A. LOEWENSTEIN ONLINE NEWSLETTER

NOVANEWS

* How the far-right is gaining support and love

How the far-right is gaining support and love
Posted: 29 May 2010

The toxic mix of social disaffection, racism, growing unemployment and September 11 leads to this, a rising phenomenon across the Western world. We ignore such trends at our peril; such people can’t simply be dismissed as crazy and their views must be fought and challenged:

In the back room of a sparsely decorated pub in Bolton a man with a shaved head and a tattoo poking out above his shirt collar hands out what look like wraps of cocaine to his friends. It is just after 11am but behind him the pub is already packed with young, mainly white, men. Suddenly it erupts.
“We want our country back. We want our country back … Muslim bombers off our streets.” The chants ring out as tables are thumped and plastic pint glasses are thrust into the air.
“It is going to be a good ‘un today,” says the shaven-headed man, leaning across the table towards me to make himself heard. “We’re going to get to twat some Pakis – I can feel it.”
The pub, a few hundred yards from Bolton railway station, is the latest gathering point for the most significant rightwing street movement the UK has seen since the heyday of the National Front in the 1970s.
For the past four months the Guardian has joined English Defence League demonstrations, witnessing its growing popularity, from protests attracting just a few hundred hardcore activists at the end of last year to rallies and marches which are bringing thousands of people on to the street – and into direct conflict with the police and local Muslim communities.
The EDL plans to step up its campaign in coming weeks, culminating in marches through some of the UK’s most high-profile Muslim communities, raising the spectre of widespread unrest.

Tell Israel to ditch its nuke now
Posted: 29 May 2010

A nuclear-free Middle East is a dream for us all. The elephant in the room has always been Israel, protected by the US and Western powers because, well, it’s the Jewish state. Don’t disturb the Jews.
This news therefore is a little surprising but hopeful:

The United States accepted Arab demands to pressure Israel over its atomic program to rescue talks on shoring up a global anti-nuclear arms pact, Western envoys said on Friday.
Either or both could block the declaration because NPT meetings make decisions through consensus. If agreed, this would be the first deal at an NPT review meeting since 2000.
“We have a deal that everyone can live with,” a Western diplomat told Reuters. “Now the question, is will Iran do the right thing? Will they go against something the entire Arab
League and everyone else here is ready to support?”
Syrian delegates also refused to commit themselves to supporting the final declaration.
The final draft urges Israel, which did not participate in the conference, to sign the NPT and put its nuclear facilities under U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. The United States fought hard to delete that clause but backed down to save the conference, delegates said.
Delegates were to hold a final session later on Friday to adopt the declaration, which contains plans for further disarmament, strengthening global non-proliferation efforts and ensuring access to technology for peaceful uses.
The NPT is intended to stop the spread of atomic weapons, though it allowed the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia to keep their arsenals while calling on them to negotiate on disarmament.
Analysts say the treaty has been under pressure due to Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear programs and the failure of the five official nuclear states to disarm.
The latest draft calls for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to organize a meeting of all Mideast states in 2012 on how to make the region free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Sticking Points
The creation of a WMD-free zone would eventually force Israel to declare and abandon its atomic bombs. U.S. officials say such a zone could not be created without Mideast peace.
The Jewish state, which like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan never signed the NPT, is presumed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies its existence.
The Obama administration changed U.S. policy by joining Britain, France, Russia and China in backing a Mideast nuclear conference while encouraging Israel to participate.
“We’ve got a strong draft that would strengthen all three pillars of the NPT – disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful use of nuclear energy,” a diplomat said.
Britain’s chief delegate, Ambassador John Duncan, told Reuters the draft text was “unprecedented” in its scope.
The 2005 NPT review collapsed after participants could not agree on a WMD-free zone in the Middle East and in the face developing nations’ annoyance with the United States for failing to meet previous disarmament pledges.
Chief Iranian delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh accused the United States and the other nuclear powers of rejecting calls for a precise deadline for disarmament and other demands.
If these issues were not addressed in the declaration, he said Iran was prepared to act alone and vote against it.

But they said Iran or Syria might still block a final declaration now agreed by most of the 190 signatories of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, who have been trying for a month to strengthen the troubled pact.

How Washington wants to woo those lovely Jews back into the fold
Posted: 29 May 2010

The charming tale of how the Obama administration is attempting to romance the American, Jewish community (selling more arms to Israel is certainly helping the argument).

Chomsky appears on Israeli TV alongside marching Hizbollah men
Posted: 28 May 2010

After Israel refused entry to Noam Chomsky into the occupied, Palestinian territories, he was interviewed extensively on Israeli TV and of course told that he didn’t believe in Israel’s right to exist etc etc. The same, tired cliches that are effectively demolished by Chomsky. He makes the key point; the best friends of Israel are those who speak out against its insane policies.
“I regard myself as a supporter of Israel”, he says:

See: www.antonyloewenstein.com