بروفيسور عبد الستار قاسم
"أُشبعت المبادرة العربية تحليلا عام 2002، وقد أجمع الكتاب والمحللون القوميون والإسلاميون على أن المبادرة تجسد خيانة الأنظمة العربية التي امتدت على عشرات السنوات وقبل قيام إسرائيل. لكن يبدو أن الكثير من الناس ينسون، أو أن ذاكرتهم لا تتسع للكثير من المعلومات. أما وسائل الإعلام فغالبا ما تجري وراء الخبر دون البحث عن الحقيقة، وهي تعجز إلى حد كبير عن ربط الحاضر بالماضي، وبعضها يتعمد تزوير الحقائق أو إخفاءها.
يظن كثير من الناس الآن أن الحكام العرب عبارة عن أبطال يتمسكون بحق العودة، وأنهم لن يكترثوا لضغوط إسرائيل وأمريكا، وسيصرون على النص الحرفي للمبادرة العربية. ويظن فلسطينيون أن هذه المبادرة تتوافق مع المواقف الوطنية الفلسطينية المتمسكة بالحقوق الفلسطينية. وتعزز وسائل الإعلام هذه الظنون من خلال إبراز الاستقلالية العربية في اتخاذ القرار أعيد هنا إلى الذاكرة بعض فقرات المبادرة العربية بخاصة فيما يتعلق بحق العودة:
وانطلاقا من اقتناع الدول العربية بأن الحل العسكري للنزاع لم يحقق السلام أو الأمن لأي من الإطراف:
1- يطلب المجلس من إسرائيل إعادة النظر في سياساتها وان تجنح للسلم معلنة أن السلام العادل هو خيارها الاستراتيجي أيضا
2- كما يطالبها القيام بما يلي :-
أ - الانسحاب الكامل من الأراضي العربية المحتلة بما في ذلك الجولان السوري وحتى خط الرابع من يونيو (حزيران) 1967 والأراضي التي مازالت محتلة في جنوب لبنان.
ب- التوصل إلى حل عادل لمشكلة اللاجئين الفلسطينيين يتفق عليه وفقا لقرار الجمعية العامة للأمم المتحدة رقم 194.
ج- قبول قيام دولة فلسطينية مستقلة ذات سيادة على الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة منذ الرابع من يونيو 1967 في الضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة وتكون عاصمتها القدس الشرقية .
3-عندئذ تقوم الدول العربية بما يلي :
أ - اعتبار النزاع العربي الإسرائيلي منتهيا والدخول في اتفاقية سلام بينها وبين إسرائيل مع تحقيق الأمن لجميع دول المنطقة .
ب- إنشاء علاقات طبيعية مع إسرائيل في إطار هذا السلام الشامل .
4- ضمان رفض كل أشكال التوطين الفلسطيني الذي يتنافى والوضع الخاص في البلدان العربية المضيفة .
5- يدعو المجلس حكومة إسرائيل والإسرائيليين جميعا إلى قبول هذه المبادرة المبينة أعلاه حماية لفرص السلام وحقنا للدماء بما يمكن الدول العربية وإسرائيل من العيش في سلام جنبا إلى جنب ويوفر للاجيال القادمة مستقبلا آمنا يسوده الرخاء والاستقرار .
إذا تفحصنا البند (2 ب) الخاص باللاجئين نجد أنه لا ينص على حق العودة، وهو بند ينم عن خبث الحكام العرب في القفز عن حق العودة. يضع النص أولا العبارة المذكورة في قرار مجلس الأمن 242، يفتح المجال للتفاوض من خلال عبارة "يتفق عليه"، ثم يضيف القرار 194. الذي يصر على حق العودة يقول: "يجب تطبيق القرار 194 الصادر عن الجمعية العامة للأمم المتحدة". أما البند الرابع فواضح فيه أن الحكام العرب يؤيدون التوطين. إذا دقق القارئ في النص يجد أن شكل التوطين المرفوض هو فقط التوطين في لبنان. أما التوطين الذي لا يتنافى والوضع الخاص للبلد المضيف فليس مرفوضا. قطعا، من صاغ هذا البند غارق في لجج الخيانة والتآمر على الفلسطينيين.
هذه النعومة الأمريكية الإسرائيلية الظاهرة الآن في التعامل مع المبادرة العربية تهدف فقط إلى تحسين صورة الزعماء العرب أمام شعوبهم. تحاول هذه النعومة تحويل القادة العرب إلى قادة غيورين وحريصين على مصلحة الأمة. لقد شهدنا هذا التلميع للزعماء العرب عام 1990/1991 تمهيدا للهجوم على الجيش العراقي في الكويت، وعام 1880/1881 تمهيدا للحرب العربية-الإيرانية. تعمل أمريكا على تحسين صورة القادة العرب في كل مرة تريد استخدامهم أو استخدام الأراضي العربية لخوض معاركها الخاصة.
غدا ستنطلق الطائرات الإسرائيلية والأمريكية من المطارات العسكرية العربية لتقصف إيران، ولا بد من استباق الأمور خوفا من رد فعل شعبي سلبي ضد المشاركة العربية في الهجوم على إيران. تحسين صورة هؤلاء القادة يخدم هذا الغرض.
هذا ولم تقل لنا الآنسة كوندو ماذا ستفعل بخريطة الطريق إذا كانت ستتبنى المبادرة العربية كأداة للدبلوماسية النشطة."
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Fatah training new force in Egypt for renewed infighting
"Fatah has established a new security apparatus in the Gaza Strip and is recruiting thousands of militants in preparation for another round of violent clashes with Hamas. So far the organization - known as the Special Force - has recruited 1,400 combatants, a thousand of which have undergone military training.
Fatah intends to recruit an addition of at least 1,000 men to the organization, loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The organization is headed by Sami Abu Samhadana, a notable operative in the first intifada.
Palestinian sources told Haaretz that the new recruitment effort was initiated some six weeks ago. According to the sources, officers from Palestinian General Intelligence service and the National Security Force were assigned to the ranks of the new organization......
Abu Samhadana was appointed commander of the Special Force several years ago, but it was only recently decided to transform his relatively insignificant organization into a new major apparatus loyal only to Fatah and Abbas. Abu Samhadana is nonetheless considered an ally of Mohammed Dahlan, head of the Palestinian National Security Council and aide to Abbas.....
Palestinian sources say some 350 combatants from the Special Force were sent to Egypt at the beginning of March to participate in a training course under the tutelage of officers from the Palestinian Authority and Egyptian army.
The combatants of the Special Force training in Egypt were joined by several hundred soldiers of the Presidential Guard. Other soldiers of the Guard are currently training within the PA, in Gaza and in Jericho, where 500 new Presidential Guard recruits have only recently completed their training program......
Sources add that Hamas is well aware of the mass recruiting and training in organizations loyal to Fatah, and that senior Hamas figures are pressing to militarily engage Fatah as soon as possible. They fear Dahlan and Abbas' military force would greatly surpass Hamas' forces in several months' time, the sources explain.....
During the visit to the region of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Middle East envoy, David Welsh, Abbas demanded that Israel allow the transfer of weapons to Fatah forces. The request was made both to Israel and to the Americans, but was rejected by both parties....."
Iraq War Anniversary: Israel, Palestine Links Absent
by Ramzy Baroud
Global Research, March 31, 2007
"......I spoke exactly of that: it’s the same war, the same occupation; Israel and its neoconservative benefactors are recurring faces in the Middle East’s ongoing chaos. That is a fact that anti-war movements everywhere must keep at the forefront if they want their message to have validity or relevance.
The Israeli connection to the political ‘realignments’ in the region goes back as early as 1992. The draft Defense Planning Guidance (DPG), which was circulated around the Pentagon for weeks before being ‘leaked’ to the New York Times, envisaged a future in which the US establishes uncontested supremacy in the post cold-war world. Though the guidance didn’t underscore Israel and its role in that new world, those who composed the document were primarily the well known Israel crowd in Washington: then-Defense Department staffers Ewis Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, and America’s man in Iraq a few years later, Zalmay Khalilzad.
Israel’s role in that ‘vision’ didn’t crystallise fully until Richard Pearle, a leading neocon, along with Douglas Feith and others, proposed “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” to Israeli Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The policy document envisaged a larger role for Israel in the region that would equate its influence to that of the US, not a mere client state but an equal hegemon. It plotted for the toppling of the Iraqi regime and the re-drawing of the geopolitical map of the entire region. The same recommendations were marketed to the Clinton administration in 1997/98 but failed; Clinton, who conceded much of America’s interests to Israel’s, was, perhaps, not yet ready to accommodate such a grand vision.
That vision, an Israeli one to the core, was often presented as exclusively American, most notably by the Project for the New American Century, established by leading neocons in 1997, the same individuals who vowed allegiance to Israel for many years. PNAC was the key group behind the war in Iraq. The moment terrorists struck the Twin Towers with their deadly airplanes, PNAC campaigners were ready with a map of the Middle East, pointing out the countries they wished to bomb and the regimes that needed to be changed......
The US will leave Iraq; that should hardly be questioned. It cannot possibly bear such financial and material losses indefinitely. The New Statesman reports that caring for the war wounded alone will cost the country $2.5 trillion in the next few decades. But to ensure that such military chaos, such awesome losses of irreplaceable lives on all sides are not repeated, one must not speak of the Iraq war in too general terms: empire, oil and hegemony, and lose sight of most relevant specifics. Israel and its benefactors have played and continue to play a major role in all of this. Ignoring this fact for the sake of not ‘mixing’ the issues would simply mean fighting the right cause with the wrong strategy, to say the least."
Boy King Appeals to Merkel
"Jordan's King Abdullah II on Saturday urged Germany, as holder of the European Union presidency, to play the "hoped-for role" in efforts aimed at advancing the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, according to an official statement.
The monarch made the remarks during talks with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Red Sea port of Aqaba, where she arrived earlier Saturday at the outset of a regional tour.
"King Abdullah underscored the importance of Germany playing the hoped-for role in efforts aimed at building upon the momentum that emerged from the Arab summit conference with a view to moving the Middle East peace process out of the present deadlock," a royal court statement said."
U.S. Stooge and Chief Beggar Goes Begging for the Palestinians
Palestinian Hope Held Hostage:
Economic Sanctions are Keeping Palestinians From Building a Life.
by Salam Fayyad
"......The government came together after a bad year for the struggling Palestinian Authority. Our economic difficulties grew much worse during that period, in the aftermath of a free and fair election that brought Hamas to power. Because Hamas’ political platform did not conform to key elements of the peace process, including Palestinian recognition of Israel’s right to exist and a commitment to renounce violence, the international community imposed sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.
Although much of the discussion leading to the formation of the unity government has focused on these two commitments, their validity should not have been much in question. After all, these commitments were made by the Palestine Liberation Organization, the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, in a crystal-clear and binding agreement in 1993, and no Palestinian government has the authority to revoke them. In fact, the unity government’s platform explicitly states that it will honor all PLO agreements, which, to be sure, include these two commitments.
As someone who has long worked for peace and reconciliation with Israel — a peace based on mutual recognition of each people’s rights — I have always subscribed to the PLO’s political program and all the commitments it embodies, including the recognition of Israel’s right to exist and the renunciation of violence. I still do......
We do not aspire to be a beggar nation [The Oslo agreement, which Fayyad still supports, had this as one of its goals: to make the Palestinians totally dependent on European charity and the Israeli economy. Hence, you do not need to aspire, Mr. "finance minister," you are already a beggar non-nation. Enjoy your status as an Indian chief on the reservation.], dependent on the world to feed our people. We have the capacity, education and talent to build a thriving economy and a strong democracy. But we cannot do so while Israel seals our borders and withholds tax revenue it owes us, or while U.S. banking regulations prevent banks from handling government business......."
A Cluster Bomb Treaty: Again, It’s the U.S. vs the World
"......Consider last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israel’s irresponsible use of cluster bombs in and around civilian areas in southern Lebanon has been widely documented and condemned. Israel bought the majority of these weapons from the United States. Demining groups estimate that they contained some 2.6 million to 4 million bomblets, around 90 percent of which were fired during the last 72 hours of the conflict. As of February 14, 2007, the UN Mine Action Coordination Center (UNMACC) in South Lebanon had identified 847 cluster bomb strike locations, contaminating a total of 34 million square meters of land. Since a UN-brokered ceasefire went into effect on August 14, UNMACC has reported 216 civilian and demining casualties in southern Lebanon –30 deaths and 186 injuries.
The disproportionate number of civilian casualties resulting from cluster bombs used during Israel’s war with Hezbollah prompted the State Department to investigate the use of U.S.-made weapons in the conflict. Subsequently, in January 2007 the State Department notified Congress in a classified report that Israel may have violated end use agreements when it used the U.S.-made cluster bombs in Lebanon. Yet while the State Department’s Country Report on Lebanon acknowledges the aftermath of Israeli cluster bomb strikes, any mention in the report of the U.S. role in providing Israel with these weapons is glaringly absent.......
The humanitarian suffering that continues in Lebanon and numerous other countries plagued by the lasting effects of cluster munitions should compel governments to examine the military utility of cluster bombs. Trends in warfare show a shift from war-fighting against symmetrical forces on open terrain to asymmetrical fighting in civilian areas. The wide dispersal pattern of bomblets makes avoiding civilian casualties when the weapons are fired on populated areas nearly impossible. A 2003 “lessons learned” report by a U.S. Army Infantry Division labeled its cluster munitions as “losers” and suggested they were “a Cold War relic.” This report also noted that cluster munitions were “not for use in urban areas.”.....
Thankfully, the international community is taking action. In an historic step forward, Norway hosted the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions in late February 2007, where 49 countries met to discuss how to address the indiscriminate and lasting effects of cluster munitions on civilians. At the conference, 46 countries agreed to a landmark declaration detailing their goal to conclude by 2008 a legally binding treaty prohibiting the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. Half of the world’s 34 producer countries, one-third of the world’s stockpiling countries, six users or former users, and six affected states signed the Oslo declaration. Countries will meet again to determine the details of the treaty in Lima, Vienna, and Dublin over the next two years. The Bush administration did not send a representative to the Oslo meeting and, absent a policy change, is unlikely to participate in subsequent meetings......"
How Palestine became “Israel’s Land”
(Click on maps to enlarge)
by Sonja Karkar
Women for Palestine
"For Palestinians, theirs is not the land of conquest, but the land of their roots going back to time immemorial. Such a lineage does not rely on a biblical promise like the Jewish claim that God promised the land to Abraham and his descendants, and is therefore, the historical site of the Jewish kingdom of Israel. It belongs to the people of Palestine by the simple fact of their continuous residence repeated through birth and possession going back to the earliest Canaanites and even those people living there before recorded history. They were there when the Israelites invaded the land, occupied it, and held it intermittently as wave after wave of other conquerors came and went, and they were still there when the Romans put an end to Jewish Palestine by destroying Jerusalem in 135AD......
Around 170,000 Palestinians remained in what became Israel, the largest number of whom resided in the Galilee area, originally a designated part of the Arab state under the Partition Plan. These Palestinians also became the victims of Israel’s land grab policy. Over 438,000 acres, which was more than the total Jewish land holdings at the time, were confiscated and a further 400,000 acres were marked for confiscation. After Israel won the 1967 war, the total territory of Palestine came under Israel’s rule. It annexed East Jerusalem, despite the Holy City’s internationally recognised status and began implementing its Jewish settlement program with a vengeance. The Palestinians in Israel were increasingly aware of their precarious position politically and declared a national strike, known as “Land Day” on 30 March 1976 against Israel’s continuing ruthless land expropriation. An affinity was quickly felt between Palestinians everywhere and “Land Day” was adopted as a sort of national Palestinian day which is commemorated by Palestinians and their supporters around the world each year. This awakening of national consciousness had an unequivocal political message: end the occupation and allow self-determination of the Palestinians in a sovereign state living in peace side by side with Israel.
Thirty-one years later, the message is till resonating, but the Palestinians are further away from seeing a solution than ever before. Daily, Israel is taking a bit of land here and a bit of land there, to make all of Palestine “Israel’s Land”. The problem then will be, what to do with 5 million Palestinians with no land? There are only a few possible, but criminal solutions - transfer, collective imprisonment, apartheid, and/or ethnic cleansing. Alternatively, Israel can disengage from the West Bank to the 1967 borders or agree on a single, democratic state for all. Without a just solution, the struggle for Palestine’s land will continue. "
Ah.....One More Arab Population Enjoying U.S.- Imposed Peace
Civilian deaths mount in Mogadishu
Earlier on Friday, armed groups shot down an Ethiopian helicopter [Reuters]
"Violence has continued in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, for a third day, in what the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called "the worst fighting in more than 15 years".
Corpses lay in the streets on Saturday, as ongoing fighting and mortar fire made it difficult to retrieve bodies or tally the dead.
Residents said hundreds were believed to have been killed across the city of one million people.
"We don't know where to go. We are trapped in our houses and dead bodies are lying in the street," AFP reported Ibrahim Duale, a resident in the southern Ali Kamin area, as saying.
"There is no chance of taking the wounded and dead people because of the heavy artillery and anti-aircraft weapons," he said.
Salado Yebarow, another Mogadishu resident, was reported by Reuters as saying: "I have been here 16 years and never seen anything like this.
"The whole city is being shelled indiscriminately," she said.......
Meanwhile, on Saturday, an international rights organisation has accused the governments of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and the US of secretly detaining hundreds of people fleeing the conflict in Somalia.
"Each of these governments has played a shameful role in mistreating people fleeing a war zone," said Georgette Gagnon, deputy Africa director for Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"Dozens of people have effectively disappeared into Ethiopian detention facilities," said Gagnon. "It's imperative that the Ethiopians acknowledge the people they are holding and permit independent international access to them.""
***
It was noticeable that during their summit a few days ago, the Arab puppets did not say one word about Somalia. These were the instructions of their master, Condoleezza Rice, since the U.S. with its Ethiopian stooges is responsible for this latest invasion and occupation of yet another Arab country.
Earlier on Friday, armed groups shot down an Ethiopian helicopter [Reuters]"Violence has continued in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, for a third day, in what the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called "the worst fighting in more than 15 years".
Corpses lay in the streets on Saturday, as ongoing fighting and mortar fire made it difficult to retrieve bodies or tally the dead.
Residents said hundreds were believed to have been killed across the city of one million people.
"We don't know where to go. We are trapped in our houses and dead bodies are lying in the street," AFP reported Ibrahim Duale, a resident in the southern Ali Kamin area, as saying.
"There is no chance of taking the wounded and dead people because of the heavy artillery and anti-aircraft weapons," he said.
Salado Yebarow, another Mogadishu resident, was reported by Reuters as saying: "I have been here 16 years and never seen anything like this.
"The whole city is being shelled indiscriminately," she said.......
Meanwhile, on Saturday, an international rights organisation has accused the governments of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and the US of secretly detaining hundreds of people fleeing the conflict in Somalia.
"Each of these governments has played a shameful role in mistreating people fleeing a war zone," said Georgette Gagnon, deputy Africa director for Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"Dozens of people have effectively disappeared into Ethiopian detention facilities," said Gagnon. "It's imperative that the Ethiopians acknowledge the people they are holding and permit independent international access to them.""
***
It was noticeable that during their summit a few days ago, the Arab puppets did not say one word about Somalia. These were the instructions of their master, Condoleezza Rice, since the U.S. with its Ethiopian stooges is responsible for this latest invasion and occupation of yet another Arab country.
A peculiar outrage
The treatment of Faye Turney is wrong - but not in the same league as British and US abuses
Ronan Bennett
Friday March 30, 2007
The Guardian
"......But the outrage expressed by ministers and leader writers is curious given the recent record of the "coalition of the willing" on the way it deals with prisoners.
Turney may have been "forced to wear the hijab", as the Daily Mail noted with fury, but so far as we know she has not been forced into an orange jumpsuit. Her comrades have not been shackled, blindfolded, forced into excruciating physical contortions for long periods, or denied liquids and food. As far as we know they have not had the Bible spat on, torn up or urinated on in front of their faces. They have not had electrodes attached to their genitals or been set on by attack dogs.
They have not been hung from a forklift truck and photographed for the amusement of their captors. They have not been pictured naked and smeared in their own excrement. They have not been bundled into a CIA-chartered plane and secretly "rendered" to a basement prison in a country where torturers are experienced and free to do their worst.
As far as we know, Turney and her comrades are not being "worked hard", the euphemism coined by one senior British army officer for the abuse of prisoners at Camp Bread Basket. And as far as we know all 15 are alive and well, which is more than can be said for Baha Mousa, the hotel receptionist who, in 2003, was unfortunate enough to have been taken into custody by British troops in Basra. There has of course been a court martial and it exonerated the soldiers of Mousa's murder. So we can only assume that his death - by beating - was self-inflicted; yet another instance of "asymmetrical warfare", the description given by US authorities to the deaths of the Guantánamo detainees who hanged themselves last year.
And while the families of the captured marines and sailors must be in agonies of uncertainty, they have the comfort of knowing that the very highest in the land are doing everything they can to end their "unjustified detention". They can count themselves especially lucky, for the very same highest of the land have rather different views on what justifies detention where foreign-born Muslims in Britain are concerned. In the case, for example, of the Belmarsh detainees, suspicion justified arrest; statements extracted under torture from third parties justified accusation; and secret hearings justified imprisonment......"
Call that humiliation?
No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch
A Great Comment
Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian
"I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.
It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn't be able to talk at all. Of course they'd probably find it even harder to breathe - especially with a bag over their head - but at least they wouldn't be humiliated.
And what's all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It's time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That's one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.
The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn't rush into charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it's just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!
What's more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting "stress positions", which the captives are expected to hold for hours on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It's all good healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything to get out of it.
And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and they all conclude that she is "unhappy and stressed".
What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have got her "unhappy and stressed". She shows no signs of electrocution or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as they were in Abu Ghraib. The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.
As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen, but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer - whether by beefing up sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by getting President Bush to hurry up and invade, as he intends to anyway, and bring democracy and western values to the country, as he has in Iraq."
A Third U.S. Aircraft Carrier is Headed to the Gulf
REUTERS
"MANAMA • The US Navy said yesterday it had ordered an aircraft carrier to the Gulf to replace one of two patrolling the region, as the United States winds down naval war games on Iran’s doorstep.
The Nimitz carrier strike group will sail from San Diego for the Gulf on Monday, a navy spokesman said, to replace the Dwight D Eisenhower, as tensions mount between Iran and the West over captured British troops and Iran’s nuclear programme.
“She (the Nimitz) will be deployed to the Gulf region. She is the relief for Eisenhower, who leaves and she replaces her,” Lieutenant Commander Jeff Davis said by telephone from Naval Headquarters in Washington.
Strike groups typically include four or five frigates and destroyers and a submarine.
“You are looking at the early part of May that you would have the transition. It would be without any overlap. There is no plan to overlap them at all,” he added.
The Eisenhower and fellow carrier John C Stennis took part in this week’s US war games, the largest in Gulf waters since 2003, when the US led an invasion of Iraq.
The drills, which included anti-submarine, anti-surface and mine warfare drills, ended yesterday. For the first time since the Iraq invasion four years ago, two US aircraft carriers were deployed in the Gulf.
Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Charlie Brown said there were currently no plans for more. “We do not expect to have three carriers in the Gulf region ... but we cannot talk about future needs or future operations,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the US not to aggravate tensions with Iran with its naval presence in the Gulf......"
***
Here is my take:
The Pentagon, as usual, is lying. There will be an overlap and the U.S. is continuing the buildup in preparation for the attack on Iran. After the arrival of the Nimitz, all three carrier groups will be in the gulf. It makes no sense to replace the Eisenhower carrier group right after it took part in the largest war games since the invasion of Iraq. All that training down the drain? It does not make sense.
The attack on Iran will trigger far stronger reaction from Iran than that from Iraq in 2003. The Iraqi military was already downgraded even before the invasion. Iran is different and that is why you need a third carrier group. Of course no one knows the timing of the upcoming attack, but based on this information (assuming that it is not disinformation) it seems that it has been pushed back to early May.
The other possibility is that the attack is straight ahead, as some Russian experts claim. They predict the first week of April to be the likely window for the attack. But then why not have the Nimitz in place, just in case you need it?
Al Quds Brigades incinerate an Israeli jeep
"Jenin - Ma'an – The Al Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, announced responsibility for the burning of an Israeli hummer near Az Zababida, south of Jenin, in the West Bank, on Friday at midnight.
A source from the brigades informed Ma'an "an Israeli patrol was driving away from Al Kufeir area near Az Zababida when a group of brigades activists threw several Molotov cocktails at it and set it alight."
The source added that the Israeli soldiers left the jeep but said that the ammunition in it exploded. Eyewitnesses told Ma'an's reporter that they saw the jeep ablaze.
Israeli sources said that an Israeli soldier was slightly injured and that the jeep was partially destroyed by the fire."
Friday, March 30, 2007
Film on "Radical Islam" Tied to Pro-Israel Groups
Khody Akhavi, The Electronic Intifada, 30 March 2007
"WASHINGTON, Mar 26 (IPS) - A controversial documentary on the threat of radical Islam, promoted by the two most-watched U.S. cable news networks, was marketed and supported in part by self-described "pro-Israel" groups, according to an IPS investigation.
Abbreviated versions and segments of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West ran on FOX News and CNN, but neither station disclosed the film's connection to HonestReporting, a watchdog group that monitors the media for allegedly negative portrayals of Israel.
HonestReporting marketed Obsession but denies it produced or funded the project.
"We initially gave some guidance to the Obsession staff," wrote Pesach Bensen, editor of Mediabackspin.com, the organisation's weblog, in an email response to IPS. "We're thrilled to see it succeed beyond our wildest expectations."
When Obsession was released last year, news pundits and anchors on FOX and CNN praised the independent film for its candid look at Islamic militancy. FOX incorporated footage from the film into a one-hour special, which aired seven times in November 2006. CNN's right-wing pundit Glen Beck called it "one of the most important films of our time". Sean Hannity of FOX News described it as "shocking beyond belief".
While such enthusiasm from right-wing talk show personalities comes as no surprise, mainstream cable news programmes also appeared to accept, without question, the premise of the film, which explicitly compares the threat posed by radical Islam to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s......
HonestReporting was founded in 2000 by British university students who objected to what they considered anti-Israel coverage by European media in response to the second Palestinian intifada.
There is no mention of HonestReporting's connection to Obsession on the film's website, www.obsessionthemovie.com. In an online "Ask the Filmmakers" segment on the FOX News website, Shore stated that he could not identify the film's funders for fear of retaliation by the "radicals" the filmmakers exposed.....
According to the New York Times, when a Middle East discussion group organised a screening at New York University earlier this year, distributors of the film required those in attendance to register at IsraelActivism.com, the official website of the Hasbara fellowships.
The programme, also known as the Jerusalem fellowships, was started in 2001 by Aish Hatorah -- an Orthodox Jewish outreach organisation and yeshiva based in East Jerusalem -- in conjunction with Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to its website, the group "educates and trains university students to be effective pro-Israel activists on their campuses" by providing its participants with "tools, resources and confidence to return to their campuses as leaders in the fight for Israel's image."
Aish Hatorah helped found HonestReporting. Rabbi Ephraim Shore, the president of HonestReporting, also helped found Hasbara....."
Understanding How Good People Turn Evil:
Renowned Psychologist Philip Zimbardo On his Landmark Stanford Prison Experiment, Abu Ghraib and More
Contributed by Datta
Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
"In 1971, psychology professor Philip Zimbardo created the Stanford Prison Experiment in which 24 college students were randomly assigned the roles of prison guards and prisoners at a makeshift jail on campus. The experiment was scheduled to run for two weeks. By Day Two, the guards were going far beyond just keeping the prisoners behind bars. In scenes eerily similar to Abu Ghraib, prisoners were stripped naked, bags put on their heads and sexually humiliated. The two-week experiment had to be canceled after just six days. Zimbardo tells the full story of the landmark study in his new book, "The Lucifer Effect."
As the United States enters the fifth year of its occupation of Iraq, some of the most enduring images of the war remain the vivid photographs of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The pictures were leaked to the press and first revealed to the world in May 2004. Images showed Iraqis with bags over their heads, beaten, set upon by dogs and forced into sexually humiliating acts. The Bush administration tried to paint the scandal as an isolated incident committed by rogue soldiers. But who is really to blame for the abuses at Abu Ghraib? The answer may lie in a landmark study conducted more than three decades ago.
In 1971, psychology professor Philip Zimbardo created an experiment at Stanford University in which 24 male college students were randomly assigned the roles of prison guards and prisoners at a makeshift jail on campus. The experiment was scheduled to run for two weeks. By Day Two, the guards were going far beyond keeping the prisoners behind bars. In scenes eerily similar to Abu Ghraib, prisoners were stripped naked, bags put on their heads and sexually humiliated. The guards had become dangerously sadistic and the prisoners were breaking down emotionally. The two-week experiment had to be canceled after just six days.
Professor Philip Zimbardo has just written a new book that, for the first time, tells the full story of the famed Stanford Prison Experiment. It's called "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil." Professor Zimbardo joins me today from our firehouse studio in New York......"
Click Here to Watch, Listen or Read Transcript of This Very Interesting and Revealing Segment
Fallujah Fears a 'Genocidal Strategy'
FALLUJAH, Mar 30 (IPS) - Iraqis in the volatile al-Anbar province west of Baghdad are reporting regular killings carried out by U.S. forces that many believe are part of a 'genocidal' strategy.
By Ali al-Fadhily
Inter Press Service
"......U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces working with them are also executing people seized during home raids and other operations, residents say.
"Seventeen young men were found executed after they were arrested by U.S. troops and Fallujah police," 40-year-old Yassen of Fallujah told IPS. "My two sons have been detained by police, and I am terrified that they will have the same fate. They are only 17 and 18 years old."
Residents of Fallujah say the local police detention centre holds hundreds of men, who have had no legal representation.
Others are killed by random fire that has long become routine for U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. Sa'ad, a 25-year-old from the al-Thubbat area of western Fallujah was killed in such firing......
Last week, U.S. military fire severely damaged the highest minaret in Fallujah after three soldiers were killed in an attack. What was seen as reprisal fire on the minaret has angered residents.
"They hate us because we are Muslims, and no one can argue with that any more," 65- year-old Abu Fayssal who witnessed the event told IPS. "They say they are fighting al- Qeada but they are only capable of killing our sons with their genocidal campaign and destroying our mosques.".....
Adding to the violence are U.S.-backed Shia militias which regularly raid Sunni areas under the eyes of the U.S. and Iraqi army. Residents of Fallujah, Ramadi, and especially Baghdad have regularly reported to IPS over the last two years that Shia militiamen are allowed through U.S. military cordons into Sunni neighbourhoods to conduct raids.
Last month, residents report, more than 100 men aged 20 to 40 were executed by Shia militias in Iskandariya 40 km south of Baghdad and Tal Afar 350 km northwest of the capital. Another 50 were detained by the Iraqi Army's fifth division, that many believe is the biggest death squad in the country....."
حين يتضامن الحكام ...تكن الكارثة وراء الباب
د. عادل سمارة
(From Ramallah, Palestine)
"ومان فقط لبحث كل شيىء، فهل تكفيّ أم أن الأشياء مبحوثة، وربما الأجندة مرسلة سلفاً على جناج الجنِّي المعاصر "الإنترنيت".
لم يكن هناك حدثاً يقتضي قمة سريعة ملحة كهذه. إذن، هذا بحد ذاته مثار قلق، بمعنى أن وراء القمة ما ورائها. حين يلتقي كافة الحكام العرب ويتحدثون عن تضامنهم، فعلينا التنبؤ بما هو خطير طالما نعرف أن "الدولة عدو الأمة".
فلو كانت القمة لقضايا الوطن، لكانت قمة الإعداد للمقاومة ضد الإحتلال الصهيوني لفلسطين، والأميركي للعراق والصومال وأجزاء من السودان. هذا هو المطلوب عربياً. ولو كانت إعداداً لمقاومة، لوضعت على أجندتها فائض ثروة النفط لتوظيفه في التنمية والمقاومة. ولكن، هذه محرمات، لأن تفاعلهما الجدلي ينتج الوحدة. وكيف تفعل تمفصلات سايكس-بيكو كل هذا؟
الصومال...نسيان!
قد يستفز الكثيرين أن نبدأ بالصومال، هذا القطر الذي "نساه العرب الأقحاح” (مظفر النواب) ...كما نسوا فلسطين، بلد فقير، على حافة الوطن.
فالصومال تحت احتلال جديد بالمطلق، احتلال قامت به الولايات المتحدة ممتطية ديكتاتور اثيوبيا. لم يتحرك الحكام العرب، وحتى القمة لم تقل كلمة واحدة عن قطر بأكمله. هذا رغم أن اليوم الثاني للقمة شهد مذبحة هناك. فقط للتذكير، ولكن لا معتصماه.
هل يُعقل أن تنسى القمة قطراً بأكمله لو كانت أجندتها عربية! ولكن، كيف تتحدث القمة عن الصومال، وواضع اجندة القمة هو من إحتل البلد، وأرسل ممثله الصومالي ليحضر القمة.
قد تكفي الإشارة للصومال هنا للتأكد من أن القمة محكومة بانتماء عميق لسايكس بيكو.
ولكن...لماذا فلسطين؟
قالوا جميعاً ولا سيما ممثل الجميع أمين عام جامعة الدول العربية عمرو موسى، ان السلام خيار استراتيجي وأن مرتكز المبادرة العربية هو الأرض مقابل السلام.
هنا نصل إلى النقطة الخطرة، فالقمة تضامن عربي تمهيدا لاستسلام شامل,. وللتذكير، فقد رفع شعار التضامن العربي عام 1967، بعد هزيمة حزيران، وهو تضامن كان مقصود به التطامن. فالدول التي دخلت الحرب هزمت وكسرت شوكتها. والدول التي لم تدخل الحرب هزمت دون حرب. إذن لا مفخرة لأحد، واية مناكفة سوف تحرج الجميع، فاتفقوا حينها أيضا على إزالة آثار العدوان. ومنذ تلك اللحظة شطب حق العودة، فما بالك بالتحرير؟
السلام خيار استراتيجي، وهذا معناه أن السلام هو الذي سيطرد إثيوبيا الأميركية من الصومال وأمريكا من العراق وإسرائيل من فلسطين، ولاحقاً اي قطر آخر، لن يطلق اي نظام على أي احتلال طلقة واحدة، فهم قد "طلّقوا المقاومة". فالنظام الرسمي العربي هو مبدع التحرير "بالسلام"
أما الأخطر فهو "الأرض مقابل السلام"، اية أرض؟ لا شك، ليس المقصود الإحتلال الأول لفلسطين 1948، ولا حتى الإحتلال الثاني 1967، حتى لو ورد نصاًّ في مقررات القمة. فما أكثر المقررات التي كان عدم ذكرها أحفظ لماء الوجه.
وأبعد من هذا، فقد سبقهم فلسطينيون للقبول بغزة-أريحا مقابل السلام، ولم يحصل.
الفوائض للتعويض وعودة عن العودة
ليست هذه القمة سوى استكمالاًً للموقف العربي الرسمي من العدوان على لبنان في العام الماضي، الموقف الذي قال لإسرائيل:"حطمي عظام حزب الله". فلا بد من اغتيال كافة مظاهر المقاومة المدنية والمسلحة للوصول إلى التسوية. وهو نفس المطلب الذي طلبته الولايات المتحدة وفرنسا.
إذن ما المتوقع من قمة دعى لها الحكم السعودي الذي طلب من إسرائيل تدمير حزب الله، لأنه قاوم!
لا شك أن القمة تشي بنفسها. فالحكام العرب سائرون باتجاه الإعتراف الجماعي، والتطبيع الجماعي مع إسرائيل. أما الأرض مقابل السلام، والحل العادل لقضية اللاجئين، فتعني بلا مواربة، بعض أرض الضفة والقطاع وتعني تعويض اللاجئين بدل عودتهم.
ولن يكون التعويض من إسرائيل ولا من الولايات المتحدة، بل من فوائض النفط. فالأعداء لا يدفعون. أما كيفية الدفع ولمن، فحسب من يريد أن يعرف أن يعود للدراسات الكثيرة التي كتبت عن هذا الأمر. فالأموال لن تدفع للاجئين، بل للحكومات التي استضافتهم وقمعتهم، لتخلق لهم مجالات عمل أو شواغر اعتقال ، لا فرق.
بقي أن نقول، هل يخجل مداحو المبادرة العربية، الذين يمتدحون عدم تنازل الأنظمة عن اي بند من المبادرة.
ايها السادة، إن الميادرة بحد ذاتها كتلة من التنازلات، فالتنازل عنها لا بد أن يعني موقفاً معاكساً لها. "
(From Ramallah, Palestine)
"ومان فقط لبحث كل شيىء، فهل تكفيّ أم أن الأشياء مبحوثة، وربما الأجندة مرسلة سلفاً على جناج الجنِّي المعاصر "الإنترنيت".
لم يكن هناك حدثاً يقتضي قمة سريعة ملحة كهذه. إذن، هذا بحد ذاته مثار قلق، بمعنى أن وراء القمة ما ورائها. حين يلتقي كافة الحكام العرب ويتحدثون عن تضامنهم، فعلينا التنبؤ بما هو خطير طالما نعرف أن "الدولة عدو الأمة".
فلو كانت القمة لقضايا الوطن، لكانت قمة الإعداد للمقاومة ضد الإحتلال الصهيوني لفلسطين، والأميركي للعراق والصومال وأجزاء من السودان. هذا هو المطلوب عربياً. ولو كانت إعداداً لمقاومة، لوضعت على أجندتها فائض ثروة النفط لتوظيفه في التنمية والمقاومة. ولكن، هذه محرمات، لأن تفاعلهما الجدلي ينتج الوحدة. وكيف تفعل تمفصلات سايكس-بيكو كل هذا؟
الصومال...نسيان!
قد يستفز الكثيرين أن نبدأ بالصومال، هذا القطر الذي "نساه العرب الأقحاح” (مظفر النواب) ...كما نسوا فلسطين، بلد فقير، على حافة الوطن.
فالصومال تحت احتلال جديد بالمطلق، احتلال قامت به الولايات المتحدة ممتطية ديكتاتور اثيوبيا. لم يتحرك الحكام العرب، وحتى القمة لم تقل كلمة واحدة عن قطر بأكمله. هذا رغم أن اليوم الثاني للقمة شهد مذبحة هناك. فقط للتذكير، ولكن لا معتصماه.
هل يُعقل أن تنسى القمة قطراً بأكمله لو كانت أجندتها عربية! ولكن، كيف تتحدث القمة عن الصومال، وواضع اجندة القمة هو من إحتل البلد، وأرسل ممثله الصومالي ليحضر القمة.
قد تكفي الإشارة للصومال هنا للتأكد من أن القمة محكومة بانتماء عميق لسايكس بيكو.
ولكن...لماذا فلسطين؟
قالوا جميعاً ولا سيما ممثل الجميع أمين عام جامعة الدول العربية عمرو موسى، ان السلام خيار استراتيجي وأن مرتكز المبادرة العربية هو الأرض مقابل السلام.
هنا نصل إلى النقطة الخطرة، فالقمة تضامن عربي تمهيدا لاستسلام شامل,. وللتذكير، فقد رفع شعار التضامن العربي عام 1967، بعد هزيمة حزيران، وهو تضامن كان مقصود به التطامن. فالدول التي دخلت الحرب هزمت وكسرت شوكتها. والدول التي لم تدخل الحرب هزمت دون حرب. إذن لا مفخرة لأحد، واية مناكفة سوف تحرج الجميع، فاتفقوا حينها أيضا على إزالة آثار العدوان. ومنذ تلك اللحظة شطب حق العودة، فما بالك بالتحرير؟
السلام خيار استراتيجي، وهذا معناه أن السلام هو الذي سيطرد إثيوبيا الأميركية من الصومال وأمريكا من العراق وإسرائيل من فلسطين، ولاحقاً اي قطر آخر، لن يطلق اي نظام على أي احتلال طلقة واحدة، فهم قد "طلّقوا المقاومة". فالنظام الرسمي العربي هو مبدع التحرير "بالسلام"
أما الأخطر فهو "الأرض مقابل السلام"، اية أرض؟ لا شك، ليس المقصود الإحتلال الأول لفلسطين 1948، ولا حتى الإحتلال الثاني 1967، حتى لو ورد نصاًّ في مقررات القمة. فما أكثر المقررات التي كان عدم ذكرها أحفظ لماء الوجه.
وأبعد من هذا، فقد سبقهم فلسطينيون للقبول بغزة-أريحا مقابل السلام، ولم يحصل.
الفوائض للتعويض وعودة عن العودة
ليست هذه القمة سوى استكمالاًً للموقف العربي الرسمي من العدوان على لبنان في العام الماضي، الموقف الذي قال لإسرائيل:"حطمي عظام حزب الله". فلا بد من اغتيال كافة مظاهر المقاومة المدنية والمسلحة للوصول إلى التسوية. وهو نفس المطلب الذي طلبته الولايات المتحدة وفرنسا.
إذن ما المتوقع من قمة دعى لها الحكم السعودي الذي طلب من إسرائيل تدمير حزب الله، لأنه قاوم!
لا شك أن القمة تشي بنفسها. فالحكام العرب سائرون باتجاه الإعتراف الجماعي، والتطبيع الجماعي مع إسرائيل. أما الأرض مقابل السلام، والحل العادل لقضية اللاجئين، فتعني بلا مواربة، بعض أرض الضفة والقطاع وتعني تعويض اللاجئين بدل عودتهم.
ولن يكون التعويض من إسرائيل ولا من الولايات المتحدة، بل من فوائض النفط. فالأعداء لا يدفعون. أما كيفية الدفع ولمن، فحسب من يريد أن يعرف أن يعود للدراسات الكثيرة التي كتبت عن هذا الأمر. فالأموال لن تدفع للاجئين، بل للحكومات التي استضافتهم وقمعتهم، لتخلق لهم مجالات عمل أو شواغر اعتقال ، لا فرق.
بقي أن نقول، هل يخجل مداحو المبادرة العربية، الذين يمتدحون عدم تنازل الأنظمة عن اي بند من المبادرة.
ايها السادة، إن الميادرة بحد ذاتها كتلة من التنازلات، فالتنازل عنها لا بد أن يعني موقفاً معاكساً لها. "
Operation Anabasis
The Invasion is Easy; It's the Retreat That is Hard
By WILLIAM S. LIND
CounterPunch
"While dilettantes believe the attack is the most difficult military art, most soldiers know better. Carrying out a successful retreat is usually far harder.
One of history's most successful retreats, and certainly its most famous, is the "Retreat of the 10,000." In 401 B.C., 10,000 Greek hoplites hired themselves out as mercenaries to a Persian prince, Cyrus the Younger, who was making a grab for the Peacock Throne. Inconveniently, after the Greeks were deep in Persia, Cyrus was killed. The hoplites' leader, Xenophon, the first gentleman of war, led his men on an epic retreat through Kurdish country to the coast and home. Surprisingly, most of them made it. Safely back in Athens, Xenophon wrote up his army's story, cleverly titling it the Anabasis, which means the advance. It was not the last retreat so labelled.
If the above scenario sounds familiar, it should. America now has an army, not of 10,000 but of more than 140,000, deep in Persia (which effectively includes Shiite Iraq, despite the ethnic difference). We are propping up a shaky local regime in a civil war. Our local allies are of dubious loyalty, and the surrounding population is not friendly. Our lines of communication, supply and retreat all run south, to Kuwait, through Shiite militia country. They then extend on through the Persian Gulf, which is called that for a reason. If those lines are cut, many of our troops have only one way out, the same way Xenophon took, up through Kurdish country and Asia Minor (now Turkey) to the coast......"
Blackwater
Jeremy Scahill on Soldiers of Fortune
"Jeremy Scahill speaks with Truthdig about his new book “Blackwater: the Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army,” privatization in America and abroad and our dysfunctional democracy."
An audio as well as a transcript.
Renouncement of right of return overwhelmingly rejected at Doha Debates
"Doha - Ma'an - The Doha Debates, a public forum for dialogue and freedom of speech in Doha, Qatar, has overwhelmingly voted against Palestinian refugees reneging their right of return to the Palestinian territories.
The question presented to participants at Qatar Foundation’s Doha Debates was, 'Should the Palestinians give up their right to return to their homeland after decades of misery and suffering in refugee camps across the world?'
Presenting the question were two well-known Jewish personalities from Israel and two leading human rights activists from the Palestinian territories. Notably, the two members of each of the sides for and against the motion consisted of one Israeli and one Palestinian.
Speaking for the motion were Bassem Eid, founder and director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group and Yossi Belin, currently a member of the Israeli Knesset and Chairman of the Meretz, Yachad Party.
Speaking against the motion were Dr Ilan Pappe, an eminent Jewish author and historian and senior lecturer of political science at the Haifa University and Ali Abunimah, son of a Palestinian refugee and co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, an Internet gateway about Palestine and the Palestine-Israel conflict.
Bassam opened the discussion by stating that Palestinians in refugees camps across the world have been living in dire condition and have suffered for 60 years.
He declared, “Having spent 40 years in a refugee camp I have lost all hope and energy to fight. If any Palestinian still maintain that spirit, he is most welcome to continue fighting,” said Bassem.
According to Qatar daily, The Peninsula, the view that dominated the debate was that the right of return is a fundamental right and should be protected.
Dr Pappe pointed out that a huge majority of Palestinian refugees still long to return to their homeland.
Pappe called on the international community to respond to Israel in a similar way to apartheid South Africa in order to end racial discrimination, “The same could happen in Palestine, if there is international pressure on Israel to change its racist policies,” said Pappe.
On the opposite side, arguing for the motion, Yossi Bellin appealed to particpants' pragmatic side, stating that a majority of Jews in Israel will never accept the full return of the Palestinian refugees, which will change the demographic pattern of Israeli society.
Bellin suggested instead that Israel allow a limited return of refugees and provide compensation to those who agree to give up their claim to return. No peace process is going to succeed without a permanent solution to the refugee issue, he added.
Only 18.4 % of the participants voted for the motion that Palestinians renounce their right of return to their land. "
Also see this:
Doha Debates backs Palestinian refugees' right to return
".....Abu Nimah said during his visits to the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, he found that despite their sufferings, majority of the refugees are still longing to go back to Palestine. Both the speakers called for a solution to the Palestinian issue in the same way the Apartheid system in South Africa was tackled. The racist system in South Africa prolonged for about 300 years but now the Blacks and the Whites live in harmony in the country. "The same could happen in Palestine, if there is international pressure on Israel to change its racist policies," said Pappe.
Both the panelists proposed a one-state solution to the Palestinian issue, where Jews, Muslims and Christians can live in harmony under a joint government....."
Falluja may slip out of U.S. control
Azzaman via uruknet
"Iraqi insurgents have intensified their attacks on U.S. targets inside the restive city of Falluja and the outlying villages and towns.
Daring attacks have taken U.S. troops aback in a city where the majority of its nearly 300,000 people are not happy with the presence of U.S. invaders.
Falluja has become a symbol of anti-U.S. resistance not only in Iraq but across most of the Arab and Muslim worlds.
It took the mighty U.S. military more than a month to flush the rebels out in 2004. The battle to regain the city caused massive destruction and had turned most of it into heaps of ruins.
But the rebels, most of whom had retreated to the countryside to escape devastating U.S. firepower, have reorganized their ranks and are now using more sophisticated means to drive the Americans away.
Two trucks one loaded with explosives and the other with toxic gas penetrated the fortified U.S. military camp in the city. The first suicide bomber drove through the gate with his explosives-laden truck only to be followed by the second truck full of chlorine bombs.
The rebels see the massive 2004 falluja attack as a defeat for the U.S. and a turning point in the battled to force its troops out of the country.
In the attack on the U.S. base, the second truck with poisonous gas entered the camp. The U.S. has not yet released reports of casualties but Iraqi police sources say tens of people, mostly Iraqi police officers as well as U.S. servicemen, were killed or injured.
The U.S. has placed the city under a strict curfew which is already in its third day and has banned people and trucks from leaving or entering the city, further fuelling popular resentment and anger at their tactics.
Despite the presence of thousands of U.S. troops inside and outside the city, the rebels still seem to have the upper hand.
They are almost in full control during the night and carry out hit and run attacks during the day."
Both Sides Must Stop This Mad Confrontation, Now
No agreed maritime boundary between Iraq and Iran
by Craig Murray
(As Britain's outspoken Ambassador to the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, Craig Murray helped expose vicious human rights abuses by the US-funded regime of Islam Karimov. He is now a prominent critic of Western policy in the region.)
".....'Bumping into the Iranians can’t be helped in the northern Persian Gulf, where the lines between Iraqi and Iranian territorial water are blurred, officials said.
"No maritime border has been agreed upon by the two countries," Lockwood said.'
That is Royal Australian Navy Commodore Peter Lockwood. He is the Commander of the Combined Task Force in the Northern Persian Gulf.
I might even know something about it myself, having been Head of the Maritime Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1989 to 1992, and having been personally responsible in the Embargo Surveillance Centre for getting individual real time clearance for the Royal Navy to board specific vessels in these waters.
As I feared, Blair adopted the stupid and confrontational approach of publishing maps ignoring the boundary dispute, thus claiming a very blurred situation is crystal clear and the Iranians totally in the wrong. This has in turn notched the Iranians up another twist in their own spiral of intransigence and stupidity.
Both the British and the Iranian governments are milking this for maximum propaganda value and playing to their respective galleries. Neither has any real care at all for either the British captives or the thousands who could die in Iran and Basra if this gets out of hand.
Tony Blair's contempt for Middle Eastern lives has already been adequately demonstrated in Iraq and Lebanon. His lack of genuine concern for British servicemen demonstrated by his steadfast refusal to meet even one parent of a dead British serviceman or woman, killed in the wars he created. He is confronting an Iranian leadership with an equal lust for glory and lack of human concern.
It is essential now for both sides to back down. No solution is possible if either side continues to insist that the other is completely in the wrong and they are completely in the right. And the first step towards finding a peaceful way out, is to acknowledge the self-evident truth that maritime boundaries are disputed and problematic in this area.
Both sides can therefore accept that the other acted in good faith with regard to their view of where the boundary was. They can also accept that boats move about and all the coordinates given by either party were also in good faith. The captives should be immediately released and, to international acclamation, Iran and Iraq, which now are good neighbours, should appoint a joint panel of judges to arbitrate a maritime boundary and settle this boundary dispute.
That is the way out. For the British to insist on their little red border line, or the Iranians on their GPS coordinates, plainly indicates a greater desire to score propaganda points in the run up to a war in which a lot of people will die, than to resolve the dispute and free the captives. The international community needs to put heavy pressure on both Britain and Iran to stop this mad confrontation.
The British people must break out of the jingoism created by their laudable concern for their servicemen and woman, and realise that this is just a small part of the madness of our policy of continual war in the Middle East. That is what we have to stop."
Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll
This is an interesting poll since it gauges the attitude of the Arab public towards and sympathy for Iran. The question is:
Do you believe that Iran is justified in holding the British sailors?
With about 1,500 responding so far, 85% said yes. You can imagine the support for Iran from the Arab public if it gets attacked by Usrael.
This shows the dismal failure of the puppet Arab leadership in instigating Arabs against Iran, Sunnis against Shiites, and in support of Usrael. It also speaks well for the maturity and sophistication of at least the educated and world savvy Arab public. The Arab "leadership," including the Palestinian variety, has never been more isolated and removed from the sentiments and aspirations of the people.
The Fantasy of American Diplomacy in the Middle East
by Tony Karon and Tom Engelhardt
"......Rather than a patient plan crafted by the U.S. Secretary of State as some miraculous alchemist of grand strategy, the latest flurry of activity reflects the maturing of a range of crises in the Middle East that have festered dangerously, while Condi fiddled. These include:
* The fact that the Bush administration has only exerted itself – and then just symbolically – on the Israeli-Palestinian front when it was desperate for favors from allied Arab regimes on other fronts, notably the roiling crises in Iraq and Iran. With the U.S. struggling unsuccessfully on both fronts, its vaunted ability to influence events in the region is in precipitous decline.
* The fact that the Arab regimes most closely allied to the U.S. face mounting crises of legitimacy at home, damned not only by their authoritarianism, but also by their paralysis in the face of U.S. and Israeli violence against Arab populations. Delivering the Palestinians to statehood is now seen by those regimes as essential to their own domestic political survival.
* The fact that an Israeli government, which came to power promising peace through unilateral "disengagement" from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, having fought a disastrous war in Lebanon and facing a never-ending struggle in Gaza, is seemingly disengaged from itself, its policies in tatters. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is drowning in a sea of corruption, scandals, and recriminations over the strategic and tactical incompetence he demonstrated in last summer's Lebanon war. With his own approval ratings at an astonishing 3%, he desperately needs a new idea to persuade Israeli voters that there's any reason to keep him in office.
* The fact that the Palestinians are experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian and political breakdown. All factions of the Palestinian government share an overwhelming incentive to get the financial siege lifted from battered, strife-torn Gaza. President Abbas' political future and legacy rest solely on completing the Oslo peace process; while for Hamas – at least for its more pragmatic political leadership – allowing President Abbas to pursue that course (particularly when it carries pan-Arab blessing) makes a certain sense. Hamas's political choices have always reflected a keen sense of Palestinian popular sentiment. By maintaining a distant and ambiguous stance towards Abbas's diplomatic efforts, it can plausibly deny complicity if the outcome proves unpopular on the Palestinian street......."
The Real 'Existential Threat'
War with Iran augurs a global conflict
By Justin Raimondo
"Our "free" media is so eager to accept the official British explanation of why their sailors/Marines wound up in Iranian custody that most Western "news" accounts are ignoring all evidence to the contrary, such as the trenchant observation of former British diplomat Craig Murray......
Iranian behavior in this matter seems predicated on the assumption that the decision to attack them has already been made. Why else would they parade the 15 captives in front of the cameras, and release two letters of one of them, including a call for the Western withdrawal from Iraq? Since the bombs will fall in any event, why not make propaganda while the sun shines?.....
It's amazing that the War Party, after delivering a body blow to our military and American interests throughout the world by invading Iraq, can mobilize its forces to make yet another go of it – this time on a much larger scale. That they are doing it without much political opposition, is even more astounding – and that speaks volumes about the corruption and betrayal of our "democratic" system, which is no reflection of the popular will. In a sane world, anyone who so much as suggested the possibility of starting another war in the Middle East would be taken out and horsewhipped. In the Bizarro World universe we seem to have slipped into post-9/11, however, such madness is the norm.
Where are our intellectual, political, and religious leaders? Will no one arise to end our national nightmare and lead us to safety? Both political parties are equally complicit: not a single major declared presidential candidate has spoken out against this crazed course, which seems unalterable, and, at this point, inevitable. I throw my hands up in despair at the terrible power of the Lobby, and wonder, aloud, why no one of any stature dares stand up to them. It doesn't seem possible that we are being pushed into a bigger and far more destructive conflict, and yet it is all happening rather quickly.
The coming war with Iran will not end until the entire region is aflame – with the fire spreading to three continents, and beyond. Is this the price the world is willing to pay to put an end to the "existential threat" to Israel? Or will our rulers pause, before plunging into an abyss, to ask: what about the existential threat to the rest of the world?"
Palestinian Authority 'irresponsible' in handling of sewage disaster
"Gaza - ma'an – Although the environmental disaster that occurred three days ago in the Gaza Strip was expected, the Palestinian Authority did nothing to prevent it according to the citizens of the village of Um Nasser.
The bursting of a cesspit near the village destroyed most of the houses in Um Nasser with floods of sewage water.....
The villagers said that they will never forget the disaster and insisted that this terrible accident is never repeated.
They called on the PA to find a suitable solution to the problem and appealed to officials to solve them problem of the families who are now living outdoors.
They also urged the PA to compensate them for their losses.
The villagers insisted that the PA officials are not paying enough attention to the crisis and some accused the PA of lying about the incident.
Other villagers said that they have contacted the PA officials but none of them have visited the scene of the disaster.
The villagers accused the PA of not warning the local citizens of the dangers in the area. "
***
Silly villagers: Don't you know that the PA with its "president" and "prime minister" has more important things to attend to than your sewage and your lives? There are new suits and ties for Habila to try on. There are jet flights not to miss. There are summit meetings to appear in. There are countless dignitaries to meet and numerous cameras to pose for. There are countless fake smiles that our "leaders" valiantly and readily produce for anyone who pays them attention. There are press conferences to appear in and useless and worn out statements to make.
And for heaven's sake don’t you dare embarrass our "leadership" while enjoying the company of the rich and powerful Arab "leaders" in the gold-trimmed palaces in Saudi Arabia. How dare you scream in anguish about your loss and your dead! This is not the PA's business. Its business is not your security and well being but that of Israel. For the latter millions and millions of dollars are spent and thousands are selected and trained by the best American trainers.
So, to paraphrase a crude Arabic expression, you better shut up and eat sewage.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
War created revolutionary change in region, Olmert says
"‘Influential Arab countries are beginning to understand that Israel is not their greatest concern; this marks a revolutionary change in their outlook,’ prime minister tells Kadima members in Jerusalem.......
“Saudi Arabia is the country that will eventually determine that Arabs’ ability to reach a compromise with Israel. Its willingness to lead and intervene is very interesting. We are not exaggerating the importance of this issue, but we are not dismissing it either.”"
قمة الاعتدال
عبد الباري عطوان
30/03/2007
اختتمت القمة العربية التاسعة عشرة اعمالها في الرياض بإعادة التأكيد علي احياء مبادرة" السلام العربية، ولكنها تبنت قرارات غريبة غير مسبوقة، تعكس تعليمات السيدة كوندوليزا رايس وزيرة الخارجية الامريكية مثل نشر ثقافة الاعتدال وتعديل المناهج التعليمية.
اعتماد مبادرة السلام مجددا لا يعني ان القادة العرب سيتمسكون ببنودها حرفيا، خاصة بعد تأكيد اكثر من مسؤول عربي، من بينهم السيد عمرو موسي امين عام جامعة الدول العربية بانها ستكون الارضية او الاطار الذي سيوضع علي مائدة المفاوضات مستقبلا.
اتفاق المصالحة الفلسطيني في مكة كان القابلة الاساسية لإعادة انتاج المبادرة العربية هذه، لانه ضمن دخول حركة حماس جبهة الرفض الاسلامية الفلسطينية الي بيت الطاعة العربي، وحضور السيد اسماعيل هنية رئيس وزراء حكومة الوحدة الوطنية الفلسطينية خلف السيد محمود عباس رئيس السلطة الذي حرص علي تكرار جميع مطالب اللجنة الرباعية الدولية في كلمته، مثل نبذ الارهاب والاعتراف باسرائيل، هو تأكيد علي انضمام هذه الحركة الي معسكر الاعتدال ولو بصفة مراقب كخطوة اولي علي الأقل.
ولا نعرف نوعية الاعتدال الذي ستعمل القمة العربية علي نشر ثقافته، فمثل هذا المفهوم ظهر علي سطح الاحداث في المنطقة العربية بقوة اثناء العدوان الاسرائيلي علي لبنان، واطلق علي الدول التي ساندته بطريقة غير مباشرة عندما حمّلت حزب الله اللبناني مسؤولية استفزاز الدولة العبرية بعملية فدائية ادت الي مقتل ثلاثة جنود اسرائيليين وأسر اثنين آخرين.
فالاعتدال فيما يبدو هو القبول بالدولة العبرية، وعدم الاحتجاج علي عدوانها، والتسليم ببرنامجها النووي الذي انتج حتي الآن اكثر من ثلاثمئة قنبلة ذرية كسند للأمة العربية في مواجهة اعدائها الايرانيين.
ويبدو ان الاعوجاج الذي هو نقيض الاعتدال، وتتبني القمة محاربته يتمثل في التمسك بالثوابت، فكل مطالبة باستخدام سلاح المقاومة لتحرير الارض هو اعوجاج ، وكل حديث عن تجريد الدولة العبرية من اسلحتها النووية هو انحراف يتناقض مع توجهات التسامح الجديدة.
تعديل المناهج الذي جري تشريعه بقرار من القمة العربية، لن يكون هدفه جعل الجامعات العربية اكثر تطورا من جامعات هارفرد واكسفورد وبريستون، في مجالات العلوم الفيزيائية والكيماوية والهندسية والتكنولوجية، وانما حذف كل ما يحرض علي المقاومة او الجهاد، ويسمي الاعداء باسمائهم، ويطالب بالانتصار لقضايا الأمة وكرامتها.
لم نسمع في القمة الجديدة عما سمعناه في القمم السابقة في تونس والجزائر علي وجه التحديد، اي الاصلاح السياسي والاقتصادي والاجتماعي في الوطن العربي. فلم نسمع زعيما عربيا واحدا يتطرق الي هذه المسألة علي الاطلاق، فلماذا هذا البرود تجاه مثل هذه القضية الحساسة وذات الاولوية في قمم سابقة؟
هل لان هذا الاصلاح تمت ترجمته علي شكل ربع انتخابات في السعودية، وتعديلات دستورية تؤكد الديكتاتورية وتضيف الي قوانين الطواريء، وتمهد للتوريث في مصر، ومزيد من الاعتقالات في معظم الدول العربية الاخري؟
فمن الواضح، ومثلما جاء في البيان الختامي للقمة، ان الاعتدال اصبح عنوانا للديكتاتورية والقمع والتعذيب ومصادرة الحريات، فمعظم دول محور الاعتدال العربي المدعومة امريكيا هي الاكثر ديكتاتورية بين اقرانها. بل ان هناك دولا خارج هذا المحور تقدم تجارب ديمقراطية متميزة تستحق التنويه مثل المغرب مثلا.
ان قبول القمة العربية وبحضور عدة زعماء اسلاميين الترويج لثقافة الاعتدال هو اعتراف غير مسبوق بأن العرب هم مصدر التطرف والارهاب في العالم. وهو اعتراف خطير بكل المقاييس، فالتطرف فرض علي العرب وهم امة وسط ومن قبل الولايات المتحدة الامريكية وحروبها التدميرية في العراق ودعمها المستمر للعدوان الاسرائيلي في فلسطين، هذه السياسات هي التي اثارت حالة من الاحباط واليأس في ظل انظمة عربية عاجزة ديكتاتورية متواطئة ودفعت هذا الشباب الي الذهاب بعيدا في معتقداتهم والانضمام الي الجماعات الاسلامية والعلمانية المتشددة.
نحن نريد تعديل المناهج، ونشر ثقافة الاعتدال، ولكن من اجل اصلاح داخلي حقيقي، وليس من اجل توظيف المنطقة في خدمة حروب امريكية، والتنازل عن جوهر القضية الفلسطينية من اجل ارضاء الرئيس بوش، واستدراج الدولة العبرية الي عملية سلام تقوم علي اساس شروطها هي لا ثوابتنا نحن.
الكثيرون اشادوا بخطاب العاهل السعودي الملك عبدالله بن عبد العزيز، والفقرة المتعلقة منه بالاعتراف بوقوع العراق تحت احتلال اجنبي غير شرعي، ولكن لم يسأل احد عمن سهل هذا الاحتلال للعراق، وتعاون معه، وساند المشاريع السياسية التي افرزها وقادته الي الحرب الاهلية الطائفية التي يعيشها حاليا ويدفع ثمنها من دماء ابنائه.
دول محور الاعتدال العربي هي التي ساندت الغزو، وأيدت الحصار المفروض علي العراق لاكثر من عشر سنوات، وحرضت علي اطاحة النظام فيه، والان تتباكي علي هذا البلد وتستنكر احتلاله، وتعتبره غير شرعي، لان النتائج جاءت لمصلحة ايران ونفوذها، الدولة التي حلت محل العراق والنظام البعثي فيه كمصدر تهديد لاستقرار دول الجوار.
الاسابيع القليلة المقبلة ستكون حافلة بالاحداث علاوة علي كونها ستقدم الاختبار الحقيقي لمبادرة السلام العربية ومدي قبول الطرف الآخر بها، ويظل السؤال هو عما اذا ما طلبت اسرائيل من راعي القمة العربية والمصدر الاساسي لهذه المبادرة التفاوض معها مباشرة لشرح تفاصيلها؟
فهل ستقبل المملكة العربية السعودية بهذا الطلب ام لا؟
فتفعيل المبادرة، من خلال آليات محددة يعني القيام بجهد دبلوماسي علي الاصعدة كافة، ومن الطبيعي ان يكون الطرف الاخر، اي الطرف الاسرائيلي هو المقصود الاول بهذا التفعيل.
المشكلة ان الطرف الآخر ضعيف، فاولمرت لا يتمتع الا بتأييد اقل من خمسة في المئة من الشعب الاسرائيلي، ويواجه العديد من اتهامات الفساد. فكيف، وهذا هو وضعه، سيستطيع تقديم تنازلات رئيسية للطرف العربي؟
الحضور الكثيف لزعامات العالم السني مثل برويز مشرف رئيس باكستان، ورجب طيب اردوغان رئيس وزراء تركيا، وعبد الله بدوي رئيس وزراء ماليزيا ينطوي علي مغزي كبير، وهو اننا مقبلون علي تقسيم مختلف للعالم الاسلامي، تقسيم يقوم علي اساس معسكر سني ومعسكر شيعي، وقد تكون هذه القمة هي اول تأسيس للمحور الاول الذي سيشترك في الحرب المقبلة ضد ايران.
طائر ابو فصادة كان يذكرنا دائما بمقدم الشتاء في بلاد الشام، ونضوج ثمار الزيتون، ويبدو ان الحديث عن مبادرات السلام هو عنوان للحروب في المنطقة. هكذا فعلوا عام 1991 عندما دمروا العراق وهكذا فعلوا عام 2003 عندما غزوه، وهكذا يفعلون استعدادا لضرب ايران.
30/03/2007
اختتمت القمة العربية التاسعة عشرة اعمالها في الرياض بإعادة التأكيد علي احياء مبادرة" السلام العربية، ولكنها تبنت قرارات غريبة غير مسبوقة، تعكس تعليمات السيدة كوندوليزا رايس وزيرة الخارجية الامريكية مثل نشر ثقافة الاعتدال وتعديل المناهج التعليمية.
اعتماد مبادرة السلام مجددا لا يعني ان القادة العرب سيتمسكون ببنودها حرفيا، خاصة بعد تأكيد اكثر من مسؤول عربي، من بينهم السيد عمرو موسي امين عام جامعة الدول العربية بانها ستكون الارضية او الاطار الذي سيوضع علي مائدة المفاوضات مستقبلا.
اتفاق المصالحة الفلسطيني في مكة كان القابلة الاساسية لإعادة انتاج المبادرة العربية هذه، لانه ضمن دخول حركة حماس جبهة الرفض الاسلامية الفلسطينية الي بيت الطاعة العربي، وحضور السيد اسماعيل هنية رئيس وزراء حكومة الوحدة الوطنية الفلسطينية خلف السيد محمود عباس رئيس السلطة الذي حرص علي تكرار جميع مطالب اللجنة الرباعية الدولية في كلمته، مثل نبذ الارهاب والاعتراف باسرائيل، هو تأكيد علي انضمام هذه الحركة الي معسكر الاعتدال ولو بصفة مراقب كخطوة اولي علي الأقل.
ولا نعرف نوعية الاعتدال الذي ستعمل القمة العربية علي نشر ثقافته، فمثل هذا المفهوم ظهر علي سطح الاحداث في المنطقة العربية بقوة اثناء العدوان الاسرائيلي علي لبنان، واطلق علي الدول التي ساندته بطريقة غير مباشرة عندما حمّلت حزب الله اللبناني مسؤولية استفزاز الدولة العبرية بعملية فدائية ادت الي مقتل ثلاثة جنود اسرائيليين وأسر اثنين آخرين.
فالاعتدال فيما يبدو هو القبول بالدولة العبرية، وعدم الاحتجاج علي عدوانها، والتسليم ببرنامجها النووي الذي انتج حتي الآن اكثر من ثلاثمئة قنبلة ذرية كسند للأمة العربية في مواجهة اعدائها الايرانيين.
ويبدو ان الاعوجاج الذي هو نقيض الاعتدال، وتتبني القمة محاربته يتمثل في التمسك بالثوابت، فكل مطالبة باستخدام سلاح المقاومة لتحرير الارض هو اعوجاج ، وكل حديث عن تجريد الدولة العبرية من اسلحتها النووية هو انحراف يتناقض مع توجهات التسامح الجديدة.
تعديل المناهج الذي جري تشريعه بقرار من القمة العربية، لن يكون هدفه جعل الجامعات العربية اكثر تطورا من جامعات هارفرد واكسفورد وبريستون، في مجالات العلوم الفيزيائية والكيماوية والهندسية والتكنولوجية، وانما حذف كل ما يحرض علي المقاومة او الجهاد، ويسمي الاعداء باسمائهم، ويطالب بالانتصار لقضايا الأمة وكرامتها.
لم نسمع في القمة الجديدة عما سمعناه في القمم السابقة في تونس والجزائر علي وجه التحديد، اي الاصلاح السياسي والاقتصادي والاجتماعي في الوطن العربي. فلم نسمع زعيما عربيا واحدا يتطرق الي هذه المسألة علي الاطلاق، فلماذا هذا البرود تجاه مثل هذه القضية الحساسة وذات الاولوية في قمم سابقة؟
هل لان هذا الاصلاح تمت ترجمته علي شكل ربع انتخابات في السعودية، وتعديلات دستورية تؤكد الديكتاتورية وتضيف الي قوانين الطواريء، وتمهد للتوريث في مصر، ومزيد من الاعتقالات في معظم الدول العربية الاخري؟
فمن الواضح، ومثلما جاء في البيان الختامي للقمة، ان الاعتدال اصبح عنوانا للديكتاتورية والقمع والتعذيب ومصادرة الحريات، فمعظم دول محور الاعتدال العربي المدعومة امريكيا هي الاكثر ديكتاتورية بين اقرانها. بل ان هناك دولا خارج هذا المحور تقدم تجارب ديمقراطية متميزة تستحق التنويه مثل المغرب مثلا.
ان قبول القمة العربية وبحضور عدة زعماء اسلاميين الترويج لثقافة الاعتدال هو اعتراف غير مسبوق بأن العرب هم مصدر التطرف والارهاب في العالم. وهو اعتراف خطير بكل المقاييس، فالتطرف فرض علي العرب وهم امة وسط ومن قبل الولايات المتحدة الامريكية وحروبها التدميرية في العراق ودعمها المستمر للعدوان الاسرائيلي في فلسطين، هذه السياسات هي التي اثارت حالة من الاحباط واليأس في ظل انظمة عربية عاجزة ديكتاتورية متواطئة ودفعت هذا الشباب الي الذهاب بعيدا في معتقداتهم والانضمام الي الجماعات الاسلامية والعلمانية المتشددة.
نحن نريد تعديل المناهج، ونشر ثقافة الاعتدال، ولكن من اجل اصلاح داخلي حقيقي، وليس من اجل توظيف المنطقة في خدمة حروب امريكية، والتنازل عن جوهر القضية الفلسطينية من اجل ارضاء الرئيس بوش، واستدراج الدولة العبرية الي عملية سلام تقوم علي اساس شروطها هي لا ثوابتنا نحن.
الكثيرون اشادوا بخطاب العاهل السعودي الملك عبدالله بن عبد العزيز، والفقرة المتعلقة منه بالاعتراف بوقوع العراق تحت احتلال اجنبي غير شرعي، ولكن لم يسأل احد عمن سهل هذا الاحتلال للعراق، وتعاون معه، وساند المشاريع السياسية التي افرزها وقادته الي الحرب الاهلية الطائفية التي يعيشها حاليا ويدفع ثمنها من دماء ابنائه.
دول محور الاعتدال العربي هي التي ساندت الغزو، وأيدت الحصار المفروض علي العراق لاكثر من عشر سنوات، وحرضت علي اطاحة النظام فيه، والان تتباكي علي هذا البلد وتستنكر احتلاله، وتعتبره غير شرعي، لان النتائج جاءت لمصلحة ايران ونفوذها، الدولة التي حلت محل العراق والنظام البعثي فيه كمصدر تهديد لاستقرار دول الجوار.
الاسابيع القليلة المقبلة ستكون حافلة بالاحداث علاوة علي كونها ستقدم الاختبار الحقيقي لمبادرة السلام العربية ومدي قبول الطرف الآخر بها، ويظل السؤال هو عما اذا ما طلبت اسرائيل من راعي القمة العربية والمصدر الاساسي لهذه المبادرة التفاوض معها مباشرة لشرح تفاصيلها؟
فهل ستقبل المملكة العربية السعودية بهذا الطلب ام لا؟
فتفعيل المبادرة، من خلال آليات محددة يعني القيام بجهد دبلوماسي علي الاصعدة كافة، ومن الطبيعي ان يكون الطرف الاخر، اي الطرف الاسرائيلي هو المقصود الاول بهذا التفعيل.
المشكلة ان الطرف الآخر ضعيف، فاولمرت لا يتمتع الا بتأييد اقل من خمسة في المئة من الشعب الاسرائيلي، ويواجه العديد من اتهامات الفساد. فكيف، وهذا هو وضعه، سيستطيع تقديم تنازلات رئيسية للطرف العربي؟
الحضور الكثيف لزعامات العالم السني مثل برويز مشرف رئيس باكستان، ورجب طيب اردوغان رئيس وزراء تركيا، وعبد الله بدوي رئيس وزراء ماليزيا ينطوي علي مغزي كبير، وهو اننا مقبلون علي تقسيم مختلف للعالم الاسلامي، تقسيم يقوم علي اساس معسكر سني ومعسكر شيعي، وقد تكون هذه القمة هي اول تأسيس للمحور الاول الذي سيشترك في الحرب المقبلة ضد ايران.
طائر ابو فصادة كان يذكرنا دائما بمقدم الشتاء في بلاد الشام، ونضوج ثمار الزيتون، ويبدو ان الحديث عن مبادرات السلام هو عنوان للحروب في المنطقة. هكذا فعلوا عام 1991 عندما دمروا العراق وهكذا فعلوا عام 2003 عندما غزوه، وهكذا يفعلون استعدادا لضرب ايران.
Initiative versus principle
If Israel rejects the best Arab position, perhaps the Arabs should revert to maximal demands and ask Israel to propose a plan
Azmi Bishara at His Best
Al-Ahram Weekly
".....Maybe what was required was a new Arab initiative announced during the incumbencies of these two administrations. Then they might have called it an initiative. Better yet, perhaps the Arabs should come up with a new proposal, every three or four years, modifying the "positions" that had once constituted the cardinal points of the previous peace initiative, so as to placate every new set of American envoys. Then, in 20 years or so, after four or five Israeli governments and American administrations have come and gone, the Arabs will approve of Israel's annexation of a large chunk of the occupied West Bank and they'll feel grateful that Israel not only asked them to recognise just plain Israel but also Article 7a of its organic law in which it describes itself as a Jewish and democratic state. Anything is possible as long as Israel finds Arabs who argue, "it's better to accept what's on offer now, before we're forced to accept something worse."
Such is the fate of a peace initiative that emanates from the dynamics of weakness. Without a victory to make the tenets of a peace initiative more compelling or the ability to alter the balance of power in favour of the authors of the initiative, the initiative remains no more than a proposal in need of more alterations. This is why an initiative maker is either a neutral party who wishes to mediate between antagonistic parties that cannot reach a middle ground on their own, or a victorious party who seeks to translate a military victory into a political one, or an otherwise powerful party that has the power to impose the initiative. As for an initiative that is forwarded hypothetically, it can only be interpreted as a form of backing down and is certain to whet the adversary's appetite for more concessions. Real life is not made up of the simulation games played in the strategic study centres that live off Arab-Israeli dialogues......
Even Benyamin Netanyahu would have been embarrassed to tell the Arabs what that mild and moderate foreign minister did via her speech to the powerful pro- Israeli lobby. What the Arab governments have to do, she said, is to normalise their relations with Israel so as to allay Israel's fears, after which they should wait until Israel gradually changes. Perhaps, eventually, Israel would recognise the Palestinian national unity government and maybe even the Arabs.....
Normally, of course, this is a very positive trait, one that is highly valued in capitalist societies since it is the antonym of the laziness, indifference and lack of initiative with which we Orientals are so often characterised. But in this instance, at least, there was no shortage of the spirit of initiative, especially when it came to pleasing the Americans by agreeing, for example, to lower the threshold of the Arab proposal to the level of the roadmap.....
Unless the occupying power recognises the right of the occupied people to self-determination and declares its intent to withdraw, what you have is not negotiations but another form of bullying, and calling the people sitting around the negotiating table "the two sides" doesn't alter that fact. This is why liberation movements resolve to sustain the resistance and not to negotiate with the occupying power and somehow manage to reconcile the demands of resistance with the demands of day-to-day life until the occupying power declares its readiness to lift the occupation. Only then is there really something to negotiate over.
In Palestine, the liberation movement switched track and began to dream that the occupying power would recognise it. Once that dream was realised, the Palestine Liberation Organisation became one of "two sides", and was then fragmented and reduced to a hypothetical political entity that consisted of remnants of the liberation movement and that enjoyed none of the prerogatives of sovereignty. Eventually, however, the people under occupation were given the opportunity to hold legislative elections and they returned a parliament that produced a government that rejected the post-Oslo game. This government was willing to rule for the very reason it was elected: it stood as a liberation movement determined to fight the occupation. At the same time, however, this government opposed negotiations with Israel, but in order to stay in power it delegated members of its political opponents -- the very people who disintegrated the liberation movement and led the hypothetical political entity -- to enter into negotiations, yet without devising a mechanism to keep negotiators in line. In other words, the government may not have negotiated, but it did not turn its rejection of negotiations into a binding position and it had no way of ensuring that negotiations would not jeopardise the national movement's fixed priorities. Perhaps, one day, it will wake up to the fact that to Israel and the US a Palestinian government consists of no more than a Palestinian Authority president and his advisors who agree to negotiate on Israel's terms. But this subject is better left to another day."
A sacred right
The west was taken in by the Zionist propaganda for several decades, but what is more natural than a Palestinian returning home?
A Very Good Article
Contributed by Lucia
Salman Abu-Sitta
(Salman Abu-Sitta is a Palestinian refugee. He is a member of the Palestine National Council and the general coordinator of the Right of Return Congress. He is the founder and president of Palestine Land Society, London)
The Guardian
".....Both Alex Stein and Menny Morris escape from the fact, slowly seeping into the western conscience, that Palestinians were - and are today - subject to the most massive, comprehensive, meticulously planned and executed and continuous ethnic cleansing operation in modern history. This has long been denied by Israeli historians. A notable exception is a brave and honest Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe.
The sensation created by Benny Morris's revelation about al-Nakba, grudgingly accepted by some Jews, is a stark measure of how the west was taken in by the Zionist propaganda for several decades. The Palestinians do not know whether to laugh or cry, for the "revelations" are only some of what they have been saying all along since 1948. Hundreds of thousands of refugees gave graphic details of their plight but these were dismissed by the Zionist Europeans as "a figment of oriental imagination" until an Israeli historian found damning evidence in Israeli files.
Facts have a way of surfacing. The facts, documented on maps and records, show that in 1948 Israelis depopulated the Palestinian inhabitants of 675 towns and villages, that their land represents 93% of Israel's area; that half of all the refugees have been expelled in the last six weeks of the British Mandate, before the state of Israel was declared and before any Arab regular soldier set foot on Palestine to save its people from the invasion of Jewish European immigrants who had just waded into their shores to build Israel on the ruins of Palestine.
What is more natural than a person returning to their home? If Stein does not believe this is "sacred", he has to ask 6 million Palestinian refugees (two-thirds of all Palestinians) why are they still determined to fight for their right to return over a period of six decades and through three generations and many wars. That the right of return for Palestinians has been affirmed by the UN more than 130 times is enough to put this matter to rest. No need to spill more ink on that score.
If defeated on both counts, Zionists usually resort to their last defence: that the right of return is not possible to implement.
In a civilised society, if a crime is committed, its consequences must be reversed. The criminal should not be rewarded, and his crime should not be forgiven or even legitimised. The stolen property must be returned. Rights must be reinstated and reparation paid for material losses.
This is what the international community insisted upon, sometimes using military force, in implementing the return of refugees to Bosnia, Kosovo, Burundi, Cambodia, East Timor, Georgia, Guatemala, Mozambique, Ruwanda, South Africa, Tajikistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
This is also what the European Jews rightly got when they returned to their former homes (if they so wished), recovered their property in Europe and received massive amounts of compensation for their suffering during the second world war, without the benefit of a single UN resolution.
The pretext that return is not possible because of the influx of Jewish immigrants to Palestine to replace the expelled Palestinians is not a valid one, morally, legally or politically. But we are spared the argument on this point. Here we have yet another one of the misconceptions designed to mislead and misinform the western public. It is not true that it is physically impossible to implement the right of return.
Palestine is the most documented among conflict-torn countries, certainly much more than Bosnia and Kosovo. We have complete UN-documented ownership records of every acre of land. Not a single Israeli Jew has an equivalent title deed after al-Nakba. We have detailed maps of what every acre was, what it is today and can visualise what it could/should be in the future.
We have a huge database of millions of Palestinians - where they come from in Palestine, and where they are residing today, their family structure and their ages. Today, 90% of them reside within 100 km of their homes, 50% within 40km and many can actually see their home on the opposite hill.
That is not all. The refugees' land is still sparsely populated. Eighty per cent of Israeli Jews still live in the same area they acquired during the Mandate and a little more, but 15% of Israel in total. About 18% of the remaining 20% of the Jews live mostly in half a dozen originally Palestinian or mixed cities, considerably enlarged. This leaves 2% of Israeli Jews who are the members of Qibbutz and Moshav.
This small number of population, in addition to the army, use and control 85%-88% of Israel's area, which is the patrimony of 6 million Palestinian refugees. To take an example, all the rural Jews in the southern district from Ashdod (Isdud) to Eilat (Umm Rashrash) are less in number that one refugee camp in Gaza. Their density is six persons per square kilometre while that of Gaza population - the owners of this very land - is 6,000 per square kilometre. These owners of the land are held captive by the occupier in a concentration camp called Gaza. "
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