Sooner or Later, Someone in Washington Will Have to Admit the US Has Been Defeated
By William S. Lind
CounterPunch
"The latest serpent at which a drowning Washington Establishment is grasping is the idea of sending more American troops to Iraq. Would more troops turn the war there in our favor? No.
Why not? First, because nothing can. The war in Iraq is irredeemably lost. Neither we nor, at present, anyone else can create a new Iraqi state to replace the one our invasion destroyed. Maybe that will happen after the Iraqi civil was is resolved, maybe not. It is in any case out of our hands.
Nor could more American troops control the forces driving Iraq's intensifying civil war. The passions of ethnic and religious hatred unleashed by the disintegration of the Iraqi state will not cool because a few more American patrols pass through the streets. Iraqis are quite capable of fighting us and each other at the same time.
A second reason more troops would make no difference is that the troops we have there now don't know what to do, or at least their leaders don't know what they should do. For the most part, American troops in Iraq sit on their Forward Operating Bases; in effect, we are besieging ourselves. Troops under siege are seldom effective at controlling the surrounding countryside, regardless of their number.
When American troops do leave their FOBs, it is almost always to run convoys, which is to say to provide targets; to engage in meaningless patrols, again providing targets; or to do raids, which are downright counterproductive, because they turn the people even more strongly against us, where that is possible. Doing more of any of these things would help us not at all.
More troops might make a difference if they were sent as part of a change in strategy, away from raids and "killing bad guys" and toward something like the Vietnam war's CAP program, where American troops defended villages instead of attacking them. But there is no sign of any such change of strategy on the horizon, so there would be nothing useful for more troops to do.
Even a CAP program would be likely to fail at this stage of the Iraq war, which points to the third reason more troops would not help us: more troops cannot turn back the clock. For the CAP or "ink blot" strategy to work, there has to be some level of acceptance of the foreign troops by the local people. When we first invaded Iraq, that was present in much of the country.
But we squandered that good will with blunder upon blunder. How many troops would it take to undo all those errors? The answer is either zero or an infinite number, because no quantity of troops can erase history. The argument that more troops in the beginning, combined with an ink blot strategy, might have made the Iraq venture a success does not mean that more troops could do the same thing now.
The clinching argument against more troops also relates to time: sending more troops would mean nothing to our opponents on the ground, because those opponents know we could not sustain a significantly larger occupation force for any length of time. So what if a few tens of thousands more Americans come for a few months? The U.S. military is strained to the breaking point to sustain the force there now. Where is the rotation base for a much larger deployment to come from?
The fact that Washington is seriously considering sending more American troops to Iraq illustrates a common phenomenon in war. As the certainty of defeat looms ever more clearly, the scrabbling about for a miracle cure, a deus ex machina, becomes ever more desperate - and more silly. Cavalry charges, Zeppelins, V-2 missiles, kamikazes, the list is endless. In the end, someone finally has to face facts and admit defeat. The sooner someone in Washington is willing to do that, the sooner the troops we already have in Iraq will come home--alive."
Thursday, November 30, 2006
THE KNIVES AND RAZORBLADES ARE BEING SHARPENED BY ABBAS; THESE ARE RICE'S ORDERS
Abbas aide: PA Chair rules out more unity gov't talks with Hamas
Never lose faith in "Brother Abu Mazen," Mr. Haniyyah. Keep clowning around the two of you.
"Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will no longer pursue unity talks with the ruling Hamas movement and instead will convene a supreme committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization to decide how to proceed [trying to give the coming coup a cover], a top Abbas aide said Thursday.
Saeb Erekat made the comment shortly after Abbas told a press conference in the West Bank town of Jericho [where he received his instructions from Rice] that such unity talks had reached a "dead end."
Hamas and Fatah had been negotiating a unity government in the expectation that it would bring about an end to international sanctions on the Hamas government imposed over the group's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence or abide by previous peace agreements.
"Unfortunately we are at a dead end," Abbas said. "For eight or nine months, the Palestinian people have gone without salaries, but unfortunately we have not reached an agreement." "In my opinion if the president [Abbas] says this it means he personally will not pursue this any longer" Erekat said. "He will summon the PLO Executive Committee, or leadership, and study the options, anything short of a civil war [yeah sure, that is why the boy king of Jordan is predicting a civil war among Palestinians]."
But Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Thursday that the talks would not run into a dead end. "The atmosphere has been somewhat tense but I am confident that the door must not be closed and we will not reach a dead end," Haniyeh told a news conference in Cairo."
Palestinians are being denied the right to non-violent resistance
Human Rights Watch has lost its moral bearings
An Excellent Piece
By Jonathan Cook
".....Yet Western observers, and the organisations that should represent the very best of their Enlightenment values, seem incapable of understanding what might drive a grandmother to become a suicide bomber. Their empathy fails them, and so does their humanity.
Just at the moment Fatma was choosing death and resistance over powerlessness and victimhood -- and at a time when Gaza is struggling through one of the most oppressive and ugly periods of Israeli occupation in nearly four decades -- Human Rights Watch published its lastest statement on the conflict. It is document that shames the organisation, complacent Western societies and Fatma’s memory.
In its press release “Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks”, which was widely reported by the international media, HRW lambasts armed Palestinian groups for calling on civilians to surround homes that have been targeted for air strikes by the Israeli military.
Noting almost as an afterthought that more than 1,500 Palestinians have been made homeless from house demolitions in the past few months, and that 105 houses have been destroyed from the air, the press release denounces Palestinian attempts at non-violent and collective action to halt the Israel attacks. HRW refers in particular to three incidents.
In language that would have made George Orwell shudder, one of the world’s leading organisations for the protection of human rights ignored the continuing violation of the Palestinians’ right to security and a roof over their heads and argued instead: “There is no excuse for calling [Palestinian] civilians to the scene of a planned [Israeli] attack. Whether or not the home is a legitimate military target, knowingly asking civilians to stand in harm’s way is unlawful.”
There is good reason to believe that this reading of international law is wrong, if not Kafkaesque. Popular and peaceful resistance to the oppressive policies of occupying powers and autocratic rulers, in India and South Africa for example, has always been, by its very nature, a risky venture in which civilians are liable to be killed or injured. Responsibility for those deaths must fall on those doing the oppressing, not those resisting, particularly when they are employing non-violent means. On HRW’s interpretation, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela would be war criminals.
HRW also applies a series of terrible double standards in this press release.
It refuses Palestinians the right to protect homes from attack, labelling these civilians “human shields”, even while admitting that most of the homes are not legitimate military targets, and yet it has not said a word about the common practice in Israel of building weapons factories and army bases inside or next to communities, thereby forcing Israeli civilians to become human shields for the army.
And HRW prefers to highlight a supposed violation of international law by the Palestinians -- their choice to act as “human shields” -- and to demand that the practice end immediately, while ignoring the very real and continuing violation of international law committed by Israel in undertaking punitive house demolitions against Palestinian families.
Israel, unlike the Palestinians, benefits in both these respects. After four decades of reporting on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians, HRW has covered all of Israel’s many human rights-abusing practices at least once before. The result is that after a while most violations get ignored. Why issue another report on house demolitions or “targeted assassinations”, even though they are occurring all the time? And, how to record the individual violations of tens of thousands of Palestinians’ rights every day at checkpoints? One report on the checkpoints once every few years has to suffice instead.
So HRW chooses instead to equivocate. It ignores most Israeli violations and highlights every Palestinian infraction, however minor. This way it makes a pact with the devil: it achieves the balance that protects it from criticism but only by sacrificing the principles of equity and justice.
Women vounteering to surround a mosque become the equivalent of the notorious incident in January 2003 when 21-year-old Samer Sharif was handcuffed to the hood of an army Jeep and driven towards stone-throwing youngsters in Nablus as Israeli soldiers fired their guns from behind his head. According to HRW’s approach to international law, the two incidents are comparable.
Context: The actions of Palestinians occur in a context in which all of their rights are already under the control of their occupier, Israel, and can be violated at its whim. This means that it is problematic, from a human rights perspective, to place the weight of culpability on the Palestinians without laying far greater weight at the same time on the situation to which the Palestinians are reacting.
The press release denouncing the Palestinians for choosing collectively and peacefully to resist house demolitions, while not concentrating on the violations committed by Israel in destroying the houses and using military forms of intimidation and punishment against civilians, is a travesty for this very same reason.
Common sense: And finally human rights organisations must never abandon common sense, the connecting thread of our humanity, when making judgments about where their priorities lie.
This shameful imbalance, both in the number of reports being issued against each party and in terms of the failure to hold accountable the side committing the far greater abuses of human rights, has become the HRW’s standard procedure in Israel-Palestine.
But in its latest release, on human shields, HRW plumbs new depths, stripping Palestinians of the right to organise non-violent forms of resistance and seek new ways of showing solidarity in the face of illegal occupation. In short, HRW treats the people of Gaza as mere rats in a laboratory -- the Israeli army’s view of them -- to be experimented on at will.
HRW’s priorities in Israel-Palestine prove it has lost its moral bearings."
Bush holds his course
By Jim Lobe
Asia Times
"WASHINGTON - Despite a growing and virtually universal consensus both in the US and abroad that the United States must engage Syria and Iran if it hopes to stabilize Iraq, US President George W Bush appears determined to ignore Baghdad's two key neighbors as long as possible.
But recent statements by Bush and other senior administration officials, as well as the departure of a key "realist" adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have fueled growing speculation that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney hope they can still prevail in Iraq without having to sit down with the two "evil-doers".
Indeed, that appeared to be the message Bush wished to convey on Tuesday at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Riga where he recommitted the US to support for Iraq's "young democracy" and vowed not to withdraw US troops "until the mission is complete". "He has no intention to change his policy in Iraq," Pat Lang, a former top Middle East analyst at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, concluded after reviewing Bush's remarks.........
While Gates, an ISG member until his nomination to replace Rumsfeld, and Rice are believed to support both ideas, they are strongly opposed by both Cheney and the senior Middle East director on the National Security Council, Elliot Abrams. With Rumsfeld's departure, their offices remain the last strongholds of neo-conservative influence in the administration.Their pro-Likud supporters in think-tanks and the media, notably the Weekly Standard and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, have carried out an increasingly intense public campaign against the ISG since Baker announced in mid-September that the group would meet with senior officials of both Iran and Syria.
But they may yet be hitting home with Bush, who apparently is not yet ready to accept the increasingly widely held view that Washington's position in Iraq and the region as a whole has become so weak that without some help from Damascus and Tehran, it will be unable to stop a full-blown civil war that could well spread beyond Iraq's borders.
That may in fact have been the conclusion of State Department counselor Philip Zelikow, a longtime Rice collaborator and influential "realist" strategist who, like Baker, has advocated greater flexibility in Washington's diplomatic stance on a range of issues, particularly in the Middle East and Northeast Asia. To virtually everyone's surprise, Zelikow announced this week that he would return to his teaching post at the University of Virginia on January 1."
Asia Times
"WASHINGTON - Despite a growing and virtually universal consensus both in the US and abroad that the United States must engage Syria and Iran if it hopes to stabilize Iraq, US President George W Bush appears determined to ignore Baghdad's two key neighbors as long as possible.
But recent statements by Bush and other senior administration officials, as well as the departure of a key "realist" adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have fueled growing speculation that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney hope they can still prevail in Iraq without having to sit down with the two "evil-doers".
Indeed, that appeared to be the message Bush wished to convey on Tuesday at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Riga where he recommitted the US to support for Iraq's "young democracy" and vowed not to withdraw US troops "until the mission is complete". "He has no intention to change his policy in Iraq," Pat Lang, a former top Middle East analyst at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, concluded after reviewing Bush's remarks.........
While Gates, an ISG member until his nomination to replace Rumsfeld, and Rice are believed to support both ideas, they are strongly opposed by both Cheney and the senior Middle East director on the National Security Council, Elliot Abrams. With Rumsfeld's departure, their offices remain the last strongholds of neo-conservative influence in the administration.Their pro-Likud supporters in think-tanks and the media, notably the Weekly Standard and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, have carried out an increasingly intense public campaign against the ISG since Baker announced in mid-September that the group would meet with senior officials of both Iran and Syria.
But they may yet be hitting home with Bush, who apparently is not yet ready to accept the increasingly widely held view that Washington's position in Iraq and the region as a whole has become so weak that without some help from Damascus and Tehran, it will be unable to stop a full-blown civil war that could well spread beyond Iraq's borders.
That may in fact have been the conclusion of State Department counselor Philip Zelikow, a longtime Rice collaborator and influential "realist" strategist who, like Baker, has advocated greater flexibility in Washington's diplomatic stance on a range of issues, particularly in the Middle East and Northeast Asia. To virtually everyone's surprise, Zelikow announced this week that he would return to his teaching post at the University of Virginia on January 1."
Titans square up for clash in Iraq
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Asia Times
"The United States and Iran have reached a critical crossroads at which the path of potential conciliation rooted in their shared "common concerns", to paraphrase President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's latest letter to Americans, intersects with the path of even greater hostility, which could turn Iraq and the rest of the Middle Eastern landscape into a theater of their power rivalry.
Unfortunately, the latter alternative appears to be gaining, and unless remedial action is taken by both sides, in Tehran and Washington, to arrest the growing momentum toward the "clash of titans", it may not be long before we observe a new realignment of forces in Iraq and beyond, with both sides jockeying for influence and support among the Sunni insurgents in Iraq and beyond.
Within Iraq, the government's tailspin toward a complete collapse has been accentuated by Muqtada al-Sadr's group's withdrawal of support of the government in response to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's decision to meet with US President George W Bush in Amman, thus casting a heavy cloud of uncertainty over Maliki's administration. This is illustrated by a leaked memo by US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, questioning Maliki's "capability". As a result, the chances are that the Amman summit - postponed from Wednesday to Thursday - may be the last for the embattled premier who cannot appease either his domestic or American critics.
Concerning the latter, until now, with a couple of exceptions going back to the summer of 2004, when US forces and Muqtada's Mehdi Army traded blows in Najaf and Karbala, the majority Shi'ites in Iraq have not posed much of an insurgency problem. This much has been confirmed by, among others, the head of Central Command (Centcom), General John Abizaid, in his recent interview with the Columbia Broadcasting System's 60 Minutes.
........
As for the Iraqi Shi'ites and their present quandary, signs of a more assertive anti-occupation stance on their part point to a growing realization that the best way to avert a costly civil war might, indeed, be none other than to form common cause with the Sunni insurgents against the occupation forces. Switching allegiance from government backers to outright opponents is a distinct possibility that may save the beleaguered Shi'ites from the Sunnis' wrath, yet expose them to the lethal power of the United States.
Who could blame the Shi'ites if they shed their collaborationist behavior and put their military prowess at the disposal of a great nationalist crusade to liberate Iraq? For more than three years, the Shi'ites have vested their hopes on the state-building process, elections and non-violence with regard to the occupation armies. With those hopes increasingly dashed at a time of their growing military strength, the Shi'ites now seem poised to challenge the United States' power directly, with direct assistance from Iran, should the US refuse to set a timetable for withdrawing its forces.
.......continues"
***
This last scenario (the Shiites joining forces with the "Sunni insurgency" to fight the occupation) is the best scenario possible for Iraq. It will materialize only when Iran finally realizes that it will not be able to cut a deal with the Great Satan at the expense of Iraq.
I really hope that this will happen because it will channel all Iraqi forces towards fighting the occupation, not each other.
Asia Times
"The United States and Iran have reached a critical crossroads at which the path of potential conciliation rooted in their shared "common concerns", to paraphrase President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's latest letter to Americans, intersects with the path of even greater hostility, which could turn Iraq and the rest of the Middle Eastern landscape into a theater of their power rivalry.
Unfortunately, the latter alternative appears to be gaining, and unless remedial action is taken by both sides, in Tehran and Washington, to arrest the growing momentum toward the "clash of titans", it may not be long before we observe a new realignment of forces in Iraq and beyond, with both sides jockeying for influence and support among the Sunni insurgents in Iraq and beyond.
Within Iraq, the government's tailspin toward a complete collapse has been accentuated by Muqtada al-Sadr's group's withdrawal of support of the government in response to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's decision to meet with US President George W Bush in Amman, thus casting a heavy cloud of uncertainty over Maliki's administration. This is illustrated by a leaked memo by US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, questioning Maliki's "capability". As a result, the chances are that the Amman summit - postponed from Wednesday to Thursday - may be the last for the embattled premier who cannot appease either his domestic or American critics.
Concerning the latter, until now, with a couple of exceptions going back to the summer of 2004, when US forces and Muqtada's Mehdi Army traded blows in Najaf and Karbala, the majority Shi'ites in Iraq have not posed much of an insurgency problem. This much has been confirmed by, among others, the head of Central Command (Centcom), General John Abizaid, in his recent interview with the Columbia Broadcasting System's 60 Minutes.
........
As for the Iraqi Shi'ites and their present quandary, signs of a more assertive anti-occupation stance on their part point to a growing realization that the best way to avert a costly civil war might, indeed, be none other than to form common cause with the Sunni insurgents against the occupation forces. Switching allegiance from government backers to outright opponents is a distinct possibility that may save the beleaguered Shi'ites from the Sunnis' wrath, yet expose them to the lethal power of the United States.
Who could blame the Shi'ites if they shed their collaborationist behavior and put their military prowess at the disposal of a great nationalist crusade to liberate Iraq? For more than three years, the Shi'ites have vested their hopes on the state-building process, elections and non-violence with regard to the occupation armies. With those hopes increasingly dashed at a time of their growing military strength, the Shi'ites now seem poised to challenge the United States' power directly, with direct assistance from Iran, should the US refuse to set a timetable for withdrawing its forces.
.......continues"
***
This last scenario (the Shiites joining forces with the "Sunni insurgency" to fight the occupation) is the best scenario possible for Iraq. It will materialize only when Iran finally realizes that it will not be able to cut a deal with the Great Satan at the expense of Iraq.
I really hope that this will happen because it will channel all Iraqi forces towards fighting the occupation, not each other.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
بوادر حرب اقليمية طائفية
A Great Analysis (Arabic)
عبد الباري عطوان
"تقف المنطقة العربية حاليا علي اعتاب حرب اقليمية طائفية جديدة، ليس بين العرب والاسرائيليين مثلما يتبادر الي الاذهان، وانما بين الشيعة والسنة العرب للأسف الشديد.
السنة العرب بقيادة مصر والمملكة العربية السعودية والاردن، والشيعة بزعامة ايران ومن يتحالف معها من العرب سنة وشيعة، وخاصة سورية وحركتي حماس في فلسطين و حزب الله في لبنان.
فالادارة الامريكية تريد تعميم الحرب الأهلية الطائفية التي تسببت فيها، ولكن علي مستوي الانظمة اي جرها اليها. ووقفت خلفها في العراق، علي مختلف ارجاء المنطقة لتغطية فشل مشروعها في العراق اولا، وتوفير الغطاء العربي السني لحربها القادمة المتوقعة ضد ايران لتحييد، او بالأحري تدمير، برنامجها النووي الذي قد يشكل خطرا علي طموحاتها في الهيمنة علي منابع النفط واحتياطاته في الخليج.
هناك عدة مؤشرات اساسية تؤكد علي هذا الاستنتاج:
اولا: فتح القاهرة ابوابها علي مصراعيها امام الاحزاب والجماعات السنية العراقية، وسماحها بعد طول انتظار للشيخ حارث الضاري رئيس هيئة علماء المسلمين في العراق، بعقد مؤتمر صحافي في نقابة الصحافيين المصريين، اتهم فيه علنا الحكومة العراقية الحالية بالطائفية والتواطؤ مع الميليشيات التي تستهدف قتل ابناء الطائفة السنية. فالحكومة المصرية كانت دائما الي جانب المشروع الامريكي في العراق، ومن ابرز المتحمسين للحكومة الحالية التي انبثقت عنه.
ثانيا: الانقلاب الكبير في الموقف السعودي، الذي عبر عنه امس السيد نواف عبيد المستشار الامني للحكومة السعودية في مقال نشرته صحيفة واشنطن بوست المقربة من المؤسسة الامريكية الحاكمة، وقال فيه ان بلاده ستتدخل في العراق باستخدام الاموال والأسلحة وسلاح النفط للحيلولة دون قيام الميليشيات الشيعية المدعومة من ايران بقتل المسلمين السنة في العراق .
وذهب السيد عبيد وهو لا ينطق عن هوي الي ما هو ابعد من ذلك عندما قال ان غض الطرف عن قتل السنة العراقيين سيكون نبذا للمباديء التي قامت عليها المملكة، وسيقوض مصداقية السعودية في العالم السني واعترف ان التدخل السعودي في العراق ينطوي علي مخاطر كبيرة من بينها اثارة حرب اقليمية ، وقال وليكن كذلك فعواقب عدم التدخل اسوأ بكثير .
ثالثا: تأكيد مستشار الأمن القومي الامريكي ستيفن هادلي بان حكومة المالكي لم تعد قادرة علي السيطرة علي الاوضاع في العراق، واطلاق هذه التصريحات قبيل القمة الحاسمة بين الرئيس جورج بوش والسيد نوري المالكي رئيس وزراء العراق.
رابعا: تزايد التسريبات حول قلق القيادات العربية في المثلث المصري ـ السعودي ـ الاردني من عمليات التشييع المتسارعة لأهل السنة في اكثر من مكان في الوطن العربي وخاصة في سورية ولبنان ودول المغرب العربي، وقد نقلت وكالة رويترز يوم امس عن احد كبار المسؤولين العرب في الاردن دون ان تسميه، وجود قلق بالغ في هذا الصدد.
خامسا: الغاء اللقاء الثلاثي بين العاهل الاردني والرئيس الامريكي جورج بوش ورئيس الوزراء العراقي نوري المالكي في عمان، واقتصاره علي الجانبين الاردني والامريكي، وعدم توجيه الدعوة للسيد المالكي لحضور العشاء الرسمي الذي يقيمه العاهل الاردني لضيفه الامريكي.
السؤال الذي يطرح نفسه حاليا هو حول الدوافع وراء هذا التحول المفاجيء في مواقف دول المحور السني الاردني ـ السعودي ـ المصري، من حيث التراجع عن دعم الحكومة العراقية المنتخبة، والمنبثقة عن مشروع الاحتلال الامريكي الذي حظي بمساندتها، ودعم الجماعات السنية بهذا الوضوح!
هناك تفسيران لا ثالث لهما، الاول ان تكون الولايات المتحدة تدعم هذا التوجه الجديد وتحرض عليه وهو الأرجح، والثاني ان تكون هذه الدول قد افاقت من سباتها العميق، وقررت التمرد علي السياسة الامريكية في المنطقة انقاذا لنفسها قبل انقاذ العراق، وهو احتمال ضعيف.
فاللافت ان هذا التحول في الموقف السعودي علي وجه التحديد جاء بعد الزيارة المفاجئة التي قام بها ديك تشيني نائب الرئيس الامريكي الي الرياض في الاسبوع الماضي، وهي الزيارة التي يعتقد الكثير من المراقبين انها وضعت اسس التحرك المقبل في المنطقة علي صعيد الملفين العراقي والايراني.
فعندما يتحدث السيد نواف عبيد المستشار الأمني للعاهل السعودي عن ثلاثة خيارات تأخذها الحكومة السعودية في عين الاعتبار، من بينها دعم زعماء السنة، وبالتحديد البعثيون السابقون عماد المقاومة العراقية من أفراد القوات العراقية السابقة بالمساعدات نفسها التي يتلقاها الشيعة من ايران، اي الأموال والأسلحة وتشكيل كتائب سنية جديدة لقتال الميليشيا المدعومة من ايران، واستعداد المملكة لاغراق الاسواق بكميات اضافية من النفط لتخفيض اسعاره، وبما يؤدي الي تضييق الخناق علي ايران وتصعيب تمويلها للميليشيات الشيعية العراقية بالاموال، نقول عندما يتحدث السيد عبيد بهذه اللغة التهديدية الواضحة فإننا امام مواقف انقلابية سعودية غير مسبوقة.
دول المحور السني الجديد هي التي تتحمل مسؤولية كل ما حدث في العراق، لانها تواطأت مع مشروع الغزو الامريكي، وكان القادة العراقيون زعماء الميليشيات الشيعية من امثال السيد محمد باقر الحكيم، وشقيقه الذي حمل الراية بعد اغتياله عبد العزيز الحكيم، والسيد مقتدي الصدر، وابراهيم الجعفري، وغيرهم من الزوار الدائمين للعاصمة السعودية الرياض. ومن المفارقة ان السيد حارث الضاري زعيم هيئة علماء المسلمين لم يزرها الا من النافذة، وتحت غطاء اداء العمرة، اي انه لم يتلق دعوة رسمية كقيادة عراقية مثل الآخرين.
من الواضح ان هناك مخططا ما لتوريط العرب مجددا في الحرب الاهلية العراقية، كمقدمة لتوريطهم في اي حرب قادمة ضد ايران. اي انه مطلوب من العرب، مثلما جرت العادة، ان يصلحوا الخراب الذي احدثته المغامرات الامريكية الفاشلة في هذا البلد المنكوب.
نصرة العراق، وانقاذه كانا مطلبنا، ومطلب كل عربي حر شريف، بل اننا عارضنا الغزو الامريكي لتغيير النظام ليس لاننا نؤيد الديكتاتورية بل لاننا نعلم جيدا ما يمكن ان يحدث من خلل اقليمي استراتيجي من جراء هذا الغزو، علاوة علي خلق دولة فاشلة في العراق علي غرار ما حدث في افغانستان، وايجاد حالة من الفوضي وعدم الاستقرار تودي بحياة مئات الآلاف من العراقيين. وقلنا وفي هذا المكان، قبل اربع سنوات، ان الحرب الحقيقية ستبدأ بعد احتلال العراق.
ليس هناك اي ضرر من ان يخوض العرب الحرب من اجل مصالحهم، ومواجهة الاخطار التي تهددهم، ولكن ما نراه ان العرب، والانظمة الرسمية لا يخوضون الا حروب امريكا، ومن اجل الحفاظ علي مصالحها التي هي في النهاية مصالح اسرائيل. والا لماذا لا يدعمون المقاومة في فلسطين بالمال والسلاح ايضا؟
المقاومة العراقية هي التي قلبت كل المعادلات الامريكية في المنطقة، وبدون اي مساعدة من اي دولة عربية، بل ورغم تآمر هذه الدول عليها وانخراطها في المشروع الامريكي. واكثر ما نخشاه ان يكون التحرك العربي الجديد الذي يتخفي خلف عناوين انقاذ السنة في العراق هو لذبح هذه المقاومة بعد ان اقتربت من تحقيق النصر، وانقاذ المشروع الامريكي من الانهيار المهين."
عبد الباري عطوان
"تقف المنطقة العربية حاليا علي اعتاب حرب اقليمية طائفية جديدة، ليس بين العرب والاسرائيليين مثلما يتبادر الي الاذهان، وانما بين الشيعة والسنة العرب للأسف الشديد.
السنة العرب بقيادة مصر والمملكة العربية السعودية والاردن، والشيعة بزعامة ايران ومن يتحالف معها من العرب سنة وشيعة، وخاصة سورية وحركتي حماس في فلسطين و حزب الله في لبنان.
فالادارة الامريكية تريد تعميم الحرب الأهلية الطائفية التي تسببت فيها، ولكن علي مستوي الانظمة اي جرها اليها. ووقفت خلفها في العراق، علي مختلف ارجاء المنطقة لتغطية فشل مشروعها في العراق اولا، وتوفير الغطاء العربي السني لحربها القادمة المتوقعة ضد ايران لتحييد، او بالأحري تدمير، برنامجها النووي الذي قد يشكل خطرا علي طموحاتها في الهيمنة علي منابع النفط واحتياطاته في الخليج.
هناك عدة مؤشرات اساسية تؤكد علي هذا الاستنتاج:
اولا: فتح القاهرة ابوابها علي مصراعيها امام الاحزاب والجماعات السنية العراقية، وسماحها بعد طول انتظار للشيخ حارث الضاري رئيس هيئة علماء المسلمين في العراق، بعقد مؤتمر صحافي في نقابة الصحافيين المصريين، اتهم فيه علنا الحكومة العراقية الحالية بالطائفية والتواطؤ مع الميليشيات التي تستهدف قتل ابناء الطائفة السنية. فالحكومة المصرية كانت دائما الي جانب المشروع الامريكي في العراق، ومن ابرز المتحمسين للحكومة الحالية التي انبثقت عنه.
ثانيا: الانقلاب الكبير في الموقف السعودي، الذي عبر عنه امس السيد نواف عبيد المستشار الامني للحكومة السعودية في مقال نشرته صحيفة واشنطن بوست المقربة من المؤسسة الامريكية الحاكمة، وقال فيه ان بلاده ستتدخل في العراق باستخدام الاموال والأسلحة وسلاح النفط للحيلولة دون قيام الميليشيات الشيعية المدعومة من ايران بقتل المسلمين السنة في العراق .
وذهب السيد عبيد وهو لا ينطق عن هوي الي ما هو ابعد من ذلك عندما قال ان غض الطرف عن قتل السنة العراقيين سيكون نبذا للمباديء التي قامت عليها المملكة، وسيقوض مصداقية السعودية في العالم السني واعترف ان التدخل السعودي في العراق ينطوي علي مخاطر كبيرة من بينها اثارة حرب اقليمية ، وقال وليكن كذلك فعواقب عدم التدخل اسوأ بكثير .
ثالثا: تأكيد مستشار الأمن القومي الامريكي ستيفن هادلي بان حكومة المالكي لم تعد قادرة علي السيطرة علي الاوضاع في العراق، واطلاق هذه التصريحات قبيل القمة الحاسمة بين الرئيس جورج بوش والسيد نوري المالكي رئيس وزراء العراق.
رابعا: تزايد التسريبات حول قلق القيادات العربية في المثلث المصري ـ السعودي ـ الاردني من عمليات التشييع المتسارعة لأهل السنة في اكثر من مكان في الوطن العربي وخاصة في سورية ولبنان ودول المغرب العربي، وقد نقلت وكالة رويترز يوم امس عن احد كبار المسؤولين العرب في الاردن دون ان تسميه، وجود قلق بالغ في هذا الصدد.
خامسا: الغاء اللقاء الثلاثي بين العاهل الاردني والرئيس الامريكي جورج بوش ورئيس الوزراء العراقي نوري المالكي في عمان، واقتصاره علي الجانبين الاردني والامريكي، وعدم توجيه الدعوة للسيد المالكي لحضور العشاء الرسمي الذي يقيمه العاهل الاردني لضيفه الامريكي.
السؤال الذي يطرح نفسه حاليا هو حول الدوافع وراء هذا التحول المفاجيء في مواقف دول المحور السني الاردني ـ السعودي ـ المصري، من حيث التراجع عن دعم الحكومة العراقية المنتخبة، والمنبثقة عن مشروع الاحتلال الامريكي الذي حظي بمساندتها، ودعم الجماعات السنية بهذا الوضوح!
هناك تفسيران لا ثالث لهما، الاول ان تكون الولايات المتحدة تدعم هذا التوجه الجديد وتحرض عليه وهو الأرجح، والثاني ان تكون هذه الدول قد افاقت من سباتها العميق، وقررت التمرد علي السياسة الامريكية في المنطقة انقاذا لنفسها قبل انقاذ العراق، وهو احتمال ضعيف.
فاللافت ان هذا التحول في الموقف السعودي علي وجه التحديد جاء بعد الزيارة المفاجئة التي قام بها ديك تشيني نائب الرئيس الامريكي الي الرياض في الاسبوع الماضي، وهي الزيارة التي يعتقد الكثير من المراقبين انها وضعت اسس التحرك المقبل في المنطقة علي صعيد الملفين العراقي والايراني.
فعندما يتحدث السيد نواف عبيد المستشار الأمني للعاهل السعودي عن ثلاثة خيارات تأخذها الحكومة السعودية في عين الاعتبار، من بينها دعم زعماء السنة، وبالتحديد البعثيون السابقون عماد المقاومة العراقية من أفراد القوات العراقية السابقة بالمساعدات نفسها التي يتلقاها الشيعة من ايران، اي الأموال والأسلحة وتشكيل كتائب سنية جديدة لقتال الميليشيا المدعومة من ايران، واستعداد المملكة لاغراق الاسواق بكميات اضافية من النفط لتخفيض اسعاره، وبما يؤدي الي تضييق الخناق علي ايران وتصعيب تمويلها للميليشيات الشيعية العراقية بالاموال، نقول عندما يتحدث السيد عبيد بهذه اللغة التهديدية الواضحة فإننا امام مواقف انقلابية سعودية غير مسبوقة.
دول المحور السني الجديد هي التي تتحمل مسؤولية كل ما حدث في العراق، لانها تواطأت مع مشروع الغزو الامريكي، وكان القادة العراقيون زعماء الميليشيات الشيعية من امثال السيد محمد باقر الحكيم، وشقيقه الذي حمل الراية بعد اغتياله عبد العزيز الحكيم، والسيد مقتدي الصدر، وابراهيم الجعفري، وغيرهم من الزوار الدائمين للعاصمة السعودية الرياض. ومن المفارقة ان السيد حارث الضاري زعيم هيئة علماء المسلمين لم يزرها الا من النافذة، وتحت غطاء اداء العمرة، اي انه لم يتلق دعوة رسمية كقيادة عراقية مثل الآخرين.
من الواضح ان هناك مخططا ما لتوريط العرب مجددا في الحرب الاهلية العراقية، كمقدمة لتوريطهم في اي حرب قادمة ضد ايران. اي انه مطلوب من العرب، مثلما جرت العادة، ان يصلحوا الخراب الذي احدثته المغامرات الامريكية الفاشلة في هذا البلد المنكوب.
نصرة العراق، وانقاذه كانا مطلبنا، ومطلب كل عربي حر شريف، بل اننا عارضنا الغزو الامريكي لتغيير النظام ليس لاننا نؤيد الديكتاتورية بل لاننا نعلم جيدا ما يمكن ان يحدث من خلل اقليمي استراتيجي من جراء هذا الغزو، علاوة علي خلق دولة فاشلة في العراق علي غرار ما حدث في افغانستان، وايجاد حالة من الفوضي وعدم الاستقرار تودي بحياة مئات الآلاف من العراقيين. وقلنا وفي هذا المكان، قبل اربع سنوات، ان الحرب الحقيقية ستبدأ بعد احتلال العراق.
ليس هناك اي ضرر من ان يخوض العرب الحرب من اجل مصالحهم، ومواجهة الاخطار التي تهددهم، ولكن ما نراه ان العرب، والانظمة الرسمية لا يخوضون الا حروب امريكا، ومن اجل الحفاظ علي مصالحها التي هي في النهاية مصالح اسرائيل. والا لماذا لا يدعمون المقاومة في فلسطين بالمال والسلاح ايضا؟
المقاومة العراقية هي التي قلبت كل المعادلات الامريكية في المنطقة، وبدون اي مساعدة من اي دولة عربية، بل ورغم تآمر هذه الدول عليها وانخراطها في المشروع الامريكي. واكثر ما نخشاه ان يكون التحرك العربي الجديد الذي يتخفي خلف عناوين انقاذ السنة في العراق هو لذبح هذه المقاومة بعد ان اقتربت من تحقيق النصر، وانقاذ المشروع الامريكي من الانهيار المهين."
We Are All Tortures Now!--Warning very graphic
I saw this video earlier and it made me sick to my stomach. I expect that the war cheerleaders will say that it is hypocritical to post this and ignore the the fact that Saddam tortured Iraqis as well. It's apparent that nobody has a monopoly on torture. I'm outraged by all of it. But are things so terrible in this country now that we are being measured by the same stick that Saddam was measured by?
Extraordinary Rendition: Extraordinary rendition is an American extra-judicial procedure which involves the sending of untried criminal suspects, suspected terrorists or alleged supporters of groups which the US Government considers to be terrorist organizations, to countries other than the United States for imprisonment and interrogation. Critics have accused the CIA of rendering suspects to other countries in order to avoid US laws prescribing due process and prohibiting torture, even though many of those countries have, like the US, signed or ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Critics have called this practice "torture by proxy" or "torture flights".
From Information Clearing House
Warning: This video contains graphic images and audio of torture and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Click here to watch video.
The U.S. Government has engaged in "Extraordinary Rendition", an unlawful practice in which numerous persons have been illegally detained and secretly flown to third countries, where they have suffered additional human rights abuses including torture and enforced disappearance.
These prisoners have been transported through many countries with the knowledge of their governments. By permitting the U.S.to use its territory, these countries are in effect endorsing torture of the most vile nature in what the U.S. call its "war on terror".
This video provides some evidence of the type of torture engaged in by by our allies. As citizens of the U.S. each of us is responsible for the actions of our government. We are complicit in the torture, distance from the tools used to inflict pain in no way reduces our part in these disgusting acts of barbarity.
Extraordinary Rendition: Extraordinary rendition is an American extra-judicial procedure which involves the sending of untried criminal suspects, suspected terrorists or alleged supporters of groups which the US Government considers to be terrorist organizations, to countries other than the United States for imprisonment and interrogation. Critics have accused the CIA of rendering suspects to other countries in order to avoid US laws prescribing due process and prohibiting torture, even though many of those countries have, like the US, signed or ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Critics have called this practice "torture by proxy" or "torture flights".
From Information Clearing House
Warning: This video contains graphic images and audio of torture and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Click here to watch video.
The U.S. Government has engaged in "Extraordinary Rendition", an unlawful practice in which numerous persons have been illegally detained and secretly flown to third countries, where they have suffered additional human rights abuses including torture and enforced disappearance.
These prisoners have been transported through many countries with the knowledge of their governments. By permitting the U.S.to use its territory, these countries are in effect endorsing torture of the most vile nature in what the U.S. call its "war on terror".
This video provides some evidence of the type of torture engaged in by by our allies. As citizens of the U.S. each of us is responsible for the actions of our government. We are complicit in the torture, distance from the tools used to inflict pain in no way reduces our part in these disgusting acts of barbarity.
Meanwhile in Palestine
One house leveled by the army in Hebron: However, he appealed to the Israeli supreme court and he won a preventive court ruling to cease the demolition. However, regardless of the court ruling, the army unlawfully demolished the house. This is the second time that the army levels a house in Wadi Al Suman neighborhood despite a court ruling demanding a freeze of the demolition.
Army demolishes two homes in Hebron: Army claims that the house was illegal constructed. The leveled house is only a few hundred meters away from the Kharishna Israeli illegal settlement outpost. Eyewitnesses reported that soldiers forced the family out of their home, while settlers gathered there to “celebrate” the leveling of the Palestinian house.
Palestinian families separated by Israel take action: Hundreds of foreign nationals packed into the Al-Bireh Municipality Hall to listen to legal experts explain the options available to them in light of Israel's refusal to permit foreign nationals access to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). The audience was full of families with children, fearful that they will be forced to separate within days.
ISRAEL-OPT: Wall creates Palestinian cultural divide: “The Israelis are cutting the Jerusalem Palestinians off more and more from the West Bank Palestinians, physically and culturally. They want the Jerusalemites to identify more with Arab-Israelis and become quieter,” she said. “They are starting to think of each other as different. Those with Jerusalem IDs begin to think that the West Bankers don’t like them because they can get into the city. But they are the same Palestinians from the same land and culture,” she said.
Status of Palestinian villages outside fence not up for review: The government has no plans to change the status of nine Palestinian villages located within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem but outside of the separation fence, despite the fact that it does not provide these communities with vital services and that residents of the towns must cross through roadblocks daily.
Army takes four prisoners from two villages near Rammallah: In Dir Ghassanah, more than 14 army jeeps stormed the village, attacked residents houses and took Mamdouh Al Bargothi, a teacher at the local school, prisoner and moved him to an unknown destination. Soldiers also fired rounds of live ammunition and tear gas at the school children who were on their way to school.
Several school girls injured as army takes over one house in a village near Hebron:Later soldiers attacked the girls school in the village and fired tear gas bombs at the classrooms and the school playground causing several chocking cases as a result of gas inhalation, medical sources reported.
Two laws, one trap for family unification: The proposed new Citizenship Law and the Illegal Residents Law (Amendment No. 19 to the Entry into Israel Law) are so much alike that it begs the question of why both are being put forth. Both call for a dramatic closure of Israel's gates to non-Jews, especially residents of the Palestinian Authority. Both tread a thin line between constitutionality and non-constitutionality. The similarity between the bills is so great that one must question whether the Justice Ministry is proposing them both in order to turn up the heat and guarantee that at least one of them is passed?
The checkpoint generation: For nearly a month now, a young Palestinian has been hospitalized at Beilinson Hospital; soldiers shot him at a checkpoint in northern Nablus on Saturday, November 4. Haitem Yassin, 25, is conscious now, but he is still hooked up to a respirator. In recent days, he has been suffering from a high fever, apparently caused by an infection in his abdomen, which was wounded in the shooting. His family is still waiting for a report from the hospital about the number or type of bullets that caused the serious injury.
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu to head UN mission to Beit Hanun: Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu has been named to head a United Nations fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, where at least 18 civilians were killed earlier this month, UN officials said Wednesday.
UN rights chief warns of 'climate of impunity' in Middle East: UN human rights chief Louise Arbour warned of a "climate of impunity" operating in the Palestinian territories and urged Israel to carry out credible and transparent probes into civilian deaths resulting from military action.
Al- Haq 's Press Release on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People: Both Israel and the international community have repeatedly failed to meet their international legal obligations with regard to the OPT. Consequently, the full realisation of the fundamental rights of Palestinians, including the right to self-determination, remains as distant as ever.
Al-Aqsa: Release Palestinian or we'll fire Qassam: The Hebron police received a report Monday afternoon from a 9-year-old Palestinian girl, who claimed that her 20-year-old sister was kidnapped by unknown assailants near the Beit Hagai settlement in Mount Hebron. According to the Palestinians and the family, the settlers kidnapped their daughter.
Raids in West Bank continue — Peretz: Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said yesterday that Israel would continue its arrest raids in the West Bank, saying the tenuous, two-day-old truce with Palestinian militant factions applied to the Gaza Strip only.
Rice will tell Abbas 'Don't miss opportunity': Rice will pledge America's aid in strengthening Abbas' position, the sources said, but will stress that the United States expects results from him in return. Israeli officials said Washington understands that further progress depends on the success of the cease-fire, which took effect on Sunday.
Olmert to meet Rice Thursday: Rice, who has come to the area to conduct talks, will be meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before meeting Olmert. The decision to meet PM Olmert was made Wednesday. On Tuesday Olmert's associates said, "there is no point in a meeting between Rice and Olmert at this time."
Egyptian border guards refuse entry to Haniyeh entourage: Egyptian security officials at the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday turned back several bodyguards and aides accompanying Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on his first visit to Egypt.
Palestinian FM enters Gaza Strip carrying case with $20M in cash: Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar on Tuesday entered the Gaza Strip carrying a suitcase containing $20 million in cash. Al-Zahar raised the funds, which he brought in through the border with Egypt, over the past two weeks during a series of visits to several Arab countries.
Israel to purchase anti-Kassam system: The defense establishment plans to make an official decision in the coming days to invest $300 million in an anti-Kassam and anti-Katyusha defense system under development by Rafael - Israel's Armament Development Authority, The Jerusalem Post has learned. According to the plan, a combination of a laser and an anti-Kassam missile interceptor will be operational for deployment outside the Gaza Strip within a year and a half.
The 8th London Palestine Film Festival 2007 Calls for Submissions: The London Palestine Film Festival 2007 is calling for submissions. The festival is scheduled to run for two weeks, starting Friday April 27th 2007 at the Barbican Arts Centre in London.
Racism, Resistance and all that Jazz: Britain’s Respect party organsied Monday a ‘night of live music and spoken words’ in London, where giant Israeli-born jazz artist Gilad Atzmon and jazz author Martin Smith coordinated to perform a spectacular show entitled ‘Jazz, Racism and Resistance.’ The show was meant to symbolise the strong link between jazz music and the struggle for justice, whether present in the civil rights movement's fight against segregation or in the current fight for the rights of the Palestinian people.
No clinic? No school? We'll open one: Today, three years after the construction of the [security] wall there, the signs of neglect and disorder are clearly apparent, even at the entrance of the neighborhood, which is right after the Qalandiyah checkpoint. That checkpoint, and the wall that runs south and north of it, give the once-fashionable Palestinian suburb the look of a slum in a Third World city.
Just do it: It is good that the prime minister is promising a significant improvement in the quality of our neighbors' lives on the road to creating a two-state reality. It is good that the prime minister understands that after he failed in one war, he must try to prevent the next war through a political initiative. However, Olmert is Olmert is Olmert. As such, the life expectancy of the Sde Boker plan he announced this week is about as long as the life expectancy of the convergence plan he announced much less than a year ago.
Cease the fire in the West Bank, too: Against this backdrop, it is difficult to understand the opposition of certain Israel Defense Forces officers, and the reservations expressed yesterday by the defense minister, with regard to an expansion of the cease-fire to the West Bank as well - especially given the Palestinians' declarations that they would be interested in expanding the cease-fire.
Baker Panel Aide Expects Israel Will Be Pressed: An expert adviser to the Baker-Hamilton commission expects the 10-person panel to recommend that the Bush administration pressure Israel to make concessions in a gambit to entice Syria and Iran to a regional conference on Iraq.
Palestinian PM pushes 1967 borders proposal: Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday set the tone for his first foreign tour since taking office by promoting a Palestinian initiative based on an independent state on land outside Israel's 1967 borders.
Bedouin citizens of Israel denied water as means of transfer: The Water Tribunal Supported the Government's Policy of Seeking to Move Arab Bedouin Citizens of Israel from their Land in the Naqab by Upholding Decisions of the Water Commissioner not to Supply them with Drinking Water.
Army demolishes two homes in Hebron: Army claims that the house was illegal constructed. The leveled house is only a few hundred meters away from the Kharishna Israeli illegal settlement outpost. Eyewitnesses reported that soldiers forced the family out of their home, while settlers gathered there to “celebrate” the leveling of the Palestinian house.
Palestinian families separated by Israel take action: Hundreds of foreign nationals packed into the Al-Bireh Municipality Hall to listen to legal experts explain the options available to them in light of Israel's refusal to permit foreign nationals access to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). The audience was full of families with children, fearful that they will be forced to separate within days.
ISRAEL-OPT: Wall creates Palestinian cultural divide: “The Israelis are cutting the Jerusalem Palestinians off more and more from the West Bank Palestinians, physically and culturally. They want the Jerusalemites to identify more with Arab-Israelis and become quieter,” she said. “They are starting to think of each other as different. Those with Jerusalem IDs begin to think that the West Bankers don’t like them because they can get into the city. But they are the same Palestinians from the same land and culture,” she said.
Status of Palestinian villages outside fence not up for review: The government has no plans to change the status of nine Palestinian villages located within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem but outside of the separation fence, despite the fact that it does not provide these communities with vital services and that residents of the towns must cross through roadblocks daily.
Army takes four prisoners from two villages near Rammallah: In Dir Ghassanah, more than 14 army jeeps stormed the village, attacked residents houses and took Mamdouh Al Bargothi, a teacher at the local school, prisoner and moved him to an unknown destination. Soldiers also fired rounds of live ammunition and tear gas at the school children who were on their way to school.
Several school girls injured as army takes over one house in a village near Hebron:Later soldiers attacked the girls school in the village and fired tear gas bombs at the classrooms and the school playground causing several chocking cases as a result of gas inhalation, medical sources reported.
Two laws, one trap for family unification: The proposed new Citizenship Law and the Illegal Residents Law (Amendment No. 19 to the Entry into Israel Law) are so much alike that it begs the question of why both are being put forth. Both call for a dramatic closure of Israel's gates to non-Jews, especially residents of the Palestinian Authority. Both tread a thin line between constitutionality and non-constitutionality. The similarity between the bills is so great that one must question whether the Justice Ministry is proposing them both in order to turn up the heat and guarantee that at least one of them is passed?
The checkpoint generation: For nearly a month now, a young Palestinian has been hospitalized at Beilinson Hospital; soldiers shot him at a checkpoint in northern Nablus on Saturday, November 4. Haitem Yassin, 25, is conscious now, but he is still hooked up to a respirator. In recent days, he has been suffering from a high fever, apparently caused by an infection in his abdomen, which was wounded in the shooting. His family is still waiting for a report from the hospital about the number or type of bullets that caused the serious injury.
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu to head UN mission to Beit Hanun: Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu has been named to head a United Nations fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, where at least 18 civilians were killed earlier this month, UN officials said Wednesday.
UN rights chief warns of 'climate of impunity' in Middle East: UN human rights chief Louise Arbour warned of a "climate of impunity" operating in the Palestinian territories and urged Israel to carry out credible and transparent probes into civilian deaths resulting from military action.
Al- Haq 's Press Release on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People: Both Israel and the international community have repeatedly failed to meet their international legal obligations with regard to the OPT. Consequently, the full realisation of the fundamental rights of Palestinians, including the right to self-determination, remains as distant as ever.
Al-Aqsa: Release Palestinian or we'll fire Qassam: The Hebron police received a report Monday afternoon from a 9-year-old Palestinian girl, who claimed that her 20-year-old sister was kidnapped by unknown assailants near the Beit Hagai settlement in Mount Hebron. According to the Palestinians and the family, the settlers kidnapped their daughter.
Raids in West Bank continue — Peretz: Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said yesterday that Israel would continue its arrest raids in the West Bank, saying the tenuous, two-day-old truce with Palestinian militant factions applied to the Gaza Strip only.
Rice will tell Abbas 'Don't miss opportunity': Rice will pledge America's aid in strengthening Abbas' position, the sources said, but will stress that the United States expects results from him in return. Israeli officials said Washington understands that further progress depends on the success of the cease-fire, which took effect on Sunday.
Olmert to meet Rice Thursday: Rice, who has come to the area to conduct talks, will be meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before meeting Olmert. The decision to meet PM Olmert was made Wednesday. On Tuesday Olmert's associates said, "there is no point in a meeting between Rice and Olmert at this time."
Egyptian border guards refuse entry to Haniyeh entourage: Egyptian security officials at the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday turned back several bodyguards and aides accompanying Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on his first visit to Egypt.
Palestinian FM enters Gaza Strip carrying case with $20M in cash: Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar on Tuesday entered the Gaza Strip carrying a suitcase containing $20 million in cash. Al-Zahar raised the funds, which he brought in through the border with Egypt, over the past two weeks during a series of visits to several Arab countries.
Israel to purchase anti-Kassam system: The defense establishment plans to make an official decision in the coming days to invest $300 million in an anti-Kassam and anti-Katyusha defense system under development by Rafael - Israel's Armament Development Authority, The Jerusalem Post has learned. According to the plan, a combination of a laser and an anti-Kassam missile interceptor will be operational for deployment outside the Gaza Strip within a year and a half.
The 8th London Palestine Film Festival 2007 Calls for Submissions: The London Palestine Film Festival 2007 is calling for submissions. The festival is scheduled to run for two weeks, starting Friday April 27th 2007 at the Barbican Arts Centre in London.
Racism, Resistance and all that Jazz: Britain’s Respect party organsied Monday a ‘night of live music and spoken words’ in London, where giant Israeli-born jazz artist Gilad Atzmon and jazz author Martin Smith coordinated to perform a spectacular show entitled ‘Jazz, Racism and Resistance.’ The show was meant to symbolise the strong link between jazz music and the struggle for justice, whether present in the civil rights movement's fight against segregation or in the current fight for the rights of the Palestinian people.
No clinic? No school? We'll open one: Today, three years after the construction of the [security] wall there, the signs of neglect and disorder are clearly apparent, even at the entrance of the neighborhood, which is right after the Qalandiyah checkpoint. That checkpoint, and the wall that runs south and north of it, give the once-fashionable Palestinian suburb the look of a slum in a Third World city.
Just do it: It is good that the prime minister is promising a significant improvement in the quality of our neighbors' lives on the road to creating a two-state reality. It is good that the prime minister understands that after he failed in one war, he must try to prevent the next war through a political initiative. However, Olmert is Olmert is Olmert. As such, the life expectancy of the Sde Boker plan he announced this week is about as long as the life expectancy of the convergence plan he announced much less than a year ago.
Cease the fire in the West Bank, too: Against this backdrop, it is difficult to understand the opposition of certain Israel Defense Forces officers, and the reservations expressed yesterday by the defense minister, with regard to an expansion of the cease-fire to the West Bank as well - especially given the Palestinians' declarations that they would be interested in expanding the cease-fire.
Baker Panel Aide Expects Israel Will Be Pressed: An expert adviser to the Baker-Hamilton commission expects the 10-person panel to recommend that the Bush administration pressure Israel to make concessions in a gambit to entice Syria and Iran to a regional conference on Iraq.
Palestinian PM pushes 1967 borders proposal: Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday set the tone for his first foreign tour since taking office by promoting a Palestinian initiative based on an independent state on land outside Israel's 1967 borders.
Bedouin citizens of Israel denied water as means of transfer: The Water Tribunal Supported the Government's Policy of Seeking to Move Arab Bedouin Citizens of Israel from their Land in the Naqab by Upholding Decisions of the Water Commissioner not to Supply them with Drinking Water.
Olmert’s theatrics
A Good Comment
By Khalid Amayreh
"Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week spelled out several proposals for peace with the Palestinians, saying that the Zionist state was extending a hand of peace to the Palestinian people.
“I am extending my hand in peace to our Palestinian neighbors in the hope that it will not be returned empty,” said Olmert, who was speaking at the grave of David Ben Gurion, Israel ’s first prime minister, in Sde Boker in southern Israel , last week.
Olmert, who is known more for his spin theatrics and futile political maneuvering and less for his leadership and statesmanship, added that Israel would be willing to withdraw from “large amounts of territory,” release Palestinian prisoners and reduce the number of humiliation stations in the West Bank , otherwise known as checkpoints and roadblocks.
And in return for this “ great Zionist charity,” Olmert said he expected the Palestinian people to give up the paramount right of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and villages from which they were expelled at gunpoint by Jewish gangs when Israel was created nearly sixty years ago.
Moreover, Olmert called on Palestinians to abandon armed resistance to the Israeli occupation army and reject the “uncompromising extremism of your terrorist organizations.”
Indeed, while Olmert’s speech can be looked at as constituting a certain departure from his characteristically bellicose tone, it is amply clear that it contained absolutely nothing new in actual substance. In fact, the speech seems to be nothing more than a mere reproduction and reassertion of Israel’s intransigent rejection of a true and just peace with the Palestinian people and its chronic insistence on maintaining the Jewish stranglehold over the occupied Palestinian land.
For observers with even a rudimentary knowledge of Israeli phraseology, the speech should be viewed as just another theatrical act of public relations aimed at misleading the international public opinion as well as rehabilitating Israel ’s tarnished image, especially after the recent atrocities in Lebanon and Gaza .
Actually, Olmert is not even placing old wine in new bottles, as his “offers” are far more parsimonious and far less limited than the promises of the Oslo Accords.
More to the point, it is well known that all Israeli governments voiced a certain willingness to withdraw from “some” (not all) the occupied territories, provided that the Palestinians give up large portions of their homeland, including al-Quds al Sharif ( East Jerusalem.)
Even manifestly racist Israeli prime ministers such as Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and Ariel Sharon had voiced such a willingness.
So, Olmert is merely reiterating the same old “willingness” which everyone knows is defined and motivated, not by a true desire for peace with the Palestinians, but rather by Israel’s gluttonous and covetous desire to arrogate as much Arab land as possible.
Indeed, a country that builds hundreds of racist colonies on occupied territory and transfers hundreds of thousands of its citizens to live on land that belongs to another people doesn’t harbor a genuine desire for peace with her neighbors.
In truth, Olmert, like all duplicitous and dishonest politicians, doesn’t say what he truly means. That is why, a more authentic version of his speech would probably sound like the following..
“Dear Palestinian neighbors: The State of Israel will never withdraw from large parts of the West Bank . And we, under all circumstances, will retain control of the large Jewish-only settlements and, of course, Jerusalem , the eternal capital of Israel .
“And we will not allow you, our dear Palestinian neighbors, to have a truly viable state in the West Bank , which means that you will have to make do with a number of scattered and geographically disconnected quasi- autonomous enclaves or Bantustans or townships. That is my understanding of President Bush’s vision of two states living side by side in peace, Israel and Palestine .
“And don’t forget, We will have to remain in control of the borders and all border- crossings connecting any prospective Palestinian entity with the outside world, because unfettered access and free movement from and to your areas pose a great danger to the security of Israel.!!
“ Besides, we will not accept any peace settlement based on the anachronistic UN resolutions 242 and 338, which are no longer relevant. Yes, our dear neighbors, let the past rest in peace, so let us turn a new page in our common history so that your children and ours will live in peace and prosperity.!!!
“And as to the right of return, just forget it, don’t evoke it any more, because we will never allow these hapless refugees to return home under any circumstances, because maintaining Israel as a purely Jewish state is more important than adhering to the rule of international law and according human rights to the goyem!
“Our dear neighbors, you will have to accept Israel ’s conditions and demands for peace, and if you don’t, you will have neither peace nor freedom, and we will continue to steal your land day and night before your eyes and will continue to torment and savage you and make your life an unending nightmare as we already have been doing. And I guess you understand this too well. Just remember Beit Hanun!
“ In brief, we in Israel are truly sincere about peace with you, our dear cousins. We long for peace with you just as much as we desire another piece of your/our ancient land. Therefore I call upon you to change your mindset and turn your swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. Shalom, Salam, Peace. Thank you, thank you.”
Well, as a Palestinian, all I can say is that I hope and pray that Palestinian political leaders, especially President Mahmoud Abbas will not be duped and bamboozled by these theatrics. We have been deceived too much by Israel , and enough is enough.
Besides, we should always pay more attention to what Israel does rather than to what Israel says. After all, Israeli leaders lie as much as they breathe and they should never be trusted. "
By Khalid Amayreh
"Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week spelled out several proposals for peace with the Palestinians, saying that the Zionist state was extending a hand of peace to the Palestinian people.
“I am extending my hand in peace to our Palestinian neighbors in the hope that it will not be returned empty,” said Olmert, who was speaking at the grave of David Ben Gurion, Israel ’s first prime minister, in Sde Boker in southern Israel , last week.
Olmert, who is known more for his spin theatrics and futile political maneuvering and less for his leadership and statesmanship, added that Israel would be willing to withdraw from “large amounts of territory,” release Palestinian prisoners and reduce the number of humiliation stations in the West Bank , otherwise known as checkpoints and roadblocks.
And in return for this “ great Zionist charity,” Olmert said he expected the Palestinian people to give up the paramount right of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and villages from which they were expelled at gunpoint by Jewish gangs when Israel was created nearly sixty years ago.
Moreover, Olmert called on Palestinians to abandon armed resistance to the Israeli occupation army and reject the “uncompromising extremism of your terrorist organizations.”
Indeed, while Olmert’s speech can be looked at as constituting a certain departure from his characteristically bellicose tone, it is amply clear that it contained absolutely nothing new in actual substance. In fact, the speech seems to be nothing more than a mere reproduction and reassertion of Israel’s intransigent rejection of a true and just peace with the Palestinian people and its chronic insistence on maintaining the Jewish stranglehold over the occupied Palestinian land.
For observers with even a rudimentary knowledge of Israeli phraseology, the speech should be viewed as just another theatrical act of public relations aimed at misleading the international public opinion as well as rehabilitating Israel ’s tarnished image, especially after the recent atrocities in Lebanon and Gaza .
Actually, Olmert is not even placing old wine in new bottles, as his “offers” are far more parsimonious and far less limited than the promises of the Oslo Accords.
More to the point, it is well known that all Israeli governments voiced a certain willingness to withdraw from “some” (not all) the occupied territories, provided that the Palestinians give up large portions of their homeland, including al-Quds al Sharif ( East Jerusalem.)
Even manifestly racist Israeli prime ministers such as Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and Ariel Sharon had voiced such a willingness.
So, Olmert is merely reiterating the same old “willingness” which everyone knows is defined and motivated, not by a true desire for peace with the Palestinians, but rather by Israel’s gluttonous and covetous desire to arrogate as much Arab land as possible.
Indeed, a country that builds hundreds of racist colonies on occupied territory and transfers hundreds of thousands of its citizens to live on land that belongs to another people doesn’t harbor a genuine desire for peace with her neighbors.
In truth, Olmert, like all duplicitous and dishonest politicians, doesn’t say what he truly means. That is why, a more authentic version of his speech would probably sound like the following..
“Dear Palestinian neighbors: The State of Israel will never withdraw from large parts of the West Bank . And we, under all circumstances, will retain control of the large Jewish-only settlements and, of course, Jerusalem , the eternal capital of Israel .
“And we will not allow you, our dear Palestinian neighbors, to have a truly viable state in the West Bank , which means that you will have to make do with a number of scattered and geographically disconnected quasi- autonomous enclaves or Bantustans or townships. That is my understanding of President Bush’s vision of two states living side by side in peace, Israel and Palestine .
“And don’t forget, We will have to remain in control of the borders and all border- crossings connecting any prospective Palestinian entity with the outside world, because unfettered access and free movement from and to your areas pose a great danger to the security of Israel.!!
“ Besides, we will not accept any peace settlement based on the anachronistic UN resolutions 242 and 338, which are no longer relevant. Yes, our dear neighbors, let the past rest in peace, so let us turn a new page in our common history so that your children and ours will live in peace and prosperity.!!!
“And as to the right of return, just forget it, don’t evoke it any more, because we will never allow these hapless refugees to return home under any circumstances, because maintaining Israel as a purely Jewish state is more important than adhering to the rule of international law and according human rights to the goyem!
“Our dear neighbors, you will have to accept Israel ’s conditions and demands for peace, and if you don’t, you will have neither peace nor freedom, and we will continue to steal your land day and night before your eyes and will continue to torment and savage you and make your life an unending nightmare as we already have been doing. And I guess you understand this too well. Just remember Beit Hanun!
“ In brief, we in Israel are truly sincere about peace with you, our dear cousins. We long for peace with you just as much as we desire another piece of your/our ancient land. Therefore I call upon you to change your mindset and turn your swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. Shalom, Salam, Peace. Thank you, thank you.”
Well, as a Palestinian, all I can say is that I hope and pray that Palestinian political leaders, especially President Mahmoud Abbas will not be duped and bamboozled by these theatrics. We have been deceived too much by Israel , and enough is enough.
Besides, we should always pay more attention to what Israel does rather than to what Israel says. After all, Israeli leaders lie as much as they breathe and they should never be trusted. "
Meanwhile in Iraq
Saudi Arabia Will Protect Sunnis if the U.S. Leaves: The economic powerhouse of the Middle East, the birthplace of Islam and the de facto leader of the world's Sunni community (which comprises 85 percent of all Muslims), Saudi Arabia has both the means and the religious responsibility to intervene. (Oh yeah, just look at what a great job they are doing of protecting Sunnis in Palestine).
At least 28 killed in another bloody day in Iraq: Iraqi police said a U.S.-Iraqi force killed eight civilians. Police said the dead were a man and his three sons and a neighbouring couple, their son and daughter.
25 Killed as Fierce fighting shuts down Iraqi city: By 3 p.m., 13 insurgents, six policemen, and six civilians had been killed, including two Iraqi females who were caught up in a coalition raid north of the capital, police and U.S. officials said. That raised to seven the number of Iraqi females, including an infant, who had died during American raids in Iraq in the last two days.
American military concedes daily toll of civilians likely to rise far above 100: Violence against Iraqi civilians, which is already taking between 60 and 100 lives a day, is likely to rise still further, Major General William Caldwell, the US military spokesman in Baghdad, conceded yesterday.
Witnesses detail Iraq burning deaths: The suspected Shiite militiamen took automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers from the vehicles. They then blasted open the front of the mosque, dragged six worshippers outside, doused them with kerosene and set them on fire.
Sadr bloc quits government in Bush protest: The political bloc of Muqtada al-Sadr has suspended its participation in Iraq's national unity government in protest at the Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's meeting with the US president.
Damage control on leak of Iraq memo: Following the leak of a memorandum in which President Bush's national security adviser pointedly questioned the competence of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's young government in confronting sectarian violence within Iraq, the Bush administration insisted today it has faith in al-Maliki.
Iraqi Prime Minister canceled a presummit dinner with Bush: Prospects for the already-delayed meeting were put into further doubt when al-Maliki canceled a presummit dinner with Bush.
U.S.-Iraq Summit Put Off Until Thursday: President Bush's high-stakes summit with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was put off Wednesday after public disclosure of U.S. doubts about his capacity to control sectarian warfare. The White House said the two leaders would meet on Thursday.
Saudi will intervene in Iraq if US withdraws-aide: Using money, weapons or its oil power, Saudi Arabia will intervene to prevent Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias from massacring Iraqi Sunni Muslims once the United States begins pulling out of Iraq, a security adviser to the Saudi government said on Wednesday.
Pentagon Considers Moving Troops From al-Anbar Province to Baghdad: There are now 30,000 U.S. troops in al-Anbar, mainly Marines, braving some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq. At least 1,055 Americans have been killed in this region, making al-Anbar the deadliest province for American troops.
Powell: Iraq Is In A Civil War And Bush Should Stop Denying It: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq’s violence meets the standard of a civil war and thinks President Bush needs to acknowledge that.
Kurdish Officials Sanction Abductions in Kirkuk: Police and security units, forces led by Kurdish political parties and backed by the U.S. military, have abducted hundreds of minority Arabs and Turkmens in this intensely volatile city and spirited them to prisons in Kurdish-held northern Iraq, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, government documents and families of the victims.
Iranian president urges Americans to demand withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq: Iran's president urged the American people in an open letter Wednesday to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and reject the Bush administration's policies in the war on terrorism.
Iraq's oil industry in grip of despair: The present state of Iraq's collapsing oil sector, its economic lifeline, is bleak and its future looks far worse, despairing officials say.
Powell: Bush must accept Iraq in civil war: A report filed by CNN asserts that former Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that President Bush must accept that Iraq has descended into civil war.
At least 28 killed in another bloody day in Iraq: Iraqi police said a U.S.-Iraqi force killed eight civilians. Police said the dead were a man and his three sons and a neighbouring couple, their son and daughter.
25 Killed as Fierce fighting shuts down Iraqi city: By 3 p.m., 13 insurgents, six policemen, and six civilians had been killed, including two Iraqi females who were caught up in a coalition raid north of the capital, police and U.S. officials said. That raised to seven the number of Iraqi females, including an infant, who had died during American raids in Iraq in the last two days.
American military concedes daily toll of civilians likely to rise far above 100: Violence against Iraqi civilians, which is already taking between 60 and 100 lives a day, is likely to rise still further, Major General William Caldwell, the US military spokesman in Baghdad, conceded yesterday.
Witnesses detail Iraq burning deaths: The suspected Shiite militiamen took automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers from the vehicles. They then blasted open the front of the mosque, dragged six worshippers outside, doused them with kerosene and set them on fire.
Sadr bloc quits government in Bush protest: The political bloc of Muqtada al-Sadr has suspended its participation in Iraq's national unity government in protest at the Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's meeting with the US president.
Damage control on leak of Iraq memo: Following the leak of a memorandum in which President Bush's national security adviser pointedly questioned the competence of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's young government in confronting sectarian violence within Iraq, the Bush administration insisted today it has faith in al-Maliki.
Iraqi Prime Minister canceled a presummit dinner with Bush: Prospects for the already-delayed meeting were put into further doubt when al-Maliki canceled a presummit dinner with Bush.
U.S.-Iraq Summit Put Off Until Thursday: President Bush's high-stakes summit with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was put off Wednesday after public disclosure of U.S. doubts about his capacity to control sectarian warfare. The White House said the two leaders would meet on Thursday.
Saudi will intervene in Iraq if US withdraws-aide: Using money, weapons or its oil power, Saudi Arabia will intervene to prevent Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias from massacring Iraqi Sunni Muslims once the United States begins pulling out of Iraq, a security adviser to the Saudi government said on Wednesday.
Pentagon Considers Moving Troops From al-Anbar Province to Baghdad: There are now 30,000 U.S. troops in al-Anbar, mainly Marines, braving some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq. At least 1,055 Americans have been killed in this region, making al-Anbar the deadliest province for American troops.
Powell: Iraq Is In A Civil War And Bush Should Stop Denying It: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq’s violence meets the standard of a civil war and thinks President Bush needs to acknowledge that.
Kurdish Officials Sanction Abductions in Kirkuk: Police and security units, forces led by Kurdish political parties and backed by the U.S. military, have abducted hundreds of minority Arabs and Turkmens in this intensely volatile city and spirited them to prisons in Kurdish-held northern Iraq, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, government documents and families of the victims.
Iranian president urges Americans to demand withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq: Iran's president urged the American people in an open letter Wednesday to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and reject the Bush administration's policies in the war on terrorism.
Iraq's oil industry in grip of despair: The present state of Iraq's collapsing oil sector, its economic lifeline, is bleak and its future looks far worse, despairing officials say.
Powell: Bush must accept Iraq in civil war: A report filed by CNN asserts that former Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that President Bush must accept that Iraq has descended into civil war.
Israelis adopt what South Africa dropped
A Great Piece
By JOHN DUGARD
(John Dugard is a South African law professor teaching in the Netherlands. He is currently Special Rapporteur (reporter) on Palestine to the United Nations Human Rights Council.)
"Former President Jimmy Carter's new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," is igniting controversy for its allegation that Israel practices a form of apartheid.
As a South African and former anti-apartheid advocate who visits the Palestinian territories regularly to assess the human rights situation for the U.N. Human Rights Council, the comparison to South African apartheid is of special interest to me.
institutionalized racial discrimination that the white minority in South Africa employed to maintain power over the black majority. It was characterized by the denial of political rights to blacks, the fragmentation of the country into white areas and black areas (called Bantustans) and by the imposition on blacks of restrictive measures designed to achieve white superiority, racial separation and white security.
The "pass system," which sought to prevent the free movement of blacks and to restrict their entry to the cities, was rigorously enforced. Blacks were forcibly "relocated," and they were denied access to most public amenities and to many forms of employment. The system was enforced by a brutal security apparatus in which torture played a significant role.
The Palestinian territories — East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza — have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Although military occupation is tolerated and regulated by international law, it is considered an undesirable regime that should be ended as soon as possible. The United Nations for nearly 40 years has condemned Israel's military occupation, together with colonialism and apartheid, as contrary to the international public order.
In principle, the purpose of military occupation is different from that of apartheid. It is not designed as a long-term oppressive regime but as an interim measure that maintains law and order in a territory following an armed conflict and pending a peace settlement. But this is not the nature of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Since 1967 Israel has imposed its control over the Palestinian territories in the manner of a colonizing power, under the guise of occupation. It has permanently seized the territories' most desirable parts — the holy sites in East Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem and the fertile agricultural lands along the western border and in the Jordan Valley — and settled its own Jewish "colonists" throughout the land.
Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of colonization. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics of apartheid. The West Bank has been fragmented into three areas — north (Jenin and Nablus), center (Ramallah) and south (Hebron) — which increasingly resemble the Bantustans of South Africa.
Restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by a rigid permit system enforced by some 520 checkpoints and roadblocks resemble, but in severity go well beyond, apartheid's "pass system." And the security apparatus is reminiscent of that of apartheid, with more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons and frequent allegations of torture and cruel treatment.
Many aspects of Israel's occupation surpass those of the apartheid regime. Israel's large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassinations of Palestinians far exceed any similar practices in apartheid South Africa. No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites.
Following the worldwide anti-apartheid movement, one might expect a similarly concerted international effort united in opposition to Israel's abhorrent treatment of the Palestinians. Instead one finds an international community divided between the West and the rest of the world. The Security Council is prevented from taking action because of the U.S. veto and European Union abstinence. And the United States and the European Union, acting in collusion with the United Nations and the Russian Federation, have in effect imposed economic sanctions on the Palestinian people for having, by democratic means, elected a government deemed unacceptable to Israel and the West. Forgotten is the commitment to putting an end to occupation, colonization and apartheid.
In these circumstances, the United States should not be surprised if the rest of the world begins to lose faith in its commitment to human rights. Some Americans — rightly — complain that other countries are unconcerned about Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region and similar situations in the world. But while the United States itself maintains a double standard with respect to Palestine it cannot expect cooperation from others in the struggle for human rights."
IRAQ: Sahar Ahmed, Iraq "We need to leave this country as soon as possible"
In commemoration of the UN’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (November 29):
“Now I ask the world. With a raped daughter, a tortured son, a killed husband and without a house and food, maybe someone will look after us and try to help, or do they still need more proof that we are suffering and need to leave this country as soon as possible?”
UN Office for The Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (IRIN) Report
"BAGHDAD, 28 Nov 2006 (IRIN) - Of the approximately 30,000 Palestinians who were registered in Iraq in 2003 by the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 are left in the country, according to UNHCR and other organisations.
The rest have either been killed or have fled to neighbouring countries. With all borders now closed to them, Palestinians who are forced to stay in Iraq face an almost certain death as they are perceived by many Iraqis to have been favoured by the government of former president Saddam Hussein.
Of those who have remained behind, many have been kidnapped, tortured or killed. They are routinely threatened and their families live in fear, expecting to be the next victims of militias and armed groups.
In the run-up to the UN’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on 29 November, IRIN spoke to Sahar Ahmed, 41, a Palestinian mother-of-four who was born in Iraq and now finds herself trapped in the country.
Her son was kidnapped and tortured after being accused of being a follower of Saddam Hussein and was given an ultimatum to leave the country within a week. With no money, the family moved to another area of the capital but even there they were not safe.
They were followed and threatened and now live with two other Palestinian families in an empty school near the Adhamyia area of Baghdad.
“We didn’t have a choice. If we had money, we would have left Iraq but because we are Palestinians no one employs us now,” Sahar said.
“Because we did not follow their orders, they [the armed group] took my 17-year-old daughter and raped her a month ago. She was also beaten all over her body and was told that that was the payment for all Palestinians who chose to stay in their country,” she added.
Sahar said that the house in which she was living was filled with bullet holes in its walls and messages were pasted on its doors warning them that staying in Iraq meant certain death.
“I sought help from NGOs and even tried to cross the Syrian border but we were forced back to the capital. Our old neighbours turned their backs on us as soon as they saw that people were targeting us. Now we are alone trying to survive,” she said.
Sahar said her husband was killed by the US army in 2003 when he went through a closed road and soldiers shot him dead.
“Now I ask the world. With a raped daughter, a tortured son, a killed husband and without a house and food, maybe someone will look after us and try to help, or do they still need more proof that we are suffering and need to leave this country as soon as possible?” Sahar asked."
Hizb and Mahdi: Do they or Don't they?
By Juan Cole
"The NYT was told by somebody in Washington that Hizbullah has trained between 1,000 and 2,000 Mahdi Army militiamen. I don't know if I believe it, and I am not sure it is significant if true. There are thousands of Mahdi Army militiamen, and some have much more direct war experience, fighting the Marines in 2004, than does Hizbullah. Their popularity has anyway more to do with their charitable work, as WaPo pointed out Monday, than with their military prowess, such as it is.
The logistics are suspicious here. To get from southern Iraq to Lebanon you have to go through Iraqi Sunni Arab territory, which would get most Shiites killed. And, why take the militiamen for training all the way to Lebanon when Iran is right next door and easy to get to via Kermanshah or Basra?
Nor can the effect of the training be seen on the ground. Hizbullah's signature tactic is setting shaped charges, which is rare for the Mahdi Army but is often engaged in by the Sunni Arab guerrillas, who are not to say the least being helped by Iran or Hizbullah. And, it is being alleged that Mahdi Army is being trained to kidnap and torture. That needs training?
There is a real possibility that this report is disinformation "leaked" by the Cheney/Wurmser axis in order to forestall a move to negotiation with Iran and Syria over Iraq, which the Baker-Hamilton Commission will likely recommend."
"The NYT was told by somebody in Washington that Hizbullah has trained between 1,000 and 2,000 Mahdi Army militiamen. I don't know if I believe it, and I am not sure it is significant if true. There are thousands of Mahdi Army militiamen, and some have much more direct war experience, fighting the Marines in 2004, than does Hizbullah. Their popularity has anyway more to do with their charitable work, as WaPo pointed out Monday, than with their military prowess, such as it is.
The logistics are suspicious here. To get from southern Iraq to Lebanon you have to go through Iraqi Sunni Arab territory, which would get most Shiites killed. And, why take the militiamen for training all the way to Lebanon when Iran is right next door and easy to get to via Kermanshah or Basra?
Nor can the effect of the training be seen on the ground. Hizbullah's signature tactic is setting shaped charges, which is rare for the Mahdi Army but is often engaged in by the Sunni Arab guerrillas, who are not to say the least being helped by Iran or Hizbullah. And, it is being alleged that Mahdi Army is being trained to kidnap and torture. That needs training?
There is a real possibility that this report is disinformation "leaked" by the Cheney/Wurmser axis in order to forestall a move to negotiation with Iran and Syria over Iraq, which the Baker-Hamilton Commission will likely recommend."
The "Gaza-Solution" and the Ongoing War on Islam
A Very Good Article
By Mike Whitney
"“People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don’t forget; they also strike back.” Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate
The central tenet of American foreign policy hasn’t changed since the early 1980s when Secretary of State Henry Kissinger summarized our involvement in the Iraq-Iran War saying, “I hope they kill each other.” Kissinger’s dictum reveals the basic racial and religious odium which animates the current policy and has become the organizing principle for maintaining the global empire.
Now that the Muslim world has been systematically ravaged from the southern-most part Gaza to the northern tip of Afghanistan, we can see that the application of the Kissinger Doctrine is an effective method for decimating societies where coveted resources are located.
By all accounts, it’s been a huge success.
The policy seems to be working best in Iraq, where provocative counterinsurgency operations have incited a massive sectarian war. The conflict produces an ever-increasing number of civilian casualties many of whom have been killed by other Iraqis. No doubt Kissinger is gratified that his theory is working out so splendidly.
.....
We know Bush’s plan for Muslims, because it is identical to that of his ideological-twin, Olmert. They both believe that the final solution to the “Muslim problem” lies in the Gaza Model.
The Gaza Strip is the world’s largest prison camp containing 1.5 million Palestinians. They are limited in their movements and have no reliable access to food, medical aid, clean water, electricity or employment. They do not control their borders, air space, roads or coastline. And, even though their elected officials have none of the powers that are normally associated with national sovereignty, they have been under constant siege by Israeli forces that aggressively destroy any nationalist movement which operates beyond Tel Aviv’s control.
Israel claims the absolute right to kill, detain, abduct or torture anyone it sees fit without providing any means for a legal defense. They show the same disdain for Palestinian human rights as they do for the 60 separate resolutions passed by the United Nations. Israel does as it pleases.
Nothing about the Gaza “open-air” detention facility is accidental. It’s a model that has been meticulously developed over 39 years to create a permanent state of imprisonment for the “undesirables” who have legal title to the land. If we look across the Middle East into Central Asia, we can see that the same fundamental principles for subjugation are being applied to Muslims throughout the region.
The Gaza Model is the logical corollary of Bush’s war on terror. It provides a means for dealing with the people in resource-rich lands who stand in the way of America’s corporate-political expansion. At its core, it is a strategy for “pacification” through segregation, containment and brutality. These are the grim requirements for America’s continued dominance into the next century.
The war on terror is fueled by belligerence, deception and unrelenting aggression against innocent people in their own countries. It is terrorism pure and simple.
Bush will deny this, but it is true just the same. "
By Mike Whitney
"“People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don’t forget; they also strike back.” Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate
The central tenet of American foreign policy hasn’t changed since the early 1980s when Secretary of State Henry Kissinger summarized our involvement in the Iraq-Iran War saying, “I hope they kill each other.” Kissinger’s dictum reveals the basic racial and religious odium which animates the current policy and has become the organizing principle for maintaining the global empire.
Now that the Muslim world has been systematically ravaged from the southern-most part Gaza to the northern tip of Afghanistan, we can see that the application of the Kissinger Doctrine is an effective method for decimating societies where coveted resources are located.
By all accounts, it’s been a huge success.
The policy seems to be working best in Iraq, where provocative counterinsurgency operations have incited a massive sectarian war. The conflict produces an ever-increasing number of civilian casualties many of whom have been killed by other Iraqis. No doubt Kissinger is gratified that his theory is working out so splendidly.
.....
We know Bush’s plan for Muslims, because it is identical to that of his ideological-twin, Olmert. They both believe that the final solution to the “Muslim problem” lies in the Gaza Model.
The Gaza Strip is the world’s largest prison camp containing 1.5 million Palestinians. They are limited in their movements and have no reliable access to food, medical aid, clean water, electricity or employment. They do not control their borders, air space, roads or coastline. And, even though their elected officials have none of the powers that are normally associated with national sovereignty, they have been under constant siege by Israeli forces that aggressively destroy any nationalist movement which operates beyond Tel Aviv’s control.
Israel claims the absolute right to kill, detain, abduct or torture anyone it sees fit without providing any means for a legal defense. They show the same disdain for Palestinian human rights as they do for the 60 separate resolutions passed by the United Nations. Israel does as it pleases.
Nothing about the Gaza “open-air” detention facility is accidental. It’s a model that has been meticulously developed over 39 years to create a permanent state of imprisonment for the “undesirables” who have legal title to the land. If we look across the Middle East into Central Asia, we can see that the same fundamental principles for subjugation are being applied to Muslims throughout the region.
The Gaza Model is the logical corollary of Bush’s war on terror. It provides a means for dealing with the people in resource-rich lands who stand in the way of America’s corporate-political expansion. At its core, it is a strategy for “pacification” through segregation, containment and brutality. These are the grim requirements for America’s continued dominance into the next century.
The war on terror is fueled by belligerence, deception and unrelenting aggression against innocent people in their own countries. It is terrorism pure and simple.
Bush will deny this, but it is true just the same. "
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)