Is it time for the west to engage with Hamas and Hezbollah?

Debate in Qatar this week between groups at heart of Middle East conflict adds weight to calls for international dialogue

Ian Black, Middle East editor, in Doha
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 May 2010

"Al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite TV network, rarely shies away from controversy, so it was not surprising that one of the most interesting sessions at its annual forum in Doha this week was entitled: Engaging Resistance: Choice or Necessity?

Anyone who follows the Middle East knows that Resistance, with a capital R in English and the definite article in Arabic (al-Muqawama), is shorthand for two movements that operate at the heart of the region's toughest conflicts: Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.....

Osama Hamdan, in charge of Hamas's foreign relations, responded by urging the US to stop treating Israel as a strategic asset, stop relying on "agents" (Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority) and to get over its aversion to dealing with Islamists. Ibrahim Moussawi of Hezbollah said given the choice between resistance and compromise, resistance was the obvious option. "When we face aggression," he said, "we have to defend ourselves."

Both proudly listed the achievements of their "asymmetric" struggle against Israel. Hezbollah is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its greatest victory ‑ Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon. Other landmarks include Ariel Sharon's unilateral "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the 2006 Lebanon war and last year's Cast Lead offensive, with all their human and material losses to a technologically superior enemy.

Both are implacably opposed to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which first under Yasser Arafat and then Mahmoud Abbas abandoned armed struggle for negotiations, resistance for diplomacy. Negotiations have been going nowhere, slowly and sporadically, for 17 years while Israeli settlements in the West Bank have more than doubled...."

Gaza Mission Activist: It's Just Like Facing Nazis

Al-Manar

"26/05/2010 Eight ships are already making their way through the Mediterranean towards the Gaza Strip in the framework of a European aid mission - with activists aboard the vessels likening their work to the anti-Nazi effort during World War II.

"We're helping the Palestinians, just like the Greeks helped during World War II against the Nazis," a Greek activist aboard one of the ships told Ynet Tuesday.

The mission was organized by Turkish group IHH as well as other leftist European organizations. The activists taking part in the sailing operation also expressed their fear that the Israeli occupation army will prevent them from arriving at their destination.

The Greek activist, university professor Vangelis Pissias, told Ynet that he is concerned about harm to human rights anywhere in the world.

"Just like we don't accept the Israeli behavior in Gaza, we will not accept it anywhere," he said. He added that the mission is an anti-violent act, and that participants only wish to offer aid to Gazans and bring the message that "we won't let any military force to keep them in prison."....."

Video: Freedom Flotilla to sail through Gaza siege

Press TV

Freedom Flotilla to sail through Gaza siege

PA collaborators Visit "Israel"

Palestinian police tour Jaffa neighborhood

Dozens of Palestinian Authority officers visit Tel Aviv district to learn about community policing model

Ali Waked

Published:

05.24.10, 16:12 / Israel News

Residents of Jaffa got to witness a rare site on the city's streets Monday, as dozens of Palestinian police officers visited the area for a tour by the Tel Aviv District Police to examine the possibility of adopting the community policing model in the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli police officers took their Palestinians guests on a tour of Jaffa, during which they visited the Ajami community center and the Peres Center for Peace.

The Palestinian officers learned from their Israeli counterparts of the police's work in Israel, and then dined at a local restaurant.

Despite the attempts to bring the parties together, the Palestinian officers did not befriend the Israelis and each of the parties ate its lunch separately. [Comment: who are these traitors fooling?]

كلمة السيد حسن نصرالله في احتفال 25 ايار

Sayyed Nasrallah's Speech on May 25, 2010.
(1 hr. 9 min.)


كلمة السيد حسن نصرالله في احتفال 25 ايار

The PA's disingenuous boycott campaign

A VERY GOOD EDITORIAL

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 25 May 2010

"In recent weeks, the US- and Israeli-backed Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has made a show of calling on Palestinians to boycott goods manufactured in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Despite the rhetoric of defiance and resistance, and exaggerated screams of anguish from Israeli settler groups, the PA effort actually appears designed to co-opt, undermine and abort the much broader Palestinian civil society campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), and to reassure Israel of the continued docility and collaboration of its puppet regime in Ramallah.....

BDS represents the broad consensus of Palestinian society, but the PA settlement boycott campaign actually violates and calls on people to defy the BDS call. During a photo opportunity where he affixed a sticker to the door of his house attesting that it was free of settlement goods, Abbas emphasized, "We are not boycotting Israel, because we have agreements and imports from it."....

The PA's insistence on abiding by agreements Israel constantly violates is further evidence -- if it were needed -- of the PA's terminal subservience......

....Notably this decree does not impose any penalties on Palestinian businessmen who sell goods and provide services to the settlers. In recent years credible allegations have repeatedly surfaced that a number of senior PA and Fatah officials, including most notoriously former PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, and their family members have grown rich from selling cement to Israel for construction of settlements and the apartheid wall .....

The PA is not just attempting to undermine the independent BDS and grassroots campaigns, but to co-opt them precisely because of their growing power, popularity and legitimacy as liberation strategies, in the hope that some of that legitimacy will rub off on the Ramallah regime....

The PA in Ramallah has, notably, offered no support to the courageous international flotilla currently en route to Gaza in another attempt to break the blockade amid threats of violence from Israel. Why has the PA not called on its "friends" and benefactors in the "international community" to send their navies to protect this peaceful, nonviolent flotilla and ensure it gets through to Gaza? In practice, PA policy amounts to full support for the siege.

Some people have been impressed by the PA's anti-settlement campaign considering it a "step in the right direction." But no one should be fooled. Palestinians and their allies should remain clearly focused on the simple truth that those who continue to coordinate with the Israeli occupation forces to hunt down Palestinians by night cannot don the mantle of popular resistance by day."

In Any Future War, Only Israelis Fleeing From Occupied Palestine May Be Safe

Al-Manar

NOTE:

I will post a link to Sayyed Nasrallah's speech as soon as it is available.

"....The Hezbollah chief set a new formula that will be adopted in any new war with Israel saying that Hezbollah will attack Israel-bound ships if the Zionist entity imposed a sea blockade on Lebanon. "When the world will witness how these ships will be destroyed in Palestine's regional water nobody will dare to go there just as they will block (others) from coming to our coasts," his eminence told thousands of supporters....

The Hezbollah chief divided his discourse into three parts: “The conflict with the enemy, the future, and position and formula which I am committed to and which will be added to the many formulae of confrontation with the enemy.”....

Sayyed Nasrallah said that some Arabs had been colluding against Lebanon before the 2000 pullout. “May 26 is another day and another different shape of the region. The Zionists realized this and Arab leaders as well. Israel revealed that some Arab official sides contacted Israeli counterparts to urge the Zionist entity not to withdraw with conditions. This is not strange because we know that in 2006, some Arabs contacted Israel and urged them not to stop the war so that Hezbollah and Lebanon would not come out victorious.”....

The Hezbollah Secretary General concluded his discourse with the new equation that the resistance will be committed to. “We will tell the Israelis to be afraid of us. If the war, which we do not want, yet we are not scared of broke out, it will change the face of this region – and Clinton agrees with me. We previously said that the Israeli home front has become exposed and vulnerable and we know everything about it, therefore we know where to strike. In 2006, and even before this date, there were times when the Israelis besiege our shores. Israeli vessels used to deploy in Lebanese waters and besiege our shore; so today we add the sea to the terrain. I am not announcing that we possess a new weapon, but in 2006 we destroyed the Saar 5 vessel. What I am saying is that if you besiege our shore and our ports in any coming war, all of your military and commercial ships heading to Palestine will be under the fire of the Islamic Resistance across the Mediterranean. We are talking about the Mediterranean but we have not mentioned the Red Sea yet. We are determined to enter this new domain God willing. No one will dare sail to any port in occupied Palestine....."

We will resist Israel’s attempts to stop us

Written by Free Gaza Team 25 May 2010

"....Reports coming from the Israeli Navy say they will jam the flotilla’s signals and communications, isolating those on board the ships, and barring the world from witnessing what could become a confrontation or prolonged naval stand-off.

The strategy of the Freedom Flotilla, however, is to resist any attempts by the Israeli Navy to hijack its ships or to divide cargo ships from passenger vessels.

“The message from Israel is clear: ‘We will stop you. And no-one can prevent us from stopping you.’ said Free Gaza chair, Huwaida Arraf.

“However, we will non-violently resist Israeli attempts to seize our boats. Thousands of people have contributed to making this flotilla a reality, and the people of Gaza are expecting us.

“We will not allow our flotilla to be divided. We will stay with our cargo ships – they are the core of the flotilla carrying essential construction materials denied entry into Gaza – cement, steel, and houses. This action is not a symbolic gesture but a concrete intervention to allow the people of Gaza to rebuild their lives with dignity’, emphasized passenger, Aengus O’Snodaigh, TD Sinn Féin party, Ireland

Ewa Jasiewicz added, "We are not breaking the law, we are upholding it. We are acting out of necessity to prevent a greater crime from taking place – the collective punishment of 1.5 million people imprisoned in Gaza. The international community is complicit in this collective punishment and must break its silence. Respect for international law is not optional, it is obligatory.’...."

"The Unspoken Alliance": New Book Documents Arms, Nuclear and Diplomatic Ties Between Israel and Apartheid South Africa

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman



"Israeli President Shimon Peres has denied reports he offered to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa when he was defense minister in the 1970s. On Sunday, the Guardian newspaper of London published top-secret South African documents revealing that a secret meeting between then-defense minister Shimon Peres and his South African counterpart, P.W. Botha, ended with an offer by Peres for the sale of warheads "in three sizes." The documents were first uncovered by senior editor at Foreign Affairs Sasha Polakow-Suransky, author of the new book The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa...."

Al-Jazeera Video: Reaction to 'Israeli nuclear weapons offer'

"For decades Israel has neither confirmed or denied it has nuclear weapons. But that policy of ambiguity now appears to have been undermined. South African government documents, once classified as top secret, are said to show an agreement for Israel to supply nuclear warheads in 1975, during the years of aparthied rule. Shimon Peres, Israel's incumbernt president was is alleged to have been involved in the deal 35 years ago, has been forced to make a strongly worded denial. Yossi Melman, an intelligence correspondent with the Haaretz newspaper, spoke to Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv about the claims. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Israeli 'nuclear offer' explained by investigator

"Sasha Polakow-Suransky, who uncovered alleged evidence of an Israeli offer of nuclear arms to South Africa, talks to Al Jazeera. Polakow-Suransky is also a senior editor at the Council on Foreign Relations. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - The Taliban's counter strategy

" With a recent string of high-profile attacks on prime targets in Afghanistan, is Taliban facing the Nato escalation with counter escalation? And what will be the impact on Coalition operations as some nations consider withdrawing their forces from Afghanistan? "

Real News Video with Transcript: Iraqi workers and occupation Pt. 3

EU Could Cut P.A Funds Should Talks Fail

"The European Union announced, Monday, that it may consider cutting funds allocated for the Palestinian Authority if talks with Israel continue to stall.

The statement was made during an EU meeting to discuss its budget for the next seven years.

The EU provides the Palestinian Authority (PA) with 300 million Euros annually...."

Greek cargo ship has left Athens, European passenger boat has left as well. Rachel Corrie on her way. Turkish boats to leave tomorrow.

freegazaorg

http://twitter.com/israelmfa. They need to hear from us and our outrage over what they have done to the people of Palestine

McChrystal Strategy Shifts to Raids - and Wali Karzai

Analysis by Gareth Porter

"WASHINGTON, May 24, 2010 (IPS) - Gen. Stanley McChrystal's team once talked openly about the need to remove Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother and the most powerful man in Kandahar, from power.
Last October, as reports of Wali Karzai's role in the opium trade were circulating, McChrystal's intelligence chief Gen. Michael T. Flynn said, "If we are going to conduct a population-centric strategy in Afghanistan, and we are perceived as backing thugs, then we are just undermining ourselves."

"The only way to clean up Chicago," Flynn declared, "is to get rid of Capone." The parallel between the legendary crime boss and Wali Karzai could hardly have been clearer.

But by the end of March, Dexter Filkins was reporting in the New York Times that U.S. officials had decided that Wali Karzai "will be allowed to stay in place".

That complete reversal on Karzai was the result of a decision by the U.S. military to deemphasise the much-touted promise of governance reform in the Kandahar operation and focus instead on Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids targeted against suspected Taliban leaders living in Kandahar City - operations for which McChrystal needs intelligence being provided by Karzai...."

Revelations will not make Israel give up its policy of ambiguity

By Donald Macintyre
The Independent

"Revelations in Sasha Polakow-Suransky's book that talks between Israel and South Africa on the sale of missiles and warheads took place a generation ago have turned a harsh new spotlight on Israel's long-held policy of ambiguity over its nuclear arsenal.

But while they come just as Israel faces renewed pressure to come clean about its status as a nuclear military power at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference in New York it would be a mistake to think that the game is yet up for that policy, which still enjoys wide, if not unanimous, acceptance in Israel itself....."

Even picnics in Israel are political

Our farewell picnic to Ezra Nawi before his prison term for peaceful protest carried a new message to most Israeli picnics

Neve Gordon
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 May 2010

".....As Nawi put it during the picnic, in a country where laws are immoral, civil disobedience is obligatory; therefore, he continued, it will not be long before more of you will join me in jail. As he walked away, I looked towards the soldiers who stood gazing at us from a nearby hill, wondering whether soon picnics, too, will be considered acts of civil disobedience."

How far should we let Big Oil go?

An alternative annual report for the oil company Chevron looks at the deep costs paid for the world's oil addiction

Antonia Juhasz
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 May 2010

"In the month since BP's oil rig exploded in the US Gulf Coast, what has struck me the most is not, unfortunately, the magnitude of the spill, the damage caused that is likely to continue for decades, the inability of BP or federal agencies to clean up – much less stop – the spill, or the revelations of BP's pre-explosion lobbying, which likely contributed greatly to the disaster taking place.
I have instead been most moved by the rapid, overwhelming and broad-based demand from people all across the US and the world for a fundamental rethinking of just how far they are willing to let Big Oil go in pursuit of the world's remaining oil...."

Israel's nuclear weapons: Time to come clean

(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)

Israel must abandon its obfuscations on nuclear weapons to move towards a true nuclear settlement in the Middle East

Editorial
The Guardian, Tuesday 25 May 2010

"Israel has long based its security policy on the preservation of its monopoly of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. It seems to regard this monopoly as an entitlement so self-evident as to need no examination, whether at home or abroad, and has invented a doctrine of ambiguity, under which it neither denies nor confirms its nuclear status, as a means of preventing, or at least staying aloof from, any discussion. Among the many matters which Israel has concealed, documents suggest, was a readiness to consider the transfer of nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa, something at variance with Israel's insistence that it has always been a responsible state.

But the great value of the research into the dealings between Israel and South Africa which the Guardian has published this week is not simply that it puts on the record that Israel does indeed have nuclear weapons, nor that it might in the past have thought about handing such weapons to another state, but that it allows us to get beyond the "do they or don't they?" questions to look at the fundamentals of both Israeli and American policy.....

Both America and Israel believe that Israel should retain its nuclear weapons while Iran should not be allowed to acquire them. With the Brazilian and Turkish scheme for the transfer of nuclear material spurned and tougher UN sanctions against Iran on the way, this is an unexamined contradiction which undermines much Middle Eastern diplomacy and cannot be for ever skirted. It is impossible to imagine even the first steps towards a true nuclear settlement in the Middle East without Israel abandoning its obfuscations on nuclear weapons and admitting, as other nuclear powers do, that security is a collective as well as an individual matter."