Molotov cocktails and detonators, aboard the Turkish-flagged merchant vessel Mavi Marmara, which was part of a convoy that attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Honolulu peace activist Ann Wright was one of about 700 people taken into custody by Israeli defense forces after a raid on a flotilla of boats carrying aid to Gaza that left nine people dead, friends of Wright's confirmed. Kyle Kajihiro of the American Friends Service Committee, and Arnie Kotler, publisher of a book on Gaza by Wright, said they recognized her in a video of the detainees being led into detention in Ashdod. The video was posted on YouTube and several Israeli newspaper sites.

Much of the equipment and supplies aboard the “humanitarian” ships for Gaza has been checked and found to be worthless. The cargo was taken off the boats at the Ashdod port and checked there, in accordance with the Israeli embargo on Gaza. The embargo is an acceptable measure taken between entities that are in a state of armed conflict, as are Israel and Hamas-run Gaza.

It was exactly the kind of coverage that pro-Palestinian activists behind the Gaza aid flotilla were aiming for: "Deaths as Israeli forces storm Gaza aid ship." Associated Press, BBC, Fox News, CNN and countless other media outlets across the world and even in Israel, carried such headlines, reporting the ensuing diplomatic crisis and worldwide condemnation that quickly followed. Not surprisingly, this typical knee-jerk reaction by the media and international community to such Mideast confrontations, failed to report the outside circumstances that lead to the unfolding events at sea.

May 26, 2010 After $1 trillion in aid, African countries are still worse off Johathan Clayton: commentary Most Africans are poorer today than they were 50 years ago. This may not prove that aid does not work, but it poses some very difficult questions: why is it that a continent that has attracted about $1 trillion in assistance is much worse off than at independence about 50 years ago? Then, countries such as Sierra Leone and Ghana had GDPs the same size or even larger than South Korea or Vietnam. Why is it that an idea that seemed so right,...

The Swedish government has sacked the director-general of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), Anders Nordström, and announced a major overhaul of the sternly criticised public authority. Development aid minister Gunilla Carlsson on Thursday announced a reorganisation of Sida and appointed Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, former head of Save the Children Sweden, to lead the agency in the interim. "I am very happy that we have been able to recruit Charlotte Petri Gornitzka as interim general-director," Gunilla Carlsson said in a press conference on Thursday. The leadership of Sida will be soon be further strengthened by the appointment of Bo Netz,...

Beijing’s rebuff made Kim cut China trip short Request for extraordinary aid denied, as China adhered to UN sanctions May 17, 2010 BEIJING - China told North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during his recent visit that it will respect international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang and refused to provide extraordinary economic assistance, an informed source here told the JoongAng Ilbo. According to the source, the Chinese government’s position prompted Kim to cut short his stay in China. “At the luncheon between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Kim on May 6, the Chinese government informed the North that China will not provide...

The recent argument made on a handful of websites, blogs, columns, and in college lecture halls that US military aid to Israel is damaging to the United States is not only erroneous, it hurts the vital national security interests of our country and threatens the survival of the Jewish State. In fact US support for Israel is essential not only for the Jewish State’s national security but for America’s as well. Every bit of that support—and more—withstands all reasonable scrutiny. Under the 2010 US budget about $75 billion, $65 billion, and $3.25 billion will be spent on military operations and...

KIRKUK – After helping Iraqi Soldiers deliver supplies to a village near here recently, U.S. Soldiers took a back seat as the Iraqis handled the distribution of aid and interacted with the people.Capt. Azad, an Iraqi Army platoon leader, hands out supplies to citizens in the village of Doskushman, near Kirkuk, Iraq, April 22, 2010. U.S. 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division Soldiers, out of Fort Bliss, Texas, helped their Iraqi counterparts transport the supplies to the village, and then took a back seat as Iraqi Forces took the lead on the mission. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Jessica...

4/19/2010 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Members of the 455th Expeditionary Aerial Port Squadron here recently adjusted office space to accommodate more than 1,100 pounds of humanitarian aid sent to Bagram Airfield. The donation, 38 boxes of shoes, was facilitated by Tech. Sgt. Ronald Knight, an air transportation operations center data records technician from the 455th EAPS. Sergeant Knight said when he was here in November, he received an e-mail from Brig. Gen. Steven L. Kwast, the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing commander. "General Kwast put the word out that hospital personnel had noticed a lot of children coming in...

The following article is a ** MUST READ ** for anyone who wants to know how public opinion against Israel is fed by the media and academia. Israeli journalist Ben-Dror Yemini's article brilliantly demonstrates how the international community's slanted narrative -- which ignores Muslim and Arab violence against Muslims and Arabs -- does injustice to Israel, which is falsely painted as the ultimate source of all conflict and violence in the world today. http://www.mideasttruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8877 http://www.mideasttruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8878 http://www.mideasttruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8894

After getting millions of dollars to fight AIDS, some African countries responded by slashing their health budgets, new research says. For years, the international community has forked over billions in health aid, believing the donations supplemented health budgets in poor countries. It now turns out development money prompted some governments to spend on entirely different things, which cannot be tracked. The research was published Friday in the medical journal Lancet.

The argument that American military aid to Israel is damaging to the U.S. is not only erroneous, it hurts the national security interests of this country and threatens the survival of Israel. U.S. support for Israel is essential, not only for Israel’s national security, but for America’s. Every bit of that support -- and more -- withstands all reasonable scrutiny. Under the 2010 U.S. budget, about $75 billion, $65 billion and $3.25 billion will be spent on military operations and aid in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan during this fiscal year, respectively. Israel will receive $3 billion, in military aid only....

Tennessee's six historically black colleges and universities will receive an estimated $34.5 million over 10 years in badly needed assistance as part of the student loan reform legislation President Barack Obama signed into law last week.

4/2/2010 - KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFNS) -- Tech. Sgt. James Harrell Jr. was on his way home from here after a shift with the 81st Security Forces Squadron about 5:15 a.m. March 26. As he traveled west on Pass Road, he turned south onto Rodenberg Avenue -- not his normal route home to Gulfport, Miss. "I can't explain it ... I just decided to turn there," Sergeant Harrell said. Sergeant Harrell is assigned to the 908th Airlift Wing at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., but is on temporary duty at Keesler AFB. As he approached Irish Hill Drive,...

National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon today assured President Hamid Karzai that New Delhi will continue its developmental efforts in Afghanistan. But India has temporarily suspended its medical mission in Kabul that was the target of a suicide attack last Friday. While Menon, in his interaction with Karzai and top Afghan officials, made it clear that reconstruction efforts will not be affected, sources said India will take a more cautious approach after the third major attack on its establishments here in the last two years. The Karzai government assured Menon that security for Indian establishments across Afghanistan would be increased...