The Republican administration under Reagan sold loads of arms to Iran 20 years ago. So let me get this strait....NOW the US is going to assist the Iraqi government which extremely close to Iran politically by sending EVEN MORE troops who will no doubt die or return without arms and legs. Why are American soldiers being sacrificed for a puppet of Iran? Republicans sure must love Iran! I just don't get why the Republicans love Iran so much
FACT: on TV bush says that he is "Spreading democracy" FACT: democracy means - no torture, a fair trial with a lawyer of your chosing, the right to examine those who accuse you. Also gives you the right to humane punishment Question: Where these poor folks below given a democratic trial before they were brutally and barbarically tortured by amerian terorrists? NO - so WE are the backward, extremists. THAT is why the world hates the US. FACT: the CIA is the most organized, well funded and ruthless anti-democratic terror group in the world They are the #1 threat to my god-given freedoms. As I always say, what red blooded american soldier would not love to brutally and barbarically torture and keeps dark skinned people in concentration camps. hitler would be proud that his tradition is being carried on. American soliders go over there foaming at the mouth, a bible in one hand and a gun.WMD in the other. Pure religious extremism at its best. They are willing to die for HAL, not for "virgins" but for "liberty and glory", all of these things exist only in their heads. --------------------------------- "The New York Times reports that prisoners held by the US military at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan were made to stand for up to 13 days with their hands chained to the ceiling, naked, hooded and unable to sleep. The Washington Post alleges that prisoners at the same airbase were "commonly blindfolded and thrown into walls, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep" while kept, like Padilla and the arrivals at Guantánamo, "in black hoods or spray-painted goggles". Alfred McCoy, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argues that the photographs released from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq reflect standard CIA torture techniques: "stress positions, sensory deprivation, and sexual humiliation". The famous picture of the hooded man standing on a box, with wires attached to his fingers, shows two of these techniques being used at once. Unable to see, he has no idea how much time has passed or what might be coming next. He stands in a classic stress position - maintained for several hours, it causes excruciating pain. He appears to have been told that if he drops his arms he will be electrocuted. What went wrong at Abu Ghraib is that someone took photos. Everything else was done by the book. "
Alex, I see that we are thinking along the same lines. Remember, the repugniklans and specially the neoclowns love money and will sell their mother to a sheik's harem for money. Perhaps Iran has bought them off and they have found a devious way to help Iran.
. January 15, 2007 SouthAmerica: It is worth repeating also on this thread the following: Regarding George W. Bush and also Dick Cheney â these two âMoronsâ are finally right about one connection that they have been trying to make regarding Iraq â finally Osama Bin Ladden is the supreme Sunni leader in Iraq after the execution of Saddam Hussein. George and Dick are doing a fantastic job in helping Osama Bin Ladden and Al-Qaeda spread their power base in the heart of the Middle East. Today George W. Bush can claim that the most powerful man in Iraq is: Osama Bin Ladden â and the group that is growing in influence is Al-Qaeda â and all that has been accomplished with the compliments of the Bush administration. George W. Bushâs biggest accomplishment in Iraq since March 2003 has been the overthrow an execution of a secular dictator Saddam Hussein and he replaced him with a radical Islamic leader and a new legend of the Arab world â Osama Bin Ladden. George W. Bush got rid off a boogieman that had been contained for many years and it was not a direct threat to the United States â and he replaced him with a boogieman that has a global reach and it is a direct threat to the United States â and a man that has shown to the world that he can cause havoc even inside the United States. And for all of George W. Bushâs image and rhetoric of a macho cowboy and also of a lose cannon â he is completely impotent since everybody around the world knows that Osama Bin Ladden the man responsible for 9/11 is doing fine and is laughing of George W. Bush â and Osama Bin Ladden and his group Al-Qaeda is doing it under the protection of the Pakistani government and its 100 nuclear warheads. And today George W. Bush is completely âimpotentâ - regarding his pursuit of Osama Bin Ladden - and he canât do a think about it. Not even "Viagra" can help George W. Bush on that one. .
Would this surprise anyone?? All these juicy war profits at stake? -------------------- Presidential Candidate Fears "Gulf Of Tonkin" To Provoke Iran War Developments converge to signify inevitable conflict despite ongoing chaos in Iraq Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Monday, January 15, 2007 Republican Congressman and 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul fears a staged Gulf of Tonkin style incident may be used to provoke air strikes on Iran as numerous factors collide to heighten expectations that America may soon be embroiled in its third war in six years. Writing in his syndicated weekly column, the representative of Texas' 14th district warns of "a contrived Gulf of Tonkin-type incident (that) may occur to gain popular support for an attack on Iran." The August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, where US warships were apparently attacked by North Vietnamese PT Boats, was cited by President Johnson as a legitimate provocation mandating U.S. escalation in Vietnam, yet Tonkin was a staged charade that never took place. Declassified LBJ presidential tapes discuss how to spin the non-event to escalate it as justification for air strikes and the NSA faked intelligence data to make it appear as if two US ships had been lost. Should a staged provocation take place in an attempt to justify striking Iran it would not be the first time the current administration has considered such a ploy. In February 2006, documents were leaked of a conversation between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush in which different scenarios to try to provoke Saddam into making a rod for his own back were discussed. One included painting a U.S. spy plane in UN colors and flying it low over Iraq in the hope it would be shot down and the incident exploited as a means of enlisting international support for the 2003 invasion. Paul, who on Friday announced his intention to run for President in 2008, has resolved to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to head off the drift towards war, encouraging a commitment to policies of dialogue as outlined by the Iraq Study Group. Commentators largely agree that the furore surrounding President Bush's speech in which he ordered the deployment of a further 20,000 troops to Iraq is a manufactured distraction to divert attention away from alarming developments that grease the skids for an inevitable conflict with Iran. The New York Times and other establishment mouthpieces are busy regurgitating White House propaganda that Iran is supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents that are killing U.S. troops. As columnist Larry Chin elaborates, "The Bush administration buildup towards Iran is strikingly similar to Hitlerâs campaign against Poland, and the Third Reichâs eventual 1939 blitzkrieg. Hitlerâs final act was to manufacture a "deliberate and cold-blooded provocation", to be blamed on the Poles, which would bring down the vengeance of German armed forces. He accomplished this by putting drugged prisoners from a nearby concentration camp into Polish uniforms and shooting them near a radio station inside the German border. The "Polish attack on the Gleiwitz transmitter" marked the official start of World War Two." "In Hitlerâs words, "I shall give the propagandist cause for starting the war. Never mind if it is implausible or not." In reality, the source of the IED technology being utilized by the insurgents goes back to the British security services, from whom it was acquired by the IRA and then sold around the world in the early nineties. Claims that Iran is helping Shia insurgents to make the devices is outright propaganda. However, the only remaining justification that Neo-Cons cling to in an attempt to sell another conflict to a war-weary American public is the falsehood that American troops are being killed on the battlefield by insurgents with the direct assistance of Iran. This is the only rationale a majority of Americans will accept as grounds for war, overriding spurious warnings about weapons of mass destruction, a yarn they have seen spun once before. As Chris Floyd points out, "Make no mistake: this is the marker that has now been put down; this is the card that's been laid on the table. The Bush Administration has openly accused Iran of killing American soldiers in Iraq. Again, this is a charge far more resonant, far more effective as a pretext for war than anything offered during the successful stampede to invade Iraq. Even a president as weakened and isolated as Bush is at the moment would be able to get support for an attack on a state that was "killing our soldiers in the field." It is also now confirmed that the raid on the Iranian liaison office in Iraq, after which five Iranians were arrested and detained, was directly authorized by the White House in an attempt to provoke an Iranian response. Whether Iran takes the bait or not, American aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines are multiplying in the Persian Gulf and Bush recently appointed Adm. William Fallon, a Navy veteran, to oversee the ground war in Iraq, a contradiction many fear betrays preparation for an air strike on Iran's uranium enrichment facilities which could take place as soon as next month. Whether the White House or the feverish Israelis will even feel the need to factor in a Gulf of Tonkin event remains to be seen, as the war drums beat ever louder and the next escalation of what the Neo-Cons call "World War Four" awaits final execution.
. January 16, 2007 SouthAmerica: How convenient and the article said: âThe strike came as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was in Afghanistan to meet President Hamid Karzai and top military officials to determine the best way to tackle a Taliban resurgence in the war-wracked country.â The article also said: âLast week, US intelligence director John Negroponte said top Al-Qaeda leaders had found secure hideouts in Pakistan from where they were regrouping and leading new operations.â I can picture the Pakistani quick response and solution: Take some gunships and destroy the first group of poor bastards that you can find close to the border to Afghanistan and then we claim that they were a group of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters â it will be a piece of cake, since these days the Americans canât figure out even the difference between a Chinese and a Somali. The Americans will buy our bullshit and it will look like we are doing something about Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. ********** Daily News & Analysis (DNA) - India âPakistan destroys militant camps near Afghan borderâ Source: AFP Tuesday, January 16, 2007 ISLAMABAD: Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked and destroyed three militant camps on Tuesday in a dawn swoop on a restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, killing up to 30 fighters, the military said. Spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said helicopters attacked the camps in the tribal district of South Waziristan after reports that 25 to 30 local and foreign militants were there. "I can't give you the exact number of casualties but most of them were believed killed," he said, adding that three of five camps were destroyed. The spokesman said the camps had been under surveillance for days before the operation was carried out at 6:55 am on Tuesday morning. The strike came as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was in Afghanistan to meet President Hamid Karzai and top military officials to determine the best way to tackle a Taliban resurgence in the war-wracked country. The new US defense chief has expressed concern that a Taliban revival in southern Afghanistan and the slow pace of reforms and economic reconstruction under Karzai threatens gains made since the Taliban's ouster in December 2001. Last week, US intelligence director John Negroponte said top Al-Qaeda leaders had found secure hideouts in Pakistan from where they were regrouping and leading new operations. Pakistan furiously rejected the complaint, but admitted it was struggling to stop insurgents loyal to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime moving back and forth across the porous border. Last week, Afghan and NATO-led forces killed up to 150 insurgents who had been monitored as they infiltrated into the eastern Afghan province of Paktika from Pakistan. The attack was carried out with the help of the Pakistani military. Security officials said that Tuesday's strike was launched on a compound in the remote town of Zamazola, 20 kilometers from the Afghan border. It faces the troubled Afghan province of Paktika. They said the camps housed more than 30 people, most of them foreign terrorists. Pakistan has deployed some 80,000 troops along the Afghan border to hunt down Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who sneaked into the lawless tribal region after the fall of Taliban in the US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan five years ago. .
. January 21, 2007 SouthAmerica: Most of these kids wish they were in a mall in the US playing video games instead of serving as target practice for the insurgency in the middle of a sectarian civil war in Iraq â and returning home in a body bag. ********** âUS forces suffer 3d deadliest day in Iraq war 20 troops killed in copter crash, insurgencyâ By Borzou Daragahi Los Angeles Times - January 21, 2007 BAGHDAD -- At least 20 US troops were killed across Iraq yesterday, including 13 in a helicopter crash and five who died in an insurgent attack in Karbala. It was the deadliest day for the American military here in nearly two years and the third deadliest since the war began in March 2003. The deadliest day for Americans service members in Iraq was Jan. 26, 2005, when 37 US troops were killed, 31 of them in the accidental crash of a Chinook helicopter in Anbar province. The second highest daily toll was on March 23, 2003, when 28 service members were killed as US forces were advancing toward Baghdad on the third day of the US-led invasion. Yesterday's worst loss came from the crash of a US Army Blackhawk helicopter northeast of Baghdad that killed all 13 service members aboard. An attack last night blamed on militiamen in Karbala killed five soldiers. Roadside bombs killed another soldier in the capital and one in Nineveh Province north of Baghdad. The US military also reported the deaths of two more troops the previous day. The deaths come as Pentagon planners and the White House push forward with a plan to increase the number of US soldiers in Iraq by 21,500. At least 3,052 US service members have been killed and 22,000 wounded in Iraq since the American-led invasion almost four years ago. US military officials said the cause of yesterday's helicopter crash has yet to be determined, but Iraqi sources said it was shot down. A witness said he saw ground fire bring down the aircraft, and an insurgent group claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet posting that could not be authenticated. Iraqi officials and witnesses said the crash took place near the town of Buhruz in the region of Tarefiya, a rural Sunni enclave of canals and wheat fields about six miles south of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province. The area is known as an insurgent stronghold. A recent joint US and Iraqi military offensive focused on Diyala province. A message posted to the Internet by the Mujahideen Army, an insurgent group that operates out of Baghdad and Diyala provinces, claimed responsibility for the attack. It said the helicopter was downed by one of its antiaircraft missiles. An Iraqi witness who spoke on condition of anonymity said the helicopter was felled by ground fire. "I'm not sure if it was a rocket or other projectile," said the man, a farmer. "After the helicopter was fired upon, it was obvious that it was losing control. Then it crashed with an explosion and the smoke started." The farmer said he and others dared not approach the wreckage to look for survivors, fearing that US forces arriving on the scene might fire at them. The US military could not confirm the account. Lieutenant Colonel Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the US military in Baghdad, said that the crash took place northeast of Baghdad at around 3 p.m. "All passengers and crew were military service members," she wrote in response to an e-mail query, adding that more information was expected today. The military withheld names of the victims pending notification of family members. An Iraqi official who spoke on condition of anonymity said US forces had cordoned off a vast area of farmland and sheep pastures. The crash was the first since a US Marine CH-53 transport copter accidentally went down in Anbar Province on Dec. 11. Insurgents last shot down a helicopter May 14, near the village of Yusufiya south of the capital. South of the capital in the Shi'ite city of Karbala, gunmen with grenades, mortars, and assault rifles swarmed a provincial security building manned by US and Iraqi forces, the military said. At least five US soldiers were killed and three wounded while repelling the attack. The Karbala firefight erupted as US and Iraqi officials planned security for the Ashura festival, an annual Shi'ite pilgrimage that begins today. Karbala has come under the sway of Shi'ite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but it also is adjacent to Sunni Arab areas. A statement released by the military did not clarify whether the attackers were suspected Sunni or Shi'ite gunmen. Forty-four Iraqis also were reported killed or found dead yesterday in politically motivated violence as Iraqi and American forces stepped up an effort to target Shi'ite militiamen and Sunni insurgents. A soldier assigned to the First Cavalry Division near Mosul died Friday from injuries sustained from an improvised explosive device, the military said. Two soldiers were also injured in the bombing. And a Marine died of wounds he sustained in combat in Anbar province Friday. American troops raided the capital's main emergency hospital yesterday morning, seizing the weapons of security guards believed to be linked to Sadr's al-Mahdi army militia, hospital and police officials said. Iraqi forces said the US military seized AK-47s and machine guns ostensibly used by the guards to protect the facility . One hospital employee said the Americans scoured the hospital seeking a specific person who allegedly belonged to the al-Mahdi army. They were not able to identify the individual, and the guards were released after being told they would face arrest if they were seen with weapons again, Iraqi officials at the hospital said. Material from the Associated Press was included in this report. .
. January 22, 2007 SouthAmerica: As George W. Bush plays politics with the lives of American soldiers and send another 22,000 soldiers to serve as target practice for the insurgency in Iraq â In Iraq the chaos keeps getting worse by the day with a sectarian civil war spinning completely out of control. In the meantime the poor American soldiers who are fighting in the ground in Iraq â they donât have a clue about who is the current American enemy and what is their assignment in Iraq - and their mission has evolved to nothing more than serve as target practice for all factions fighting on this sectarian civil war. The US government has announced that the number of American soldiers who died on Saturday/Sunday in Iraq has been revised upward to 27 soldiers. ****** âBombs kill at least 100 people in Iraqâ AP â Associated Press January 22, 2007 BAGHDAD, Iraq - Twin bombings Monday tore through stalls of vendors selling second-hand clothes and DVDs in a busy Baghdad market catering to Shiite Muslims during a religious festival. A market also was attacked north of the capital, and police said nearly 100 people died in the renewed campaign blamed on Sunni Muslim insurgents. The U.S. military also reported the deaths Sunday of two Marines, raising the two-day death toll to 27 in a particularly bloody weekend for American forces in Iraq. A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier and wounded four others Monday in northern Iraq, it said. Monday's first blast, a parked car bomb, hit shortly after noon in the Bab al-Sharqi market between Tayaran and Tahrir squares â one of the busiest parts of Baghdad. Seconds later, a suicide car bomber drove into the crowd. Police estimated that each car was loaded with nearly 220 pounds of explosives. Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili said at least 78 people were killed and 156 were wounded, making it the deadliest attack in two months. Figures provided by police and hospital officials showed that as many as 88 people were killed. The explosions left body parts strewn on the bloodstained pavement as black smoke rose into the sky. Police sealed off the area as ambulances rushed to the scene. Survivors were taken to nearby al-Kindi Hospital where emergency personnel worked feverishly over the bloodied and badly wounded. Bodies covered in blue and white cloth littered the outdoor courtyard at the hospital. Family members and friends were at the side of the dead, screaming in grief and crying out oaths. A suicide bomber killed at least 63 people in the same area last month. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, denounced the attack. "We condemn this crime and we promise that the security forces will pursue all those involved in this crime and bring them to justice," he said in a statement. Hours later, a bomb followed by a mortar attack struck a market in the predominantly Shiite town of Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and wounding 29, police said. The twin bombing in Baghdad was the single deadliest attack against civilians in Iraq since Nov. 23, when suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters attacked Baghdad's Sadr City Shiite slum with a series of car bombs and mortars that struck in quick succession, killing at least 215 people. In other violence, gunmen killed a teacher as she was on her way to work at a girls' school in the mainly Sunni area of Khadra in western Baghdad, police said, adding that the teacher's driver was wounded in the drive-by shooting. Two mortar shells also landed on a primary school in the Sunni stronghold neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, killing a woman waiting for her child and wounding eight students, police said. Police also said that a cell phone company employee and a Sunni tribal chieftain were killed in separate shootings in Baghdad, while the bullet-riddled bodies of three men were found elsewhere in the capital. An oil technician also was shot to death in the northern city of Mosul, police said. The two U.S. Marines were killed Sunday in separate attacks in the Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, the military said. The deaths came a day after 25 U.S. troops were killed Saturday in the third-deadliest day since the war started in March 2003 â eclipsed only by the one-day toll of 37 U.S. fatalities on Jan. 26, 2005, and 28 on the third day of the U.S. invasion. The heaviest tolls Saturday came from a Black Hawk helicopter crash in which 12 U.S. soldiers were killed northeast of Baghdad as well as an attack on a provincial government building in the Shiite holy city of Karbala that left five U.S. troops dead. Col. David Sutherland, the commander of U.S. forces in the strife-ridden Iraqi province of Diyala, said the U.S. military has not ruled out hostile fire. The violence underscores the challenges faced by U.S. and Iraqi forces as they seek to rein in Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias that have made the capital and surrounding areas a battleground. Meanwhile, two government officials said Sunday that al-Maliki dropped his protection of an anti-American cleric's militia after being convinced by U.S. intelligence that the group was infiltrated by death squads. Al-Maliki's turnaround on the Mahdi Army was puzzling because as late as Oct. 31, he had intervened to end a U.S. blockade of Sadr City, the northeast Shiite enclave in Baghdad that is headquarters to the militia. Shiite militias began taking revenge after more than two years of incessant bomb and shooting attacks by Sunni insurgents. Sometime between late October and Nov. 30, when the prime minister met President Bush, al-Maliki was convinced of the truth of American intelligence reports that contended, among other things, that his protection of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia was isolating him in the Arab world and among moderates at home, two government officials said. "Al-Maliki realized he couldn't keep defending the Mahdi Army because of the information and evidence that the armed group was taking part in the killings, displacing people and violating the state's sovereignty," said one official. Both he and a second government official who confirmed the account refused to be identified by name because the information was confidential. Both officials are intimately aware of the prime minister's thinking. "The Americans don't act on rumors but on accurate intelligence," said the second official, confirming the Americans gave al-Maliki overwhelming evidence about the Mahdi Army's deep involvement in the sectarian slaughter. On Friday, in a bid to fend off an all-out American military offensive, al-Sadr ordered 30 lawmakers and six Cabinet ministers under his control to end their nearly two-month boycott of the government. They were back at their jobs Sunday. Al-Sadr had already ordered his militia fighters not to display their weapons. They have not, however, ceded control of the formerly mixed neighborhoods they have captured, killing Sunnis or forcing them to abandon their homes and businesses. The first government official said al-Maliki's message to al-Sadr was blunt: "He told the sheik that the activities of both the Sadrist politicians and the militia have inflamed hatred among neighboring Sunni Arab states that have been complaining bitterly to the Americans." .
. January 23, 2007 SouthAmerica: President George W. Bush delivered his sixth State of the Union address Tuesday evening, and during his speech he mentioned to the American people and to the world that the United States had made a major breakthrough regarding Iraq â after 5 years since 9/11 his administration finally was able to figured out that Al-Qaeda is a Sunni organization and they were also able to figure out that Hezbollah is a Shiite organization. Their findings went even further â they were able to figure out the ruling sect of some countries in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan are ruled by Sunnis, and Iran is ruled by the Shiites. This is an unbelievable breakthrough in Middle East politics and it did take only 5 years for the Bush administration to grasp these basic facts. The Bush administration started grasping the situation in Iraq so fast right now that by the end of 2007 they might even be able to figure out that since the Saddam Hussein's execution by hanging â the new Sunni leader in Iraq it is Osama Bin Ladden. I am not sure that George W. Bush really remembers who Osama Bin Ladden is since he almost never mentions his name â but anyway just to refresh your mind in case you also forgot â Osama Bin Ladden is the person responsible for the attack in US soil in 9/11. WOW, I am impressed, and with breakthroughs like that the United States occupational forces will be able to leave Iraq by the year 2050 with no problem. In a NUTSHELL: the latest new plan for Iraq according to George W. Bush. The next big challenge for the Bush administration in Iraq it is to convince the Iraqi people to adopt a new color-coding system of their clothing such as Sunnis will be allowed to wear only black clothing, and the Shiites only white clothing - that way the US forces can tell apart which group is which, and would make easier to identify the right group that they want to kill at any particular time. PS: Under the new color-coding system the Kurds should wear only red clothing and other minor sects only green clothing. Summary: Required New Color Clothing System for Iraqis to wear. Sunnis = Black Shiites = White Kurds = Red Other sects = Green .
. January 29, 2007 SouthAmerica: When I saw the headline on Google News that Israel had appointed an Arab as minister on the Israeli cabinet. I decided to read the article since I wonder what is going on here? The article does not give the detail if the new cabinet minister is: 1) Christian Arab 2) Sunni Arab 3) Shiite Arab I still wonder what is really going on. Why now, when you consider all the mess that is happening in the Middle East? ******* âFirst appointment of Arab minister draws mixed reaction in Israelâ China View â January 29, 2007 JERUSALEM, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Israeli cabinet Sunday approved by a large majority the appointment of lawmaker Raleb Majadele from the left-wing Labor Party as the first Arab minister in Israel's history, drawing mixed reaction among Israelis. Majadele is expected to receive this coming weekend his portfolio, which would be decided by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday after the Knesset (parliament) approved the appointment, according to local media. Most member of Knesset (MK) from Labor Party applauded Majadele's entry into the Israeli government's top echelon, describing it a historic step towards integration and equality of the Arab population. Some Labor Party leaders also believed that Majadele's inclusion in the cabinet will balance the presence of Avigdor Lieberman, leader of right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu who favors redrawing Israel's border to exclude most of the country's Arab population. Naturally, Lieberman was the only minister who opposed Majadele's appointment, but he rejected the allegation of racism. He and other members of his party had previously criticized this nomination by the Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz. Peretz, who has been deeply unpopular since last summer's unsuccessful war in Lebanon, has been criticized for using the nomination to try to rally support among Israeli-Arab citizens ahead of party elections in May. In spite of Majadele's unprecedented appointment, it seemed a thankless effort to please Israeli-Arab lawmakers, who criticized the appointment by saying that it would not help Israeli-Arab interests, instead it would help whitewash what they called Israel's discriminatory policies against its Arab minority. Representatives from Arab bloc in the parliament, including the far left-wing Hadash Party and the United Arab List which groups Ra'am-Ta'al and Balad parties expressed a lack of confidence in the government and the appointment. The nomination even drew fire from inside Labor. Druse members in Labor Party protested against the neglect of its position, arguing that they were passed over for the ministerial post, although Druse, unlike most Muslim and Christian Arabs, identify with Israel and serve in the armed forces. Moreover, Majadele's appointment remains a controversial issue in Israeli public. Some Israelis expressed their satisfaction with it by saying that "it should have been done years ago." "Israel Arabs are citizens of Israel. They should have same rights and same obligations. The more they participate in the work of government, the better they will be integrated into Israel society," an Israeli wrote on the internet. However, some Israelis seemed indignant with the news, saying that "no one who did no serve in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) should sit in the Knesset or be in the government." Arab citizens make up about 20 percent of Israel's seven million population. However, Arabs lag behind Israel's Jewish population in various aspects of life, such as income, education and standard of living, and have long lacked representation in the government proportionate to their number. Israel's 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, includes only 13 Arab members. .