Saturday, March 3, 2007

Rice Picks Neocon Champion of Iraq War as Counselor


A Good Article
By Jim Lobe

"In a move that has surprised many foreign policy analysts here, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appointed a prominent neoconservative hawk and leading champion of the Iraq war to the post of State Department Counselor.

Eliot A. Cohen, who teaches military history at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) here and has also served on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board (DPB) since 2001, will take up the position next month that was left vacant late last year by Rice's long-time confidant and "realist" thinker, Philip Zelikow.

A close friend and protégé of former Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and advisory board member of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Cohen most recently led the harsh neoconservative attack on the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG), co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton.

Like his fellow neocons, he was particularly scathing about its recommendations for Washington to directly engage Syria and Iran and revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process – recommendations which Rice herself has explicitly endorsed in the last few weeks.......

Cohen first gained national prominence shortly after the 9/11 attacks when he published a Wall Street Journal column entitled "World War IV" – a moniker quickly adopted by hard-line neocons like former CIA director and fellow-DPB member James Woolsey, former Commentary editor Norman Podhoretz, and Center for Security Policy president Frank Gaffney (on whose board Cohen also sits) – to put Bush's "war on terror" in what he considered to be the appropriate historical context and to define its enemy as "militant Islam."......

Cohen has also been quick to label critics of Israel and the so-called "Israel Lobby" in the U.S. as anti-Semites.

"Only a reshuffling of the deck – through the disappearance of Arafat, or an event, (such as the overthrow of Saddam Hussein) that profoundly changes the mood in the Arab world – will make something approaching truce, let alone peace, possible," he argued in a favorite pre-Iraq war neoconservative theme.

The following summer, Cohen achieved new fame when Bush was photographed carrying Cohen's just-published book, "Supreme Command," which argued that the greatest civilian wartime leaders, such as Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, had a far better strategic sense than their generals. It was a particularly timely message in the months that preceded the Iraq war when a surprising number of recently military brass here were voicing strong reservations about the impending U.S. invasion......

Still, while admitting in a Vanity Fair interview late last year that U.S. choices in Iraq range between "bad and awful," Cohen has called for perseverance and played a key role in selling AEI-hatched plan to add some 30,000 troops to the 140,000 soldiers in Iraq to Bush with whom he met personally as part of a small group of "surge"-boosters at the White House in mid-December.

If the surge should fail, however, Cohen's preferred and "most plausible" option, which he laid out in an October 2006 Journal column titled "Plan B," would be a coup d'etat ("which we quietly endorse") that would bring to power a "junta of military modernizers," a development which, as he noted himself, would call into question the administration's and Rice's avowed goal of democratization.

In any event, he argued in the same column, "American prestige has taken a hard knock [in Iraq]; it will probably take a harder knock, and in ways that will not be restored without a considerable and successful use of American military power down the road."

"The tides of Sunni salafism and Iran's distinct combination of messianism and power politics have not crested, and will not crest without much greater violence in which we too will be engaged," he asserted.

In a Vanity Fair interview last fall, Cohen said, "I'm pretty grim. I think we're heading for a very dark world, because the long-term consequences of this are very large, not just for Iraq, not just for the region, but globally – for our reputation, for what the Iranians do, all kinds of stuff.""

Friday, March 2, 2007

Condi Picks Neocon Cohen to Make Her Decisions


By Kurt Nimmo

"No sooner are we told for the umpteenth time Bush has swept a gob of neocons out of his administration, we get word that Condi the Destroyer has picked PNAC forever war fanatic Eliot Cohen out of a line-up to serve as her “counselor, a key trouble-shooting role in US diplomacy,” according to AFP.

Cohen is known as “the most influential neocon in academe” and came up with the lovely term “World War Four” all on his lonesome, although former CIA director James Woolsey is fond of using the term to scare small children and women with weak constitutions, as well as Muslims and Arabs who are afraid the “fucking crazies” will invade their countries and take out their electrical grids, water treatment plants, hospitals, etc.......

It is interesting, in a perverse sort of way, that Condi would pick as her “counselor,” or have picked for her, the guy who coined the term “World War Four,” a “war”—sort of the same way shooting fish in a barrel might be considered a “war”—to be waged specifically against the Muslim world. Condi apparently cannot be trusted when it comes to making sure the State Department is on cue, especially with the all-important shock and awe of Iran campaign deadline closing in."

حرب على إيران...حرب إلى يوم القيامة!

تجنيد أمة لأغراض أعدائها...شراء الهزائم بهزيمة جديدة

بقلم د. عادل سمارة

" "الحرب المقبلة هي حرب السنة والشيعة، فأين تقفون؟ هذا ما قيل لأحد القياديين الفلسطينيين في زيارته للعربية السعودية في وقت قريب مضى. هكذا إذن، تحولت السعودية للمرة الثالثة في تاريخها إلى شريك بل مبادر إلى حرب. كانت المرة الأولى في عشرينات القرن الماضي كي يحسم آل سعود السيطرة على الحجاز وبقية ما اسمي إثر ذلك بالعربية السعودية. وكانت الحرب الثانية ضد الجيش المصري في اليمن الذي حمى الجمهورية اليمنية الأولى، وهو التواجد الذي أدى إلى عدوان 1967. فلم يكن للمركز الرأسمالي العالمي أن يطيق وجود جيش أكبر دولة عربية قرب منابع النفط. أما المرة الثالثة، فهي التحشيد السعودي لحرب بين السنة والشيعة في الوطن العربي. وهي حرب، إن حصلت، فهي مثابة كارثة لن تتوقف إلى يوم القيامة، ولن تكون حرب دول بقدر ما هي حرب أسر وعشائر وعائلات حيث هناك ملايين الأسر المكونة من سنة وشيعة. هي حرب سيقود حصولها إلى تخلف أبدي ومطلق للأمة العربية، ودمار على إيران، وقد يكون الكاسب الثاني منه تركيا ومن ثم إثيوبيا.
إن نفس الأنظمة العربية التي استحلفت النظام الأميركي "بالله" أن يدمر عراق صدام حسين عام 1991، وأن يقتل بالحصار أكثر من مليون عراقي، "دون تفريق بين سني وشيعي" ويحتل عراق صدام حسين عام 2003، ويسقط النظام المتهم بانحيازه للسنّة، هي نفسها التي تزعم اليوم الثأر للسنة في العراق ومساندتهم. ألا يثير هذا حفيظة أي إنسان يحترم عقله وإنسانيته؟
لقد استثمرت هذه الأنظمة العربية إعدام الرئيس صدام حسين حيث كان المنسوب العاطفي للجمهور العربي عالياً جداً سواء كعرب أو كمسلمين، هذا مع التذكير بأن الإسلام ليس للعرب ولا للعرب السنة وحدهم. كان الإستثمار خبيثاً أكثر مما كان ذكياً. فالأنظمة نفسها لا تحترم جمهورها الذي تحركه اليوم للثأر لاغتيال الرئيس صدام حسسن، لا بل إن التي لم "تعجبها" طريقة الإعدام، لم تجرؤ حتى على اللوم، وهي نفسها طالما ترجَّت أميركا لإسقاط الرجل ونظامه. نعم بدأ التحشيد العلني ضد إيران فوراً بعد عملية الإغتيال، بمعنى أن التحشيد كان قائماً في السر.
لا شك أن موقف النظام الإيراني من عملية الإغتيال كان سيئاً وبمستوى عقلية عشائرية متعصبة وطائفية. ليس هذا موقف نظام حكم ودولة حتى من وزن المشيخات او جمهوريات الموز. لم يكن مطلوب من إيران أن تحمي صدام حسين، ولكن كان عليها أن تقف موقف دولة لتقول مثلاً: "كان عدونا، وكنا سنعدمه لو قدرنا، ولكننا ندين إعدامه يوم الأضحى، وعلى يد اميركا". فالإعلام المتشفي لا يليق بدولة. وهذا التشفي قد يشِفُّ أو هو امتداد لتربية دابت الدولة على تعبئة مواطنيها بها، وهي تربية طائفية متخلفة، وجد نظام الحكم نفسه في موقف إذا لم يتشفى، فكأنه خان جمهوره الذي اقام علاقته به على مثل هذا المستوى. وفي هذه الحالة فالوضع كارثي.
ما من أحد يستنكر إدانة موقف إيران من الإعدام، ولكن توظيف الأمر ليخدم حرباً إمبريالية في المنطقة، فهذه الكارثة بعينها.
ولعله من ثالثة الأثافي أن يقوم من اغتال الرئيس صدام حسين، اي النظام الأميركي، بتوجيه نقد فوقي لعملية الإغتيال، كمن يقول هكذا فعل عملائي، وما هكذا تورد الإبل!

توظيف الأمر في مشروع الشرق الأوسط
ليس جديداً أن عملية الإغتيال أميركية قلبا وقالباً. وعليه، فإن إثارة نعرة الطائفية، تهدف إلى اصطفاف طائفي على طول الوطن وعرضه، وهذا الإصطفاف إستبدالي بلا مواربة، استبدالي على مستويين على الأقل:
الأول: إستبدال العدو الأميركي والصهيوني بإيران. لا بل إن مجرد مقارنة الطرفين ببعضهما البعض، هو هروب إلى الأمام، وتضييع للهدف ومكافئة للعدو الحقيقي.
والثاني: إستبدال العدو الداخلي، اي الأنظمة العربية بإيران ايضاً.
فالأنظمة العربية تقمع الأمة بأسرها، أو لنقل أهل الوطن كي لا نتهم بالتمييز بين كرد وعرب وأمازيغ وغيرهم، لا بل هي تحتل الوطن، وتعيق التنمية وتمتهن الكرامة، وتتخلى عن ما وقع من الوطن تحت الإحتلال، وتعرض أهل هذا الوطن أمام العالم كما لو كانوا قطعاناً وسائمة وبهائم. صعب هذا الكلام، نعم، ولكنه حقيقي! فهل يخفى بعد هذا أن معركة أهل هذا الوطن هي مع الأنظمة الحاكمة ومع خالقيها وحُماتها من المركز الرأسمالي والصهيوني؟
إن إغراق الوطن في حرب طائفية سيقود إلى تنفيذ مشروع الشرق الأوسط الكبير "كسوق" مفتوح لمنتجات المركز، وتفكيك كل قطر من داخله إلى منعزل طائفي أو إثني متقاتل مع الكانتونات المجاورة، وعندها يتحول الكيان الصهيوني إلى القوة الوحيدة التي تدير شؤون الكانتونات العربية التي قد يربو عددها حينذاك على المئة.

النووي الإيراني
هناك جدل كبير حول حدود ديمقراطية النظام الإيراني. فهو نظام إسلام سياسي يمنع اية تيارات أو رؤى أخرى. لكن هذا شأن إيراني داخلي. فإذا كان لأحد أن ينقد هذا النظام، فليست الأنظمة العربية بكل تأكيد. كما أن إيران مدانة باحتلال الأحواز، وجزر طنب الصغرى والكبرى وابو موسى. هذا مع العلم أن إيران حينما احتلت هذه الجزر كان ذلك بموافقة نفس المركز الرأسمالي الذي يدعو السنة لمحاربة الشيعة، حيث كان لا بد من مكافئة الشاه. ومدانة إيران في موقفها من إغتيال الرئيس صدام حسين. ولكن إيران هي التي سلّحت حزب الله الذي مسح هزيمة خلّفتها أنظمة الحكم السنية! قد يكون في هذا تكتيكاً، لا بأس، ولكن هذا ما حصل حتى اليوم. ومع ذلك، لا نبرر لإيران عدوانها باحتلال الأهواز، ولكننا لا نتصور أنها في مقام العدوان الأميركي والصهيوني، كما أن المعركة بالتأكيد ليست معها.
لا يخفى على أحد الدور الإيراني في العراق، ومحاولاتها لجعل جنوب العراق وحتى وسطه امتداداً حيوياً لها. وهي أمور مدانة ومرفوضة، ولكن السؤال الأهم لماذا تحصل؟ لماذا بوسع إيران أن تشكل ذلك الخطر والتهديد؟ اليس لأن الوطن العربي مجزّء. فلو كان الوطن العربي موحداً، لكان للعرب مجال حيوي داخل إيران، أو على الأقل لكان هناك حسن جوار. من الذي مزق الوطن العربي، ومن الذي حافظ على التجزئة ورعاها، ومن الذي يعمل اليوم على إعادة تمزيق هذا الوطن؟
أليس الإستعمار وأنظمة الحكم العربية؟
لقد اقام النظام الإيراني دولة قوية إقليمياً، لها مصالح وتطلعات وأطماع، وهذه أمور مألوفة في السياسة الدولية. وبالتوازي وفرت لها الأنظمة العربية واقعاً عربياً ممزقاً، اي فراغاً بحجم الوطن العربي. فراغ بحاجة إلى من يملئه، بل فراغ تملئه الراسمالية المركزية المعولمة. وهو ما حفز إيران لترى في نفسها طرفاً بوسعه ملىء هذا الفراغ، أو اقتسامه.
صحيح أنه بالمفهوم الأخلاقي لا يحق لإيران التفكير في هذا. ولكن ما ابعد السياسة والمصالح في المجتمعات الراسمالية عن الأمور الأخلاقية! فلماذا نطالب إيران أن تكون ملاكاً؟ ولا نسأل الشياطين لماذا عرضوا مفاتن هذا الوطن لإيران وغيرها!
بقدرة قادر تنبهت الأنظمة العربية إلى النووي الإيراني، سواء كان مدنياً أم عسكرياً، واصطفت إلى جانب الهجوم الأميركي-الصهيوني المتوقع على إيران. وأغمضت عيونها عن النووي الإسرائيلي المقام في قلب الوطن العربي. هذا من جهة، ومن جهة ثانية، لماذا ليس هناك نووياً عربيا؟ بل ابعد من هذا، أليست نفس الأنظمة السنية العربية هي التي "أخبرت" أميركا أن النظام العراقي يقيم ترسانة نووية؟ وحينما ضرب الكيان الصهيوني مفاعل تموز العراقي، يعلم الله كم دولة عربية فتحت أجوائها للمعتدين. ماذا نقول غير هذا وبعده! .

أخطأت الأنظمة، فهل أخطأ الجمهور؟
حينما يخون إمرؤ وعيه بوعي، هل يُغتفر له ذلك؟ هذا ما ينطبق اليوم على كل عربي يصطف في حرب الطوائف. ما معنى أن ننتقل إلى حرب جديدة، ونحن لم نتخلص من الهزائم المتراكمة منذ قرون؟ وأية حرب، حرب هي داخل الوطن، وليست على الحدود مع إيران. حرب ستكون في لبنان والبحرين والسعودية والعراق بالطبع، وكل قطر عربي.
قد يستغرب البعض أن تيارات إسلامية سلفية تغذي وتحشد لهذه الحرب، وهي تيارات نسي الناس لفترة أنها "حليفة للأنظمة العربية، وأن قادتها طالما أكدوا ان لا خلافات بينهم وبين الولايات المتحدة" يا للمفارقة، هل يمكن لحركة سياسية عربية أن لا تكون في تناقض مع الحكام العرب ومع الطبقة الحاكمة في الولايات المتحدة؟ وفوق هذا، تحاول هذه الحركة فتح حرب مع إيران.
لعل ثالثة الأثافي أن تيارات سلفية تدعو لمحاربة الشيعة في اقطار عربية لا يوجد فيها عدد من الشيعة مثل تونس، وربما لا يوجد فيها شيعي واحد مثل الأراضي المحتلة.
هذه الحرب كأي حرب، سيكون وقودها ملايين الفقراء من العرب، فهل يُغفر لأي مواطن المشاركة فيها؟ المشاركة في حرب ضد الذات وإلى الأبد، ولماذا ؟ لأن أعداء الشعب فتحوا باب هذه الحرب. كيف يمكن لمواطن عربي أن ينجر وراء هذه الأنظمة ولا يرتكب خطيئة ما بعدها خطيئة؟ أليس من المخجل أنه بعد هذا التاريخ الطويل من مصائب وهزائم هذه الأنظمة أن تجر الناس إلى احتراب داخل الديانة نفسها؟ ماذا سيفعل هؤلاء بالعرب المسيحيين طالما هم جاهزون لقتل الآخر على طائفته؟ ولكن هنيئاً لأعداء الشعب بجمهور من الغوغاء!!!
لقد فتحت الولايات المتحدة والغرب الراسمالي والحكام العرب حرباً "دينية" في أفغانستان بحجة مواجهة الشيوعية، وماذا كانت النتيجة ؟ دمار لا قيام بعده لأفغانستان، واستخدام مهين للإسلام في خدمة راس المال، وتوليد ظواهر دموية لم تتوقف ولم تنحصر في افغانستان نفسها. فهل تقل جريمة من أُستخدموا عن جريمة من استخدموهم؟
وها هو الاستخدام يتكرر اليوم ويبدي الكثيرون تجاوبا معه، فهل يُلدغ المؤمن من جحر مراراًً؟ إن من يدعو لقتال إيران هو نفس المعسكر، وفي بعض الحالات نفس الحكام ، وبالطبع نفس الأنظمة.
إن المهزوم فقط هو الذي يفتح معارك جديدة، هروباً من معارك قائمة لم تُغلق بعد. ولا يغير من هذا الأمر وجود لون جديد للحرب المفترضة، اي استشارة النعرة الطائفية (وتركيبها على بعد قومي- اقليمي). مثل هذه التوليفه الخطرة، عائدة إلى اسباب عديدة، منها ضحالة الوعي وسهولة استخدامه، ومنها جهالة، وسطحية ونزوع للتفريغ عن حياة فردية مأزومة في كل المستويات، سواء كانت الأزمة اقتصادية، جنسية حرياتية ثقافية...الخ. ولعل أخطر نتائج الأزمة هي معالجتها بالانفعال وليس بالتحليل، اي معالجتها بالهروب إلى أزمة أخرى، وما أسهل هذا والعدو متنبه لفتح أبواب أزمات أخرى.
بصراحة، نحن الأمة الوحيدة التي ما زال أعداؤها يقودونها إلى حتفها وبادوات قديمة وبالية (الطائفية، الثأر، القبائلية) أدوات فاتها العصر وما زالت تصلح عندنا. يقودها أعداؤها إلى الحرب التي يريدون ويختارون، فهل هناك أجهل من هذا الجهل! وهم الأعداء أنفسهم الذين اقتطعوا الأحواز لإيران والإسكندرون لتركيا وسبتة ومليلة لإسبانيا، وفلسطين للكيان الصهيوني، وأمس اقتطعو الصومال لإثيوبيا. وهم أنفسهم الذين قتلوا الانتفاضة الأولى وحالو دون انتشارها عربياً، واستماتوا كي يُهزم حزب الله ولا ينتشر كظاهرة عربية. وبعد هذا، سنحارب إيران!
وفي خضم استعداد الكثيرون لاستحضار الجاهلية، تنجح الأنظمة العربية نفسها في استحضار العدو الشيوعي السابق، ولكن هذه المرة في ثوب روسيا الجديدة، اي المعادية للشيوعية. يدور الحديث اليوم عن ضرورة مواجهة المحور الروسي-السوري-الإيراني. فهل هذا المحور، إن وجد موجه ضد العرب السنة؟ أو ضد موارنة لبنان، ومسيحيي فلسطين واقباط مصر؟ من الذي يمكن أن يقف ضد هذا التحالف؟ على الأقل لن يكون عربياً."

Habila is always campaigning for "office," any office.
He will be kissing babies soon.

Lebanon and the Middle East Crisis


A Long and Informative Interview

Gilbert Achcar
interviewed by Paul D'Amato

"THE PRESS here is portraying the opposition movement headed by Hezbollah in Lebanon, that is attempting to challenge the Siniora government, as a movement that is provoking sectarian conflict. What is your take on that? What is the character of the opposition, and what is it trying to achieve?

IT IS already a fact that the whole conflict is increasingly taking on a sectarian character. But it is not the sectarian or religious divide that we were accustomed to in Lebanon's past -- I'm referring to the fifteen-year civil war of 1975–90, which mainly pitted a predominantly Christian camp against a predominantly Muslim one -- although things were never as pure or as simple as that. The sectarian division this time is taking a form that is unprecedented in Lebanon: it looks more like an extension to Lebanon of the division that prevails in Iraq, opposing the two major branches of Islam, Sunni and Shiite. The tension between the two communities is indeed quite sharp at present in Lebanon itself......

THIS SEEMS like a shift since the Israeli invasion last year. After Hezbollah repulsed the aggression, Hezbollah were the heroes of the hour in Lebanon, and throughout the Middle East. It sounds like what you are saying is that things have shifted back again toward greater division. What accounts for it?

....For Hezbollah, the present political confrontation is absolutely vital. The party has been the target of Israel's attempt to destroy it. The attempt failed, but the project has not been discarded. Washington took over from Israel and is trying to continue the war by other means. It pressed for UN security council resolution 1701, through which it got NATO forces to deploy in southern Lebanon as standby forces to be used in case of domestic confrontation in the country; that is, in order to give a helping hand to Washington's partners. Since then, Washington has been constantly and actively pushing toward civil war in Lebanon. Actually, if one had to summarize Washington's policy toward Lebanon as well as toward Palestine, it could be accurately described as "incitement to civil war": civil war between Palestinians and civil war between Lebanese, not to mention the unfolding civil war in Iraq. In both Lebanon and Palestine, there is a force that Washington sees as a major enemy -- Hamas among Palestinians, Hezbollah in Lebanon. Behind these two forces, Washington targets Iran (Syria, too, but Iran is Washington's main concern). And in both countries there are partners of Washington: the "majority" and the Siniora government in Lebanon, Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas in Palestine.
......
.....(many more good questions and answers) "

Israel's liaison to its neighbors: Saudi Prince Bandar


An Important Story

"The key figure in Middle Eastern diplomacy is Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi Arabian National Security Adviser. Bandar is the man behind the Mecca agreement between Fatah and Hamas for the establishment of a Palestinian unity government. He was also active in calming the rival parties in Lebanon, and has tried to mediate between Iran and the U.S. administration. Two weeks ago he brought President George W. Bush up to date on his efforts, and last week he participated in a meeting of intelligence chiefs from Arab states with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, which took place in Amman the day after the tripartite meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem.

There are many indications that the prince, who served 22 years as Saudi ambassador to Washington, is behind the quiet slide his country is making toward Israel since the end of the second Lebanon war. In September, Bandar met with Olmert in Jordan. The secret meeting was made public in Israel later.

Since their meeting, Olmert has on a number of occasions commended the Saudi peace initiative of 2002, to which Bandar contributed actively.

Israel opposed the Mecca agreement, but Olmert decided to soften the criticism and describe it as an "internal Palestinian agreement." The Prime Minister justified the decision, in part by expressing concern that strong criticism would be construed as an insult to Saudi Arabia and might lead it to alter its position on Iran.

Not first encounter

Bandar's meeting with Olmert was not the first encounter of the Saudi prince with the Israeli establishment. According to statesmen, senior military officers and former intelligence officers, Bandar has had contact with Israel at least since 1990. Bandar was careful to keep his distance from Israeli ambassadors to Washington, and opted for links to Israel that did not operate along the diplomatic channels. The Saudi prince, who is celebrating his 58th birthday, had dedicated his career to furthering stability in the Middle East, which is in the interest of the Saudi kingdom.

His talks with Israelis focused on two subjects: blocking strategic threats from Iraq during the 1990s and from Iran today, and furthering the peace process between Israel, Syria and the Palestinians. Saudi Arabia is particularly sensitive to the Palestinian issue. The weekly cabinet meetings in Saudi Arabia, which take place every Monday and are led by King Abdullah, always begin with a long report on the "Palestine situation," and only then does the meeting move on to other governmental affairs.

In a biography of Bandar, "The Prince", which was published four months ago in the U.S., there is no mention of his meetings with Israelis. But the prince does explain how his interest in Israel began many years ago. It started when he was undergoing pilot training in Britain in 1969 and met another pilot who presented himself as an Israeli......."

***

Seymour Hersh in his latest article (posted on this blog) identified Bandar as the key figure behind a new and aggressive Saudi role in the region, at the behest of the Bush administration. Saudi money and U.S. intelligence are arming and financing a variety of "Sunni" groups (some linked to Al-Qaida) to fight Hizbullah in Lebanon and conduct terrorist attacks in Iran.

So, the FAMAS "government" is the brainchild of Prince Bandar; what can be bad about that? Celebrate, now!

Read All About it: The Saudi "Peace" Plan is Being Written in Tel Aviv


Israel pushing to improve Saudi peace initiative ahead of Riyadh summit

"Israel is expecting the Arab League to adopt an improved version of the Saudi peace plan at a summit meeting called for the end of this month in Riyadh, senior government sources told Haaretz on Thursday.

"We understand that the intention is to improve the initiative and come up with a better offer," said one.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni presented Israel's demands Thursday. First and foremost, she said, Israel objects to the document's section on the Palestinian refugees, which was not part of the initial Saudi draft, but was added at the 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut.

"A new summit is in the offing, and they ought to know which parts [of the plan] are acceptable to Israel and what seems to us like an absolute red line," she explained in an interview with Channel 10 television.

Livni said that the original draft presented by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia "was, in my view, positive." That draft called for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders in exchange for peace and normalization with the entire Arab world.

"Admittedly, the initiative spoke of the 1967 lines, but I only wish we were in a situation in which the conflict was just a border dispute," she added.

The new article inserted at the 2002 Beirut summit, however, demanded a "just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem, to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194," and that resolution calls for allowing the refugees to return to Israel. It therefore contradicts Israel's vision of a two-state solution, which, explained Livni, calls for a Jewish national homeland alongside a Palestinian national homeland, with the latter serving as the solution for the Palestinian refugees.

Livni said that she has presented this stance in conversations with Palestinian representatives with whom she met over the last month. She reiterated it in an interview that was published in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam Thursday, in which she said bluntly, "It is impossible for Israel to accept the Arab peace initiative in its current formulation."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said a few times over the last few months that the Saudi initiative contains "positive elements."

The Riyadh summit, which was called by King Abdullah, is slated to take place on March 28 and 29. The agenda includes the Arab peace initiative, the Iranian threat and the communal tensions in Lebanon. Over the last few weeks, Abdullah has tried to mediate on all of these issues, with the goal of promoting regional stability......"

***

Palestinians: Celebrate some more! If you liked the Mecca deal, you are going to love the Riyadh sequel, after you translate the deal from Hebrew to Arabic.

Long live Saudi-Israeli solidarity!

Life is good.....No dieting for these two
The weight of an Arab "leader" is usually proportional to his sense of power

Beware the Iraqi boomerang


By Ira Chernus
Asia Times

"The Iraq syndrome is headed America's way. Perhaps it's already here.

A clear and growing majority of Americans now tell pollsters that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a mistake, that it's a bad idea to "surge" more troops into Baghdad, that the US needs a definite timeline for removing all its troops.

The nation seems to be remembering a lesson of the Vietnam War: the US can't get security by sending military power abroad. Every time the US tries to control another country by force of arms, it only ends up more troubled and less secure.

But the Iraq syndrome is a two-edged sword, and there is no telling which way it will cut in the end.

Remember the "Vietnam syndrome", which made its appearance soon after the actual war ended in defeat. It did restrain the US appetite for military interventions overseas - but only briefly. By the late 1970s, it had already begun to boomerang. Conservatives denounced the syndrome as evidence of a paralyzing, Vietnam-induced surrender to national weakness. Their cries of alarm stimulated broad public support for an endless military buildup and, of course, yet more imperial interventions.

The very idea of such a "syndrome" implied that what the Vietnam War had devastated was not so much the Vietnamese or their ruined land as the traumatized American psyche. As a concept, it served to mask, if not obliterate, many of the realities of the actual war. It also suggested that there was something pathological in a postwar fear of taking US arms and aims abroad, that the US had indeed become (in the late president Richard Nixon's famous phrase) a "pitiful, helpless giant", a basket case.

Ronald Reagan played all these notes skillfully enough to become president of the US. The desire to "cure" the Vietnam syndrome became a springboard to unabashed, militant nationalism and a broad rightward turn in the life of the United States.

Iraq - both the war and the "syndrome" to come - could easily evoke a similar set of urges: to evade a painful reality and ignore the lessons it should teach the US. The thought that Americans are simply a collective neurotic head-case when it comes to the use of force could help sow similar seeds of insecurity that might - after a pause - again push US politics and culture back to a glorification of military power and imperial intervention as instruments of choice for seeking "security".......

Put the history of the Vietnam syndrome together with the enduring appeal of America's victory culture, and it's easy to see how the Iraq syndrome could boomerang too. Boomerangs can easily catch you unaware and give you quite a smack. When one might be coming up behind you, it pays to stay very alert."

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Dahlan: The Mecca Agreement has ended the rift between Fatah and Hamas and assimilated Hamas into the political system


Contributed by Lucia

"Gaza - Ma'an - Fatah's Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member, Muhammad Dahlan, who is also head of the interior and security committee in the PLC, affirmed on Thursday that president Mahmoud Abbas will meet with the prime minister designate Ismail Haniyeh next Saturday to discuss the developments in the formation of the coalition government.

Dahlan added, during a meeting with Palestinian journalists and writers in his office in Gaza City, that the Mecca agreement came to comply with Palestinian interests, as well as ending the infighting between rivals. He also welcomed the positive shift in Hamas' stance in preparing for assimilation into the Palestinian political system.

Dahlan updated the journalists on the circumstances that accompanied the Mecca agreement, especially the Saudi endeavors to subdue the obstacles between Fatah and Hamas. He also depicted his relationship with Hamas as positive, referring to the promising atmosphere which prevails in the Hamas-Fatah discussions and sessions in the Gaza Strip. He said that he had been personally calling for the assimilation of Hamas into the Palestinian political arena since 1996.

Israel, explained Dahlan, expresses denial and non-acceptance of the Mecca agreement through incursions and murder. "

***

"the positive shift in Hamas' stance" is a diplomatic way of describing the capitulation of Hamas; all that remains of Hamas is empty and useless rhetoric and praise for the rotten Saudi royals. That is why Hamas and Dahlan are getting along swimmingly. The resistance has ended, except for a few kids throwing rocks at Israeli armor. The only thing this "unity government" will do is to pathetically beg for a "solution." Olmert has his own ideas of what a solution looks like, and that is what the "Palestinian government" will get: reservations with a Palestinian flag.

Americans Have Lost Their Country


The Tragedy of a Dozen Evil Men

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch

"The Bush-Cheney regime is America's first neoconservative regime. In a few short years, the regime has destroyed the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers, the Geneva Conventions, and the remains of America's moral reputation along with the infrastructures of two Muslim countries and countless thousands of Islamic civilians. Plans have been prepared, and forces moved into place, for an attack on a third Islamic country, Iran, and perhaps Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon as well.

This extraordinary aggressiveness toward the US Constitution, international law, and the Islamic world is the work, not of a vast movement, but of a handful of ideologues--principally Vice President Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Lewis Libby, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Zalmay Khalilzad, John Bolton, Philip Zelikow, and Attorney General Gonzales. These are the main operatives who have controlled policy. They have been supported by their media shills at the Weekly Standard, National Review, Fox News, New York Times, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page and by "scholars" in assorted think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute.

The entirety of their success in miring the United States in what could become permanent conflict in the Middle East is based on the power of propaganda and the big lie.....

The Israeli relationship is perhaps even more important. In 1996 Richard Perle and the usual collection of neocons proposed that all of Israel's enemies in the Middle East be overthrown. "Israel's enemies" consist of the Muslim countries not in the hands of US puppets or allies. For decades Israel has been stealing Palestine from the Palestinians such that today there is not enough of Palestine left to comprise an independent country. The US and Israeli governments blame Iran, Iraq, and Syria for aiding and abetting Palestinian resistance to Israel's theft of Palestine......

When the American people caught on that the "war on terror" was a cloak for wars of aggression, they put Democrats in control of Congress in order to apply a brake to the regime's warmongering. However, the Democrats have proven to be impotent to stop the neoconservative drive to wider war and, perhaps, world conflagration.

We are witnessing the triumph of a dozen evil men over American democracy and a free press."

Bush's Theater of the Absurd


A Missile Defense System That Doesn't Work for Missiles That May Not Exist

By CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI
CounterPunch

"It has an appealing symmetry. George Bush is deploying a missile defense system that may or may not work to defend against nuclear weapons that might be fired from Iranian secret weapons sites that may or may not exist. This strategy is of a piece with the rest of George Bush's foreign policy strategies that have produced such successes as, for example, Iraq......

Notwithstanding the success of these tests, if a hostile missile were being fired towards one of our friends there would be a 60% chance of shooting it down. There would be a 40% chance of not affecting it. The good news is that that may not really make much difference. Iran (together with North Korea) is the country against whom the defense system is supposed to defend. It now turns out there may not be all that much to defend against and hence the fact that the system may not work may be of no consequence......

As a result of the foregoing, what the world now knows is that missiles that may not work will end up being deployed to defend against missiles launched from sites that may not exist. It proves, if proof were needed, that George Bush never runs out of ideas for pranks to play on the world. The pranks amuse not only the prankster but the sycophants who consort with him and enjoy playing major roles in George Bush's Theater of the Absurd. The audience is not amused. It's terrified."

To All Palestinians: Celebrate!
Olmert and Abbas Will Meet, Again, in Two Weeks to Continue "Dialogue"....
Meanwhile, Tighten Your Belts Another Notch And Send Congratulations to Habila.

From the Geniuses of Hamas.....


Resheq: Makka agreement historic chance before world to correct mistake

"DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Hamas’ senior political leader and member of its political bureau Ezzat Al-Resheq said on Thursday that Israel and its ally, the USA, were the main obstacles that hinder peace in the Middle East and not the Palestinians.

“We believe that the Israeli occupation government was and still is the main obstacle before achieving peace in the region for refusing to recognize the legal rights of the Palestinian people; and hence, the international community should exert pressure on it and not on the Palestinian people”, Resheq affirmed.

Resheq’s remarks came in a statement he made where he also asserted that the file negotiations was left to the PLO chairman and PA chief Mahmoud Abbas who, in turn, would present results of his negotiations before the new national council of the PLO or hold general referendum to endorse them.

In this regard, Resheq regarded the recently concluded Makka agreement as “historic chance” before the world to amend its mistake against the unarmed Palestinian people....."

***

Amazing insight! Now the "world" will see the errors of its ways and "correct" them, and the Palestinians will live happily ever after. Why didn't we see that for the past 90 years? I guess we needed the genius of Hamas and its "thinkers."

Support The Troops.....
Send Some More to Iraq.....

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

The Palestinian Resistance Was in Full Display in Nablus (West Bank) as the IOF Invasion of the City Continued....

By Tom Toles