Articles

WAS PAKISTAN READY ON 11 MAY 1998?
May 28, 2011
Pakistan & Kashmir
NOVANEWS By Brig Samson S Sharaf   When Narasimha Rao, the Indian National Congress Prime Minister called for snap elections ...Read more
Pakistan Rulers Sold to the US Magic Spell
May 28, 2011
Pakistan & Kashmir
NOVANEWS By Brig Asif Haroon Raja   I have been writing columns in local and foreign newspapers and websites since ...Read more
Pakistan Nukes and 28th May
May 28, 2011
Pakistan & Kashmir
By Yousaf Alamgirian   This year’s 28th May has come amid many threats posed to Pakistan’s nuclear program. The war ...Read more
How Pakistan was sold to America
May 28, 2011
Pakistan & Kashmir
NOVANEWS by drmuzaffar in Pak-US Relations   By Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal   The standard narrative of Pak-US relationship always goes back to ...Read more
Mondoweiss Online Newsletter
May 28, 2011
Middle East
NOVANEWS   Obama’s mild defiance at AIPAC cost him $10 million in Jewish donations Mr Obama, maybe the pogroms have ...Read more
Professors Walt & Mearsheimer speak at Move Over AIPAC
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS   by Move Over AIPAC!   ...Read more
Injured activist, Rae Abileah speaks about being attacked in Congress
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS by Move Over AIPAC! Rae Abileah, an organizer with CODEPINK, was injured yesterday after disrupting Prime Minister Netanyahu during ...Read more
Witness the shocking denial and ignorance by AIPAC delegates
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS by Move Over AIPAC   Max Blumenthal | Alternet On May 22, thousands of supporters of America’s most powerful ...Read more
Protester disrupting Netanyahu in Congress arrested at hospital
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS by Move Over AIPAC   Police arrested CODEPINK peace activist Rae Abileah at the George Washington University Hospital in ...Read more
Protesters Confront Netanyahu Inside AIPAC Gala
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS   by Move Over AIPAC! Video available upon request: email press [dot] moa [at] gmail [dot] com The speech of ...Read more
U.S.A: Demonstration outside the Department of Justice
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS by Move Over AIPAC Heather Hunt, head of the Foreign Agents Registration Act unit at the Justice Department, invited ...Read more
Demonstrators rally outside AIPAC Conference
May 28, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS   Social justice activists protesting AIPAC rallied around the Convention Center to show Obama that many American residents support ...Read more

WAS PAKISTAN READY ON 11 MAY 1998?

NOVANEWS
By Brig Samson S Sharaf

 

When Narasimha Rao, the Indian National Congress Prime Minister called for snap elections in 1996, it was time for Pakistan to brace itself for the events particularly if BJP came to power. BJP had posed serious challenges to the INC coalition on charges of corruption and was poised to electioneer on issues that were most endearing to the philosophy of BHARAT VERSHA.   Pre election opinion polls indicated that BJP was most likely to emerge as the single largest party. The most challenging question for Pakistan’s security planners was; would BJP follow its rhetoric of nuclear testing if it came to power?

As destiny would have it, I was the only officer in the General Staff with sound academic credentials in Nuclear Proliferation and Strategy. Though the study was simultaneously being carried out by many concerned branches, the ultimate responsibility of carrying out the final analysis for the General Staff in GHQ fell on my shoulders. Destiny placed me in the footsteps of a great Pakistani diplomat, Mr. S M Burke, who had been most instrumental in procuring Pakistan’s first nuclear reactor from Canada.

To carry out an accurate study, it was time for an in depth appraisal of known Indian nuclear capabilities and development. The first step in the study was to pin point the deficiencies in India’s technical nuclear capabilities and what were they most likely to do to address them. Within a week, my team had read through and sifted extremely important findings about the Indian Nuclear and Space Development Program.

  1. We knew that the explosion in 1974 was a conventional 1950 design and needed to be fine tuned for confirmation and miniaturisation.

  2. We knew that based on decay rates, India needed further data not only to confirm its previous testing but also calculate the life of the war heads.

  3. We knew that though India was already refining plutonium, the fissile material had never been tested in an explosion and the subsequent data crucial to war head designs.

  4. We knew that the war head designs had to be compact so as to be placed in the tips of the delivery systems. Boosted weapons and miniaturisation were therefore a necessity.

  5. We understood that the quest for Bharat Versha would be incomplete without India boasting thermo nuclear devices.

Simultaneously, through the recently introduced internet, we got a special connection and hooked on to a satellite that transmitted pictures of Pokhran with a 48 hours delay. Initially there was no activity but by February 1998, we began noticing track marks and considerable activity. We estimated three months before India could resume nuclear testing.

At the same time we continued receiving inputs from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic chatter and the intelligence agencies of Pakistan. These bits and pieces were accurately fitting into our knowledge base and the photography. By mid February, the analysis was ready and subjected to an in house discussion in the General Staff Branch after which it was put before the COAS, General Jehanghir Karamat. The preparations in Pakistan began.

Due to India’s limited capability in enriching uranium and processing plutonium, we had reached the conclusion that India will conduct the following explosions.

  1. A repeat of 1974 design for confirmation.

  2. A boosted weapon system based on a plutonium design.

  3. A two stage thermo nuclear testing with the first stage based on a conventional design or a boosted weapon to produce the heat necessary for a nuclear fusion.

  4. We were of the opinion that cognisant of depleting fissile material stockpiles, India would not carry out more than three tests but at the same time test warhead designs without the fissile material.

I was on a physical workout on 12Th May 1998 when Director General Military Operations Major General Tauqir Zia called me to inform that India had carried out some nuclear explosions. Glued to the ZEE News, we saw the breaking news. There was no surprise and we worked for the next 48 hours. These 48 hours in the planning room were the best I had amongst senior officers. There was indeed urgency but no air of typical military seniority. We were all one, taking turs and handing out refreshments to each other irrespective of our ranks.

In days to come, the accuracy of our study was vindicated. The graphs of our monitoring stations indicated three major bangs, the last one flattening out. The first was a fission reaction of considerable yield. The second indicated a smaller yield confirming it was plutonium based boosted weapon. But the flattening out of the third explosion indicated that the second phase of the thermo nuclear device had fizzled out.

For my team, it was a moment of extreme satisfaction, pride and humility.  Based on research, conclusions drawn through empiricism and important intelligence gathering, we had ensured that Pakistan was not caught napping. We had given enough lead time to our scientists to prepare and conduct a series of nuclear testing as a credible and befitting response. All this would never have been possible without the confidence that senior officers reposed in us and the guidance of Dr. Zafar Iqbal Cheema, the Chairman of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Qaid e Azam University Islamabad.

With technical issues left to our scientists, engineers and logisticians, it was now time to carry out an in depth appraisal of the international reaction and budgetary consequences for Pakistan. It was also time to lay the foundations of a Nuclear Policy and Doctrine that would ensure a durable peace in the region and foresee a negotiated settlement of all disputes with India.

One of the most important conclusions of our study was that the post nuclear Pakistan had to be more responsible. The message went unnoticed by the political establishment.  General Jehanghir Karamat had proposed a Committee of Defence and National Security (CDNS) as the single competent forum to pull Pakistan out of its political and economic crises. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saw it as an affront to the political establishment and a precursor to praetorianism. Being a gentleman that he was, General Karamat resigned and with him the vision of a peaceful, self reliant and strong Pakistan.

With the new COAS, Pakistan soon changed course and the coterie plunged Pakistan into its deepest crises one after the other. I wonder if it would ever be possible to put back the clock.

Pakistan Rulers Sold to the US Magic Spell

NOVANEWS
By Brig Asif Haroon Raja

 

I have been writing columns in local and foreign newspapers and websites since 2004. I got spurred into writings after getting perturbed over sudden turn in Pakistan’s geopolitical environments in the aftermath of 9/11 which many in Pakistan viewed as blessings in disguise for Pakistan since Pakistan’s debts had been rescheduled, investments were pouring in, overall economy had begun to come out of the woods and Pakistan came out of isolation.

While I agreed to a degree that Gen Musharraf had little choice but to cede to unreasonable demands of USA, I had strong reservations over the way he promptly accepted the US demands at his own and that too without matching returns.  I didn’t like his throwing in his towel on a phone call from Collin Powel without taking the nation into confidence. In April 2004 I asked him pointed questions in Quetta Staff College on his US centric policy and how he was sure that the US would not betray Pakistan once again; his inclination to bring back Benazir and making his accountability selective out of political expediency; and whether there was a change in strategy or change of policy on Kashmir. He had no cogent reasons to answer my queries. Others who were praising him profusely were surprised how I could ask such questions and got away with it.

In my write ups and discussions I started sounding alarm bells about hidden American objectives from 2005 onwards. In my article titled ‘Indo-US-Afghan nexus in Afghanistan’, I dilated upon the emerging security threats to Pakistan. Thereon, I wrote series of security related articles and my thrust was towards the ill-designs of India and USA and had forewarned that their apparent friendship was a deception to trap Pakistan. I had repeatedly cautioned that Pakistan had been time and again betrayed by USA and India had never missed any opportunity to harm Pakistan and that the duo would do so again whenever they found the situation ripe to deliver the hammer. I had clearly said that Pakistan must not live under mistaken belief that it is a strategic partner of USA since Pakistan didn’t fit into the security paradigm of USA. I had said that it is India which is the actual strategic partner since the two had common objectives against Pakistan. In almost each article I had highlighted the objectives of India and USA which were to destabilize, denuclearize, de-Islamicize and balkanize Pakistan.

I had written number of articles on nuclear related concerns and how the strategic partners were going about tightening the noose under the garb of friendship to make Pakistan helpless and then extract its nuclear teeth. I have written copiously on terrorism, its causation and remedies asserting that Indo-US-Israeli axis was primarily responsible for fanning terrorism. I had highlighted negative implications of the US imposed war on terror on Pakistan and made proposals how to stem the downslide which was impacting the operational efficiency of the Army. I mentioned that India and USA had cleverly converted our assets in FATA into liabilities.

I extensively dwelled on Kashmir issue and held Musharraf responsible for compromising our principled stance on Kashmir based on UN resolutions and suggesting an out of box solution at his own and subsequently giving a deathblow to Kashmiri freedom struggle so as to appease India. Throughout his nine-year rule, Musharraf and his King’s Party kept looking at the rising level of foreign exchange and GDP and ignored what Pakistan was losing in terms of its sovereignty and integrity. Rise in economic graph also proved elusive.

I have been highly critical of the present democratic dispensation which has further messed up the messy security situation and also made the political and economic situation unstable because of incompetence, poor governance, record breaking corruption, cronyism, nepotism, defiance of rule of law and lackadaisical approach. The soiled rulers were installed in power by Washington after cleansing them in the infamous NRO washing machine. Issuance of NRO and letting Zardari replace him were among the biggest sins committed by Musharraf because of which the whole nation is suffering. With their hands and tongues tied by Washington, the chosen leaders were instructed to blindly obey the dictates of USA, remove all impediments in its way and protect its interests. Hussein Haqqani, Rehman Malik and retired Maj Gen Durrani and some others were their chosen confidantes given key appointments to obsequiously serve US interests.

The American duality began to surface in 2005 when it extended India lucrative civilian nuclear deal and denied the same to Pakistan saying that it was an irresponsible nuclear nation. It also signed high-tech defence deals with India worth billions of dollars while it maintained a tight fisted policy towards Pakistan in terms of release of close support funds and counter terrorism equipment. Virulent propaganda campaign against our nuclear program and our premier institutions by US think tanks and government controlled media together with leveling of unsubstantiated serious charges by US officials raised many eyebrows in Pakistan particularly when human rights abuses by Indian forces in Kashmir and other minorities in India were ignored.

Questions were asked as to why the US had adopted such a discriminatory policy when both were its allies and Pakistan was facing the main brunt of war on terror as a frontline state. Such a biased and unfriendly approach was a strong indication that all was not well on the American front and should have awakened our rulers from their complacency but nothing of the sort happened and policy of appeasement continued unabated.

Facilitating India to consolidate its position in Afghanistan on permanent basis by USA and allowing its intelligence agencies to carryout covert war against Pakistan and calculatingly shifting terrorism from Afghanistan into Pakistan resulting in rise of human and economic losses were hostile acts and should have alarmed our rulers, impelling them to take preventive measures. But lured by the shine of dollars, they refused to come out of the magic spell of USA. They kept saying that it was ‘our war and terrorist are an existential threat and will be fought with full force’. Zardari went to the extent of saying that India posed no threat to Pakistan.

I wrote several articles about the shady activities of Blackwater in Pakistan and its risky consequences but the Interior Minister flatly denied their presence and challenged that he would resign if one such operative was found. However, he always came to the rescue of Americans caught at wrong places and at odd times with weapons.

I commented over the dangerous intent behind Af-Pak policy announced in March 2009 which converted Pak-Afghan border into a single battle zone and making Durand Line redundant so as to allow US-NATO troops to undertake hot pursuit operations inside FATA. It was GHQ which put its foot down and disallowed joint or unilateral operations. I reckon intensification of drone attacks together with incidents of airspace and western border violations were retaliatory in nature and corollary to Af-Pak policy.

I pointed out involvement of foreign agencies in Swat when the US, Indian and Israeli origin weapons and equipment were seized in large quantities from the caves in control of the militants in Swat during Operation Rah-e-Rast. Even Hindu RAW agents pretending as Muslim fighters were caught. Defects in legal system were brought to fore since the law courts could not convict even a single terrorist nabbed by security forces. Even when foolproof evidence of RAW’s involvement in trouble spots were collected, policy of appeasement continued unabatedly.

Dismantlement of main base of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in South Waziristan (SW) in November 2009 after the disruption of TTP base in Bajaur and that of TNSM in Swat were not ordinary feats when viewed in context with the fact that fully motivated militants didn’t lack  guts, had received higher training in Afghanistan by Indo-American trainers and equipped with all kinds of sophisticated weaponry and communication system to be able to fix the Army and continue fighting for next ten years.

Security forces suffered heavy casualties in these high-intensity operations. Despite collecting so much of foolproof evidence, the government as well as our media remained tight-lipped and didn’t consider it right to expose the double game of so-called allies. Its timidity emboldened the master planners to re-equip the disarrayed militants and re-launch them in other tribal agencies within six months. Otherwise the way they were battered and uprooted, it was not possible for them to strike again.

I am firmly of the view that war on terror was designed to pitch tribesmen against Pak Army, defame, weaken and exhaust the latter and make it operationally unfit to confront Indian military threat. I wrote several analytical articles on operations against militants in Swat, Bajaur and Waziristan and recommended that military gains should be consolidated and made lasting by rehabilitating the displaced persons, carrying out comprehensive development works, putting balm on their wounds to win their hearts and minds and reconverting them into our assets so that they turned their guns outwards rather than inwards. Very little has done to remove inequities of FATA.

One has to admire the impudence of Indian leaders who after fabricating 2001 and 2008 terror attacks in New Delhi and Mumbai, within hours started pointing fingers at Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba and ISI and soon after Indian media swung into action. Emotions of Indian public were raised to a pitch of frenzy and war hysteria was created. On both occasions, the whole might of military was mobilized and moved to the borders where it stayed on for months. They cried and beat their chests as if all hell had broken lose. Two years and six months have lapsed but India has neither forgotten Mumbai incident nor stopped blaming Pakistan. Even when Kargil issue heated up in May 1999, Indian leaders and media went crazy. Almost all Indian infantry formations were pushed into the conflict zone and pitched battles raged for over six weeks and ended only when India helped by USA and the west converted its intelligence failure and military defeat into victory through media war.

As opposed to Indian response to its huge intelligence failure and poor response of security forces against nine terrorists in Mumbai, if one makes a comparison of Pakistan’s response, it is simply pathetic. Well knowing that India with the blessing of USA is deeply involved in destabilizing Pakistan since 2002, our leaders and media are morally so bankrupt and passive that after each terrorist act of much greater magnitude than 2001 and 26/11, what to talk of militarily confronting it, they do not utter a word against it. They are so fearful of USA and India that they quickly name TTP and al-Qaeda even before any preliminary investigation is carried out. That way they absolve the patrons of TTP and earn kudos from them.

Our adversaries after pushing the flames of terrorism in FATA and interior Balochistan, spread the flames towards settled areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and then towards major cities of Pakistan. After the harassment phase, they have now started the final destructive phase in which major sensitive installations will be targeted one after the other. After PN Mehran Base incident on 22 May in which two highly expensive surveillance aircraft were destroyed by the unknown terrorists, next targets in all probability will be Rangers HQs, PAF installations, dockyards, defence factories, main grid stations, oil refineries etc. After few successful strikes, the paid hirelings will then be launched to strike one to two nuclear installations. High-pitched alarm bells will then be rung all over the world saying that their apprehensions have come true and Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal has become unsafe and hence either it should be destroyed or taken over by UN force.

Although we are terribly behind in point of time and space since the whole country has got stuck in the deathtrap dug by our adversaries and it has become extremely difficult to retrieve the country out of it, but our rulers seem to be oblivious of the magnitude of the threat and are still taking things lightly. They still consider our adversaries as Pakistan’s well-wishers as was evident from the recent visit of John Kerry to Islamabad. Mike Mullen is being entertained and forthcoming visit of Hillary Clinton is keenly awaited so that the intoxication of US magic spell is re-energized, enabling them to remain intoxicated. Ironically the military helplessly looks on at the speedy enslavement of Pakistan as silent spectators hoping that some divine help will shoo away the demons bent upon destroying Pakistan.

Pakistan Nukes and 28th May

 

This year’s 28th May has come amid many threats posed to Pakistan’s nuclear program. The war that has entangled

Pakistan gave more sacrifices than any of the allying

country. The French lost only 58 of its soldiers during the last 10 years of war against terrorism. Even America has very less number of casualties of its soldiers. However, setting aside Pakistan’s sacrifices the Indo-US-Israel nexus is after Pakistan’s nukes. In order to undermine Pakistan‘s peaceful and highly responsible nuclear program, the US and western media keeps on maligning it. The month of May has made its place in Pakistan’s history as 2nd will be remembered as a question mark when Pakistan’s allied country conducted Abbottabad operation to get Osama. The 22nd May attack has been termed as in retaliation of the 2nd May operation. In first action Pakistan’s ally America compromised Pakistan’ sovereignty by breaching its security while the 22nd May terrorist attack brought bad name to the security of the sensitive installations of the armed forces.

Every country and its forces are supposed to make its boundaries secure from any of internal and external threat. Pakistan armed forces have always ensured the security of the motherland. Pakistan has always been more conscious of its eastern border where India, its traditional enemy is always ready to get benefit of each and every opportunity. Pakistan is fighting war on its western border to eradicate terrorism for the last 10 years. Its major allying country is USA which breached Pakistan’s security system to undergo any of the operation and that too a solo one. America used its hi-tech to ditch Pakistan security forces and to show its nation a great success in WOT. So it found appropriate to achieve success by maligning the efforts of a major allying country Pakistan whose more than three thousand soldiers have sacrificed their lives and more than 35,000 of its citizens have been killed whereas France has only sacrificed its 58 soldiers which is nothing compared to Pakistan’s.

However keeping in view the incidents of 2nd and 22nd May America, India and other countries are defaming Pakistan in terms of the safety of its nuclear program that the same may fall into the hands of Taliban. Interestingly Taliban themselves have issued a statement showing their inability to handle the same. Obviously atomic weapons are not the grenade sort of thing that someone just has to pull out a pin and throw on the enemy.

Well it is routine matter for the American media to publish news items declaring Pakistan nukes unsafe. WikiLeaks also seem to be in line with CIA to defame Pakistan in terms of nuclear assets. History has proved that the most careless nation has been America itself as it threw atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the cities of Japan killing thousands of people and paralyzing many. Pakistan only achieved the status of nuclear state by going for atomic explosion in response to the Indian explosion made in order to gain supremacy in the region.

Despite being poor country Pakistan had to achieve the status of nuclear state so to become capable enough to protect the same as well. Pakistan’s nuclear command and control system is state of the art one which is as safe as American nukes could be. With the changing scenario and the environment America must also change its strategy to solve South Asia issues.

America’s war strategy in Afghanistan has already met a failure as former UK envoy to Afghanistan Sir Sherard Cowper has said that American Afghan war tactics are profoundly wrong. The Guardian UK narrates that “Britain’s former ambassador to Afghanistan has attacked the conduct of the war by the US commander, Gen David Petraeus, describing the future CIA chief’s tactics as counterproductive and “profoundly wrong”. Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, who also served as the UK’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, added that Petraeus should be “ashamed of himself” for making claims of the number of insurgent commanders his forces had killed.”

One can easily depict why Americas and allied forces are throwing the responsibility of failure in WOT on Pakistan maligning it for its relations with the terrorists. America after not getting success in Afghanistan staged Osama operation in Pakistan and on the plea of the same wants to prove that Pakistan is not capable enough to protect its nukes assets. WOT seems a war between two civilizations as Pakistan’s allies are declining to understand Pakistan’s viewpoint. Yes Pakistan is going through crisis but it is pertinent to fight back any of the resolve to question its stability and defaming its national institutions. Yaum-e-Takbeer gives the massage to remain firm, united, and daring enough to repel any of the aggressions made by enemy or a friendly state as Pakistan’s interest stands at priority than any of the relations with the other world.

 

How Pakistan was sold to America

 
By Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal



 

The standard narrative of Pak-US relationship always goes back to Liaqat Ali Khan’s so-called historic visit to the United States in May 1950, but there are gaps in that narrative which have never been filled. While it is true that Liaqat Ali Khan received a very warm welcome, it is seldom mentioned that this was due to the foresight of President Harry S. Truman, who saw opportunities in Pakistan against the Soviet Union with which the United States was locked in a cold war. Truman eagerly cultivated his relationship with the emerging country. Liaqat Ali Khan was invited to address the House of Representatives, he was taken to Lockheed Martin’s factory, he inspected aircraft, he was given high honors and his wife, Begum Liaqat Ali, was likewise treated as a royal guest. All of this was reflected in Liaqat Khan’s speech to the nation upon his return.

This warm beginning at the political level was, however, short-lived. Despite his warmth for the Americans, Premier Liaquat Ali did not sell Pakistan to the United States; he remained focused on pursuing a semi-non-alignment foreign policy in a world where the two super powers were forcing nations to side with them. When North Korea attacked pro-American South Korea, Pakistan condemned the attack, but refused to send Pakistani combat troops to join the UN force on the Korean Peninsula. The next major test for Liaqat Ali Khan came when the United States demanded that he use his influence over Iran for the US efforts to secure the transfer of Iranian oil fields; Liaqat declined the request. The United States then threatened to withdraw its support for Pakistan’s Kashmir cause. Liaqat Ali Khan responded by asking the United States to evacuate Pakistani air bases; this was a bombshell in Washington.

Liaqat Ali Khan was mysteriously assassinated on 16 October 1951, while addressing a public meeting at Company Bagh, Rawalpindi. The police immediately shot the assassin, who was later identified as Saad Akbar Babrak, and who was well-known to the police as a professional assassin. This assassination was a turning point in Pak-US relations, because after Liaqat, the rest of the politicians were merely fake coins in Jinnah’s pocket, as he himself describe them. The focus of America’s Pakistan policy now shifted to Pakistan’s military and since that first coup in 1958, there has never been a break in this military dominated relationship. There has never been a political leader who could wrest Pakistan free of US influence. Z.A. Bhutto is said to have tried and paid the price for his attempt to regain political control over Pak-Us relationship.

Since 1958, it has always been Pakistani military who has decided main contours of the Pak-US relationship. Pakistan’s weak politicians have been a junior partner in selling Pakistan to the United States. The US, on its part, has invested billions of dollars to buy Pakistan through various programs which take Pakistan’s future military leaders to America for “training”. What these people receive in America is not only a very low level of military training, but also a very strong dose of American values and way of life and they often return in a state of awe and shock, brainwashed and in a state of submission. They become convinced that Pakistan’s interests can only be protected by remaining a satellite of the great super power. What they learn by way of military training is obvious from the three terrible defeats Pakistan’s army has suffered in its wars and in its inability to protect innocent citizens of this country who pay to keep them in their uniforms.

An alarming but insightful view of how Americans have remained focused in their effort to buy Pakistan through their relationship with the military is provided by the recently leaked Wiki cables. Cable number 153436, written by Anne Patterson, then US Ambassador to Pakistan, is an eye opener for anyone who has eyes: She wrote this after her address to the National Defence University (NDU). She had received “astonishingly naive and biased questions about America,” she said, and lamented that America has lost “a generation of military officers who did not receive training in the United States during the sanction years when the International Military Education and Training programmes was discontinued. We need, in particular, to target the ‘lost generation’ of Pakistan military who missed IMET opportunities during the sanctions years,” Ms Patterson stressed. The “sanctions years” in this case are apparently the years during which Pressler sanctions were effective. “The elite of this crop of colonels and brigadiers are receiving biased NDU training with no chance to hear alternative views of the US. Given the bias of the instructors, we also believe it would be beneficial to initiate an exchange program for instructors,” Ms Patterson noted.

In the current climate, one is not even allowed to wonder aloud about American ambassadors who seem more like American spies, but at least one can say out loud what is already known through cable no. 153436: An American Colonel by the name of Michael Schleicher was actually allowed to attend a course at NDU, he then had a meeting at the embassy where he provided his insights: “The senior level instructors had misperceptions about US policies and culture and infused their lectures with these suspicions, while the students share these misconceptions with their superiors despite having children who attended universities in the US or London.” Col Schleicher told the embassy’s political officer. “Students in the junior course, too, shared many of the biases prevalent in the Muslim world, including a belief the US invaded Iraq for its oil and that 9/11 was a staged ‘Jewish conspiracy,’” according to Col Schleicher. In contrast to criticism of the US, students and instructors were adamant in their approval of all things Chinese, the cable adds.

Let us conclude by stating another obvious fact: Pakistan is now an American colony. Americans are deciding who rules Pakistan’s various state institutions, they have their eyes set on the emerging army officers, they influence decisions about where Pakistan’s military should next fight their war of terror, and they have the entire political leadership in their pocket as the Wiki cables have clearly established. Yet, Col Schleicher is still worried that “of the 135 senior course students, only two openly drank alcohol.” But he has something else for us mortals: “The Pakistani military students appeared to come from wealthy families or from military families and were proud they received amenities, including private-quality schools and good health care, as an incentive to stay in the military. Officers at the brigadier rank touted their privileges, including a house, car, and a driver. The NDU students also obtained financial perks, such as a free trip for a pilgrimage that could be taken at the end of the class’ official travels.”

Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

 

Obama’s mild defiance at AIPAC cost him $10 million in Jewish donations

May 27, 2011

Philip Weiss

Adam Kredo in the Washington Jewish Week honestly addresses a central political issue that a far more prominent journalist, Robert Siegel on NPR, sought to mystify earlier this week. First Kredo:

One prominent Jewish leader who attended Obama’s AIPAC speech told me that “the Jewish community has a form of IBS [Irritable Bowel Syndrome] with the president. They’re unsettled.”

“It’s safe to say,” the source added, “that about $10 million [in Jewish donations to the Obama campaign] evaporated in that speech.”

Now here is Robert Siegel and Ron Kampeas of JTA talking about the same issue on NPR the other day. Note that Kampeas, who is a settler in occupied East Jerusalem, owns property there, is halfway honest about the money issue. But Siegel immediately makes it about voters. This is a lie, and Siegel knows it. Jewish voters can swing one state maybe, Florida. As the Wall Street Journal noted the other day, this is about money…

KAMPEAS: The issue is how it’s played with Jewish donors to the Democratic party and there, there has been some concern. There’s sort of three levels of Jewish donorship to the Democratic party. There are Jews that donate just because overall they favor the party and then on the right, there are Jews who only donate because of Israel….

SIEGEL: And is the degree of difference that we’ve seen between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu, do you think it’s substantial enough that republicans who are eager to peel away some votes from the Democrats in 2012 might actually have something to work with?

Mr Obama, maybe the pogroms have to stop before you talk about a Palestinian state…

May 27, 2011

Joy Ellison

In Washington DC, the pundits are frantically debating the implications of Obama’s recent speeches on the Middle East. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in the of village At-Tuwani, the tiny flowers of spring are pushing up through the dry ground. Palestinian farmers are grazing their sheep on land that has been owned by their families for generations. Children are walking to school. And just a hillside away, Israeli settlers are expanding Ma’on settlement. While politicians quibble, the people of At-Tuwani are enduring some of the Israeli occupation’s most brutal violence and severe repression. 150,000 Palestinians living in the rural villages of the West Bank are also struggling to survive in the face of similar injustices. If peace is to come to Israel and Palestine, the rights of these villages must be honored. So what are the implications of Obama’s statements for rural villages like At-Tuwani?

“The people of At-Tuwani and surrounding villages are very simple farmers and shepherds. They depend on their land and flocks, a life that, until recently, has been self-sufficient,” says Keifah Al-Addara, the director of the At-Tuwani Women’s Cooperative. At-Tuwani is one of a dozen small villages located at the Southern tip of the West Bank. This is “area C,” West Bank land that under the Oslo accords is completely under Israeli control. In area C, the Israeli government places severe restrictions on all construction, preventing Palestinians from building homes or basic infrastructure. Area C is also where Israeli settlers, including violent zealots, build settlements and outposts. In many areas, including At-Tuwani, these settlers attack Palestinians with impunity. As Al-Addara explains, these settlements “led to a series of aggression against powerless people; the stealing of our lands; the blocking of our roads; and the attacks on our people. The result was the spread of poverty, fear and insecurity.”

If Obama is to offer any hope to villages like At-Tuwani, he will need to demand that Israel stops its settlement expansion, takes legal action against settlers who attack Palestinians, and recognizes the equal rights of Palestinians as individuals and as a nation.Unfortunately, in his recent speeches Obama did just the opposite.

In his 2009 Cairo speech, Obama said, “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements… It is time for the settlements to stop.” This time, Obama took a much more lenient position, describing settlements as a hindrance to peace negotiations.Netanyahu likely understood these statements as a capitulation in the face of his government’s refusal to abide by any settlement freeze.Extremist settlers can take this as a sign that Obama will not put pressure on Israel to curb their violence towards Palestinians.

Settler violence against Palestinians is on the rise. Over the last 6 months, settlers in the South Hebron Hills have attacked Palestinians more frequently and with greater violence. Most recently, on May 15th, Israeli settlers invaded the village of Tuba, killed and stole several sheep belonging to the Ali Awad family and vandalized their home. Previously, on March 19th, a settler stabbed 32-year-old Mahmoud Ibrahim Ali Awad on the edge of At-Tuwani village.

Israeli settlers throw stones at Palestinian farmers, cut down olive trees, and even attacked Palestinian children on their way to school. Israeli authorities have refused to prosecute settlers for these crimes. At-Tuwani residents report that settlers and soldiers are now communicating and coordinating more than ever. Obama’s statements about settlements amount to waving the white flag of surrender to these settlers. At-Tuwani has no reason to believe that the United States will do anything to pressure Israel to keep its own citizens in line.

In his Thursday May 19 speech, Obama said that “the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.” After this statement was met with Chicken Little protests from conservative politicians, Obama clarified his position in his Sunday speech to AIPAC. Obama said that Israel and Palestine must “negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967.” This border would “account for the changes that have taken place over the last forty-four years, including the new demographic realities on the ground and the needs of both sides.” And what needs will need to be accommodated? The approximately 500,000 settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Instead of telling Israel to stop settlement expansion, Obama told the settlers that if they expand their settlements fast enough, the land on which they stand will become a part of Israel.

For At-Tuwani, talk of land swaps is an unwelcome reminder of home demolitions and ethnic cleansing. Settlers in the South Hebron Hills have made it clear they want their settlements to become a part of Israel. The Israeli government has shown itself all too willing to help the settlers achieve these goals by destroying inconvenient Palestinian villages. In 1998 the Israeli army served orders to over one hundred families in the At-Tuwani area, instructing them to leave their villages.When the families refused, soldiers confiscated their belongings, rounded up the villagers, and dumped them on the side of the highway. After the villages won their case in the Israeli high court, they were able to return to their homes but the Israeli government is still attempted to dispel Palestinians from the At-Tuwani area. This year, on May 7th, the Israeli army demolished the village of Al-Aymir, expelling its residents. This was the third time that the Israeli army demolished Al-Aymir and the Israeli government has made it clear the village will be demolished again when Palestinians return.

Obama’s speech offers little hope of change to communities like At-Tuwani. His statements indicate that he will not stand up to Israel’s continued settlement expansion and ethnic cleansing. At the same time, Obama praised the uprisings in Arab countries for their use of nonviolence. Nonviolent resistance is something about which At-Tuwani village could teach Obama plenty. Like many villages, At-Tuwani has a long history of using demonstrations and other creative actions to stand up to Israeli settlers and soldiers. When I asked a friend what he and the rest of At-Tuwani will do if their villages are “swapped” to Israel, he didn’t hesitate before he answered. “Whatever happens,” he said, “We will stay here. We will not leave our land.”

This determination, not the empty words of politicians, is what offers hope for the people of At-Tuwani.

Joy Ellison is a writer and activist living in Chicago.  From 2007 to 2010, she lived in At-Tuwani, where she worked to support Palestinians nonviolent resistance. Joy is now writing a graphic novel about At-Tuwani and advocating for the village through Humanity Together.  For news and information on At-Tuwani, followHumanity Together on Facebook.  For information on Joy, visit her website

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Next generation of American leaders getting ready to write Dear John letter to special relationship?
May 27, 2011 02:35 pm | Philip Weiss

Brookings poll of attitudes among likely future leaders, American millenials, those born between ’80–2005, selecting for those in leadership positions, says that they regard Israel as both an ally and a problem. The numbers, which are a little vague, are at the link:

As plays out in global politics, a number of states were identified by the young leaders in both the most likely problem and most likely ally categories. Countries about whom the young leaders had these mixed sentiments included China, Russia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, India and Israel (including its Palestinian territories).

AIPAC official says Egypt’s commitment to peace demands blockade on Gaza

May 27, 2011

Seham

and other news from the Arab Spring:

Bahrain
Bahrain’s abuse of dissenters: four detailed cases
A pattern of widespread abuse emerges from these cases, including detention without trial, beatings, and lack of access to lawyers and family.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/cy_Qjv3fkvA/Bahrain-s-abuse-of-dissenters-four-detailed-cases
Bahrain: High court to review death penalty cases (AP)
AP – Bahrain’s state news agency says military prosecutors have asked the country’s highest court to review two death penalty sentences linked to anti-government protests.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110526/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain

Four protesters get one-year jail terms in Bahrain (AFP)
AFP – A special Bahraini court has sentenced four people to one year in prison for taking part in protests that rocked the kingdom before being crushed in March, a rights group said Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110525/wl_mideast_afp/bahrainpoliticsunresttrial
Bahraini Student Activists Lose Scholarships
Many have been left stranded in the United Kingdom after demonstrating against actions of regime.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/bahraini-student-activists-lose-scholarships?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+iwprstories+%28IWPR+Stories%29

Bahrain: Formula One Should Take Account of Rights Crisis
(Washington, DC) – The international racing bodies responsible for scheduling Formula One events should take full account of continuing serious human rights violations when they consider rescheduling a 2011 race in Bahrain, Human Rights Watch said today.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/26/bahrain-formula-one-should-take-account-rights-crisis
Moody’s cuts Bahrain bond rating, cites unrest (AP)
AP – Credit agency Moody’s Investors Service cut its ratings on Bahrain’s government bonds Thursday, citing damage being done by the political turmoil in the Gulf island kingdom.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110526/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_bahrain_economy
Egypt
Egyptians protest, demand deeper and faster reforms
CAIRO, May 27 (Reuters) – Thousands of Egyptians packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday in what organisers called a “second revolution” to push for faster reforms and a speedy trial for ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his former aides. Activists complain of delays in putting Mubarak, his family and members of his ousted regime on trial and that the army has not restored order quickly enough to the country of 80 million.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/egyptians-protest-demand-deeper-and-faster-reforms
Why we are holding Egypt’s second ‘Friday of rage’
Egyptians have earned the right to control our future. On Friday 27 May we will be out in Tahrir Square again to assert that right. In Egypt this week, plans for a large protest on Friday 27 May have attracted more controversy than any other call for a “millionia” (a million-man march) since the revolution. Partly this stems from the names used to describe the day this time: in accordance with the revolutionary tradition of giving names to the various Fridays since the “Friday of rage” on 28 January, it has already become known as “the second revolution”, or “the second Friday of rage”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/27/egypt-second-friday-of-rage

Egypt jails ex-housing minister over graft
Ahmed Maghrabi given five year prison sentence and fined $12.6m for selling land below market value.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011526154231111980.html
Egypt’s ex-spy chief says Mubarak knew of ‘every bullet fired’ as mass protests planned
Egypt’s former Hosni Mubarak, charged with murder, “had complete knowledge of every bullet fired” at protesters, according to damning testimony by his former spy chief, a day before activists plan to stage a mass protest dubbed a “second revolution.”
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/05/26/150651.html
And so Soliman sold Mubarak !!
The order to transfer Mubarak to criminal court means that the prosecution has got a solid case especially it is the first time in our history and also in our judicial history in particular to have such case. There should be solid testimonies against Mubarak to stand in court. I thought that the one that sold Mubarak and confessed that he gave the orders to shoot the protesters and use live ammunition was Habib El Adly but it seems that I am wrong. According to Al Akhbar newspaper today the one who put the guilt on Mubarak is none other than his vice Omar Soliman !! It is surprising to me because according to early press leaks Soliman defended Mubarak and claimed that he did not give the orders to shoot the protesters.
http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/05/and-so-soliman-sold-mubarak.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29

Egypt to open Rafah border permanently
Palestinians welcome easing of four-year blockade on Gaza Strip, a sharp departure from policies of former president.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011525174117897741.html
Hamas, EU hail Egypt’s plan to open Rafah border (AFP)
AFP – Gaza’s Hamas rulers and the European Union on Thursday welcomed an Egyptian decision to permanently open the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Palestinian enclave.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110526/wl_mideast_afp/egyptisraelpalestiniansgazaborder
AIPAC official says Egypt’s commitment to peace demands blockade on Gaza
An official at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has warned that the Arab Spring revolutions might lead to the emergence of “regimes that are hostile towards the Israelis”. Executive Director Howard Kohr stressed to his organisation’s conference “the importance of Egypt’s commitment to the peace agreement with Tel Aviv”, so as not to be pushed into military confrontations with the Israeli army.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/americas/2401-aipac-official-says-egypts-commitment-to-peace-demands-blockade-on-gaza
Senior Egyptian Official: Free elections in Egypt could “threaten” accomodation with Israel
“EGYPT’S decades-long accommodation with Israel could be endangered this year when the country holds free elections, said Hossam Zaki, a senior adviser to the Egyptian Foreign Minister and pivotal intermediary in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr Zaki said Egypt would soon loosen restrictions on Palestinians travelling to Egypt. In his only newspaper interview during a visit to Australia, he also accused Israel of undermining the Egyptian-brokered truce between the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, which have been fighting a civil war for control over the Palestinian territories. Mr Zaki, a senior adviser to the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Nabil Elaraby, was in Canberra …. Mr Zaki said that even after the ”earthquake” of the revolution, one of the enduring pillars of Egyptian foreign policy was its 1979 treaty with Israel, but that presidential and parliamentary elections later this year could threaten that. ”My sense is that if Israel continues to ignore international calls for achieving peace on a just basis, and allowing the Palestinians to establish their state, there will be more and more bitter and negative feelings towards Israel, and the difference now, after January 25 [when the uprising began], is that no government in Egypt will be able to ignore those feelings,” he said…”
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/05/senior-egyptian-official-free-elections.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+friday-lunch-club+%28%22friday-lunch-club%22%29
Egyptian FM trying to amend Camp David accords
Egyptian foreign minister Nabil al-Arabi is studying an idea to amend several items and activate other items that have been neglected on the Camp David accords.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U

Can Egypt’s communication giants be sued in the US for the blackout early in the revolution?
Egyptians may be able to sue Vodafone and Mobinil in US courts under a law that allows foreign citizens to bring legal claims to redress violations of international human rights law.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/12779/Opinion/Can-Egypt%E2%80%99s-communication-giants-be-sued-in-the-US.aspx

Revolutionary graffiti in Egypt – in pictures
In response to the recent popular uprising in Egypt, revolutionary art has sprung up on the streets of Cairo. Here is a selection of the most notable works to appear
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/gallery/2011/may/26/egypt-revolutionary-graffiti-art#/?picture=375019516&index=0
Egyptian graffiti artist Ganzeer arrested amid surge in political expression
Mohamed Fahmy, who goes by Ganzeer, was one of three artists arrested today on the eve of massive protests. His work is part of a wave of political and revolutionary graffiti on Cairo’s streets.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/CBHrKdK-NRo/Egyptian-graffiti-artist-Ganzeer-arrested-amid-surge-in-political-expression

Tell that to Thomas Friedman and other Zionists
“Hundreds of Egyptians, emboldened by their revolution, have also rallied in a series of demonstrations here to call for an end to the blockade. A recent demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy led to clashes with security forces that left several wounded and sent nearly 200 to jail. Signs, T-shirts and bumper stickers calling for a new Palestinian “intifada,” or uprising, have proliferated around Cairo.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/tell-that-to-thomas-friedman-and-other_26.html

17 Lost Egyptian Pyramids Discovered By Space Archaeologists
A new golden age of Egyptology may have only just begun. But this time things are a little different. Instead of treks through the desert, khaki hats, and camel rides into the sunset, modern archeologists are using satellite imaging and modern technology to uncover the lost secrets of Egypt. Astoundingly, scientists at the University of Alabama believe they have discovered 17 “lost” pyramids using this methodology, according to MSNBC.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/25/lost-egyptian-pyramids-space_n_866870.html
Iraq
Sadr supporters rally against US presence in Iraq (AFP)
AFP – Thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr staged a mass rally in Baghdad on Thursday against US forces, as Iraqi leaders consider asking for an extended American troop presence.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110526/wl_mideast_afp/iraquspoliticssadr

Sadr followers send message to US: Don’t try to stay
US troops are scheduled to leave Iraq by Dec. 31, but Prime MInister Maliki said he is considering seeking an agreement that would allow them to stay longer.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/uFqnUWIRw88/Sadr-followers-send-message-to-US-Don-t-try-to-stay
Head of Iraq anti-Baath committee gunned down (AFP)
AFP – The head of Iraq’s controversial anti-Baath committee was gunned down while on his way home in Baghdad on Thursday, while nine other policemen and soldiers were killed in nationwide unrest.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110526/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrest

Tell the colonial power that people don’t need to get paid to resist foreign occupation
“These Shiite militias have emerged as perhaps the greatest threat to the 46,000 United States troops still in Iraq, military officials say. And a barrage of recent attacks — some of them deadly — has raised questions about the safety of Americans as the military withdraws troops and equipment in the months ahead.  “There are plenty of groups who will be paid to kill the last Americans on their way out,” said Col. Douglas Crissman, the military commander who oversees Maysan and three other southern provinces.  Officials say the attacks, coupled with an increase in anti-American leafleting and speeches by hard-line groups, seem to be aimed at tilting the highly charged public debate over whether American forces should be asked to remain in Iraq despite a deadline to leave by the end of the year.   Mr. Sadr himself makes no secret of his strategy. “Yes, we are still resisting and striking bases, troops and vehicles, as long as they are in Iraq,” he told the BBC Arabic service on Thursday. “And there is no doubt with that. It’s an honor for us.”  Southern Iraq is strategically important to the United States, even in the final days of the American deployment here. It is the point of entry for many of the weapons coming from Iran, particularly rockets and the shaped explosives used in improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, military commanders say, and thousands of departing troops and convoys will pass through the region as they head into Kuwait.  Last week, militants hit a United States military base in Basra from seven miles away, and in a single day about 10 rockets were fired at the Green Zone in Baghdad, home to the American Embassy and a sprawling American military base.  American officials say many of the militants have close ties to Iran or to Mr. Sadr, whose once-fearsome Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, was largely demobilized after suffering humiliating defeats three years ago.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/tell-colonial-power-that-people-dont.html
Libya
Qaddafi Flees to Hospitals to Dodge Bombs, Reports Say
Two British newspapers say NATO bombings are keeping the Libyan leader increasingly on the run.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=c0c7fc08be4cbf7789989976f54b018b
NATO air strikes rock Libyan capital
Attacks come as UK gives clearance for the use of its attack Apache helicopters in ousting Gaddafi.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/05/2011526234319321121.html
LIBYA-TUNISIA: Growing frustration in Choucha transit camp
DUBAI 25 May 2011 (IRIN) – Tensions have escalated among third country nationals who fled violence in Libya and have been living in Choucha transit camp in Tunisia, and the situation could get worse, an aid worker warns.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=92802
Spain says Libya sent message proposing cease-fire (AP)
AP – Spain’s government said Thursday that it has received a message from Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi proposing an immediate cease-fire in his country’s conflict with rebels.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110526/ap_on_re_eu/eu_libya_cease_fire_proposal

Kadafi’s government proposes he stay as a figurehead
The idea apparently aims to play on fears of long-term instability and the possibility that if Kadafi cannot be ousted, war-weary Western nations may start looking for a way out of Libya. As President Obama and Western allies reaffirm their resolve to force Moammar Kadafi from power, the government here is promoting an alternative: The embattled Libyan leader remains as a figurehead who would ensure a transition to democracy.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/5VuAY9mTqLg/la-fg-libya-kadafi-figurehead-20110526,0,3021219.story
ICC prosecutor hopes for Gaddafi arrest
Luis Moreno Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court [ICC], spoke to Al Jazeera on war crimes and the effectiveness of the prosecution process. He admitted that it was difficult to prosecute and arrest people in power but said “we are moving in the right direction”. Weeks after ICC sought Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s arrest on war crime charges, Ocampo said sooner or later the Libyan leader would be brought to justice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yo0PJOX10A&feature=youtube_gdata
Exclusive: Battered Libya sues for peace
The Libyan regime is preparing to make a fresh overture to the international community, offering concessions designed to end the bloodshed of the three-month-long civil war.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/exclusive-battered-libya-sues-for-peace-2289133.html

240 Canadian Bombs Dropped On Libya
(CBC) — Canadian warplanes have dropped 240 laser-guided bombs on Libya so far in the NATO-led mission, according to the military. Brig.-Gen. Richard Blanchette made the revelation during a weekly briefing on Canada’s involvement in the air campaign over the North African country aimed at protecting civilians from attacks by forces loyal to Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi. Six CF-18s have flown 324 attack missions so far. A spare CF-18 is also deployed to the mission.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/05/25/240-canadian-bombs_n_867238.html
Libyan rebels continue fight for border crossing
Opposition fighters in western Libya are still fighting battles with government troops. One such fight is for control of the Wazin border crossing with Tunisia. Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from the region.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtU0BvL-xPU&feature=youtube_gdata
Misurata bears brunt of Libya battles
The rebel-held western town of Misurata has seen much of the violence between forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and opposition fighters. The opposition now say they have driven out all of Gaddafi’s troops – but some remain as prisoners. Tony Birtley reports from Misurata on Libyans surveying the mass destruction inflicted by Gaddafi’s forces.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH1QPpbFG-o&feature=youtube_gdata
Morocco
“Morocco: Mapping the 20th of February Movement Marches Held on the 22nd of May”
Cf. Rashid Abul-Samh, “Besieged Monarchs” (Al-Ahram Weekly 1048, 19-25 May 2011); Oxford Analytica, “Persistent Protests Undermine ‘Moroccan Exception'” (24 May 2011).
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/morocco250511.html
Saudi Arabia
YouTube Saudi woman driver faces further 10-day jail term
Manal al-Sharif, the Saudi mother arrested for uploading a video of her driving on YouTube, faces another 10 days in jail. A Saudi Arabian woman who posted a video online of her driving her car is facing another 10 days in prison, according to reports from the kingdom. Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year old mother who drove around the eastern city of Khobar last Saturday, had been expecting to be released on Friday after five days in jail on charges that her lawyer described as driving without a licence, provoking other women to do the same and provoking public opinion in Saudi Arabia. It is disputed by lawyers whether it is illegal for women to drive under national law but it is socially and religiously unacceptable in many quarters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/26/youtube-saudi-woman-driver-jail
Saudi Arabia Scrambles to Limit Region’s Upheaval
Saudi Arabia is flexing its financial and diplomatic might across the Middle East in a bid to avert the overthrow of any more leaders struggling to calm turbulent republics.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=799d4f250d311f721056acfd0e1d2309
US put pressure on Saudi Arabia to let women drive, leaked cables reveal
Documents given to WikiLeaks show Obama administration pushed Saudis to give female citizens more rights. The Obama administration has been quietly putting pressure on Saudi Arabia to allow women to drive, according to leaked US embassy cables. But the jailing of woman protester Manal al-Sharif after she posted an online video of herself at the wheel of a car in Khobar reveals the extent of US diplomatic failure regarding the ban.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/27/us-pressurised-saudis-let-women-drive
Saudi Arabia opens the world’s largest university for women …
…But even when they graduate most of the women won’t be able to work. The world’s largest women-only university was opened barely two weeks ago by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Situated on the outskirts of the capital, Riyadh, the Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University is ambitious – it has the capacity for 50,000 students and will improve women’s access to courses such as business and science. It has a teaching hospital, laboratories and libraries.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/27/saudi-arabia-university-for-women
Syria
Protesters ‘shot dead’ by Syrian forces
Reports of three people killed by security forces in Damascus suburb amid ongoing protests after Friday prayers.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201152791250989274.html
Syrian student tells of torture ordeal in mass stadium detention
A Syrian student’s account of the security forces’ mass arrest and torture of Banias residents after pro-reform protests. A 25-year-old university student tells Amnesty International of the beatings and torture he and other detainees suffered while held in a sports stadium after he was seized with his 73- year-old father by security forces from their home in the coastal town of Banias on 8 May.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/syrian-student-tells-torture-ordeal-mass-stadium-detention-2011-05-24
Syrian soldiers die in ambush near Homs
(AGI) Damascus – “Three Syrian soldiers have died in an ambush near Homs, in central Syria according to military sources quoted by the state Sanaa news agency. Sources reported that a patrol was attacked on the road that from Homs goes to the village of Ghajar. Violent clashes occurred in recent days in Homs, 10 kilometers north west of Damascus, in which at least 18 people were killed…”
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/05/syrian-soldiers-die-in-ambush-near-homs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+friday-lunch-club+%28%22friday-lunch-club%22%29
Amnesty slams Syria’s ‘shoot to kill policy’
Amnesty International has said the Syrian government should be put to trial over its alleged “shoot to kill policy” towards anti-government demonstrators. The human rights group has pointed to citizen-captured video that apparently show security forces killing and beating civilians. More than 1,000 civilians have been killed across Syria since protests first erupted in mid-March, according to numerous human rights groups Syria has banned international journalists from the country, making it almost impossible to independently verify the veracity of the videos. Monica Villamizar reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce80_siKgGw&feature=youtube_gdata
Joshua Landis, “Syrian Opposition to Meet in Turkey: May 31-June 2”
Opposition groups and activists are planning to meet in Antalya, Turkey from May 31 to June 2 in an attempt to elect a transitional council, connect with protesters inside the country, and present the international community with a clear alternative to Assad. In April, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood gathered in Istanbul, where a press conference was held by Riad al-Shaqfa, a mentor of the Muslim Brotherhood. It was carried live on Al Jazeera. The meeting was organized under the auspices of the Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association, or MÜSİAD, but the financer and the real organizer was Gazi Mısırlı, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and a Syrian who has been living in Turkey with Turkish citizenship, the Syrian ambassador to Ankara, Nidal Kabalan, told the Hürriyet Daily News. “The conference will be open to all supporters of the opposition, independent personalities and representatives of all faiths,” Ammar Qurabi, president of the Egypt-based National Organisation of Human Rights, told AFP.
http://bit.ly/iG9eCo
Divisions within the Syrian Opposition on Eve of Turkey Meeting
The opposition meeting scheduled to take place in Turkey in four days (May 30) has brought out divisions among leaders of the Syrian uprising. The opposition is divided over the proper role foreign governments should play in bringing down the Syrian regime. Some believe that only foreign action – primary sanctions as presently articulated – will destroy the Syrian government. One advocates an Israeli role in the destruction of the regime. A growing divide between those inside the country and outside is developing as well. This is suggested by Burhan Ghalioun’s refusal to go to the Turkey meeting of the opposition. Pro-Israel interests in the US, best articulated by the authors at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, have proposed ways they believe that Sunni soldiers can been persuaded to defect from the Syrian Army. They recognize that so long as the military remains loyal to the president and government, the opposition cannot succeed. Because they do not envisage Alawite officers turning on the regime, they list ways to convince “Sunni members of the Syrian military [to] oust the ruling family.” They advocate that “Washington should begin an active dialogue with the members of the National Initiative for Change.” The principle authors of this program are Radwan Ziadeh, Ausama Monajed, Ammar Abdalhamid, Najib Ghadbian. See more here.
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=9898&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Syriacomment+%28Syria+Comment%29
Yemen
Air strikes ‘target Yemen tribes’
Yemen’s government uses air strikes to target tribal forces opposed to President Saleh ahead of expected demonstrations, tribesmen say.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-13574277
Yemen’s Saleh faces growing condemnation
G8 leaders call for Saleh to quit as government planes bomb tribal fighters and hundreds flee the capital, Sanaa.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/20115278504166535.html

Saleh orders rival tribal chief’s arrest
Yemeni president calls for arrest of key rival as government forces and tribal fighters engage in deadly battles.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201152691014710948.html
Deadly street battles sweep Yemeni capital
More than 40 killed and hundreds flee as fighters loyal to rival tribal leader clash with forces of President Saleh.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011526172134866776.html

Shelling shakes Yemeni capital
Threat of civil war grows as fighting between forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh and tribal fighters spreads from Sanaa.
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/05/2011525221515600687.html
Yemen’s president vows no retreat as battles rage
Civil war looms as big blasts rock Yemeni capital of Sana’a where heavy fighting near ministries leave the airport closed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25aQ_81qNGk&feature=youtube_gdata
Qatar suspends Yemen embassy ops, withdraws staff
CAIRO, May 26 (Reuters) – Qatar temporarily suspended the operations of its embassy in Yemen on Thursday and withdrew its diplomatic staff from the country due to a flare-up of violence, broadcaster Al Jazeera said. More than 40 Yemenis were killed in pitched street battles in the capital Sanaa on Thursday as fighting aimed at ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s three-decade-long rule threatened to ignite civil war.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/qatar-suspends-yemen-embassy-ops-withdraws-staff
Hague urges British nationals to flee Yemen
William Hague issued a renewed plea for UK citizens to flee Yemen as bloody clashes forced the withdrawal of all but a “core” staff at the British Embassy.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hague-urges-british-nationals-to-flee-yemen-2289500.html
US pulls diplomats out of Yemen
The US orders all its non-essential diplomatic staff to leave Yemen and issues an advisory against travel there as clashes escalate.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-13556349
Obama tells Yemen’s Saleh to quit amid Sanaa clashes
SANAA (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Wednesday repeated his call for Yemen’s leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit as clansmen loyal to a powerful opposition tribal chief seized buildings and battled security forces in Sanaa.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/25/obama-tells-yemens-saleh-to-quit-amid-sanaa-clashes/
Other News
CIA Bin Laden Compound Search Approved
Pakistan has agreed to allow the CIA to send a forensics team to examine the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, giving the agency permission to use sophisticated equipment in a search for al-Qaeda materials that might have been hidden inside walls or buried at the site, U.S. officials said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/26/cia-bin-laden-compound_n_867591.html

Analysis/Op-ed
Power of the internet joins nuclear risks and Arab Spring on G8 agenda
Leaders of the “real” and “virtual” worlds will meet, en masse, for the first time in northern France today. At the G8 world economic summit in Deauville in Normandy, the future of the internet will join the Arab Spring, Africa and nuclear safety as an official “problem” on the agenda of the most powerful men, and women, on earth.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/power-of-the-internet-joins-nuclear-risks-and-arab-spring-on-g8-agenda-2289105.html

The IMF versus the Arab spring
The IMF is depicted as the rich uncle saving wayward children, but proposed loans for Egypt and Tunisia could be devastating. In the midst of the media storm surrounding IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn last week, my feelings were perfectly expressed in a tweet by Paul Kingsnorth: “Could someone please arrest the head of the IMF for screwing the poor for 60 years?”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/25/imf-arab-spring-loans-egypt-tunisia
The Arab Awakening – Absolute Power
As revolution shakes the Arab world, a series of films explore the roots of the uprisings and ask ‘what next’? Those in a position to know reveal the ‘tricks of the trade’ of Arab dictatorship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtAG-eTri8E&feature=youtube_gdata
Kenyon Review Interview with Sinan Antoon on Litearture and Arab Uprisings
[The following interview was conducted with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Sinan Antoon on the relatonship between the Arab uprisings and literature. The interview was originally published on the Kenyon Review Blog.]
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/1680/kenyon-review-interview-with-sinan-antoon-on-litea

‘The smallest minds and cowardliest hearts’: Is Congress clapping for apartheid?, Stephen M. Walt
Mark Twain once described members of Congress as having “the smallest minds and the selfishest souls and the cowardliest hearts that God makes.” Twain’s mordant assessment provides a parsimonious explanation for the predictably rapturous reception that Bibi Netanyahu received there yesterday. All one can say about the vast majority of our courageous elected officials is that they aren’t genuine friends of Israel, because every burst of applause was another nail in the coffin of the Zionist dream.
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/05/25/the_smallest_minds_and_cowardliest_hearts_is_congress_clapping_for_apartheid
A Good Week for Bibi, a Bad Week for Barack, an Opportunity for the Palestinians
The past week in Washington was an extraordinary one. It witnessed an American president give two speeches in which he offered further concessions to Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of a country that is a client of the United States. Netanyahu challenged the President from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, effectively seeking and receiving Congress’s stamp of approval on his strikingly extreme positions. This end-run around the US Executive Branch followed an invitation from the head of the Republican congressional opposition to speak to a joint session of Congress. This invitation itself was in defiance of American constitutional principles and the hallowed convention that politics stops at the water’s edge. The world looked on as this foreign leader got at least twenty-six standing ovations during a hard-line speech that ruled out either the prospect of a serious negotiation, or of anything approaching a sovereign Palestinian state. Given the trend of Arab and Palestinian politics lately, negotiations on American-Israeli terms were in any case unlikely.
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/1686/a-good-week-for-bibi-a-bad-week-for-barack-an-oppo
Aljazeera
The biggest problem i have with Aljazeera is not political and is not that it has become a pure voice for the Arab counter-revolution and for the dreadful Saudi-Qatari alliance.  The problem is that it has become an example of bad journalism.  I tuned in this morning to watch the news and I only got propaganda.  Pure propaganda.  They basically have become like trash talk radio in the US: they open the phone lines and–unlike US trash talk radio–they treat their anonymous callers like their own correspondents and ask them questions about political developments in Syria (the country of choice these days).  And if the callers offer opinions that diverge from the agenda of Aljazeera, they are immediately shut off.  Aljazeera the other day did not even cover the speech by Nasrallah, when it used to extensively provide live coverage of his speeches.  Maybe it over did it in the past, just as it now underdoes it.   Today, they barely covered the massive demonstrations in Tahrir Square, while allowing anonymous callers to report to them on Syria.  They had a Youtube footage of a “massive demonstration” in a Syrian town when I was able to count around ten people.  When it comes to Syrian developments, one has to struggle hard.  On the one hand, you get crude and weird propaganda on Syrian regime TV (where they spend hours on technical topics, like “food security” or “irrigation in the 21st century”), and on the other hand you have the sensational and unreliable Saudi and Qatari propaganda outlets.  One suffocates in these conditions.  It is fair to say that Aljazeera suffered its most serious blow to its credibility since it went on the air.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/aljazeera_27.html
Female Imams
Chinese Islam retains characteristics that set it apart. The communist revolution with its emphasis on gender equality has left its mark here. Mao famously said that “women hold up half the sky”, a lesson China’s Muslims seem to have imbibed well.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2011/05/female-imams.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kabobfest%2FGrillMe+%28KABOBfest%29

Col Desmond Travers captures NYC

May 27, 2011

Philip Weiss

The Nation has posted a video of the panelwe and the Culture Project did a week ago in New York on Gaza and Goldstone– with Naomi Klein, Noura Erakat, Col Desmond Travers of the Goldstone mission (above), and our co-editor Lizzy Ratner. It was a great evening. I’m going to rewatch it myself to mine the treasures. And below are some more faces to put on the names, all photos by Prabhakar Jeff Street: Trudie Styler, Klein, Erakat, and Ratner.

Reconciliation agreement was born of renewed national movement that includes refugees

May 27, 2011

Philip Weiss

Smart piece by Jesse Rosenfeld and Joseph Dana at the Nation saying that the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas was brought about not so much by Egypt but the spirit of the Arab spring in Palestine– a Palestinian youth movement reinvigorated by participation of Palestinian refugees in the bordering states.

The Nakba protests have been the largest so far of a growing Palestinian youth revolt. The protests—launched with unity protests on March 15 in the Palestinian Authority–controlled West Bank and Hamas-governed Gaza Strip—are the Palestinian response to the outbreak of revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

While it is a new development, this manifestation of popular anger against Palestinian Authority concessions in the failed negotiations process—shockingly revealed with Al Jazeera’s January release of top-secret negotiation minutes, known as the Palestine Papers—and Israel’s practice of divide and rule has been simmering under the surface for the past three years.

“The unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas gave people hope to be here today and continue with this new phase of struggle,” said Fadi Quran, a founding organizer of the March 15 movement, amid the clashes with Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint. “It showed us that something was possible and we must continue,” he added, coughing from tear gas.

The March 15 movement marks a generational shift in Palestinian politics. Demanding that Palestinians shape their future through full democratization of the PLO, March 15 has sought to reshape national identity through unity and the relaunching of a popular struggle.

Following a surge of momentum that has forced a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, ending four years of official national division, the Nakba Day protests expanded the concept of unity from below to encompass Palestinian refugees living on Israel’s borders.

Levy: settlers can claim to be Israel’s authentic Zionist voice

May 27, 2011

Philip Weiss

Daniel Levy has a great piece at Foreign Affairs about the actual composition of Israeli society, and wonders what kind of a democracy we’re speaking of…

Israel prides itself on being a democracy — a proposition that always appeared somewhat tenuous for the 20 percent of Israel’s citizens who are Palestinian-Arab, who lived under a military governorate from 1948 to 1966 and continue to face entrenched structural discrimination. Many older, more established elite groups in the Israeli secular political establishment, academia, and media have a growing concern over what they see as Israel’s fragile democracy, driven by a sense that Israel lacks a set of universally shared democratic values among its increasingly self-segregated population. These elites fear that the country may lack a thriving democratic ecosystem, with a clear and binding rulebook for the majority of Israelis, be they ultra-Orthodox, traditional Orthodox, national religious, Palestinian-Arab, or Russian-speaking. The influence of the Russian population is especially worth noting: almost 20 percent of Israeli citizens are immigrants from the former Soviet Union who have arrived over the past two decades. This Russian-speaking community, coming from authoritarian states, is relatively less at home with democratic politics than other communities are; at the same time, the Israeli state was ill-equipped to pass along democratic norms as part of the absorption process.

Democratic frailty plays out most worryingly in the arena of majority-minority or Jewish-Arab relations, something that is being exploited by the current governing coalition (and especially Foreign Minister Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party) with a slew of anti-democratic and at times unashamedly racist legislative initiatives  targeting the Palestinian-Arab community. This political trend has found great resonance in the Israeli public: according to a 2010 survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, 86 percent of the Jewish public believe that decisions critical to the state should be taken only by a Jewish majority; 53 percent support the government’s right to encourage Arabs to emigrate from Israel; and 55 percent say that greater resources should be allocated to Jewish communities than to Arab ones….

Yet it is beyond doubt that the settler lobby has become a powerful and entrenched political machine, relying on a narrative that credibly claims to being the country’s authentic Zionist voice.

Zakaria lightbulb moment: Israel rules millions of ‘serflike’ disfranchised Palestinians

May 27, 2011

Philip Weiss

Fareed Zakaria at Washington Post:

The chief threats to Israel are from new technologies — rockets, biological weapons — and demography. Its physical existence is less in doubt than its democratic existence as it continues to rule millions of Palestinians in serf-like conditions — entitled to neither a vote nor a country.

Further evidence of the smartest line in the last week, Peter Beinart’s assertion that Americans and Jews are losing their ability to shape the destiny of the Middle East, because all they’ve given rise to is a “mindless land grab.”

When do we tell the children? (Goldberg concedes that anti-Zionists are winning)

May 27, 2011

Philip Weiss

I keep saying that Jeffrey Goldberg is confused. Well here’s more evidence. He knows that the settlement project is destroying Israel but he insists that Zionism can be saved. He refuses to accept his own complicity in the settlement enterprise, and all the other Israel lobbyists who supported the settlements no matter what throughout election cycles from the 90s on when they were under some political pressure here. Goldberg:

settlements should be fought as if there was no such thing as anti-Zionism, and anti-Zionism should be fought as if there were no such thing as the settlements. This, I think, reflects the centrist position.

Now comes a belief that is a delusion, as much as the contention in the 1950s that communism had liberated the Soviet proletariat was a delusion:

A centrist on the question of Israel believes that the settlements represent a corruption of Jewish ideals, but that Israel remains the physical manifestation of a righteous cause.

And now the realist collapse:

Now The right, of course, believes that settlements are an expression, not a corruption, of that cause. The left, on the other hand, believes that settlements are a manifestation of Zionism’s true nature. I disagree with that argument strenuously. But I will say this, though: The left position on this question has the wind at its back.

Walt: ‘Every burst of congressional applause for Netanyahu was another nail in coffin of Zionist dream’

May 27, 2011

Philip Weiss

Amazing that Jimmy Carter was tarred and feathered for writing Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, but any intelligent person agrees. Stephen Walt at Foreign Policy says Congress chose apartheid the other day:

All one can say about the vast majority of our courageous elected officials is that they aren’t genuine friends of Israel, because every burst of applause was another nail in the coffin of the Zionist dream.   Why? Because Netanyahu’s central message yesterday was an emphatic rejection of a genuine two-state solution…

Some people still believe that settlement building was just a wacky project undertaken and backed primarily by religious extremists and by rightwing parties like Likud. In fact, colonization of the West Bank began under the Labor-led governments in the 1960s and 1970s, and governments of all stripes have backed it without exception.

Read Gershom Gorenberg’s Accidental Empire, Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar’s Lords of the Land, or Shlomo Gazit’s Trapped Fools,and you will learn that settlement building was a deliberate policy designed to “create facts,” so that future prime ministers like Netanyahu could claim it was simply impossible for Israel to withdraw.  And the location of key settlement blocs like Ariel and Ma’ale Adumim were chosen to secure Israeli control over key aquifers and make it difficult-to-impossible to create a viable Palestinian state.

As I said in my previous post, Israel faces a choice– a two-state solution or apartheid — and it is now crystal-clear which one Netanyahu has chosen. I see this situation as genuinely tragic, as he is condemning several more generations to live in bitter conflict and putting his own country’s future at risk. That’s his privilege, I suppose, but America’s blind support for this foolish policy is also a serious threat to U.S. national security. So if your Congressman or Senator was clapping loudly yesterday, you might drop him or her a note and ask why they care more about subsidizing an illegal and unjust occupation than they do about America’s long-term welfare and well-being.

Professors Walt & Mearsheimer speak at Move Over AIPAC

NOVANEWS

 

by Move Over AIPAC!


 

Injured activist, Rae Abileah speaks about being attacked in Congress

NOVANEWS

by Move Over AIPAC!

Rae Abileah, an organizer with CODEPINK, was injured yesterday after disrupting Prime Minister Netanyahu during his address to a joint session of Congress. Listen to Abileah’s interview with Democracy Now.

 

Witness the shocking denial and ignorance by AIPAC delegates

NOVANEWS

by Move Over AIPAC

 
Max Blumenthal | Alternet


On May 22, thousands of supporters of America’s most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, converged on Washington for the group’s annual conference. For two days they watched Democratic and Republican congressional leaders pledge their undivided loyalty to the state of Israel, and by extension, to AIPAC’s legislative agenda. Speeches by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the conference, with Obama attempting to clarify his statement demanding that 1967 borders be the “starting point” for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
I interviewed several AIPAC delegates in the streets outside the conference. While few, if any, were able to demonstrate any degree of sophistication in the understanding of the Israel-Palestine crisis, they had been briefed inside on how to respond to critics. No one I spoke to would concede that Israel occupied any part of Palestinian territory; none would concede that Israel had committed acts of indiscriminate violence or that it had transferred Palestinians by force; one interviewee could not distinguish Palestine from Pakistan. With considerable wealth and negligible knowledge — few had spent much time inside Israel — the delegates were easily melded by the cadre of neoconservative and Israeli “experts” appearing in AIPAC’s briefing sessions.
As the day wore on, many delegates waded into confrontations with members of Code Pink and Palestine solidarity demonstrators who had set up a protest camp across the street. With conflict intensifying on the sidewalk, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin invited AIPAC delegates to express themselves from the protest stage. There, their most visceral feelings and deeply held views about Israel-Palestine crisis were revealed.
 

Protester disrupting Netanyahu in Congress arrested at hospital

NOVANEWS

by Move Over AIPAC


 

Police arrested CODEPINK peace activist Rae Abileah at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC. Abileah was taken to the hospital after having been assaulted and tackled to the ground by AIPAC members of the audience in the House Gallery during Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.

Abileah interrupted Netanyahu with a banner that said “Occupying Land Is Indefensible” and shouting, “No more occupation, stop Israel war crimes, equal rights for Palestinians, occupation is indefensible.” She rose up to speak out just after the Prime Minister talked about the youth around the world rising up for more democracy.

As this 28-year-old Jewish American woman spoke out for the human rights of Palestinians, other members of the audience—wearing badges from the conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee—brutally attacked her. The police then dragged her out of the Gallery and took her to the George Washington University Hospital, where she was being treating for neck and shoulder injuries.

“I am in great pain, but this is nothing compared to the pain and suffering that Palestinians go through on a regular basis,” said Abileah from her hospital bed. “I have been to Gaza and the West Bank, I have seen Palestinians homes bombed and bulldozed, I have talked to mothers whose children have been killed during the invasion of Gaza, I have seen the Jewish-only roads leading to ever-expanding settlements in the West Bank. This kind of colonial occupation cannot continue. As a Jew and a U.S. citizen, I feel obligated to rise up and speak out against stop these crimes being committed in my name and with my tax dollars.”

Abileah explained that she stands in solidarity with the Palestinian and Israeli activists who are routinely jailed and beaten for speaking out for democracy.

see press release and videos: http://bit.ly/lUU82f
Photo available for use: http://bit.ly/jBbsdp

Jewish protester disrupts Netanyahu During Congressional Address

During the Joint Session of Congress while Prime Minister Netanyahu was speaking, Rae Abileah stood up from the gallery and shouted “Stop Israeli War Crimes.”

See video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYXSLA7Cr2E

From the peace group CODEPINK, Rae is a 28 yr. old Jewish American of Israeli descent. She has traveled to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and witnessed firsthand the reality of occupation and oppression. “Prime Minister Netanyahu says that the 1967 borders are indefensible. But what is really indefensible is the occupation of land, the starvation of Gaza, the jailing of dissenters and the lack of equal rights in the alleged Israeli democracy. As a Jew and an American taxpayer, I can’t be silent when these crimes are being committed in my name and with my tax money.”

Ms. Abileah grew up on Half Moon Bay and presently lives in San Francisco. She was arrested and charged with disrupting Congress.

This protest is part of the week-long series of actions, organized by CODEPINK as part of a coalition of groups gathered in Washington D.C. for a campaign named Move Over AIPAC. During Netanyahu’s speech to AIPAC yesterday, 5 individuals interrupted Netanyahu and were removed from the building (see: http://bit.ly/aipac2011).

Protesters Confront Netanyahu Inside AIPAC Gala

NOVANEWS

 

by Move Over AIPAC!



Video available upon request: email press [dot] moa [at] gmail [dot] com

The speech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was interrupted repeatedly by protesters opposed to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. The activists are from the Move Over AIPAC coalition led by CODEPINK: Women for Peace.

The protesters, 5 in all, rose one by one, unfurled banners, and chanted slogans. In response to Netanyahu’s claim that returning to the 1967 borders would be “indefensible,” activists called out that various aspects of Israel’s policy are indefensible. They were escorted out by security, but not before they made a highly visible protest against the theft of Palestinian land, the siege of Gaza, denial of the rights of Palestinian refugees, silencing dissent, and destruction of homes and schools.

“Growing up as the son of Holocaust survivor, I learned that it is everyone’s job to stand up for others when they are persecuted, and I learned what happens when we don’t defend humanity. Now, it is my job to stand up in support of Palestinians, saying, ‘bombing schools is indefensible, bulldozing homes is indefensible, ’” said Jewish American protester Rick Colbath-Hess, 53 from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“As a young Jewish person it is important for me to stand up today and tell Netanyahu and AIPAC that their voices do not represent me,” said Ariel Vegosen, 30, from Valley Stream, New York, “I will not allow my faith to be misused as a weapon, covering up the theft of Palestinians’ homes and livelihoods. Judaism teaches me to stand up when I see oppression— discrimination is not a Jewish value and does not make Israel safer. Occupying Palestinian land is indefensible.”

Bruce Taub, 71, from Massachusetts and associated with American Jews for a Just Peace, was another protester. “As a Jewish man, I come from a people who have been scattered about the world without losing their identity. I will not sit by and allow Palestinian refugees to be denied their rights and peoplehood in a country that would allow me to become a citizen even though I have no ties there. Displacing refugees is indefensible.” said Taub, 71.

Chelsea Byers, 21 year old college student from Arizona who is an intern with CODEPINK, said “I am protesting AIPAC and Netanyahu because I am disappointed and enraged that the US supports human rights violations by Israel. This includes killing, injuring, and locking up nonviolent protesters fighting for the same human rights I am. I am appalled that $3 billion US tax dollars goes to fund the perpetuation of violence instead of building a more sustainable future. Silencing dissent is indefensible.”

“In a mere three weeks, Israel killed 1400 Gazans, and since the siege on Gaza began , thousands have died from being denied access to health-care, drinkable water, bodily security and humanity,” stated Sasha Gelzin of Washington D.C. “Since Palestinians can’t confront Netanyahu and remind him of their daily condition, we are doing that tonight. Starving Gaza is indefensible; dropping white phosphorous bombs is indefensible. ”

This action is part of a week-long set of actions protesting the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC and its unconditional support for Israel. Tomorrow, activists will be in the halls of Congress during PM Netanyahu’s speech. To read more about Move Over AIPAC events, visit the website at www.MoveOverAIPAC.org.

U.S.A: Demonstration outside the Department of Justice

NOVANEWS

by Move Over AIPAC

Heather Hunt, head of the Foreign Agents Registration Act unit at the Justice Department, invited input on the possible registration of AIPAC as a foreign agent in a May 18, 2011 letter. On May 24, Move Over AIPAC marched on the Justice Department with new information about why AIPAC should register under the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act. Individuals presented their own personalized demands for regulation in letters at the main entrance.

Watch videos of our demonstrations and send a complaint of your own to the IRS.
Download and mail a pre-filled form with CODEPINK’s information or personalize a complaint.




 

Demonstrators rally outside AIPAC Conference

NOVANEWS

 

Social justice activists protesting AIPAC rallied around the Convention Center to show Obama that many American residents support Palestinian rights. Watch video of Sundays demonstrations or read about the events here.

 


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