The Peace of Make Believe, President Bush Legacy

A Good Piece

By Hasan Afif El-Hasan
Palestine Chronicle

"President Bush foreign policy legacy in the Middle East is not limited to the human tragedy that he inflicted on Iraq and the region or the destruction of Lebanon and the massacres of civilians including children that was described by his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the "birth pangs" of a new Middle East. Bush will leave a lasting legacy in Palestine too.

Bush created the make believe “peace process” while doing everything to prevent the peace. Bush aborted the Palestinian democracy experiment, the first in the Arab Middle East, by refusing to deal with the elected government. He supported murdering Palestinian civilians and abduction of their lawmakers by the Israelis and he refused to condemn Israel’s expansion policy and dividing the occupied land into ghettos. The US has spearheaded the movement to de-legitimize the only democratically elected government in the Arab World while at the same time declaring that the lack of democracy is the core problem in the Middle East........
The PA is wasting precious time in the endless negotiations that have given Israel time to create facts on the ground in the occupied lands, brought despair and division among the Palestinians and rendered the establishment of a viable Palestinian state impossible. It is time the PA leaders should do what honorable leaders with principles and courage do when they fail to deliver on their promises. They should turn to their long suffering people and acknowledge their failure to achieve peace; they could not halt settlement expansion, incursions by the Israeli military, settlers’ attacks on Palestinian farmers and they could not remove Israeli checkpoints. The PA leaders should step aside and make room for new blood and new approach for dealing with Israel. But I am certain the PA chief Mahmoud Abbas will follow the tradition of the Arab despotic leaders who cling to power even after conceding their people’s aspirations. I hope I am wrong!"

The Bubble Boys

The Greenspan bubble benefited the banks, the real estate moguls, and, most of all, the war profiteers

By Justin Raimondo

"......Just remember, all you left-wing foes of U.S. intervention, that it isn't just the banks that are getting bailed out. As you get behind Obama, and rationalize his backing of welfare for the well-connected, remember that the War Party, too, is getting bailed out.

The limitations imposed by finally facing the reality of bankruptcy, and doing something about it, would be fatal to the imperial project. Once we realize we're flat broke and act to turn things around, our government won't be sending tax dollars to, say, the former Soviet republic of Georgia, recent site of pilgrimages by Joe Biden and Cindy McCain. (Can Sarah Palin be far behind?)

Like lightning at midnight, what the economic crisis throws into stark relief is the corruption at the heart of our system. The Empire is like a towering tree hollow at its center, its core eaten out by termites and dry rot. It will surely make quite a crash when it falls, or is pushed over."

Learning from South Africa

Savera Kalideen and Haidar Eid, The Electronic Intifada, 2 October 2008
(Savera Kalideen is a South African solidarity activist, Haidar Eid is a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and one-state activist based in Palestine)

"The strategic value of international solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, refugees in the Diaspora and Palestinians in Israel raises some fundamental questions. The most immediate and urgent are: what the nature of international solidarity should be and how it can best support the Palestinian struggle for self-determination?......

We have all watched as the results of the 2006 elections in Palestine have been denied legitimacy by the international community and the Palestinian people collectively punished for their temerity in choosing their own leaders. South Africans had to wait 27 years for their chosen leader and political party to be free to lead them; during those long years they rejected all false leaders that were foisted on them even when these quislings were celebrated by the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. As recently as 1987, Thatcher was confident enough to say that "Nelson Mandela would never be the president of a free South Africa."

Like Thatcher's government, other governments around the world were forced to isolate apartheid South Africa. They would not have done so without the pressure exerted on them by their own people. Israel needs to be isolated in exactly the same way as apartheid South Africa. Today, there is a growing mass-based struggle inside Palestine, as well as other forms of struggle, exactly as there was inside apartheid South Africa. An intensified international solidarity movement with a common agenda can make the struggle for Palestine resonate in every country in the world, thus closing off the world to Israelis until they open the world to Palestinians."

Iraq Facing New Civil War, Insurgency

BY Robert Dreyfuss
The Nation

"......Yesterday I wrote a lengthy piece for The Nation about the likehihood of a new civil war and a new Sunni resistance movement stemming from the sectarian Shiite government's refusal to make a political deal with Iraq's Sunnis. The American military may indeed be "watching the numbers" of murdered Sunnis "closely," but there's not much that they intend to do about it. (Here's a clue for the vaunted US military intelligence people "watching" these assassinations: they're not "criminal." They're political.) .......

He's right, in case you're wondering. Iran pretty much runs the show, through its teams of death squads, its influence of the powerful Badr Brigade of the Iranian-created Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), and its strong influence over Maliki.

It's having an effect, across Baghdad and much of Iraq. From an Italian source, here's one account about Adhamiya, a neighborhood in north central Iraq just east of the river......."

USrael and the Pharaoh, Partners in Starving Out the Gaza Palestinians......

"US and Egyptian soldiers pair up in recent weeks in a project to uncover Palestinian weapons' smuggling tunnels [COMMENT: the tunnels are used to bring in badly needed medicine, food and other critical supplies, in very short supply because of the siege imposed on 1.5 million people!]; 42 tunnels discovered in less than a month.

American soldiers have teamed up with Egyptian troops in the Sinai in recent weeks for an operation designed to uncover Palestinian weapons' smuggling tunnels underneath the Philadelphi Route, along the Egypt-Gaza border.

The operation has already yielded important fruits: Thanks to new, secret American-developed technology, the US Army's Corps of Engineers uncovered 42 tunnels running between Egypt and Gaza in less than a month, an unprecedented number in such a time span.

The joint American-Egyptian initiative was agreed upon half a year ago, during Defense Minister Ehud Barak's visit to Egypt. American experts arrived in the region a few weeks ago, making an effort to keep a low profile by using civilian dress.

The machinery that they brought with them, which probably relies on sonar in some way to identify underground tunnels, seems to be one of a kind. To date, it appears that Israel does not possess similar technology....."

“The Age of the Warrior”: Robert Fisk on the U.S. Elections, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Israel-Palestine

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

"Robert Fisk is Britain’s most celebrated foreign correspondent and has borne witness to countless tragedies in the Middle East for over three decades. With the publication of a new collection of essays, Fisk joins us to talk about the U.S. elections and their bearing on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel-Palestine....."

How I became a target for Israel's 'Jewish terrorists'

Peace campaigner attacked with a pipe bomb tells Donald Macintyre why right-wing extremism should be feared

The Independent

"Zeev Sternhell is careful about his choice of words when he unhesitatingly calls the pipe bomb which exploded outside his front door last week "an act of Jewish terrorism."

As a Holocaust survivor orphaned by the age of seven and a combat veteran of Israel's wars, Professor Sternhell, 73, who was lucky to have only been injured in the leg by flying shrapnel from the bomb, is "horrified" not for himself but because it might have hit his wife, daughter his grandchildren on one of their sleepovers, or their neighbours. "It was a terror act because they couldn't know who would have been hit.".....

But if the attack was meant to silence one of the country's foremost public intellectuals, it hasn't worked. For a start he does not rule out a connection with strong signs of increasing violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. In recent weeks, extremist settlers have rioted, blocked roads, burned Palestinian orchards and in one case, armed settlers have attacked a village.

Lamenting that the army and the police are "either unwilling or unable or probably both" to enforce the law against attacks on Palestinians in a West Bank where the settlers enjoy a kind of "self rule", he says the extremists believe that "people like me who think that they are the real danger to Zionism, to the future of the Israeli state, should be neutralised and should be punished... So I think there is a link between the brutality and violence that is the reality of everyday life in the West Bank and this attack."....."

37% - Ready on Day One?

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Mike Luckovich.

"In advance of tonight’s vice presidential debate, fewer than four-in-ten (37%) Americans say Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as president if necessary, while a majority (63%) say her opponent, Joe Biden, is qualified for the job. More than half (52%) viewed Palin as qualified in early September. Women are slightly less likely than men to view Palin as qualified. Both Palin and Biden are viewed favorably by a majority of Americans, but while views of Biden have remained virtually unchanged over the past month, the number of people viewing Palin unfavorably has risen from 32% to currently 40% as views have become increasingly polarized along partisan lines."

"President George W. Bush, who in the last 8 years has never been right about anything, asks Congress for permission to buy $700 billion of worthless loans from his millionaire bank buddies."

Syrian FM denies Syria is providing weapons to Hezbollah

"Walid Al Moallem, the Syrian Foreign Minister, denied on Wednesday Israeli allegation which claims that Syria is providing the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party with weapons and military equipment. The statements of Al Moallem came during an interview with the Al Sharq Al Awsat (Middle East) newspaper.

He said that these claims are false and that Hezbollah does not need the Syrian help in arming.

The Syrian FM also said that Israel is faking these allegations in order to justify its breaches to the Syrian sovereignty as Israeli war-jets carried repeated over-flights over Lebanon.

One of the top Israeli demands to hold direct peace talks with Syria is that Damascus stops its support to Hezbollah.

AL Moallem said that Syria cannot do anything to stop the smuggling of arms and ammunition to Hezbollah and stated that it is virtually impossible to seal the borders with Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah party requested its leaders to refrain from visiting Syria in the wake of the deadly car bombing in Damascus on Saturday, Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported. 17 residents were killed and 14 others were wounded in the blast. Yet, the report regarding refraining visits to Syria was not confirmed by Syria or by Hezbollah. "

Gang of Democracies

Woodrow Wilson’s dream may yet become our nightmare.

By Justin Raimondo

"When I hear the word “democracy,” I reach not for my revolver, but for my wallet. I freeze and wait for the next blow to fall: a tax hike, another war, a new form of knavery masquerading as well-intentioned ignorance.

Imagining a “League of Democracies,” as a number of foreign-policy mavens have, I reach instead for the history books and recall the many incarnations—and failures, most of them bloody—of this perennial panacea. The League of Nations, Woodrow Wilson’s stillborn brainchild, was supposed to be just such an agency, deterring aggression and enforcing the right of nations to self-determination......

All too many of America’s leaders and would-be leaders do want a new Cold War, however, and the Concert of Democracies is a key weapon in their arsenal. The Russian defense of South Ossertia and Abhkazia against the Georgian invasion has renewed the debate over Georgia’s admission to NATO, but the Europeans are reluctant—they don’t want to go to war for Georgia’s dubious territorial claims, and Abkhazia has a long history as a distinct nation.

If NATO as an instrument of the new Cold War isn’t working as the War Party hoped, then the Concert of Democracies is Plan B, one that will have appeal beyond the offices of the American Enterprise Institute and the Weekly Standard. Neoconservative internationalists, such as Robert Kagan, are reaching out to liberal internationalists, such as Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution: the two recently authored an op-ed in the Washington Post calling for the establishment of such a league to fulfill “the responsibility to protect.” Daalder is an influential advisor to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, while Kagan, Newsweek noted, is “McCain’s foreign policy guru.”......"

War on Two Fronts, Without Railways

By William S. Lind

".....Without railways running on interior lines, we cannot move three brigades from Iraq to Afghanistan this week, then move them back to Iraq again a few weeks later if the situation there demands them. That means any shift of forces requires long-term stability in Iraq. Neocon voices in Washington are now claiming "victory" in Iraq, which, if it were true, would release American forces stationed there for redeployment. This appears to be what Secretary Gates is counting on when he says we should be able to meet commanders’ request for 10,000 more troops in Afghanistan next spring or summer.

But I fear this represents a falsely optimistic reading of the situation in Iraq. In my view, the current relative quiet in Iraq is merely a pause as the parties there regroup and reorient for the next phase of the war. Unless we have the good sense to get out of Iraq now, while the going is good, we will be stuck there when that next phase starts......

Even with the advantages of interior lines and excellent railways connecting both fronts, Germany was not able to deal with such a situation from the summer of 1944 onward. Lacking those advantages, our predicament will be worse. We will find ourselves face-to-face with failure both in Iraq and Afghanistan, with few if any options. If an attack on Iran has meanwhile brought that country into the war against us, we will face a third front. Events in Pakistan could create a fourth. It is the nature of long wars that they tend to spread.

Whoever the next President is, he is likely to find himself living in interesting times."

Al-Jazeera Video: Nahr al-Bared camp faces rebuilding delays - 2 Oct 08

"More than a year has passed since the Lebanese army clashed with fighters from Fatah al-Islam in a camp housing Palestinian refugees.

The battles left much of Nahr Al Bared in ruins, and most of the residents living in temporary shelters.

Since then, the international community has promised to rebuild the camp, but so far, little has been done."

Real News Video with Pepe Escobar: The People's Republic of Wall Street

Pepe Escobar: What's behind the "no banker left behind" bailout



"The financial crisis may be the number one issue on US voters' minds, but there seems to be no leadership at work in Washington, comments Pepe Escobar. The Wall Street bailout rejected by Congress and then approved by the Senate may not be the solution. It's up to foreign analysts and economists to tell it like it really is. What is in fact being saved - capitalism or a banking oligopoly?"

قنابل وزير خارجية البحرين

قنابل وزير خارجية البحرين

عبد الباري عطوان

"تعودنا في السنوات الأخيرة أن تأتينا المفاجآت من وزير خارجية دولة قطر الشيخ حمد بن جاسم بن جبر آل ثاني، ولكنها أتتنا هذه المرة، ومن الوزن الثقيل، من نظيره البحريني، حيث دعا وزير خارجية البحرين خالد بن أحمد آل خليفة، في حديثه مع الزميلة "الحياة" إلى اقامة "منظمة اقليمية" تضم الدول العربية واسرائيل وايران وتركيا.

هذا الكلام الخطير لا يمكن ان يصدر، ومن وزير خارجية بحريني، وعلى هامش اجتماعات الجمعية العامة للأمم المتحدة في نيويورك، دون أن يكون هناك اتفاق حوله، أو مقدمة لتحرك جديد من قبل ما يسمى بدول "الاعتدال العربية"، للاعتراف الكامل بوجود اسرائيل كدولة اساسية في المنطقة، تمهيداً للاستعانة بها في الحرب الامريكية - الاسرائيلية ـ العربية المقبلة ضد ايران، التي باتت تشكل التهديد الاساسي لدول الخليج، والهيمنة الأمريكية على منابع النفط، وفق التصور الاستراتيجي الخليجي المتنامي.
......
نفهم ان يطالب وزير الخارجية البحريني بمنظمة اقليمية تضم العرب إلى جانب ايران وتركيا، وهي دول جميعها مسلمة، وشرق اوسطية، وتستطيع بما تملك من قدرات استراتيجية، وعمق تاريخي، ان تحل جميع مشاكل المنطقة، اذا ما تعاونت في ما بينها، ولكن لماذا يتم حشر اسرائيل، وهي الدولة الغريبة المعتدية، التي تشكل المصدر الرئيسي لمعظم مشاكل المنطقة، وتحتل اراضي لدولها، وتشن الحروب عليها، وتذكي نار التطرف الأصولي في بلدانها، بسبب تعطيلها للسلام، وتهويد المقدسات العربية والاسلامية في القدس المحتلة؟!
......
فوزير الخارجية البحريني يعلم جيداً ان ايران لا يمكن ان تدخل في تحالف اقليمي يضم اسرائيل، واضافة ايران إلى اقتراحه هذا هي من قبيل ذر الرماد في العيون، واطلاق قنبلة دخان، لاخفاء الهدف الأساسي وهو تشكيل "تحالف سني"، عربي – تركي، تكون اسرائيل ذراعه الضاربة في أي حرب جديدة يتم التحضير لها حالياً لمنع ايران من امتلاك قدرات نووية.
.....
اقصى ما توقعناه في هذا الزمن العربي الرديء هو ان تتبنى "دول الاعتدال" العربي دعوة بضم اسرائيل الى جامعة الدول العربية، لتشجيعها على قبول مبادرة السلام العربية، وطمأنتها الى نوايا العرب السلمية، ولكن لم يخطر ببالنا مطلقاً ان يفكر هؤلاء باطار اوسع، اي جعلها عضواً اصيلاً في تحالف اسلامي يجعلها تتبوأ موقع القيادة، اي اننا نتولى مهمة تسويقها و"تحليل" التعاون معها في العالم الاسلامي الأرحب.
......
كلام وزير خارجية البحرين خطير للغاية لعدة اسباب، اولها لانه يأتي في وقت تعلن فيه الولايات المتحدة عن تزويد اسرائيل بطائرات "اف 35" العملاقة التي تعتبر احدث ما انتجته الصناعة العسكرية الامريكية، ورادارات متطورة يجري نصبها في منطقة النقب جنوب فلسطين لرصد الصواريخ الباليستيه الايرانية قبل اطلاقها لضرب اسرائيل في اي رد انتقامي ايراني متوقع. وثانيها تصاعد مفاجئ للفتاوى السنية التي "تشيطن" الشيعة، وتتحدث عن اتساع عمليات "التشيع" في الدول السنية، وثالثها تزامنها ايضا مع انباء عن عقد لقاءات سرية عربية ـ اسرائيلية اكاديمية في اوكسفورد بمشاركة سعودية او خليجية رسمية تحت عنوان تفعيل مبادرة السلام العربية.
....
الرئيس بوش سيدفع 700 مليار دولار لإنقاذ اقتصاد بلاده المنهار بسبب حروبه الفاشلة ضد العرب والمسلمين، ومن المؤسف ان معظم هذه الاموال سيدفعها العرب في اشكال عديدة، ابرزها تمويل الحرب ضد ايران مثلما مولوا حربي امريكا في العراق وافغانستان."

Bombs in the Levant

The Explosions in Damascus and Tripoli

By RANNIE AMIRI
CounterPunch

"........The hallmark of al-Qaeda is sowing sectarian strife. And there is no better recruitment ground to help in this endeavor than the teeming Palestinian refugee camps such as Nahr al-Bared and especially Ain al-Hilwah. The latter is completely isolated from the rest of the country and its disenfranchised, disaffected Sunni Muslim inhabitants make them an ideal constituency.

Hezbollah though, is keenly aware of these circumstances and overtures and has proactively attempted to counter them. As so well reported by Dr. Franklin Lamb, they have done this through humanitarian outreach, by providing municipal assistance in the form of sewer and water projects, and successfully lobbying the government to issue Palestinians temporary identification cards, all not insignificant measures.

Rallying the Troops

It was al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a videotaped message released in early September, who lambasted Hezbollah for allowing “thousands of crusaders”—otherwise known as United Nations peacekeepers—into the south after the July 2006 war with Israel. He additionally assailed nearly all Shia political and religious figures in the region.

Quite remarkably, a “memorandum of understanding” had been signed earlier in August between (Shia) Hezbollah and the Salafi Belief and Justice Movement. For this to occur between two groups at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum was stunning (Salafis consider Shia Muslims as heretics at best and non-Muslims at worst). But because of the outrage and intense pressure levied against it by other Salafi movements, the agreement was frozen only a few days later.

Although al-Qaeda and their allies are far from posing a direct military threat to Hezbollah, this was never their modus operandi. Rather, they will attempt to achieve their objectives by creating conditions giving pretext to the Israelis to strike Lebanon, launching attacks on UNIFIL forces, or assassinating high-profile figures in the country so as to foment political instability.

The Damascus and Tripoli bombings are thus meant to convey one simple message:

We have arrived."

Credit Crunch or rather Zio Punch?

By Gilad Atzmon
Palestine Think Tank

".......

The Wolfowitz Doctrine

Back in 1992. Dick Cheney appointed Paul Wolfowitz (Undersecretary for Defence Policy) and his deputy Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby to draft the USA Defense Planning Guidance (DFG) for the 1994-99 fiscal years. The imperialist Zio-centric document that was later named as the “Wolfowitz Doctrine” was soon leaked to the New York Times and raised some harsh criticism. However, as history sadly teaches us, not enough or nothing at all was done to curb Wolfowitz’s and Libby’s murderous enthusiasm when it was still relatively young.

The astonishing document was there to merge American and global Zionism interests into a unified belligerent practice. It all happened in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, bearing in mind that America was becoming a single super power.

“Our first objective,” says Wolfowitz, “is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union.”......."

Boston Tea Party, 2008

By Robert Scheer

"How dare you throw that tea into Boston Harbor! Such is the anti-democratic arrogance of the fear-mongering pundits and politicians who tell us if we taxpayers don’t instantly give the Wall Street banking bandits a $700-billion bailout, we are destroying America........"

Despair, trauma, discontent among Nahr al-Bared's impoverished Palestinians

Report, Electronic Lebanon, 30 September 2008

"NAHR AL-BARED (IRIN) - They look like cargo crates: long lines of prefabricated steel units, stacked two high, set on the edge of the ruined Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Inside each airless 18 square meter unit there is a toilet, gas burner and tatty mattresses on the bare wooden floor. This is the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen for Palestinian families like Hayat Jundi's, whose home in Nahr al-Bared was destroyed in last summer's battle between the army and Islamist militants.......

Little Arab financial support for UNRWA

So far UNRWA says it has received just $70 million, 88 percent from Western donations, which also make up 90 percent of funds pledged for short-term relief. To date, no Arab governments have pledged to the long-term reconstruction of the camp, the largest single project in UNRWA's history.

"Sadly this is part of a pattern," said Leila Shahid, a Palestinian representative at the European Union, in a recent editorial.

"Luxembourg donates more than any Arab government to UNRWA's regular budget, while Norway gives more to the same budget annually than all Arab governments combined."

In a bid to highlight the plight of the Palestinians displaced from Nahr al-Bared, UNRWA last week organized a rare tour to areas of the new camp. IRIN's previous visit to the camp was in December........"

More Hot Air About Palestine......

Leader: Islamic world 'awakened'

Press TV

"Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the Islamic world has been awakened and is on alert about Palestine.

"Today, the Islamic world is becoming more sensitive and motivated about the Palestinian issue in comparison to 60 years ago when the enormous catastrophe occurred [COMMENT: Are You Sure About That??]," Ayatollah Khamenei said Wednesday while addressing crowds of Iranians after Eid ul-Fitr prayer, which marks end of the holy month of Ramadan......."

Hizbullah orders its men not to visit Syria

"Lebanese media report organization has issued 'travel advisory' to its members following Mugniyah assassination, car bomb explosion in Damascus last Saturday. Senior Hamas members in Syrian capital on high alert as well.......

According to the report, for years Hizbullah viewed Syria as a safe place for its members, where there was no need for the strict precautions used in Lebanon, but now the organization has changed its perception and views Syria as a dangerous place.

The policy was changed after Hizbullah realized that Syria has become significantly penetrable for the activity of radical Islamic groups, and that the Syrian security organizations have failed to discover who was responsible for the car bomb explosion.

According to the report, Hamas leaders living in Damascus also decided to take unusual security measures following the Mugniyah assassination. In the past, Syria's security organizations were exclusively responsible for their safety......"

Beyond Normalization: Bahraini FM calls for Mideast forum that includes Israel, Iran

"Bahrain's foreign minister said in an interview published Wednesday that Middle East nations should form a regional organization that includes Israel and Iran to try to resolve their disputes. It was a rare call for Arab countries to create a broad grouping alongside Israel, with which most of them do not have diplomatic relations, and Persian Iran, whose growing influence on the region is a cause of concern for them........"

U.S.: Brief Talks with Syria Spur Speculation

By Jim Lobe

"WASHINGTON, Sep 30 (IPS) - A series of meetings between U.S. and Syrian diplomats, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterpart, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, at the United Nations over the past week is stirring speculation that Washington may at last be moving toward engaging Damascus.

Instead of focusing on specific issues of special interest to the U.S. -- mainly Washington's demands that Syria crack down hard against the infiltration of Sunni extremists into Iraq and stop supplying Hezbollah in Lebanon -- the discussions also reportedly covered other topics as well, notably Damascus's appeals for Washington to involve directly itself in a burgeoning peace process between Syria and Israel......."

A Dial Marked 'War'

The last resort of our bankrupt elite

By Justin Raimondo

".......War, like its progenitor, inflation, is a narcotic that causes us to forget the real problems and their causes and permits all sorts of actions that would not be considered normal under any other circumstances. It is a perfect holiday from the rule of law and is fully taken advantage of by our lawless politicians, who seize on it as a pretext for anything and everything [.pdf]. It emphasizes the worst excesses and encourages their fullest development, so that human behavior is distorted beyond all recognition. Human reason is not merely violated, but inverted: we enter a Bizarro World, where those who made bad investments are bailed out – rewarded – while ordinary folk who live by the rules and pay their bills are taxed to make up the difference.

As the wheels of commerce screech to a grinding halt and the empire of lies – funny money, phony "weapons of mass destruction," and bogus threats to our national security emanating from every corner of the globe – begins to unravel, get ready for the alarm to go off signifying the start of yet another war scare. It's a great diversion from economic troubles, albeit an expensive one – but, as the proposed banksters' bailout showed, no expense is to be spared in saving their necks. "

Israel's Breeding Ground for Terrorism

Boundless indulgence has emboldened the settlers

by Jonathan Cook

"The words "Jewish" and "terrorist" are not easily uttered together by Israelis. But just occasionally, such as last week, when one of the country's leading intellectuals was injured by a pipe bomb placed at the front door of his home, they find themselves with little choice.

The target of the attack was 73-year-old Ze'ev Sternhell, a politics professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem specializing in European fascism and a prominent supporter of the left-wing group Peace Now......

Although the head of the Shin Bet, Avi Dichter, immediately branded the attack on Mr. Sternhell as "a nationalist terror attack apparently perpetrated by Jews," it is noticeable that no Israelis are demanding the demolition of the perpetrators' homes.

That contrasts strongly with the response last week after a Palestinian youth drove a car at a group of Israeli soldiers near the Old City of Jerusalem. Israeli politicians called for the youth's home to be destroyed and his family to be made homeless.

In the general outcry against the bomb attack last week, it was left to Prof. Sternhell to remind Israelis that most Jewish terrorism was in fact directed not at people like himself but at Palestinians."

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

This brand new poll asks:

Do you believe that Washington's recent supply of missiles and fighter aircraft to Israel is a prelude to an attack on Iran?

It is very early in the polling cycle, but with 30 responding so far, 84% said yes.

Al-Jazeera Video: Riz Khan - Robert Fisk - 1 Oct 08

Part 1:



Part 2:

Real News Video: New head of ISI; Karzai calls for Taliban talks

Eric Margolis: Political stability is unattainable in Afghanistan without dialog with the Taliban



"As the ongoing conflict in Pakistan and Afghanistan continue with coalition forces taking a beating, Eric Margolis believes that "there will never be stability in Afghanistan until the largest ethnic group is brought into the political process.""

Real News Video: War and 'Cash for Trash'

Gareth Porter: The state of the empire Part 4


"Gareth Porter discusses US hawkishness in the Caucasus with Real News Network senior editor Paul Jay. As the US and NATO pursue their containment policy, the threat of a new cold war emerges."

Syria and the myth of stability

This weekend's bombing and the long list of possible culprits vividly illustrate the fractious nature of Syrian politics

Chris Phillips
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday September 30 2008

".....The Lebanese daily an-Nahar argues the immediate prompt for the bombing was Syria's tightening of its border with Iraq to prevent Islamist militants from joining the anti-American insurgency. However, the roots go deeper than this. Since the 1980s suppression of the Muslim brotherhood, Syria has had an ambivalent relationship with Islamists. Whilst at home it remained staunchly secular, its foreign policy was anti-western, leading it into alliances with such Islamists as Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas, as well as facilitating the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.

Now, those chickens are coming home to roost. Syria's recent rapprochement with France, its indirect talks with Israel and its decrease in support for Iraqi insurgents has meant that, for the first time in years, Syria and the Islamists' foreign policy goals are divergent. The previous support afforded them by the government means, however, that many of these militants, having intended to move on to Iraq, now have weapons which can be turned against the Syrian state. Whilst Saturday's attack might simply be a warning to Assad to cool his western ties, there's nothing to suggest it can't be repeated and escalated should he resist the urge to perform a volte-face......."

Good day for democracy

Joseph Stiglitz

( university professor at Columbia University and recipient of the Nobel prize in 2001. He was chief economist at the World Bank at the time of the last global financial crisis josephstiglitz.com)
The Guardian, Wednesday October 1 2008

"What are we to make of the Congressional rejection of the Paulson proposal? The politics is simple: elections are a rare moment of accountability in our political process, and all 435 members of the House of Representatives are up for re-election in a matter of weeks. The Bush administration has lost the confidence of the American people, and so has Wall Street.....

A sad day for Wall Street, but it may be a glorious day for democracy. Hopefully Congress will now devise a plan that is not based on trickle-down economics. A plan that identifies the real sources of the problem and does something about them - a real stimulus to the economy, a real programme to stem the flood of foreclosures, and a transparent programme for filling the holes in bank balance sheets. A plan that assures US taxpayers the costs will be borne by those who created the problem. Accountability means paying for the full consequences for one's actions - and the financial system has much to account for."

U.S. Taxpayer Monument by Khalil Bendib

Would you trust the BBC?

By Iqbal Tamimi
Palestine Think Tank

"Are you seeking employment with BBC? Look in the mirror carefully and ask yourself two very important questions, am I white enough? And am I passive enough and there is no record of me on the internet being ‘media or human rights troublesome’? If the answer is NO but you still insist on trying your luck, I would advise you to get ready to waste your breath, time and effort, because the BBC has its own agenda regarding employment......"

Grand Theft America.

Financial Crime of the Century

Featured Article

by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, September 29, 2008

"The crime of the century. The greatest one ever. Author Danny Schechter calls it "Plunder." The title of his important new book on the subprime and overall financial crisis. Economist Michael Hudson and others refer to a kleptocracy. A Ponzi scheme writ large. Maybe an out-of-control Andromeda Strain. An economic one. Deadly. Unrecallable. Science fiction now real life. Potentially catastrophic. World governments trying to contain it. Trying everything but not sure what can work. Maybe only able to paper it over for short-term relief. Buy time but in the end vindicate the maxim that things that can't go on forever, won't......"

Debate Rules by Mr. Fish

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

This cartoon should be emailed to As'ad Abu Khalil (The Angry Arab)!

Arab country 'cooperates with Mossad'

Press TV

"The Israeli spy agency Mossad may have used intelligence provided by an Arab country to carry out assassinations in the region.

Israeli sources confirmed on Monday that Mossad chief Meir Dagan's reliance on cooperation with an Arab country was the reason behind the successful completion of Israeli operations in various countries, IRNA reported.

The Arab country does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, the sources added.

Among the operations attributed to the Israeli regime is the assassination of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement's top commander Imad Mughniyah and Syrian army officer Brigadier-General Mohammed Suleiman.

Israel is also accused of carrying out the recent bombings in Syria and Lebanon.

Lebanon's Al-Manar TV station reported on Monday that Saudi Arabia was the country that provided the intelligence to Mossad, suggesting that Saudi Secretary General of the National Security Council Prince Bandar bin Sultan played a role in the cooperation between the intelligence agencies. "

Syrian FM: We are waiting for Livni government's position

"Wall Street Journal reports senior American, Syrian diplomats held series of meetings in New York. Walid Moallem tells daily indirect talks with Israel 'promising', most important thing is 'to have the political will to achieve peace based on Madrid terms of reference and land-for-peace'......

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that senior American and Syrian diplomats held a series of meetings in New York over the past week, in what the New-York-based daily said was "a sign of a potential thaw between the US and a country that President George W. Bush has alleged is a principal sponsor of international terrorism."

The report said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem were among the senior officials who took part in the talks.

Participants in the talks said told The Wall Street Journal that the diplomats discussed Washington's support for peace talks between Syria and Israel over the future of the disputed Golan Heights region and Damascus's role in the security situations in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories......"

South Lebanon's Witches Brew

By Rannie Amiri
Palestine Chronicle

"....

A Combustible Potpourri

In southern Lebanon, a veritable “witches brew” exists. In this relatively small area, one finds Hezbollah, UNIFIL troops, the Lebanese Army, the Palestinian factions of Ain al-Hilwah including Fatah, Hamas and militant Lebanese Salafist groups; and now, formal al-Qaeda representation. Not to be forgotten of course, are the Israelis across the border.

Although al-Qaeda and their allies are far from posing a direct military threat to Hezbollah, this was never going to be their modus operandi anyway. Rather, they will attempt to achieve their objectives by creating conditions giving pretext to the Israelis to strike Lebanon, launching attacks on UNIFIL forces, assassinating high-profile figures in the country so as to foment political instability, and orchestrating suicide/car bombings as we just witnessed in Damascus.

In the saga known as the "Battle of the Camps", Chapter 1 was titled Nahr al-Bared. Chapter 2 may very well be Ain al-Hilwah. It is a tale Hezbollah hopes will soon finish, but one whose ending, I fear, has yet to be written."

"Happy" Eid From Abu Mahjoob!

Real News Video: Provoking Russian nationalism

Gareth Porter: The state of the empire part 3


"Gareth Porter discusses US hawkishness in the Caucasus with Real News Network's Senior Editor Paul Jay. As the US and NATO pursue their containment policy, the threat of a new cold war emerges."

Stunning defeat of bill exposes failures of the US political system

By Rupert Cornwell
The Independent

"....His lack of clout was first exposed last Thursday when the bailout summit he convened at the White House degenerated into a blazing row. But that humiliation paled beside yesterday's. The President went on TV at 7.30am to plead for the measure that had been thrashed out over the weekend, to no avail. Then he called two dozen recalcitrant House Republicans, begging them to hold their noses and do their patriotic duty – but again to no avail.

When the vote came, his own party voted almost two to one against the bill, more than cancelling out the 140-95 majority of Democrats who did hold their noses to support the wishes of a President most of them despise.

Thus did US politics enter the world of Alice Through the Looking Glass. A president who prided himself on being a champion of free markets was urging the biggest state intervention in the economy in more than 50 years.....

However, yesterday already looks like Black Monday for Mr McCain. He returned to Washington last week as the self-styled statesman who would knock heads together for the country. But he, like Mr Bush, could not bring his Republicans into line. The tumultuous events of yesterday have only strengthened the feeling that America's worst financial crisis since the 1930s has doomed his bid for the presidency – just as the crash of 1929 doomed Herbert Hoover."

Rights org: Eight years of intifada, international failure

Press release, Al Mezan, 29 September 2008

"On Sunday, 28 September 2008, the second intifada (uprising) entered its ninth year in the midst of the Israeli Occupation Forces' (IOF) gross violations of international humanitarian law and the international community's failure to intervene.

Monitoring and documenting work of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) shows that the IOF continue to kill civilians and demolish civilian property especially homes. This is in addition to arbitrary arrests and degrading treatment of civilians that IOF carry out during military incursions and at checkpoints......

Al Mezan Center's information on victims, killed either by the IOF or during confrontations with it, as well as material damages of the Strip's civilians during the intifada shows that the death toll amounts to 3,143, including 611 children, 113 women and 22 disabled persons. It also shows that there are 7,650 demolished homes, including 3,014 pulled down. Furthermore, 33,948 dunums (a dunam is the equivalent of 1,000 square meters) were bulldozed, including 9,684 dunams that were bulldozed more than once. The IOF destroyed 378 public facilities, 647 vehicles of different types and 899 manufacturing and commercial facilities......."

Gaza strikes losing steam

Report, The Electronic Intifada, 29 September 2008

"RAMALLAH/GAZA (IRIN) - Palestinian unions allied with the Fatah movement have extended the strikes in the Gaza Strip's health and education sectors for another two weeks, prolonging the labor action that has been in effect for about a month, although the numbers taking part are falling.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 28 percent of doctors, nurses and administrators of hospitals were on strike, affecting some services in the various medical centers in the enclave, especially psychiatric care.

Medical non-governmental organizations reported treating more patients, saying it was straining their resources. However, the true impact will be felt at the beginning of October, medical officials said, as many Muslim patients avoid elective procedures during Ramadan.

The number of strike participants appears to be gradually decreasing. In the initial days of the strike, it was estimated that more than half the relevant labor forces abstained from work......."

Identifying Palestinian options

Ida Audeh, The Electronic Intifada, 29 September 2008

"......So effectively has Israel tamed and co-opted its Palestinian partners that they use the same terms that Israelis use when referring to Hamas. It is beyond shameful when Palestinian figures, in an apparent attempt to curry favor with the Americans and Israelis, refer to Hamas as "terrorists" and try to insinuate a connection with al-Qaida and Iran. Palestinians listen to this nonsense and seethe; Hamas was never the enemy, and its assessments of the PA's direction have been borne out by events. PA figures in Ramallah faulted Hamas for winning the elections for the Legislative Council in January 2006, which resulted in the withholding of foreign aid, and for defending itself against the US and Israeli-backed attack by militias loyal to the PA's former National Security Adviser Mohammad Dahlan in the Gaza Strip. The sordid details of the campaign against Hamas, orchestrated at the behest of the US and Israel and in which the PA and elements in Fatah were willing participants, was revealed in an April 2008 Vanity Fair article. [3] Moreover, the PA government in Ramallah should be made to explain how it is that the majority of the population was slowly slipping below the poverty line long before that election, when the money was flowing in uninterrupted.

Palestinians have been in a crisis for many years now. The political and national conditions of Palestinians today are arguably worse than they were in the spring of 1948, when Palestine was dismembered and the majority of its indigenous inhabitants were flung into exile. Sixty years later, the majority of us remain in exile (and some, such as the community in Lebanon, are at risk); those who still live in Mandate Palestine are caged, used for target practice, our lives reduced to negotiating checkpoints. According to the World Bank, 79 percent of the population in the Gaza Strip and 45 percent of the population in the West Bank live below the poverty line. [4]
In an attempt to initiate a Palestinian change of game plan, a group of Palestinians acting in a personal capacity met to discuss Palestinian strategic options. The outcome of their meetings is described in "Regaining the Initiative: Palestinian Strategic Options to End Israeli Occupation: A Report," which outlines Palestinian strategic options and discusses them in terms of Palestinian ability to achieve them and Israeli ability to block them. It calls for a reorientation of Palestinian strategy to end negotiations, reconstitute the PA so that it no longer serves Israeli interests, reconstitute the PLO so that it is truly representative, empower Palestinians to conduct "smart" resistance, and shift the strategic goal from two-state to a single state. [5]......."

A prisoner dies under torture in Jericho prison on the eve of Eid

"RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Palestinian sources revealed that a young man from Ramallah died Monday evening in Jericho jail, which is run by Abbas's PA, as a result of severe torture meted to him inside the jail.

Shadi Muhammad Shahin, a Palestinian in his thirties from the Ramallah district died in Jericho jail, according to the sources.

The PA police claimed that Shahin died as a result of illness and not under torture and that an autopsy will be carried out to determine the cause of death.

Reasons behind the detention of Shahin are not clear yet, but the PA police say that he was detained pending prosecution in a case brought by the attorney general in Jericho.

It is, however, known that the Jericho jail is used mostly for detaining political prisoners and elements of the resistance from various resistance factions.

The death of Shahin has resulted in angry reactions in the town of his birth as citizens were angered and shocked at his death on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid and the eve of national reconciliation talks which are slated to take place in Cairo. "

The holocaust gang and Ahmadinejad

(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)

By Khalid Amayreh

"Following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the UN last week, Zionist and pro-Zionist circles lashed out at the Iranian leader, calling his speech “anti-Semitic.”......

In 1978, the renowned American Jewish author Alfred Lilienthal wrote a very informative book entitled ‘The Zionist Connection’ which exposed and meticulously documented the Zionist domination of American politics and media. In my view, ‘The Zionist Connection: What Price Peace?’ was one of the best books ever written in the 20th century.

A few years later, a former American senator, Paul Findley wrote a book detailing how Jewish pressure groups were blackmailing American politicians and institutions into supporting Israel and her colonialist policies in Palestine.

And now we have Professors Mearsheimer’s and Walt’s book “The Israeli Lobby and US Foreign Policy” which explains in meticulous details how this Zionist snake is controlling American Foreign Policy by controlling domestic American politics.

In short, Ahmadinejad is not inventing anything. What he said with regard to Israel and Zionism at the UN last week could have been said by Carter or Paul Findley or any other honest observer of the American political scene for the past few decades.

Yes, the tone of his speech may have been sharp and a little provocative, but there is no doubt as to the veracity of he said."

Kuwait Losing Money on Wall Street, by Khalil Bendib

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Human Rights Watch in Venezuela: Lies, Crimes and Cover-ups

A Very Good Piece

By James Petras

"Human Rights Watch, a US-based group claiming to be a non-governmental organization, but which is in fact funded by government-linked quasi-private foundations and a Congressional funded political propaganda organization, the National Endowment for Democracy, has issued a report “A Decade Under Chavez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela” (9/21/2008 hrw.org)......

Conclusion

The Human Rights Watch Report on Venezuela is a crude propaganda document that, even in its own terms, lacks the minimum veneer of ‘balance’, which the more sophisticated ‘humanitarian’ imperialists have put out in the past. The omissions are monumental: No mention of President Chavez’ programs which have reduced poverty over the past decade from more than 60% to less than 30%; no recognition of the universal health system which has provided health care to 16 million Venezuelan citizens and residents who were previously denied even minimal access; and no acknowledgment of the subsidized state-run grocery stores which supply the needs of 60% of the population who can now purchase food at 40% of the private retail price.

HRW’s systematic failure to mention the advances experienced by the majority of Venezuelan citizens, while peddling outright lies about civic repression , is characteristic of this mouthpiece of Empire. Its gross distortion about labor rights makes this report a model for any high school or college class on political propaganda.

The widespread coverage and uncritical promotion and citation of the ‘Report’ (and the expulsion of its US-based authors for gross intervention on behalf of the opposition) by all the major newspapers from the New York Times, to Le Monde in France, the London Times, La Stampa in Italy and El Pais in Spain gives substance to the charge that the Report was meant to bolster the US effort to isolate Venezuela rather than pursue legitimate humanitarian goals in Venezuela.

The major purpose of the HRW ‘Report’ was to intervene in the forthcoming November municipal and state elections on the side of the far-right opposition. The ‘Report’ echoes verbatim the unfounded charges and hysterical claims of the candidates supported by the far right and the Bush Administration. HRW always manages to pick the right time to issue their propaganda bromides. Their reports mysteriously coincide with US intervention in electoral processes and destabilization campaigns. In Venezuela today the Report has become one of the most widely promoted propaganda documents of the leading rightist anti-Chavez candidates.

For the partisans of democracy, human rights and self-determination, every effort should be made to expose the insidious role of HRW and its Pinochetista propagandist, Vivanco, for what they are – publicists and promoters of US-backed clients who have given ‘human rights’ a dirty name. "

Debate Evades Dark Realities

By Robert Parry

".....But there’s no place for a serious discussion of wholesale U.S. war crimes, such as Bush’s decision to launch an aggressive war under false pretenses, the sort of offense that the Nuremberg Tribunal after World War II called the “supreme” international crime.

In a healthy democracy, moderator Jim Lehrer might have been expected to ask Obama and McCain whether President Bush should be shipped off to The Hague for a trial as a war criminal or whether he should be put before American courts to face serious criminal charges, such as violation of anti-torture statutes......."

The Mischief-Makers

The real troublemakers in the Middle East

By Justin Raimondo

".....What the heck is going on in Syria? The news of a huge explosion in Damascus, caused by a car bomb, has shaken the region, and it isn't at all clear who or what is responsible. Whatever the source, however, the attack – which killed 17 bystanders, including possibly a top Syrian intelligence official – augurs ill for the future of peace in the Middle East (an increasingly elusive goal).

The attack occurred Saturday morning, near a major Syrian intelligence facility....

The key to understanding what is going on in the Middle East today – including the American invasion and occupation of Iraq and the stepped-up pressure on the Iranians – is to be found in a seminal paper published in 1996 by an Israeli think-tank, the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies: "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for the Realm." In it, five U.S. academics and policymakers – many of whom hold (or held) high positions in the U.S. government, including Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and David Wurmser – outline a strategic perspective that posits a policy of regime change throughout the region. The premise is that Israel is caught in a bind, hemmed in by hostile neighbors and unfavorable demographic facts on the ground. Israel, the authors aver, must break out of its box, or perish in the attempt. The first item on the agenda: regime change in Iraq. The rationale for this was that the road to Damascus must first pass through Baghdad. Syria is the primary "frontline state" engaged in destabilizing the occupied territories and fomenting the Palestinian uprising, so it must be eliminated. Damascus has always been the primary target of the Israelis, whether they are engaged in Lebanon or the occupied territories, and now that Iraq is out of the way, thanks to Uncle Sam, it makes sense that the Israelis are moving against Damascus........"

We Have the Money

If only we didn't waste it on the defense budget
by Chalmers Johnson

"There has been much moaning, air-sucking, and outrage about the $700 billion that the U.S. government is thinking of throwing away on rich New York bankers who have been ripping us off for the past few years and then letting greed drive their businesses into a variety of ditches. In fact, we dole out similar amounts of money every year in the form of payoffs to the armed services, the military-industrial complex, and powerful senators and representatives allied with the Pentagon.....

This in itself is a national disgrace. Spending hundreds of billions of dollars on present and future wars that have nothing to do with our national security is simply obscene. And yet Congress has been corrupted by the military-industrial complex into believing that, by voting for more defense spending, they are supplying "jobs" for the economy. In fact, they are only diverting scarce resources from the desperately needed rebuilding of the American infrastructure and other crucial spending necessities into utterly wasteful munitions. If we cannot cut back our long-standing, ever increasing military spending in a major way, then the bankruptcy of the United States is inevitable. As the current Wall Street meltdown has demonstrated, that is no longer an abstract possibility but a growing likelihood. We do not have much time left."

Egypt editor jailed amid press row

Al-Jazeera

"A newspaper editor has been jailed for two months after publishing articles suggesting Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, was seriously ill.

An Egyptian appeals court on Sunday upheld a guilty verdict against Ibrahim Eissa, the chief editor of Egypt's independent Al-Dustur daily, for spreading "false information … and damaging public interest and national stability," a judicial source said.

The ruling followed stories he published last August on the Egyptian president's health, saying that the 80-year-old leader occasionally lapsed into a coma. Prosecutors said that Eissa's comments led to foreign investors withdrawing more than $350 million from the country's stock exchange.

'Gates of hell'

Eissa, who had been convicted by a lower court in March and sentenced to six months in prison, told the AFP news agency that the court ruling "opens the gates of hell for the Egyptian press and confirms the state's hostile position towards freedom of opinion and expression".

He said: "This verdict isn't just about freedom of the press and freedom in this country. This proves that anything concerning the president is a sacred and untouchable matter.

"In this country, it's normal for journalists to be jailed while businessmen are freed," he said in reference to an acquittal in August of five defendants over a 2006 ferry sinking in which more than 1,000 people died......

At least seven journalists were sentenced to up to two years in prison in September 2007 on charges ranging from misquoting the justice minister to spreading rumours about Mubarak.

More than 20 newspapers suspended publication for a day in protest over the crackdown."

Real News Video: The state of the Empire?

Gareth Porter: The US and the world near the end of the Bush administration Part 2

An urgent call for aid

More than 90% of funds pledged towards short-term relief for Nahr el Bared in Lebanon have come from the West. Where are the Arab donors?

Leila Shahid
guardian.co.uk, Saturday September 27 2008

"In Beirut on September 11, before 22 diplomatic missions, the government of Lebanon and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) launched an appeal for short term relief for some 30, 000 Palestinian refugees displaced by the fighting last year at the Nahr el Bared camp in northern Lebanon. Egypt was the only Arab mission that attended besides the hosts, Lebanon. From UNRWA's Islamic Conference donors, only Iran was present.

UNRWA was appealing for nearly US$43m to address the immediate and urgent needs, such as food and shelter, of some of the most disadvantaged people in the Middle East. Not only were their homes destroyed last year, not only did they flee in fear for their lives, not only did they lose almost all of their possessions, but they are also now, in the month of Ramadan, facing the threat of hunger and homelessness.....

Sadly this is part of a pattern. Luxembourg donates more than any Arab government to UNRWA's regular budget, while Norway gives more to the same budget annually than all Arab governments combined.

I hesitate to ask, and I do so only because the refugees are suffering: where are the Arab donors in the face of the alarming reality that will soon be upon us?....

This is yet another reason why I am now compelled, as a Palestine refugee from Lebanon myself, to renew my strong support for the appeal made earlier in September for the displaced refugees of Nahr El Bared. This situation is unprecedented in the recent history of UNRWA. We must do everything possible to avoid the agency being forced by financial necessity to make thousands of Palestine refugees homeless yet again."

The Death Knell of Two Competing Ideologies

A Comment by Tony Sayegh

I know that I am going to get a lot of hateful comments for writing this, but bring it on!

I am not an ideologue and I do not belong to any party or a major political current in the Middle East. You could say that I am an Arab and a Palestinian from the proverbial “Missouri” – the show-me-state. I judge movements, leaders and parties by results not rhetoric. As a Palestinian I have learned the hard way that when Arab and Muslim leaders shed tears for Palestine and make thunderous speeches about “liberating Jerusalem,” not to expect any tangible results; to the contrary, to expect the worst from them.

We have just had the so-called international day for Al-Quds (Jerusalem). We heard the speeches and saw the crowds in Iran and Pakistan screaming “death to Israel and America,” and burning Israeli and American flags! In the meantime 1.5 million Palestinians continue to starve in Gaza with the tightest siege in modern history imposed on an entire population. Worse: this siege is actively imposed and supported by a majority of the Arab regimes, while the rest are silent about it.

When I look at what has happened, and is still happening, in the region in general and in Iraq in particular, I see the clear failure, even the death of the two major competing ideologies in the region.

On the one hand we see that the one party, the Ba’th, which preached Arab unity and Arab nationalism, could not even unite one country, Iraq, let alone the entire Arab world. First the two branches of the party (the Syrian and Iraqi branches) fought each other, literally to death. The Syrian regime, together with several other Arab regimes, even sent troops to fight with the invading US troops in 1991, to destroy the Iraqi army. That was the beginning of the end of Arab nationalism.

Then each branch of the party could not and would not create the model state that could be an inspiration for the promised Arab unity and something to inspire and give a boost to Arab nationalism. They instead ruled by an iron fist and by using the policies of divide-and-conquer and encouraging tribalism.

This is not just my point of view. If indeed most Iraqis felt so strongly that they belonged to and benefited from the Ba’th regime and that they had a strong stake in preserving the Iraqi state, why has the majority not fought the occupation? Why, at the earliest opportune moment, major sections of the Iraqi population opted to side with the occupiers and with Iran instead of fighting for Iraq? That tells us something about the prevailing state up until the invasion.

When the US tried to topple Hugo Chavez, and partially succeeded in a coup, millions of poor Venezuelans took to the streets demanding the release of their president. They were ready to fight and die for something they believed in, something they had created, something they had a stake in. That was not the case in Iraq. The majority of the Shiites sided with Iran against their own country and the majority of Kurds decided that they are not Iraqis! So, Iraq is no more; hardly the model of Arab unity to be presented to the rest of the Arabs.

Then we were told that the problem was in Arab nationalism itself, that the Arabs have to transcend this to something higher and that Islam was the answer. The Iranian revolution was to be the vanguard of this new force: the Islamic revolution.

Of course it was not an accident that the two countries spearheading these two major ideologies fought a vicious and bloody war for eight years that killed about a million (Muslims I may add) from each side. We know that the US imperialists wanted both sides to destroy each other, and Henry Kissinger used to say that when one side was getting close to collapse, the US would move in and prop it up to stay in the fight. Kissinger said bluntly, “we want them to kill each other!” But why did the two fools cooperate so well with Kissinger against their own interests?

Just as the US wanted both sides to destroy each other, Iran sought to use the US to destroy the Ba’th regime in Iraq. Let us not mince words about it: Iran encouraged the US invasion of Iraq, it even had its spies (such as Chalabi) fabricate false information about presumed Iraqi WMDs and give this information to the US. Worse still, Iran had its own “Iraqi” militias armed and ready to roll with US tanks into Baghdad. Iran even had its own Grand ayatollah, already planted in Iraq, telling Iraqis not to resist the occupation, but instead to cooperate with it!

Some Islamic revolution!

Every time there was hope that a broad movement to resist the occupation, representing all Iraqis, might emerge, Iran moved to kill the idea. Iran fully supports the very same puppet, Maliki, who was selected by the occupation! Worse still, he is the one who will sign agreements legitimizing what would amount to perpetual occupation of Iraq.

When I saw Ahmadinejad wining (excuse the expression) and dining with Maliki in the US-defended Green Zone in Baghdad, I could not believe my eyes. This is the same Ahmadinejad who makes those fiery speeches about liberating Jerusalem on Al-Quds day?

Along these same lines I saw the Syrian regime recently establish full diplomatic relations with the occupied Maliki “government;” something it has not done since the eighties. Some Arab unity and some Syrian “steadfastness”!

The reality is that most Muslims are more excited about Danish cartoons than about millions of dying Iraqis or starving Palestinians in Gaza, or a Jerusalem that is being ethnically cleansed at a furious pace. Even the eventual destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque will not wake up this dead and dying Arab and Muslim “nation.”

For those who will survive they will have to wait for a new force, a new movement. Both Arab nationalism and Islam have failed, and failed badly.

And this is my opinion.