Bloody Fashion Show

Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com

المؤقت الدائم .. تصفية القضية دون إعلان

ياسر الزعاترة

منذ قرار شارون بالانسحاب من قطاع غزة عام 2003، ونحن نكتب عن الحل الانتقالي بعيد المدى الذي اخترعه شارون نفسه قبل ثلاث سنوات من ذلك التاريخ، وقبل أن يتسلم الحكومة لاحقا. وخلاصة ذلك الطرح الذي بلوره بعد فشل قمة كامب ديفيد صيف العام 2000، هو أن التوصل إلى اتفاق مع الفلسطينيين يشمل قضايا ما يسمى الوضع النهائي سيكون مستحيلا، وهم لن يقبلوا بالأطروحات الإسرائيلية، والحل تبعا لذلك هو استدراجهم إلى اتفاق انتقالي لن يلبث أن يتحول إلى دائم (ربما مع تعديلات طفيفة) في ظل استحالة العودة إلى الوراء، بعد أن تكون الدولة قد اكتملت من الناحية العملية. على خلفية برنامجه (الحل الانتقالي)، انسحب شارون من قطاع غزة الذي ينبغي أن ينضم إلى الحل الانتقالي (أوسلو كان اسمه الأول هو اتفاق غزة-أريحا)، وكان يريد نقل التجربة إلى الضفة الغربية بالتدريج (قبل أن يعاجله الموت الدماغي). ولهذا الغرض قام شارون باغتيال قادة حماس الكبار (الشيخ ياسين والرنتيسي)، ثم أتبعهم بياسر عرفات، وهيّأ الأجواء لنقل السلطة إلى أناس لن يكون لديهم مانع في المضي في هذا البرنامج ما داموا يرون الحفاظ على سلطة أوسلو، ويرفضون الكفاح المسلح، بل الانتفاضة الشعبية الشاملة أيضا. "من أجل تمرير الحل الانتقالي قام شارون باغتيال قادة حماس الكبار (الشيخ ياسين والرنتيسي)، ثم أتبعهم بياسر عرفات، وهيّأ الأجواء لنقل السلطة لأناس لن يكون لديهم مانع في المضي في هذا البرنامج ما داموا يرون الحفاظ على سلطة أوسلو، ويرفضون الكفاح المسلح، بل الانتفاضة الشعبية الشاملة أيضا " من يعتقد أن مشروع "الحل الانتقالي" قد توقف بعد اغتيال ياسر عرفات يبدو واهما، فقد كان ينضج بالتدريج بعد أن أصبح موضع إجماع في الساحة السياسية الإسرائيلية، وذلك عبر إعادة الوضع تدريجيا إلى ما كان عليه قبل انتفاضة الأقصى نهاية أيلول/تموز من العام 2000.  كانت مسيرته تنضج بوضوح أمنيا عبر مشروع دايتون و"الفلسطيني الجديد"، واقتصاديا عبر مشروع بلير، الذي شغل الناس بالمال والأعمال، ووربّط كبار رموز السلطة في هذا المضمار حتى أصبح بعضهم ومن يرتبطون بهم يملكون عشرات الملايين، بعد أن كانوا مجرد موظفين حين رحل ياسر عرفات. نعم، كان المشروع ينضج بالتدريج في السياق المشار إليه، مع وضع السلطة ومنظمة التحرير وفتح، تحت إمرة القيادة إياها، إلى جانب توريط حماس في دخول الانتخابات، ومن ثم حشرها في قطاع غزة، وتكريس حالة العداء بينها وبين حركة فتح، ودفع الأخيرة إلى حضن عباس بالكامل دون اعتراض على خطه السياسي. اليوم، تبلغ مسيرة "الحل الانتقالي" نهاياتها، وهي توشك أن تعلن عن نفسها بشكل واضح، بدون أن يعني ذلك أنها ستنتهي أثناء شهر أو شهور قليلة، لاسيما أن قادة السلطة ما زالوا يصرخون ليل نهار بأنهم لن يقبلوا الحل المؤقت، وأنهم مصرون على حل نهائي، لكنهم لن يجدوا بدا مما ليس منه بد، في ظل ضغط أميركي كبير، وفي ظل مخاوف يشتركون فيها مع الأميركيين وقادة الاحتلال تتعلق بانتفاضة جديدة في الضفة الغربية يمكن أن تنسف، وأقله تهدد كل ما "بنوه" أثناء السنوات العشر الماضية. ولا ننسى أن مشروع الحصول على دولة بعضوية مراقب في الأمم المتحدة لم يكن سوى جزء لا يتجزأ من هذا المشروع الذي سينتهي دون شك بعضوية كاملة، والنتيجة هي أن دولة الجدار الأمني، مستباحة السيادة ستغدو في حالة نزاع حدودي مع جارتها لا أكثر ولا أقل. نستعيد ذلك كله بين يدي الجولات المتوالية لوزير الخارجية الأميركي جون كيري في المنطقة، وبين يدي مشروعه الأخير الذي يركز على البعد الأمني في الصراع، بدون أن يطرح أية أسئلة تتعلق بالقضايا الكبرى التي تعيق المفاوضات، وفي مقدمتها القدس التي أفشلت قمة كامب ديفيد 2000، وليس من بينها قضية اللاجئين التي استسلم قادة السلطة لنسخها من مطالبهم، وإن واصلوا الحديث عنها بين حين وآخر. يعلم كيري أن نتنياهو لن يعرض على عباس ما سبق أن عرضه باراك وكلينتون على السلطة في كامب ديفيد، ما يجعل الحديث عن اتفاق نهائي عبثيا إلى حد كبير، فيما يعلم أن انفجار انتفاضة في الضفة الغربية، لن يهدد الأمن الإسرائيلي وحسب، بل سينسف الكثير من الجهد الذي بذله، وإدارته مع إيران، وربما في سوريا لاحقا. والنتيجة أنه لا بد من الاتفاق المرحلي بأي ثمن، وأقله الحديث المتواصل عنه إلى حين نضجه تماما، وبالطبع حتى يستمر تسويق الوهم على الشعب الفلسطيني بأن هناك ما ينتظره في زمن ما. من هنا بدأ كيري بطرح القضايا الأمنية، وتجاوز القضايا السياسية الكبرى، وهنا أيضا وجد نفسه في صدام مع المطالب الإسرائيلية، رغم مجاملته السافرة لها. لكن النتيجة أن تمرير هذا الوضع على الطرفين لا يبدو مستحيلا، مع تغيير في التفاصيل التي لا تخرج عن تكريس الدولة المؤقتة في حدود الجدار مع بقاء السيطرة الإسرائيلية على الغور (والمعبر بالضرورة)، ووجود محطات إنذار مبكر في الضفة، وسيطرة على الأجواء أيضا. في الأثناء تحدث أوباما عن "اتفاق إطار" يتطرق إلى قضايا الوضع النهائي كقضايا مؤجلة، حتى يكون بوسع قيادة السلطة أن تقول للناس إنها لم تتنازل عن "الثوابت"، فيما هي تفعل ذلك دون أدنى شك، وهي في النهاية ستقبل بالمؤقت، لأنه لا بديل أمامها في حال الرفض غير الانتفاضة التي ترفضها بشكل حاسم. "لولا الأجواء الحالية لما كان بالإمكان توقيع الاتفاق المائي الثلاثي بين إسرائيل والأردن والسلطة الفلسطينية دون اعتراض من أحد، فضلا عن الانشغال بالحديث عن الأبعاد الأمنية، فيما يصرخ نتنياهو ليل نهار بأن القدس الموحدة هي عاصمة الدولة الفلسطينية " وحين توقّع السلطة مع الكيان الصهيوني والأردن على اتفاق مائي طويل المدى يربط بين البحر الأحمر والبحر الميت، فهذا يعني أنها تسحب من عقلها أي صدام مقبل مع الطرف الإسرائيلي. وفي السياق، نقل عن وزير المياه في السلطة عبارة بالغة الأهمية تعكس هذا البعد، حين قال عن الاتفاق الثلاثي "أظهرنا أننا نستطيع العمل معا رغم مشاكلنا السياسية"، والنتيجة أنها مجرد مشاكل لا أكثر، والمشاكل تسوى بين الدول عبر الأطر التفاوضية، لاسيما أن الدولة المؤقتة لن تلبث أن تحصل على عضوية كاملة في الأمم المتحدة.   هنا تتبدى الخطورة الكبيرة التي تنطوي عليها المفاوضات القائمة حاليا برعاية أميركية، والتي تهدد مستقبل القضية برمتها، ما يفرض على شرفاء الساحة الفلسطينية أن يتوحدوا ضمن إطار جبهة تواجه هذا العبث، وتقلب الطاولة في وجهه، وأعني هنا الجميع في الداخل والخارج، الأمر الذي يمكن أن يستقطب لاحقا شرفاء في حركة فتح ممن يمكن أن يتمردوا على منطق القبيلة، ويخرجوا من أسر المناكفة والعداء لحركة حماس. ما يجري بالغ الخطورة ويهدد بتصفية القضية برمتها، وإذا لم يتوحد جميع الشرفاء فلسطينيا، بل وعربيا، فإن ثمة أجواء في المنطقة تساعد على تمرير مشروع من هذا النوع، وهي أجواء لولاها لما كان بالإمكان توقيع الاتفاق المائي الثلاثي المشار إليه دون اعتراض من أحد، فضلا عن الانشغال بالحديث عن الأبعاد الأمنية، فيما يصرخ نتنياهو ليل نهار بأن القدس الموحدة هي عاصمة الدولة الفلسطينية، وفيما يتذكر الجميع وثائق التفاوض الشهير وما انطوت عليها من تنازلات في القضايا الحساسة لم تشبع شهية الصهاينة "المعتدلين"، فضلا عن أن تشبع شهية المتطرفين من أمثال نتنياهو وليبرمان. بقي القول، إن الأمل معقود على الشعب الفلسطيني الأبي الذي عودنا على اجتراح المعجزات، ذلك أن تفجير انتفاضة شعبية تواجه العبث الجاري، ومن ضمن ذلك التهويد والاستيطان في الضفة والقدس، سيشكل المواجهة الكبرى والأكثر فعالية لمشروع تصفية القضية الذي يُطبخ حاليا

Former Bank of Israel Gov. Stanley Fischer Next Federal Vice Chairman

"December 13, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "Bloomberg" 

- Former Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer is President Barack Obama’s leading candidate to become vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, people familiar with the selection process said.

Fischer, 70, would replace Janet Yellen as the Fed’s No. 2 official, according to the people, who asked for anonymity because the decision isn’t final. There are no plans by the White House to announce the choice this week, one of the people said.

Obama has already offered the job to Fischer, who accepted it, according to another person familiar with the process. The person said the decision was made jointly by the president and Yellen, who is awaiting Senate confirmation to succeed Ben S. Bernanke as Fed chairman.

“I would expect Yellen and Fischer to work closely together and form a very potent team,” said Mark Gertler, a New York University economist who has coauthored research with Bernanke. “He has the ideal mix of qualities you would like in a central banker: wise, experienced and cool under pressure. His academic work was thoughtful and mainstream, where I’d expect him to be as a central banker.”

Dual Citizenship

Fischer, who holds both U.S. and Israeli citizenship and now lives in New York, stepped down as governor of the Bank of Israel on June 30, midway through his second five-year term. He was credited with helping his nation weather the global economic crisis better than most developed countries.

As Fed vice chairman, Fischer would take over a post that Yellen turned into a platform for promoting greater transparency at the central bank, including spelling out goals for inflation and unemployment.

Fischer has voiced skepticism about using so-called forward guidance to signal the Fed’s policy intentions as much as two years in advance.

“In general, it is very hard for us to forecast developments at such ranges,” Fischer said in a speech in June to a conference of the Israel Economic Association in Tel Aviv. He said the Fed seems to deliver forecasts on unemployment and interest rates “in an attempt to affect actual events. However, in my opinion, the central bank must tell the truth that comes out of its models and estimations.”

He added: “In any case, the Fed adopted a forward guidance policy and, until now, it has succeeded with it.”

Bernanke Hallmark

Fischer’s stance may raise some questions, said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York.

“The market seems to think that he is not in favor of forward guidance based on his prior comments, where forward guidance is the hallmark of the Bernanke Fed,” he said.

As a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fischer oversaw Bernanke’s thesis and also taught European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. Fischer credited each with helping to rescue the world economy and said in a June 13 interview with Bloomberg News in London that future students will study their policies.

“I’d like to be able to say all the things they are doing were from what they learned in lectures at MIT, but it wouldn’t be true,” Fischer said then. “From now on when we teach these courses, we’ll teach the lessons we’ve learned from Bernanke and Draghi.”

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Greg Mankiw, who headed President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, also studied under Fischer.

Summers, speaking at an IMF conference in honor of Fischer held last month, said having Fischer as a teacher “was a remarkable intellectual experience.”

No ‘Game’

“Stan never lost sight of the fact that this was not just an intellectual game,” Summers said. “He emphasized that getting these questions right made a profound difference in the lives of nations and their peoples.”

Fischer earned a reputation as a trailblazer as the first central banker to cut interest rates in 2008 at the start of the global economic crisis and the first to raise them the following year in response to signs of a financial recovery.

He also bought up foreign currency in unprecedented amounts to drive down the value of the shekel and boost exports, more than doubling reserves.

‘Quite Decisive’

“At the Bank of Israel he acted very aggressively off the bat when the crisis began to take hold,” said Drew Matus, senior economist at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, and a former analyst at the New York Fed. “He seems to be quite decisive.”

Among his innovations at the Bank of Israel was the shifting of responsibility for the monthly interest-rate decision from the governor alone to a six-member Monetary Committee, including three outside academics. He employed a Fed-style dual focus on employment and growth alongside price stability, where previous governors placed an emphasis on inflation.

“It is testament to Stan’s skillful handling of Israel’s economy that it is one of the very few advanced economies whose output increased every year through the crisis period,” former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said June 12.

Fischer’s resume also includes service at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and a stint as vice chairman of New York-based Citigroup Inc.

Fischer’s work has focused on “the intersection of international economics, financial crises and macroeconomics,” while Yellen’s has concentrated on “the intersection of labor and macro,” said Jonathan Wright, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who worked at the Fed’s division of monetary affairs from 2004 until 2008.

Policy Harmony

“But they would be on the same page as regards policy,” Wright said. “I think it would be the best possible leadership for the Fed.”

Fischer wouldn’t be the first central bank governor to change countries. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney was governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 until last June.

Fischer spent multiple periods at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he earned his Ph.D. in economics in 1969, joining the school’s faculty as an associate professor in 1973 and becoming an endowed professor in the early 1990s.

He was taught by future Nobel laureate economists Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow.

World Bank

From 1988 to 1990, Fischer was chief economist at the Washington-based World Bank. After returning to teaching at MIT, Fischer joined the IMF as deputy to Managing Director Michel Camdessus in 1994, working to resolve financial crises in Mexico, Russia and Southeast Asia. He left the IMF in 2001 and joined Citigroup as a vice chairman.

Born in 1943 in Zambia, then Northern Rhodesia, Fischer was a member of Habonim, a Zionist youth group, along with Rhoda Keet, his future wife. In the early 1960s, he spent six months on a kibbutz on Israel’s Mediterranean coastal plain, where he combined learning Hebrew with manual labor, picking and planting bananas.

In 2005, Fischer accepted Israel’s offer to head its central bank, and became an Israeli citizen, one of the job requirements.

Al-Jazeera Video: الأمطار تُغرق أحياء كاملة في مدينة غزة

Arafat's Death by Khalil Bendib

In South Africa, Abbas opposes boycott of Israel

By Ali Abunimah

"Mahmoud Abbas, de facto leader of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, has made his clearest statement in opposition to the global campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

His comments have drawn strong condemnation from Palestinian and South African activists.

It has also emerged that South Africa’s chief rabbi, who spoke at Nelson Mandela’s memorial, is a committed supporter of Israel’s colonization of occupied land, a denier of its abuses of Palestinian rights and lived in a radical Israeli settlement.

Abbas opposes BDS

boycottisraelartricle.jpg

“No we do not support the boycott of Israel,” Mahmoud Abbas said at a press conference in South Africa, which he has been visiting to attend the Mandela memorial, The Starnewspaper reported on 11 December.¹

“But we ask everyone to boycott the products of the settlements. Because the settlements are in our territories. It is illegal. … But we don’t ask anyone to boycott Israel itself. We have relations with Israel, we have mutual recognition of Israel.”

It is unclear what Abbas meant by “mutual recognition.” While Abbas and the Palestine Liberation Organization have recognized Israel, Israel does not recognize a Palestinian state or indeed any Palestinian rights whatsoever and continues to aggressively steal Palestinian land.

“Oblivious” to Palestinian struggle

Abbas’ comments conflict “with the Palestinian national consensus that has strongly supported BDS against Israel since 2005,” Omar Barghouti told The Electronic Intifada.

A founder of the BDS movement, Barghouti emphasized that he was commenting in a personal capacity.

“There is no Palestinian political party, trade union, NGO [nongovernmental organization] network or mass organization that does not strongly support BDS. Any Palestinian official who lacks a democratic mandate and any real public support, therefore, cannot claim to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people when it comes to deciding our strategies of resistance to Israel’s regime of occupation, colonization and apartheid,” Barghouti said.

The Palestinian civil call for BDS urges “people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era” and does not limit such campaigns only to settlement goods.

“Any Palestinian official who today explicitly speaks against boycotting Israel – particularly in a country like South Africa, where the ruling party, leading trade unions, churches and other civil society groups have warmly endorsed BDS – only shows how aloof he is from his own people’s aspirations for freedom, justice and equality, and how oblivious he is to our struggle for their inalienable rights,” Barghouti added.

Israel and its lobby in South Africa will be particularly pleased to hear Abbas’ comments, which come just weeks after South Africa’s foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabanesaid that her country was reducing its ties with Israel.

Akin to Bantustan leaders

Salim Vally, spokesperson of the Palestine Solidarity Committee in South Africa, told The Electronic Intifada that Abbas’ comments were “shocking” and represented an “attack on the global solidarity movement.”

Abbas’ words were “akin to what our erstwhile bantustan leaders would have said and this has the potential of undoing much of the work of the solidarity movement which is supported by the vast majority of South Africans,” Vally added.

Bantustans were nominally independent “states” set up by the apartheid regime with subservient leaders to disguise and legitimize apartheid. “Mandela and his movement fought against the Bantustan leaders all their careers,” Vally said.

Undermining Palestinian struggle

This is not the first time Abbas and the Palestinian Authority have sought to undermine the increasingly high-profile BDS movement.

In 2010, the PA launched a short-lived campaign urging Palestinians to boycott settlement goods. While welcomed by many, as I wrote at the time, its true purpose appeared to be to undermine the broader BDS movement.

Abbas himself took part in that campaign while urging trade with Israel. “We are not boycotting Israel, because we have agreements and imports from it,” he said.

Trade with Israel directly benefits Palestinian elites and the Palestinian Authority, which is entirely reliant on Israeli goodwill.

A now-defunct PA website supposedly meant to encourage the boycott of settlement goods even stated that “Regarding trade with Israel, the Palestinian Ministry of Economy confirms continuing its cooperation as it was agreed at the [1994] Paris summit.”

The Abbas-led PA is deeply entrenched in the Israeli occupation and relies on Israel for weapons to use in its crackdown against any form of Palestinian resistance.

As recently as October, Abbas boasted about the work PA security forces have done on behalf of the Israeli occupation army.

“The Palestinian Authority has achieved 100 percent success rate at security coordination with Israel,” Abbas said.

Abbas has also been leading a tenacious campaign against the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Refugee rights are a key pillar of the BDS call.

South Africa’s Chief (settler) Rabbi

This week, South African chief rabbi Warren Goldstein was one of the official speakers at the public memorial service for former President Nelson Mandela, lauding the late freedom fighter’s “mighty power of forgiveness.”

Goldstein, it turns out, earned his education at a radical religious school in an Israeli settlement on occupied Palestinian land. He “is a graduate of the Beth El Yeshiva, the organization that founded and maintains Arutz Sheva.”

Arutz Sheva, which reported this, is a far-right pro-settler and anti-Palestinian media organization.

Beit El is a colony near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The Beit El Yeshiva (alternatively spelled Beth El) was founded in 1977 by radical Jewish settlers from the Mercaz Harav religious school in Jerusalem.

“The foundations for the religious settlements in the West Bank were forged in Mercaz Harav,” according to Haaretz and it was from there that the earliest settlers to colonize the occupied territories set out after the 1967 war.

The Beit El Yeshiva was established with the support of the Israeli occupation army which provided housing for the settlers on one of its bases.

Last Saturday, Palestinian schoolboy Wajih Wajdi al-Ramahi, 14, was shot dead by an Israeli sniper. According to the boy’s father, the shots that killed his son were fired from a Beit El watchtower overlooking the adjacent Jalazone refugee camp where the family lives.

Occupation denier

In keeping with the Beit El Yeshiva’s extreme teachings, Goldstein himself has taken strongly anti-Palestinian positions. He even denies the occupation.

“The … untruth is the accusation of illegal occupation of Arab land,” Golstein wrote in aletter to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Calling South African Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim “unfit to hold public office,” Goldstein demanded he resign over the South African government’s support for Palestinian rights.

Goldstein even accused Ebrahim of “apartheid-style control of information and censorship” for calling on South Africans to avoid visiting Israel due to its ongoing human rights abuses.

In a recent interview, Goldstein called any comparison between Israel and its occupation on the one hand, and apartheid South Africa on the other, a “modern blood libel.”

Baleka Mbete, national chairperson of the African National Congress and master of ceremonies at the Mandela memorial, would disagree.

Last year she declared that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians was “far worse than apartheid South Africa.”"

Assad win may be Syria's 'best option'

AFP

"Washington — The sectarian bloodbath in Syria is such a threat to regional security that a victory for Bashar al-Assad's regime could be the best outcome to hope for, a former CIA chief said.

Washington condemned Assad's conduct of the conflict, threatened air strikes after he was accused of targeting civilians with chemical weapons and has demanded he step down.

The United States is also supplying millions of dollars in "non-lethal" aid to some of the rebel groups fighting Assad's rule.

But Michael Hayden, the retired US Air Force general who until 2009 was head of the Central Intelligence Agency, said a rebel win was not one of the three possible outcomes he foresees for the conflict.

"Option three is Assad wins," Hayden told the annual Jamestown Foundation conference of terror experts.

"And I must tell you at the moment, as ugly as it sounds, I'm kind of trending toward option three as the best out of three very, very ugly possible outcomes," he said.

The first possible outcome he cited was for ongoing conflict between ever more extreme Sunni and Shiite factions.

The rebel groups are dominated by Sunni Muslims, while Assad is generally backed by Syria's Alawite, Shiite and Christian minorities.

And the second outcome, which Hayden deemed the most likely, was the "dissolution of Syria" and the end of a single state within the borders defined by a 1916 treaty between the French and British empires.

"It means the end of the Sykes-Picot (Agreement), it sets in motion the dissolution of all the artificial states created after World War I," he said.

The British diplomat Mark Sykes and a French counterpart Francois Georges Picot divided the Middle East into zones of influence that later served as the frontiers of independent Arab states.

A breakdown in the century-old settlement could spread chaos in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, Hayden warned.

"I greatly fear the dissolution of the state. A de facto dissolution of Sykes-Picot," Hayden said.

"And now we have a new ungoverned space, at the crossroads of the civilization.

"The dominant story going on in Syria is a Sunni fundamentalist takeover of a significant part of the Middle East geography, the explosion of the Syrian state and of the Levant as we know it."

Fighting erupted in Syria in early 2011, when Assad launched a crackdown on pro-democracy protests and has since evolved into a full-blown civil war that has claimed an estimated 126,000 lives.

Assad, backed by Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, is locked in combat with a diverse group of Sunni rebel factions which are increasingly dominated by hardline jihadist groups."

Dispatches: Syria–Abducting the Messenger

• 
  Syrian lawyer Razan Zaitouna.
  © 2011 Reuters

Tamara Alrifai

"“They took Razan,” blinked the text message from my friend in Beirut. She meant that Razan Zeitouneh and three of her colleagues, all human rights defenders working at the Violations Documentation Center (VDC) in rural Damascus, had beenkidnapped. I was shocked.

Razan Zeitouneh, her husband Wael Hamada, Samira Khalil, and Nazem Hammadi had been documenting abuses by all sides in Syria, at the VDC, which Razan founded. She also co-founded the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a network of civilian local groups that organizes and reports on protests, and the Local Development and Small Projects Support Office (LDSPS), which aims to help provide basic needs and support medical centers. Her work attracted the wrath – and threats – from both the government and opposition groups alike.

“I would rather not be nominated,” Razan told us a few months ago, when Human Rights Watch wanted to nominate her for our Human Rights Defenders Prize. “I am just one of many Syrians who believe that anyone committing an abuse must be held accountable.” Often referred to as the “icon of the Syrian uprising,” she nonetheless blushed and explained that she did not deserve to be singled out.

The VDC office is in Douma, an area in the suburbs of Damascus under the control of a number of armed opposition groups. A joint statement by the VDC and the LDSPS said that “an unknown armed group” had stormed into the office, confiscated laptops and documents, and kidnapped the defenders.

This incident is not just about the distressing kidnapping of four prominent human rights defenders. It is about challenging armed groups in Syria about their motivations: what are they fighting for? What do they want to achieve? This is just the latest example of an outrageous abuse by an armed group fighting in the name of the Syrian revolution, but who have managed to alienate many Syrians, leaving them feeling totally abandoned.  

The detention of Razan and her colleagues is a crime. Whoever kidnapped them immediately should release them unharmed. Official representatives of the Syrian opposition, the Syrian National Coalition and the Supreme Military Council should urgently press for their release.

I can almost hear Razan say, in her soft shy voice: “such an act will not stop other Syrians from documenting what they witness, nor will it muzzle human rights defenders.” Just like the arbitrary detention of so many peaceful activists by the Syrian government did not stop Razan and her colleagues from defending human rights."

Real News Video: One State or Two, Solution Must be Based on Palestinian Rights - Phyllis Bennis on RAI pt4

On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, Phyllis Bennis examines proposals to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict

Fortress Europe: Syrian refugee shame exposed

"European leaders should hang their heads in shame over the pitifully low numbers of refugees from Syria they are prepared to resettle, said Amnesty International. 

In a briefing published today, An international failure: The Syrian refugee crisis, the organization details how European Union (EU) member states have only offered to open their doors to around 12,000 of the most vulnerable refugees from Syria: just 0.5 per cent of the 2.3 million people who have fled the country. 

“The EU has miserably failed to play its part in providing a safe haven to the refugees who have lost all but their lives. The number of those it’s prepared to resettle is truly pitiful. Across the board European leaders should hang their heads in shame,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International. 

The closest European capital - Nicosia - lies a mere 200 miles from Damascus. Yet collectively, EU member states have pledged to resettle just a very small proportion of Syria’s most vulnerable refugees. Amnesty International’s briefing breaks down the figures. 

• Only 10 EU member states offered resettlement or humanitarian admission places to refugees from Syria.
• Germany is by far the most generous – pledging to take 10,000 refugees or 80 per cent of total EU pledges.
• Excluding Germany, the remaining 27 EU member states have offered to take a mere 2,340 refugees from Syria.
• France offered just 500 places or 0.02 per cent of the total number of people who have fled Syria.
• Spain agreed to take just 30 or 0.001 per cent of refugees from Syria.
• Eighteen EU member states – including the UK and Italy – offered no places at all.

As winter approaches, conditions for the 2.2 million people who have fled Syria to neighbouring countries are deteriorating rapidly.

With only 12,000 places offered by EU member states for resettlement or humanitarian admission, others attempt the journey under their own steam. Tens of thousands have reached Europe trying to claim asylum having risked life and limb in arduous journeys, on boats or across land.

Amnesty International’s research reveals that first they have to break through the barricades of Fortress Europe. Many are faced with violent push-backs by police and coastguards, or detained for weeks in deplorable conditions.

The journey to Italy by sea
Hundreds of people die attempting to cross the Mediterranean every year. In October it is estimated that as many as 650 refugees and migrants died when three boats sank attempting to reach Europe from North Africa.

More than 10,000 refugees from Syria are reported to have arrived along Italy’s coast in the first 10 months of this year.

Amnesty International’s briefing gives first-hand accounts of those who have attempted to reach Europe by sea.

Awad, a 17-year-old boy from Damascus, described how he managed to escape through a window of a sinking boat and swim to the surface. There were reportedly 400 people on board. He saw people clinging to dead bodies and boat wreckage to stay afloat, while others fought over life jackets. Awad lost his mother as well as other family members.
 
“I have no idea where my family are… I used to have ambition but now I have lost my mother, I don't want anything, I just want stability, everything else is second to that.”

Another boy from Syria lost both his father and nine-year-old brother in the accident.

“My experience didn’t just destroy my dreams; it destroyed my family’s dreams. I am destroyed completely.”

Fortress Europe
In two of the main gateways to the EU, Bulgaria and Greece, refugees from Syria are met with deplorable treatment, including life threatening push-back operations along the Greek coast, and detention for weeks in poor conditions in Bulgaria.

Greece: pushed back into the sea
Refugees have told Amnesty International how Greek police or coastguards, wielding guns and wearing full face hoods, ill-treat them, strip them of their belongings and eventually push them back to Turkey.

A 32-year-old man from Syria described how he and his mother were confronted by the Greek coastguard near the island of Samos in October. They were part of a group of 35 people including women and young children pushed back to Turkey.

“They put all the men lying on the boat; they stepped on us and hit us with their weapons for three hours. Then at around 10 in the morning, after removing the motor, they put us back to our plastic boat and drove us back to the Turkish waters and left us in the middle of the sea.’’

The number of unlawful push-back operations from Greece is not known; however, Amnesty International believes hundreds have been affected.

In the last two years the European Commission has provided €228 million to bolster border controls.

In comparison, for the same time period, just €12 million was allocated to Greece under the European Refugee Fund, which supports efforts in receiving refugees.

Bulgaria: detained and contained
In Bulgaria, an estimated 5,000 refugees from Syria arrived between January and November 2013. The majority are housed in emergency centres, the largest of which is in the town of Harmanli. It is effectively a closed detention centre.

Amnesty International found refugees living in squalid conditions in containers, a dilapidated building and in tents. There was a lack of adequate sanitary facilities with limited access to food, bedding or medicine.

A large number of people were in need of medical care, including some injured in conflict, individuals suffering chronic diseases and those with mental health problems.

Some of the refugees in Harmanli told Amnesty International that they had been detained for over a month.

“Tens of thousands are risking perilous journeys by boat or land to try and reach Europe. We have seen hundreds lose their lives in the Mediterranean. It is deplorable that many of those that who have risked life and limb to get here, are either forced back or detained in truly squalid conditions with insufficient food, water or medical care,” said Salil Shetty.

Europe must act
“The platitudes of Europe’s leaders ring hollow in the face of the evidence,” said Salil Shetty. “The EU must open its borders, provide safe passage, and halt these deplorable human rights violations.”

Just 55,000 Syrian refugees (2.4 per cent of the total number of people who have fled Syria) have managed to get through and claim asylum in the EU.

For those who manage to break through the barricades of Fortress Europe, many head for Sweden or Germany, which have offered the most help to asylum seekers. In the two years to the end of October 2013, Sweden has received 20,490 new Syrian asylum applications and Germany received 16,100 such applications. Less than 1,000 people have claimed asylum in each of Greece, Italy and Cyprus.

Amnesty International is calling on European member states to:

• Significantly increase the number of resettlement and humanitarian admission places for refugees from Syria;
• Strengthen search and rescue capacity in the Mediterranean to identify boats in distress and assist those on board;
• Ensure that those rescued are treated with dignity and have access to asylum procedures;
• Ensure that unlawful push-back operations are ended;
• Provide legal safe passage for Syrian asylum seekers wishing to travel to European member states.
• The EU, its member states, and the international community should continue to provide support to countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees, particularly Jordan and Lebanon."

مدير سابق لسي آي ايه: انتصار الأسد سيكون الافضل بين ثلاثة سيناريوهات مرعبه

المدير السابق لوكالة المخابرات المركزية الامريكية مايكل هايدن

واشنطن- (أ ف ب): اعتبر المدير السابق لوكالة المخابرات المركزية الامريكية (سي آي ايه) مايكل هايدن الخميس ان انتصار بشار الاسد في سوريا قد يكون “الافضل بين ثلاث سيناريوهات مرعبة جدا جدا” لا يتضمن اي منها انتصار المعارضة.

وفي كلمة امام المؤتمر السنوي السابع حول الارهاب الذي نظمه معهد جيمس تاون، اشار هايدن الذي كان مديرا لوكالة المخابرات المركزية الاميركية من 2006 الى 2009 ومديرا للوكالة الوطنية للمخابرات من 1999 الى 2005، الى ما يعتبره السيناريوهات الثلاثة الممكنة لتطور الوضع في سوريا موضحا انها جميعا “مخيفة بشكل رهيب”.

وقال ان احد الاحتمالات هو ان “ينتصر الاسد” وقال “يجب ان اقول لكم انه في حال تحقق هذا الامر وهو امر مخيف اكثر مما يظهر، اميل الى الاعتقاد بان هذا الخيار سيكون الافضل بين هذه السيناريوهات المرعبة جدا جدا لنهاية الصراع. الوضع يتحول كل دقيقة الى اكثر فظاعة”.

واعتبر مع ذلك ان المخرج الاكثر احتمالا حاليا هو ان اننا ذاهبون الى تفتت البلاد بين فصائل متخاصمة. وقال “هذا يعني ايضا نهاية سايكس-بيكو (الحدود التي رسمت في العام 1916 خلال الاتفاقات الفرنسية البريطانية). وهذا يؤدي الى تفتت دول وجدت بشكل اصطناعي في المنطقة بعد الحرب العالمية الاولى”.

واضاف “اخشى بقوة تفتت الدولة السورية. سوف يؤدي هذا الامر الى ولادة منطقة جديدة بدون حوكمة على تقاطع الحضارات”. واشار الى ان كل دول المنطقة وخصوصا لبنان والاردن والعراق سوف تتأثر بهذا الوضع.

واوضح “القصة هي ان ما يجري في هذا الوقت في سوريا هو سيطرة المتطرفين السنة على قسم كبير من جغرافيا الشرق الاوسط” مضيفا “هذا يعني انفجار الدولة السورية والشرق كما نحن نعرفه”.

وقال ايضا ان سيناريو اخر محتمل وهو استمرار المعارك الى ما لا نهاية “مع متطرفين سنة يحاربون متعصبين شيعية والعكس بالعكس. ان الكلفة الاخلاقية والانسانية لهذه الفرضية ستكون باهظة جدا”.

وختم مايكل هايدن بالقول “لا استطيع ان اتخيل سيناريو اكثر رعبا من الذي يجري حاليا في سوريا”.

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

Do Arab and Muslim countries provide sufficient support to the Syrian refugees?

So far, 98% of the respondents have voted no.

Air strike in Yemen kills 15 wedding guests mistaken for al-Qaida – officials

Security officials report wedding convoy in al-Bayda province hit by strike from what tribal and local sources say was US drone

• Reuters in Sana'a and Spencer Ackerman in Washington
• theguardian.com, Thursday 12 December 2013 14.32 EST

Officials report 15 wedding guests in the Yemen province of al-Bayda were hit by an air strike, believed to be a US drone. Photograph: Malcolm Harris / Alamy/Alamy

"Fifteen people on their way to a wedding in Yemen were killed in an air strike after their party was mistaken for an al-Qaida convoy, local security officials said on Thursday.

The officials did not identify the plane in the strike in central al-Bayda province, but tribal and local media sources said that it was a drone.

"An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, 10 people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital," one security official said.

Five more people were injured, the officials said.

The United States has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), regarded by Washington as the most active wing of the militant network.

Yemen, AQAP's main stronghold, is among a handful of countries where the United States acknowledges using drones, although it does not comment on the practice.

Human Rights Watch said in a detailed report in August that US missile strikes, including armed drone attacks, have killed dozens of civilians in Yemen.

Stabilising the country, which is also struggling with southern separatists and northern rebels, is an international priority due to fears of disorder in a state that flanks top oil producer Saudi Arabia and major shipping lanes.

On Monday, missiles fired from a US drone killed at least three people travelling in a car in eastern Yemen.

Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemeni activist who testified to the US Senate about the impact of the drone strikes earlier this year predicted the strike would drain Yemeni citizens' outrage over the recent attack on the defense ministry by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula that killed more than 50 people.

"The strike today literally saved AQAP's image and shorted by months the PR work would have needed to do," al-Muslimi said. "Nothing could have made Yemenis forget the horrible images of the attack in Sanaa more than the images of this current drone strike that targeted a wedding party."

The USA executive director of Amnesty International, Steven W Hawkins, urged the Obama administration to ditch its policy of not commenting on drone strikes. "US silence is unacceptable. Instead of hiding behind secrecy, the US needs to acknowledge and immediately commit to investigating all credible reports of potentially unlawful killings," he said in a prepared statement.

The United Nations special rapporteur on extra-judicial executions, Christof Heyns, vowed an inquiry into the incident, building on a year in which the UN has taken a far more active interest than ever in civilian deaths linked to drone strikes.

"If proven to be correct, this is very serious," Heyns said in a statement.

"I have to verify the facts before I can give further comments, and need to engage with the governments of the USA and Yemen to get their explanation of what appears to be a terrible event. But you can be sure I am following it very closely.""

From Azmi Bishara's Facebook Page

ثناء كتابة "سورية: درب الآلام نحو الحرية" حاولت أن أجد مثالا تاريخيا واحدا لنظام قصف مدن "بلده" بهذا الشكل الشامل والمنهجي، فلم أجد، حسبت أنني عثرت على شبيه بعيد في قصف فرانكو لبعض مدن إسبانيا أثناء الحرب الأهلية، فوجدتها مواقع قليلة قصفتها طائرات إلمانية جاءت لمساعدته. لا مثيل لهذا النظام في التاريخ، لا من حيث القسوة السادية ولا من حيث الرثاثة والغباء والاغتراب عن "بلده".
هي أفكار استعدتها عند رؤية حشود اللاجئين بلا سقف يأويهم من برد العاصفة الثلجية. وهي أفكار لا تدفّئ أحدا.

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Emad Hajjaj's Cartoon

Breaking News......
Today, No Arabs Were Killed in any Fight!

Liquidation of the Palestinian Cause While Most Palestinians are Snoring! خطة كيري تتسلل وسط عاصفة ثلجية والقدس العربي تنفرد بالتفاصيل: إسرائيل بالأغوار والخليج يمول تعويض العودة

جون كيري مع محمود عباس و أبو ردينة

رام ألله- القدس العربي: حصلت القدس العربي على تفاصيل مثيرة وخطيرة حملها معه وزير الخارجية الأمريكي جون كيري بعدما زار المنطقة في ظل عاصفة ثلجية قوية على أمل التمكن من إخفاء هذه التفاصيل لإنضاجها ووضع اللمسات الأخيرة عليها.

ويبدو أن رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي منح خطة كيري- كما تسميها مصادر القدس العربي موافقته الأولية، الأمر الذي عزز الإنطباع بقرب ولادة خطة أمريكية – دولية لإحداث تغيير جوهري في مسار القضية الفلسطينية.

ويبدو أن العاصمة الأردنية عمان بصورة تطورات اللحظات الأخيرة حيث تحادث العاهل الأردني الملك عبدلله الثاني مع الرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس ظهر الخميس وأبلغه بالتفاصيل.

وصدر عن عمان تصريح من الديوان الملكي الأردني عن حيثيات الإتصال الهاتفي دون التطرق للتفاصيل لكن التصريح أشار إلى أن الزعيمان إتفقا على دعم خطة ومشروع الوزير كيري وإسنادها.

ووصل كيري إلى الأراضي الفلسطينية في زيارته الثانية خلال أيام والتاسعة منذ توليه منصبه وبعد أسبوع فقط من زيارة أخرى.

وحمل كيري فيما يبدو معه اللمسات الأخيرة للاتفاق الجديد الذي بدأه في يوليو الماضي ليضعه في جيب رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية محمود عباس بعد أن باركه نتنياهو معدلا بالرتوش التي حملها مساعده إسحق مولخو لواشنطن.

ويستلهم الاتفاق المذكور- الذي حدد الفترة ما بين النصف الأخير من آذار والنصف الأول من نيسان القادمين موعداً للاحتفاء بإعلانه – معظم بنوده من نصوص اتفاق عباس بيلين الشهير المعد في العام 1995م، والتعديلات التي أجراها الكنيست الإسرائيلي عليه في حينه، إضافة إلى الرتوش الآخذة في الاعتبار مستجدات الثمانية عشر عاماً الأخيرة وأبرزها ما يتعلق بالحدود الأمنية لـ(إسرائيل) على امتداد نهر الأردن ، والاعتراف بيهودية الدولة، وشرعنة المستوطنات ذات الكثافة السكانية ، والمياه ، والحدود واللاجئين، والقدس.

وينوي كيري في هذه الزيارة الحصول على الضوء الأخضر النهائي الملزم للجانبين الفلسطيني والإسرائيلي حول اتفاق الاطار لحل المسائل الجوهرية الذي يحمله في جعبته تمهيداً للإعلان عن ذلك في غضون الأسابيع الثلاثة أو الأربعة المقبلة في بيان مشترك يصدره الطرفان خلال النصف الأول من الشهر القادم.

 ويفترض في البيان أن يعلن الطرفان التوصل إلى تفاهمات حول القضايا الجوهرية، بالتزامن مع انعقاد مؤتمر جنيف -2- الذي سيتوج بمقايضة ملفي (النووي الإيراني والشـأن السوري) والاتفاق الفلسطيني الإسرائيلي، ملمحاً إلى ضرورة أن يحمل معه من عباس ونتنياهو عند عودته “كلمة نعـــم” القاطعة بشأن القرارات المبدئية الصعبة والدراماتيكية حول خطة السلام الأمريكية.

وتتضمن الخطة المذكورة بقاء السيطرة الإسرائيلية على المواقع العسكرية الحالية في غور الأردن لعشر سنوات قابلة للتجديد، بدلا من العشرين سنة التي أعلن عنها سابقاً.

وإقامة محطات للإنذار المبكر على قمة جبل العاصور في الضفة الغربية وهو ثاني أعلى قمة بعد جبل الشيخ، واحتفاظ إسرائيل بحق الرفض والمساءلة بشأن أي دخول او عبور من خلال المعابر مع الأردن(وفق ما كانت قد تضمنته وثيقة عباس بيلين الشهيرة)،إضافة إلى تسيير دوريات مشتركة على طول نهر الأردن.

كما يتضمن الشق السياسي من الاتفاق نصاً التفافياً يعطي (إسرائيل) الحق في التسمية التي تشاؤها هي ل(دولتها) أسوة بغيرها من من كافة الدول، الأمر الذي يحمل اعترافاً ضمنيا بيهودية إسرائيل، واعتبار البلدة القديمة من مدينة القدس بجدودها المنصوص عليها في اتفاق عباس بيلين دولية، وامتداد مناطق السلطة الفلسطينية إلى مناطق (B) و (C) ، مع تبادل للأراضي المتفق عليها على جانبي الجدار العازل الذي يشكل الحدود الدائمة ما بين الدولتين.

كما يتضمن الاتفاق تجميد المشاريع الاستيطانية المتعلقة بعدد من البؤر المقرة من قبل الحكومة الإسرائيلية ولا ينطبق هذا الإجراء على المشاريع القائمة في التجمعات الاستيطانية الكبرى الواقعة في محيط مدينمة القدس وغور الأردن بما فيها مستوطنات معاليه أدوميم وزفعات جئيف وهارحوما وجيلو ونيفي يعقوف ورامات شلومو ورامات ألون وكريات أربع وكذلك المستوطنات ذات الكثافة السكانية.

وفيما يتعلق بموضوع اللاجئين، يتضمن الاتفاق أن يتم السماح لبعض العائلات الفلسطينية بجمع الشمل في الضفّة ورفح وغزّة، ويمنح اللاجئون حق التعويض أو الهجرة، بحيث تفتح الدول العربية خاصة الخليجية ذات التواجد الفلسطيني فيها أبوابها لتسهيل ذلك وإعادة تأهيلهم أو تجنيسهم مع مناشدة عدد من دول الخليج كالسعودية والإمارات العربية المتحدة والكويت وقطر تمويل صندوق “حق العودة المتعلق بذلك”