Saturday, April 30, 2011

One word: Bravo! / Uri Avnery on Hamas-Fateh reconciliation agreement

One word / Uri Avnery
Gush Shalom 30 Apr -- In one word: Bravo! The news about the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas is good for peace. If the final difficulties are ironed out and a full agreement is signed by the two leaders, it will be a huge step forward for the Palestinians -- and for us. There is no sense in making peace with half a people. Making peace with the entire Palestinian people may be more difficult, but will be infinitely more fruitful. Therefore: Bravo! Binyamin Netanyahu also says Bravo. Since the government of Israel has declared Hamas a terrorist organization with whom there will be no dealings whatsoever, Netanyahu can now put an end to any talk about peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. What, peace with a Palestinian government that includes terrorists? Never! End of discussion. Two bravos, but such a difference.
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Their masters' voice..

Publishing propaganda, ignoring fact: the NY Daily News puts the lies in editorialize / Nima Shirazi & Alex Kane
28 Apr ...a recent editorial printed by the Zuckerman-owned New York Daily News is a particularly egregious example of U.S. media's aversion to the facts on Israel/Palestine. The bald-faced lies -- which follow recent Israeli pronouncements about the "terrorists" organizing the upcoming international flotilla to break the Israeli blockade -- printed would be laughable only if it wasn't going to be read by thousands of people. UPDATE - ...The photo of the Gaza grocery store is clearly another piece of propaganda meant to signify to the reader, "hey, with stores like these, can we really believe that Gaza's inhabitants are victims of deliberate deprivation, discrimination, and occupation?" Apparently, according to Zuckerman's Daily News editors, where there's a market, there's no suffering, right? To answer this question, one need only look at these pictures of the Warsaw Ghetto marketplace in the 1940's:
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You mean the Israeli doctor lied?!! No way!

Paris trial: Al-Durrah beats Israeli doctor
A French court ruled Friday against Dr. David Yehuda, an Israeli doctor who was sued for slander by Jamal al-Durrah, the father of Second Intifada symbol Muhammad al-Durrah.The Israeli doctor, an orthopedic surgeon who operated on Jamal al-Durrah, exposed details from his medical file and claimed that his scars were the result of a surgery, and were not caused by IDF fire.
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Hamas PM, Ismaeel Haneyyeh, 'ready to resign' for unity

GAZA CITY (AFP) 30 Apr -- Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Islamist Hamas movement in power in the Gaza Strip, said on Saturday he was "ready to resign." "I am prepared to tender my resignation as part of the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah," the secular party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "This agreement is very important and should boost efforts to end the divisions and encourage unity among Palestinians," he added.
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News on Syria (The Angry Arab)

It is not easy to follow news on Syria. I do receive updates from Syrians: in Syria and abroad. But I don't believe Syrian regime media and I don't believe Saudi and Qatari media on Syria. (Of course, Western media are as unreliable.) Look at this piece in New York Times: "along with the resignations of nearly 300 low-level members of the Baath Party". (No mention of official denials of the resignation--standards of professional journalism don't apply to countries that are enemies of the US). This first appeared in Saudi and Qatari media and now it is fact. The figure was first 30 and then suddenly jumped to 200, and now I see it is 300. Just like that. Hariri and Saudi media also have another trick. They feed somebody like Robert Fisk or Nicholas Blanford some information or theory (hell, they fed Nicholas Blanford a whole book (which used to be given out for free by Hariri propaganda office) on Syrian responsibility for Hariri assassination--I now expect that he would be fed another book regarding Hizbullah's responsibility), and then they cite that same author as in: "and famous British reporter, Robert Fisk, said that." We need a new name for this propaganda technique .

Saudi monarchy is valuable to Israeli interests..Protect it, Netanyahu asks the US!

The Arab Spring and U.S. Policy: The View From Jerusalem

Israeli officials want a public commitment from Washington to protect the Saudi regime should it come under threat.

BY TED KOPPEL

It is provocative, but not entirely inaccurate, to suggest that U.S. foreign policy these past few months has been sufficiently erratic to make America's allies reconsider the degree to which we can be trusted—and our adversaries re-evaluate the degree to which we must be feared.

The canary in the coal mine on such matters is Israel. None of America's allies is more sensitive to even the most subtle changes in the international environment, or more conscious of the slightest hint of diminished support from Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been so concerned that a member of his fractious ...

Getting better by the day: Egypt warns Israel: Don't interfere with opening of Gaza border crossing

Rafah's opening would be a violation of an agreement reached in 2005 between the U.S., Israel, Egypt, and the EU; Israel official tells the Wall Street Journal developments in Egypt could affect Israel's national security.
Haaretz

Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces General Sami Anan warned Israel against interfering with Egypt's plan to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on a permanent basis, saying it was not a matter of Israel's concern, Army Radio reported on Saturday.

Egypt announced this week that it intended to permanently open the border crossing with Gaza within the next few days.
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Fatah and Hamas: Tectonic plates start to shift

A future environment composed of free Egyptians, Jordanians and even possibly Syrians could well fashion Israel's borders

The Arab spring has finally had an impact on the core issue of the region, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It came in the form of a draft agreement between Fatah and Hamas which took everyone by surprise. There are three chief reasons why, after four years of bitter and violent conflict between the rivals, Fatah acceded to all of Hamas's political conditions to form a national unity government.

The first was the publication of the Palestine papers, the secret record of the last fruitless round of talks with Israel. The extent to which Palestinian negotiators were prepared to bend over backwards to accommodate Israel surprised even hardened cynics. The Palestinian Authority found itself haemorrhaging what little authority it had left. The second was the loss to the Palestinian president, Abu Mazen, of his closest allies in Hosni Mubarak and his henchman Omar Suleiman. While they were still around, Gaza's back door was locked. But the third reason had little to do with either of the above: Abu Mazen's faith in Barack Obama finally snapped. For a man who dedicated his career to the creation of a Palestinian state through negotiation, the turning point came when the US vetoed a UN resolution condemning Israel's settlement-building. In doing so, the US vetoed its own policy. To make the point, the resolution was drafted out of the actual words Hillary Clinton used to condemn construction. Fatah's frustration with all this has now taken political form.

Israeli Drone War Crimes in Gaza Exposed

Ken O'Keefe

The IOF troops fired three white phosphorous bombs at Juhr al-Deek neighbourhood to the east of the central Gaza Strip district at 6:50 p.m. on April 8th, according to a statement by the Interior Ministry in Gaza.

A statement from Israel's military did not deny civilian casualties, instead saying the military "regrets that the Hamas terrorist organization chooses to operate from within its civilian population, using it as a 'human shield'." They supplied no verification of a charge.

When Hamas officials in Gaza accused Israel of launching the white phosphorus missiles toward civilians, an Israeli military spokesman promptly denied it.

The Israeli's reported "heavy rocket and mortar fire," coming from Gaza Friday afternoon but later changed their jargon to a total of five mortars and eight projectiles fired.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) fighters' claimed to have fired two projectiles at targets from the northern Gaza Strip. A statement from them said the fire was a "response to Israel’s lack of commitment to the truce [and its] continuing of shelling of our unarmed people."

Egyptian student march demands closure of Israeli embassy and end to gas supplies

Egyptian protesters call for severing Israel ties
Thousands marched on the Israeli embassy in Cairo yesterday in the beginning of a concerted campaign to end collaboration with Israel and cut off all gas supplies.

Massed on a bridge next to the high-rise building where the embassy is located, they chanted: "the people demand the cancellation of normalization."

They also chanted: "the gas must stop," in reference to natural gas exports through a Sinai pipeline that unidentified saboteurs blew up earlier in the day.

One of the protesters, left-wing blogger Hossam Al-Hamalawy, said the demonstration came in response to recent remarks by Israeli President Shimon Peres, who praised the Egyptian revolt that toppled the government in February.

"Peres issued a statement recently calling on Egyptian youth to normalize [with Israel], and this is the Egyptian youth's response," he said. more

Friday, April 29, 2011

Who will reshape the Arab world: its people, or the US?

Phase one of the Arab spring is over. Phase two – the attempt to crush or contain genuine popular movements – has begun
Tariq Ali

The patchwork political landscape of the Arab world – the client monarchies, degenerated nationalist dictatorships and the imperial petrol stations known as the Gulf states – was the outcome of an intensive experience of Anglo-French colonialism. This was followed after the second world war by a complex process of imperial transition to the United States. The result was a radical anticolonial Arab nationalism and Zionist expansionism within the wider framework of the cold war.

When the cold war ended Washington took charge of the region, initially through local potentates then through military bases and direct occupation. Democracy never entered the frame, enabling the Israelis to boast that they alone were an oasis of light in the heart of Arab darkness. How has all this been affected by the Arab intifada that began four months ago?

"Any alliance or deal with Muslim Brotherhood by any leftist or progressive should be rejected categorically. This organization can't be trusted. Those who will trust the Brotherhood will face the same fate like those Iranian leftists who trusted Khumayni's empty assurances before the Revolution." (As'asd abu Khalil, the Angry Arab)

News from Dir`ah (via the Angry Arab)

A Syrian source sent me this: ""My cousin tried going to Daraa today to see if his sister and her family are still alive, but as soon as he got close his car was shot at by the army and he was told he will be dead if he gets closer and a lot more which I would rather not share. This is the army that is supposedly protecting the ppl of Daraa from “armed gangs”. By killing more people the Syrian regime is doing the biggest service to radical Islamist.""

The Angry Arab: The Myth of the Peaceful (Gene Sharp-inspired) Egyptian revolution

Comrade Hossam responds to such lazy theories about the Egyptian revolution: "Suez was dubbed as Egypt’s Sidi Bouzid during the 18 day uprising. The city witnessed some of the bloodiest crackdowns by the police, and also some of the fiercest resistance by the protesters. In the video above, shot on the Friday of Anger, January 28, the revolutionaries in Suez after storming the police stations and confiscating the rifles, are using them to fight back the police. One of the biggest myths invented by the media, tied to this whole Gene Sharp business: the Egyptian revolution was “peaceful.” I’m afraid it wasn’t. The revolution (like any other revolution) witnessed violence by the security forces that led to the killing of at least 846 protesters. But the people did not sit silent and take this violence with smiles and flowers. We fought back. We fought back the police and Mubarak’s thugs with rocks, Molotov cocktails, sticks, swords and knives. The police stations which were stormed almost in every single neighborhood on the Friday of Anger–that was not the work of “criminals” as the regime and some middle class activists are trying to propagate. Protesters, ordinary citizens, did that."

Pro-Gadhafi forces clash with Tunisian military

Friday's clashes mark the first time that Libyan government ground forces have crossed the border and entered a Tunisian town.
Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi crossed into neighboring Tunisia and fought a gun battle with Tunisian troops in a frontier town on Friday as Libya's conflict spilled beyond its borders.

Pro-Gadhafi forces fired shells into the town of Dehiba, damaging buildings and injuring at least one resident, and a group of them drove into the town in a truck in pursuit of anti-Gadhafi rebels.
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Israel honors its racists

Lands conference awards Safed rabbi who said Jews shouldn't rent to non-Jews
Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu slams the media for calling him a racist for signing the 'rabbis' letter' that said Jews should not rent their homes to gentiles; rabbi says 'thank God in Safed, land isn't sold to foreigners.'
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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Mutiny in the Syrian army?

With increasing military defections, the Syrian regime's violent crackdown may have backfired, analyst says.
Something is surely happening in Deraa city, something that, in common parlance, is often referred to as a "massacre".

To be specific: a massacre of unarmed civilians by security forces and soldiers working for the Assads: Syria’s ruling crime family.

The inhabitants of Deraa have told horrifying stories of streets strewn with the bodies of the dead that residents are unable to retrieve for fear of meeting the same fate.

They also spoke of living in complete darkness and destitution as basic services, including water and electricity, having been cut off by the invading Assad armies, who continue to lay siege to the city preventing the arrival of much needed food and medical supplies.
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Demise of the Green Line. Israel wants it all!

Netanyahu: Erasing the Green Line
The alienation of Palestinians by the Israeli government has the aim of monopolising future polity in the Holy Land.

Expansion of settlements remains a priority, but the focus since the 1990s has been on strengthening settlements already built [EPA]

In light of the Netanyahu-Lieberman coalition's newly proposed (or passed) laws that target the Jewish state's Arab minority, increasing attention is being paid to the discrimination and hate speech faced by Israel's Palestinian citizens. Issues like the struggle of 'unrecognised' villages, and phenomena like the 'don't rent to Arabs' rabbis' letter, for example, are being covered by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, international media, and even the UK Foreign Office.

The bigger picture, however, is being missed. Many of the proposed or recently passed bills were initiated before the current coalition sat down in the Knesset; simply blaming figures like Avigdor Lieberman for these developments is not correct. This post-2000 trend has been further accelerated, and represents a manifestation of the kind of ethno-religious discrimination that has shaped the Israeli state's relationship with its Palestinian minority since 1948.

Furthermore, few are making the connection between what happens on both sides of the Green Line: there is more than just pointing to the parallels between policies like home demolitions and 'Judaisation' that take place inside both pre-1967 Israel and the occupied West Bank.

That pipeline of shame!

Explosion rocks Egypt gas pipeline
Security official blames armed gang for "attack" at terminal that supplies natural gas to Jordan and Israel.

A blast struck a different section of the pipeline in February, sending flames into the air near the town of El-Arish [AFP]

An explosion in Egypt's North Sinai has rocked a terminal that supplies natural gas to Jordan and Israel.

Flames shot into the air at the al-Sabil terminal on Wednesday, sending nearby residents fleeing from their homes. No casualties were reported.

A security official blamed saboteurs for the blast south of the town of El-Arish, 50km from the border with Israel.

"An unknown armed gang attacked the gas pipeline near Arish city," the unnamed security source told the Reuters news agency, adding that the flow of gas to Israel and Jordan had been hit.

UN fails to agree on Syria condemnation

Security Council members remain divided on US-backed statement condemning violence against protesters.

The UN Security Council has failed to agree on a statement condemning Syria's deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters.

Envoys attending a special open meeting on Syria in New York on Wednesday said Russia, China and Lebanon opposed the wording of a draft statement distributed by European nations.

France called for "strong measures" if Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, rejects appeals to end violence which has killed hundreds.

The US said Assad must "change course now and heed the calls of his own people" for change.

Bahrain sentences protesters to death!

Military court sentences four men to death over killing of police during unrest, state media says.

A Bahraini military court has sentenced four Shia protesters to death and three to life jail terms for the killing of two policemen during demonstrations last month, state media has reported.

Thursday's verdicts are the first related to the uprising against the Gulf kingdom's ruling family, which begain in February.

The seven defendants were tried behind closed doors on charges of premeditated murder of government employees, which their lawyers have denied.

A Shia opposition official named those sentenced to death as Ali Abdullah Hasan, Qasim Hassan Mattar, Saeed Abdul Jalil Saeed, and Abdul Aziz Abdullah Ibrahim.

He told the AFP news agency that Issa Abdullah Kazem, Sadiq Ali Mahdi, and Hussein Jaafar Abdul Karim were
sentenced to life in prison.

Deraa: A city under a dark siege

Residents of town besieged by the army paint picture of chaos fuelled by secret police.

Video grab released by AFPTV showing army tank in Deraa as troops stormed the city

As darkness fell across it, Deraa was a city under siege.

Tanks and troops control all roads in and out. Inside the city, shops are shuttered and nobody dare walk the once bustling market streets, today transformed into the kill zone of rooftop snipers.

Trapped and terrified inside their homes, families are running low on food and drinking water, with many water tanks shot and emptied. Electricity has been cut, as have all mobile and fixed phone lines. The internet, so vital in broadcasting images of the regime's armed crackdown on peaceful protestors, is down.

Arabian Spring: The Hidden Tragedy of Bahrain

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the regime of creating a "climate of fear," particularly in Shia neighborhoods and villages where nighttime raids appear designed mainly to instill terror among the mostly poor residents.

This is the sense of what is happening in Bahrain, the tiny isle located on the south side of the Persian Gulf where the ruling al-Khalifa from the Sunni minority is threatening the majority Shiite population. Of course there is diversity and ethnic variety in Bahrain, as elsewhere, which extends even into the religious field. Tulin Daloglu, a Turkish journalist based in Washington, writes: "Sectarianism in the Middle East is grievous, pernicious and enveloped in denial."

Saree Makdisi on Fatah and Hamas agreement: Stop relying on the US! They have nothing to offer

Fatah, the Palestinian political organisation, has reached an agreement with its rival Hamas on forming an interim government and fixing a date for a general election, Egyptian intelligence has said.

In February, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and a member of Fatah, called for presidential and legislative elections before September, in a move which was rejected by Hamas at the time.

"The consultations resulted in full understandings over all points of discussions, including setting up an interim agreement with specific tasks and to set a date for election," Egyptian intelligence said in a statement on Wednesday.

More on this from Saree Makdisi, a Palestinian scholar and author of the book "Palestine Inside Out - An Everyday Occupation". He also teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Pakistan allows transsexuals to have own gender category

Pakistan has taken the landmark decision to allow transsexuals to have their own gender category on some official documents.

The country's Supreme Court has ruled that those Pakistanis who do not consider themselves to be either male or female should be allowed to choose an alternative sex when they apply for their national identity cards.

----------------

Second time this week Muslim-majority countries lead the world in terms of gender (after Tunisia's mandatory 50% women candidates decision)

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

WaPo Poll: Egyptians have unfavorable view of U.S., are divided on fundamentalists

CAIRO — Egyptians are deeply skeptical about the United States and its role in their country, but they are also divided in their attitudes about Islamic fundamentalists, according a poll released Monday by the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

Most Egyptians distrust the United States and want to renegotiate their peace treaty with Israel, the poll found. But only 31 percent say they sympathize with fundamentalists, while 30 percent say they sympathize with those who disagree with fundamentalists. An additional 26 percent said they had mixed views...

...Although 75 percent were positive about the Muslim Brotherhood, which was officially banned under Mubarak and is now the strongest political organization in the country, almost as many — 70 percent — felt positively about the youth-based April 6 movement that was mostly secular and was one of the key organizers of the protests.

Iraqis rally against extending U.S. troops presence

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) -Thousands of Iraqis rallied in the northern city of Mosul Sunday in one of the biggest protests yet against any extension of the U.S. military presence in Iraq.
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Angry Arab: Egyptian revolutionary comrades

...are calling for a demonstration against the Zionist embassy in Cairo. BE THERE: or Be Like Mubarak.
Jamal kindly translated:
"March and Stand-In In Front of the Embassy of the Zionist Entity
"The Supporters of the Palestinian Revolution" invite you to a march and stand-in in front of the embassy of the Zionist entity which gets moving from in front of the main gate of Cairo University on Wednesday 27 April at exactly 2:3pm demanding the following:
-Condemning the Zionist occupation of our Arab land in flesh, blood, roots, and history
-Cancelling normalization in all its forms
-Ceasing the export of natural gas to the Zionists immediately along with the return of all that the Zionists have stolen from us in this shameful normalization.
-Ceasing the building of the steel wall of shame immediately
-Treating Palestinians the same as Egyptians are treated in Egypt, acknowledging their rights to residency, education, work, and health just the same as Egyptians.
Shimon Peres called on the youth of Egypt to normalize, this will be our response to him in front of their embassy."
Angry arab

Egypt's Copts vie for bigger role

As Egypt tries to forge a new political future, Coptic Christians aim to move out of the political shadows.
Read more- Aljazeera.net

Bahrain: Below the radar

The Arab uprising that has failed to capture the international media's attention.
Read more-Aljazeera

Shiite mosques demolished in Bahrain crackdown

AP - Bahrain's main opposition party says authorities have demolished 16 mosques as part of crackdown on Shiite dissent in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom over the past month.
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Bahraini forces open fire on protesters

Saudi-backed Bahraini troops have opened fire on anti-government demonstrators in the village of Karzakan, injuring at least one protester.
Red more

Bahrain seeks death sentence for protesters on trial

Reuters - Bahrain is seeking death penalty for a group of protesters accused of killing two policemen during anti-government demonstrations in the Gulf island kingdom, state media reported on Monday.
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Angry Arab: From Syria with doubt

A leftist comrade who I trust sent me this (I cite with his permission but I will keep him anonymous): "Hi As’ad, I have been going to Syria for several months now due to my work….i am ...; So part of my work is to go to the client’s company.... I have been to Aleppo, Rakka, Hasaka Damascus and also the rural part of Aleppo and Damascus.
Except for Damascus and the Christian neighborhood of Aleppo you would think you are in Kandahar under the rule of Taliban (especially in the rural parts_…As’ad what you see there is scary…burqa3 everywhere…women are barely seen in the streets and the overwhelming majority is covered from head to bottom. Now I have been thinking about what is happening in Syria…and I have been trying to support the protesters…but I cannot…those people will only bring Taliban alike into power…Saudi Arabia will have the upper hand in the region and Syria will be divided between sects in the best case scenario. (Not to mention that the arms route toward Hezbollah will be cut). Yesterday in doma the chants were “Alawiyye bi eltabout…w masi7iey 3a Beirut”!! how can we ever support those guys…. I agree that there is another Syrian opposition but these are a minority….those leading the demonstrations are islamists – Saudi style….
All I am saying is that are you sure you want the Syrian regime to collapse…because the more I look at the “rebels”….the more I doubt the whole future of the region…..for the first time in my life I am doubting my decision to live in the region."
Angry Arab

Angry Arab: Syria and Aljazeera

Comrade Hussein sent me this (I cite with his permission): "I am not sure how Syria is going to end up; but I am writing this with the assumption that the regime will fall, although it is still not very likely so far. I think al-Jazeera is covering up the highly sectarian agenda of many protesters while at the same time allowing for the Islamic nature of their slogans to be heard extensively on air to satisfy the broader Arab audience without having to deal with problematic issues at this point. This way, they cannot be accused of sectarianism bluntly, especially when they are heard chanting about national unity while slogans against other sects are swept under the rug (as when they said that it is part of 'their' religion to kill 'us' - Haytham Manna' was at pains to repudiate that slogan by all means but to no avail). Now the really secular opposition forces, who are a minority, will probably commit the classic mistake of underestimating the fundamentalists' power or their political acumen, only to find themselves victims of these people later on in case the regime falls (similar to the early Iranian scenario of 1979-1981, with the main difference between the presence of individual, almost self-financed, charismatic leadership and what we have with the Syrian MB). having said all this, I do think that no matter what, the Syrian people only have the right to decide on their government, even if it is a reactionary one."
Angry Arab

'Nine killed' at Syria funeral processions

Two MPs quit parliament after security forces reportedly open fire on processions for pro-democracy activists.
Read more-Al Jazeera

Troops move into Der'aa

Gunfire as Syrian troops move into Deraa
Hundreds of soldiers move into flashpoint town, as Syrian intellectuals denounce continuing violence against protesters.

Syrian Crackdown Intensifies: Over 150 Killed Since Friday as Assad Regime Attempts to Crush Protest Movement

Syria has intensified its massive crackdown on demonstrators, despite the lifting of emergency rule last week that banned demonstrations. Al Jazeera reports thousands of troops backed with tanks have swept into the southern city of Daraa, where a curfew is in place, setting up snipers on rooftops and killing at least 20 people. Government security forces have also stormed the large Damascus suburb of Douma. These latest developments follow protests on Friday that ended with more than 100 people killed in the deadliest day since the uprising began. We go to Syria to speak to Rula Amin of Al Jazeera and Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
Read more

Monday, April 25, 2011

Saudi counter-revolution cools Arab Spring

Fueled by fear of rising oil prices, US deference is helping Saudi Arabia implement its agenda in the Gulf.

Saudi Arabia has emerged as the principal regional rival of Iran in what Riyadh and its allies are increasingly depicting as an existential conflict between the Middle East's Sunni and Shia communities, Lobe says

As the so-called Arab Spring enters its sixth month, it appears to have run into seriously wintry headwinds.

While some observers here have blamed Saudi Arabia and its neighbouring Sunni-led sheikhdoms as a major source of the icy winds that are blasting through the Gulf, the growing contradictions between the US and Western "values" and their interests are adding to the unseasonable weather.

Thus, while Washington has privately expressed strong doubts about the wisdom of the increasingly brutal and indiscriminate crackdown against the majority Shia population in Bahrain, home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, its failure to clearly and publicly denounce the Saudi-backed repression is only the most blatant example of this trend.

Cut Egyptian gas exports to Israel NOW!

Banner reads: Cut gas exportation to Israel. NOW!

Essam Sharaf’s cabinet is re-negotiating the prices of gas exports to Israel. That’s not good enough. We need to sever all relations with the apartheid regime in Israel.

Essam Sharaf, our “revolutionary prime minister,” is flying out on Monday to meet the Arab Gulf monarchs, in a bid to attract foreign investments, and to “assure them the January revolution was a purely Egyptian affair and will not be exported to other countries.”

Sharaf, shame on you. Our revolution should extend its hands to the oppressed people of those countries. The success of our revolution is a function of its spreading in the region. We cannot build a democratic Egypt surrounded by an ocean of dictatorships (and that includes Israel).

Egypt prosecutors extend Mubarak detention

The probe into the role Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's deposed president, played in the deaths of protesters is prolonged.

Egypt's state prosecutor has renewed the detention of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak for another 15 days amid a probe into a deadly crackdown on protesters and corruption.

"The state prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmud decided to renew the detention of ex-president Hosni Mubarak for 15 days for questioning... effective when his last detention period expires," the MENA news agency reported on Friday.

Not all news are bleak

Settler shot dead in Nablus

An Israeli settler was shot dead and four others were injured early Sunday after a group of Jewish worshippers snuck into Nablus without coordinating with Palestinian or Israeli security, officials said.

Settler sources named the man killed in the incident as Jerusalem resident Ben-Yosef Livnat, a 24-year-old father of four who is the nephew of hawkish culture minister Limor Livnat, and was born in the Nablus-area settlement Elon Moreh.

Nablus governor Jibrin Al-Bakri gave an account of the incident following a police investigation, saying that at 5:45 a.m., five cars carrynig 30 settlers from Jerusalem entered Joseph’s Tomb, then split off into two groups.

Poster calling to boycott stores where Arabs work with Jewish women in Jerusalem

Haaretz - 22 April 2011

: Certificate distributed by right-wing organization Lehava to announce that a business only hires Jews.

“Do you want your grandson to be named Ahmed ben Sarah?” a street poster slapped on the walls of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods inquires, in a not-so-subtle dig at the Yesh retail chain.

The problem the authors of the broadside (pashkevil, in Hebrew ) have is that Yesh, the Haredi arm of the Super-Sol supermarket chain, allows Arab men to work alongside Jewish women.

The poster features the Yesh logo next to a photograph of two employees chatting – or as the poster puts it, “An Arab man courting a daughter of Israel at the Givat Shaul branch.”

Shocking report reveals Israel’s electronic war on the Arabs

by Saleh Naami - Al Ahram Online – 23 April 2011

In the first revelation of its kind, Israeli intelligence disclosed some of its information technology war tactics against the Islamic world.

Israeli intelligence allowed Israel’s Channel Two to air a report on Friday shot in an air force base in the Naqb desert in south Israel. Hundreds of experts involved in this operation were gathered.

The report showed the accomplishments of the information technology experts affiliated with Israeli intelligence agencies, which include the internal intelligence agency, Shabak or Shin Bet, Mossad and military intelligence otherwise known as the Aman. Other experts work in individual military units in the Israeli army, like those reportedly specialised in orchestrating coups in Arab states.

The report showed the experts exhibiting their accomplishments before Israel’s President Shimon Peres, who was inspecting the base.

Around 300 technology experts running the electronic warfare were mentioned by the report.

Jewish organisations do not want you to speak or think of or debate or even mention the name Palestine

Cecily Surasky: Pressure on law conference threatens free speech-San Fransisco Chronicle

The Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Bay Area’s Jewish Community Relations Council interfered in an academic conference last week called “Litigating Palestine: Can Courts Secure Palestinian Rights?” at the UC Hastings College of the Law.

They pressured the Hastings Board of Directors into an emergency meeting in which the board decided to “take all steps necessary to remove the UC Hastings name and brand” from the conference. Frank Wu, dean and chancellor, was barred from giving a welcoming talk; a major foundation withdrew funding.

Professors dislike academic intimidation, and this case is no exception. Nearly all of UC Hastings’ tenured professors signed a letter warning that the board’s capitulation to outside pressure on academic freedom risked “great damage to Hastings’ reputation.”

The elected student government, joined by 30 student organizations, charged the board with “stifling their academic freedom” and “prospectively chilling free speech” at future academic conferences.

They are right, of course. But there are bigger issues at stake.

Why were these mainstream Jewish organizations so troubled by the academic pursuit of legal approaches to securing Palestinian rights and freedom?

Perhaps for the first time in U.S. history, there is an aggressive challenge to a one-sided narrative that covers up or justifies ongoing Israeli repression of Palestinians, and U.S. culpability for that repression. The center of that challenge is on campuses, which is why those who have traditionally adopted knee-jerk defenses of Israeli policies are attempting to stigmatize or shut down alternative viewpoints.

In a unique case that highlights the sense of shock and the strain the occupation brings to bear on ordinary people, psychological trauma has been blamed for a Palestinian girl’slife-threatening coma after she was prevented by Israeli authorities from hugging her father when she went to visit him in prison where he is serving a life term. Israeli police officers in charge of the prison where Abeer Eskafi’s father, Yousuf, is serving his sentence, allegedly did not allow the 10-year-old to go over to the prisoners’ side of a meeting room where visitors can meet inmates when she expressed a wish to hug her father. The little girl was so hurt by the episode that soon after returning home, she refused to eat and retreated into a shell of silence. Later she became paralysed and subsequently slipped into a deep coma that even affected her respiratory functions. She is now on life-support at a hospital in Hebron.
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The US military praises Iraqi security forces as they crack down on press freedom.

Stop the presses, literally in Iraq

The US has remained largely silent following Iraq's recent crackdown on press freedom

The first months of this year have been grim for free speech in Iraq.

As revolts swept across the Middle East and North Africa, they spread to Iraqi cities and towns, but took on a very different cast.

In February, in places like Baghdad, Fallujah, Mosul and Tikrit, protesters took to the streets, intent on reform - focused on ending corruption and the chronic shortages of food, water, electricity and jobs - but not toppling the government of prime minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The response by government security forces, who have arrested, beaten, and shot protesters, leaving hundreds dead or wounded, however, was similar to that of other autocratic rulers around the region.

Attacks by Iraqi forces on freedom of the press, in the form of harassment, detention, and assaults on individual journalists, raids of radio stations, the offices of newspapers and press freedom groups have also shown the dark side of Maliki's regime
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Syrian protesters 'cut down like weeds' Syrian protesters 'cut down like weeds'

By Cal Perry

Every other journalist is trying to get into Syria, but on Saturday I was trying to get out. The government had made it perfectly clear: My visa was expiring and unless I left on April 23, I would "face the full force of the law".

I had agreed the night before with my cameraman, Ben Mitchell, over a drink that neither of us wanted to discover what "full force of the law" meant. So the debate was really whether I should fly out from Damascus or drive to Amman, Jordan, and fly from there.

The decision was made that he would fly out from Damascus, the Syrian capital, with the gear and I would drive to Amman. I had left my second passport there with a friend. One for Arab countries and the other for Israel. Welcome to 21st century diplomatic relations.

Zombie, the Cranberries masterpiece

Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence,
Who are we mistaken?

But you see, it's not me, it's not my family.
In your head, in your head they are fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are crying...

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou...

Another mother's breakin',
Heart is taking over.
When the vi'lence causes silence,
We must be mistaken.

It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.
In your head, in your head they're still fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are dying...

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, oh, oh,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a...

'Deadliest day' in Syria uprising

At least 75 protesters reported killed across Syria during the "Great Friday" protests against Bashar al-Assad's rule.

At least 75 people are reported to have been killed in Syria in the bloodiest day since the uprising began, as security forces use live ammunition and tear gas to quell anti-government protests across the country, according to Amnesty International, the London-based rights group.

Syrian activists sent Al Jazeera a list naming 103 people from across the country who they said had been killed by security forces during the "Great Friday" protests.

SANA, the official news agency, said that 10 people had died in clashes between protesters and passers-by, and that security forces had only used tear gas and water cannons.

Rights groups and pro-democracy activists dispute this claim.

Outrage follows Syria security crackdown

Bloodshed in cities across the country prompts protesters to redouble calls for end to president Bashar al-Assad's rule.

People have taken to the streets in cities across Syria

Weeping over his Quran, the imam of the al-Rahman mosque in Hajjar al-Aswad, a poor neighbourhood near the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the southern edge of Damascus, the Syrian capital, led evening prayers for the dead.

Six young men from the neighbourhood had been shot and killed by Syrian security forces, one of them Imam Abu Bilal's 22-year-old son.

His eyes black with rage, the imam vowed to bring thousand of supporters on to the streets to rally against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the president, when, like up to 100 other Syrian families on Saturday, he buries his dead.

"It started with 200 to 300 young men demonstrating in front of the police station," said Omar, a shopkeeper from the neighbourhood.

"Then the mosque told us the names of six people killed and within half an hour all the residents of Hajjar al-Aswad were on the street.

"All the young men, all the women, all the teenagers. We are a tribal society here."

Haaretz editorial: Illegal theft of olive trees must be stopped

20 Apr -- The immoral wealthy have a new and tasteless toy: ancient olive trees adorning the gardens of their villas. According to an investigative report by journalist Maya Zinshtein published in the Haaretz Hebrew edition on Monday, for around a decade now, illegal trade in ancient olive trees - including uprooting, stealing and smuggling them from the West Bank into Israel - has been flourishing ... The Haaretz report uncovered suspicions of criminal activities in this regard, along with an ugly greediness for pet trees that has nothing to do with the love of the land and its arboreal species.
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Israelis thieves? Nothing new.

Amr Musa: Camp David Accords signed between Egypt and Israel have expired

Amr Musa: this will freak Zionists out
"The Camp David Accords signed between Egypt and Israel have expired, Arab League chief and potential Egyptian presidential candidate Amr Moussa has said."

Changes that may..

Israeli Ambassador Leaves Cairo Amid Speculations of Opening Egypt’s Border with Gaza Soon
We are told that Egypt could open the border with Gaza at any time and is considering tearing down the “Berlin wall” barrier that imprisons the population there. When and if that happens, Israel’s blockade of Gaza by sea immediately be considered illegal, an unenforceable “paper blockade,” according to the Congress of Paris 1856, which is the current binding “rule of law” in such matters.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Wikileaks: U.S. threw its body down to block Goldstone Report’s progress to the Hague

Mondoweiss
Are the walls of the "special relationship" falling? No way. But five years after Walt and Mearsheimer, the issue is finally being poked at by the mainstream media. Here at Foreign Policy under the headline "Special Relationship," Colum Lynch reports on the latest wikileaks cables on the U.S. and Israel, showing the efforts to stymie the Goldstone Report. If you go to the cables, Ambassador Rice speaks about building a "blocking coalition" against the report:
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Goldstone’s daughter was ‘furious’ with him, Times reports

Philip Weiss (Mondoweiss)
The Goldstone Report and reconsideration won't go away, they are back on the Times front page. A good report by the Times' Ethan Bronner and Jennifer Medina on why Goldstone did it boils down to, He loves Israel and thought he was going to reconcile the two societies, Palestinian and Jewish, through his report but was oh-so wrong about the politics. A man who says he may have been "naive" about the U.N.'s commitment to evenhandedness seems to have been naive about the Jewish response to his document. Then there are the politics of his family, and his daughter who spent 10 years in Israel. Oh my, what was the Zionist judge thinking? And when is a shul going to stage the war inside the Jewish family?
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Yemen: As Yemenis run low on gas and food, revolution could take off

Since protests began earlier this year, Yemen's currency has plummeted, oil production has dropped, and food prices have risen by as much as 45 percent.
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Syria lifts emergency law

Government approves bill lifting emergency law, in place for 48 years, following demands by pro-democracy protesters.
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Britain to send military advisers to Libya

Foreign minister says team will be sent to help support Libya's opposition council, but will not train or arm rebels.
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Libya: Fighting continues in Misurata

Britain is due to hold urgent talks on Libya's humanitarian crisis at the United Nations later on Monday. The besieged city of Misurata is one of the main places of concern. An opposition spokesperson says shelling by Gaddafi's forces on Sunday alone killed at least 17 people. Al Jazeera has gained access to the city. Cameraman Craig Pennington and corrrespondent Jonah Hull boarded a trawler carrying supplies from Malta, and made the 24 hour voyage to Misurata.
Video

Egypt: Mubarak Family's Wealth Doesn't Add Up

CAIRO — Egypt's financial oversight body says the former president of Egypt and his family have amassed wealth beyond their means in the form of properties and bank accounts. The state news agency said Monday the agency found that the 82-year old former president and his two sons and wife own several properties around Egypt, including luxury apartments, and palaces, as well as empty land plots and valuable farm land.
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Suleiman questioned by Egyptian prosecutors

Former vice-president questioned in connection with violence against protesters during uprising that toppled Mubarak.
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Saudi counter revolution

Kuwaitis defy orders to invade Bahrain
A number of Kuwaiti naval officers have disobeyed orders to reinforce the violent Saudi-backed crackdown on the popular revolution in Bahrain.
Read more

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Itamar Killers Found?

Kabobfest

The Israeli press is ablaze this morning with the news that the killers of the Fogel family in the illegal colony of Itamar in the occupied West Bank have been found. After several weeks of besieging the village of Awarta, arresting virtually all of its inhabitants, and causing extensive property damage, the Israeli authorities have announced that two teenagers from the village have admitted to carrying out the killings.

This particular case has been quite interesting, because of the fact that all Palestinian factions publicly distanced themselves from it and denied responsibility for carrying it out. Despite the Israeli government immediately blaming it on Palestinian ‘terror’ without any proof and using the death of the Fogels as an excuse to further expand the illegal colonization of the West Bank, a gag order was placed on the investigation as rumors and theories grew about who the actual culprit may have been.

Itamar is a heavily fortified settlement overlooking the surrounding Palestinian villages on whose land it is illegally built. The colony is notoriously well fortified to ensure intruders do not enter; it is completely surrounded by 8 foot high electrified wire fence with 2 feet of razor wire on top, sensors to determine if the fence has been cut, automatic cameras that cover the entire perimeter, 24 hour security guard presence and protection provided by the Israeli military. All of its inhabitants are heavily armed, and like almost all Israeli settlements it is surrounded by hundreds of meters of empty buffer land that Palestinians cannot step foot in.

The fact that Itamar probably has more security than the White House led many to conclude that whoever killed the Fogels could not have simply snuck in and snuck back out again.

Egypt presidential hopeful Sabbahi would revise relations with Israel

Nasserist Hamdin Sabbahi, who has declared his candidacy for president some weeks ago, says Egypt will not export gas to Israel if he is elected president
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Gazans outraged over Arrigoni killing, want culprits hanged

Palestinians, outraged over the brutal killing of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni, say only Israel stands to benefit, and demand that once caught the culprits, whoever they may be, should be hanged
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Egypt FM Nabil El-Arabi to make solidarity visit to Gaza soon

Egypt's new foreign minister, Nabil El-Arabi, is expected to visit Gaza amid growing Israeli hysteria over signs of a shift in post-revolution Egypt's regional and international posture
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Gaza to hold 'state funeral' for slain Italian Vittirio Arrigoni

Hamas government: body of Italian journalist, Arrigoni will pass through Egypt after his friends and family arrive in Gaza for his funeral

Palestinians and international peace activists gather during a protest against the killing of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Saturday, 16 April 2011. (AP)

Palestinians in Gaza are to hold a "state funeral" for a murdered Italian activist, Hamas said on Sunday, adding it was close to arresting all those involved in his death.

Hamas foreign affairs and planning minister Mohammed Awad told reporters that slain activist 's body would be moved to Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Monday after a funeral in Gaza.

"We're waiting for his friends and relatives to arrive in Gaza. Some are already here but there are others we are waiting for, and then there will be a state funeral," Awad said.

"We expect afterwards that his body will be taken to the Rafah crossing and then on to Cairo, according to the wishes of his family."

A thousand killed in Misrata over last six weeks

Fighting in the besieged city of Misrata claimed the lives of a thousand people in six weeks of fighting and vast numbers want to flee

Snipers, cluster bombs and intense shelling is spreading panic in Misrata, an AFP reporter said, as a doctor reported 1,000 people killed in six weeks of fighting in the besieged city.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) warned that the vast numbers wanting to flee the city, about 215 kilometres (130 miles) east of Tripoli, was threatening to overwhelm an international sea rescue operation.

On the political front, Britain insisted that it would not send ground forces into Libya
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Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood back on the defensive

Ahram Online gets the opinion of secular political factions in Egypt after a Muslim Brotherhood leader inflamed anger and suspicion with a statement regarding Islamic law application in Egypt

Mahmoud Ezzat, MB Deputy "Supreme Guide"

Over the past few weeks secular political groups have been looking sceptically at the Muslim Brotherhood, not only because of their increasing coordination with more radical Islamist groups, but, most importantly, for their possible domination of the coming parliament. Such dominance, according to many, would play a major role in shaping the new Egypt.
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Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass sentenced to one year in jail

Zahi Hawass was sentenced to one year in jail Sunday for declining to fulfill a court ruling

Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs Zahi Hawass has been sentenced to one year in jail on Sunday for refusing to fulfill a court ruling over a land dispute.

The Egyptian criminal court also said Hawass must be relieved of his governmental duties and ordered him to pay a LE1000 penalty.

Hawass failed to adhere to a ruling in favour of his opponent over a land dispute when he was in charge of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

Netanyahu angry! Egyptian FM calls Israel "enemy"

Netanyahu concerned new Egypt government will be anti-Israel

Egyptian FM called Israel 'the enemy' in a statement that angered Israel in view of recent Egyptian requests for help in investments or in receiving more aid from the U.S. Congress.

Three months into the Egyptian revolution, Israel is concerned that the new government's policy toward Israel could become hostile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told European Union ambassadors last week in Jerusalem.

"I am very concerned over some of the voices we've been hearing from Egypt recently," Netanyahu told the envoys. "I'm especially concerned over the current Egyptian foreign minster's statements."

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Hamas links Israel to killing of Italian activist

HAMAS YESTERDAY accused Israel of indirect responsibility for the kidnapping and killing of Italian rights activist Vittorio Arrigoni, whose body was found hanging in a Gaza city flat.

During mourning ceremonies in Gaza, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar suggested the aim of the “awful crime” was to intimidate activists planning a flotilla in May with the aim of breaking the blockade of Gaza.

He said foreign activists were “our friends” and vowed the perpetrators would be punished. Similar gatherings were held in the West Bank, where President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the murder.

Mother of Slain Italian Activist to Sail to Gaza, Flotilla Change Name in Honor of Vittorio

Gaza-PNN – Agidea Prata, the mother of Vittorio Arrigoni, the Italian activist and journalist killed in Gaza on Friday, said that she will be sailing to Gaza on May with the Free Gaza flotilla.

Vittorio sailing to Gaza - ISM Photo

Prata on Saturday told Italian news sources that “I want to see Gaza that my son loved and sacrificed for, I want to meet the good people living there that my son Vik always talked about”. She added that Vittorio work will go on though his friends.

Vittorio’s mother added that her son received death threats from a right wing American group on their website two years ago because of his photos published online and the pro Palestinian tattoo he has on his shoulder.

Vittorio first came to Gaza with the Free Gaza folitial in 2008 and used to live in a single bedroom house near Gaza City coastline until he was kidnapped and murdered by a radical Salafists group calling itself Mohamed Bin-Mosliemah brigades.

A series of anti-Israel protests, lectures and meetings are scheduled to coincide with the visit and the AIPAC conference in Washington DC in May; BDS founder meets Friday night with 250 activists calling Israel apartheid state.
WASHINGTON - A series of protests against Israeli policy and its support by AIPAC are planned in May to coincide with the AIPAC conference in the U.S. capital and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech there. The protests, under the heading "Move over AIPAC," will include demonstrations opposite the building where Netanyahu will speak and Congress, and a series of lectures and meetings with critics of Israel, including veteran journalist Helen Thomas who lost her place in the White House press room after saying Jews should leave Palestine and go back to Poland, Germany and the United States. Thomas will give the keynote address at the Move Over AIPAC conference, and will receive an award from the women's pacifist organization Code Pink, one of the hundred left-wing American organizations behind the conference.
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الثورة العربيّـة المُضادّة: هجمة آل سعود

أسعد أبو خليل

هال آل سعود وحلفاءهم في إسرائيل ما حدث. بنيان نظام الطغيان العربي، الذي تقوده السعوديّة، بدأ بالتهاوي. غضب الملك السعودي من عدم التحرّك الأميركي لإنقاذ مبارك. لم ينتهِ التفجّع السعودي والإسرائيلي على سقوط مبارك. قرّر الحكم السعودي الإمساك بنظام الطغيان العربي الرسمي خشية المزيد من التضعضع. أطلقت السعوديّة العنان لعقيدة الكراهية والطائفيّة والمذهبيّة ــ وهي عقيدة دينيّة ــ سياسيّة رسميّة للمملكة. الديموقراطيّة تتناقض مع السيطرة السعوديّة على العالم العربي ــ وهي تتناقض مع الوجود الصهيوني على أرضنا
.....
أرادت السعوديّة أن تصيب هدفيْن في آن واحد: أن تسعّر المواجهة المذهبيّة وأن تقصي كلّ الشيعة في العالم العربي عن دولهم وعروبتهم، وتصويرهم كدخلاء على طريقة العقيدة النازيّة ضد اليهود، وأن تخدم مصالح إسرائيل من حيث رفض أيّ تأييد للقضيّة الفلسطينيّة وتصويره على أنّه سياسة محض إيرانيّة، وأنّ لا مصلحة عربيّة فيها.
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A very good article by the Angry Arab in Al-Akhbar on the counter-revolution conducted by the Saudi royals and their cronies in the Arab world.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Idealistic blogger 'was more Palestinian than the criminals who killed him'

Vittorio Arrigoni's middle name was Utopia, yet he chose to spend most of the past three years in the hell of Gaza, acting as a human shield for Palestinian fishermen harassed by the Israeli navy and reporting to a worldwide audience.

His "Guerrilla Radio" blog about life in Gaza was required reading among radical circles in Italy and he published passionate newspaper commentaries about the plight of the Palestinian people and the "crimes" of "the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv", which he condemned as "one of the worst apartheid regimes in the world". His final post, published hours before his abduction, and subsequent hanging by gunmen in Gaza, praised the "invisible battle for survival" waged by the smugglers in Gaza's tunnel network under the border with Egypt against Israel's "villainous blockade".