LEBANON: Deminers urge patience as Palestinians grow restless for return home

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

"BEIRUT, 4 July 2007 (IRIN) - The demining agency tasked with neutralising unexploded ordnance (UXO) from the six-week conflict between militants and the Lebanese army in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp has said the removal of immediate UXO threats will take at least a month.

This raises the spectre of further unrest among displaced refugees increasingly desperate to return home.

“The operation should take around four weeks to eliminate the immediate threats, but there is bound to be UXO still found,” David Horrocks, Lebanon Country Programme Manager for the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), told IRIN.

“It is going to be very difficult to stop people going back, and it’s important we let the Palestinians know they are returning. But our concern is that the more people who go back the more difficult our job becomes.”

Nearly 35,000 Palestinian refugees have been displaced since the 20 May outbreak of conflict in the northern Nahr al-Bared camp, near Tripoli. The vast majority have settled with families or are temporarily sheltered in cramped, fraught conditions in neighbouring Beddawi camp......"

What Israel's Defeat in Lebanon Means for Defense Industry Fat Cats

The Death of the RMA

By WILLIAM S. LIND
CounterPunch

"In the 1989 Marine Corps Gazette article where I and four colleagues first laid out the Four Generations of Modern War, we foresaw two potential futures. One, the way the world has gone, was 4GW. The other, the direction the Pentagon has taken, became known as the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), or, more recently, Transformation. This vision of future war, a vision anchored in hi-tech, high-price "systems," is, I am happy to report, militarily dead.

While its corpse still twitches in Iraq and Afghanistan, its obituary was published in April, in Israel, when the Winograd Commission published its report On May 29, a summary of its findings by Haninah Levine was made available by the Center for Defense Information. The defense industry fat cats must have read it and wept.

The Winograd Commission was established to examine the Israeli debacle in Lebanon last summer. According to the Levine summary, its first lesson is, "Western militaries are in active state of denial concerning the limitations of precision weapons.".....

In how many valleys of Afghanistan is the same sad lesson being taught? In how many towns of Diyala province in Iraq, or streets in Sadr City?.....

The first lessen of the Second Lebanon War is that wishful thinking concerning the capabilities of precision weapon systems overpowered the General Staff' s analytical abilities.... Faith in advanced air and artillery systems as magical "game-changing" systems absolved the General Staff from the need to consider what capabilities (such as distributed and hardened facilities) the enemy possessed, and led the IDF into a strategic trap it had recognized in advance.......

The fact is, Pentagon policy has nothing to do with war, which has a great deal to do with why we are losing two wars. The Pentagon is the last Soviet industry. It is not about producing a product, least of all a product that works. It is solely, entirely, about acquiring and justifying resources. That the RMA does supremely well.

The defeat in Lebanon seems to have confronted the RMA in Israel with the unpleasant reality of the outside world. Will two defeats have the same effect on Washington? Perhaps, but don't bet on it. Half a trillion dollars a year can buy a great deal of political magic."

Editorial: The public renouncements of Hamas affiliation must end

Contributed by Lucia

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - Editor in Chief Nasser Al Lahham - Six days after Hamas' attack on Palestinian Authority departments, one Hamas nominee for a local council in the West Bank announced that he is no longer a member of Hamas, saying that his declaration was due to what Hamas did in the Gaza Strip.

The London-based newspaper 'Al Hayat' announced: "Mahmoud Lutfi Nayef from Tayba village in the Jenin area has announced that he has taken a decision, by his own volition, and that nobody forced him to do so." The paper added that Nayef declared his "full support to Abbas" and he also urged "all those with a living conscience to declare their legitimate and sharia [Islamic jurisprudence] position regarding the incidents in the strip.".....

In fact, Palestine has never witnessed such incidents before, in which factional loyalists backstab their factions in such a way. If there were Palestinians who regretted their factional membership, they left peacefully and continued their normal life. The Palestinian affiliation to any faction has always been assumed willingly rather than compulsorily and nobody in the world could force a Palestinian to join a faction which he does not want to join.

In the sixties or seventies, people were forced by some regimes to make such declarations renouncing their party affiliation. This used to be one of the conditions to gain freedom from jail and from future persecution by the intelligence services in such countries. Such a thing was embarrassing to the person and to their faction; some political parties, especially left-wing parties, used to threaten their members against making such declarations. Many patriots have consequently spent long years in jail refusing to make such declarations, even though they could have left jail just by making one such declaration.

I have noticed that the papers allow such trends and they publish such announcements, but I am calling on these papers to review this policy as these announcements are humiliating. What is requested from the information minister is to intervene and stop such acts, even though the commercial departments of the newspapers will blame us. "

Six Canadian soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan

"KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A powerful roadside bomb killed six Canadian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter Wednesday, ripping through their sturdy armoured vehicle on a gravel road in southern Afghanistan.....

The RG-31, known as a Nyala, is a South African-built armoured patrol vehicle designed to withstand ground explosions. But it was evidently unable to protect the seven killed in Wednesday's attack. The vehicle is widely used by the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan......

Twenty-two soldiers have now been killed on this rotation alone; by this time last year only eight had died. Altogether, 66 Canadian soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan since 2002, along with one diplomat.The latest deaths occurred in an area the Canadian military has been using as an example of their mission's achievements in Afghanistan.....

Wednesday's blast is the deadliest involving Canadians since Easter Sunday, April 8, when another devastating roadside-bomb explosion killed six Canadian soldiers in what was then the worst single-day toll for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan......"

Moroccan, Israeli foreign ministers meet

Look Ma: Another Arab Eunuch in the Bag!

"PARIS --The foreign ministers of Israel and Morocco held their first publicly disclosed talks in years Wednesday, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the heart of the discussion.

The Moroccan minister, Mohamed Benaissa, did not speak to reporters after the meeting, but shook his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni's hand for the cameras. In the background, members of the Israeli delegation unwrapped gifts of gold pens they said were given to them by the Moroccans......

In her remarks to reporters - she took no questions - Livni did not specifically address the issue of Israeli ties with Morocco, a U.S. ally.

But she said that Israel and moderate Arab nations including Morocco share common interests. "We have the same concerns, we face the same threats, and so we want to see a process in place so we can move forward," she said.....

Livni said the new Palestinian government that excludes Hamas provides a chance for progress. "The formation of the new Palestinian government gives us hope, and we have to work together," she told reporters after the talks over breakfast in a Paris hotel......"

By Tom Toles

The Dayton Plan

".....Hani al-Hassan, the venerable Fatah figure, didn't find it necessary to argue that that was the nature of America's Plan--rather it is his self-evident starting point. His argument is that while it is true that Hamas was able to defeat that Plan in Gaza, they went a little too far in doing so. But clearly the point is that there was such a Plan, and that a small group in Fatah collaborated with it. The Abbas faction has seen it necessary to vilify Hani al-Hassan because of the clear implication: They themselves are part of the Dayton Plan.

In this way, the Dayton Plan is like the Adhamiya Wall. It sums up in a simple and direct way the nature of the American strategy: division, of the kind that Israel has been promoting among the Palestinians. With respect to Iraq, the Washington groupies are split between those who say violent division is the result of bungled US planning on the one side, and those who say it is the result of pre-existing fault-lines, or some such argument on the other. With respect to Lebanon, the role of the US and its local allies in fomenting divisions is similarly plastered over with coats of verbiage or ignored. But it is the moments of lucidity provided by the Adhamiya Wall and the Dayton Plan that define America in Arabic. The Americans are there to promote fitna.

There are two points here. One is that the clarity this provides with respect to the nature of the American strategy. But the other is the role of Israel, and it is worth noting that this cuts two ways. In the Arab world, a higher profile for Israel means a sharper focus on strategies of brutality and humiliation. But in America, it is possible that the Israeli factor will end up helping promote the neocon idea that all resistance to foreign occupation is terrorism......."

The Palestinian Mafiosi

Vichy Government to Initiate Military Courts

Meeting of emergency govt.: Dialogue with Hamas rejected; military courts to be initiated

"Ramallah - Ma'an – Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas has on Wednesday renewed his rejection of dialogue with the Hamas movement, dubbing them "the overthrowers in Gaza", and stated that "it is important to have international forces deployed in the occupied Palestinian territories".

Minister of information Riyad Al Maliki told Ma'an that Wednesday's cabinet session in Ramallah "was exceptional and was headed by Abbas, who confirmed that he supports the decisions of the emergency government, especially with regard to financial and security affairs."

Al Maliki also revealed that the government has decided to form military-style courts, a decision which will be presented to President Abbas for ratification. It is not known at this time which people may be tried through these courts......"

Hamas frees Johnston at last

From Khalid Amayreh and news agencies

"....Efforts to release Johnston had repeatedly failed due to what one Hamas official described as “negative interference and obstruction” by Palestinian Authority security circles loyal to Dahlan and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. “You know the security apparatus affiliated with the treasonous camp did everything to keep Johnston in captivity in order to embarrass the government. “Today, Hamas is proud to announce that it has fulfilled its promise to free Johnston unharmed,” said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas leader in Gaza.....

Referring to the American-backed Ramallah-based Abbas-Dahlan Fatah regime, Mishaal said "it showed the difference between the era in which a group used to encourage and commit security anarchy and chaos and the current situation in which Hamas is seeking to establish law and order.” .....

Meanwhile, the Israeli government is voicing “consternation” and “worry” at the public relations victory Hamas has achieved following its success to free Johnston. One Israeli journalist said “Undoubtedly, the Israeli government which is hell-bent on isolating Hamas is now worried that the release of Johnston will greatly enhance the image of the movement.” The journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity added that “Johnston’s release is also bad news for PA leader Mahmoud Abbas who is trying to de-legitimize Hamas in coordination with Israel and the United States.”"

Running out of time in Iraq

In Congress and beyond, Iraq is deemed to be such a mess that withdrawal is the only option.

By Simon Tisdall
The Guardian

"Opponents frequently accuse George Bush of being in denial over Iraq. But in recent weeks the dire urgency of the situation, in both Baghdad and Washington, appears to have penetrated even the insulating layers normally enveloping the Oval Office.

The White House is increasingly alarmed at the widely shared expectation that the progress report to Congress in September by the Iraq commander, General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, will mark the beginning of the end of the occupation.

The 29,000-strong military surge, ordered by Mr Bush in February, has already been written off as a failure.....

According to foreign policy analysts Steven Simon and Ray Takeyh in the Washington Post, "what the US needs now is a guide to how to lose - how to start thinking about minimising the damage to American interests, saving lives, and ultimately wresting some good from this fiasco"......

Mr Lugar said, in sum, that domestic divisions had already fatally undermined the surge. "The strident, polarised nature of this debate increases the risk that our involvement in Iraq will end in a poorly planned withdrawal that undercuts our vital interests."....."

Hamas's latest coup

For Hamas, a lot was riding on the fate of the BBC's Alan Johnston. The question now is what political capital can it make from his release.

By Conal Urquhart
The Guardian

".....But Alan's case was just a symbol of a broader message that Hamas wants to send out to the international community and Israel. This is that they can impose peace and security and be trusted to carry out their commitments if they are addressed directly......

Their success in securing the release puts into sharp focus the failure of their Fatah counterparts to have any effect on the kidnappers. In a telling comment, Alan described how his kidnappers were "comfortable and secure" until Hamas took control. Then they became "very nervous", and he felt for the first time there was light at the end of the tunnel.

The effectiveness of Hamas has long been recognised by the highest echelons of the Israeli army. Senior officers have commented in private that they would trust Hamas to live up to any deals that were made between them. However, dealing with Hamas is a political step the Israeli government is not yet ready to take......

Since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, it has once again taken the appearance over a secure place. Its police officers man the junctions and rapid response units are rarely far away. They appear more effective and threatening than their Fatah counterparts, who could not even manage the traffic.

Mahmoud al Zahar, the Hamas foreign minister and probably the most senior Hamas leader in Gaza, this morning promised a new era in the Gaza Strip. "Every kidnapping, every illegal behaviour, we will fight with all our force, the force of law, the force of moral principles. Every Palestinian and every foreigner will be secure and safe regardless of their political beliefs," he said......"

Distinct possibilities

Hamas played a pivotal role in Alan Johnston's release, so let's put an end to the ridiculous claim that Islamism and terrorism are the same thing.

By Anas Altikriti
The Guardian

".....Now that Alan Johnston has been freed, exclusively as a result of the decisiveness and resolve of the Hamas government which placed his release at the top of its agenda upon gaining hold of Gaza a few weeks ago, proper debate can hopefully resume about this ludicrous claim that Islamists are equal to, if not the very same as terrorists. If anything, and similar to the case of Iraq hostage Norman Kember last year, the negotiations of which I was personally involved with, it was the "Islamists" whom MacShane, Husain and Butt equate to terrorists today, who made the difference in terms of bringing relentless worldwide appeal as well as action on the ground, and led to his eventual release. Indeed had the Hamas leadership had its way, Alan Johnston would have been freed many weeks ago, but its self-restraint and discipline in dealing with this matter as well as its tenacity, has brought about this welcome resolution.

What good could be served by lumping together those who continue to offer the hand of friendship, in practice as well as in preaching, to the world, while pursuing political and social agendas which we may or may not entirely agree with, and those whose only aim and ambition is to spread terror, mayhem and chaos throughout the world and have no tangible agenda whatsoever? What interests are served by severing channels of communication and of dialogue with those who continue to offer, in fact strenuously request, to talk, and who in fact represent the majority of Muslims in the world?

Why do some seem so intent on drawing the lines and shutting off those who actually influence events on the ground and are able to communicate with the "real people" on the streets of many an Arab and Muslim capital city, and who repeatedly and unequivocally renounce violence and reject terrorism, including that perpetrated by ourselves upon other nations in the form of war, funding dictators and selling arms to rogue elements for the mere objective of making a quick buck? Who gets to benefit if such a line was pursued, but the extremists on all sides of the fence, Muslim and otherwise? Who gets to lose but the rest of us, all of us?....."

The American Way
By Steve Bell, The Guardian

A PR coup for Hamas

Ian Black, Midde East editor
Wednesday July 4, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

"Hamas has good reason to celebrate the release of Alan Johnston, for it demonstrates both to the Palestinians and the wider international community that, just three weeks after taking over, it can run the show in the Gaza Strip.

As the dramatic news broke there was already excited talk of the Islamist movement "proving its credibility" and of the hope that with Johnston now finally free, the siege on Hamas could be lifted too. If Hamastan is seen to be functioning, this line of thinking goes, then Hamastan can break out of its isolation. "We hope that order, security and an end to anarchy will also reach the West Bank," Mr Haniyeh said in a clear jibe at Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and Fatah leader.

The fact that Johnston's release has given Hamas a welcome bounce was reflected in the sour reactions from the Fatah camp in the West Bank, still stunned by its humiliating loss of Gaza last month......

Showing that it can deliver results in Gaza should help strengthen Hamas' hand in its attempts to restore some kind of unity - whatever angry Fatah officials say. Still, although Hamas is strong in parts of the West Bank it cannot make much more headway as long as the Israeli army and the Shin Bet secret service operate freely there. Renewed cooperation between the Israelis and Fatah intelligence- bringing furious charges of collaboration from Hamas - will doubtless make life harder for the Islamists.

Another positive sign in recent days is that Hamas in Gaza has begun drafting former members of the Fatah security forces, including those who used to work at the border crossings into Israel. Life, in short, has its own logic beyond politics......"

Say Not Fatah

By Israel Shamir

A Good Piece
Contributed by Lucia

"Palestinians are the freest people on Earth. They proved it again this June, when they broke open the infamous torture chambers of Dahlan and released the prisoners; when they sent the CIA-trained thugs packing back to their Jewish masters. I feel proud of their unique victory.....Not many people succeeded in removing the machine of fear and oppression, in smashing these Gestapo-clones of security police mushrooming around the globe. In future Palestine, the fall of the Gaza Preventive Security Prison will be celebrated like the French celebrate the Fall of Bastille.

This is the people’s victory over oppression. Moreover, this is victory of law against lawlessness, for Palestine had and still has its legitimate government, while the rogue security apparatus tried to place itself above the law. A true people’s victory, for it succeeded without vengeance and unnecessary bloodshed......They knew there would be no revenge, no head-hunting, no Night of the Long Knives, no Moscow trials for the fighters of Fatah: the people won, there is no civil war, no major bloodshed; the security thugs lost, and now they have a chance to try to become men again.

Magnanimity, largesse, fraternal feelings were the hallmarks of this people’s revolution. Trying to saw discord as they always do, the mainstream media presented this glorious revolution as a victory of Hamas over Fatah. This is an exaggeration. The people of Gaza fought against Dahlan Gangs, against lawless criminals who tried to establish their rule of force and violence over the Strip....But Dahlan is not Fatah; nor is Mahmud Abbas, crowned by the US and Israel as the king of the Ramallah Bantustan....

......That is why we approve and support the merciful character of the Hamas revolution: Hamas' readiness to work together with healthier elements of Fatah for the Palestinian cause.

However, some lessons can and should be learned: Fatah leadership succumbed to the Israeli-American temptation because of its faulty ideology. Nationalism, this weapon of mass disintegration, was brought eastwards by the Western colonizers in order to divide and conquer......

But Palestinians are not likely to betray Palestine for the illusion of independence. All Palestinians, that is, all dwellers of Palestine, native and immigrant, need all of it, not just two percent of Gaza and ten percent of a Ramallah enclave, but all 100%. We may have all of it together, not by dividing, but by sharing. Islam is a universal faith, like Christianity, and the its religious foundations are better suited for our universal state than yesterday’s nationalism, Arab or Zionist....."

Why do we hate them?

By Gilad Atzmon

"..... was amazed to see Turks and Cypriots running grocery shops side by side in Green Lane. My first roommate was a Palestinian M.A. student from Beit Sahour, it all felt natural. It didn’t take long before I fell in love with the town and decided to make it into my permanent home.

At the time, Britain was very different from the place I came from. In my homeland the human landscape was officially reduced into two types. In a manner of crude binary opposition there was always a clear division between the ‘Good’ and the ‘Bad’, the ‘us’ and the ‘them’, the ‘West’ and the ‘East’ or just the ‘Jews’ and the ‘Arabs’. In the place I came from, peace couldn’t even be seen on the horizon. But in the London of the 1990s, there was no such dichotomy. Painfully enough, this has changed. On a daily basis our media outlets repeat the idiotic question: “Why do they hate us so much?” By now it is rather clear, the binary opposition between ‘us’ and ‘them’ has made it into an integral part of the British discourse as well.

When I moved over in the early 1990s, British politics was very boring. John Major was in power. But then, not before long, a young, dynamic, visionary politician removed him from office. This politician is a man who has managed in just ten years to demolish one of the most harmonious societies in the West. Tony Blair, the great new Labour promise, had been running the country for a decade; he managed to drag this country into every possible conflict, and to escalate minor conflict to crisis levels. He has managed to lie repeatedly to his people, his parliament and his cabinet, he has launched an illegal war that cost over 700,000 innocent civilian lives. He obviously failed to see the impact those wars may have on his multi-ethnic society at home......."

Al Jazeera interviews EI's Ali Abunimah

Laila El-Haddad, Al Jazeera, 3 July 2007

"For nearly 20 years, the two-state solution has been promoted as the agreed framework for negotiations and ultimately peace to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. But two decades on, it has failed to bear fruit. Co-founder of the Electronic Intifada and author of the book, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, discusses his book with Al Jazeera's Laila El-Haddad."

Palestinian civil society prepares to escalate its opposition to presidential decrees

"Ramallah - Ma'an - Palestinian civil society organizations are considering escalating their opposition to recent acts by the emergency government, potentially amounting to a boycott of the government announced by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas following Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip on 14 June, knowledgeable Palestinian sources revealed on Tuesday.

According to the source, civil society organizations are discontented following numerous "violations" by several directorates of the interior ministry in the West Bank.

In particular, Palestinian civil society organizations have expressed their opposition to a decree of President Abbas, issued on 20 June, in which all non-governmental organizations were ordered to apply for licensing.

According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), the decree granted the interior minister, or any person delegated by the minister, the power to “take any steps deemed necessary against associations and organizations with the intent of closure, rectification, or any other action.” The decree also demanded that “all organizations and associations must submit new registration applications within a week, and all these who violate this directive are subject to legal action.”

Various civil society organizations, including the Palestinian National Initiative party headed by Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, explained that this decree effectively revoked the former Palestinian law on non-governmental and civil society organizations, which Barghouthi described as being "one of the most democratic and progressive in the region."

At the time, various Palestinian civil society organizations warned that the decree represented an attack on Palestinian democracy and could jeopardize the legal position of the Palestinian emergency government.

The PCHR warned that this decree was “a serious violation of the right to establish organizations, which is a basic human right guaranteed by article 26 of the Amended Basic Law for 2003, stating Palestinians’ right to “Establish unions, associations, federations, clubs, and public organizations in accordance with the law.””

According to this recent report, talks are ongoing within civil society organizations regarding the implementation of this presidential decree and how to counter it.

In a press release on Tuesday, the PCHR called on President Abbas "to reconsider this decree, and stop subsequent administrative measures which constitute a prelude to crack down on civil society organizations, which are legally registered, with the aim of closing them or restricting their activities in the context of the state of emergency in the Occupied Palestinian Territory."

The PCHR also warned that there are indications that the emergency government plans "additional restrictions on civil society organizations".

The centre called on Abbas to keep "civil society out of the current crisis, preserving the independence of civil society, and ensuring the continuity of civil society’s work." In its statement, it also stressed "the importance of the role played by the civil society in the current crisis, especially in the provision of humanitarian, relief, medical and other services to the civilian population."

In general, there appears to be a movement towards refusing to cooperate with the presidential decree and instead adhering to the NGO law, article one, which was ratified in 2000.

The sources mentioned that if the ministry of interior continues its violations against civil society organizations, they might approach the Palestinian judiciary as a last attempt to end these violations.

In the same regard, international civil society organizations working in the Palestinian territories are contacting Palestinian organizations, the source said, and they have assured that they will launch an international campaign to support the Palestinian NGOs against assaults which impede their performance. "