Palestinian Pundit

By M K Bhadrakumar
Asia Times

"Drowned out by the United States-driven cacophony over Tehran's alleged belligerence is news of the inauguration of a pipeline connecting Iran's northern Caspian region with Turkmenistan's vast gas reserves. Trumping the sole superpower and its European allies, Ashgabat has committed its entire gas exports to China, Russia and Iran. And Tehran - "increasingly isolated" according to Washington - finds itself at the center of a newly emerging economic axis...."

Ali Abunimah writing from Cairo, Live from Palestine, 7 January 2010

".....At 9:45am on 29 December, Evans, myself and two other Gaza Freedom March participants came back to the embassy. We explained that we wished to see Ambassdor Margaret Scobey to discuss why Egypt had prohibited more than 1,300 persons including hundreds of Americans, from going to Gaza to take part in a peaceful march with Palestinian civil society against the siege of Gaza.

We were allowed through the first checkpoint, but told we would have to be sniffed by dogs. But as the dogs finished their task, an Egyptian police officer came running up, and demanded we leave. We stood our ground. We explained that we were Americans, and wanted to visit our embassy. If they would not let us, then they must send someone out to explain why.....

Eventually, a representative of the embassy emerged and stated that three and only three persons would be allowed to enter. Through an on-the-spot, ad hoc process, CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, activist Kit Kettredge and myself were selected. We made clear to other marchers that we did not view this "concession" as binding them in any way -- they still had the right, as they demanded, to visit the embassy and represent themselves, and we would make that point......

We noted the irony that it was in Cairo last June that US President Barack Obama had lauded and recommended to Palestinians peaceful civil-rights-style actions. And yet here were 1,300 individuals from dozens of countries who had answered such a call from Palestinian civil society only to find their plans blocked by the Egyptian government while they faced constant police harassment.

Cabrera reminded us, "US citizens have been hurt in Gaza, you know, so we are concerned about your safety." To this, I answered that I knew that Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American peace activist, had been killed by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza on 16 March 2003, and that the embassy's protestations of concern for our safety would be much more convincing if the United States government had demanded proper accountability from Israel in her killing. Benjamin, Kettredge and I also pointed out that the main source of danger to people in Gaza is from attacks by Israel using weapons provided by the United States.....

...an Egyptian who worked for the embassy -- rushed up shouting at the police in English "no touch, no touch!" This seemed to indicate that while the embassy was content to have us detained against our will for hours, it did not want us treated "too" roughly. (Indeed, journalist Sam Husseini recorded on his blog an Egyptian police official outside the embassy saying that the US embassy "told us" to prevent Americans from reaching the building.)

....Having been held hostage, we were forced to negotiate our own release. It was a lesson -- if we needed one -- that when it comes to the siege of Gaza, the United States government is not part of the solution, but an active part of the problem. And, the United States is not beyond relying on the repressive police tactics of the Egyptian state to protect itself from the opinions of its own citizens."

Los Angeles Times

"Hedy Epstein is what some might see as a contradiction in terms: a survivor of the Holocaust and also a staunch advocate for the Palestinian people. Born in 1924 in Freiburg, Germany, Epstein was 14 when she escaped from Nazi persecution via the Kinderstransport to England. Since her 1948 arrival in the U.S., Epstein has been an advocate for peace and human rights.

In 2001 she founded the St. Louis chapter of the Women in Black anti-war group that originated in Israel, and has actively advocated for Palestinian rights since visiting the West Bank in 2003. As the last decade came to a close, Epstein continued her advocacy by traveling with the women’s peace advocacy group CodePink to the Gaza Freedom March. The Dec. 31 march was a planned nonviolent demonstration to protest Israel’s blockade of Gaza, with 1,000 advocates from abroad joining Palestinians in a march to the Gaza-Israel border checkpoint.

Although Egyptian authorities refused to let the full contingent of protesters into Gaza, the 100 activists that were permitted to enter carried on the anti-blockade message........"

US Allies With Ba’athists in Yemen
Saddam's Spies Now Working With US

by Jason Ditz, January 06, 2010
Antiwar.com

".....But now, some of Saddam Hussein’s top spies, having fled to Yemen when America invaded, have found a new and unlikely ally in the United States, which is recruiting them into a rival spy agency within the Yemeni government, created specifically to tackle al-Qaeda.

The Ba’athist spy agency was created at the behest of the US, but it likely didn’t take much coaxing of Yemeni President Saleh, a long-time ally of Saddam Hussein who has been known as “little Saddam” himself.

Though it is perplexing policy when coupled with repeated official statements against the Ba’athists, it is hardly surprising that the US has once again gone down this road, having eagerly allied with Saddam’s Ba’athist regime before eventually declaring it an enemy and invading. Whether the Saleh government will share the Saddam government’s fate remains to be seen."

by Philip Giraldi, January 07, 2010

".....Parallel with developments in the political arena, attempts to demonize Iran in the media appear to constitute a growth industry. False articles about Iran poison the foreign policy discourse because they create a dangerous narrative, that Tehran’s rulers are irredeemably evil and completely unwilling to compromise. In intelligence circles this is called disinformation. Nowhere is this barrage of disinformation more evident than in the media empire controlled by Rupert Murdoch, which includes the Wall Street Journal, the Times newspapers in Britain, and Fox television. Murdoch’s media marched in lockstep as a virtual propaganda mill in the lead-up to the Iraq war. Murdoch himself is much esteemed by Israel and by Jewish organizations and he has been outspoken in his approval of Israeli policies, including the devastation of Gaza one year ago. He has received numerous awards in Israel and the US for his support of Israel, most recently in November when he was given the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Laureate Award. In March 2009 he received the National Human Relations award from the American Jewish Committee. Murdoch is generally believed to be extremely close to Tel Aviv’s intelligence service Mossad and some of the stories featured in the media he controls would appear to be disinformation supporting Israeli government positions......

I am not suggesting for a moment that the Times and other Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers don’t do some good reporting, and I would note in particular their exemplary coverage of the Sibel Edmonds story. But I would warn that the conjunction of Middle East issues, most particularly the "Iranian threat," and the newspaper’s editorial slant in favor of Israel and interventionism invite caution. If a breaking story relates to Iran and appears first in the Times it is probably not completely true and might be completely false, a shaky foundation for building a case for war."

Seumas Milne
The Guardian, Thursday 7 January 2010

"If an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor had gone on hunger strike in support of a besieged people in another part of the world, and hundreds of mostly western protesters had been stoned and beaten by police, you can be sure we'd have heard all about it. But because that is what's been happening in western-backed Egypt, rather than Iran, and the people the protesters are supporting are the Palestinians of Gaza instead of, say, Tibetans, most people in Europe and north America know nothing about it.....

...Last night, George Galloway's Viva Palestina 500-strong convoy of medical aid was finally allowed in, minus 50 of its 200 vehicles, after being repeatedly blocked, diverted and intimidated by Egyptian security – including a violent assault in the Egyptian port of El Arish on Tuesday night which left dozens injured, despite the participation of one British and 10 Turkish MPs.


That followed an attempted "Gaza freedom march" by 1,400 protesters from more than 40 countries, only 84 of whom were allowed across the border – which is what led Hedy Epstein, both of whose parents died in Auschwitz, to refuse food in Cairo, as the group's demonstrations were violently broken up and Israel's prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was feted nearby....

But although the confrontation has been largely ignored in the west, it has been a major media event in the Middle East which has only damaged Egypt. And while the Egyptian government claims it is simply upholding its national sovereignty, the saga has instead starkly exposed its complicity in the US- and European-backed blockade of Gaza and the collective punishment of its one and a half million people....

But two other factors seem to have been decisive in convincing Cairo to bend to American and Israeli pressure and close the vice on Gaza's Palestinians, along with those who support them. The first was a US threat to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of aid unless it cracked down on arms and other smuggling. The second is the need for US acquiescence in the widely expected hereditary succession of Mubarak's ex-banker son, Gamal, to the presidency. So, far from protecting its sovereignty, the Egyptian government has sold it for continued foreign subsidy and despotic dynastic rule, sacrificing any pretence to its historic role of Arab leadership in the process....

Decades of oil-hungry backing for despots, from Iran to Oman, Egypt to Saudi Arabia, along with the failure of Arab nationalism to complete the decolonisation of the region, fuelled first the rise of Islamism and then the eruption of al-Qaida-style terror more than a decade ago. But, far from addressing the natural hostility to foreign control of the area and its resources at the centre of the conflict, the disastrous US-led response was to expand the western presence still further, with new and yet more destructive invasions and occupations...."

Press TV

"Tel Aviv is conducting war games in the Negev desert, in what appears to be preparation for a new offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

An Israeli TV channel reported the military drills on Thursday, saying the rightist government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely gearing up for a massive attack on Gaza shortly after the anniversary of the deadly Gaza onslaught last year.

It further revealed that Tel Aviv plans to occupy the entire coastal enclave this time to compensate for the failure to overthrow Hamas, the democratically elected ruler of the Gaza Strip.....

Israel has recently stepped up saber-rattling against the Palestinians in Gaza, with Israeli planes dropping thousands of leaflets across Gaza in December, urging Gazans against cooperating with the resistance fighters based in the region, and threatening a new attack."

Death of Jordanian agent in attack on American base has put quiet collaboration into the public domain

Ian Black, Middle East editor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 January 2010

"King Abdullah of Jordan looked suitably solemn at the funeral for Captain Sharif Ali bin Zeid, the intelligence officer killed in Afghanistan by his own agent-turned-suicide-bomber. But signs are the king has been badly discomfited by the unprecedented public exposure of his country's role working with the CIA.....

The late King Hussein was even reported to be on the CIA payroll, while his intimate relations with successive British governments have continued under his son. The Jordanian capital, Amman, served as a base for western intelligence operations against Iraq during the long years of sanctions against Saddam Hussein.....

Jordan's General Intelligence Department (GID) – universally known as the Mukhabarat – is admired by professionals and is sometimes compared to Israel's Mossad secret service. Having its own website provides a veneer of modernity but it has a reputation for ruthlessness that has brought harsh criticism from human rights groups. It plays a key role monitoring Jordan's domestic politics....

"The CIA connection … has now been put out in the public sphere for all to see – especially the Arab street," wrote one Jordanian blogger. "The Jordanian government will likely go on as if nothing ever happened, believing that Jordanians have no access to information, but [as] practically every Jordanian household has al-Jazeera and a million other channels, this is one piece of information that isn't going to be kept quiet."....."

Kingdom's intelligence service was 'running' al-Qaida triple agent who killed seven CIA officers and his own handler

Ian Black, Middle East editor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 January 2010

"Jordan is showing signs of deep embarrassment at revelations about the role of its intelligence service in "running" the al-Qaida triple agent who killed seven CIA officers and his own handler in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan last week.

Last weekend, King Abdullah and his wife Rania attended the funeral of Captain Ali bin Zeid, the case officer for the Jordanian jihadi who blew himself up and triggered a huge row about the failures of US espionage operations.

But officials in Amman and the state-controlled media have refused to confirm details of the case as reported in the US media and by al-Jazeera....

CIA officers are stationed inside the Mukhabarat's Amman HQ. The discreet relations between the CIA and Jordan are familiar to intelligence aficionados but were not widely known – until now. "The CIA connection … has now been put out in the public sphere for all to see – especially the Arab street,"....."

Al-Jazeera

"At least one Egyptian border guard has been killed and 35 Palestinians wounded along the Gaza border during fierce clashes with Egyptian security forces.

A border protest on Wednesday turned violent over frustration that the aid convoy, Viva Palestina, had been delayed.

Egyptian forces opened fire to disperse stone-throwing protesters who had gathered on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, witnesses and medics said.

But Egyptian officials said the 21-year-old soldier was shot by gunfire from the Palestinian side.

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza, confirmed that people on both sides of the border opened fire during the clash......"

Protests in Israel and Egypt mark the first anniversary since Israel's attack on Gaza last winter

"Over the weekend, a march of thousands of Israelis through Tel Aviv marked the end of 10 days of protest in the region against the siege on Gaza. Activists in Cairo, the port of Al- Arish, Tel Aviv, the Northern border with Gaza, and in the Occupied Palestinian cities of Nablus, Ramallah, and Bethlehem brought global attention to the current situation and the effect of the ongoing closures on the Gaza strip."

By James Petras

"Historically Latin America has been of great importance to the United States on numerous counts: the region has in the past, provided the US with a trade surplus; its outflows of licit and ill-begotten funds to US banks, numbers annually in the tens of billions; the US has been, up to recently, the major trading partner in the region; Latin America has provided a lucrative outlet for US buyouts of oil, telecoms, banking and related strategic mining companies during the golden age of imperial pillage (1975 – 1999)......"

by Gareth Porter, January 06, 2010

"New revelations about two documents leaked to the Times of London to show that Iran is working on a "nuclear trigger" mechanism have further undermined the credibility of the document the newspaper had presented as evidence of a continuing Iranian nuclear weapons program.

A columnist for the Times has acknowledged that the two-page Persian language document published by the Times last month was not a photocopy of the original document but an expurgated and retyped version of the original.....

And after reviewing documentation submitted by Iran and verifying some of its assertions by inspection on the spot, the IAEA concluded in its Feb. 22, 2008, report that Iran’s explanation for Fakhrizadeh’s role in obtaining the items had been truthful after all......"

By Matt Dickinson, Press Association

"British members of a humanitarian convoy trying to take aid to Gaza were among dozens of people injured during clashes with Egyptian police, one of the activists said today.

Around 520 people were travelling with the 150 trucks full of supplies and clashes broke out last night at the port city of El Arish, near Gaza.

One of the members, Alexandra Lort-Phillips, 37, who works for Enfield Youth Offending Service in north London, said: "I have 42 people in my team, and out of those three Britons have been injured. There are head injuries, cuts.

"We started getting pelted with stones by people in plain clothes, then the police started moving in, using tear gas and batons.

"People were quite severely beaten."

She said seven or eight of the convoy members had to be treated in hospital, and blamed "heavy-handed" policing of their group....."

Activists and officers injured after some of the 198 trucks led by British MP George Galloway are stopped from crossing into strip

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 January 2010

"Egyptian security forces clashed today with a pro-Palestinian convoy led by the British MP George Galloway as it tried to deliver aid supplies into the Gaza Strip.

The convoy of 198 trucks and more than 500 supporters left London a month ago hoping to enter Gaza despite the Israeli economic blockade. The trucks are now at el-Arish, an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean, a few miles south of Gaza....

Egypt, too, has kept its one border crossing with Gaza, at Rafah, largely closed. Egyptian officials told the convoy some of their trucks could not pass through Rafah, but had to enter into southern Israel and then pass through an Israeli-controlled crossing into Gaza. There was no guarantee that the trucks would be allowed to enter the strip.

Galloway said that was unacceptable. "We refused this," he said. "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza. Because nothing that ever goes to Israel, ever arrives in Gaza."....."

FOCUS: OPINON

By Dr Hanan Chehata
(Dr Hanan Chehata is travelling with the Viva Palestina convoy. She is director of public relations at the Middle East Monitor (MEMO), London. Her blogs from the convoy can be read on www.memonitor.org.uk)
Al-Jazeera

"In an international effort to show solidarity with the Palestinian people, Viva Palestina (VP) volunteers from around the world have left their families and in some cases resigned from their jobs in order to take part in this humanitarian undertaking.

They have done this for no other reason than that they feel strongly about the crisis in Gaza. The images that they saw flash across their television screens during the assault on Gaza in 2008-9 has been seared into their minds.

It is sad that it took such a horrific tragedy to wake people up but one inevitable consequence of the Israeli attacks and their cruel blockade was certainly to educate the world as to the reality of the situation....

Cairo's complicity

While Egyptian government has been complicit for a very long time now, its wrongdoings have been of a secondary nature. However, somehow, recently Egyptian government is succeeding, much to Israel's delight, in diverting attention away from the Israelis.

This has primarily been done by their insistence on placing unreasonable obstacles in the path of the convoy....

The Egyptian government has been extremely uncooperative and have fought VP every step of the way. While VP has done their utmost to accede to their demands, the Egyptian authorities continued to place more onerous conditions which George Galloway, the British MPand VP leader, has said he is unwilling to undertake.

These include dealing with the Israeli government directly. Why should VP have to deal with Israel when the issue is about taking aid from one Arab country to another?.....

Role of villain

Egypt has had every opportunity to redeem and to recast itself in the role of the hero. Instead they have needlessly and voluntarily cast themselves in the role of villain.

I am half English and half Egyptian and used to be so proud of that fact but since Egypt have chosen to ally itself so unnecessarily and immorally with Israel, I feel a profound sense of shame......"

Al-Jazeera

"At least 55 people have been injured in clashes between Egyptian police and pro-Palestinian activists who were trying to deliver aid into the Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses say.

Some 520 activists broke down the gate at the port in El-Arish late on Tuesday in protest against an Egyptian decision to ship some of the goods through Israel [because Egypt has no sovereignty over the Sinai], medical workers and protesters said.

The protests were sparked by an Egyptian decision to allow 139 vehicles to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing, about 45km from the port in al-Arish, but requiring a remaining 59 vehicles to pass via Israel....."

CONVOY UPDATE: Tuesday, January 5th

Viva Palestina faced with 2,000 riot police in the port of Al-Arish!

"all friends of Palestine,

Our situation is now at a crisis point! Riot has broken out in the port of Al- Arish.

This late afternoon we were negotiating with a senior official from Cairo who left negotiations some two hours ago and did not return. Our negotiations with the official was regarding taking our aid vehicles into Gaza.

He left two hours ago and did not come back. Egyptian authorities called over 2,000 riot police who then moved towards our camp at the port.

We have now blocked the entrance to the port and we are now faced with riot police and water cannons and are determined to defend our vehicles and aid.

The Egyptian authorities have by their stubbornness and hostility towards the convoy, brought us to a crisis point.

We are now calling upon all friends of palestine to mount protests in person where possible, but by any means available to Egyptian representatives, consulates and Embassy's and demand that the convoy are allowed a safe passage into Gaza tomorrow!

Kevin Ovenden Viva Palestina Convoy Leader

The situation is changing by the hour and we are now calling for all of you to gather at Egyptian Embassies, consulates and interests today (Tuesday). It will be either to shame the Egyptian government for blocking the convoy further or to celebrate Viva Palestina entering Gaza and organising further solidarity.

Viva Palestina convoy will fight all the way to deliver the aid to Gaza!"

A VERY GOOD PIECE

ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN
January 6, 2010
The Sydney Morning Herald

"The 85-year-old Jewish, anti-Zionist, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein is a sturdy looking woman. Her slightly hunched frame hides the determination to continue a life-long dedication to social justice.

This week in Cairo she joined close to 1400 international delegates on the Gaza Freedom March (GFM), a project aimed at ending the suffocating blockade on Gaza. Epstein launched a hunger strike alongside about 50 others to highlight the human rights abuses in Palestine and Israeli and Egyptian collusion in the humanitarian crisis for the Strip's 1.5 million population.

GFM steering committee member Dr Haidar Eid, based in Gaza, said that the "deadly, hermitic siege" had only tightened after Israel's Operation Cast Lead in December 2008/January 2009.

Epstein told The Age that she refused to remain silent as a Jew when, "Israel was committing crimes against the Palestinian people. I often receive hate-mail from Jews over my public stance, being called a self-hating Jew and worse, but I ignore them.".....

The Egyptian regime blocked access for the mission, citing "security" concerns, and refused to grant entry visas to the assembled group. Cairo's position, undoubtedly backed by its masters the US and Israel, condemned most of the marchers as "hoodlums" and "criminals". In fact, many participants were the elderly and the religious and non-violent, Gandhian tactics were the central ideology.

I attended the week-long event, as a Jew, human being and journalist, and never heard any mention of incitement from the delegates. Instead, it was clear that Palestine had become a key concern for citizens across the globe, dismayed that the Western political elites continued to support Israeli aggression. The Jewish state's very legitimacy is being challenged like never before.....

On the last day of the GFM, after a handful of delegates were granted entry to Gaza, about 500 protested in Cairo's central Tahir square. The state's security forces dragged, kicked, punched and groped a number of us, causing a few broken ribs and bloody noses, but we stood firm for about five hours.

Participants wore T-shirts with the words, "The audacity of war crimes", "Boycott Israel" and "Free Gaza", the sheer range of countries represented and the backgrounds of those present reflecting the internationalisation of the Middle East conflict. "

This, most recent, poll asks:

Do you support building the separation wall between Egypt and Gaza?

With over 3,100 responding so far, 92% said no.

Alarmingly Close in Gaza

By NADIA HIJAB
CounterPunch

".....Alarmingly close is right. Here is how Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish legal scholar who pushed for the genocide convention, defined it in 1943:

"genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation.... It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups."

It is hard to conceive of a better description of what is going on in Gaza.

All UN member states have the duty to prevent and stop acts of genocide. What is needed is a country brave enough to take the lead, before it is too late."

Dana Elborno writing from Cairo, Live from Palestine, 4 January 2010

"Though I have lived most of my life in and around Chicago, it has never been my complete home. My sisters and I were born as first-generation Palestinian-Americans coming from Kuwait and for this reason our lives in Chicago always felt temporary -- we were only supposed to stay until the Gulf War was over.....

Though chanting, I felt broken -- we didn't get to Gaza, the siege continues and we had been publicly abused. Furthermore, the media focused on the 85 persons who went to Gaza, though they had disassociated themselves from Gaza Freedom March, and our efforts in Cairo became old news. I couldn't help but wonder, "What's it all worth?" Ultimately though, I realize that this is exactly how politics of activism can break a political activist and I won't let that happen. On a personal level, I fervently hope that someday the strangers on the streets of Gaza City will look familiar and my relatives in Gaza will no longer appear only in photographs -- but that isn't the priority. My priorities are political. The humanity of Palestinians in Gaza must be validated and this will never happen while Gaza is under siege. At this point, my sisters and I are in the third generation of activists to march, stand, sit and protest for Palestine. The persistence of Palestine as a humanitarian crisis can be wildly disheartening, but the persistence of the resistance movement is equally -- if not more so -- heartening. That's what it's all worth. The spirit of the resistance movement has not yet been broken, despite everything that has let us down or disappointed us. We are a people united for Palestine and we embrace this struggle. It is at times emotionally exhausting, but we aren't broken and we will break the siege of Gaza."

Viva Palestina

"Convoy ship has arrived in Egypt and all vehicles have passed through Egyptian cutomes. The volunteers will fly throughout the day to Al-Arish to join them. The latest flight will leave Syria at midnight tonight...."

By Daniel Ellsberg

"Editor’s Note: The Israeli government’s re-arrest of nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu just before New Year’s Eve represents another example of the double standard that pervades the U.S. news media’s treatment of nuclear proliferation issues.

While Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons brings casual talk of harsh sanctions or even war, Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal – one of the most sophisticated in the world – is politely danced around, and Vanunu’s persecution for having exposed it in the 1980s is treated as a legitimate act on behalf of Israel’s national security.

If the hypocrisy didn't exist, major U.S. newspapers would have followed Vanunu’s re-arrest with in-depth stories about Israel’s nuclear secrets, but instead the arrest was treated as an international "brief" with little context. The Israeli government’s muzzling of an important truth-teller also should have been a big story, as Daniel Ellsberg notes:

Mordechai Vanunu -- my friend, my hero, my brother -- has again been arrested in Israel on "suspicion" of the "crime" of "meeting with foreigners."

I myself have been complicit in this offense, traveling twice to Israel for the express purpose of meeting with him, openly, and expressing support for the actions for which he was imprisoned for over 18 years.

His offense has been to defy openly and repeatedly ,conditions put on his freedom of movement and associations and speech after he had served his full sentence, restrictions on his human rights which were a direct carry-over from the British Mandate, colonial regulations in clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights......"

فتوى فلسطينية معيبة بتأييد الجدار
رأي القدس

"يتواصل صدور الفتاوى عن مرجعيات اسلامية عليا تتمتع بثقل ديني وعلمي في مختلف انحاء العالم الاسلامي ضد الجدار الفولاذي الذي تعكف السلطات المصرية على انشائه على حدودها مع قطاع غزة، لاغلاق الانفاق شريان الحياة الرئيسي لاكثر من مليون ونصف المليون عربي ومسلم يعيشون تحت حصار ظالم منذ اكثر من عامين.
فبعد الفتاوى التي صدرت عن الشيخ يوسف القرضاوي المرجعية الاسلامية الأبرز في العالم، والعديد من العلماء السعوديين واللبنانيين والمصريين والاردنيين، التي حرّمت بناء هذا الجدار واعتبرته مخالفا للشرع والعقيدة، افتت هيئة دينية فلسطينية موالية لحركة المقاومة الاسلامية 'حماس' بحرمة الجدار. وقالت رابطة علماء المسلمين في بيان في ختام اجتماع دعت اليه وشارك فيه العشرات من الدعاة ورجال الدين وانعقد قرب المجلس التشريعي في مدينة غزة، انها تؤيد فتوى اتحاد علماء المسلمين العالمي ورئيسه الشيخ القرضاوي بتحريم بناء الجدار، واضافت 'ان الجدار حرام شرعا بل هو من الكبائر خاصة انه يتسبب في قتل شعب بأكمله، ولما فيه من تولي الكافرين'.
ومن المؤسف ان طرفين فقط شذا على اجماع العلماء المسلمين بخصوص الجدار، هما مجمع البحوث الذي يرأسه شيخ الأزهر، والسيد محمود الهباش وزير الاوقاف الفلسطيني الذي ايد موقف شيخ الأزهر، وقال 'ان مصر لها الحق في بناء الجدار الحدودي الفولاذي'. ونقلت وكالة انباء الشرق الاوسط المصرية الرسمية عنه قوله 'من حق مصر ان تتخذ من الاجراءات ما تراه مناسبا لضمان امنها وحماية حدودها وتنفيذ القانون في اراضيها'.
وهذا الموقف من السيد الهباش ليس غريبا ولا مفاجئا، فهو يردد بصوت اعلى ما قاله رئيسه محمود عباس، ويكشف عن تواطؤ سافر مع عمليات تجويع ابناء شعبه في قطاع غزة.
السيد الهباش اتهم الفتاوى التي ادانت بناء الجدار الفولاذي وحرمته وطالبت بوقفه بأنها فتاوى سياسية، ونسي ان فتواه هذه ليست سياسية فقط، وانما تعبر عن طعنة في ظهر مليون ونصف المليون فلسطيني يفتقرون الى ابسط انواع الحياة، ومحرومين من الطعام والمأوى والدواء بفعل الحصار المفروض عليهم، ليأتي السيد الهباش ليؤيد قطع شريان الحياة الوحيد الباقي لهم وهو الأنفاق الحدودية نفاقا للحكومة المصرية واستجداء لرضاها عليه والسلطة التي يمثلها.
وكان المأمول من السيد الهباش ان يصمت، وهذا اضعف الايمان وان يترك الفتاوى السياسية للرئيس عباس والمتحدثين باسم السلطة وما اكثرهم، لا ان يسيء الى المنصب الديني الذي يتولاه بهذه الطريقة المهينة.
الجدار الفولاذي يشكل جريمة حرب ضد الشعب الفلسطيني تعتبر اكثر قساوة من نظيراتها الاسرائيلية لأن من يبني هذا الجدار تنفيذا لاتفاقات امريكية ـ اسرائيلية هو من ذوي القربى الذي تحتم عليه الاعراف الدينية والخلقية ان يقف الى جانب المظلومين المحاصرين من ابناء عقيدته وأمته، في وجه الظالمين المتغطرسين المتعطشين للقتل والتدمير والتجويع.
الحسنة الوحيدة لهذا الجدار الكريه البشع تكمن في احداثه لفرز واضح بين وعاظ السلاطين مثل شيخ الازهر ووزير الاوقاف الفلسطيني، والعلماء الشرفاء الوطنيين الذين يتصدون للظلم واعوجاج الحكام دون ان ترهبهم ادواتهم القمعية، ودون ان تغريهم عطاياهم المسمومة.
الشعب الفلسطيني في مختلف انحاء العالم، وقطاع غزة بالذات سيظل يذكر لهؤلاء العلماء الشرفاء وعلى رأسهم الشيخ الكبير يوسف القرضاوي فتواه الشجاعة هذه، مثلما سيقدر مواقف واعتصامات كل الشرفاء الآخرين من العلماء المسلمين، خاصة في مصر، الذين تظاهروا ضد هذا الجدار الذي يشكل بناؤه عارا على كل من يؤيده او يشارك في بنائه.
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If the US blunders into Yemen the whole region could suffer unintended consequences, from Israel to the Horn of Africa

Simon Tisdall
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 January 2010

"It's unclear as yet what level of increased intervention in Yemen Barack Obama is contemplating – but that there will be heightened US involvement there for the foreseeable future is beyond doubt. Trouble is, Yemen cannot be treated in isolation. Obama's bid to secure southern Arabia under his banner risks a destabilisation of the wider region akin to what ensued after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama is many things; but TE Lawrence he ain't...."

Maj Gen Michael Flynn says work of US intelligence agencies in Afghanistan only 'marginally relevant' to overall mission

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 January 2010

"The top US military intelligence officer in Afghanistan has sharply criticised the work of US intelligence agencies in the country, saying they were only "marginally relevant" to the overall mission.

In a stinging assessment of US intelligence work in Afghanistan, Major General Michael Flynn wrote: "The vast intelligence apparatus is unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which US and allied forces operate and the people they seek to persuade."

The report continued: "US intelligence officers and analysts can do little but shrug in response to high-level decision makers seeking the knowledge, analysis and information they need to wage a successful counterinsurgency."

The 26-page report (pdf), released yesterday by the Centre for a New American Security thinktank in Washington, recommends sweeping changes to focus the intelligence community less on the enemy and more on the Afghan people. It comes less than a week after seven CIA employees died in a suicide attack....."