بقلم: صالح النعامي
"بدت الصورة واضحة وجلية، حكومة سلام فياض تستنسخ تجربة جيش لبنان الجنوبي الذي كان يقوده العميل أنطوان لحد، والذي انهار بعد انسحاب جيش الاحتلال من جنوب لبنان في العام 2000.
لا يوجد ثمة فرق بين ما كان تفعله القوات اللحدية وبين ما تعكف عليه حالياً الأجهزة الأمنية التابعة لحكومة فياض. فهناك تكامل في أنشطة القمع التي تقوم بها هذه الأجهزة وجيش الاحتلال ضد حركات المقاومة العاملة في الضفة الغربية، بحيث تبدو معالم التقاسم الوظيفي بين الطرفين واضحة تماماً.
فلو أخذنا مدينة نابلس على سبيل المثال التي أعلنت حكومة فياض أنها ستكون المدينة الأولى التي ستطبق فيها الخطة الأمنية لوجدنا أنه في الوقت الذي يقوم فيه جيش الاحتلال بحملات الاعتقال في أحياء من المدينة ضد نشطاء المقاومة، تقوم أجهزة حكومة فياض بحملات مماثلة في أحياء أخرى من المدينة في نفس الوقت. ادعاءات حكومة فياض أن أجهزتها الأمنية تتعرض للمسلحين المسؤولين عن حالة الفلتان الأمني في المدينة، تم نسفها من قبل وزير الداخلية في هذه الحكومة عبد الرزاق اليحيى الذي قال أن هذه الحملة تأتي تنفيذاً لالتزام السلطة الفلسطينية للحكومة الإسرائيلية بتفكيك الأذرع العسكرية لحركات المقاومة في الضفة الغربية. ليس هذا فحسب، بل أن اليحيى يفاخر بأن السلطة أقدمت على ما أقدمت عليه ضمن تنفيذها لالتزاماتها في خطة " خارطة الطريق " التي تفرض على السلطة تفكيك حركات المقاومة وجمع سلاحها ومحاربة التحريض ضد إسرائيل في المؤسسات الدينية ووسائل الإعلام ومناهج التدريس.
شهادتان هامتان
اللافت أنه حتى أكثر المقربين من أبو مازن باتوا يقرون أن حكومة سلام فياض تعيد تجربة جيش لبنان الجنوبي. ففي مذكرة أعدها بالتعاون مع عدد من الباحثين الإسرائيليين، يقول الدكتور غسان الخطيب الذي تولى عدة مناصب وزارية في حكومات ابو مازن " بلغنا حالة تذكر الكثيرين بجيش لبنان الجنوبي، الذي أنشأته إسرائيل لتعزيز مصالحها الأمنية في احتلالها للبنان. ومثال على ذلك الوضع في نابلس حيث تريد السلطة الفلسطينية استئناف مسؤولياتها الأمنية، ولكن فيما تسمح إسرائيل بتعزيز الشرطة الفلسطينية في نابلس، يواصل جيشها توغلاته في المدينة.. وبوسع مثل هذا الوضع أن يزيد في إفقاد السلطة صدقيتها في عيون شعبها وتشجع المقارنة مع جيش لبنان الجنوبي "، على حد تعبير الخطيب.
الباحث الإسرائيلي والعقيد المتقاعد داني ريشف الذي شارك في إعداد المذكرة مع الخطيب يؤكد أن هناك تشابهاً كبيراً بين الأجهزة الأمنية التابعة لحكومة سلام فياض وجيش أنطوان لحد. شهادة ريشف تكتسب أهمية خاصة لأنه كان من الضباط الإسرائيليين الذين أشرفوا على تشكيل جيش لبنان الجنوبي في حينه. ويقول ريشف " أن الأجهزة الأمنية التابعة لأبي مازن تعاني من بعض أعراض ظهرت في حينه في جيش لبنان الجنوبي». ويضيف ريشف أن «القوتين العسكريتين دربتا وجهزتا من جانب قوات أجنبية لمواجهة أجنحة في مجتمعها وليس لمواجهة عدو خارجي. ومهما كانت صدقية المبرر المحلي، فإنه يتقوض عندما تعمل لمصلحة قوى أجنبية ". ويؤكد ريشف أن شرعية أجهزة عباس تتساوى بالضبط مع شرعية جيش الميلشيات اللحدية، حيث يشير الى أن المجتمع الفلسطيني سينظر إلى أجهزة أبو مازن على أساس أنها أجهزة غير شرعية لأنها تخدم " عدو الشعب الفلسطيني الأول ".
بأي ثمن
اللافت أن مزاعم ابو مازن بأن استهداف حركات المقاومة في الضفة الغربية يأتي ضمن مشروع سياسي تسعى السلطة لإنجازه عبر التفاوض مع إسرائيل في مؤتمر " أنابوليس "، لا يصدقها حتى فياض نفسه، الذي قال في لقاء مع عدد من محرري الصحف الفلسطينية مؤخراً أن مؤتمر " أنابوليس " محكوم عليه بالفشل الذريع. وحتى بدون أن يصدر فياض حكمه على " انابوليس "، فأن كل الدلائل تؤكد أن إسرائيل لن تسمح لأبي مازن بالحصول على أي انجاز مهما كان. بل على العكس، فإسرائيل تفرض المزيد من الإملاءات التعجيزية على أبو مازن، مثل مطالبتها بأن تعترف السلطة مسبقاً بأن إسرائيل دولة يهودية، وهذا يعني ضمناً ليس فقط تنازل السلطة عن حق العودة للاجئين، بل تبني مواقف اليمين المتطرف الإسرائيلي الداعي إلى طرد فلسطينيي 48 من أرضهم وإرغامهم. فالإسرائيليون يرون أنه عندما تعترف السلطة بأن إسرائيل دولة يهودية، فهي بذلك تقر بحق إسرائيل في اتخاذ كل الخطوات التي من شأنها الحفاظ على التفوق الديموغرافي لليهود، وأبرز الضمانات لتحقيق هذا الهدف – حسب الرؤية الإسرائيلية – إسقاط حق العودة للاجئين الفلسطينيين وانتزاع فلسطينيي 48 من أراضيهم، وهذا ما عبرت عنه بشكل صريح وزيرة الخارجية الإسرائيلية تسيفي ليفني.
اللافت أنه في الوقت الذي يحاول فيه أبو مازن تبرير عمليات القمع التي يأمر بارتكابها ضد حركات المقاومة في الضفة الغربية، بالرهان على مخرجات مؤتمر " أنابوليس "، فإن الأوساط السياسية والحزبية والصحافية في إسرائيل تجمع على أن الجانب الفلسطيني الذي سيغادر المؤتمر خاوي الوفاض، لدرجة دفعت المعلق الإسرائيلي حنان كريستال أن يعيد عبارته التي يكررها دائماً، حيث قال " حتى لو قدم أبو مازن رؤوس قادة حركتي حماس والجهاد الإسلامي على طبق من فضة لإسرائيل، فأنه لن يحصل على أي انجاز مقابل ذلك ".
بات في حكم المؤكد أن قدرة أبي مازن وفياض على مواصلة سياستهما الحالية ستكون محدودة جداً، فالشعب الفلسطيني الذي أطاح بكل التشكيلات العميلة لن يسمح بإعادة استنساخ تجربة " ميليشيا لحد " في الضفة الغربية. "
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Iraq's Laboratory of Repression
A Good Article
By Robert Parry
"The Bush administration is turning Iraq into a test tube for modern techniques of repression, from sophisticated biometrics that track populations to devastating weapons systems that combine night-vision optics from drone aircraft, heat resonance imaging and deadly firepower from the sky to kill suspected insurgents.
These high-tech capabilities, when mixed with loose rules of engagement that allow U.S. troops to kill Iraqis at the slightest sign of hostility, have contributed to what U.S. generals and a growing number of American journalists are hailing as an improving security situation. Or, as President George W. Bush reportedly told Australia’s deputy prime minister in September, “We’re kicking ass.”
U.S. forces have reported some success, too, in working with Iraqi paramilitary groups allied with Sunni sheiks, a strategy similar to operations used in El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980s to eradicate leftist guerrillas and their political backers.
Amid these developments and the more favorable U.S. news coverage of the war, some neoconservatives are giddy at the prospect of claiming some measure of victory in Iraq, especially after years of facing hostility from Americans over the worsening carnage, including the deaths of more than 3,800 U.S. soldiers.....
The harsh repression surrounding the “surge” has drawn far less U.S. press attention. The grim reality, however, is that an increasingly desperate American military has stepped up its indiscriminate killing and jailing of Iraqis, especially “military-age males” or MAMS......
During a summer 2007 trip to Iraq, Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies was briefed on U.S. plans to dramatically expand the number of Iraqis in American detention by the end of 2008.
“The detainees have risen to over 18,000 and are projected to hit 30,000 (by the U.S. command) by the end of the year and 50,000 by the end of 2008,” Cordesman wrote in his trip report, adding that the vast majority were Sunnis. “Shiite detainees are often freed while Sunnis are warehoused,” he wrote......"
Likelihood of Iran Attack Gains Credence
Rumors of (More) War
By DAVE LINDORFF
CounterPunch
"As someone who has been writing about this crazed administration's plans to launch an attack on Iran now for over a year, I have always noted that the real sign that it might happen would be when oil industry analysts started to worry about it.
That's because the oil industry is probably more plugged into the inner sanctum of the Bush administration than any other entity. If the analysts, who have their fingers on the pulse of the oil industry, start worrying that an attack could happen--with the resulting shutdown of oil shipments through the Persian Gulf, from which the world gets roughly a third of its oil--then we need to take the threat very seriously.
While we haven't seen the kind of spike in oil futures prices that we would expect should that mad war begin--which would see oil soaring well above $200 a barrel--we are seeing oil rise to a record high of around $100 a barrel.
Now comes word from the respected newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor, that analysts are starting to factor a US attack on Iran into their thinking......
......but the US today is being led by two insane and desperate men, who may not care what any of those people think. With their domestic and international policies in ruins and their legacy a disaster, they may have decided to double up on their bet and just throw everything in with an air assault on Iran.
Keep watching those oil prices. If they start really bumping up from their current level, hold on to your Constitution--and get the hell out of dollars--because they're both going down."
By DAVE LINDORFF
CounterPunch
"As someone who has been writing about this crazed administration's plans to launch an attack on Iran now for over a year, I have always noted that the real sign that it might happen would be when oil industry analysts started to worry about it.
That's because the oil industry is probably more plugged into the inner sanctum of the Bush administration than any other entity. If the analysts, who have their fingers on the pulse of the oil industry, start worrying that an attack could happen--with the resulting shutdown of oil shipments through the Persian Gulf, from which the world gets roughly a third of its oil--then we need to take the threat very seriously.
While we haven't seen the kind of spike in oil futures prices that we would expect should that mad war begin--which would see oil soaring well above $200 a barrel--we are seeing oil rise to a record high of around $100 a barrel.
Now comes word from the respected newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor, that analysts are starting to factor a US attack on Iran into their thinking......
......but the US today is being led by two insane and desperate men, who may not care what any of those people think. With their domestic and international policies in ruins and their legacy a disaster, they may have decided to double up on their bet and just throw everything in with an air assault on Iran.
Keep watching those oil prices. If they start really bumping up from their current level, hold on to your Constitution--and get the hell out of dollars--because they're both going down."
"We Ask the World Not to Help Us" - Acclaimed Lebanese Composer, Singer Marcel Khalife on U.S. interference in Lebanon, War, Censorship and Art
Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
A Nice and Long Interview
Don't Miss it!
"......Marcel Khalife - world-renowned Lebanese composer, singer and oud player - joins us in our firehouse studio for an extended conversation on war, censorship, Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, U.S. interference in his country and much more. Khalife is a cultural icon of the Arab world and is sometimes referred to as the Bob Dylan of Lebanon. He has consistently opposed war, performed in bombed-out buildings during the Lebanese civil war, and passionately defended the rights of Palestinians. In 2005 he was named UNESCO's Artist for Peace.....
Khalife is a cultural icon of the Arab world, he is sometimes called the Bob Dylan of Lebanon. He has consistently opposed war, performed in bombed-out buildings during the Lebanese civil war, and passionately defended the rights of Palestinians. In 2005 he was named UNESCO's Artist for Peace.
During Israel's bombing of Lebanon in 2006 Khalife wrote to fellow UNESCO Artists for Peace. He said, "Nothing justifies our art other than to speak for those who cannot speak. This is the cause for which we dedicated our efforts, and the cause that endorsed our voices. We only wished to take it as far as we can, and vowed to release our work as songs of love for, and unity with, the victims of persecution everywhere."
Marcel Khalife is also no stranger to controversy and persecution. He is banned in Tunisia, was tried for blasphemy by a Lebanese court, and was denounced by Bahraini parliamentarians for "encouraging debauchery."
Most recently, a venue in San Diego canceled his scheduled concert claiming it would be "divisive" and "unbalanced" to host Khalife without an Israeli artist alongside him.
Khalife and his Al-Mayadine ensemble have just completed a 25-city tour of the United States and Canada. Marcel Khalife joins me now in the firehouse studio in New York......
AMY GOODMAN:..... This song, dedicated to Mahmoud Darwish, why do you dedicate him to him? Talk about his significance in your work.
MARCEL KHALIFE: At the beginning of the Lebanese civil war, in ’76, I was confined to my village, because of the political events. I was not in agreement with the political tribe in our area, so I had to stay indoors, in my house. In that retreat, I only had the Oud and books of Darwish......
MARCEL KHALIFE: ......In San Diego, this was the first case of an ethnic nature. They said this would offend the Jewish community, according to them. They said this concert would offend the Jewish community. They did not agree with the right of return of Palestinians because the sponsoring organization was the Right of Return organization. Its incredible that this happens in a country which claims a culture of democracy. They banned the concert in that venue, although they had already received a deposit on the payment. But we did not give in. Together with the audience, we moved to another venue. It was a major concert, a significant concert. Everyone came. I always like to say no - against this tide of misery and filth.......
MARCEL KHALIFE: Very briefly and quickly. We ask the world not to help us, because this assistance whether American, French, or anything else, is assistance to consecrate the confessional system. Because what we are doing today, whether we elect a president or not, the situation will remain the same. Let the Lebanese do away with their confessional system and transform it into a secular one. So that the Lebanese will be united under the banner of Lebanon. And not under the banner of the confession, or the sect. If the world would help us achieve this, then it would be saving Lebanon. But it is clear that the world is seeking to consecrate this confessionalism.......
AMY GOODMAN: During your concert here in New York, you talked about the bombing of Lebanon, the bombs provided by the United States.
MARCEL KHALIFE: I talked about smart and not so smart weapons. I did not invent it. As we saw, the U.S. tried to prolong the war as long as possible. This is truly regrettable.......
Why Israel Has No "Right to Exist" as a Jewish State
Thus Spoke Equality
By OREN BEN-DOR
(Oren Ben-Dor grew up in Israel. He teaches Legal and Political Philosophy at the School of Law, University of Southampton, UK)
CounterPunch
"......The same moral intuition that brought so many people to condemn and sanction Apartheid South Africa ought also to prompt them to stop seeing a threat to existence of the Jewish state as the effect caused by the refugee 'problem" or by the "demographic threat" from the non-Jew-Arabs within it. It is rather the other way round. It is the non-egalitarian premise of a Jewish state and the lack of empathy and corruption of all those who make us uncritically accept the right of such a state to exist that is both the cause of the refugee problem and cause for the inability to implement their return and treating them as equals thereafter.
We must see that the uncritically accepted recognition of Israel right to exist is, as Joseph Massad so well puts it in Al-Ahram, to accept Israel claim to have the right to be racist or, to develop Massad's brilliant formulation, Israel's claim to have the right to occupy to dispossess and to discriminate. What is it, I wonder, that prevent Israelis and so many of world Jews to respond to the egalitarian challenge? What is it, I wonder, that oppresses the whole world to sing the song of a "peace process" that is destined to legitimise racism in Palestine?
To claim such a right to be racist must come from a being whose victim's face must hide very dark primordial aggression and hatred of all others.How can we find a connective tissue to that mentality that claims the legitimate right to harm other human beings? How can this aggression that is embedded in victim mentality be perturbed?
The Annapolis meeting is a con. As an egalitarian argument we should say loud and clear that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state."
By OREN BEN-DOR
(Oren Ben-Dor grew up in Israel. He teaches Legal and Political Philosophy at the School of Law, University of Southampton, UK)
CounterPunch
"......The same moral intuition that brought so many people to condemn and sanction Apartheid South Africa ought also to prompt them to stop seeing a threat to existence of the Jewish state as the effect caused by the refugee 'problem" or by the "demographic threat" from the non-Jew-Arabs within it. It is rather the other way round. It is the non-egalitarian premise of a Jewish state and the lack of empathy and corruption of all those who make us uncritically accept the right of such a state to exist that is both the cause of the refugee problem and cause for the inability to implement their return and treating them as equals thereafter.
We must see that the uncritically accepted recognition of Israel right to exist is, as Joseph Massad so well puts it in Al-Ahram, to accept Israel claim to have the right to be racist or, to develop Massad's brilliant formulation, Israel's claim to have the right to occupy to dispossess and to discriminate. What is it, I wonder, that prevent Israelis and so many of world Jews to respond to the egalitarian challenge? What is it, I wonder, that oppresses the whole world to sing the song of a "peace process" that is destined to legitimise racism in Palestine?
To claim such a right to be racist must come from a being whose victim's face must hide very dark primordial aggression and hatred of all others.How can we find a connective tissue to that mentality that claims the legitimate right to harm other human beings? How can this aggression that is embedded in victim mentality be perturbed?
The Annapolis meeting is a con. As an egalitarian argument we should say loud and clear that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state."
Fallujah Now Under a Different Kind of Siege
by Ali al-Fadhily
Inter Press Service
"FALLUJAH - Three years after a devastating U.S.-led siege of the city, residents of Fallujah continue to struggle with a shattered economy, infrastructure, and lack of mobility.
The city that was routed in November 2004 is still suffering the worst humanitarian conditions under a siege that continues. Although military actions are down to the minimum inside the city, local and US authorities do not seem to be thinking of ending the agonies of the over 400,000 residents of Fallujah.
“You, people of the media, say things in Fallujah are good,” Mohammad Sammy, an aid worker for the Iraqi Red Crescent in Fallujah told IPS, “Then why don’t you come and live in this paradise with us? It is so easy to say things for you, isn’t it?”......
“This isolation has destroyed the economy of the city that was once one the best in Iraq,” Professor Mohammad Al-Dulaymi of Al-Anbar University told IPS. “All of the other cities in the province used to do their wholesale shopping in Fallujah, but now they have to find alternatives, leaving the cities businesses to starve,” he explained.
All of the residents interviewed by IPS were extremely angry with the media for recent reports that the situation in the city is good. Many refused to be quoted for different reasons......
Many residents told IPS that U.S.-backed Iraqi Police and Army personnel have detained people who have spoken to the media........
Fallujah General Hospital, situated across the Euphrates River from the city, is still functioning, but with a minimal number of specialist doctors and medical supplies. The only doctor who would speak to IPS did not want his name published.
“The manager of this hospital is a good man and he is trying hard to improve the services, but the Ministry of Health in Baghdad still treats us here as a bunch of terrorists. We are suffering both corruption from the ministry and ignorance about Al-Anbar Province from this (Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki) administration,” he explained. “We do not have enough medicines, and the equipment brought to us by contractors is still in boxes and seems to be part of the corrupt contracts of the province. It is impossible to work under such conditions.”......."
Ahmadinejad: Annapolis conference will hurt Palestinians
Iran asserts US-led peace summit will only serve Israeli interests, seeks to allay 'World's' fears regarding its nuclear program
"The Annapolis peace conference is doomed for failure and will only harm Palestinian interests, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday according to the IRNA news agency.
Apart from hurting the Palestinians, this conference will accomplish nothing," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem. The Iranian president added that "the summit's initiators want to establish relations between the Arab countries and the Zionist regime." ....."
"The Annapolis peace conference is doomed for failure and will only harm Palestinian interests, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday according to the IRNA news agency.
Apart from hurting the Palestinians, this conference will accomplish nothing," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem. The Iranian president added that "the summit's initiators want to establish relations between the Arab countries and the Zionist regime." ....."
THINKING GOOD THOUGHTS ABOUT GEORGE W. BUSH
"......Laura Bush bought George a parrot for his birthday.
She told Dick Cheney, "The bird is so smart! George has already taught him to mispronounce over 200 words!"
"Wow, that's pretty impressive," Cheney said. "But you realize that he just says the words. He doesn't understand what they mean".
"That's okay," Laura replied. "Neither does the parrot".
Can we deduct from the above that the President of the United States is a bird brain?"
The Middle East has had a secretive nuclear power in its midst for years
When will the US and the UK tell the truth about Israeli weapons? Iran isn't starting an atomic arms race, it's joining one
George Monbiot
Tuesday November 20, 2007
The Guardian
"George Bush and Gordon Brown are right: there should be no nuclear weapons in the Middle East. The risk of a nuclear conflagration could be greater there than anywhere else. Any nation developing them should expect a firm diplomatic response. So when will they impose sanctions on Israel?......
By refusing to sign these treaties, Israel ensures it needs never be inspected. While the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors crawl round Iran's factories, put seals on its uranium tanks and blow the whistle when it fails to cooperate, they have no legal authority to inspect facilities in Israel. So when the Israeli government complains, as it did last week, that the head of the IAEA is "sticking his head in the sand over Iran's nuclear programme", you can only gape at its chutzpah. Israel is constantly racking up the pressure for action against Iran, aware that no powerful state will press for action against Israel......"
George Monbiot
Tuesday November 20, 2007
The Guardian
"George Bush and Gordon Brown are right: there should be no nuclear weapons in the Middle East. The risk of a nuclear conflagration could be greater there than anywhere else. Any nation developing them should expect a firm diplomatic response. So when will they impose sanctions on Israel?......
By refusing to sign these treaties, Israel ensures it needs never be inspected. While the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors crawl round Iran's factories, put seals on its uranium tanks and blow the whistle when it fails to cooperate, they have no legal authority to inspect facilities in Israel. So when the Israeli government complains, as it did last week, that the head of the IAEA is "sticking his head in the sand over Iran's nuclear programme", you can only gape at its chutzpah. Israel is constantly racking up the pressure for action against Iran, aware that no powerful state will press for action against Israel......"
A warning shot for Iran, via Syria
By Gareth Porter
Asia Times
"The September Israeli air attack on a supposed nuclear facility in Syria - said by US officials to have been developed with assistance from North Korea - was all along intended as a warning to Iran. The message to Tehran, according to evidence now emerging, is that the US and Israel are capable of identifying its nuclear targets and penetrating air defenses to destroy them......"
Asia Times
"The September Israeli air attack on a supposed nuclear facility in Syria - said by US officials to have been developed with assistance from North Korea - was all along intended as a warning to Iran. The message to Tehran, according to evidence now emerging, is that the US and Israel are capable of identifying its nuclear targets and penetrating air defenses to destroy them......"
In Support of Abbas: Olmert Says no Peace until End to Hamas Rule in Gaza
Al-Manar
"20/11/2007 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday that any future settlement deal would not be implemented until the Palestinian Authority retakes control of the Gaza Strip. "There will be no implementation of the treaty before the roadmap commitments are all implemented," Olmert told journalists after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. "The commitments also apply to the Gaza Strip, (for the Palestinians) Gaza must be part of the Palestinian state and then, naturally, the Palestinians must fight terrorism, and that includes the Gaza Strip."
Olmert's meeting with President Hosni Mubarak came ahead of a US settlement conference later this month after Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Monday failed to reach agreement on a joint statement designed to serve as the basis for final status negotiations.
Washington called the meeting in the US town of Annapolis with the aim of jumpstarting settlement talks after a seven-year freeze, but expectations about its outcome have sunk amid the stalemate between the two sides.
"Both sides have made some progress on certain issues of the joint statement, but other issues still remain open," a senior Israeli official told reporters following the latest Abbas-Olmert talks.
"Nevertheless both sides seem ripe to reaching a joint statement at the Annapolis summit," he said. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah: "There are differences, the meeting was difficult, the differences remain and the teams are convening again tonight."
On Monday, Israel vowed to stop building new settlements in the occupied West Bank and said it would free 450 Palestinian detainees as a gesture to Abbas head of the US conference. Palestinian government spokesman Riyad al-Malki welcomed the decision, but said it was "insufficient." Palestinians have requested that Israel free some 2,000 of the 11,000 Palestinian detainees it is holding."
Monday, November 19, 2007
The International Call to Stop The Gaza Siege Now
To: windowintopalestine@gmail.com
I Join In Full Support of Ending the Siege of Gaza that is a genuine call to rescue the people of Gaza from the dramatically deteriorating living conditions resulting from the siege of Israel. I want pressure put on Israel by my Government and Other Governments throughout the world to Stop It Now!
We Join End the Siege (The Palestinian International Campaign to End The Siege on Gaza). And also we join to collect a million messages and signatures (and more) that call for Ending The Siege in Gaza.
We call on Window into Palestine a website to make available our petition and results at a convenient time in a good manner.
We urge everyone into mobilizing individuals and organizations from all around the world, especially from the USA, Europe and Israel, to support the campaign through distributing documents and materials about the devastating impact of the siege and by letting everyone know about Stop The Siege Campaign.
In ending we call upon the international community to utilize all methods available, to stop the collective illegal punishment imposed on the people of Gaza who have done nothing to deserve what is happening to them by Israel.
Sincerely,
Click Here to Sign Petetion
I Join In Full Support of Ending the Siege of Gaza that is a genuine call to rescue the people of Gaza from the dramatically deteriorating living conditions resulting from the siege of Israel. I want pressure put on Israel by my Government and Other Governments throughout the world to Stop It Now!
We Join End the Siege (The Palestinian International Campaign to End The Siege on Gaza). And also we join to collect a million messages and signatures (and more) that call for Ending The Siege in Gaza.
We call on Window into Palestine a website to make available our petition and results at a convenient time in a good manner.
We urge everyone into mobilizing individuals and organizations from all around the world, especially from the USA, Europe and Israel, to support the campaign through distributing documents and materials about the devastating impact of the siege and by letting everyone know about Stop The Siege Campaign.
In ending we call upon the international community to utilize all methods available, to stop the collective illegal punishment imposed on the people of Gaza who have done nothing to deserve what is happening to them by Israel.
Sincerely,
Click Here to Sign Petetion
SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH JORDAN'S KING ABDULLAH II
'Yes, We Do Have a Nuclear Program'.....
See for yourself!
Israeli Colonist Killed in the West Bank, Near Nablus
"A 29-year-old Israeli was killed Monday night in a shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Kedumim.
The man, a resident of Kedumim, was driving toward the settlement of Karnei Shomron in the northern West Bank, when gunmen in a passing vehicle opened fire, critically wounding him......."
66 Arrested in Washington State Blocking War Shipments At Port of Olympia
Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
"....AMY GOODMAN: More than four hundred antiwar demonstrators marched through Olympia, Washington Saturday to protest the war in Iraq and police brutality aimed at demonstrators in the past two weeks. Police beat back and repeatedly used pepper spray on peaceful protesters who were trying to stop military shipments to and from Iraq in the port of Olympia. At least 66 people have been arrested, 150 others badly injured since the protests began November 7th. On Saturday, demonstrators used non-violent direct action to block military equipment for 17 hours, forced a convoy back into the port.
Olympia Port Militarization Resistance is a group that was formed in 2006 by community peace activists. They wanted to "end their participation in the illegal occupation of Iraq by stopping the military use of the port of Olympia." Phan Nguyen as a member of Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, works as a IT specialist. He was arrested after participating in the non-violent protest in the port of Olympia in November 2006 and the port of Tacoma in March of 2007. Phan Nguyen joins us now from Seattle, Washington. We welcome you to Democracy Now!. Tell us what you have been doing in your group in the port of Olympia......"
Deception: British Reporter Adrian Levy on How the United States Secretly Helped Pakistan Build Its Nuclear Arsenal
Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
Don't Miss This Interview
"......Analysts suggest that the US is concerned over the rising threat of instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan and worried about the safety and security of the country's nuclear weapons. The New York Times revealed Sunday that the US has been using a $100 million dollar program to secretly help Pakistan guard its nuclear arsenal.
Adrian Levy is senior staff correspondent with the Guardian newspaper in the UK. He is the co-author of a new book on how Pakistan became a nuclear power. It's called "Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons." It discusses how five consecutive US administrations from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush have been complicit in building and protecting Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
Adrian Levy joins me now from London.....
AMY GOODMAN: Adrian Levy, you have written about how President Bush and General Musharraf had been very close and I want to wrap up with your revelation about how Pakistan has been encouraging the resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda and continues the nuclear black market.
ADRIAN LEVY: Absolutely. I think there is a false configuration coming out of the Pentagon which is that if Musharraf falls, the Islamists will take over and have their fingers on a nuclear trigger. This is a false argument put out in order to continue the client status of the Pakistan military with the U.S. military. In fact, if you analyze Musharraf's military record and look of his deeds rather than at the dogma, what you discover is the Pakistan military and Musharraf in particular, have been manipulating the Islamist faction......"
What do you mean when you say 'no'?
By Gideon Levy
"A festive day for peace: Israel is planning to announce a freeze on construction in the settlements as compensation for refusing to discuss the core issues......and the prime minister has already spoken with the settler leaders and informed them of the decision. They said it was a "difficult meeting," as it always is, winking at each other deviously.
Undoubtedly, Israel wants peace. But a tiny detail seems to have been forgotten: Israel has signed a series of binding agreements to freeze settlement activity, which it never intended to fulfill. Of the 40 years of occupation, only during three has construction been stopped despite all the agreements and promises to do so. There is no reason to believe that Israel will behave differently this time.......
The mountains of excuses, "settlement blocs" and "natural growth," as well as "beyond the fence" and "inside the fence," cannot conceal the naked truth: The enterprise has not ceased for a moment. It will not stop now. The hands of a quarter million settlers are soiled by iniquity and felony, but they are not the true guilty party. That belongs to all Israel's governments, with the exception of Yitzhak Rabin's second government. All of them have a hand in the iniquity.
Nowadays, when Ehud Olmert says no, what does he mean? Is the "no" really "no" - perhaps it is only "maybe but not right now?" In view of past experience, the bitter truth is that Olmert's "no," like all those before it, is more inviting than "yes." "
"A festive day for peace: Israel is planning to announce a freeze on construction in the settlements as compensation for refusing to discuss the core issues......and the prime minister has already spoken with the settler leaders and informed them of the decision. They said it was a "difficult meeting," as it always is, winking at each other deviously.
Undoubtedly, Israel wants peace. But a tiny detail seems to have been forgotten: Israel has signed a series of binding agreements to freeze settlement activity, which it never intended to fulfill. Of the 40 years of occupation, only during three has construction been stopped despite all the agreements and promises to do so. There is no reason to believe that Israel will behave differently this time.......
The mountains of excuses, "settlement blocs" and "natural growth," as well as "beyond the fence" and "inside the fence," cannot conceal the naked truth: The enterprise has not ceased for a moment. It will not stop now. The hands of a quarter million settlers are soiled by iniquity and felony, but they are not the true guilty party. That belongs to all Israel's governments, with the exception of Yitzhak Rabin's second government. All of them have a hand in the iniquity.
Nowadays, when Ehud Olmert says no, what does he mean? Is the "no" really "no" - perhaps it is only "maybe but not right now?" In view of past experience, the bitter truth is that Olmert's "no," like all those before it, is more inviting than "yes." "
How to Get Out?
The Joke in Annapolis
By URI AVNERY
CounterPunch
"The Annapolis conference is a joke. Though not in the least funny......
Somehow, the idea of a "meeting" of leaders to promote the Israeli-Palestinian "process" came up. An international meeting is always nice - it looks good on television, it provides plenty of photo-opportunities, it radiates optimism. We meet, ergo we exist......
That's why Bush did not go into any details: no clear aim, no agenda, no location, no date, no list of invitees. Just an ethereal meeting. This fact by itself testifies to the lack of seriousness of the entire enterprise.....
IF ALL these hopes were something more than pipedreams. None of them has any substance. For one simple reason: none of the three partners has any capital at his disposal.
Bush is bankrupt.....
Olmert is in an even weaker position. His coalition still survives only because there is no alternative in the present Knesset. It includes elements that in any other country would be called fascist.....
Mahmoud Abbas cannot move away from the conditions laid down by Yasser Arafat (the 3rd anniversary of whose death was commemorated this week). If he strays from the straight and narrow, he will fall. He has already lost the Gaza Strip, and can lose the West Bank, too.....
THE MAJESTIC mountain seems to be getting smaller and smaller by the minute. It's against the laws of nature: the closer we get to it, the smaller it seems. What looked to many like a veritable Mt. Everest first turned into an ordinary mountain, then into a hill, and now it hardly looks like an anthill. And even that is shrinking, too.......
Ehud Olmert demanded that, before any negotiations, the Palestinians "recognize Israel as a Jewish state". He was followed by his coalition partner, the ultra-right Avigdor Liberman, who proposed staying away from Annapolis altogether if the Palestinians do not fulfill this demand in advance......
WHEN THE leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine were about to sign the Declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, the document was not ready. Sitting in front of the cameras and history, they had to sign on an empty page. I am afraid that something like that will happen in Annapolis......"
By URI AVNERY
CounterPunch
"The Annapolis conference is a joke. Though not in the least funny......
Somehow, the idea of a "meeting" of leaders to promote the Israeli-Palestinian "process" came up. An international meeting is always nice - it looks good on television, it provides plenty of photo-opportunities, it radiates optimism. We meet, ergo we exist......
That's why Bush did not go into any details: no clear aim, no agenda, no location, no date, no list of invitees. Just an ethereal meeting. This fact by itself testifies to the lack of seriousness of the entire enterprise.....
IF ALL these hopes were something more than pipedreams. None of them has any substance. For one simple reason: none of the three partners has any capital at his disposal.
Bush is bankrupt.....
Olmert is in an even weaker position. His coalition still survives only because there is no alternative in the present Knesset. It includes elements that in any other country would be called fascist.....
Mahmoud Abbas cannot move away from the conditions laid down by Yasser Arafat (the 3rd anniversary of whose death was commemorated this week). If he strays from the straight and narrow, he will fall. He has already lost the Gaza Strip, and can lose the West Bank, too.....
THE MAJESTIC mountain seems to be getting smaller and smaller by the minute. It's against the laws of nature: the closer we get to it, the smaller it seems. What looked to many like a veritable Mt. Everest first turned into an ordinary mountain, then into a hill, and now it hardly looks like an anthill. And even that is shrinking, too.......
Ehud Olmert demanded that, before any negotiations, the Palestinians "recognize Israel as a Jewish state". He was followed by his coalition partner, the ultra-right Avigdor Liberman, who proposed staying away from Annapolis altogether if the Palestinians do not fulfill this demand in advance......
WHEN THE leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine were about to sign the Declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, the document was not ready. Sitting in front of the cameras and history, they had to sign on an empty page. I am afraid that something like that will happen in Annapolis......"
Thousands Protest U.S. Army’s “School of Torture, Murder”
"ATLANTA — Thousands of people demonstrated outside a big U.S. Army base on Sunday to demand the closure of a defense department training school they say promotes torture and murder in Latin America......
Protesters say it teaches security personnel from Latin American countries to use repressive tactics and that graduates have overthrown legitimate governments, citing a coup against Chile President Salvador Allende in 1973 as an example.
“Over the course of several decades people trained here have murdered and tortured hundreds if not thousands of people,” protester Bob Goodman of the Georgia Coalition for Peace and Justice said in an interview.
Goodman said 20,000 people attended the two-day protest. Monica Manganaro, a spokeswoman for Fort Benning where the institute is located, said there were 11,200 demonstrators and 11 people were arrested and charged with criminal trespass....."
UN aid chief attacks new Israeli checkpoint plan
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
Monday November 19, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
"The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees launched a scathing attack today on a new Israeli plan for a system of checkpoint terminals across the occupied West Bank. Karen AbuZayd, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said Israeli authorities had told them of plans to install six specially built terminals to check people and cargo, including aid deliveries.
She said it would hamper the agency's work and dramatically raise costs.
"An insidious new regime to limit freedom of movement is threatening to further stifle economic activity and smother social interaction between villages and towns in the West Bank," AbuZayd said today at a meeting of UNRWA donors in Amman, Jordan.....
"It is obvious that these new procedures will result in loss of time and an exponential increase in costs," AbuZayd said. There are already 563 obstacles in the West Bank, from permanent checkpoints to earth mounds, according to the UN.....
She said there were "indications" that staff would need special permits to enter Palestinian land between the pre-1967 war Green Line and Israel's new West Bank barrier, a stretch of land known as the "seam zone".
The course of the vast concrete and steel barrier puts around 10% of the West Bank and around 50,000 Palestinians on the "Israeli" side. The International Court of Justice advised in 2004 that the barrier was illegal where it crossed into the West Bank and should be removed......."
Further confirmation of US white phosphorus use in Fallujah
Wayne Madsen Report (in full)
November 19, 2007
"WMR has learned from U.S. military sources who participated in the 2005 "Siege of Fallujah" that U.S. troops used deadly "white phosphorus" (WP) on civilian targets. The Pentagon apparently used a loophole in the Chemical Weapons Convention that does not list white phosphorus in its annex as a chemical weapons. However, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilians or civilian areas. The convention defines an incendiary weapon as "any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat, or combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target." White phosphorus meets the definition of an incendiary weapon.
Some of the U.S. military personnel involved in the WP chemical attacks on Fallujah are now reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).
On November 7, 2005, WMR reported, "The editor has seen gruesome evidence gathered by the Italian RAI TV network documenting America's use of deadly and horrific white phosphorus weapons, including grenades, mortars, and artillery shells, on civilians in Iraq. Weaponized white phosphorus, also called "Willy Peter," literally melts skin upon contact.
However, the WP munitions used in Iraq have apparently been modified so that most of a targets' clothing is not burned but skin and bones are horribly melted. The results are fully clothed macabre corpses -- the intention of which is to frighten civilians and insurgents alike as an extreme form of psychological warfare operations (psyops). The editor also saw evidence that women and children were victims of WP weapons. Age and gender could be readily determined based on the clothing worn by the victims."
On January 18, 2006, WMR reported the link between the assassination of the number two man in charge of SISMI Italian military intelligence Nicola Calipari and the attempted killing of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who Calipari had succeeded freeing from hostage takers in Fallujah. The two were targeted by the U.S. military in a purposeful assassination on March 4, 2005 while they were en route to Baghdad International Airport after Sgrena was freed by her Iraqi insurgent captors. Both Italians had reportedly been given information by the insurgents about U.S. war atrocities committed in Iraq, including the use of WP against civilians, and other sensitive information that was embarrassing to the Bush administration.
Calipari's cell phone conversations to Rome had been monitored by the National Security Agency (NSA) and details of the explosive information from Fallujah was known to senior levels of the Bush administration. It was Calipari's cell phone signal that pinpointed his vehicle's location to NSA, thus resulting in the ambush by U.S. troops. Adrienne Kinne, a NSA Arabic linguist at the Regional Signals Intelligence Operations Center (RSOC) at Fort Gordon, Georgia, reported that a Baghdad hotel targeted by the U.S. military in Iraq also housed journalists. She reported that her supervisor revealed the target was to be bombed regardless of the presence of the journalists.
On October 25, 2007, an Italian court dismissed charges against the New York National Guardsman charged with killing Calipari."
Coup D'État Rumblings in Venezuela
by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, November 19, 2007
".....Events Are Ugly and Coming to A Head
Through the dominant media, Washington and Venezuelan anti-Chavez elements are using constitutional reform as a pretext for what they may have in mind - "to arouse the military to intervene" and oust Chavez, as Petras notes in his article titled "Venezuela: Between Ballots and Bullets." He explains the opposition "rich and privileged (coalition) fear constitutional reforms because they will have to grant a greater share of their (considerable) profits to the working class, lose their monopoly over market transactions to publicly owned firms, and see political power evolve toward local community councils and the executive branch."
Petras is worried and says "class polarization....has reached its most extreme expression" as December 2 approaches: "the remains of the multi-class coalition embracing a minority of the middle class and the great majority of (workers) is disintegrating (and) political defections have increased (including 14) deputies in the National Assembly." Add to them former Chavez Defense Minister, Raul Baduel, who Petras believes may be "an aspirant to head up a US-backed right-wing seizure of power."
The situation is ugly and dangerous, and lots of US money and influence fuels it. Petras puts it this way: "Venezuelan democracy, the Presidency of Hugo Chavez and the great majority of the popular classes face a mortal threat." An alliance between Washington, local oligarchs and elitist supporters of the "right" are committed to ousting Chavez and may feel now is their best chance. Venezuela's social democracy is on the line in the crucial December 2 vote, and the entire region depends on it solidifying and surviving."
Global Research, November 19, 2007
".....Events Are Ugly and Coming to A Head
Through the dominant media, Washington and Venezuelan anti-Chavez elements are using constitutional reform as a pretext for what they may have in mind - "to arouse the military to intervene" and oust Chavez, as Petras notes in his article titled "Venezuela: Between Ballots and Bullets." He explains the opposition "rich and privileged (coalition) fear constitutional reforms because they will have to grant a greater share of their (considerable) profits to the working class, lose their monopoly over market transactions to publicly owned firms, and see political power evolve toward local community councils and the executive branch."
Petras is worried and says "class polarization....has reached its most extreme expression" as December 2 approaches: "the remains of the multi-class coalition embracing a minority of the middle class and the great majority of (workers) is disintegrating (and) political defections have increased (including 14) deputies in the National Assembly." Add to them former Chavez Defense Minister, Raul Baduel, who Petras believes may be "an aspirant to head up a US-backed right-wing seizure of power."
The situation is ugly and dangerous, and lots of US money and influence fuels it. Petras puts it this way: "Venezuelan democracy, the Presidency of Hugo Chavez and the great majority of the popular classes face a mortal threat." An alliance between Washington, local oligarchs and elitist supporters of the "right" are committed to ousting Chavez and may feel now is their best chance. Venezuela's social democracy is on the line in the crucial December 2 vote, and the entire region depends on it solidifying and surviving."
Guards shot children dead after Afghan suicide blast, says UN
Mark Tran and agencies
Monday November 19, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Contributed by Lucia
"Many of the children who died in Afghanistan's worst-ever suicide attack were actually shot dead by bodyguards who fired indiscriminately into the crowd after the blast, a UN report said....
Sixty-one children, five teachers, six MPs and five bodyguards died in the attack. Ninety-three other children were injured, some critically.
One estimate said up to two-thirds of the 77 people killed and more than 100 wounded were hit by gunfire; other estimates put the numbers shot much lower.......
The UN report said bodyguards opened fire into the crowd for several minutes.
"It has been confirmed that eight of the teachers in charge of this group of school children suffered multiple gunshot wounds, five of which died," it said......"
Wars to Watch Out For
2008 will bring us an abundant crop of overseas crises
By Justin Raimondo
"As we approach the new year, a fresh crop of overseas crises threatens to spring up, like mushrooms after a rain, and the prospects for peace on earth, this holiday season, are dimmer than ever.....
.....As I have said before on several occasions, the Kurds are the most disruptive and unpredictable factor in the Iraqi jigsaw puzzle, which virtually ensures that the state smashed by U.S. force of arms almost certainly cannot be put back together again, no matter how much glue – in the form of U.S. troops and subsidies – is poured into the breach. Virulent Kurdish nationalism, unleashed by the American invasion and empowered by U.S. and Israeli aid and arms, is on the march, and every nation in the region is going to be negatively affected. It isn't going to be pretty, as the Turks have discovered to their sorrow and growing anger.......
Syria: I've been keeping a close watch on developments in Syria for years, in the belief that this is really the focal point of Israeli interests. Syria, after all, is where the Palestinian factions have been headquartered, and it is the front-line state that has provided support to the Palestinian resistance struggle. For more on Syria as an Israeli target of opportunity, read the now famous "Clean Break" scenario painted by prominent neocons now in high positions in the U.S. government......"
By Justin Raimondo
"As we approach the new year, a fresh crop of overseas crises threatens to spring up, like mushrooms after a rain, and the prospects for peace on earth, this holiday season, are dimmer than ever.....
.....As I have said before on several occasions, the Kurds are the most disruptive and unpredictable factor in the Iraqi jigsaw puzzle, which virtually ensures that the state smashed by U.S. force of arms almost certainly cannot be put back together again, no matter how much glue – in the form of U.S. troops and subsidies – is poured into the breach. Virulent Kurdish nationalism, unleashed by the American invasion and empowered by U.S. and Israeli aid and arms, is on the march, and every nation in the region is going to be negatively affected. It isn't going to be pretty, as the Turks have discovered to their sorrow and growing anger.......
Syria: I've been keeping a close watch on developments in Syria for years, in the belief that this is really the focal point of Israeli interests. Syria, after all, is where the Palestinian factions have been headquartered, and it is the front-line state that has provided support to the Palestinian resistance struggle. For more on Syria as an Israeli target of opportunity, read the now famous "Clean Break" scenario painted by prominent neocons now in high positions in the U.S. government......"
Why peace has no price
Is it possible for Tony Blair's economic measures for Palestine to succeed while Israel still controls society?
By Martin Woollacott
The Guardian
".....Nothing, however ambitious or well funded, will work unless the Israelis get out of their checkpoints and, more fundamentally, unless the essentially punitive system the checkpoints serve is dismantled. The checkpoints, more than 500 of them, supposedly filter out bomb carriers and armed opponents. But they are also the principal instruments of a system which allows the Israelis to control Palestinian society by alternating increasing and decreasing pressure on it, while the costs of the occupation are passed on to donors, most of them European. Their aid subsidises the crippled Palestinian economy that is the inevitable result of Israeli policies, keeping it just this side of total collapse. If it did not, and Israel itself had to pay to keep the Palestinians from starving, the effort would soon drag down the Israeli economy as well......
.....But the closures are not there in the first instance to trap or deter armed enemies, although they can have that effect. They are there as a way of swiftly increasing the level of pain among Palestinians, in the hope that Palestinian leaders will then deal more effectively with militant groups. The same philosophy of pain lay behind the attacks on Lebanese infrastructure last year, and now lie behind the power cuts and closures inflicted on Gaza......
.... Prosperity follows justice, not the other way round."
By Martin Woollacott
The Guardian
".....Nothing, however ambitious or well funded, will work unless the Israelis get out of their checkpoints and, more fundamentally, unless the essentially punitive system the checkpoints serve is dismantled. The checkpoints, more than 500 of them, supposedly filter out bomb carriers and armed opponents. But they are also the principal instruments of a system which allows the Israelis to control Palestinian society by alternating increasing and decreasing pressure on it, while the costs of the occupation are passed on to donors, most of them European. Their aid subsidises the crippled Palestinian economy that is the inevitable result of Israeli policies, keeping it just this side of total collapse. If it did not, and Israel itself had to pay to keep the Palestinians from starving, the effort would soon drag down the Israeli economy as well......
.....But the closures are not there in the first instance to trap or deter armed enemies, although they can have that effect. They are there as a way of swiftly increasing the level of pain among Palestinians, in the hope that Palestinian leaders will then deal more effectively with militant groups. The same philosophy of pain lay behind the attacks on Lebanese infrastructure last year, and now lie behind the power cuts and closures inflicted on Gaza......
.... Prosperity follows justice, not the other way round."
Open Letter to Sir John Holmes, UN Undersecretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
By Khalid Amayreh
"You must be aware of the nightmare now unfolding in the Gaza Strip. Gaza is simply dying a slow and painful death at the hands of the children and grandchildren of the Holocaust. This is not an overstatement or exaggerated description of a people long tormented by a sinister occupying power that is hell- bent on decimating them, using the basest and most inhumane of means, such as preventing food and other basic needs from reaching them.
I could go on and one and on describing and explaining the catastrophic situation in Gaza where on any given day, children and other civilians succumb to their illnesses because Israel and other neighboring countries wouldn’t allow them to leave the blockaded territory for adequate medical care.......
However, as a UN official whose responsibility includes overseeing the situation in Gaza and preventing a Nazi-like catastrophe from taking place in any part of the world, you are called upon in the strongest terms to immediately take pro-active and tangible measures to save Gaza’s helpless inhabitants from what looks a certain looming disaster, especially if the current draconian blockade continues......
Unfortunately and regrettably, the UN, too, is watching the tragedy in Gaza with passivity and a great modicum of indifference. This passivity, unethical and incompatible with UN Charter and ideals, serves only to embolden Israel to tighten its barbaric grip on that tormented region further and exacerbate the suffering of its people......
This week, many members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, vociferously protested their army’s failure to “completely paralyze Gaza,” with some lawmakers asking their government “why there is still life in Gaza, why there is still electricity in Gaza. We must make sure to them who are the masters!”
This shows that were it not for the international public opinion, Israel would emulate the Third Reich. We are talking after all about a state without conscience, without morality.......
Gaza is already a replica of Ghetto Warsaw. For God’s sake, we must not allow Israeli criminality, American acquiescence and international impotence to turn it into another Auschwitz."
Sunday, November 18, 2007
More Creative Destruction: US military strike on Pakistan advocated
"WASHINGTON: Two experts have proposed that the US should take pre-emptive action to secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons before they fall into the wrong hands.
Frederick Kagan of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute and Michael O’Hanlon of the more liberal Brookings Institution argue in an article published in the New York Times on Sunday that the US simply cannot stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the abyss. Nor would it be strategically prudent to withdraw US forces from an improving situation in Iraq to cope with a deteriorating one in Pakistan. While Pakistan’s officer corps and ruling elites remain largely moderate and more interested in building a strong, modern state, the same was true of Iran on the eve of the Islamic revolution. Pakistan’s intelligence services, the two writers maintain, contain enough sympathisers and supporters of the Afghan Taliban, and enough nationalists bent on seizing Kashmir from India, that there are grounds for real worries......"
Frederick Kagan of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute and Michael O’Hanlon of the more liberal Brookings Institution argue in an article published in the New York Times on Sunday that the US simply cannot stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the abyss. Nor would it be strategically prudent to withdraw US forces from an improving situation in Iraq to cope with a deteriorating one in Pakistan. While Pakistan’s officer corps and ruling elites remain largely moderate and more interested in building a strong, modern state, the same was true of Iran on the eve of the Islamic revolution. Pakistan’s intelligence services, the two writers maintain, contain enough sympathisers and supporters of the Afghan Taliban, and enough nationalists bent on seizing Kashmir from India, that there are grounds for real worries......"
Who is Tzipi Livni?
Terror Bombing of the King David Hotel by Irgun Terrorists July 22, 1946.
Irgun's Head of Operations Responsible for the Bombing? Eitan Livni, Tzipi Livni's Father.
Israeli 'ruler-in-waiting' plans to starve Hamas
By Leonard Doyle, Foreign Editor
Published: 02 March 2006
The Independent
"......Ms Livni, 47, has made a considerable political journey from her early support for a Greater Israel to realisation that the country cannot remain a democracy while occupying Palestinian lands and ruling over a population that despises it. A teenager born to a nationalist family, she was nearly arrested for violently protesting against Henry Kissinger's ill-fated shuttle diplomacy. Despite her closely held dream of a Greater Israel, she maintains that she has long been a centrist on the national question. Raised in a hardline Likud household, Ms Livni has an ideological pedigree that is hard to top.
"My family is part of the founding history of Israel," she has said. Her father's gravestone bears the inscription, "Here lies the head of operations of the Irgun" - refering to a pre-independence military organisation set up to fight the British and the Arabs. The stone also bears a carved map of Greater Israel extending to the opposite side of the Jordan river.
A former Mossad officer, Ms Livni is the daughter of Zionists - classified as terrorists by the British authorities. Her father, Eitan, was the Irgun's head of operations when it blew up the King David hotel in Jerusalem in 1946, killing 28 Britons, 41 Arabs, 17 Jews and five others. The subsequent wave of terror attacks he led outraged British public opinion, leading the government to abandon the Palestinian Mandate and turn the problem over to the UN, with disastrous consequences for the Palestinians.
Ms Livni was one of Sharon's favourite colleagues - part of the kitchen cabinet that planned the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza last year and his key emissary. She was also the first person he asked to join the centrist party Kadima after breaking away from Likud during a row with the right over the withdrawal.
Ms Livni rose to become a lieutenant in Israel's army before joining its foreign spy agency Mossad when she was 22. During her time at the agency it was involved in a failed assassination attempt on the Black September leader Abu Daoud. In 1981, her first year as a foreign spy, Mossad arranged the destruction of a nuclear reactor Saddam Hussein was building at Osirak."
Musharraf Feels the Heat
As turmoil spreads in Pakistan, Musharraf’s grip on power weakens
by Eric Margolis
The Toronto Sun
"Henry Kissinger once quipped that being America’s ally is more dangerous than being its enemy. The latest example: Washington is abuzz with leaks the Bush administration plans to dump its faithful but embattled Pakistani retainer, Gen. Pervez Musarraf, and replace him with a new general or a co-operative civilian-led government.....
For the first time, I hear Pakistanis calling Musharraf, “pharaoh.” This is a storm warning signal. “Pharoah” is what Iranians called their hated, U.S.-backed Shah, and Egyptians the equally hated U.S.-installed dictator, Anwar Sadat. They now use the same epithet for Egypt’s current military ruler, Hosni Mubarak. The Shah was overthrown by a popular revolution; Sadat was assassinated to national joy; and Mubarak is in deepening trouble.....“Pharoah” Musharraf now appears headed for the same fate as the Shah and Sadat. Either the army will overthrow him or, his usefulness at an end, Washington may simply discard him....
Meanwhile, the Bush administration is again studying military strikes against Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. The Pentagon worries they could fall into the hands of al-Qaida. Neoconservatives, who have hijacked U.S. foreign policy, fear Pakistan’s nuclear weapons — that number up to 50 — could be seized by anti-government forces if the nation were plunged into chaos, and somehow be used against Israel. Therefore, neocons urge air strikes and ground attacks by U.S. special forces to seize or destroy Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.....But the weapon’s precise locations are not fully known to CIA or DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency). Chances are they are also being moved to thwart detection. Any U.S. attack would be bloody, dangerous, and might easily go terribly wrong......
Adding danger, a U.S. attack on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal could quickly be joined by Pakistan’s old foe, nuclear-armed India, and/or even Israel.
Both reportedly drew up plans for a “decapitating” strike against Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in 1991 and again 1999....
We are looking at an apocalyptic war all right, but not started by Iran. An American attack on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, or an all-out attack on Iran, could amply fill the bill.
Three things restrain Bush and mentor Dick Cheney from unleashing war against Iran: Need to use three secret U.S. bases in Pakistan to attack eastern Iran; Pentagon opposition; and growing warnings from Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Political chaos in Pakistan has thrown a spanner into neocon plans for World War IV."
by Eric Margolis
The Toronto Sun
"Henry Kissinger once quipped that being America’s ally is more dangerous than being its enemy. The latest example: Washington is abuzz with leaks the Bush administration plans to dump its faithful but embattled Pakistani retainer, Gen. Pervez Musarraf, and replace him with a new general or a co-operative civilian-led government.....
For the first time, I hear Pakistanis calling Musharraf, “pharaoh.” This is a storm warning signal. “Pharoah” is what Iranians called their hated, U.S.-backed Shah, and Egyptians the equally hated U.S.-installed dictator, Anwar Sadat. They now use the same epithet for Egypt’s current military ruler, Hosni Mubarak. The Shah was overthrown by a popular revolution; Sadat was assassinated to national joy; and Mubarak is in deepening trouble.....“Pharoah” Musharraf now appears headed for the same fate as the Shah and Sadat. Either the army will overthrow him or, his usefulness at an end, Washington may simply discard him....
Meanwhile, the Bush administration is again studying military strikes against Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. The Pentagon worries they could fall into the hands of al-Qaida. Neoconservatives, who have hijacked U.S. foreign policy, fear Pakistan’s nuclear weapons — that number up to 50 — could be seized by anti-government forces if the nation were plunged into chaos, and somehow be used against Israel. Therefore, neocons urge air strikes and ground attacks by U.S. special forces to seize or destroy Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.....But the weapon’s precise locations are not fully known to CIA or DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency). Chances are they are also being moved to thwart detection. Any U.S. attack would be bloody, dangerous, and might easily go terribly wrong......
Adding danger, a U.S. attack on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal could quickly be joined by Pakistan’s old foe, nuclear-armed India, and/or even Israel.
Both reportedly drew up plans for a “decapitating” strike against Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in 1991 and again 1999....
We are looking at an apocalyptic war all right, but not started by Iran. An American attack on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, or an all-out attack on Iran, could amply fill the bill.
Three things restrain Bush and mentor Dick Cheney from unleashing war against Iran: Need to use three secret U.S. bases in Pakistan to attack eastern Iran; Pentagon opposition; and growing warnings from Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Political chaos in Pakistan has thrown a spanner into neocon plans for World War IV."
"الجهاد" تؤكد أن أقوال اليحيى وصمة عار للجهة التي يمثلها وتؤصل للعمالة للاحتلال
دعت الأجهزة الأمنية إلى رفضها وأن يظلوا أحراراً
"غزة - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام
أكدت حركة الجهاد الإسلامي أن تصريحات عبد الرزاق اليحيى،"وزير" داخلية "حكومة" سلام فياض غير الدستورية، التي تتباهى بالتنسيق الأمني مع الاحتلال وبالعمل على ضرب المقاومة، هي "وصمة عار وفضيحة للجهة التي يمثلها عبد الرزاق اليحيى".
وقالت الحركة في بيان صحفي لها اليوم الأحد (18/11)، تلقى "المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام" نسخة منه، "إن الأقوال التي وردت (لليحيى) تكشف عن الغايات الحقيقية التي بنيت لأجلها الأجهزة الأمنية، التابعة لوزارة عبد الرزاق اليحيى، تلك الغايات المتمثلة في حفظ أمن الاحتلال والمستوطنين الصهاينة، والنيل من كل محاولة وطنية للاستقلال والتحرير"، معتبرة أن ما يحدث في مدينة نابلس من حملات الليل والنهار لمطاردة وملاحقة شعبنا خير دليل على ذلك.
وشددت الحركة على أن هذه التصريحات "تؤصل للعمالة المباشرة مع الاحتلال، وتهيئ لجيشه المجرم ليجتاح مدننا وقرانا ومخيماتنا".
وأضاف البيان أنه "إذا كانت المقاومة الباسلة المشرفة لا تعجب "وكيل الأمن الجديد" عبد الرزاق اليحيى، فقد رأينا سبقه النضالي الجديد في مخيم العين ومخيم بلاطه، وهو يلاحق رجال المقاومة الشرفاء ويجردهم من سلاحهم الشريف الذي يدافعون به عن كرامة شعبهم وأمتهم".
وحثت الحركة عناصر ومنتسبي الأجهزة الأمنية على "رفض التعليمات التي تفوح منها رائحة التنصل من القيم الوطنية والالتفاف على مصالح شعبنا"، ودعتهم لأن يظلوا أحراراً في مواجهة مخططات الهيمنة وشرعنة الاحتلال والاستيطان.
وأشارت إلى ممارسات الاحتلال وعربدته وتهويده الممنهج لمدينة القدس وحفرياته أسفل المسجد الأقصى، وقالت "نذكرهم بالموقف الوطني المطلوب منهم، ومن كافة أبناء شعبنا وقواه المقاومة في الدفاع عن حرمة المسجد الأقصى". "
"غزة - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام
أكدت حركة الجهاد الإسلامي أن تصريحات عبد الرزاق اليحيى،"وزير" داخلية "حكومة" سلام فياض غير الدستورية، التي تتباهى بالتنسيق الأمني مع الاحتلال وبالعمل على ضرب المقاومة، هي "وصمة عار وفضيحة للجهة التي يمثلها عبد الرزاق اليحيى".
وقالت الحركة في بيان صحفي لها اليوم الأحد (18/11)، تلقى "المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام" نسخة منه، "إن الأقوال التي وردت (لليحيى) تكشف عن الغايات الحقيقية التي بنيت لأجلها الأجهزة الأمنية، التابعة لوزارة عبد الرزاق اليحيى، تلك الغايات المتمثلة في حفظ أمن الاحتلال والمستوطنين الصهاينة، والنيل من كل محاولة وطنية للاستقلال والتحرير"، معتبرة أن ما يحدث في مدينة نابلس من حملات الليل والنهار لمطاردة وملاحقة شعبنا خير دليل على ذلك.
وشددت الحركة على أن هذه التصريحات "تؤصل للعمالة المباشرة مع الاحتلال، وتهيئ لجيشه المجرم ليجتاح مدننا وقرانا ومخيماتنا".
وأضاف البيان أنه "إذا كانت المقاومة الباسلة المشرفة لا تعجب "وكيل الأمن الجديد" عبد الرزاق اليحيى، فقد رأينا سبقه النضالي الجديد في مخيم العين ومخيم بلاطه، وهو يلاحق رجال المقاومة الشرفاء ويجردهم من سلاحهم الشريف الذي يدافعون به عن كرامة شعبهم وأمتهم".
وحثت الحركة عناصر ومنتسبي الأجهزة الأمنية على "رفض التعليمات التي تفوح منها رائحة التنصل من القيم الوطنية والالتفاف على مصالح شعبنا"، ودعتهم لأن يظلوا أحراراً في مواجهة مخططات الهيمنة وشرعنة الاحتلال والاستيطان.
وأشارت إلى ممارسات الاحتلال وعربدته وتهويده الممنهج لمدينة القدس وحفرياته أسفل المسجد الأقصى، وقالت "نذكرهم بالموقف الوطني المطلوب منهم، ومن كافة أبناء شعبنا وقواه المقاومة في الدفاع عن حرمة المسجد الأقصى". "
"الشعبية": حرب سلطة عباس على المقاومة تتم بإشراف صهيوني وأمريكي
قالت أن ما يجري هو تطبيق حرفي لخطة خارطة الطريق
"نابلس - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام
نددت عضو المكتب السياسي للجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين، والنائب في المجلس التشريعي، خالدة جرار بقيام أجهزة الأمن، الخاضعة لإمرة رئيس السلطة محمود عباس، بمحاصرة مقاومين من "كتائب أبو علي مصطفى" في مخيم العين بنابلس، معتبرة ذلك "تطبيق للشق الأمني من خارطة الطريق بإشراف صهيوني أمريكي مباشر".
وشددت جرار على أن قيام قوات الأمن الفلسطينية بمحاصرة مخيم العين منذ ساعات الصباح بغرض اعتقال عدد من مقاومي كتائب أبو علي مصطفى، الجناح العسكري للجبهة الشعبية، "يعكس تطبيق السلطة للشق الأمني من خطة خارطة الطريق".
وفيما يختص باستهداف سلاح المقاومة، أكدت جرار في حديث صحفي لها الأحد (18/11)، على أن الأجهزة الأمنية تخلط بين سلاح المقاومة وسلاح الفلتان، مشددة على أن ما يجري في نابلس هو "استحقاق للتحضير لمؤتمر الخريف الذي يحمل مخاطر سياسية تهدد حاضر ومستقبل القضية الفلسطينية".
وطالبت النائب جرار السلطة الفلسطينية وأجهزتها الأمنية بالتوقف عن ملاحقة المقاومين فوراً وعن استكمال تنفيذ ما تقوم به قوات الاحتلال من مطاردة لرجال المقاومة واعتقالهم، محذرة من خطورة عدم التمييز بين سلاح الفلتان الذي ندعو لمحاربته وبين الحفاظ على سلاح المقاومة والتوقف عن مطاردة المقاومين.
ورداً على مزاعم الأجهزة الأمنية بأن العملية في مخيم عين بيت الماء غرب نابلس كانت تستهدف نشطاء شاركوا في عملية إطلاق نار خلال أحد المهرجانات قبل أيام؛ أكدت جرار على أن "هذه مبررات واهية وغير مقبولة، وهو ما يؤكد على أن هناك شيئاً خطيراً يتطلب من السلطة خلال تنفيذها لخطة خارطة الطريق والذي يستدعي اعتقال المقاومين وملاحقتهم".
وكشفت جرار عن قيام الجبهة الشعبية باتصالات على أعلى المستويات مع السلطة والأجهزة الأمنية في محاولة لوقف محاصرة المقاومين في مخيم العين، لكن لا يوجد شيء على الأرض"، كما قالت. "
Boy King Wants to Try a Different Playstation: Jordanian king in Syria on surprise visit for first talks in 4 years
The "Decisive" Boy King Planning the Liberation of Palestine, One Cookie at a Time.
The Jordanian "Battle of the Bulge?"
"Jordan's King Abdullah II held talks with President Bashar Assad Sunday after arriving on a previously unannounced trip, his first to the Syrian capital in nearly four years, Syria's official news agency reported.....
The statement quoted an unnamed palace official as saying that talks would focus on ways to garner Arab and international support in a way that would fulfill Palestinian aspirations to statehood and ending Israel's occupation of Arab land.
The visit comes few days before Arab foreign ministers are to meet in Cairo, Egypt, where they are expected to come up with a unified stand on a U.S.-sponsored peace conference scheduled for later this month....."
MK Pines: Livni sounds like Lieberman
"Foreign minister's call for Palestinian state that would constitute national solution for Israel's Arabs draws fire from Labor, Arab Knesset members. 'Israel wants to cement the status of its Arabs as second-class citizens,' Jamal Zahalka says
....."I call on Minister Livni to retract the statement. The State of Israel is the home of the Jewish People, but we must remember that it is also the home and state of its non-Jewish citizens," Pines added.
Hadash chairman Mohammad Barakeh said, "It seems that Livni has yet to internalize that Arab and Palestinian Israelis were born here and live in their homeland. They did not immigrate to any other country; it was Israel that immigrated to them."
Fellow Arab MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) responded to the foreign minister's speech by saying that "Israel wants to cement the status of its Arabs as second-class citizens.
"Tzipi Livni can't have it both ways – to say Israel is Jewish and a democratic country and at the same time deprive Arab-Israelis of basic civil rights," he said......"
....."I call on Minister Livni to retract the statement. The State of Israel is the home of the Jewish People, but we must remember that it is also the home and state of its non-Jewish citizens," Pines added.
Hadash chairman Mohammad Barakeh said, "It seems that Livni has yet to internalize that Arab and Palestinian Israelis were born here and live in their homeland. They did not immigrate to any other country; it was Israel that immigrated to them."
Fellow Arab MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) responded to the foreign minister's speech by saying that "Israel wants to cement the status of its Arabs as second-class citizens.
"Tzipi Livni can't have it both ways – to say Israel is Jewish and a democratic country and at the same time deprive Arab-Israelis of basic civil rights," he said......"
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Tendency builds up in Washington to postpone the Middle East conference for a year
"According to our sources in the US capital, while President Bush has not approved the suggested postponement until late 2008, two of the administration officials in charge of setting up the Maryland event, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Elliott Abrams, have cancelled engagements connected to the conference and turned to other business. Informed sources in Washington report that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the only remaining administration figure who still believes in its usefulness as a vehicle for Israel-Palestinian accord......
Palestinian sources stressed gloomily that their and Israeli negotiators have not managed to agree on two sentences.
The growing tendency to postpone the event was further spurred last week, according to DEBKAfile’s sources, by urgent private messages from Saudi Arabia and Jordan. They warned the administration that ,if the Annapolis conference were to be staged as a photo-op of a few hours and avoids core issues of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, as Olmert plans, serious damage would blow back on the Muslim governments backing the US against Iran.
State Department officials advised Rice to answer back that if the conference did not take place, this would reflect badly on the US government as short of the clout for convening a meeting of anti-Iranian Sunni Arab rulers......"
Palestinian sources stressed gloomily that their and Israeli negotiators have not managed to agree on two sentences.
The growing tendency to postpone the event was further spurred last week, according to DEBKAfile’s sources, by urgent private messages from Saudi Arabia and Jordan. They warned the administration that ,if the Annapolis conference were to be staged as a photo-op of a few hours and avoids core issues of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, as Olmert plans, serious damage would blow back on the Muslim governments backing the US against Iran.
State Department officials advised Rice to answer back that if the conference did not take place, this would reflect badly on the US government as short of the clout for convening a meeting of anti-Iranian Sunni Arab rulers......"
Oil leaders' private debate televised by mistake
Tim Webb in Riyadh
Sunday November 18, 2007
The Observer
"'Kill the cable, kill the cable,' shouted the security guard as he burst through the double doors into the media room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, followed by Saudi police. It was too late.
A private meeting of Opec leaders, gathered this weekend in Riyadh for the cartel's third meeting in its 47-year history, had just been broadcast to the world's media for more than half an hour after a technician had mistakenly plugged the TV feed into the wrong socket. The facade of unity that the cartel so carefully cultivates to a world spooked by soaring oil prices was shattered.
Sometimes, such innocent mistakes can have far-reaching economic and political consequences. Commodity and currency traders said this weekend that oil prices would surge again tomorrow - possibly breaking the $101 per barrel record set in the late 1970s - while the already battered dollar would fall further on the back of the unintentional broadcast.....
They said Opec should formally express its concern about the weakness of the dollar when the cartel makes its official declaration at the close of the summit today. But the Saudis, the world's largest oil producers and de facto head of Opec, vetoed the proposal. Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, warned that even the mere mention to journalists of the fact that leaders were discussing the weak dollar would cause the US currency to plummet.
Unfortunately his words and those of everyone at the meeting were being broadcast via a live television feed to a group of astonished reporters. 'I couldn't believe it,' said one who was there. 'When I realised they didn't know they were being broadcast live, I frantically started taking notes.'......"
Sunday November 18, 2007
The Observer
"'Kill the cable, kill the cable,' shouted the security guard as he burst through the double doors into the media room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, followed by Saudi police. It was too late.
A private meeting of Opec leaders, gathered this weekend in Riyadh for the cartel's third meeting in its 47-year history, had just been broadcast to the world's media for more than half an hour after a technician had mistakenly plugged the TV feed into the wrong socket. The facade of unity that the cartel so carefully cultivates to a world spooked by soaring oil prices was shattered.
Sometimes, such innocent mistakes can have far-reaching economic and political consequences. Commodity and currency traders said this weekend that oil prices would surge again tomorrow - possibly breaking the $101 per barrel record set in the late 1970s - while the already battered dollar would fall further on the back of the unintentional broadcast.....
They said Opec should formally express its concern about the weakness of the dollar when the cartel makes its official declaration at the close of the summit today. But the Saudis, the world's largest oil producers and de facto head of Opec, vetoed the proposal. Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, warned that even the mere mention to journalists of the fact that leaders were discussing the weak dollar would cause the US currency to plummet.
Unfortunately his words and those of everyone at the meeting were being broadcast via a live television feed to a group of astonished reporters. 'I couldn't believe it,' said one who was there. 'When I realised they didn't know they were being broadcast live, I frantically started taking notes.'......"
Ein Beit El-Ma siege continues; PLFP vows vengeance if PA detains fighters
Contributed by Lucia
"Nablus – Ma'an – The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, announced Sunday that it would react "fiercely" if Palestinian security forces arrest any of its activists ahead of a peace conference in the United States this month.
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party laid siege to a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday in an attempt to detain four PFLP fighters and one Fatah member accused of illegally firing their weapons......
The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, along with other armed groups, have rejected calls by the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority to disband before Israel relinquishes control of occupied Palestinian lands......."
Palestinian Quisling interior minister: 'PA will disband all armed groups'
Contributed by Lucia
"Bethlehem – Ma'an – Palestinian Interior Minister Abdur Razzaq Mahmoud Al-Yahya pledged on Sunday to disband all Palestinian military factions, including the Al-Aqsa Brigades, affiliated with his own ruling Fatah party.
Al-Yahya said that the last seven years of armed Intifada, or uprising, have been "disastrous" for the Palestinian situation.
Al-Yahya, himself a former commander of the Palestine Liberation Army, told the Kuwaiti Ar-Rai newspaper: "The security plan in the Palestinian territories is progressing in parallel steps in armament, training and restructuring the security headquarters and prisons. At the same time, Hamas' and other groups' weapons are being collected."
The Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority is currently implementing a US-supported multimillion dollar security plan in the West Bank city of Nablus, that while reducing crime, has been seen by some as a political move to consolidate Fatah's authority in thw West Bank......."
Livni: Palestinian state - solution for Israeli Arabs as well
This should tell you who Livni is:
"In an interview with the Spiegel, the German magazine, she said that as a girl "All I ever heard about was that we Jews have the right to a state on both sides of the Jordan". Her father's grave bears the old map of that Greater Israel of Revisionist dreams, and she is one of the few prominent Israelis who can still quote the works of Vladimir Jabotinsky...."
"Speaking at press conference following meeting with French Foreign Minister Kouchner, Livni says establishment of Palestinian state should bring end to demands of Palestinians everywhere.
The future Palestinian state would serve as a national solution for the Palestinians of the West Bank, those living in the refugee camps and those who are citizens with equal rights in the Jewish state, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni stated Sunday.
Speaking at a press conference following her meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Livni responded to statements made by the Arab Monitoring Committee Saturday, urging the Palestinians not to recognize Israel as Jewish state....."
The Palestinian Lahad Forces carry out mass arrests in Nablus
An Important Story
"Large Palestinian security force invades refugee camp next to West Bank city of Nablus in attempt to arrest wanted men responsible for attacks on IDF soldiers
Fatah turns up the heat on its opponents: A Palestinian security force surrounded large areas of the el-Ain refugee camp near Nablus Monday morning in an attempt to arrest terror operatives involved in attacks on IDF soldiers.
Palestinian sources told ynet that the majority of the operation was aimed at the capture of three wanted men from the Abu Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
According to these sources, the three are members of a cell which in recent months had been the subject of failed arrest attempts by the IDF, and who had, in a few incidents, even succeeded in causing injuries to soldiers......
'Plan key to PA success in West Bank'
A Fatah official in Nablus told ynet,"Unfortunately we are talking about a part of the Dayton Plan, and increasing cooperation with Israel. Whatever the Israelis can not do, the (Palestinian) Authority comes to do it for them."......
Even before the operation, a senior Palestinian official told ynet that the PA is determined to succeed in this new campaign. According to him, the PA is close to completing Phase I of the Road Map, but that unfortunately, instead of expressing its appreciation, Israel has chosen to throw additional obstacles in front of the peace process, such as the demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a "Jewish State." "
Are we Going to Occupy Iran and Syria, Too?
by Prof. Eric Alterman
Global Research, November 18, 2007
".....I got a letter the other day from a faculty member at the University of Maryland's overseas division in Europe. UM is the primary university providing classes for U.S. service members abroad.
Here it is:
The reason that I am writing today is to inform you of something rather unsettling. Last weekend, we had a Europe-wide faculty meeting at our headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany. At that meeting, we were told that the U of MD military education contracts will be expanding soon to Iraq, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Djibouti, and other locations in the Middle East and Africa. This comes as no surprise.
What is startling is that the U.S. military has also asked us to prepare a bid for educational programs in IRAN and SYRIA (and, oddly enough, France -- where we have had no presence since NATO was expelled in 1967 -- probably a function of the new conservative government there). We will be bidding on an education contract to these locations at the end of November.
"This is a truly ominous development. The U of MD overseas program follows the military around the world -- thus clearly the contingencies for an occupation of several Middle Eastern countries is not only being contemplated, but actually set up......."
Global Research, November 18, 2007
".....I got a letter the other day from a faculty member at the University of Maryland's overseas division in Europe. UM is the primary university providing classes for U.S. service members abroad.
Here it is:
The reason that I am writing today is to inform you of something rather unsettling. Last weekend, we had a Europe-wide faculty meeting at our headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany. At that meeting, we were told that the U of MD military education contracts will be expanding soon to Iraq, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Djibouti, and other locations in the Middle East and Africa. This comes as no surprise.
What is startling is that the U.S. military has also asked us to prepare a bid for educational programs in IRAN and SYRIA (and, oddly enough, France -- where we have had no presence since NATO was expelled in 1967 -- probably a function of the new conservative government there). We will be bidding on an education contract to these locations at the end of November.
"This is a truly ominous development. The U of MD overseas program follows the military around the world -- thus clearly the contingencies for an occupation of several Middle Eastern countries is not only being contemplated, but actually set up......."
Turkey: Israel Is Destroying Muslim Artifacts
Al-Manar
"17/11/2007 The Turkish envoy that visited occupied al-Quds in March to inspect the excavations at the Mughrabi Gate outside of the Temple Mount has concluded that the work is destroying artifacts from different Muslim historical periods, and called on Israel to coordinate their activities with the Palestinians and the international community, the Turkish newspaper A-Zamaan reported on Saturday.
"The work being conducted by Israel does not abide by the appropriate [excavation standards], and the dig testifies to the fact that Israel is interested in destroying artifacts from the Islamic periods," the report quotes the envoy as saying. "It is Israel's responsibility to cease their work immediate," the envoy concluded.
The report also criticized Israel for not having conducted dialogue with the Waqf department in occupied al-Quds in the past seven years.
The seven-person Turkish technical team conducted their inspections in March; one month after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the idea to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during Olmert's visit to Ankara. According to A-Zamaan, the envoy finished writing their report in July, but the Turkish government decided against publishing it out of concerns it would harm Turkish-Israeli relations."
'Operational Success in Gaza Better than in Lebanon'
Al-Manar
"18/11/2007 "The Annapolis conference aims to stabilize the situation in the West Bank, because Gaza is already a lost cause," Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said Sunday while touring 'Nativ Haasara', a community on the border with Gaza. During his visit, Dichter heard criticism from angry Israeli residents who protested the town's ongoing bombardment by Qassam rockets and mortars fired from the Gaza Strip.
During his tour of this border community of 700, which included inspecting homes and greenhouses damaged by rocket and mortar fire, the head of the local agricultural committee, Shaike Shaked, told Dichter that area residents wanted the Israeli occupation army to continue working to halt rocket fire from Gaza. "It is impossible to live like this, the community is close to collapsing," he added.
During a meeting with Israeli settlers, one resident said, "We have no life, the Israeli army does not respond and the situation only gets worse - maybe someone should just evacuate us."
"It is not enough to cope with the rockets, we must also deal with the growing power of Hamas, which is bringing into the Strip weapons like antitank missiles, which Hezbollah used against us (in last summer's war) in Lebanon," the Israeli Minister said.
Dichter added that military operations in Gaza are unavoidable. "I suggest a three-tiered course of action: operations against the ongoing rocket-fire, operations against Hamas' growing power, and operations against its ability to act," he said.
According to Dichter, chances for operational success are better in Gaza than they were in Lebanon. "Here, unlike in Lebanon, we actually have this option," he said. "There Hezbollah was part of a state, but as for Hamas in Gaza, we have defined it as a hostile entity which enables us to act," he said."
Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll
The question is:
Do you support using oil as a tool in political disputes?
With about 800 responding so far, 87% said yes.
I like the timeliness of this poll. It shows that the vast majority of Arabs (the poll is in Arabic) support the view expressed by Hugo Chavez and disagree with the view of the American king of Saudi Arabia. Those diametrically opposite views were expressed in the current OPEC meeting in Riyadh. For more on that see the article contributed by Steven Rix, posted below.
Gulf States Consider Revaluing Currencies, Person Familiar Says
Contributed by Steven Rix
".....Venezuela backed an Iranian proposal to add the group's concern over the falling dollar to a summit declaration to be made today. Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said that no mention of the dollar should be made in the declaration because he didn't want the U.S. currency to ``collapse.''.....
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said OPEC shouldn't make oil a source of conflict, contradicting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who wants the oil exporter group to become an active ``political agent.''
``Oil is an energy for building and prosperity, it shouldn't become a means of conflict,'' King Abdullah said at the start of the group's summit in Riyadh yesterday. ``Those who want OPEC to become an organization of monopoly and exploitation ignore the truth.''.....
``OPEC was born as a geopolitical force and not only as a technical or economic one in the '60s,'' Chavez said, speaking before King Abdullah. ``We should continue to strengthen OPEC, but beyond that, OPEC should set itself up as an active political agent.''
The contrasting view on OPEC's role in the world comes a day after a disagreement between Venezuela's Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez and Al-Faisal on whether to move away from the dollar was accidentally aired on live television.
Chavez said in his speech yesterday that he's confident OPEC will do what it can to keep oil prices at a ``fair'' level, adding that if Iran was invaded, prices could easily rise to $200 a barrel........"
Lucia added this:
"``OPEC was born as a geopolitical force and not only as a technical or economic one in the '60s,'' Chavez said, speaking before King Abdullah. ``We should continue to strengthen OPEC, but beyond that, OPEC should set itself up as an active political agent.''
--
And Chavez added, the following, that is missed by Bloomberg:
(OPEP) "nació como un actor geopolítico, no sólo como un actor económico tecnocrático" y que ahora debe ponerse "al frente de la lucha contra la pobreza", entre otros mediante la creación de un banco propio.
(My translation) - (OPEC) was born as a geo-political player, not only as an economic and technocratic actor and must now 'be at the forefront of the fight against poverty', among others through the creation of a Bank of its own."
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