Will Hezbollah Support Right to Work for Palestinian Refugees?

By Franklin Lamb – Beirut
Palestine Chronicle

"The current relationship between Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Hezbollah is not as clear cut as often assumed, despite the frequent inspiring brotherly words of Hezbollah’s leadership and the fact that the Party enjoys the support of more than 90% of the camp refugees, none of whom can vote. What this means is that the willingness of the Lebanese Resistance to spend its domestic political capital to legislate the right work to work for Palestinian refugees is not settled as of mid-May 2010.....

To add to Hezbollah’s political problems on this issue, longtime Palestinian nemesis Samir Geagea (“I was born with my views on Palestinians!”, he jokingly told one interviewer recently) and the Lebanese Forces have been making a significant political comeback since his July 2005 release from prison, including in this month’s municipal elections. “Geagea’s Christians” are cutting into Amin Gemayels Phalange Party and his other Christian rival Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement. This could be part of the reason why Aoun, a key Hezbollah ally, when asked about granting civil rights to Palestinian refugees, squints, gets red faced and starts badmouthing the idea and reminds his audience, that “there are 500,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and our country is going to implode, Ya Allah.” Actually, General Aoun inflates the true figure which is close to 250,000 Palestinian refugees remaining in Lebanon although 423,000 are registered with UNWRA.

Hezbollah is expected to add to its public endorsements of civil rights for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon by declaring soon exactly what it intends to do in Parliament. It is said to be studying the various proposals and quietly discussing the issue with a wide range of parties, Palestinian factions and local and international NGO’s. Some political analysts in Lebanon believe as Hezbollah goes on the right to work for Palestinian refugees so goes Parliament. The consequences of its decision will be major for the Lebanon’s refugees, the region and the National Lebanese Resistance."

Al-Jazeera Video: Thai protesters refuse to give up

" Anti-government protesters in Bangkok have defied army orders to leave their fortified camp in the heart of the Thai capital.

While some protesters have taken shelter in a temple inside the protest zone, thousands of others are living under a the threat of a military crackdown.

Street battles are happening daily and at least 36 people have died since violence broke out on Thursday.

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports from Bangkok. "

About Time! Islamic Jihad Leader Calls For Dissolving P.A.

"Sheikh Abdullah al-Shamy, a political leader of the Islamic Jihad, called for dissolving the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and stated that this authority is a burden on the Palestinian people.

Al-Shamy’s statements came during an event organized by the Islamic Jihad in front of the Red Crescent in Gaza City, marking the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba.

He said that taxes and other expenses in addition to economic pressures are burdening the people and causing further suffering.

Al-Shamy also slammed the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank for its security coordination with Israel.

He demanded that the Palestinians insist on the dissolution of the P.A. so that the occupation “will not find any leader to pressure”.

The Islamic Jihad leader further stated that the Palestinians will remain steadfast and that "the lies regarding Palestine as a land without a people for a people without a land” are the biggest scam in history and that the Palestinian are willing to sacrifice themselves for their country. "

Video: Norman Finkelstein on Israel and Noam Chomsky

Brazil-Turkey 1, sanctions 0

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"The groundbreaking nuclear fuel swap agreement brokered by Brazil between Iran and Turkey was a ''victory for diplomacy", according to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It was most of all a win for the BRIC countries - the emerging global counter-power to US hegemony and Washington's continuing demands for crippling sanctions against Tehran....

What may have happened is that the BRICs, plus Turkey, in a concerted effort these past few weeks, have made it very clear to the Iranian leadership that without any sort of agreement the US would keep on pushing for more and more crippling sanctions - and everyone knows what happened to Iraq in 2003.

So both Khamenei and Ahmadinejad seem to have got the message. But the key was still to find a deal that preserved Iranian dignity. Lula is right; the operative concept is "trust". Will Washington and its allies bow to the evidence? Or will they insist on playing a loser's game?"

After banned by Israel. Chomsky to give Bir Zeit lecture by video from Amman

Chomsky will not try to travel through the Allenby Bridge border crossing a second time, after being turned back on Sunday.

By Danna Harman and Amira Hass

"Noam Chomsky has decided not to try to travel through the Allenby Bridge border crossing a second time. Instead, he will hold his scheduled lecture at Birzeit University by video conference from Amman. The lecture will also be broadcast live on Al Jazeera television.

Despite reports in the Israeli media that Israel would allow Chomsky to cross, the linguist discovered yesterday that there was no official guarantee of this. He told his hosts at Birzeit he felt the Israeli authorities were playing games. His daughter and friends, who are traveling with him, also said they prefer not to tire the 81-year-old with another fruitless journey......"

Chomsky - Latest Jewish Thinker Savaged by Israel

By Mel Frykberg

"RAMALLAH, May 18, 2010 (IPS) - When internationally renowned linguist, philosopher and political analyst Noam Chomsky was barred from entering the West Bank, he joined a chorus of Jewish intellectuals savaged by the Israeli government for outspoken criticism.....

"I find it hard to think of a similar case, in which entry to a person is denied because he is not lecturing in Tel Aviv. Perhaps only in Stalinist regimes," Chomsky told the Israeli daily ‘Haaretz’.

Several years ago Norman Finkelstein, a respected American academic and political analyst, was interrogated for a number of hours at Ben Gurion International airport before he was refused entry by Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet. Finkelstein believes he was targeted due to his harsh criticism of Israel for its war on Gaza.

Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, was expelled when he tried to enter Israel in 2008.

"I was leading a mission that had intended to visit the West Bank and Gaza to prepare a report on Israel's compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law," said Falk.

But it appears the Israeli government and the Israel lobby have reserved their most vituperative attacks for South African Justice Richard Goldstone who was appointed by the U.N. to investigate war crimes during Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza from December 2008 to January 2009.

The Israelis refused to cooperate with his investigation and prevented him from entering Gaza from Israel. He had to enter via Egypt.....

Israeli forces were following the Dahiya Doctrine established after Israel’s 2006 war with Lebanon when a Hezbollah stronghold in the West Beirut suburb of Dahiya was almost completely razed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).

"What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on," said Gadi Eisenkot, head of the IDF’s northern division. "This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved," he added.

Israeli leader Col. (Retd) Gabriel Siboni, stated the following, weeks before the Israeli military’s attack on Gaza: "With an outbreak of hostilities, the IDF will use force that is disproportionate to the enemy’s actions and the threat it poses. Such a response aims at inflicting damage and meting out punishment to an extent that will demand long and expensive reconstruction processes.""

Itching to Fight Another Muslim Enemy

By Robert Parry
May 17, 2010

"If you read the major American newspapers or watch the propaganda on cable TV, it’s pretty clear that the U.S. foreign policy Establishment is again spoiling for a fight, this time in Iran.

Just as Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was the designated target of American hate in 2002 and 2003, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is playing that role now. Back then, any event in Iraq was cast in the harshest possible light; today, the same is done with Iran....

Even as President Barack Obama has demanded more nuclear transparency from all countries, he himself continues the longstanding charade of U.S. presidents, dating back to Richard Nixon, pretending that they don’t know that Israel has nuclear weapons.

In line with that history of double standards, Washington’s neocon opinion leaders now are framing what could be a positive step toward peace – the Iran-Turkey-Brazil accord – as another failure.

But the larger truth may be that the neocons are simply chafing under the possibility that their hunger for a new conflict in the Middle East might be delayed indefinitely and that – heaven forbid – cooler heads might prevail. "

8 Americans killed in Kabul blast

(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)

Press TV

"Eight Americans are reportedly among those killed in a car bomb attack against the US-founded Counterinsurgency Academy in the Afghan capital Kabul.

An Afghan army officer on the scene said 22 people, including eight Americans, were killed in the car bomb attack against a NATO convoy, according to a DPA report.

The unnamed officer added that three US vehicles were destroyed in the incident.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack. "We claim responsibility. The attack, which was a suicide car bomb, was carried out by one of our mujahedeen," Zabihullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

He said the attack occurred at 8:15 a.m., and that the attacker was able to "destroy five foreign vehicles and damage one more."......"

Elvis Costello cancels Israel concerts

New York - Following pressure from boycott campaigners, rock musician Elvis Costello announced on Saturday that he is canceling a pair of scheduled concerts in Israel.

In a statement on his website, Costello said the decision came "after considerable contemplation."

"Then there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent," he wrote.

"I must believe that the audience for the coming concerts would have contained many people who question the policies of their government on settlement and deplore conditions that visit intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security."

"Sometimes a silence in music is better than adding to the static and so an end to it," he also wrote.

"I cannot imagine receiving another invitation to perform in Israel, which is a matter of regret but I can imagine a better time when I would not be writing this," the singer concluded.

Costello had planned to perform twice, on 30 June and 1 July.

Earlier in May radical in may the black nationalist poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron cancelled a planned gig in Israel, also after pressure from anti-occupation activists.

May 17: Humiliating Day… Thwarted by Honorable Resistance!

Al-Manar Exclusive

"Twenty-seven years have passed on the "black day" and Lebanon is still facing all schemes to attach it in the heart of the Israeli enemy…

May 17, 1983, was not a usual day in Lebanon's history… It might be one of the most humiliating days, the day believed to be "the blackest" in the history of the country, the day in which Lebanon nearly became the second Arab state to sign a peace deal with the Israeli enemy....

SOME FACTS… FOR HISTORY!
Israel needed the so-called peace deal with Lebanon to achieve its other goals. The United Stated represented by its envoy Philippe Habib granted Israel its wish. Negotiations kicked off on the 28th of December 1982. 35 rounds of talks were held alternately between the Lebanon Beach Hotel in the Israeli occupied Khalde region and a ballet hall near the settlement of Kiryat Shmona. From the first round of talks, the Israelis never left any detail for coincidence; they even imposed the shape and dimensions of the negotiations table.

The term "normalization" was not mentioned in the text of the agreement which stated on forming a joint contact committee to hold regular meetings in Lebanon and "Israel". The committee was given the mission of developing bilateral relations, including controlling the movement of imports and exports, individuals, etc.

The Lebanese delegation sought to renounce terms which made the agreement look like a peace agreement, fearing Lebanon would be boycotted by Arab states as was the case with Egypt. So the deal was named "The Israeli withdrawal agreement." Yet it implicitly ended the state of war which was declared against Israel since the establishment of the Zionist entity.

The agreement gave Israel the right to establish a security zone in south Lebanon controlled by 4341 soldiers from both Lebanese and Israeli armies. Local forces, according to the text, would protect the zone, in an indication to the collaborating forces of Saad Haddad. The deal determined the makeup of the Lebanese army forces to be allowed to be present in this area, limiting their number to two brigades in addition to police and internal security forces....

At that time, the resistance was carrying out operations against Israeli occupation forces and their collaborator until it forced them to withdraw from Lebanon on the 25th of may, 16 years later."

A Great Cartoon by Khalil Bendib: Genetically Modified Public Servants!

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Tunnel Darkens for Obama's Afghan War

Destroy Kandahar in Order to Save It?

By PATRICK COCKBURN
CounterPunch

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in London Saturday as US generals express doubts that they are having any success in fighting the Taliban.

The US and NATO commander in Afghanistan Gen Stanley McChrystal, who was boasting of military progress only three months ago, confessed last week that “nobody is winning.” His only claim now is that the Taliban have lost momentum compared to last year.

Karzai’s reception in London and Washington highlights the political dilemma of the US and UK in Afghanistan since both have more or less openly denounced the corruption of his regime and the mass fraud at the polls by which he was re-elected last year.

In a leaked memo the US ambassador in Kabul Gen Karl Eikenberry said Karzai was “not an adequate strategic partner” and was interested only in using foreign troops to keep himself in power...."

Denied Entry: Israel Blocks Noam Chomsky from Entering West Bank to Deliver Speech

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman




"On Sunday afternoon, Noam Chomsky was stopped by Israeli border guards at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan. After over three hours of questioning, Chomsky’s passport was stamped with "Denied Entry." He was scheduled to deliver a lecture at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah and was scheduled to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad. No reason was initially given for the decision, but the Interior Ministry later told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that officials were now trying to get clearance from the Israel Defense Forces. Noam Chomsky joins us now from Amman, Jordan...."

Al-Jazeera Video: Witness - Shooting Hope

"May 17, 2010 — Ain el-Hilweh is the largest camp for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Declining living conditions, political instablity and unemployment in and outside the camp have deepened the mutual mistrust between the Palestinian occupants and the wider Lebanese population.Shooting hope is the story of an extraordinary project bringing together Palestinian and Lebanese teenagers who live their lives on different sides of the divide by teaching them the skills of digital photography. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - The battle in Bangkok

" The crisis in Thailand is taking a deadly turn as 29 people have been killed in just three days of continuing protests of the so-called red shirts in Bangkok. Protesters are now claiming Thailand is moving dangerously close to civil war. So, what is the prospect of more violence? And is Thailand heading towards a civil war? "

Al-Jazeera Video: Bangkok burns as Thai protest heats up

"Red shirts continue to stand their ground at their protest camp in central Bangkok, openly defying a warning of a possible military crackdown despite clashes that have killed dozens in just four days..."

Arabs shut out of Israeli public sector

Jonathan Cook
The National
May 16. 2010

"Nazareth, Israel // Unemployed computer engineer Morad Lashin would like to work in Israel’s Electricity Company, a large state utility, but admitted his chances of being recruited are slim.

The reasons were set out in graphic form this month when a parliamentary committee revealed that only 1.3 per cent of the company’s 12,000 workers are Arab, despite the Arab minority constituting nearly 20 per cent of the population.

The committee’s report presents a picture of massive under-representation of Arab citizens across most of the public sector, including in government companies and ministries, where the percentage of Arab staff typically falls below two per cent of employees.....

The prejudice faced by educated Arabs seeking employment was highlighted by a survey last November. It found that 83 per cent of Israeli businesses in the main professions admitted being opposed to hiring Arab graduates.

Yossi Coten, director of a training programme in Nazareth, said of 84,000 jobs in the country’s hi-tech industries, only 500 were filled by Arab engineers."

BP and the ‘Little Eichmanns’

By Chris Hedges

"Cultures that do not recognize that human life and the natural world have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, cannibalize themselves until they die. They ruthlessly exploit the natural world and the members of their society in the name of progress until exhaustion or collapse, blind to the fury of their own self-destruction. The oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, estimated to be perhaps as much as 100,000 barrels a day, is part of our foolish death march. It is one more blow delivered by the corporate state, the trade of life for gold. But this time collapse, when it comes, will not be confined to the geography of a decayed civilization. It will be global.....

The moral and physical contamination is matched by a cultural contamination. Our political and civil discourse has become gibberish. It is dominated by elaborate spectacles, celebrity gossip, the lies of advertising and scandal. The tawdry and the salacious occupy our time and energy. We do not see the walls falling around us. We invest our intellectual and emotional energy in the inane and the absurd, the empty amusements that preoccupy a degenerate culture, so that when the final collapse arrives we can be herded, uncomprehending and fearful, into the inferno. "

A war of their own: Democrats target Pakistan

Obama’s Gulf of Tonkin

by Justin Raimondo, May 17, 2010

"....The irony here is that, as Haroon reminded his American audience, Pakistan has captured and handed over to the US more actual terrorists – i.e. top al-Qaeda operatives – than our own FBI, or any other law enforcement agency anywhere. This is how we thank them – by setting them up for an invasion on bogus charges of “harboring” terrorists.

When it comes to reporting the Shahzad case, it’s incredible that the “mainstream” media isn’t challenging the administration’s narrative. Although maybe, given the media’s longstanding infatuation with the President, this is just a case of love being blind.

As it turns out, Shahzad was fingered in a leak to the media even before he was arrested. This has all the earmarks of a manufactured story, straight out of the Bush administration’s neocon-written play-book [.pdf]. Except that the tall tales told by the boys over in the Pentagon’s policy shop were a helluva lot more credible and believable, on the face of it, than this ill-smelling narrative about Shahzad and his tenuous “connections.” ....."