SHORTS AND LINKS

Nick Cohen draws attention to the fact that Putin’s gangster elite are increasingly using London courts to silence their critics;-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/06/england-helps-silence-kremlin-critic

At the same time as strenuous efforts are being made to draw the worlds attention to the murder of Russian Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky for the crime of voicing inconvenient truths, Putin finds a new friend in the grotesque figure of Gérard Depardieu, for whom the Russian President cut through all the red tape to offer a Russian passport. Depardieu however needs to mind his manners with his new found friends; if he goes around making disparaging remarks about the Russian government the way he has about the French he could find himself being fitted up for a pair of concrete boots.

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Big question in US politics is will the Israel lobby knobble Chuck Hagel's nomination as Defence Secretary. Already they are gathering, uttering ominous threats about examining his record. He has made some remarks mildly critical of Israel; worth keeping an eye on this one.
http://www.alternet.org/world/israel-lobby-vs-president-obama-what-chuck-hagel-fight-really-means

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In an edition of the BBC’s Any Questions broadcast just before Christmas Max Hastings stated, I paraphrase and quote from memory..... “the Afghans faced the insult of having a woman sent to them as a representative of the UN, how crass was that. True the Afghans treat their woman badly, there is nothing we can do about that.” 
You need to pause for a moment after hearing this, time enough to allow Hasting’s sexist claptrap to sink in. There are you see Afghans and there are women, the Afghans have ‘their women who do not count in Hastings equation.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which has an honourable record in tracking down Nazi war crimes, is increasingly discrediting itself by loosely throwing around accusations of anti-Semitism. Currently it is targeting Jakob Augstein of Spiegel. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/wiesenthal-center-refuses-to-debate-jakob-augstein-without-apology-a-876087.html
The device of accusing anyone who criticises the state of Israel of being anti-Semitic has been going on for a number of years, growing in direct proportion to the increasingly aggressive actions of the Israeli state. It is not only deeply dishonourable and dishonest it is extremely dangerous, serving as it does to discredit identification of a growing anti-Semitism in Europe, particularly in parts of the far left and among sections of the Muslim community.
One assumes that were I considered important enough the accusation, given the views I have expressed above, would be levelled at me.  

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