Let's end the siege, and talk

There is no way out of this nightmare until negotiations begin between all sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

By Lynne Segal
(a member of various groups working for peace in the Middle East, including Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (FFIPP-UK) and Jews for Justice for Palestinians)
The Guardian

"Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) celebrates its first year with its eyes on Gaza, demanding an end to the Israeli blockade and, on the uneven playing field of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an end to human rights abuses on both sides......

This calamity escalates because Israel, supported by US and EU boycotts, refuses to enter into any discussions with Gaza's elected representatives in Hamas, including their offers to negotiate an end to rocket attacks, instead kidnapping and imprisoning many of their elected members. Commenting on the strategic blindness of this stance, Middle Eastern scholars suggest that the rise of the more militant Hamas group in Gaza itself resulted in part from Israel's earlier intransigence towards Fatah, when it was the governing party in the Palestinian territories. With the world still refusing to act against the denial of the most basic human rights to Gazan civilians, now threatened with famine, facing constant power cuts, sewage collapse and the increasing pollution of available drinking water, some explosion was inevitable.

Overnight, Hamas militants blew up parts of the Israeli-installed concrete walls along the border with Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of people escaped years of imprisonment in Gaza, returning with food, fuel, medicines, and more: "It was like a dream," a young man told a US reporter, "suddenly we could travel again." Yet, even as goods pour into Gaza and excitement fills its streets, restoring battered pride and confidence, the worst effects of the siege continue. The infrastructure of the city has yet to be restored. Those in most urgent need are still dying unnecessarily, with the continuing absence of operational medical equipment, and other essential resources, combined with Israel's denial of legal permission to travel elsewhere......"

The war that can bring neither peace nor freedom

The crisis of the Afghan occupation is a reminder of its fraudulent claims, growing cost in blood, and certainty of failure

Seumas Milne
Tuesday February 5, 2008
The Guardian

"The Afghan war, you will remember, was supposed to be the "good war". Unlike the catastrophe of Iraq, from which most former cheerleaders still prefer to avert their eyes, Afghanistan was thought to be different. Senior British military figures might wince in private over their Basra humiliation, but would earnestly insist that they were fighting the good fight in Helmand "at the request of the elected Afghan government". Gordon Brown felt able to tell parliament only six weeks ago that "we are winning the battle in Afghanistan".

But in the wake of a string of reports that the country is fast becoming a failed state and a humanitarian disaster, as armed attacks on western troops and Afghan forces multiply and Nato splits down the middle over sending reinforcements, that looks ever more other-worldly. The US coordinator on Iraq, David Satterfield, even suggested last month that Iraq would turn out to be America's "good war", while Afghanistan was going "bad"......

The war in Afghanistan, which claimed more than 6,500 lives last year, cannot be won. It has brought neither peace, development nor freedom, and has no prospect of doing so. Instead of eradicating terror networks, it has spread and multiplied them. The US plans to send 3,000 more troops in April to reinforce its existing 25,000-strong contingent, and influential thinktanks in Washington are pressing for an Iraqi-style surge. But only a vastly greater deployment could even temporarily subdue the country, and that is not remotely in prospect. The only real chance for peace in Afghanistan is the withdrawal of foreign forces as part of a wider political settlement, including the Taliban and neighbouring countries like Iran and Pakistan. But having put their credibility on the line, it seems the western powers are going to have to learn the lessons of the colonial era again and again."

Iraq Death Toll by Latuff

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

'Humar, 'Humar, Bas A'ish.....
I Like Being Mounted......
By USrael.

Non-Zionist Jews blast Israel’s chief rabbi for racist remarks

From Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

"Neturei Karta, an international society representing non-Zionist Orthodox Jews, has blasted recent remarks by Yoni Metzger, Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, in which the rabbi called for the deportation of the people of Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai desert.

In a statement circulated to the press earlier this week, Neturei Karta called Metzger’s remarks “vicious and provocative.”.....

The group reasserted its ideological stand that the Zionist state of Israel lacked religious and moral legitimacy from the Orthodox Jewish perspective.

“The state of Israel is an illegitimate rouge regime whose very existence is leading the world to World War III. Palestinians have an inherent right, guaranteed under international and moral law, to return to their land in historic Palestine and to establish their independent state in the entire Holy Land, which was forcefully taken from them by the Zionists. Indeed, many Gazans are refugees who were expelled from other areas of Palestine by the Zionists ever since 1948.”.....

Neturei Karta is a Haredi Orthodox Jewish group with thousands of adherents all over the world. It was created in 1935, mainly as a reaction to the emergence of Zionism among European Jewry.

The group opposes Zionism and calls for the peaceful dismantling of the state of Israel in the belief that Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of the Messiah. Moreover, Neturei Karta views Israel’s violent and often criminal behavior vis-à-vis the Palestinians, e.g. systematic persecution, ethnic cleansing, house demolition and land theft, as decidedly incompatible with the moral teachings and ideals of Judaism."

US plans to settle Palestinians in Lebanon

The US is preparing a plan to settle the Palestinian refugees permanently in Lebanon in return for writing off 30% of its foreign debts.

"According to the Al-Nahar daily, certain US political circles have prepared a plan by which Palestinians are required to recognize Israel's Jewish identity.

As per the plan, Israel will deny the Palestinian refugees their right of return to their homes in the occupied territories, Press TV's Beirut bureau reports.

These political circles are reportedly also seeking to force the Lebanese government to provide for the settlement of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in return for writing off 30 percent of its foreign debts.

The group involved in devising the plan is said to have contacted wealthy Arab countries, calling for their financial and political support for the plan, the daily quoted diplomatic sources as saying.

They rejected any relation between the plan for the permanent settlement of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and the ongoing political crisis in the country....."

قطاع غزة: معركة المعبر أم المعارك

قطاع غزة: معركة المعبر أم المعارك

عزام التميمي

"ماذا يعني أن يصر محمود عباس، رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية، علي العودة إلي التفاهم المبرم مع الإسرائيليين بشأن إدارة معبر رفح، جازماً بأن المعبر ليس من شأن حماس التي وصف سلطتها في غزة بأنها غير شرعية؟
وماذا يمكن أن يستنتج المرء من تصريحه في القاهرة بأن الكلام مع حماس لا طائل منه ما لم تتراجع أولاً عما وصفه بالانقلاب؟ وبم يمكن أن نفسر إضافته إلي هذا الشرط المرفوض من معظم سكان قطاع غزة شرطين تعجيزين آخرين. أما الشرط الأول فهو أن تلتزم حماس بما أسماه الشرعية الدولية، ولا ريب أنه يقصد بذلك شروط الرباعية الثلاثة، وهي: الاعتراف بإسرائيل، والتسليم بما وقعته المنظمة أو السلطة مع إسرائيل من اتفاقيات، والتخلي عن المقاومة المسلحة. وأما الشرط الثاني فهو أن توافق حماس علي إجراء انتخابات مبكرة؟
لا معني لذلك إلا أن محمود عباس قد تمترس بشكل تام في الخندق الأمريكي ـ الإسرائيلي، وبأن أي أمل في استعادة ما بات يوصف بالوحدة الوطنية قد تبدد تماماً. أجزم بأنه لم يتفاجأ بهذا الموقف كثير من الفلسطينيين، فقد رأينا محمود عباس والفريق المحيط به منذ فوز حماس في الانتخابات التشريعية في كانون الثاني (يناير) 2006 ينسجمون بشكل متسارع مع المواقف الأمريكية والصهيونية إلي درجة التماهي، حتي غدوا اليوم ينافحون عن مطالب الرباعية، وهي اشتراطات إسرائيلية في الأساس، مصرين علي أن تعلن حماس التزامها بها، ويعربون بشكل صريح، بل وفج، عن مقتهم الشديد للمقاومة الفلسطينية بكل أشكالها وكافة مستوياتها، حتي ليهيأ للمرء بأنهم ربما صاروا أكثر مقتاً لها من الإسرائيليين أنفسهم.
شهدت في المؤتمر الوطني الفلسطيني الذي انعقد في دمشق في الفترة من 23 إلي 25 كانون الثاني (يناير) 2008 حالة من الغليان إزاء هذه الظاهرة، وسمعت الكثير مما يقوله فلسطينيو الشتات، وخاصة من سكان مخيمات سورية ولبنان، بحق عباس وفياض، ولاحظت كغيري من المشاركين وجود رغبة عارمة لدي هؤلاء في أن يصدر عن المؤتمر موقف صارم حاسم يسقط الشرعية ليس فقط عن السلطة بقيادة عباس وحكومة رام الله برئاسة فياض، وإنما حتي عن منظمة التحرير التي لم يبق منها إلا الاسم، الذي بات كما يري هؤلاء سلاحاً يشهر في وجه كل معترض علي ما يجري من مهازل باسم الممثل الشرعي والوحيد. إلا أن قيادة حركة حماس ـ المنظم الأساسي للمؤتمر وصاحبة الوزن الثقيل فيه ـ لم تسمح للمؤتمر بالتوجه نحو ذلك الهدف، بل ظلت مصرة علي إبقاء الباب مفتوحاً علي إمكانية التفاهم والحوار مع قيادة السلطة والمنظمة وحركة فتح بلا شروط. وهذا ما وجه سهام النقد نحوها من قبل مجموعة غير قليلة من المشاركين في المؤتمر ممن سئموا تلك المراوحات، والمجاملات، والحسابات.
قادة حركة حماس لديهم ما يبرر موقفهم، فمن الناحية العملية ليس بإمكانهم خوض عشرات المعارك في آن واحد، وهم يصرون علي أن تظل المعركة الأساسية التي تشغلهم ـ ما وسعهم ذلك ـ هي معركة المقاومة ضد الاحتلال، ويعلمون أنهم الآن يخوضون معركة شرسة لرفع الحصار عن قطاع غزة، ولإخراج الحركة من العزلة التي تفرضها عليها المنظومة الدولية بقيادة الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية وبتعاون إقليمي علي درجة عالية من الكفاءة والالتزام. ويدركون بأن أي إعلان بنزع الشرعية عن عباس أو عن منظمة التحرير، التي يحتفظ بها في درج مكتبه لحين الحاجة، إنما ستزيد الأمور تعقيداً، وتسعر نيران الحرب التي يشنها علي حماس الأعداء والخصوم من كل جانب.
أما بعد أن صرح عباس بما صرح به في القاهرة، وبعد أن خيب الآمال علي الأقل لدي شريحة من الشعب الفلسطيني في أن تؤذن هذه الرحلة إلي عاصمة أرض الكنانة من قبله ومن قبل وفد رفيع المستوي من حركة حماس ببدء حوار مسؤول وجاد لحل الإشكالات وللتوفيق بين المواقف ومن ثم لترتيب وضع معبر رفح، فليس من السهل علي قادة حركة حماس الاستمرار في مجاملته ومجاملة الساسة العرب المصرين علي أن يظل عباس رمزاً للشرعية الفلسطينية التي تذبح بيديه وبيدي رئيس وزرائه سلام فياض وبأيدي المتحدثين باسمهما الذين احترفوا تحريض الأوروبيين والأمريكان علي حماس، بل وعلي الشعب الفلسطيني الذي ارتكب في أعينهم جرماً لا يغتفر بإعطائه الثقة لحماس.
علي حركة حماس اليوم أن تكون حاسمة صارمة مع هؤلاء بنفس القدر الذي تكون فيه حاسمة وصارمة مع المحتلين الصهاينة ومن يساندهم أو يواليهم، لأن هؤلاء وأولئك أضحوا في خندق واحد، ديدنهم القضاء علي الحلم الفلسطيني بالعودة، وتجريد المقاومين من كافة الأسلحة، وتحويل الشعب الفلسطيني في الضفة والقطاع إلي مجموع بشري ذليل لا حول له ولا قوة ناهيك عن أن يتمتع بأدني درجات السيادة والاستقلال. وأول الحسم والصرامة اليوم هو الإصرار بلا هوادة علي أن معبر رفح معبر عربي لا سلطان للإسرائيليين عليه، وقد اندحروا من قبل وتقهقروا، وعلي أن العودة إلي التفاهم الذي كان أبرمه دحلان مع الصهاينة عام 2005 لا يمكن بحال أن يعود من جديد. إن معركة المعبر اليوم هي أم المعارك، وهي الأولي بكل جهد، وعلي الفلسطينيين في الداخل والخارج، ومن ورائهم شعوب العرب والمسلمين وأحرار العالم أن ينخرطوا في هذه المعركة إعلامياً وسياسياً، وإن لزم الأمر فليقيموا الدنيا ولا يقعدوها حتي يقتنع الحكام العرب بأن ثمة إرادة غير الإرادة الأمريكية الصهيونية، إنها إرادة المستضعفين والمقهورين، إرادة من ينشد الحرية ويرفض الذل والهوان.
علي حركة حماس، وينبغي أن يؤيدها في ذلك الرافضون للحصار والابتزاز، أن تكون صريحة مع صناع القرار السياسي في مصر، فأمن مصر القومي يحافظ عليه ليس بإعادة أهل غزة إلي معتقلهم، والضغط عليهم حتي ينفجروا في وجهها وفي وجه العالم، وإنما بالنأي بنفسها عن المشاركة في هذا الحصار، وبالامتناع عن قهرهم وظلمهم. ولن تنطلي علي أحد هذه الحملات الشعواء التي يشنها كتاب الأعمدة في الصحف الرسمية المملوكة للدولة في مصر، والذين يتزلفون من خلالها الرئيس وحاشيته، أو يوفون بها بما عليهم من دين لأرباب نعمتهم في واشنطن، فكسر الحصار لا يهدد أمن مصر، وما حدث من مناوشات علي الحدود في الأيام الأولي لتنسم أهل القطاع عبير الحرية ما كان ليحدث لولا أن أحمق في القاهرة أمر الجنود المصريين بالتعرض لأهل غزة العزل، ولم يكتف بذلك بل أهان أهل غزة بتهديهم بالكلاب البوليسية في مشهد يندي له جبين مصر العروبة والإسلام.
كما لا ينبغي علي حركة حماس أن تنخدع بما يردده المرجفون من أن انفتاح غزة علي مصر هو انسلاخ لغزة عن فلسطين، ولا بمزاعم البعض بأن هذا الإنسلاخ يرسخه التهديد الإسرائيلي بقطع كل أواصر الصلة مع غزة. ألا فليقطع الصهاينة أواصرهم جميعاً مع غزة، وليذهبوا إلي الجحيم، ولتلتئم كل الأواصر مع مصر الإخاء والجوار والشعب الواحد والمصير الواحد، ولتكن تلك هي فاتحة وأد سايكس بيكو إلي الأبد.

ہ مدير معهد الفكر السياسي الاسلامي في لندن
"

MoveOn's Obama Endorsement

Why There's No Hope for Change

By JOSHUA FRANK
CounterPunch

".....So where would President Obama send the troops he's redeployed? A good guess might be Iran.

As Obama told the Chicago Tribune on September 26, 2004, "[T]he big question is going to be, if Iran is resistant to these pressures [to stop its nuclear program], including economic sanctions, which I hope will be imposed if they do not cooperate, at what point . . . if any, are we going to take military action?"

He added, "[L]aunching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in" given the ongoing war in Iraq. "On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse." Obama went on to argue that military strikes on Pakistan should not be ruled out if "violent Islamic extremists" were to "take over."

"[Iran] is a genuine threat" to the United States and Israel, Obama later expressed at a forum sponsored by AIPAC on March 12, 2007 in Washington D.C. At the event Obama reiterated that he would not rule out the use of force in disarming Iran, a position he shares with rival Hillary Clinton.

Earlier that same month, on March 2 2007, Obama spoke at an AIPAC Policy Forum in Chicago, where he succinctly laid out his position on how he would deal with the Middle East, promising not to alter the U.S.'s lopsided relationship with Israel. "[W]e must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs," he said. "This would help Israel maintain its military edge and deter and repel attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza.".....

In the end Super Tuesday, despite MoveOn's public frolicking, won't end up being all that super when the votes are finally tallied. A pro-war candidate from both major parties will likely solidify their side's nomination."

Abbas's authority condemns Dimona bombing

"RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The PA leadership led by Mahmoud Abbas on Monday condemned the Palestinian resistance attack on a Dimona mall in the Negev desert that inflicted a number of Zionist casualties.

An official PA statement expressed absolute denunciation of the Israeli raid at dawn Monday in Qatabia that killed two Palestinians and the Palestinian raid on a mall in Dimona. The PA explained that it was against any attack on civilians.

The statement also quoted a Fatah spokesman as denying that the AMB, the armed wing of Fatah, had anything to do with the operation.

The AMB and the PFLP armed wing along with a third group calling itself Saraya Al-Watan claimed responsibility for the raid.

Meanwhile, an official Israeli statement said that an Israeli settler was killed in the attack while 50 others were wounded one of them was in a state of clinical death.

The Hebrew radio said that 48 injured persons were carried to the Soroka hospital in Beersheba.

Israeli police declared highest state of alert in various areas in the Hebrew state.

The two Palestinian attackers were killed in the operation after infiltrating from Gaza into the 1948 occupied lands, according to the communiqué of the armed wings that carried out the attack."

Dimona signals Palestinian defiance

A Good Analysis
By Lamis Andoni, Al-Jazeera

"Moral judgments not withstanding, the suicide bombing in Dimona on Monday is another chink in the siege imposed on all Palestinians in the occupied territories and it represents a continuity of the Palestinian rebellion that breached the wall between Gaza and Egypt last week.

The fact that two fighters succeeded in reaching Dimona in the south of Israel after crossing over to Egypt last week and then returning to conduct the operation is a blow to Tel Aviv's claims that its siege of Hamas supporters is working.

The attacks were carried out by fighters - from Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) - well outside the influence of Hamas, but who felt solidarity with the besieged group and the people of Gaza.....

Scenes broadcast around the world of a besieged Gaza, and more significantly, those of its residents breaching the wall between the strip and Egypt, stirred and inspired Palestinians across the political and geographic divide....

But what is most striking about the Dimona attack is that the Fatah-aligned Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are forcefully challenging Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and his policy of accommoding Israeli and US interests....

The Dimona attack itself is an indication of growing disgruntlement within Fatah and the increasing view that continued Israeli-Palestinian talks are futile, if not a cover for Israeli acts against Palestinians.....

According to well-informed Fatah sources, the Brigades felt impotent and dispirited by the reluctance of the Palestinian Authority to take action or even at the very least to suspend talks with Israel over the unfolding strangulation of the Gaza Strip....

This has contributed to building resentment within Fatah. Supporters watched their political leaders smile alongside their Israelis counterparts in photo opportunities while the number of Palestinian casualties mounted.....

Hamas, meanwhile, has been asserting itself - even among its critics and opponents - as siding with the Gazan people, and taking part, if not outright leading the breach of the Rafah border last week.

This was an act that deeply touched the pride of the Palestinians.....

In addition to expressing Palestinian anger, Fatah has now partly reasserted its credentials as a resistance movement.

The attack itself could still be an isolated accident, but it is not isolated in its expression of a building Palestinian rebellion - reminiscent of the actions that led to the 1987 and 2000 uprisings......"

Discussion with, not Eulogy for, George Habash – Al Hakim

By Dr. Adel Samara in occupied Ramallah

"Despite the “leadership” role you had played in your life, and continue to play, in leftist and patriotic circles of our nations, I have always felt uneasy calling you a “leader”.  This term has always carried connotations of class content and separation between leader and the masses.  So, respectfully, allow me to refer to you as “fighter”, “militant”, and “comrade”.

There is a huge divide between leader and fighter.  It is the same divide as between the renegade “leaders” who beg for a state from the murderers in the White House and those “fighters” who continue fighting until Palestine is liberated.  It is the same divide as between those “leaders” who negotiate to be donated a “state” and those “militants” who destroy the walls that imprison the Palestinians in Gaza.  It is the same divide as between those “leaders” who supported the imperialist invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq and those “militants” who are fighting to liberate Iraq and humanity.  And it is the same divide as between the corrupt fat-cats “leaders” who stand by while the Jennin refugee camp is overrun by the Zionist occupation forces and the fighters who gave their lives defending the camp and its inhabitants.  So again, forgive me for not referring to you as a “leader”, rather, a “fighter”, a “militant”, a “comrade”.

When a person passes away, you may praise that person for the good deeds and charitable work he/she has contributed to society.  But these deeds would have ended with that person passing away.  However, when a historical figure, such as you, passes away, it is of less importance to praise them for his past good deeds and charity.  A freedom fighter, as you, leaves behind living ideas, a revolutionary heritage and revolutionary projects that must be remembered, lived by, applied, re-applied, discussed, debated, questioned, and, yes, critiqued.

I would be unfaithful to your memory if I allow your ideas to die with you.  So, I will continue to remember your ideas.  I will continue to discuss them and debate them.  And, yes, critique them.

· I don’t recall you ever mentioning that our flag, the symbol of liberation, will be replaced by a candle, to protest the famine imposed on the Gaza strip by the Ashkenazi Zionists

· You never told me whether you really and deeply believed in the ‘Declaration of Palestinian Independence’ in Algiers 1988!

· I am still looking for an answer as to why, following the defeat of Arab bourgeois nationalist regimes in 1967, the leadership of Arab Nationalist Movement (a pan-Arab party), including you, decided to dissolve the movement. Why did you fail to distinguish between the defeat of bourgeois regimes and armies and the fact that nations cannot be defeated? I asked this question in my pamphlet Arab Socialist Manifesto many years ago, to no avail.

· During the epoch of military struggle in our nation, young Arab revolutionaries voluntarily joined leftist organizations.  Why is it that the left in the ‘PFLP’ failed to seize this opportunity to develop a pan-Arab communist or leftist movement?

· Why did the PFLP, as a Marxist-Leninist organization that was built with local, national, and international dimensions, neglect the pan-Arab national dimension, and left it entirely for the comprador regimes?
No one has ever offered an adequate explanation for this.

· I wonder why is it that most of those who mourn you now, remember you as a Palestinian patriot and an Arab nationalist, which you were, but shy away, even indirectly, from saying that you are a Marxist?

The Marxist or socialist discourse has disappeared from our struggle after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the attacks on national belonging and identity. Do you think that the collapse of the Soviet Union has necessarily pulled us to abandon our Marxism?  Or is that because those comrades in the Republic of Ramallah became liberal and those in Gaza formed an Islamic republic, while those in Arab countries, especially media satellite channels, fear the comprador regimes? Unfortunately, this is re-write of history and this is not a scientific authenticity.

· One more , but bitter question: tell me please, if I got a permit from the Ashkenazi Zionist Regime to go out of the West Bank large jail, but little canton, which I call it ‘Oslostan’, to visit Paris, what shall I tell Carlos ‘the Jackal’, who was betrayed by the comprador military Junta and Islamist regime of Sudan. None of us ignores that it was a moment of glory when he insisted to put his foot on the neck of the Minister of Oil.

 I have no doubt that your great heart stopped when you saw the Saudi royalty do the sword dance with George Bush, while his soldiers rape young Iraqi girls and torture Iraqi boys and men.  I hate to bother you while you rest, but I will continue to discuss and debate these and many other questions as well as many of your ideas in the hope of getting some answers."

"Israel and the Clash of Civilisations"

A Review of Jonathan Cook's book

by Stephen Lendman

Global Research, February 4, 2008

".....Cook's newest book, just published, is called "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East." It's the subject of this review in the wake of advance praise. Noted author John Pilger calls it "One of the most cogent understandings of the modern Middle East I have read. It is superb, because the author himself is a unique witness" to events and powerfully documents them. This review covers them in-depth along with some of this writer's reflections on the region from America.....

In 1982, Israeli journalist and former Foreign Affairs Ministry senior advisor, Oded Yinon, proposed an even more radical idea. Like Sharon, he advocated transforming Israel into a regional power with an added goal: breaking up Arab states into ethnic and confessional groupings that Israel could more easily control. Similar to Huntington's "clash of civilizations," Yinon suggested we were witnessing cataclysmic times, the "collapse of the world order,".....

Remaking the Middle East

After the Soviet Russia dissolved, Israel's military had to convince Washington it could be useful in a post-Cold War world. Would it be a bullying enforcer or a regional guarantor of US and Israeli dominance by sowing disorder and instability? In the 1990s, "two new kinds of Middle Eastern political and paramilitary actors" emerged - Sunni jihadis called Al-Queda and elements like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hezbollah in south Lebanon. They represent formidable challenges that aren't easily intimidated or bullied.

In this type world, threats are at a sub-state level, so Yinon's scheme was appealing - encourage discord and feuding within nations, destabilize them, and arrange their dismemberment into mini-states. Tribes and sectarian elements could be turned on each other, and alliances with non-Arab, non-Muslim groups like Christians, Kurds and Druze could be cultivated to advantage.......

It's a new version of the older colonial "divide and rule" scheme that so far proved ineffective, and Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, thinks he knows what's going on. He says Israel and Washington want to partition Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Syria. If he's right, as seems likely, it means the idea is to change the way colonial powers ruled post-WW I, and Cook challenges it. He believes making it work is "improbable (and) little more than a deluded fantasy." It worked in Yugoslavia, but the Arab world is different.

He concludes his book saying a generation of Washington policy makers have been "captivated" by thinking the Middle East can be remade by "spreading instability and inter-communal strife." Instead, Cook sees a different outcome - new political, religious and social alliances forming across the region. If Washington pursues its "war on terror," he sees continued "war without end" with no victory. After the chaotic Bush years, it's hard disagreeing with him....."

Don't Trust the Pharaoh, Blast the Ghetto Wall Again!

Shots fired at Egypt-Gaza border following stone-throwing clashes

Update:"One Palestinian was killed in an exchange of fire on Monday between masked Palestinian gunmen and Egyptian forces at Gaza's border with Egypt, Palestinian medical officials said.

The officials identified the dead Palestinian as a civilian and said another four Palestinians were wounded in the clash. Two Egyptian police officers were also wounded....."

"Gunfire erupted at the Gaza-Egypt border on Monday, following stone-throwing clashes between Egyptian border guards and Palestinians, witnesses said.

Five people were wounded by gunfire, said a Gaza health official, Dr. Moawiya Hassanain. Two Egyptian police officers were among the wounded.

The tensions began when the Egyptian guards sealed the border hermetically Monday, not even allowing Egyptians and Gazans who had found themselves on the wrong side of the border to return home.


At some point, dozens of teens threw stones at an Egyptian command post in the area. Egyptian forces fired tear gas, and medics said 12 people were treated for tear gas inhalation.

Eventually, gunfire erupted, but the source of the shooting was not immediately clear.

The Egyptian troops had closed the border on Sunday, using metal spikes and barbed wire, ending a 12-day breach that had allowed hundreds of thousands of Gazans to visit Egyptian border towns......"

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

The question is:

To what do you attribute the decline of armed resistance in Iraq?

With over 600 responding so far, here are the findings:

Due to the increase in U.S. forces....................................3%
Due to collaborating tribes and the "Awakening Councils".....36%
Due to divisions within the armed resistance......................61%

The loneliness of the One-Issue Voter

Laurie King-Irani, The Electronic Intifada, 4 February 2008

"....Despite increasing activism, the existence of alternative news media, and growing public discomfort with the Bush administration's Middle East misadventures, it's really disappointing that an attractive front-runner in this key election did not feel secure enough to tell the truth. The public is way out in front of Congress on this issue, but given the demands of campaign funding and the fear of the sorts of underhanded attacks that AIPAC (the American Israeli Public Action Committee, i.e., the pro-Israel lobby) inflicts on those who deviate from a pro-Israeli narrative, anyone who hopes to attain office in Washington, DC is held hostage to the lobby's single-minded goal of assuring unconditional support for Israel no matter how badly it behaves....."

U.S. Suicide Rate

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Khalil Bendib

By Tom Toles

The interior diaspora

A just settlement of the Middle East conflict will have to consider the voices of Palestinians living inside Israel

By Ben White
The Guardian

"Last week, the Israeli attorney general ruled against reopening the investigation into how 13 Palestinians (all but one of them Israeli citizens) were shot dead by police during unrest in October 2000. The decision did not come as much of a surprise, given the seven-year long refusal to bring charges against either police or senior officials.

These deaths - and indeed, the subsequent lack of accountability - have served as a reminder of the difficult relationship between "Israeli Arabs" and the Jewish state. With the creation of Israel 60 years ago, four-fifths of the Palestinians inside the new state's borders were expelled; the others remained (albeit with a quarter becoming "internally displaced").....

The official peace process's marginalisation of the Palestinians in Israel and in exile is no accident - key players stand to benefit from the existing framework. The western-approved Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, who like Abbas and Fayyad are almost exclusively drawn from Fatah, would dearly love to have their Oslo role of compromise-making "statesmen" reaffirmed by the establishment of a truncated Palestinian fiefdom. Israel, meanwhile, desperately needs to smother or confuse discussion about both its own Palestinian population and the refugees, since their rights cut painfully to the core of the conflict.....

In fact, Palestinians in Israel and the refugees have featured in Annapolis diplomacy, but only in so far as their basic rights are being implicitly repudiated, with Olmert's demand that the Palestinian party recognises Israel "as a state for the Jewish people"....."

1 Killed, 11 Injured in Dimona 'Martyrdom Operation'

Al-Manar

Contributed by Uprooted Palestinian

"04/02/2008 One Israeli settler was killed Monday and eleven others were wounded, three critically, in a martyrdom operation in a Dimona commercial center.

Al-Manar correspondent in occupied West Bank said the attack was twin martyrdom operation carried by two resistance fighters, but only one succeeded in detonating his explosives. The other fighter was killed by a police occupation officer from an elite unit who happened to be on the scene, seconds before he could explode himself.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian's military wing, and the United Resistance Brigades have claimed responsibility for Monday's martyrdom operation.

Abu al-Walid, a senior al-Aqsa Brigades official, said in a phone conversation with al-Manar, "We succeeded to carry out the attack today and we take responsibility for it, along with the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades and the United Resistance Brigades, in response to the occupation and the killing of children and innocent people in the West Bank and the Strip."

According to the report, the first martyrdom bomber was a Fatah member, while the second one was sent by the other two organizations.

Hamas referred to the Dimona operation as "a heroic act", which constitutes "a natural response to the crimes of the occupation."

On the other hand, the Palestinian Authority led by president Mahmud Abbas condemned Dimona attack in the occupied territories and in a statement, the PA also condemned an Israeli military operation early Monday in the West Bank town of Qabatiya during which troops killed two resistance fighters from the Islamic Jihad group. "

Finkelstein on Hezbollah television (live transmission)

"From: zeinabsaffar[at]hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 20:40:18 +0000

Salam
please note the u can tune to the www.manartv.com.lb (live transmission) and watch Norman Finkelstein editionn on Almanar TV this Tuesday [February 5, 2008] at 7 pm beirut time with rerun on Sunday [February 10, 2008] at 4 pm Beirut time.

waiting for ur comments
thanx
Zeinab

Dr. Zeinab al-Saffar, Manar TV Channel, News and political programs author, host and producer (intheireyes[at]manartv.com.lb)

Lebanese State University Professor (ESP-EFL-ESP) "

Unveiled: the Israeli women in ‘burkas’

Contributed by Fatima in Britain

"Modesty among some strictly Orthodox women can now mean wearing 10 skirts and seven robes. By Michal Levertov in Tel Aviv

A new ultra-modest fashion among some strictly Orthodox Israelis, in which women wear several layers of skirts, robes, scarves and veils and avoid talking to men other than their husbands, is creating a storm of controversy among the country’s religious communities.

The unofficial leader of the trend, often practised in defiance of husbands and in the face of rabbinical reluctance, is Bruria Keren, who lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh, an strictly Orthodox neighbourhood south-west of Jerusalem.

In a rare interview, Mrs Keren recently told the Ma’ariv newspaper: “The Holy Mothers and the women of Jerusalem used to wrap their bodies and to hide their faces. It is even written in the Torah that Tamar did not see the face of Judah since she was covered.

“The Torah does not change. The body should be concealed so its shape won’t be seen. The face and the body-shape of a woman might be an obstacle to men. The more layers of clothes, the women’s modesty is higher regarded.”....."

Light Unto The Nations??

The lights have been turned off

By Gideon Levy

Contributed by Fatima in Britain

"One after another, the final lights are being turned off, and a moral gloom is falling upon us as we stand at the edge of an abyss. Just last week, three more lights were turned off. The Winograd Report did not come out clearly against the fact that Israel embarked on a pointless war; the Supreme Court authorized collective punishment and the attorney general concluded that the killing of 12 Israeli citizens and someone from the territories by the police does not warrant a trial. The final keepers of order, the lighthouses of justice and law, are reconciling themselves with the most serious injustices of the institutions of authority and no one so much as utters a word about it. The upsetting and depressing crop of a single week has drawn the moral portrait of the country.....

After all this, people here complain about those who wish to live in a more just country, who are forced to turn to institutions of international law. Who else can they turn to? The Supreme Court? Winograd? The attorney general? Their lights have all been turned off. :

Failure of negotiations to supply Israel with natural gas from the first Palestinian field

Contributed by Lucia in Spain

"A new-old dispute has emerged to the surface at the height of the Israeli siege of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The parties to the dispute are Israel and British Gas (BG) which owns drilling rights in Palestinian wasters opposite the coast of Gaza in partnership with Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) and the Palestinian Investment Fund. The "Gaza Marine-1" field was discovered by BG in September 2000.....

Many reasons are behind the dispute between BG and Israel but the main one is about the means of transporting the gas from the gas field in the Palestinian regional water to the new power plant in Gaza. In 2001, BG presented a development plan to the Palestinian Authority to deliver the gas through a pipeline from the field some 36 kilometers off the Gaza coast directly to the power plant. The Palestinian Authority approved the plan in 2002 but Israel has insisted on linking the pipeline to the power plant in Askalan first and then extending it to Gaza....

Another reason is that Israel wants to know the exact amount of gas entering the Palestinian territories, hence the revenues earned by the Palestinian Authorities, and consequently the amount of money that can be transferred to finance "terrorism.".....

....The British company has many alternative options if its negotiations reach an impasse with Israel, including the export of some of the gas supplies to its liquid gas project in Egypt where additional volumes of gas are needed to complete the huge project there.
Needless to mention, Israel had objected to the exportation of Palestinian gas to Egypt in the past on the basis that the Gaza field falls within its sphere of influence which implies that the gas supplies should be supplied to its factories....."

Sy Hersh confirms: Syrian facility bombed by Israel was not nuclear

Raw Story

"......Now veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has weighed in on the matter. Hersh appeared on CNN's Late Edition on Sunday to discuss his upcoming article, "A Strike in the Dark," which will appear in the Feb. 11 issue of the New Yorker.

Hersh writes in that article, "Whatever was under construction, with North Korean help, it apparently had little to do with agriculture -- or with nuclear reactors -- but much to do with Syria's defense posture, and its military relationship with North Korea. And that, perhaps, was enough to silence the Syrian government after the September 6th bombing."

"This is a wonderful sort of a complicated story," Hersh told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Here Israel bombs another country, basically an act of war. ... They don't say anything publicly about it. The Israeli great ally, the United States, says nothing. Syria doesn't say much about it. They complain, but they're very muted too. ... Nobody talks about it."

Hersh went on to say that even though nobody was talking publicly, "there was tremendous sotto voce stuff. In other words, the Israeli government, the American government were leaking, telling newspaper people, particularly in America, but also in Europe, all sorts of wonderful, grandiose details about what happened."

Hersh finally concluded as a result of his investigation that the claims that "when you began to look at each part... they sort of fall apart." He is not even convinced the plant was a chemical warfare facility but believes it may have been a missile plant. "Israel may indeed have some evidence that's overwhelming," Hersh stated. "But without that sort of evidence, what they've done is, they've simply bombed another country."

Hersh's best guess as to the motivation of the bombing is that it was partly Israeli politics and partly "a message for the Iranians that we're coming.""

Tekoa rabbi drafts Israel-Gaza cease-fire agreement, deal for Shalit

Contributed by Lucia in Spain

"Israelis and Palestinians involved in interfaith contacts recently drafted a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. The document, whose implementation includes the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, was submitted to the cabinet and to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip.

Rabbi Menachem Froman of the West Bank settlement of Tekoa has for years been involved in interfaith dialogue toward Israeli-Palestinians peace. For several months he has been working closely with Khaled Amayreh, a Hebron-area journalist who is close to Hamas.

"Our proposal was presented to the highest political echelon in the Hamas government in Gaza and gained 100-percent approval," Amayreh told Haaretz yesterday, while refusing to name the government officials. Froman said the document was presented to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has yet to respond to it.

Even if the attempt turns out to be merely an academic exercise, say Froman and Amayreh, its elements could be used by the Jerusalem and Gaza governments. It does not, for example, include the recognition by Hamas of the State of Israel, instead "recognizing that there are Jews living in the Holy Land," according to Froman.

The Hebrew and Arabic document contains verses from the Koran and the Bible and states, "God is the greatest of all and He alone can bring an end to the problems between the noble Palestinian people and the distinguished Jewish people in the Holy Land."

The proposal calls for Israel to lift its sanctions on the Gaza Strip, permit economic relations between Gaza and the outside world and open all border crossings. The Israel Defense Forces would end "all hostile activities toward the Gaza Strip, including targeted assassinations, the setting of ambushes, aerial bombardments and all penetrations into Gazan territory, in addition to ending the arrest, detention and persecution of Palestinians in the Strip."

The Palestinians would be obligated "to take all the necessary steps to completely end the attacks against Israel," including stopping "indefinitely all rocket attacks on Israel," assaults "on Israeli civilians and soldiers" and "to impose a cease-fire on all groups, factions and individuals operating in the Strip." "

The 'Problem of Evil' in Postwar Europe

By Tony Judt

".......But in recent years the relationship between Israel and the Holocaust has changed. Today, when Israel is exposed to international criticism for its mistreatment of Palestinians and its occupation of territory conquered in 1967, its defenders prefer to emphasize the memory of the Holocaust. If you criticize Israel too forcefully, they warn, you will awaken the demons of anti-Semitism; indeed, they suggest, robust criticism of Israel doesn't just arouse anti-Semitism. It is anti-Semitism. And with anti-Semitism the route forward —or back—is open: to 1938, to Kristallnacht, and from there to Treblinka and Auschwitz. If you want to know where it leads, they say, you have only to visit Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, or any number of memorials and museums across Europe.

I understand the emotions behind such claims. But the claims themselves are extraordinarily dangerous. When people chide me and others for criticizing Israel too forcefully, lest we rouse the ghosts of prejudice, I tell them that they have the problem exactly the wrong way around. It is just such a taboo that may itself stimulate anti-Semitism. For some years now I have visited colleges and high schools in the US and elsewhere, lecturing on postwar European history and the memory of the Shoah. I also teach these topics in my university. And I can report on my findings......."

Fall back, men, Afghanistan is a nasty war we can never win

Britain’s commanders ignored every warning that the Taliban were the toughest fighters on earth

By Simon Jenkins
Times Online

"The American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, flies to Britain this week to meet a crisis entirely of London and Washington’s creation. They have no strategy for the continuing occupation of Afghanistan. They are hanging on for dear life and praying for something to turn up. Britain is repeating the experience of Gordon in Khartoum, of the Dardanelles, Singapore and Crete, of politicians who no longer read history expecting others to die for their dreams of glory.......

To have set one of the world’s most ancient and ferocious people on the warpath against both Kabul and Islamabad takes some doing. But western diplomacy has done it. Now must begin the agonising process of escaping that appalling mistake. "

The Very Latest From Dr. Mona El-Farra in Gaza

Before my laptop batteries are empty

4th of february 2008-Gaza

"it is 2 weeks since we did not have power in Gaza , it was back for short period , now we have patchy power in all areas of Gaza strip , in my flat i have the electricity for 2 - 4 hours if i am lucky , sometimes i do not have it all day , i thought of writing something to change your mood while you are following our stories in Gaza , while i am the one who is in big need to lift my morale , it is my candles' night , unfortunately not a very romantic candle lit night , it is very difficult for me to write whenever i have the urge and desire to do so , and i need to hurry up before my laptop batteries are dead , but any way, i was trying to be charming and persuade my teenager girl of the advantages of having candles a and quiet evening without tv or new sophisticated technology , the answer came back quickly ,with a grim face , "OK, but if it was our choice !!!!!!!!!!!!!!" simple few words from my child who , like all her mates, leads an unusual and cruel life in Gaza while the occupation continues these harsh measurements of cutting off fuel and electricity against gaza population.

we resist the occupation :

by enduring this difficult unbearable life ,and still not being crushed by our occupier's foot ,continue to live and even to create new ideas to educate and entertain our children , today i was in Nussierat Refugee camp(one of Gaza middle camps ) , where i witnessed the opening of the English Club for the Kids of Afaq Jadida center(New Horizon ), 30 kids age 15-17 will have the chance of learning computer and english language ,
it is amazing, it is inspiring to see the kids sitting to learn while the center had little day light and it was dim, there were candles too , in another corner of the center , the library i could clearly see some kids reading books using candle lights , the librarian on her wheelchair, with smiling face, watching and encouraging .It was good chance for John Harvey , from Olympia Rafah sister city foundation(USA) , to take some photos and to show his solidarity and support .
the center is in great need for electrical generator , well, another task for me ,and a great necessity for this little paradise , where the kids can enjoy whatever's possible in this gloomy atmosphere , i believe that it is so important to support the kids' psychology via entertaining activities , this is what we do in Afaq jadida and other children centers in Gaza , those are in partnership with the Middle East Children Alliances ,
before the battery is empty , with all my love i say goodbye "

The E.U. Message to the Pharaoh?
"Starve the Palestinians; We in Europe Know How to Do Holocausts Right!"

Bahraini delegation visits Gaza to express solidarity with Palestinians

Contributed by Lucia in Spain

"GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the PLC, received a Bahraini delegation headed by MP Nasser Al-Fadala, notables and heads of charitable institutions who came to the Gaza Strip to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Dr. Bahar briefed the delegation on the impacts of the Israeli siege and fuel crisis on different aspects of life in Gaza as well as the obstacles facing the work of the PLC after the Israeli occupation kidnapped 45 MPs including the PLC speaker Dr. Aziz Duwaik.

The acting speaker hailed the stands of King Hamad Al-Khalifa, the monarch of the Bahrain Kingdom, which are supportive of the Palestinian cause as well as the Bahraini parliament which devoted part of its time to discuss the Palestinian situation and the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

For his part, MP Fadala stated that he and his accompanying delegates felt a sense of pride and joy while crossing the Palestinian-Egyptian borders towards the Gaza Strip without taking permission from the Israeli occupation.

The Bahraini lawmaker highlighted the supportive stands of King Al-Khalifa, his government and people towards the Palestinian cause, rights and constants, adding that these stands will never change.

The visiting MP pointed out that many of the Bahraini popular and charitable institutions are willing to send all possible assistance to the besieged Gaza people to support their fortitude.

Fadala stressed the need for formulating a unified Arab decision to fully open all Gaza crossings, calling on PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to side by his people.

The lawmaker also expressed his country's rejection of the previous crossings agreement signed with Israel, adding that there must be a new accord because the previous one was unfair and had expired anyway."

PA security men escort rabbis to alleged Joseph Tomb in Nablus

Contributed by Anonymous

"NABLUS, (PIC)-- The PA security apparatuses unexpectedly provided tight protection late Saturday night for the head of the Israeli board of settlements in Nablus and the rabbi of France and escorted them to the alleged Joseph's Tomb in the Nablus city, according to the seventh Israeli TV channel close to Zionist extremists.

Israeli settlers vacated the alleged tomb at the beginning of the second intifada as a result of Palestinian resistance attacks on the site, which was used as military post by the IOF troops, and since then the settlers have not been able to visit the location except in the era of Salam Fayyad's unconstitutional government.

Many historians and researchers have opined that this site is not Joseph's Tomb as claimed by the Zionists, but it belongs to one of the righteous Muslims and dates back 200 years ago.

Israeli politician Tommy Lipid admitted in a TV interview with the Israeli first channel that this site is Islamic, denying Israeli allegations that it is a sacred Jewish site."

Torture does not work, as history shows

By Robert Fisk

""Torture works," an American special forces major – now, needless to say, a colonel – boasted to a colleague of mine a couple of years ago. It seems that the CIA and its hired thugs in Afghanistan and Iraq still believe this. There is no evidence that rendition and beatings and waterboarding and the insertion of metal pipes into men's anuses – and, of course, the occasional torturing to death of detainees – has ended. Why else would the CIA admit in January that it had destroyed videotapes of prisoners being almost drowned – the "waterboarding" technique – before they could be seen by US investigators?

Yet only a few days ago, I came across a medieval print in which a prisoner has been strapped to a wooden chair, a leather hosepipe pushed down his throat and a primitive pump fitted at the top of the hose where an ill-clad torturer is hard at work squirting water down the hose. The prisoner's eyes bulge with terror as he feels himself drowning, all the while watched by Spanish inquisitors who betray not the slightest feelings of sympathy with the prisoner. Who said "waterboarding" was new? The Americans are just apeing their predecessors in the inquisition......

Grafton's conclusion is unanswerable. Torture does not obtain truth. It will make most ordinary people say anything the torturer wants. Why, who knows if the men under the CIA's "waterboarding" did not confess that they could fly to meet the devil. And who knows if the CIA did not end up believing him."

Insurgencies spread in Afghanistan and Pakistan

"WASHINGTON — Islamic insurgents are expanding their numbers and reach in Afghanistan and Pakistan, spreading violence and disarray over a vast cross-border zone where al Qaida has rebuilt the sanctuary it lost when the United States invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.

There is little in the short term that the Bush administration or its allies can do to halt the bloodshed, which is spreading toward Pakistan's heartland and threatening to destabilize the U.S.-backed governments in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO forces are facing "a classic growing insurgency," Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday.

But the U.S. military, stretched thin by the war in Iraq, is hard-pressed to send more than the 3,200 additional Marines the Bush administration is dispatching to Afghanistan. The growing insurgency there is fueling rifts within the NATO alliance as Germany and other nations refuse to allow their troops to participate in offensive operations in Afghanistan....."

Gaza: Apocalypse now!

By: Dr. Saeb Shaath

Contributed by Lucia in Spain

"Long before our Great Samson and teasing Delilah, Gaza lived for millenniums in which it played a major role in shaping the ancient world fate. The living ancient cities of the world are very few, Gaza has been described as one of the world's oldest living cities, the name Gaza means “strength and prevalence”, many Layers of civilisation lie beneath its busy streets. To uncover part of the ancient history of Gaza visit the Israel Museum, or the private collections of the IDF generals they have Gaza’s history on display in their villas. When we ride “Salh el Deen”- Saladin road, which connect Gaza’s cities towns and villages ; we are riding a road had been ridden before us by the greatest leaders, generals, Assyrian, Persian, prophets , Pharaohs, Alexander the Great, the Crusaders, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Turks, the British, even American presidents and chiefs of the CIA. Gaza held to be of major strategic importance; the only overland route between Africa and Asia, which led predynastic Egypt to establish in 3500 B.C. the citadel of “Tell Sakan” on the banks of the Wadi Ghazzeh, from Gaza “Tell al Ajjul” In the second millennia BC, the Hyksos people marched southward and captured the Great Egyptian Empire, about 1650 BC. We discovered how rich and sophisticated Gazan’s way of life has been pre-historic times. Gaza’s exports in the 5th century A.D _Byzantine empire era, reached as far as England, Ireland and Geneva, Gaza’s Schools graduated leading theologians such as Barsanuphius, John of Gaza and Mark the Deacon, whose writings profoundly influenced Christianity at its very early stages. Gaza is still with us on planet earth and tells us, armies have come and armies have gone and ancient Gaza has endured and risen repeatedly. Villains failed to send it in orbit to mar or sink it in the Mediterranean Sea; there is a lesson to be learned....

Don’t we campaign for animal’s protection, and demand not to be subjected for scientific labs experiments, don’t we argue with the Japanese over whaling, we passed laws against foxhunting? Why then ignoring what is happening to millions of refugees from Palestine? They are under attack on daily bases, for demanding the Implantations of the UN resolutions that definitely granted them the right to return to their homes, the irony here is that, the same resolutions gave birth to the State of Israel! What would we do if someone kicks us out of our home and told us that God gave it to them? What would you do? How would you deal with that?....."

The Neocons: An Illustrated Progression

From exile to redemption to exile again: a history of "militaristic idealists" known as neocons.


(Click on graphic to enlarge)

Egyptian football star Mohamed Abou Trika to El Khabar (in Algeria): “Sympathize with Gaza” a normal behaviour, has nothing to do with politics

"Despite media embargo set around Egypt football team camp in Ghana, El Khabar reached to interview the Egyptian star Mohamed Abou Trika by phone yesterday…He told El Khabar he wanted to show his sympathy and solidarity with Gaza Strip population.

El Khabar:It’s an honour for El Khabar to interview the most popular Arab player in the world…
Abu Trika: It’s an honour for me and for all Arabs…well I’m just a simple man…

El Khabar:But you’ve attracted lights in Ghana…
Abu Trika: You mean when I revealed a tee-shirt with the slogan ‘Sympathy with Gaza’ while celebrating scoring the third goal over Sudan …I think it’s normal, I’ve expressed a feeling; a natural feeling of any Arab…and if you ask any Arab about what is happening to Palestinians and Gaza population he would tell you the same…

El Khabar:But you have expressed this feeling and position before the whole world…
Abu Trika: What I did is a simple duty and has nothing to do with politics or other things…I showed my sympathy with Gaza population that’s all…

El Khabar:You’ve been warned from African Football Confederation?
Abu Trika: (He laughs)…a warning that I’m proud of...... "

Ma'areef: Hamas has longed planned to disengage economically from Israel

"Israeli daily newspaper Ma'areef reported Sunday that the Islamist Hamas movement has been long planning to have the Gaza Strip economically disengaged from Israel.

The newspaper said that during years in Israeli prisons, the late Hamas's spiritual leader, Ahmad Yassin, met with an American delegation, as Yassin gave consent to a long-term truce (Hudna)with Israel, in return for a Palestinian state within the boundaries of 1967, adding one more condition that the Palestinian economy must be disengaged from the Israeli one.

According to Ma'areef's correspondent, Ameet Kohen, " the Hamas's spiritual leader has been absent from the scene, while his objectives have remained in effect, particularly, disengagement completely from the Israeli state".

Kohen wondered as to would Hamas be able now to realize Yassin's vision of disengagement?. He answers by saying " this appears to be far from reaching as was spoken out by Hamas's senior leader in Gaza, Mahmoud aL-Zahar, right after the Israeli disengagement from the coastal territory in 2005".

Such a disengagement can be partially realized in terms of electricity, which Israel provides Gaza with, but when it comes to the West Bank, the West Bank will continue to receive electricity from Israel, the Israeli journalist believed.

The Maareef daily reported remarks by advisor of Hamas's Prime Minsietr, Ismail Haniya, Ahmad Yousef " the Hamas movement is considering carefully possibility of disengaging economically from Israel and connecting to the nearby Egypt instead".

Yousef was quoted as saying " any disengagement from Israel would mean that Egypt should provide Gaza with electricity and fuel and enable Gazans to import and export goods from and to the Gaza Strip, in a way leading to us to stop using Israeli currency".

The ruling Hamas movement in Gaza has recently hinted at the willingness to disengage from Israel completely after hundreds thousands of besieged Gazans flooded last week into the nearby Egypt, breaking a 7-month-old Israeli closure of Gaza's border crossings including the Rafah terminal. "

طوارئ في محيطها عقب هجوم "نواكشوط".. سكان العقارات المجاورة للسفارة الإسرائيلية بالقاهرة يحاولون منع السفير من دخول مكتبه

Contributed by Fatima

"تجمع سكان العقارات الكائنة بشارع ابن مالك، أسفل كوبري جامعة القاهرة، حيث يوجد مقر السفارة الإسرائيلية يوم الخميس الماضي للتنديد بالحصار الإسرائيلي على قطاع غزة وللمطالبة بطرد السفير شالوم كوهين بالقاهرة والعاملين معه بالسفارة.
وكان حرس السفارة قد تفاجئ برؤساء اتحاد ملاك العقارات التي تقع بالشارع والبالغ عددها ست عقارات ويقيم فيها أكثر من ألف شخص بينما يتوجهون إلى العقار الذي يقع به مقر السفارة.
وأخبروا الأمن بأنهم حضروا في موعد قدوم السفير كوهين للسفارة لمنعه من الصعود اعتراضًا على ما يحدث بغزة، وعبروا عن رفضهم لتوطين الفلسطينيين بسيناء كما دعا أحد الخامات اليهود، مطالبين الحكومة المصرية بسرعة التدخل لطرد السفير الإسرائيلي.
وحاول رجال الأمن بدورهم احتواء الموقف ومطالبتهم الابتعاد عن مقر السفارة في هدوء من خلال التأكيد للمتجمهرين على خطورة ما أقدموا عليه، مؤكدين أن الأمر يتعلق بسياسة دولة ولا يجوز المساس بها.
وحذروا، السكان المعترضين من تكرار مثل هذا التجمهر حتى لا يتعرضوا للمساءلة القانونية بتهمة تكدير صفو الأمن العام وتهديد العلاقات المصرية مع دولة أجنبية، لينصرف على إثرها المعترضون في هدوء شديد وهم يرددون عبارات تفيد أنه لا جدوى مما أقدموا عليه مقتنعين "بأنها حقًا سياسة دولة".
من جانب آخر، أعلنت وزارة الداخلية حالة الطوارئ، وكثفت من تعزيزاتها الأمنية في محيط السفارة الإسرائيلية بعد استهداف مقر السفارة الإسرائيلية بموريتانيا في هجوم مسلح أسفر عن إصابة ثلاثة من المارة.
وعقد وزير الداخلية حبيب العادلي اجتماعًا عاجلاً فور بث نبأ الحادثة مع اللواء محسن حفظي مدير أمن الجيزة، واللواء فاروق لاشين مدير الإدارة العامة لمباحث الجيزة واللواء عبد الوهاب خليل نائب مدير الأمن، وذلك لبحث تعزيز الإجراءات على مقر السفارة، ومنها التأكد من هوية الأشخاص المترددين على العقارات المجاورة للسفارة.
كما تقرر تكثيف الحراسة على السفير الإسرائيلي والدبلوماسيين العاملين بالسفارة، ومنع التجمهر ووقوف المارة أعلى كوبري جامعه القاهرة المطل على السفارة، والتدقيق في هويات المارة.
كما تقرر وبالتنسيق مع شرطة المسطحات المائية تأمين قطاع النيل المواجه للسفارة ومنع مرور المراكب واللنشات الغريبة في المنطقة القريبة من السفارة، وطالب الوزير بموافاته بتقرير يومي عن الإجراءات الأمنية المتخذة.
وتأتي هذه التعزيزات في أعقاب شن هجوم بالأسلحة الأتوماتيكية على السفارة الإسرائيلية لدى موريتانيا، حيث هاجمت مجموعة من ستة رجال فجر الجمعة السفارة بالأسلحة الرشاشة موقعة عدة جرحى بينهم ثلاثة فرنسيين.
....."

فلسطين والعرب.. من سيحرر من..؟؟

بقلم: كمال جابر

"لم تكن الحرية التي يتغنى بها البشر جميعا ، ويبذلون الغالي والنفيس من أجل تحصيلها ، مفقودة لدى فلسطين واهلها دون سائر إخوانهم من العرب جميعاً..!! حيث أن المصاب هو واحد ، والمحنة هي ذاتها قد ألمت بالجميع،، غير أن هذه الحرية المفقودة هنا وهناك تختلف في أشكالها وصورها وإن كان الجوهر واحدا لا يختلف إلا من حيث تعدد ألوان الفقد لهذه الحرية وتركزها في بلد (فلسطين) ، واقتصار هذا الفقد على بعض من ألوانه فقط في سائر الأقطار .. الأمر الذي دفع بالكثيرين منا للاعتقاد (مخطئين) باكتمال الحرية لدى بني قومنا ..!!

وإذا كانت فلسطين هدفاً أولياً ومحطةً مركزيةً بالنسبةِ للطامعين الغزاة ،، فإن القدرة على الاحتفاظ بهذه المحطة والاستمرار في إخضاعها مرهون بقدرة المحتلين على سلب الحرية من الأقطار المحيطة ، حتى تبقى غير قادرة على تحريك الساكن باتجاه إعادة الحرية لفلسطين من باب أن فاقد الشيء لا يعطيه..!! هذا ما كان ،، وهذا هو سر العجز العربي الرسمي عن الارتقاء لمستوى التحديات فيما يتعلق بقضايا الأمة المصيرية وعلى رأسها القضية الفلسطينية .!!

من هنا يتبين لنا أن إخضاع فلسطين واحتلالها عسكريا لم يكن إلا بعد أن تم تحييد العرب بشكل حاسم عبر إخضاعهم معنويا وإرهابهم ماديا ونفسيا , وحصارهم ثقافيا وفكريا وعلميا حتى باتوا غير قادرين على الوقوف في وجه الغزاة الوافدين من أصقاع المعمورة ..،، وبناءً على ذلك فإن تحرير فلسطين الأرض بالقوة المسلحة يجب أن يسبقه تحرير للإنسان العربي معنويا وفكريا وتصوريا ،، وإزاحة أطنان من الركام والترسبات عن ذاكرته الحية لإعادة تأهيله ليكون قادرا على تحطيم كل القيود والمعيقات المختلفة التي تصنع منه كائنا محايدا وسلبيا بينما يرقب المعركة الطاحنة التي تدور رحاها على بعد مرمى حجر منه..!!

فتحرير العربي من شعوره بالضعف والعجز وقلة الحيلة وانحسار البدائل والخيارات أمامه ، وإعادة إنعاش ذاكرته بمعاني الأخوة والوحدة والمصير المشترك والهم الواحد لهي الخَطوة الأولى باتجاه إعادة توجيه بوصلة المسير إلى حيث يجب أن تتوجه ..،، فهذه المهمة السامية والغاية النبيلة لا بد لها من طليعة رائدة مبصرة تأخذها على عاتقها وتسعى حثيثا لإنفاذها .. وإنني أزعم واثقا ان حماس قد أخذت على عاتقها القيام بهذه المهمة الغالية منذ سنوات مضت ،، يوم أن أعلنت بوضوح أن العرب والمسلمين جميعا يشكلون العمق الإستراتيجي لفلسطين.. سياسيا وحضاريا وجغرافيا .. لا بل لحما ودما ،، أذواقاً ومشاعرَ وهموما..!!

هذا التوجه الناضج وما يحمله من معان ودلالات كبيرة ، وبصيرة نافذة في إدارة دفة المعركة مع الأعداء يعتبر الرد الطبيعي والمنطقي لكل المحاولات المستميتة التي سعت جاهدة لسلخ فلسطين عن محيطها العربي الإسلامي الدافئ...وربطها بمنظومات وقوى معادية تماما لتكون فلسطين بمثابة ظل وتابع للاحتلال وأعوانه... عبر التسليم بتحكم هذه القوى برغيف الخبز وراتب الموظف ومتطلبات الحياة الأساسية ومفاصل الحركة والتواصل مع العالم الخارجي كالمعابر وغيرها..!! وهو ما ترجمته عمليا وما تزال سلطة أوسلو المشؤومة... غير ان الخطورة المترتبة على وضع كهذا تتجاوز مجرد التبعية والارتباط وإسلام القياد والمصير للاحتلال وأعوانه .. باتجاه ممارسة المزيد من التخذيل لعمقنا العربي الإسلامي وتوفير المسوغات والمبررات له للإمعان في سلبيته وصمته تجاه فلسطين طالما قيادتها غير الشرعية تسعى جاهدة لذلك عبر تقلب أدائها في الميدان ما بين التبعية للاحتلال والقيام بدور الوكيل عنه..!!

ولكن حماس عندما نأت بنفسها عن الانخراط في توجهات سلطة اوسلو آنفة الذكر بتفاصيلها والتي كادت أن تكون واقعا لا انفكاك عنه ، وقدمت البديل الصادق والرؤية الصحيحة بالانحياز للأمة كعمق واقعي وامتداد موضوعي مشفوع بظلال الحضارة ووحدة الدين والدم واللسان والتاريخ والجغرافيا ،، إنما كانت تؤسس لخارطة طريق جديدة يتم عبرها تسويق القضية الفلسطينية بعيدا عن الارتهان للعدو سياسيا واقتصاديا وأمنيا وماليا .. فهذا التوجه هو ما يخيف الكيان الصهيوني ومن يقف خلفه لأنه ينزع من بين أيديهم أوراقا أثبتت التجارب السابقة والحوادث الحاضرة أنهم لم يستخدموها إلا لاستجلاب المزيد من الإذلال لشعبنا الأبي..!!

نعم فالتوجه للعرب والمسلمين شعوبا وحكومات ومنظمات وفعاليات رسمية وشعبية وتفعيله بكل الوسائل والإمكانات وتوظيف كل الاسباب التي تثير الحماسة والحمية والنخوة الاصيلة وتفجر الطاقات الكامنة وتحرك الإبداع وتنمي روح المبادرة لدى شعوبنا لتأخذ دورها المتقدم من الآن فصاعدا في ساحات المعركة ،، لهي أوجب الواجبات في المرحلة الراهنة ،، فالرهان على عمقنا العربي والإسلامي أجدى ألف مرة من الارتهان لإرادة بوش وألمرت .. وما حادثة تحطيم جدران الحصار عنا ببعيدة ... سواءٌ من ناحية صوابية الرهان على عمقنا الحقيقي ، أو من ناحية قدرة الشعوب الحية على تسطير الأفعال المجيدة إذا وجدت من يأخذ بيدها ويرشدها نحو مسالك العزة والفخار..!! "

U.S. Methodist Church renews drive for divestment from Israel

Contributed by Bea

"Tensions are re-emerging between Jewish organizations and some mainline Protestant churches in the wake of a renewed drive for churches to divest from companies doing business with Israel.

The United Methodist Church opened discussions last Friday on a resolution calling for divestment from Caterpillar, the tractor manufacturer, because the company supplies Israel with bulldozers used in building the separation barrier and in demolishing Palestinian homes. The divestment resolution comes only months after the publication of a church-sponsored report referring to the creation of the State of Israel as the "original sin."

Relations with the Presbyterian Church (USA) are also strained, following remarks by church officials criticizing Israel because of the Gaza closure....

"The United Methodist Church holds $141 million of pension funds in companies that sustain the occupation," said Susan Hoder, a member of the church's Interfaith Peace Initiative. "This has to stop. We have to cut our ties to the occupation."...."

From Stalingrad to Winograd

By Uri Avnery

".....The Winograd commission has failed, the commentators exclaimed in outrage. To the many failures of the war, the failure of the commission must now be added.

EVERY EXPERIENCED politician knows the axiom: He who chooses the members of a commission determines its conclusions in advance.....

AFTER THE 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, the "official" commission of inquiry chaired by Judge Kahan published an exemplary report which exposed all the facts. But these could have led it to much harsher conclusions than it did actually reach. Instead of finding that Ariel Sharon and his minions were guilty of "indirect responsibility" for the massacre, it could have decided that they bore direct responsibility. The facts supported such a conclusion. Why did they not do so, and only dismissed Sharon and some officers? I assume that they shrunk back for fear of causing severe damage to the State of Israel.

Now I could write much the same about the Winograd commission. The facts exposed by it justify more extreme conclusions. What held them back? One can guess: the five commission members, all pillars of the establishment - 2 generals, 2 leading academics, 1 judge - did not want to topple Olmert, the No. 1 establishment person. Perhaps they feared that his place would be taken by somebody much worse - a worry shared by many others in the country......

When Judge Winograd tried to explain why a part of the report must be kept secret, the words he used attracted no attention: "The security of the state and its foreign relations". Foreign relations? What foreign relations? Relations with whom? There is only one reasonable answer: relations with the United States.

That could be the crux of the matter: Olmert fulfilled an American wish. President Bush wanted to install his protégé, Fouad Siniora, as ruler in Beirut. For that end, Hizbullah, the main Lebanese opposition force, had to be eliminated. Also, Bush wanted to effect a regime change in Syria, one of the main obstacles to American ambitions in the region.

I believe that this is the missing link in Winograd's chain. Olmert could have argued: "I was only obeying orders". But that, of course, is unspeakable......

The answers can be summed up in two words: the occupation.

In the last few years I have written dozens of articles about the disastrous effects of the occupation on the army. One cannot employ a whole army for decades as a colonial police force for crushing the resistance of an occupied population, without changing its character. Soldiers who run after stone-throwing children in the alleys of the Qasbah, who hammer at night on the doors of civilians, who use bulldozers to destroy people's homes, and all this for year after year - such soldiers are not competent to fight a modern war......."

Video: The Brave IOF Displaying a New Weapon Against the Palestinians

(Video) Peace activist films Israeli soldiers exposing rear ends to Palestinian shepherds. MK Tibi: Incident IDF's Abu Ghraib

"VIDEO - IDF soldiers who arrived at the Maon Farm settlement outpost near the West Bank city of Hebron exposed their rear ends to Palestinians in an attempt to make them evacuate nearby grazing fields, Palestinian sources and foreign peace activists claimed Sunday.

Ynet has received exclusive footage of the incident, which took place on January 11....."

Give Palestinians a chance to breathe free!

By Karen Koning Abuzayd
(Commissioner General for UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA))

Graphic by Ben Heine

"Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution, with the knowledge, acquiescence and - some would say - encouragement of the international community. An international community that professes to uphold the inherent dignity of every human being must not allow this to happen.

Across this tiny territory, 25 miles long and no more than six miles wide, a deep darkness descended at 8 pm on January 21, as the lights went out for each of its 1.5 million Palestinian residents. A new hallmark of Palestinian suffering had been reached.

There have been three turns of the screw on the people of Gaza, triggered in turn by the outcome of the elections in January 2006, the assumption by Hamas of de facto control last June, and the Israeli decision in September to declare Gaza a "hostile territory". Each instance has prompted ever tighter restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza. Each turn of the screw inflicts deeper indignity on ordinary Palestinians, breeding more resentment towards the outside world.

Gaza's border closures are without precedent. Palestinians are effectively incarcerated. The overwhelming majority cannot leave or enter Gaza. Without fuel and spare parts, public health conditions are declining steeply as water and sanitation services struggle to function. The electricity supply is sporadic and has been reduced further along with fuel supply in these past days. Unicef reports that the partial functioning of Gaza City's main pumping station is affecting the supply of safe water to some 600,000 Palestinians.

Medication is in short supply, and hospitals are paralysed by power failures and the shortage of fuel for generators. Hospital infrastructure and essential pieces of equipment are breaking down at an alarming rate, with limited possibility of repair or maintenance as spare parts are not available......

As the head of a humanitarian and human development agency for Palestinian refugees, I am deeply concerned by the stark inhumanity of Gaza's closure. I am disturbed by the seeming indifference of much of the world as hundreds and thousands of Palestinians are harshly penalised for acts in which they have no part.

In discharging its mandate, UN Relief and Works Agency delivers a variety of services to improve living conditions and prospects for self-reliance. It is impossible to sustain our operations when the occupying power adopts an "on, off", "here today, gone tomorrow" policy towards Gaza's borders......"

Gaza’s Future

By Henry Siegman

London Review of Books

"The breaching of the barrier between Gaza and Egypt by Gaza’s imprisoned population dramatised two fundamental realities about which Israeli and US policymakers have been in complete denial. First, that sooner or later Gazans would seek to break out of their open-air jail. That they have done so should be applauded not condemned. It would have been a sad comment on the human spirit had Gaza’s citizens surrendered to their fate.....

....As recent opinion polls have found, the suffering caused by the Gaza closures produced greater solidarity not greater divisiveness. It even moved Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad to public displays of anger (however disingenuous) against Ehud Olmert’s government.....

As Olmert knows, neither is the case. The siege of Gaza was imposed by Israel because Israel’s government and the US administration intended to undo the results of Hamas’s victory in the elections of 2006. Initially, they thought they could achieve this by arming Fatah’s security forces and encouraging them to promote anarchy in Gaza in a way that would discredit Hamas. When Hamas ousted Fatah security forces, Israel blockaded Gaza in the hope that its population would overthrow Hamas. The Qassam rockets were the consequence, not the cause of these misguided Israeli and US manoeuvres.....

Certainly the peace process the US and Israel have promoted following the break between Fatah and Hamas has not produced anything other than empty rhetoric and emptier promises. On the ground, absolutely nothing has changed.....

Yet Abbas and Fayyad have pretended that they are engaged in a significant peace process with Israel .....

That said, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the breach in the barrier between Gaza and Egypt has created a new strategic situation. Of course, the barrier separating Gaza from Egypt will be closed again, but it is highly unlikely that the status quo ante can be restored and the absolute closure on Gaza’s population reimposed. As Ha’aretz suggested in an editorial of 24 January, the crisis in Rafah is an opportunity to pursue policies that are ‘more creative than assassinations and starvation’.

Which brings me to the second of the fundamental realities. The current goal of isolating Hamas and negotiating a peace agreement with Fatah is based on the fantasy that such an agreement can be implemented despite Hamas’s opposition. Hamas is a movement with deep roots and a significant role in Palestinian politics that opposition from Israel and the US can only strengthen. New border arrangements to prevent a serious breakdown between Israel and Egypt cannot be implemented without somehow involving Hamas. And for domestic reasons, it is inconceivable that either Abbas or the Egyptian government would consent to the creation of a new cross-border regime that aims at the continued strangulation of Gaza’s population......"

Hamas: Cairo talks positive, boosted political relations with Egypt

"GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement stated that the Cairo talks conducted between its delegation and the Egyptian leadership were positive and boosted its political relations with Egypt, adding that the meetings discussed many issues related to the siege, crossings and the internal discord.

In a press release published on Sunday, Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman, explained that the talks were marked by transparency, openness and genuine concern for the Palestinian national interest, pointing out that both parties agreed on many "partial issues" including the formation of committees for political coordination.

Regarding the Rafah crossing, Taha said that Hamas tabled its vision during the talks with the Egyptian side which states that the Rafah crossing is a purely Palestinian- Egyptian passage and must be used to serve the Palestinian people and to ensure the entry of food, medical supplies and all basic needs to the Gaza Strip, adding that the vision took the Egyptian national security into account.

The spokesman underlined that it was agreed to end the suffering of Palestinian patients where many patients stranded in Al-Arish were admitted into Cairo's hospitals and arrangements will be made later to schedule other hospital admissions.

Taha deplored PA chief Mahmoud Abbas for clinging to the crossings agreement signed in 2005 which if implemented will bring back the Israeli occupation to the Gaza Strip.

In a leaked letter, MP Emad Nofal, the prisoner in the Israel Megiddo jail, called on all Palestinian parties to agree on new mechanisms to operate the Gaza crossings without any interference by the Israeli occupation and its allies.

MP Nofal castigated the PA chief's insistence on reviving the previous crossings agreements signed with the Israeli occupation, saying: "The Zionists proved that they will give our people nothing but woes, siege, killing and destruction, so why we still insist that they play a role in our lives."

The imprisoned MP hailed the caretaker government's national positions and its adherence to the Palestinian constants and rights despite heavy pressures laid on its shoulder.

For his part, MP Mohammed Ismail imprisoned in the Israeli Netsan jail, hailed Egypt's positions in support of the Palestinian people against the Israeli suffocating siege, calling on the Arab countries to assume their responsibilities and support these Egyptian positions."