Tuesday, June 26, 2012

الموقف الإسرائيليّ من الثّورة السوريّة ومستجدّاته


Via Azmi Bishara , this is a must read especially for those who buy the myth of Syria being "Anti Israel" or "Anti Imperialist"

منذ انطلاق الثّورات العربيّة، أبدت إسرائيل موقفًا واضحًا ضدّها وضدّ أهدافها المطالبة بإسقاط أنظمة الاستبداد والفساد 
في الدول العربية وإقامة نظمٍ ديمقراطيّة تحترم حرّية المواطن وتقيم العدالة الاجتماعيّة([1]).  وانطلاقًا من المفاهيم المتأصّلة في الثّقافة السياسيّة الإسرائيليّة، وفي مقدّمتها العداء للديمقراطيّة في الدول العربيّة والعداء للوحدة العربيّة وللعمل العربيّ المشترك، ناصبت إسرائيل -على نحوٍ عامّ- الثّورات العربيّة وقوى التّغيير في الدّول العربيّة العداء، وذلك عبر تصريحات مسؤولين في الحكومة وفي المؤسّسة الأمنيّة وما كتبته وسائل الإعلام وتحليلات المؤسّسة الأكاديميّة ومختصّين في الشؤون العربيّة، وشكّكت في أصالتها وفي قناعاتها وفي الأهداف التي تناضل الثورات العربيّة من أجلها([2]). وفي الوقت نفسه دافعت إسرائيل عن أنظمة الاستبداد والفساد، وخاصّةً تلك التي صنّفتها إسرائيل في خانة "الدول المعتدلة" وفي مقدّمتها مصر مبارك، وتونس بن علي. ولم تخْف وسائل الإعلام والمؤسّسة الأكاديميّة الإسرائيليّة -طوال العقود الماضية- إعجابها بإتقان أنظمة الاستبداد والفساد العربيّة عمليّة قمع شعوبها، ونجاحها في فرض أنظمة قويّة ومستقرّة بواسطة القمع الممنهج المنظّم، ولكن في الوقت نفسه كانت دولًا ضعيفة فشلت في مواجهة إسرائيل واستكانت لإستراتيجيّتها ولسياستها ولأجندتها في المنطقة.
ومنذ بدء حركة الاحتجاج في سورية التي سرعان ما تحوّلت إلى ثورة شعبيّة، أبدت إسرائيل اهتمامًا كبيرًا بها وبتطوّرات أحداثها وبإمكانيّة نجاحها. فلسورية مكانة مركزيةّ في حسابات إسرائيل، إذ خاضت إسرائيل عدّة حروب ضدّها، وهي تحتلّ جزءًا من أراضيها ما انفكّت سورية تطالب باستعادته. علاوةً على ذلك، فإنّ سورية دولة محوريّة في المشرق العربيّ، وترتبط بعلاقات وثيقة مع إيران وحزب الله وبعض التّنظيمات الفلسطينيّة، وتمتلك القدرة على التّأثير في تطوّر الأحداث، وخاصّةً في منطقة الهلال الخصيب.
وعلى خلاف موقف إسرائيل الواضح الدّاعم لنظام مبارك والمعارض بشدّة لإسقاطه، كان الموقف الإسرائيليّ من النظام السوريّ ومن مسألة إسقاطه مركّبًا ومعقّدًا. وقد التزمت الحكومة الإسرائيليّة، طوال السّنة الأولى من الثّورة السوريّة، جانب الصّمت إزاء مصير نظام الرئيس بشّار الأسد، وإزاء الثورة السوريّة وتطوّر أحداثها، واتّبعت سياسة الغموض تجاه هاتين المسألتين. ولكن، بعد مرور عام على بدء الثّورة واتّضاح عمقها وشموليّتها واستمراريّتها والدّعم الدوليّ الذي أصبحت تحظى به، غيّرت الحكومة الإسرائيليّة سياستها تجاه النّظام السوريّ والوضع السّوري عمومًا، وهذا ما سنعالجه لاحقًا.
لقد تأثّر الموقف الإسرائيليّ من النّظام السوريّ ومن الثورة السوريّة -المطالِبة بإسقاطه- بجملة من المتغيّرات والعوامل المختلفة والمتضاربة في بعض الأحيان. فهناك من ناحيةٍ العوامل التي تدفع الموقف الإسرائيليّ نحو تفضيل إسقاط النظام السوريّ، وثمّة في المقابل عوامل تشدّ في الاتّجاه المعاكس. فقد تمسّك النّظام السوريّ في السّنوات الماضية بموقفه الرافض لشروط السّلام الإسرائيليّة - الأميركيّة، وظلّ مصرًّا على انسحاب إسرائيل من الجولان إلى حدود الرابع من حزيران / يونيو 1967.  وأقام النظام السوريّ تحالفًا مع إيران وحزب الله وبعض التّنظيمات الفلسطينيّة، وأصبح هذا التّحالف محورًا مهمًّا في مناهضة السّياسة الإسرائيليّة - الأميركيّة في المنطقة. وعلى الرّغم من دخول النّظام السوريّ في العمليّة السياسيّة السلميّة منذ مؤتمر مدريد، ما انفكّت إسرائيل تعدّ النظام السوريّ عدوًّا لها. فهي تميّز بين من صنع علاقاتِ سلام معها، مثل مصر والأردن؛ ومن يدعم هذا الخيار، مثل المغرب والسعودية ودول الخليج والسّلطة الفلسطينيّة؛ ومن يرفض قبول الشّروط الإسرائيليّة - الأميركيّة. وترى إسرائيل أنّ من شأن سقوط النظام السوريّ أن يضع حدًّا للمحور الإيرانيّ - السوريّ المناهض لسياستها في المنطقة، وأن يُضعف إيران ويكون ضربة لها في مرحلة حسّاسة بالنّسبة إليها في إطار صراع الدول الغربيّة وإسرائيل ضدّها بشأن ملفّها النّووي. علاوةً على ذلك، يحمل إسقاط النظام السوريّ بين ثناياه إمكانيّة تغيير طبيعة علاقات سورية مع حزب الله وفكّ التّحالف بينهما، وهو ما من شأنه إضعاف حزب الله في لبنان.
ولكن من ناحية أخرى، وعلى الرّغم من كلّ ذلك، وعلى الرّغم من أنّ إسرائيل عدّت النظام السوريّ عدوًّا، إلا أنّها في الوقت نفسه تعدّه عدوًّا مريحًا نسبيًّا -منذ توقيعه اتفاقيّة فصل القوّات ووقف إطلاق النّار في عام 1974- للأسباب التّالية:

أوّلًا: احترم النّظام السوريّ منذ عام 1974 وحتّى اليوم اتّفاق وقف إطلاق النّار على جبهة الجولان، ولم يقم الجيش السوريّ منذ ذلك العام بإطلاق رصاصة واحدة على قوّات الاحتلال الإسرائيليّة من الجولان، وذلك على الرّغم من أنّ إسرائيل شنّت العديد من الحروب والاعتداءات على لبنان والفلسطينيّين راح ضحيّتها عشرات آلاف الفلسطينيّين واللبنانيّين، وعلى الرّغم من تدمير إسرائيل بتدمير "المنشأة" بالقرب من دير الزور في عام 2007، واغتيالها مساعد الرئيس السوريّ العميد محمّد سليمان في طرطوس في عام 2008، واغتيالها أيضًا -في العام نفسه- القائد البارز في حزب الله عماد مغنية في دمشق([3]).    
ثانيًا: منع النظام السوريّ -بشدّة وبنجاعة- انطلاق أيّ أعمال مقاومة من جبهة الجولان.
ثالثًا: منذ مفاوضات مدريد ونهاية مرحلة البحث عن توزان إستراتيجي، اتّخذ النّظام السوريّ قرارًا تاريخيًّا بأنّ السّلام مع إسرائيل هو خياره الإستراتيجي وأنّ مسألة استعادة الجولان السوريّ المحتلّ تعالَج بالطرق السلميّة وبواسطة المفاوضات غير المباشرة مع إسرائيل.
رابعًا: أجرى النّظام السوريّ مفاوضات جدّية وطويلة مع إسرائيل في تسعينيّات القرن الماضي بوساطة أميركيّة، وفي عامَي 2007 و2008 بوساطة تركيّة، وأبدى استعداده لتوقيع اتّفاق سلام مع إسرائيل وإقامة علاقات طبيعيّة معها في مختلف المجالات شرط استعادة الجولان([4]).
خامسًا: أثبتت التّجربة عبر العقود الماضية أنّ بإمكان إسرائيل التّوصّل إلى تفاهمات مع النظام السوريّ -على أرضيّة المصالح المشتركة- بشأن القضايا العربيّة الأكثر حساسيّة حتّى وإن كانت المواقف العلنيّة والرسميّة للنّظام السوريّ عكس ذلك. فمثلا، كشف كتابٌ صدر في إسرائيل عن بعض هذه التّفاهمات التي جرت بين إسرائيل والنّظام السوريّ بشأن حرب إسرائيل الأولى على لبنان ضدّ الفلسطينيّين وحلفائهم اللبنانيّين في عام 1982. ففي أثناء تمهيد إسرائيل لشنّ الحرب ضدّ قوّات منظّمة التّحرير الفلسطينيّة في لبنان وحلفائها من القوى الوطنيّة اللبنانيّة، عملت على الاتّصال المباشر بالنّظام السوريّ بغرض التوصّل إلى تفاهم معه بشأن هذه الحرب، وضمان حياد سورية منها([5]). وفي هذا السّياق، اجتمع وزير الدفاع الإسرائيليّ أريئيل شارون ومساعده أبراهام تمير بالرّجل الثاني في النظام السوريّ حينئذ -رفعت الأسد، شقيق الرئيس السوريّ الرّاحل حافظ الأسد- في جنيف في كانون الأوّل / ديسمبر 1981. وأكّد شارون في هذا الاجتماع على المصالح المشتركة بين إسرائيل والنظام السوريّ، وفي مقدّمتها إضعاف منظّمة التّحرير الفلسطينيّة، وتقسيم مناطق النّفوذ في لبنان بينهما بشكل واضح. وحرص شارون على إبلاغ رفعت الأسد في هذا الاجتماع بأنّ أهداف إسرائيل من الحرب التي ستشنّها على القوّات الفلسطينيّة التابعة لمنظّمة التحرير الفلسطينيّة في لبنان محدودةٌ ومقتصرة فقط على ضرب هذه القوّات الفلسطينيّة، وأنّ إسرائيل تعترف بالمصالح السوريّة في لبنان. وقد وقع في هذا الاجتماع تفاهمٌ شفهيّ بين شارون ورفعت الأسد بشأن الحرب التي ستشنّها إسرائيل على لبنان، ولكن من دون توقيع اتّفاقٍ مكتوب([6]).
على الرّغم من سياسة "الغموض"، وعدم الوضوح، التي تبنّتها الحكومة الإسرائيليّة تجاه الثّورة السوريّة وتطوّر أحداثها في سنتها الأولى إلّا أنّه يمكن استخلاص جملة من الأمور بشأن الموقف الإسرائيليّ منها:
1-  لقد فضّلت إسرائيل منذ البداية عدم استجابة النّظام السوريّ لمطالب الثّورة السوريّة المنادية بالحرّية والديمقراطيّة، لأنّ إسرائيل رأت أنّ إقامة نظام ديمقراطي في سورية تمثّل تغييرًا إستراتيجيًّا في المنطقة، وتحمل بين ثناياها -على المديين المتوسّط والبعيد- النّهوض بسورية وتعزيز قدراتها ومكانتها ودورها في المنطقة، ما يزيد من إمكانيّاتها في مواجهة إسرائيل والتصدّي لها ولسياستها العدوانيّة([7]).
2-  لقد فضّلت إسرائيل أن لا تحقّق الثورة أهدافها بسرعة، وأن يمتدّ أمد الثورة، وكذلك أمد قدرة النّظام على الاستمرار في البطش بالثورة وبالشّعب السوريّ أطول فترة ممكنة، من أجل استنزاف النظام السوريّ والدّولة السوريّة وإضعافهما، وإنهاك الشّعب السوريّ. فإسرائيل تتعامل مع سورية الدّولة والنّظام والثورة كعدوّ، وتعدّ من مصلحتها إضعاف سورية وإطالة أمد الصّراع فيها أطول فترة ممكنة.
3-  هناك خشية في إسرائيل من ضمور قوّة سلطة النظام السوريّ المركزيّة وحدوث تآكل وضعف في قوّته عمومًا، وهو ما قد يؤثّر في قدرة النّظام على الحفاظ على الهدوء في جبهة الجولان. فقد يشكّل ضعف السّلطة المركزيّة وعدم قدرتها على بسط نفوذها على أجزاء واسعة من سورية، نقطة جذب لتنظيمات ومجموعات مسلّحة قد يتّجه جزء منها للعمل ضدّ إسرائيل.
4-   هناك قلق في إسرائيل من عدم قدرة النّظام السوريّ على الاستمرار في السّيطرة على الأسلحة الكيماويّة والبيولوجيّة السوريّة والأسلحة المتطوّرة الأخرى، وقلق من إمكانيّة وقوعها في أيدي قوى معادية لإسرائيل. إلى جانب ذلك، هناك قلق من أن تُسرّب الأسلحة الأكثر تطوّرًا وفتكًا إلى حزب الله([8]).

Whatever Happened to the Arab Summer?

History in Reverse

by PATRICK COCKBURN
CounterPunch

"Remember the euphoria early last year when long-established police states across the Arab world were tumbling down. Facile comparisons were made with the fall of communist states in Eastern Europe in 1989. Commentators spoke glibly of irrepressible political change in the age of the internet, social media and satellite television. Regime change from Tunisia to Bahrain and Damascus to Sanaa appeared easy and even inevitable.

Instead, history has gone into reverse as military governments clamber back into the saddle in Egypt or slaughter their people in Syria. In Bahrain, the al-Khalifa monarchy has crushed dissent and not much is new in Yemen, aside from the formal displacement of its old leader. Libya is in a state of semi-disintegration, while only Tunisia, where it all started, seems to be managing a successful transition to democracy......."

Sharif Abdel Kouddous: Historic Egypt Election Outweighed by Continued Dominance of Military Rule

Democracy Now!


"Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi has become Egypt’s first ever democratically elected president after beating out former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq. Despite his historic victory, Morsi will face major challenges under Egypt’s ruling military council. The council recently issued new restrictions on the incoming president’s authority, and will retain control of Egypt’s budget and legislation. "This has been a flawed transition process," says Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. "On June 30, when there is supposed to be a handover of power, it isn’t a real handover of power at all."....."

Real News Video : Iran Suppresses Union Organizing, Arrests Worker Activists

Farid Partovi: Sanctions and talk of war make it easier for Iranian regime to repress union organizers


More at The Real News

Rabbi who called for slaughter of a million Palestinians is to supervise Israel’s ‘Red Cross’


By Ali Abunimah

"A notoriously racist rabbi who once called on Israel to slaughter a million Palestinian civilians has been appointed to head a supervisory committee for Magen David Adom (MDA) – Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

Haaretz reported that under pressure from ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups MDA decided to set up a rabbinical committee to dictate religious guidelines – including gender relations – for volunteers in the rescue service.

The committee is headed by Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of Safad, whose salary is paid by the Israeli government. Eliyahu has a long, well-documented history of extreme racism and has called for violence against Palestinians.......

In 2007, Eliyahu advocated mass slaughter of Palestinians in order to deter rocket fire from Gaza, while defending a ruling by his late father that Israel was permitted to indiscriminately kill civilians. “If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand,” Shmuel Eliyahu advised, adding, “And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop.”"

The Evil of Our Interventionist Wars


Iraq, Libya, Syria: We have no right to play God

By Jonathan Cook
Common Dreams

"....This is not to argue that Assad’s regime has not committed war crimes. Rather, it is that, even were “humanitarian interventions” a legitimate undertaking, we have no comsistently reliable information to make an assessment of how best we can intervene, based on the “news” placed in our media by partisan groups to the conflict. All that is clear is that we are once again being manipulated, and to a known end.

These are grounds enough to oppose another humanitarian war. But there is an additional reason why it is foolhardy in the extreme for those on the left to play along with West’s current agenda in Syria, even if they genuinely believe that ordinary Syrians will be the beneficiaries.

If the West succeeds in its slow-motion, proxy intervention in Syria and disables yet another Arab state for refusing to toe its line, the stage will be set for the next war against the next target: Iran.

That is not an argument condoning Assad’s continuing rule. Syrians should be left to make that decision.

But it is an admonition to those who justify endless meddling in the Middle East in the service of a Western agenda. It is a caution against waging wars whose destructive power is directed chiefly at civilians. It is a warning that none of these humanitarian wars is a solution to a problem; they are only a prelude to yet more war. And it is a reminder that we have no right to play God."

The Syrian rebels are becoming more viable

Kim Sengupta
The Independent

"Amid the latest rounds of killings and destruction, the further ratcheting up of international tensions and Nato's meeting over the shooting down of a Turkish warplane, a development has taken place which will have a significant impact on the course of Syria's civil war.

A group of 224 middle-ranking military officers and their families have followed two brigadier-generals and two colonels in defecting from the Syrian armed forces. Around 35,000 have fled from Syria into Turkey since the rebellion started last year. But this is the first time that there a steady and growing flow of desertions from forces which have hitherto remained loyal to Bashar al-Assad.....

The numbers of ex-servicemen have been rising recently. The public reason given by these men is that they had been forced to fight for the regime and left when they could no longer stand the slaughter of fellow citizens....."

Egypt has no constitution, parliament... or control

Morsi's victory has done nothing to calm fears among Egyptians – or to rein in the army

By Robert Fisk

".....I'd like to say that Morsi's placatory speech on Sunday – CNN and the BBC made much of his all-inclusive message because it fits in with the Western narrative on the Middle East (progressive, non-sectarian, etc) – was a pretty measly effort in which the army got as much praise as the police for Egypt's latest stage of revolution.

Put bluntly, Morsi is going to be clanking down the road to Egyptian democracy with tin cans dangling from his feet, fear and suspicion mingling among the old Mubarakites and the business elite, and, of course, the Christians, while the uniformed bulldogs of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – its acronym, SCAF, is somehow appropriate to its inefficiency – go on biting off the powers that any president of Egypt should hold. He's got no constitution, no parliament and no right to command his own country's army.

Morsi's friendly tone towards Iran yesterday, of course, will enrage the same beasts. The Saudis allegedly poured money into the Muslim Brotherhood campaign and now they find Morsi smiling upon the Shia regime they so much detest and suggesting they resume "normal relations".....

For as the army has shut down the parliament, taken over budgets, produced an interim constitution taking away most of Morsi's power and reintroduced martial law – not to forget the dishonouring of its own promise to stand down after presidential elections – so a strange but not unfamiliar phenomenon has reappeared in Egypt: fear of the foreigner....

For the "real" revolutionaries, the young of last year's rebellion against Mubarak, are going to have to connect with the poor of Egypt who voted for Morsi, and abandon many of their slogans. It was the Tunisian leftist Habib Ayeb who told an Egyptian journalist last week that those who called his country's uprising the "Jasmine Revolution" failed to realise that the original Tunisian revolutionaries of Sidi Bouzid had probably never seen jasmine in their lives. And there are many Egyptians today who believe they never saw an "Arab Spring"."

We Egyptians will give Mohamed Morsi a try

As I listened to the new Egyptian president's first address, I felt more hopeful. But there is still a struggle ahead

Ahdaf Soueif
guardian.co.uk, Monday 25 June 2012

"....We still have a major struggle ahead. The military leadership, Scaf, wants a degree of political control and economic independence that would make a democratic, transparent, accountable state impossible. The figures and power-brokers of the old regime are still there – and now we know that 4.5 million people voted for them, persuaded by love, interests or ready cash. And near and far there are foreign powers aligned with the old regime who believe their interests would be ill served by our renaissance.

But none of that's new. What's new is that Scaf has revealed its hand in its latest round of legalised power-grabbing; that we know the size of the support the old regime can muster; and that maybe, maybe, we have voted in a president whom we can support, or oppose with honour – without being shot.

A document in circulation lists the tasks people want the president to get on with immediately. People have been adding to it for days, but the first priority item has remained: an amnesty for the 12,000 young people the military has court-martialled – or have them retried by civil judges. Another: set up a real organisation to help the people injured and disabled by the police and military. A third: open the Rafah border and allow people and goods to move between Egypt and Gaza as between two friendly neighbouring countries.

Egyptians have been witnessing the punishing of Gaza throughout the last week, and we don't take it kindly that so many foreign statements about the new president reference Camp David or "peace" as their priority. They need to pack away their Israeli prism when looking at us 84 million Egyptians....."

Syrian government targeting dissenter’s followers


25 June 2012

"As the international community continues to vacillate over meaningful action to stop the crisis in Syria and to provide justice for victims of human rights violations, new information concerning methods used by the authorities to crush any form of dissent continues to emerge.

Not only are protestors shot at, villages attacked and houses of activists burned, but other repressive, if less visible, tools are used to discourage anyone from showing opposition to the government.

More than 20 followers of a Damascus imam, Saria al-Refa’i - who publicly criticised violations by the government in his Friday prayer sermons - have reportedly been detained, some for more than ten months......"

استعدنا أتاتورك وليس أردوغان!


"كأن المجلس العسكري أخطأ في العنوان حين أراد أن يستفيد من الخبرة التركية. إذ بدلا من أن يعتبر أعضاؤه مما فعله الطيب أردوغان فإنهم استلهموا تجربة كمال أتاتورك، فأعرضوا عن سكة السلامة وطرقوا أبواب سكة الندامة.
....
لم يعد في بر مصر صوت يعلو فوق صوت المجلس العسكري، فهو الذي بات يملك سلطة التشريع، وهو الآمر الناهي فيما يخص التنفيذ، ثم إن سلطة المجلس فوق القانون وفوق الدستور
.....
الجيش في تركيا كان يتدخل في السياسة من منطلق أيديولوجي متذرعا بالدفاع عن العلمانية الكمالية، أما في مصر فلم يكن للأيديولوجية أي دور في تحرك الجيش الذي ظل ملتزما بحسابات المصلحة الوطنية فقط
.....
مجلس الدفاع الوطني الذي أعلن المجلس العسكري تشكيله في مصر خلال الأسبوع الماضي, أعادنا إلى أجواء الستينيات في تركيا، وهو الوضع الذي لم يتحرروا منه هناك إلا بعد مضي أربعين عاما
لست متأكدا من أن ما فعله المجلس العسكري كان مجرد خطأ في العنوان أو خطأ في قراءة التاريخ، ومع ذلك فإن أكثر ما يهمني هو إجابة السؤال: كم عدد السنوات التي سنحتاجها لكي نتحلل من وصاية العسكر، لنتمكن من بناء مصر الديمقراطية التي من أجلها قامت الثورة؟
"

Egypt’s president is U.S. critic, but he could be an ally

The Washington Post

"....And yet, U.S. officials and analysts express guarded optimism that Washington can build a strong working relationship with the veteran Muslim Brotherhood politician, whose victory was confirmed Sunday. Morsi and his aides say that they, too, are upbeat about the future of Egypt’s relationship with the United States, though not without caveats.....

“The U.S. will have leverage with the Brotherhood because the Brotherhood needs the U.S. and Europe for Egypt’s long-term economic recovery,” said Shadi Hamid, an Egypt expert at the Brookings Doha Center who has met with Morsi and several Brotherhood leaders in recent months. “They are going to need billions of dollars in loans and investments if they want to turn around their economy.”

Morsi spokesman and adviser Gehad Haddad said the incoming president, who earned a PhD in Southern California during the 1970s, has begun to build healthy relationships with U.S. officials.

“We expect and will work towards a strong strategic relationship” with Washington, Haddad said in an interview Monday. “It will help to bridge the gap between how both populations view each other.”.....

Those efforts are seen as imperative to safeguarding Egypt’s decades-old peace treaty with Israel. In an interview with The Washington Post in February 2011, when Morsi was the head of the Brotherhood’s newly formed Freedom and Justice Party, he said upending the treaty was not a priority. But he described the status quo of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as unacceptable.....

Haddad, his spokesman, said Monday that “we will not be the party that breaks this treaty.” But he added that Egyptians would see “very swift” and significant changes in the country’s policy toward Israel....."

Monday, June 25, 2012

The Silent Ethnic Cleansing: A Glimpse Into the Plight of an “Invented” People

Great Comment by Boudour Hassan



Jerusalem, Palestine - “Yes, Israel does violate international law and is far from perfect,” concedes the “enlightened liberal Zionist, “But it is nowhere near as brutal or contemptible as the Assad regime.” The notion that Israel is somehow more tolerable than Arab tyrannies just because it does not bomb Palestinians in the West Bank or (gasp!) does not mass-murder demonstrators is virtually universal. This assumption, however, underlines a disturbing lack of understanding of the Israeli military occupation and the system of racial segregation governing the occupied west Bank. It goes without saying that those repeating this mantra have never lived under military occupation and have never experienced the constant fear of being abducted from their bedrooms and arrested without warrant, charges or trial.
In an attempt at refuting this notion, it’s necessary to explain the reasons for this shockingly pervasive ignorance. The vast majority of Israelis consistently and unashamedly clasp the charade that Israel is a democracy even if that means living in perpetual frugality, shrugging off horrendous crimes as singular incidents that do not represent the “most moral army in the world” and defending the indefensible under the guise of security. For a colonial society that thrives on a counterfeit sense of moral, intellectual and cultural superiority over an “invented” people, admitting culpability or complicity in the systematic annihilation of a defenseless, far less privileged community is unthinkable. So profound is the sense of denial enveloping Israelis that they take great offence at the very labeling of Israel as an apartheid state or, God forbid, condemning it in the same breath as Arab dictatorships. There is little to no outrage by Israelis about Israel’s atrocities because, remember, they are unrepresentative, rare – and for many they do not exist – no state is “perfect” and because human rights organizations are “biased” against Israel and want to wipe away the island of democracy surrounded by an ocean of oppressive, vulgar third world tribes.
The maligned genius of the Israeli occupation lies in its success to squeeze the lifeblood out of entire communities silently, gradually but brutally. Practices such as the rapidly increasing home demolitions; ceaseless construction and expansion of illegal settlements; blocking access to schools and agricultural fields; the frequent destruction of basic infrastructure like water wells and solar power plants; and the theft of land, identity and collective memory are hardly reported in the mainstream media. The discriminatory legal system and the racist bureaucracy that controls the tiniest minutiae of Palestinians’ daily life, including traveling to neighboring villages and even marriage, murder the soul of Palestinian society, but will never capture the headlines of the New York Times or CNN. The silent, invisible ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population does not possess the flash of missiles and explosions or the booming sound of mortar shells, but it is even more devastating and effective.
Such is the regularity of Israel’s human rights abuses that even Palestinians have normalized them, at times to the extent of desensitization. When asked whether she would like to write about her experience as a prisoner’s wife, a woman from Beit Ummar said no-one would be interested to read about it, likening the experience to cooking chicken.
The Palestinian victims of the Israeli occupation are often nameless and faceless. We read that there are over 4500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation jails but very few of us recognize their names, their faces or their stories. If it were not for the heroic hunger-strikes, the suffering of thousands of prisoners languishing in Israel’s dungeons would remain untold. We only heard of Khader Adnan because of his inspiring 66-day huger-strike. If it were not for her incredible 43-day hunger-strike, we would never know that Hana Shalabi spent the best years of her life detained in Israel without charges or trial. It is only thanks to his astonishing 78-day hunger-strike that we knew about Thaer Halahleh who, prior to his release on 5 June, had never kissed his beloved daughter Lamar. Even Palestinian national team footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, who has been detained in Israel without trial or charge since July 2009, would have never gained the support of FIFA and world renowned footballers it had not been for a miraculous 92 days without food. Mind you, even that was not sufficient for the Palestinian Football Association to raise an eyebrow. All of us, on the other hand, are familiar with the Israeli occupation soldier who was captured by Palestinian resistance 6 years ago today. He did not have to go on for days without food to garner the world’s attention and sympathy.


Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - Is this the end of Egypt's revolution?

Al-Jazeera Video: Sudan anti-government protests continue


"Hundreds of people have protested in Sudan's capital Khartoum, despite a police crackdown on them.

Demonstrations against the government's anti-austerity measures are now in their second week.

Al jazeera's Mohamed Vall reports that some activists say they want to start an Arab-Spring style uprising."

SCAF in Control of the "Democratic Process" in Egypt, by Emad Hajjaj

Regime-Changers’ Report Card

The regime-change machine is humming – and picking up speed

by Justin Raimondo, June 25, 2012

"....The neoconservative regime-changers’ were never shy about proclaiming their grandiose goal, which was to “drain the swamp” of the Middle East and achieve some fundamental “transformation,” presumably in a secular liberal-democratic direction. What this meant, in terms of real power relations, was redrawing the map of the Middle East. So, how’re they doing so far?......

One has to wade all the way to the end of a long and dreary New York Times piece on Mohammed Morsi’s victory to read about the press conference given by a coalition of liberal democratic and secular parties, which hailed the junta’s dissolution of parliament and accused the US of aiding the Brotherhood. Indeed, the National Democratic Institute has openly admitted giving some kind of assistance to Brotherhood candidates and electoral activities. One has to wonder about the extent and nature of this aid.

The disqualification of the original Brotherhood candidate, and the substitution of Morsi, a former assistant professor at Cal State Northridge, sets the stage for a post-Mubarak Egypt organized along Turkish lines. As in Turkey, the military will step in when the Islamists threaten to get out of hand, but will otherwise be allowed to rule as long as they don’t try to pursue an independent foreign policy or offend the delicate sensibilities of Western liberals too often.

While Egypt often seems to teeter on the brink of chaos, so far at least it has been controlled chaos – with most of the strings being pulled from Washington, D.C. Continuing a policy inherited from the Bush administration, the Obama administration is playing the Sunni card for all its worth, using its influence and resources to build “democratic” Islamist movements as a counterweight to both al Qaeda and the alleged Iranian threat. ....."

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Morsi is no revolutionary and not much of a nationalist. The army elite has already laid traps for him


Zaghloul might be missed today, after an election in which the words 'Islam'and 'security' seemed like interchangeable platitudes

By Robert Fisk

"While 50 million Egyptians were waiting yesterday to hear that they had elected a Muslim Brotherhood mediocrity over a Mubarak bag-carrier, I paid a visit to the home of Saad Zaghloul....

Mohamed Morsi is no revolutionary. No feminist. Not much of a nationalist. And the army elite has already laid its traps for him. But the "deep state" represented by his opponent, Ahmed Shafik, receded yesterday. Up to a point – and only up to a point – Zaghloul would have approved.....

Unlike Morsi, however, Zaghloul wanted to live in a modern, progressive, secular Egypt, saying of his party in 1919 that "the present movement in Egypt is not a religious movement – for Muslims and Copts demonstrate together – and neither is it a xenophobic movement or a movement calling for Arab unity". Egypt for the Egyptians. You can see why he might be missed today, after an election campaign in which the words "Islam" and "security" seemed interchangeable platitudes....

And, for a man born long before his time, it is a dismal fact that Zaghloul died despairing of his own people. "Cover me, Safeya," were his last words, uttered on that pink-covered bed. "It's of no use.""

Morsi's win is a victory for the revolution

Morsi's victory is the best progressives could have hoped for, and will allow a grassroots movement to slowly build.

By Mark LeVine
Al-Jazeera

"........Now the country's progressive forces can spend their time building an opposition that is rooted in society and can effectively challenge the political lies and illusionary narratives that will be liberally dispensed by the old/new system to pacify the masses. Equally important, they can develop a narrative for the future that the majority of Egyptians can believe has a chance of being realised, rather than leading to the chaos and instability that the military has constantly warned them would come with any attempt to radically change the structures and relations of power governing Egyptian society.

Of course, this grassroots strategy will take years to take hold, and will come up against the interests of the patronage and power networks of the Brotherhood and the military. And before anything can happen, the thousands of progressive activists who've fallen into a funk in the past few months need to "get off the couch, stop complaining" and get back to work, as one young activist leader wrote on his Facebook page yesterday.

But if the incompetent performance of SCAF, the Brotherhood and the rest of Egypt's power elite is any indication, there will be plenty of opportunities for Egypt's revolutionary forces to lay the foundation for a powerful opposition movement that will have a fighting chance to win real power the next time Egyptians head to the polls.

This is the best any revolutionary movement can hope for less than two years into a struggle which, if history is any guide, will take decades to decide."

Mohamed Morsi victory is a landmark for Egypt – but a qualified one


Please Meet Egypt's First Lady,....
And Egypt's Second Lady,....
And Egypt's Third Lady,....
And Egypt's Fourth Lady.

Muslim Brotherhood candidate's win is the best outcome of an election that leaves the military as the power behind the throne

Ian Black, Middle East editor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 24 June 2012

"......The secrets of behind-the-scenes bargaining between the Brotherhood and Scaf remain to be told. It will be surprising if the generals do not retain their financial clout and privileges, and their powers to make war, conduct foreign policy and maintain internal security – the holy trinity of Egypt's deep state. It will suit them perfectly to blame the civilian president for the parlous state of the economy.

In a curious twist of recent days, Shafiq supporters accused the US of quietly encouraging a Morsi win – as a way of cementing the dominance of Scaf and securing the strategically important peace treaty with Israel.....

Morsi's biggest challenges start now. Will he stand up to the army? His claim to represent "all Egyptians" will be tested by how he reaches out to the liberal and independent candidates who fell away in the first presidential round.

Who will he choose as a prime minister? A non-Brotherhood figure – Mohamed ElBaradei is being mooted – could signal pluralism and help deflect heat on the economy. Nervous Copts and women will need reassuring. Not everyone believes the Brotherhood's newfound spirit of inclusiveness: after all, it backed Scaf's transition plan for most of last year and then reneged on its own promises not to field too many candidates for parliament or any for the presidency.

Morsi's victory is not the end of Egypt's turbulent post-revolutionary game. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning."

Ahhhhh.....The New Egypt!





You Call This A Revolution??

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Egypt's democratic revolution is being crushed by a slow-motion coup


The west can, and must, use its influence to curb Egypt's generals

Editorial
The Observer, Saturday 23 June 2012

"Whatever the final results of Egypt's presidential elections, due to be announced today, it is fair to say that one thing has not changed since the advent of the Arab Spring – the grip of the country's generals on the country's post-Hosni Mubarak politics.

Egypt's "deep state" – represented by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces backed by powerful former regime interests in both business and the media – has moved at every turn to undermine the transition to democracy.

It has dissolved the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament which was elected in January in what were largely regarded as free and fair elections. The military, too, has pursued young revolutionaries through the courts and with live ammunition when they have dared to protest, leading to more than 1,000 deaths since the revolution. The remnants of the old regime – known as the felool – have prosecuted foreign NGOs, attempted to portray foreigners as spies and agents provocateurs, while doing their best to undermine the writing of a new constitution that the "deep state" fears might introduce civilian oversight into its murky dealings, not least its monopolisation of large parts of Egypt's economy.

The reason for these tactics is clear. They are designed not only to protect the military's own interests but also to encourage a state of chaos and thereby persuade the Egyptian electorate that stability at any cost is better than the present situation. On Friday the military, in an act of astonishing chutzpah, attempted to blame the Muslim Brotherhood for the confusion it has itself been instrumental in sowing, through the party's allegedly premature claims to have won the election. At the same time the ruling council unashamedly defended its constitutional decree limiting the power of the new president.

Many are fearful that the generals are planning to hand power – whatever the real result in a close and not very clean election – to Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister and embodiment of the old regime.

The decree also gives the generals power to enact legislation in the absence of a parliament while allowing it a key role in any future constitutional negotiations. Rejecting demands that they reverse their dissolution of parliament and their grasp on power, the generals defended their move instead, saying it was for the good of the country "during this critical period".

The tone of the televised statement from the ruling military council was a blunt warning to Egyptians about where real power lay – an instruction to behave or face the consequences. The reality is that even if – after what appear to be behind-the-scenes negotiations between the generals and the Brotherhood – the Brotherhood's candidate Mohamed Morsi is declared the victor, the result may be meaningless. For its part the Brotherhood, aware of the escalating nature of the crisis, has attempted to forge a belated front with other parties and revolutionary groups in a bid to resist the army's latest manoeuvres.

In all of this the international community has acted as willing collaborators with the generals, refusing to speak out even in the midst of what appears to many to be a slow-moving and soft coup d'etat. The United States, which provides the military with $1.3bn in aid, is most guilty in this respect, but the British Foreign Office and other European capitals have hardly been better. There are, however, signs that even the US may be running out of patience with the generals' unwillingness to hand over power to civilian rule. Warnings have issued from the State Department that aid is contingent on political transition.

The outcome of the struggle under way in Egypt is critical, too, not just for that country's weary inhabitants but for the wider region which has witnessed the promise of the Arab Spring transformed increasingly into a bitter competition between different players.
Failure of the revolution and transition in Egypt would have far-reaching consequences. For now, at least, the junta remains susceptible to external pressure."

Al-Jazeera Video: Al Jazeera's correspondent Jamal Elshayyal reports from Cairo

Al-Jazeera Video: Anticipation and expectation in Tahrir

Real News Video : Protesters Flood Tahrir Square in Anticipation of Election Results

Tens of thousands of protesters packed into Tahrir Square Friday night vowing another uprising if the pro-military candidate Ahmed Shafiq is announced president.

More at The Real News

Egyptians don't care about Hosni Mubarak's health scares

Mubarak might be on his back but his regime is very much on its legs, upright and determined to crush our revolution

By Mona Eltahawy
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 23 June 2012

"Hosni Mubarak, our 84-year old ousted dictator, has spent another night outside the prison cell where he's been sentenced to spend whatever remains of his life. A health scare that began as a stroke, according to state-controlled media, but ended up being attributed by his lawyer to a "slip in the bathroom", ensured that he was moved into the welcoming environs of a military hospital.

It was not the first time that Mubarak has supposedly suffered a stroke, fallen into a coma, been on life support or all of the above. Ever since street protests forced the ruling military junta to put him on trial last year, he has been on the verge of death so many times that once he actually does die it is easy to imagine that the news will be greeted in much the same way as this latest health scare: we don't care......

It is not just Mubarak who is supposedly fighting for his life; that military rule too is determined to hold on. A series of blatant power grabs over the past couple of weeks that have dissolved parliament and attempt to curb the powers of whoever is our next president, are also reminders that the military junta feels the need to remind us that it's in charge.

The Muslim Brotherhood movement – whose heart, let's be honest, was never fully into the revolution but whose candidate Mohamed Morsi might be that next president – has since Mubarak's ouster been busy with its own power grabbing and on-again-off-again ability or willingness to stand up to the military junta and for the goals of our revolution: bread, liberty and social justice.

So you'll excuse us if Mubarak's health "scares" are less significant to most people here in Egypt than they are to the foreign media....."

What about women’s rights in Egypt?


By Joseph Mayton
Bikya Masr

"CAIRO: Egypt is in full protest mode once again. Tens of thousands are packing Cairo’s Tahrir Square to once more demand an end to the military control over the country. As anger and uncertainty reign in the country, women remain on the outside looking in, fearful of heading down to the square to show their support. The reason is simple: they are attacked, assaulted, groped and harassed throughout the square.....

This is the current, modern Egypt that exists. And one where women are silenced from public. The use of violence and harassment against all women in this country is the main social problem that is barring any real and viable change from occurring.

If Egypt is to see the success of the revolution then women, and violence against them, must be battled at every step.

A constitution and election are important. But a country where women live in fear of walking down their streets, anywhere, is not a country that has a bright future."

Egypt transitions away from democracy


By Sherine Tadros
Al-Masry Al-Youm

COMMENT:

Welcome to Egyptistan. Pakistan is the model being replicated in Egypt. Why? Because Uncle Sam prefers it this way (to maintain control) and the Muslim Brothers don't mind as long as they have a tiny share of "power."

"On 1 July, Egypt’s military rulers have promised to “hand over” power in a grand ceremony to be broadcast across the world.

But the real show has been happening over the last 16 months as they have cleverly managed to keep the facade of a “transition process” alive despite their crackdowns, unilateral law-making and ever tightening grip on the country.

Every step along this never-ending transition, Egyptians have felt robbed. They were given the right to choose, only to have that choice exploited, manipulated and, ultimately, ignored......

Enter the Brotherhood

Of course it takes two to mess a transition up this badly. The Muslim Brotherhood’s insistence on pushing for elections to capitalize on pro-revolution fervor and the disorganization of liberal and secular parties took the country full circle, leading to power battle between the Brotherhood and the regime. A struggle is taking place with no set parameters, no permanent constitution, just the rules made up by the unelected military rulers.

Many blame the Brotherhood for their failure to achieve anything substantial in the past few months despite their dominant role in Parliament. But their power to legislate was greatly curbed, and had to always be sanctioned by the junta. A defining moment for the People’s Assembly was when they passed the so called “Political Isolation Law” to ban former senior members of Mubarak’s regime from running for the presidency.

The law was passed only days away from the presidential election’s first round. The law, although ratified by the SCAF, was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Constitutional Court (on the same day it effectively disbanded Parliament), thus securing the place of presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq (Mubarak’s last prime minister) in the election runoff.

The Parliament’s other important task was to pick the 100-member Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution. On 10 April, Cairo’s Administrative Court suspended the assembly because it was dominated by Islamists and was not representative of other groups. The Brotherhood did in fact dominate the assembly — not only through allocating themselves 38 out of the 50 seats reserved for parliamentarians, but also through ensuring those reserved for unions and syndicate representatives were, let’s say, “Brotherhood friendly.”

The result was a mass walk out by seculars, liberals, the Church, Al-Azhar and others. The second attempt at forming a Constituent Assembly is quickly going down the same path, which could lead to the SCAF taking over the entire process of constitution writing. Every time the Brotherhood makes a wrong move, the SCAF is the sole beneficiary.

In the end, the revolution’s greatest asset became the biggest hindrance to its success — lack of leadership. Into the brief power vacuum left behind by Hosni Mubarak, leapt a military elite that quickly proved how easy it is to turn a spontaneous uprising into a coup."

Video: سامح نجيب: مستقبل الثورة المصرية بعد انتخابات الرئاسة

From Hossam El-Hamalawy


اليسار الثوري والإخوان المسلمون


الجبهة الثورية في مواجهة الإنقلاب

Friday, June 22, 2012

Saudi Arabia plans to fund Syria rebel army

Exclusive: Command centre in Turkey organising weapon supply to opposition

A GREAT JOB OPENING:

A Syrian Karzai is needed immediately. A very attractive pay package guaranteed by Saudi Arabia. Submit applications for screening, c/o:

Senator Joseph Lieberman,
706 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Martin Chulov in Beirut, Ewen MacAskill in Washington, John Densky in Idlib province
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 June 2012

"Saudi officials are preparing to pay the salaries of the Free Syria Army as a means of encouraging mass defections from the military and increasing pressure on the Assad regime, the Guardian has learned.

The move, which has been discussed between Riyadh and senior officials in the US and Arab world, is believed to be gaining momentum as a recent flush of weapons sent to rebel forces by Saudi Arabia and Qatar starts to make an impact on battlefields in Syria.

Officials in the Saudi capital embraced the idea when it was put to them by Arab officials in May, according to sources in three Arab states, around the same time that weapons started to flow across the southern Turkish border into the hands of Free Syria Army leaders.

Turkey has also allowed the establishment of a command centre in Istanbul which is co-ordinating supply lines in consultation with FSA leaders inside Syria. The centre is believed to be staffed by up to 22 people, most of them Syrian nationals.....

The US senator Joe Lieberman, who is actively supporting the Syrian opposition, discussed the issue of FSA salaries during a recent trip to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.....

Diplomatic sources have told the Guardian two US intelligence officers were in Syria's third city of Homs between December and early February, trying to establish command and control within rebel ranks.

Interviews with officials in three states reveal the influx of weapons – which includes kalashnikovs, rocket propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles – started in mid-May, when Saudi Arabia and Qatar finally moved on pledges they had made in February and March to arm rebel forces.

The officials, who insisted on anonymity, said the final agreement to move weapons from storage points inside Turkey into rebel hands was hard won, with Ankara first insisting on diplomatic cover from the Arab states and the US......"

Al-Jazeera Video: Egyptians united in call for civilian rule


"Thousands of Egyptians are back on the streets of Cairo.

Revolutionary groups and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood seem to be united in their call for civilian rule.

They want the parliament reinstated and the ruling military council to hand over power to the new president.

Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna reports from Cairo."

Real News Video (with Transcript): Will Ecuador Give Assange Asylum?

Ray McGovern: Washington Post threatens Ecuador if Wikileaks founder given asylum


More at The Real News

Election Results, by Emad Hajjaj

Israel's 'price tag' terrorism has tactical political goals


By Jonathan Cook
The National
Jun 22, 2012

"Violent, so-called "price tag" attacks by Jewish settlers have become a staple of life for Palestinian communities over the past few months. The latest is the torching this week of a mosque in the village of Jaba, close to the city of Ramallah.

Palestinians in areas of the West Bank under Israeli control live with settler neighbours who beat and shoot them, set alight fields, poison wells, kill livestock and steal crops. These acts of terror have begun to spread elsewhere: homes, cars, cemeteries, mosques and churches are now targets in East Jerusalem and Israel too. Earlier this month a school and several cars were vandalised in Neve Shalom, the only genuinely mixed Jewish-Arab community in Israel.

Invariably the "price" invoked by the settlers is unrelated to any Palestinian action. Instead Palestinians are punished indiscriminately for the smallest concession the settlers fear Israel might make in the diplomatic arena.......

Ordinary Israelis are likewise adopting a mood that chimes with that of the settlers. The mounting documentary evidence of the settlers' brutality, difficult for Israelis to ignore or deny, is rapidly hardening public opinion.

This toughening of public emotion leaves Israelis both indifferent to the suffering of Palestinians and in a mood for violence and vengeance towards any non-Jews who share their state, including not only 1.5 million Palestinian citizens but also migrant workers and now African asylum-seekers.

Once Israelis longed to believe in their own mythical slogans of ethical superiority: they had the "most moral army in the world" and their soldiers, as Golda Meir famously observed, suffered uniquely from an oversensitivity syndrome termed "shoot and cry".

Nowadays, even the pretence of soul-searching is gone. If Israelis have a current motto, it is "shoot and shrug your shoulders"."

Real News Video : Brotherhood Threatens Uprising as Egypt's Generals Postpone Election Results

Egyptians speculate whether Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohammed Morsy or former Mubarak PM Ahmed Shafiq won election after the military junta delays results


More at The Real News

Real News Video (with Transcript): Max Blumenthal Resigns Al Akhbar Over Syria Coverage

Max Blumenthal discusses his article, "The right to resist is universal: A farewell to Al Akhbar and Assad's apologists"

A GOOD INTERVIEW






More at The Real News

Al-Jazeera Video: The latest from Cairo's Tahrir Square


Leading Syrians prepare to defect


Members of Bashar al-Assad's inner circle 'making secret plans to defect' as Syria air force colonel abandons attack mission and flies MiG to Jordan.

The Telegraph

"Members of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle are secretly making plans to defect to the opposition should the Syrian regime become critically threatened by the rebellion, US officials have told The Daily Telegraph.

Senior military figures are understood to be laying down “exit strategies” and establishing lines of communication with the rebels to discuss how they would be received if they deserted.

On Thursday a Syrian air force colonel became the first senior officer to defect in an aircraft after he abandoned a mission to attack the city of Dera’a and landed his MiG 21 fighter jet in Jordan.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the pilots of three other MiGs on the mission also considered defecting, but were worried about being turned away.....

However, a senior US official in Washington said some of those closest to the Syrian leader were now preparing to flee. “We are seeing members of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle make plans to leave,” the official said.

This has even included moving large sums of money offshore into Lebanese and Chinese banks and making contact with opposition elements and Western governments.

Syrian opposition groups confirmed that they were actively courting American help to encourage more defections.

One senior opposition source said: “I know for sure there are some high-ranking officers who are waiting for the right chance to defect.

“We have names of people in the presidential palace. There are rumours that there is one who is really close to the president and we are expecting to see him out of the country soon.”....."

1.5 million Syrians need humanitarian help: U.N.


"(Reuters) - The number of people needing humanitarian assistance in Syria has risen to 1.5 million from the previous estimate of 1 million as escalating violence drives more people from their homes, the United Nations said on Friday.

Aid agencies face "significant" constraints in reaching growing numbers of civilians who need basic goods and protection, it said.

"Up to 1.5 million people now need humanitarian assistance in Syria," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a news briefing in Geneva.

They include 350,000 in northern Idlib province and some 250,000 in the flashpoint city of Homs, where more than 100 public buildings have been turned into temporary shelters for people who have fled their homes, an OCHA statement said....."

Thursday, June 21, 2012


OUT WITH THE OLD PHARAOH......
IN WITH THE NEW PHARAOH.

CELEBRATE!

A Great Cartoon by Carlos Latuff


(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Al-Jazeera Video: Jane Ferguson reports from Gaza


"Two more Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes
on the Gaza Strip.
That takes the death toll to nine since the fighting along the Israeli-Gaza border began on Monday.

Children are believed to be among the dead.

Hamas has fired dozens of rockets into Israel.

Al Jazeera's Jane Ferguson reports."

Julian Assange’s Artful Dodge



by Ray McGovern, June 21, 2012

"Barring a CIA drone strike on the Ecuadorian embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s sudden appeal for asylum there may spare him a prison stay in Sweden or possibly the United States. Assange’s freedom now depends largely on Ecuadorian President Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado, a new breed of independent-minded leader like Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Correa has been a harsh critic of U.S. behavior toward Ecuador and its Latin American neighbors as well as an outspoken fan of WikiLeaks. Atypically for the region, Ecuador is not a major recipient of U.S. economic or military aid, so Washington’s leverage is limited. This suggests that the Ecuadorian government may decide to defy Washington, accept Assange’s request for asylum, and have him flown to Ecuador pronto....."

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll




Is the delay in announcing the results of Egypt's presidential elections due to technical or political reasons?

With about 700 responding, 90% said political reasons.

Only the military are guaranteed victory in this Egyptian election



Returning to Cairo, Robert Fisk finds the city gripped by the demise of its former president – but fearing the outcome of the vote to decide his successor

By Robert Fisk

"Hosni Mubarak's ghost – whether or not he is still alive at midday – will preside over today's Egyptian presidential election results. For Ahmed Shafik and Mohamed Morsi represent the two faces of the narrative which Mubarak always used to maintain his power: stability or the Islamist nightmare. Shafik, Mubarak's last Prime Minister, is the "stability" candidate who has already claimed victory. Morsi is the Muslim Brotherhood man who has already claimed victory. Add to this the childish and arrogant claim by the army and its greedy field marshal, Mohamed Tantawi, to hold on to all its privileges, no matter how Egyptians have voted, and today promises to be one of those bookmarkers that historians love.....

More likely – and here comes the corrosive politics of the old Egypt – there will be tantalising opportunities held out. If Morsi is declared President, the army can trumpet their loyalty to the winner of a democratic election while ensuring that he remains muzzled. And the Brotherhood, let us remember, were negotiating with Mubarak's government even while the protesters in Tahrir Square were still being shot down by the state security police. The idea that the largest Islamist movement in Egypt has spent its darkest years in clandestinity is not true; Mubarak, for his own reasons, encouraged them to participate in elections as independents; and the Brotherhood duly obliged.

In other words, the Brotherhood are not necessarily the other side of the emperor's coin. They can be stroked and bargained with, and lavished with false praise, and – as long as they do not try to dissolve the army and the security apparatus which has tortured them (literally) for so long – may well work within the system of the "deep state" which is emerging in Egypt.

This will not satisfy the real revolutionaries, the young and the brave and the intellectuals (not necessarily all the same) who feel so betrayed by the events of the past year-and-a-half. The ElBaradeis will still be there to speak up, along with the political failures of the first presidential poll. And the West will be there to bellow if their human rights are violated by either "winner" in the election results today. Ah, that Mubarak might live to see all this ..."

Syria crisis: colonel 'defects' as jet lands in Jordan

The Guardian

"12.14pm: Syria: Jordanian minister of state for information Samih al-Maaytah, has confirmed that the pilot has asked for asylum.
Reuters quoted him saying: "He requested political asylum in Jordan. He is being debriefed at the moment."

Military analysts reckon that Syria has 140 MiG 21 in service.

12.06pm: Syria: The Syrian fighter jet made an "emergency landing" at a northern Jordanian airbase, according to AP, citing a Jordanian official.

The official says the Russian-made MiG-21 landed Thursday at the King Hussein Air Base in Mafraq, a north Jordanian town near the Syrian border.

He declined to provide other details. Two other officials gave similar accounts.All three spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

11.54am: Syria: It is highly unusual for the state news agency to give credence to reports about military defections.
But this brief statement, is giving the story legs....."

Guardian Video: Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat: 'They broke my hands to stop me drawing Assad'

Ali Farzat founded in 2001 Syria's first satirical weekly, Ad Domari. In August 2011, he was attacked by Bashar al-Assad's militia who broke his hands. The incident prompted international condemnation of the Assad regime. Farzat was awarded the European parliament Sakharov prize for freedom of thought

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 June 2012

A NICE VIDEO!



Bahraini boy, 11, charged with helping protesters


Ali Hasan faces up to three years in jail if convicted as authorities refuse to believe he was merely playing in the street

Saeed Kamali Dehghan
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 June 2012

"Prosecutors in Bahrain have charged an 11-year-old boy with taking part in an illegal gathering, which could see him sent to jail.

Ali Hasan, a primary school pupil from the capital's suburban area of Bilad al-Qadeem, was picked up by security officials from his neighbourhood on accusations that he helped protesters block a street with rubbish containers and wood during anti-government demonstrations in the area last month. He subsequently spent nearly a month in a juvenile detention centre before being released last week to await trial.

Ali told the Guardian he was merely playing with friends in the street and had nothing to do with the protests.

"The verdict will be issued on 5 July," said Ali's lawyer, Shahzalan Khamees, who defended him at the juvenile criminal court in Manama on Wednesday. "They charged him with illegal gathering that has a few weeks up to three years imprisonment as punishment under the country's law." Ali was accompanied to court by his father, Jasem Hasan......"

Egypt: Military Power Grab Creates Conditions for Abuse


Decrees Embed Armed Forces’ Role in Law Enforcement

Human Rights Watch
June 21, 2012

"(New York) – Decrees issued by the Egyptian ruling military council and the Justice Minister in recent days sharply reduce civilian oversight of military actions, creating conditions ripe for further serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today.

A June 4, 2012 Justice Ministry Decree empowers the military to arrest civilians. On June 17, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued new Constitutional Declaration provisions that set out an expanded role for the military in civilian law enforcement, including continued trials of civilians before military courts. And a June 18 decree restructuring the National Defense Council gives the military expanded decision-making powers on internal as well as national security issues, Human Rights Watch said.

“The generals’ relentless expansion of their authority to detain and try civilians now goes far beyond their powers under Hosni Mubarak,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “These decrees are the latest indication yet that there won’t be a meaningful handover to civilian rule on June 30.”......"

Mubarak coverage takes away from real issues in Egypt

By Joseph Mayton
Bikya Masr

The Last Pharaoh?

"CAIRO: In the late hours of Tuesday evening, foreign media began calling off the hook, asking whether Egypt’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak was dead. What was the situation? How will his death affect the country? A whole gamut of questions were being launched.

The international media, especially the American press, has taken the Mubarak story and run with it, with even one headline attempting to push the idea that Mubarak’s health issues were part of the political tension in the country. How wrong they are, but we should be used to this by now.....

It is a sad reality that American editors appear unreasonably fixated on what they know. Mubarak was in the spotlight for three decades, albeit destroying the country he ruled, but now as he lies on his death bed, there appears to be some nostalgia from American media, many of whom had met the dictator personally.

At the end of the day, Egypt and its people, have more important things to deal with. Fuel shortages, democracy being killed and the future of their country is under threat. Mubarak’s health is not an issue people care much about.

If you don’t agree, think about this: when state TV reported last night that Mubarak’s heart stopped, the cafe I was sitting at did not switch to the news, instead they allowed the England versus Ukraine match to finish. Football trumped Mubarak in Egypt, but not the US."

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

A Coup in Cairo: As Muslim Brotherhood Claims Election Victory, Military Strips President of Power

Democracy Now!


"Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports from Egypt on the country’s growing political crisis. Former President Hosni Mubarak is on life support, both candidates claim to have won last weekend’s election, and the ruling military council has seized greater power. Official presidential election results are not expected to be announced until Thursday. Tens of thousands of Egyptians protested Tuesday night in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a rally called by the Muslim Brotherhood, expressing outrage over the army’s decree late Sunday that it would seize all legislative powers. "Right now the country has no constitution, no parliament, and an incoming president that will have scant power," Kouddous says. "So, really, the military council is controlling the key branches of state. ... [It’s] perhaps a fitting end to this nonsensical transition that we’ve seen over the last 16 months."......."

Julian Assange of WikiLeaks Seeks Asylum in Ecuador In Attempt To Avoid Extradition to U.S.

Democracy Now!

"WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange has taken refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London and asked for asylum. Assange made the move Tuesday in a last-ditch bid to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crime accusations. Earlier today, police in London announced Assange is now subject to arrest because his decision to spend the night at the Ecuadorean embassy violated the conditions of his bail. Assange is seeking asylum because he fears extradition to Sweden may lead to his transfer to the United States where he could potentially face charges relating to Wikileaks. "In my view, it is a situation of political persecution of Julian Assange for his political activities," says Michael Ratner, a member of Assange’s legal team. "It fits in the asylum application procedure under the Declaration of Human Rights." In an apparent reference to the United States, an Ecuadorean official said Assange fears being extradited "to a country where espionage and treason are punished with the death penalty."....."

The Right to Resist is universal: a farewell to Al-Akhbar and Assad's apologists

by Max Blumenthal


I recently learned of a major exodus of key staffers at Al Akhbar caused at least in part by disagreements with the newspaper leadership’s pro-Assad tendency. The revelation helps explain why Al Akhbar English now prominently features the malevolent propaganda of Amal Saad Ghorayeb and the dillentantish quasi-analysis of Sharmine Narwani alongside editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Amin’s friendly advice for Bashar Assad, whom he attempts to depict as an earnest reformer overwhelmed by events.
When I joined the fledgling Al Akhbar English website last fall, I was excited to contribute my writing on the Israel-Palestine situation and US foreign policy to a paper that I considered one of the most courageous publications in the Arab world. At the time, the Syrian uprising had just begun, and apparently, so had the debates inside Al Akhbar, which reflected the discussions within the wider Lebanese Left. Almost a year later, the results of the debate have become clear on the pages of the paper, where despite the presence of a few dissident voices, the apologia for Assad and his crimes has reached unbearable levels.
I was forced to conclude that unless I was prepared to spend endless stores of energy jousting with Assad apologists, I was merely providing them cover by keeping my name and reputation associated with Al Akhbar. More importantly, I decided that if I kept quiet any longer, I would be betraying my principles and those of the people who have encouraged and inspired me over the years. There is simply no excuse for me to remain involved for another day with such a morally compromised outlet. And so, instead of preparing to throw up in my own mouth each time I click on one of the pro-regime op-eds appearing with regularity on Al Akhbar English’s home page, I am washing my hands of the whole operation.

المجلس العسكري بمصر طمأن إسرائيل


Barak: Look! He Sits When I Order Him to! Good Dog.

Al-Jazeera

"كشفت تقارير إعلامية إسرائيلية اليوم الأربعاء أن المجلس العسكري الحاكم في مصر وعد بعدم المس بـالعلاقات المصرية الإسرائيلية أيًّا كانت نتائج انتخابات الرئاسة المصرية. جاء ذلك خلال لقاء جمع مسؤولين من المجلس بالمبعوث الخاص لرئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو.

وذكرت صحيفة "معاريف" أن المجلس العسكري المصري سلّم مؤخرا يتسحاق مولخو، مبعوث نتانياهو رسالة تهدئة جاء فيها "أيًّا كانت نتائج انتخابات الرئاسة المصرية فإنه لن يتم المس بالعلاقات المصرية الإسرائيلية".

وأضافت أن مسؤولين بالمجلس العسكري التقوا مولخو وأبلغوه أن الجيش المصري سيبقى الجهة المسؤولة عن العلاقات مع إسرائيل وحماية اتفاقية السلام بين الدولتين، وأنه "
لن يتم المس بأي جانب من العلاقات مع إسرائيل سواء كان أمنيا أو سياسيا أو اقتصاديا
...."