NOVANEWS

 
Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem
Chair of West Midland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
 

• To be a teenager in Bil’in

• ‘So you come to take Amina’ — a loving Syrian father saves his gay blogger daughter from the security services

• Egyptians continue protests against Israel and call for a million-man march to support Palestinians

• As a Holocaust survivor, AIPAC does not speak for me

• Zuckerman rag prints bald-faced lies on upcoming flotilla to Gaza

• 9/11 and western prejudice fostered the Arab revolutions –Abdelkader Benali

• Backgrounder on Hamas-Fatah split

• Why are secular assimilating American Jews so Zionist?

• Where does Israel end and the Diaspora begin? Or Zionism end and Judaism begin?

• Bipartisanship at last: U.S. politicians line up to castigate Palestinian unity deal

To be a teenager in Bil’in

Apr 29, 2011

Hamde Abu Rahme

Two children were taken to hospital after the latest army invasion in Bil’in, a village in the occupied Palestinian territories.
At midday on April 28, the Israeli army entered Bil’in. Three military jeeps came through the Western gate in the Wall, drove through the village and to the mosque. Clashes erupted when a group of children and youth saw the jeeps, and stones were thrown in order to make the soldiers leave the village.

However, instead of leaving the army decided to stay for an hour, throwing stun grenades and shooting tear gas and rubber covered steel bullets towards the villagers. Two young boys were injured by rubber covered steel bullets; Jamal (14) was shot with two bullets on his chin, while Najmi (15) was hit in his leg. An ambulance was called to take them both to the hospital in Ramallah for treatment.

‘So you come to take Amina’ — a loving Syrian father saves his gay blogger daughter from the security services

Apr 29, 2011

A Gay Girl in Damascus

Editor’s note: Saleema told us to post “My father, the hero,” an astonishing post by Amina, A Gay Girl in Damascus, from two days back, and it being the internet, we’ve grabbed a lot of the post. Please read the full post at her site. It describes a nighttime visit from the “security services,” two men in their 20s in leather jackets. Amina, who is an out lesbian, and her father go to the door.

“Really?” my father interrupts. “My daughter is a salafi?” he starts laughing. “Look at her: can’t you see that that is ridiculous? She doesn’t even cover any more … and if you have really read even half of what she has written, you know how ridiculous that is. When was the last time you heard a wahhabi, or even someone from the brotherhood say that wearing hijab is the woman’s choice only?”
he pauses, they don’t say anything.
“I did not think so,” he goes on. “When was the last time you saw one of those write that there should be no religion as religion of teh state?”
Again nothing.
“When was the last time you saw them saying that the gays should be allowed the right to marry, a man to a man or a woman to a woman?”
Nothing.
“And when you say nothing, you show,” he says, “that you have no reason to take my daughter.”
They say nothing. Then one whispers something to the other, he smiles.
“Uh huh,” the man says, “so your daughter tells you everything, huh?”
“Of course,” my father says.
“Did she tell you that she likes to sleep with women?” he grins, pure poison, feeling like he has made a hit. “That she is one of those faggots who fucks little girls?” (the arabic he used is far cruder … you get the idea)
My dad glances at me. I nod; we understand each other.
“She is my daughter,” he says and I can see the anger growing in his eyes, “and she is who she is and if you want her, you must take me as well.”
“Stupid city-fuckers,” says the same guy. “All you rich pansies are the same. No wonder she ends up fucking girls and kikes” (again, the Arabic is much rawer ,,,)
He steps twoards me and puts his hand on my breast.
“Maybe if you were with a real man,” he lears, “you’d stop this nonsense and lies; maybe we should show you now and let your pansy father watch so he understands how real men are.”
I am almost trembling with rage. My dad moves his head slightly to tell me to be silent.
“What are you?” he says. “Did the jackal sleep with the monkey before you were born? What are your names?”

They tell him. He nods
“Your father,” he says to the one who threatened to rape me, “does he know this is how you act? He was an officer, yes? And he served in …” (he mentions exactly and then turns to the other) “and your mother? Wasn’t she the daughter of …?”
They are both wide-eyed, yes, that is right,
“What would they think if they heard how you act? And my daughter? Let me tell you this about her; she has done many things that, if I had been her, I would not have done. But she has never once stopped being my daughter and I will never once let you do any harm to her. You will not take her from here. And, if you try, know that generations of her ancestors are looking down on you. Do you know what is our family name? You do? Then you know where we stood when Muhammad, peace be upon him, went to Medina, you know who it was who liberated al Quds, you know too, maybe, that my father fought to save this country from the foreigners and who he was, know who my uncles and my brothers were … and if that doesn’t shame you enough, you know my cousins and you will leave here.
“You will leave her alone and you will tell the rest of your gang to leave her alone. And I will tell you something now because I think maybe you are too stupid to figure this out on your own. You are alawiyeen; do not deny that, I know you both are. We are Sunni. You know that. And in your offices and in your villages they are telling you that all of you must stand shoulder to shoulder now because we are coming for you as soon as we can and we will serve you as they have served ours in the land of the two rivers. So you are scared. I would be too.
“So you come here to take Amina. Let me tell you something though. She is not the one you should fear; you should be heaping praises on her and on people like her. They are the ones saying alawi, sunni, arabi, kurdi, duruzi, christian, everyone is the same and will be equal in the new Syria; they are the ones who, if the revolution comes, will be saving Your mother and your sisters. They are the ones fighting the wahhabi most seriously. You idiots are, though, serving them by saying ‘every sunni is salafi, every protester is salafi, every one of them is an enemy’ because when you do that you make it so.
“Your Bashar and your Maher, they will not live forever, they will not rule forever, and you both know that. So, if you want good things for yourselves in the future, you will leave and you will not take Amina with you. You will go back and you will tell the rest of yours that the people like her are the best friends the Alawi could ever have and you will not come for her again.
“And right now, you two will both apologize for waking her and putting her through all this. Do you understand me?”
And time froze when he stopped speaking. Now, they would either smack him down and beat him, rape me, and take us both away … or …
the first one nodded, then the second one.
“Go back to sleep,” he said, “we are sorry for troubling you.”
And they left!
As soon as the gate shut ,,, I heard clapping; everyone in the house was awake now and had been watching from balconies and doorways and windows all around the courtyard … and everyone was cheering …
MY DAD had just defeated them! Not with weapons but with words … and they had left …
I hugged him and kissed him; I literally owe him my life now.
And everyone came down and hugged and kissed, every member of the family, and the servants and everyone … we had won … this time …
My father is a hero; I always knew that … but now I am sure …

Egyptians continue protests against Israel and call for a million-man march to support Palestinians

Apr 28, 2011

Seham

Two great pictures at Kabobfest, 1 and 2, of Egyptian protesters getting on the Palestinian issue. And other news from the Arab uprisings:

Bahrain

Bahrain sentences protesters to death
Military court sentences four men to death over killing of police during unrest, state media says.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/201142881322769709.html
Bahrain urged to halt execution of protesters
A military court in Bahrain has sentenced four anti-government protesters to death. Authorities in Bahrain must not allow the execution of four protesters sentenced to death by a military court over the killing of two police officers in anti-government demonstrations last month, Amnesty International said today. “The Bahraini authorities have a responsibility to bring to justice those who commit violent crimes. But when doing so, they must uphold the right to fair trial and they must not use the death penalty under any circumstances,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/bahrain-urged-halt-execution-protesters-2011-04-28
Why Bahrain is Trying Civilians Before a Military Court (Time.com)
Time.com – The island kingdom’s massive crackdown on civil liberties continues with civilians about to be put in front of a military court.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110427/wl_time/08599206789500
Shiites decry ‘persecution in Bahrain’
Shiites face fast-tracked martial courts, continued detention of hundreds, demolition of mosques and arbitrary dismissal of employees in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, they say.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/shiites-decry-persecution-in-bahrain-20110427-1dw2g.html
Bahrain: We must speak out about brutality in the Gulf
To have different levels of tolerance for different despots raises awkward questions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/17/observer-editorial-britain-role-in-gulf
Bahrain thanks Saudi Arabia
Saudi media do cover Bahrain. The mouthpiece of Prince Salman and his sons, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, has this headline: “A Green Bahraini Day in thanks to People and Leadership of Saudi Arabia.”  I kid you not.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/bahrain-thanks-saudi-arabia.html
Lebanese Muslim scholars urge Bahrain to end crackdown
Sheikh Abdel Amir Kabalan, head of the Shiite Higher Council, urged the Bahraini government to halt all forms of “injustice and oppression.” BEIRUT: Violence against Bahraini protesters should cease, Lebanese Muslim scholars urged Manama Wednesday, warning of a conspiracy to incite strife among the island’s population.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/Apr/27/Muslim-Scholars-urge-Bahrain-to-stop-violence-against-protesters.ashx

More on Bahrain
Jane sent me this (I cite with her permission):  “I guess you saw the news that four men have been sentenced to death today by a military court that convicted them of killing two policemen during the uprising. Today Bahrain TV aired a “documentary” that gives full details, including televised “confessions” from several of the men. The programme has been uploaded to YouTube here:  (Yes, it genuinely does begin “Bahrain is a country of peace and love…”) As some people have asked, why would defendants who were pleading “not guilty” make confessions on camera? The names of those confessing aren’t given, but Chanad, an eagle-eyed blogger/tweep, pointed out that the first man “confessing” (six minutes into the programme) appears to be Ali Isa Saqer. Mr Saqer was one of the people detained in connection with the killings, but he was not sentenced yesterday. That’s because he already died in custody in early April. Human Rights Watch, which saw his body, said it bore signs of “horrific abuse”. He was buried on April 10th. Frank Gardner of the BBC wrote about him recently (the last line is particularly worth reading): “Accused of trying to run over a policeman during a protest, Ali Isa al-Saqer had handed himself over to police after his family say they were threatened. Six days later he died in their custody, the authorities say he fought his jailers. His family, seeing his battered body for the first time since his arrest, collapsed in howls of grief; his wounds were quite simply horrific. Beaten black and blue, his lacerated back resembled a bloody zebra; he appeared to have been whipped with heavy cables, his ankles and wrists manacled. I brought up his case with the health minister, Dr Fatima al-Beloushi, who is also minister for human rights. At first she said that the opposition had altered the images to invent the lacerations. But when I replied that we had been to the funeral and seen them ourselves she immediately promised a full investigation.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-on-bahrain.html
Bahrain

One of my sources:  “So 4 of the protestors were sentenced to death. 3 given life. The last time the death penalty was imposed was in 2006 after three incidents of 3 bangledeshis killing Bahrainis – one of the bangledeshis was a cook for a super-rich Bahraini family (wonder if he was abused by them?). Since two of the ones killed were from prominent tribes the government decided to ban all bangledeshis from coming to Bahrain. I have no idea if the ban still exists – there is a similar ban in either Saudi or Kuwait. Here’s an old blog post on the issue: Funny how the defenders of the Bahraini government forgot this and now are acting like they are the defenders of all expats in Bahrain. At the beginning of the violence, the government claimed that the protesters cut of the tongue of a bangledeshi muazzin. The Bangledeshi ambassador denied this.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/bahrain_28.htm

When a Bahraini secular suddenly becomes a caller for an Islamic republic

One of my reliable sources on Bahrain:  “I’m not sure if you have heard of Abdul Hadi and Khawaja. He is one of the most prominent human rights activists that have been detained by the Bahraini regime. Now Al Khwaja is one of the regime’s most hated dissidents (probably right after Mushaima and Singece who are the leaders of the banned opposition group Haq). They have been trying to get rid of him and get him to stay quiet for years. Their biggest problem they have with him, (other than the fact that he exposes their crimes) is that unlike a lot of the prominent dissidents in Bahrain, he is calling for the downfall of the entire regime and for the establishment of a republic. He has been doing it for years and he just never ever shuts up. Now this has lead them and their pro-government supporters as an extremist, a terrorist, and most hilarious of all, as a person calling for the creation of an Islamic Iranian style theocracy in Bahrain. Well the funny thing is, according to a wikileaks cable, the Crown Prince himself calls Al Khawaja secular. In fact he repeats this so much that it has lead me to believe that the entire regime knows very well that Al-Khawaja would never ever call for an Islamic republic. Here is the link to the wikileaks article in case you are interested:

By the way, Al-Khawaja’s daughter was the one who went on a hunger strike and wrote an open letter to Obama. I believe that he is being put on trial now.”

PS The daughter calls her blog The Angry (Female) Arab
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/when-bahraini-secular-suddenly-becomes.html
|Egypt
Egypt-Israel gas pipeline fire could rage for days, sources say
Explosion rocks natural gas terminal, disrupting supply to neighboring Israel and Jordan, following the second armed attack on Egypt gas pipelines since February.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/egypt-israel-gas-pipeline-fire-could-rage-for-days-sources-say-1.358458?localLinksEnabled=false
Egyptian youth call for million-man marches to support Palestinians
A call for “million-man” marches in support of the Palestinians has been made by Egypt’s Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution. The first march, to be held in Alexandria on 13 May, will also demand the opening of the Egypt-Gaza border for food, medical and humanitarian aid; marchers will head for the Israeli Consulate in the city.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2283-egyptian-youth-call-for-million-man-marches-to-support-palestinians
Photos: Protesting the Israeli Embassy
The Israeli Embassy in Giza, a once impermissible area to hold protests during the godforsaken days of Mubarak, has recently been a hotspot of demonstrations organized by Egyptian youth. They started weeks ago with a spontaneous demo that marched from Tahrir to the embassy in response to the attacks on Gaza. They are rallying to call for an immediate stop to the the brutal attacks on the collectively punished civilians of Gaza strip, and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and severing ties with the Zionist state. Protesters held banners that read “Here is the Palestinian embassy” (below left) and waved the Palestinian flags high (below right).
http://www.kabobfest.com/2011/04/photos-protesting-cairos-israeli-embassy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kabobfest%2FGrillMe+%28KABOBfest%29
Another protest against the Israeli occupation embassy in Cairo
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/another-protest-against-israeli.html
Egypt’s socialist network keeps the spirit of the revolution alive
Much of the old regime is still in place in Egypt – the Popular Alliance’s aim is to make people aware of alternatives. With September’s parliamentary elections just around the corner, Egypt’s revolution is in a vulnerable phase. Without clear, progressive direction based on the values forged in Tahrir Square, there is a real possibility that remnants of the old system will re-establish a grip on power.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/28/egypt-popular-alliance
The new Egypt: go tell the Zionist hoodlums
“The attack comes at a particularly delicate time as the Egyptian public — freed from restrictions that had been imposed by the government of President Hosni Mubarak — has aired anger more openly at Israel and at its own government’s handling of the original pipeline deal. It also comes as the Egyptian authorities have lost some control over the North Sinai after many police officers pulled back during the political turmoil surrounding the ouster of Mr. Mubarak in February.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-egypt-go-tell-zionist-hoodlums.html
My comrades, my heroes in Egypt
“Labour movements are continuing the revolution today. Their flagship cause has become the ongoing strikes in Shubra el-Kom, where disgruntled textile workers are calling for the nationalisation of their factory, which was sold to Indonesian owners at a fraction of its value in an example of the institutional corruption fostered by Mubarak. The Popular Alliance has seized upon this, using the protests as a recruiting ground – highly effectively – and identifying itself with the struggle. Should the workers be triumphant, it would set a precedent for public ownership of hundreds more companies, while cementing the socialists as the workers’ representatives. The Alliance has built on union demands to advocate a raft of populist reforms such as subsidised housing for the poor, free education and greater local representation through city presidents. These connect neatly with the core demands of the revolution for social justice, freedom and democracy, which will have cross-demographic appeal.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-comrades-my-heroes-in-egypt.html
Egypt’s Years Of Repression Give Way To New-Found Voice
CAIRO (Reuters) For decades, authoritarian rule and police brutality ensured the only voice heard from Egypt was that of its leaders. Since popular protests deposed President Hosni Mubarak, the silent majority has erupted into a cacophony. Emboldened by the success of their uprising, almost everyone in post-Mubarak Egypt, from Western-educated professionals to illiterate farmhands to once-banned Islamists, has something to say about their nation’s past and future.
http://weirdnews.aol.com/2011/04/27/egypt-democracy-2011_n_854315.html
Libya
Gaddafi forces regain Libya’s western border
Rebels forced to abandon post on Tunisian frontier as border town of Zintan comes under rocket attack by Gaddafi forces.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/04/201142815329302425.html
Gates hints at killing Gadhafi
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that Libyan military command centers “wherever we find them” are legitimate targets for U.S. and NATO air attack, suggesting that “strongman” Moammar Gadhafi himself is increasingly in danger.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110426/ap_on_re_us/us_us_libya
Ex-CIA chief: Kadhafi was good partner
The former chief of the CIA on Tuesday praised Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s past cooperation and said his downfall could complicate US interests in the short term.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110426/pl_afp/libyaconflictsyriapoliticsunrestusintelligence?utm_campaign=DTN+Libya+Uprising:&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Gaddafi arms Libyan ‘home guard’ – minimum age 17
Regime in Libya trains civilians in use of AK-47s in attempt to build resistance to Pro NATO Enemy Combatants
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/27/gaddafi-arms-17-libyan-nato
Shots, explosions heard in Libyan rebel stronghold
BENGHAZI, Libya, April 28 (Reuters) – Explosions and bursts of gunfire were heard in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya on Thursday, a Reuters correspondent said. The cause was not immediate clear. Some residents had attributed an earlier outburst of gunfire to a possible clash between feuding local families. Young Benghazi men often fire guns, and occasionally rocket propelled grenades, into the air as an act of defiance against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, whose forces were expelled from eastern Libya in a February uprising.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/shots-explosions-heard-in-libyan-rebel-stronghold
Libya Death Toll Could Be As High As 30,000: U.S.
WASHINGTON — The death toll in Libya after more than two months of violence could reach as high as 30,000, an Obama administration official said Wednesday. Gene Cretz, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, said it is very hard to gauge how many people have died in strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s crackdown on protesters and the subsequent fighting between rebels and pro-government forces.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/27/libya-death-toll-could-be_n_854582.html
Nato fire ‘kills Misrata rebels’
A stray Nato air strike kills at least 11 rebel fighters in the besieged Libyan port of Misrata, say reports, as intense fighting with pro-Gaddafi forces continues.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13223197
Battle for Libya: Uprising in Nalut
For more than two months, a battle has been raging between Muammar Gadaffi’s forces and opposition fighters in the Nefusa mountain range of western Libya. More than 30,000 residents have moved across the border to Tunisia. Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught went to the town of Nalut to meet the people testing their new sense of freedom – and the risks that come with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtqOV7i8ak8&feature=youtube_gdata
Fighting continues in Libya’s Misurata
Rebels say humanitarian deliveries affected in besieged city, as battles rage for control of port rage on.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/04/2011427174152820654.html
Libya rebels battle for Misurata airport
Fighting continues after Libyan leader’s forces are pushed back from city’s sea port.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/04/2011428101929477818.html
Libyan rebels to free five Gaddafi soldiers
BENGHAZI, Libya, April 27 (Reuters) – Libyan rebels will free five captured Libyan soldiers loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, a senior rebel spokesman said, in a goodwill gesture aimed at boosting the rebels’ credibility internationally. Libya’s opposition forces hold as many as 32 Libyans and 72 foreign mercenaries captured during fighting in the uprising that began in mid-February, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the rebel National Council, said.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libyan-rebels-to-free-five-gaddafi-soldiers
U.S. gives limited support to rebel government in Libya
The U.S. will encourage other nations to line up behind the Transitional National Council, but continues to wrestle with whether it should extend recognition to the Libyan group. The Obama administration gave an official blessing to the chief Libyan opposition group Wednesday, opening the way for closer ties but not necessarily recognition as the country’s legitimate government.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/uvcybPIsfYk/la-fg-libya-rebels-20110428,0,5393485.story
Children bear brunt of Libyan conflict
With the conflict raging on in Libya, education is suffering, especially in the rebel-held areas. From schools to unversities, everything is shut. Some students and teachers are on the frontline in the battle against government forces. Al Jazeera’s Omar Al Saleh has more from Benghazi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-eej7mwc1E&feature=youtube_gdata
As conflict drags on, food supplies run low in Benghazi
Fears of looming food shortage have grown since the World Food Programme warned that food stocks would run out in two months.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/as-conflict-drags-on-food-supplies-run-low-in-benghazi
Syria
Three Syrian soldiers killed, 15 injured by “terrorists”
A military source said ” extremist and terrorist groups” attacked some Syrian army units Tuesday along the road leading to the occupied Golan Heights, killing three soldiers and wounding 15, the official SANA news agency reported.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-04/27/c_13847236.htm
Syrian soldiers ‘switching allegiances’
Reports are coming out of Syria that some soldiers are siding with the anti-government protesters. Amateur footage is said to show that some troops have been shot at from within their own ranks for refusing to fire upon protesters in the city of Deraa. Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the footage, which is said to have been shot on Wednesday. Imran Khan reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIeEY2topAU&feature=youtube_gdata
Syrian ruling party members defect en masse
More than 200 Baath Party members announced their resignation Wednesday in the largest expression of dissent since the party came to power in 1963.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/iqwh7VVKEoQ/Syrian-ruling-party-members-defect-en-masse
UN fails to agree on Syria condemnation
Security Council members remain divided on US-backed statement condemning violence against protesters.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/201142723514236533.html
Dozens arrested in Syrian town
Residents say security forces raid homes in the mountain town Madaya, amid reports of soldiers switching allegiances.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/2011428103427307165.html
Al Jazeera suspends Arabic service operations in Syria
DUBAI, April 28 (Reuters) – Qatar-based satellite channel Al Jazeera said it had suspended some operations in Syria, in a move a media watchdog said was the result of restrictions and attacks on its staff. A spokesman for the network told Reuters the suspended operations were from the channel’s Arabic language service. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the network had told it Damascus had subjected Syrian employees to sustained pressure to resign from the news channel.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/al-jazeera-suspends-arabic-service-operations-in-syria/
“Protesters Want Changes to Syria’s Power Structure,” Landis on NPR
The Assad family, which has ruled Syria for the last 40 years, belongs to the Alawite religious sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam. It includes only 12 percent of the country’s population. Syria expert Joshua Landis talks to Steve Inskeep about how the family has maintained its power.
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=9404&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Syriacomment+%28Syria+Comment%29
Syrian Communist Party (Unified), “Stop Violence Now and Start National Dialogue!”
The ongoing tragedy only benefits the enemies of Syria, the enemies of our national project that is guiding the country, the enemies who are promoting the American and Zionist project in the region, as well as the forces who do not want the process of reform to deepen and expand. Our party, which keenly feels the responsibility for our country, believing that Syria belongs to all its citizens and that every drop of blood of its sons and daughters is precious, calls for a national dialogue to marginalize the advocates of sedition and division, based on broad and direct participation of all, of not only the parties of the Progressive National Front but also other national forces outside the front, a dialogue that includes representatives of economic enterprises, civil society organizations, cultural and intellectual associations, labor unions and professional associations, religious leaders and other figures of national stature, all who cherish Syria and its national unity, in order to achieve the following objectives. . .
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/syria270411.html
From Aleppo
“As I was walking through Suleymaniyya yesterday, a upper class Christian neighborhood in Aleppo, I stumbled across a protest that was taking place.  Based on their chants, it was a mix of opposition and supporters of Bashar, although the latter was bussed in and quickly outnumbered the former.  Weirdly enough, I haven’t found anything about it in todays news, although it’s possible that most news sources have effectively given up on Aleppo.  I’ve heard that Syrians have begun mocking Aleppans for their reluctance to join in on the protests, even denying some Aleppo plated cars gas in other cities.  A friend of mine here says that one of the main reasons there are so few protests in Aleppo is the lack of Alawites.  As she puts it, there’s no “friction” here between the Alawites and everyone else, i.e. they don’t see firsthand the absurd social privileges Alawites receive.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-aleppo.html
Muslim Brotherhood
Any alliance or deal with Muslim Brotherhood by any leftist or progressive should be rejected categorically.  This organization can’t be trusted.  Those who will trust the Brotherhood will face the same fate like those Iranian leftists who trusted Khumayni’s empty assurances before the Revolution.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/muslim-brotherhood.html
UAE
UAE targets activists as clampdown widens
Six civil society activists are arrested and the government takes over a rights organization in the United Arab Emirates. The arrest of six civil society activists and the government’s takeover of a rights organization in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are part of a worrying clampdown on dissent in the country, Amnesty International said today. Five of the activists were among more than 100 signatories of a recent petition calling for democratic reforms in the UAE, according to local media reports.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/uae-targets-activists-clampdown-widens-2011-04-28
Yemen
Yemeni president must be held accountable over rights violations
Yemen’s power-transfer deal must not allow immunity against prosecution for human rights abuses. The Yemeni president and his political allies must not be given immunity from prosecution as the price for ending the country’s spiralling human rights crisis, Amnesty International said today. Following months of protests against his 33-year rule, President Ali Abdallah Saleh is expected to agree a deal to transfer power to opposition leaders and step down 30 days later.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/no-immunity-part-yemen-transition-deal-2011-04-26
Gunmen Kill 10 in Yemen Anti-Government Protests
Plainclothes gunmen killed 10 people and wounded dozens more in Yemen’s capital Wednesday when they opened fire on protesters demanding the immediate ouster of the president, whom Gulf Arab mediators want to ease from power.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7dc859959871380b2eb9dc996978ef05
Saudi Arabia
Two bloggers arrested in Saudi Arabia
Will this make the news in the West? Two Saudi bloggers arrested?
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/two-bloggers-arrested-in-saudi-arabia.html
Saudi propaganda
Saudi propaganda is very funny indeed.  Not only that they are audacious enough to offer advice on how to construct democracies in Arab countries, but they play with the facts and headlines in a funny way.  The headline of the mouthpiece of Prince Salman and his sons, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat (one of the most vulgar of the various propaganda sheets of House of Saud and STDs) talks about “mass resignations” from the Syrian Ba`th party, and then you read that 30 members resigned (followed later by 200 according to the paper). But there are around 200,000 Ba`th members in Dir`ah alone.  Of course, people join the Ba`th party in Syria like people joined the Communist Party in USSR: for advancement and career opportunities and opportunism (there were some 17 million members in the Soviet Communist Party before the fall of communism).
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/saudi-propaganda_28.html
Riddle of Riyadh
How Saudi Arabia seeks to shape the Middle East.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-13208800
Analysis/Op-ed
Arab spring pushes Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah to reconcile
But many are skeptical that the accord will hold, given that huge differences remain between Fatah and Hamas, and Israel is strongly opposed to Palestinian unity.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/As2dD45M0KA/Arab-spring-pushes-Palestinian-rivals-Hamas-and-Fatah-to-reconcile

New trends in Arab politics
I expect that some features of Arab politics from the 1960s and 1970s will make a comeback.  States that opened up, like Egypt and Tunisia, may experience plots and assassinations.  Decades-long frustrations are destined to have an impact, here and there, and maybe everywhere.  The second bombing of the gas pipeline to Israel is only a beginning.  Israel has been an actor for decades, while Arabs were forced to watch.  Tables will be reversed.  Israel will begin to watch a show that it won’t enjoy.  The political trends are clear: from North Africa to Gulf.  The counter-revolution is in full force, to be sure, but it suffers from a major weakness: it is led by House of Saud and sons of Zayid, for potato’s sake.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-trends-in-arab-politics.html
Aljazeera’s standards
The main complain about Aljazeera’s coverage is not that it covers Arab upheavals but that in only covers selectively and that it lowers its standards.  Any person can call and claim to be a “witness in Syria” and he would be put on the air and allowed to say anything.  One pro-regime Syrian tested that theory: he was put on the air, and then went on to curse Aljazeera and the Emir of Qatar.  (The obscenities would offend your ears so I did not provide the clip).  Now former Aljazeera anchor woman, Luna Ash-Shibl (who hosted the program For Women Only), who resigned with four other female anchors over accusations of gender insensitivity spoke to a pro-Syrian regime news channel.  She criticizes the the network but her remarks are not credible because she is an unapologetic advocate for the regime, and she advances wild conspiracy theories of the Arab revolutions, stating that they were all manipulated by the US and Israel.  If only Arabs know how much Zionists would like us to believe that we are too weak and too impotent to chart our own destiny.  Enough with those silly conspiracy theories that maintain that some Zionist organizations plotted the Arab upheavals.  If that is the case, why Arab Zionists freaking out?  Are you kidding me??  Zionists would get rid of Theodor Herzl before they get rid of Husni Mubarak.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/aljazeeras-standards.html
Memo From Cairo: Embattled Arab Leaders Decide It’s Better to Fight Than Quit
The lesson autocrats are taking from the Arab Spring is that those who quit, like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, face humiliation, while those who continue to use force gain leverage.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4c9d31167a877e7149ecc2ba2752213e
Worries about the Arab Democratic Renaissance, Hasan Afif El-Hasan
The struggle for the future of the Arab nations has just begun. The best thing that can be said about their uprising is that it was truly ‘made in the Arab lands by the Arab youth.’ The West including the US can influence events but they learnt from the war on Iraq to do so quietly, behind the scenes. The West especially the US cannot be a reliable supporter of democracy unless its interests are served.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16826

As a Holocaust survivor, AIPAC does not speak for me

Apr 28, 2011

Hedy Epstein

At the end of one of my first journeys to the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 2004, I endured a shocking experience at Ben-Gurion Airport. I never imagined that Israeli security forces would abuse a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor, but they held me for five hours, and strip-searched and cavity-searched every part of my naked body. The only shame these security officials expressed was to turn their badges around so that their names were invisible.

The only conceivable purpose for this gross violation of my bodily integrity was to humiliate and terrify me. But it had just the opposite effect. It made me more determined to speak out against abuses by the Israeli government and military.

Yet my own experience, unpleasant as it was, is nothing compared to the indignities and abuses heaped on Palestinians year after year. Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is based not on equal rights and fair play, but on what Human Rights Watch has termed a “two-tier” legal system – in other words, apartheid, with one set of laws for Jews and a harsh, oppressive set of laws for Palestinians.

This, however, is the legal system and security state AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) will defend from May 22-24 at its annual conference. And, despite this grim reality, members of Congress will converge to hail AIPAC and Israel . The Palestinians’ lack of freedom is bound to be obscured at the AIPAC conference with its obsessive focus on security and shunting aside of anything to do with upholding fundamental Palestinian rights.

Several years ago near Der Beilut in the West Bank, I saw the Israeli police turn a water cannon on our nonviolent protest. As it happened, I recalled Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 and wondered why an ostensibly democratic society responded to peaceable assembly by trying, literally, to drown out the voice of our protest.

In Mas’ha, also in the occupied West Bank , I joined a demonstration against the wall Israel has built, usually inside the West Bank and occasionally towering to 25 feet in height. I saw a red sign warning ominously of “mortal danger” to any who dared to cross in an area where it ran as a fence. I saw Israeli soldiers aiming at unarmed Israelis, Palestinians and international protesters. I also saw blood pouring out of Gil Na’amati, a young Israeli whose first public act after completing his mandatory military service was to protest against the wall. I saw shrapnel lodged in the leg of Anne Farina, one of my traveling companions from St. Louis . And I thought of Kent State and Jackson State, where National Guardsmen opened fire in 1970 on protesters against the Vietnam War.

So as AIPAC meets and members of Congress cheer, I hold these images of Israel in my mind and fear AIPAC’s ability to move US policy in dangerous directions. AIPAC does a disservice to the Palestinians, the Israelis and the American people. It helps to keep the Middle East in a perpetual state of war and this year will be no different from last year as it keeps up a steady drumbeat calling for war against Iran .

AIPAC pretends to speak for all Jews, but it certainly does not speak for me or other members of the Jewish community in this country who are committed to equal rights for all and are aware that American interventionism is likely to bring further disaster and chaos to the Middle East .

Israel, of course, would not be able to carry out its war crimes against civilians in Lebanon and Gaza without the United States – and our $3 billion in military aid – permitting it to do so. At 86 years old, I use every ounce of my energy to educate the American public about the need to stop supporting the abuses committed by the Israeli government and military against the Palestinian people. Sometimes there are people who try to shout me down and scream that I am a self-hating Jew, but most of the time the audience is receptive to hear from someone who survived the Holocaust and now works to free the Palestinians from Israeli oppression.

The vicious discrimination brought to bear against Palestinians in the occupied territories deserves no applause this week from members of Congress attending the AIPAC conference. Instead, they should raise basic questions with Israeli officials about decades of inferior rights endured by Palestinians both inside Israel and the occupied territories.

Hedy Epstein is a Holocaust survivor, who writes and travels extensively to speak about social justice causes and Middle Eastern affairs. Take action by attending Move Over AIPAC, a gathering in Washington DC from May 21-24, 2011, to expose AIPAC and build the vision for a new US foreign policy in the Middle East! More information can be found at www.MoveOverAIPAC.org.

Zuckerman rag prints bald-faced lies on upcoming flotilla to Gaza

Apr 28, 2011

Alex Kane and Nima Shirazi

It comes as no surprise that a newspaper owned by Mort Zuckerman, an ardent Zionist, would be anti-Palestinian and that it would strongly oppose efforts to break the Israeli naval blockade by sending a flotilla of ships to Gaza.  But arecent editorial printed by the Zuckerman-owned New York Daily News is a particularly egregious example of U.S. media’s aversion to the facts on Israel/Palestine.  The bald-faced lies–which follow recent Israeli pronouncements about the “terrorists” organizing the upcoming international flotilla to break the Israeli blockade–printed would be laughable only if it wasn’t going to be read by thousands of people.

The editorial states:

Sponsors of the flotilla are happily playing with fire, as they did a year ago in sailing into the blockade under the guise of delivering medicines and the like to Gaza. In fact, some of those ships carried suicidal fighters instead of useful goods. Nine of the brigands died when Israeli commandos were forced to board and came under assault.

To claim that those aboard the Mavi Marmara were the aggressors is to completely invert reality. The attack was conducted in international waters after Israel cut off all communications from the ships and surrounded the flotilla with over 20 naval vessels and warships, along with multiple helicopters. In addition to the 45 highly-trained and heavily-armed commandos who rappelled onto the largest ship, the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, murdering at least 9 civilians and wounding about 60 more, about 650 other Israeli troops, including surveillance and support troops alongside those who actually boarded the ships, took part in the illegal assault on the flotilla.

And then there’s these howlers:

No one of any credibility disputes that Israel’s blockade is legal under international law. In coordination with Egypt, Israel barred sea-going shipments into Gaza in 2009 after years of Palestinian mortar and rocket attacks on Jewish soil.

As a board of inquiry put it:

“Israel imposed the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip for military-security reasons, which mainly concerned the need to prevent weapons, terrorists and money” from entering.

The UN has recognized the blockade’s legitimacy under international law. Now, it must prevent this perilous propaganda ploy.

First of all, the naval blockade has been in place since 2007, along with the land and air blockade–not 2009 as the editorial claims.  The “board of inquiry” the Daily News refers to is the Turkel Commission, the name for the Israeli investigation into the flotilla events–hardly a neutral source of facts about the blockade of Gaza.

And finally, it appears that Zuckerman’s newspaper likes to make up facts.  The UN has not “recognized the blockade’s legitimacy under international law.”  In fact, various UN reports have labeled the blockade illegal.  The UN fact-finding mission on the 2008-09 Gaza conflict, known as the Goldstone report, stated that the blockade was a form of collective punishment and that it was therefore in “violation of the provisions of article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”  The UN report on the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara also clearly states that the blockade is illegal. In 2009, theAssociated Press reported that “U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay has accused Israel of violating the rules of war with its blockade stopping people and goods from moving in and out of the Gaza Strip.”

Nima Shirazi is a political commentator from New York City. His analysis of United States policy and Middle East issues, particularly with reference to current events in Iran, Israel, and Palestine, can also be found in numerous other online and print publications, as well as his own website, WideAsleepInAmerica.com.

Alex Kane, a freelance journalist based in New York City, blogs on Israel/Palestine and Islamophobia in the United States atalexbkane.wordpress.com.  Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.

9/11 and western prejudice fostered the Arab revolutions –Abdelkader Benali

Apr 28, 2011

Philip Weiss

What happened to my utter joy at the Egyptian revolution? Where is my feeling that it was going to sweep away the injustices in the Middle East and American foreign policy, and ravish the U.S. too in a wave of Arabophobia? Well it’s still there.

Last night at the 92d Street Y in New York, a group of Arab intellectuals had a tremendous conversation about the cultural and political changes in the Arab world that are slowly but surely rocking the universe. I want to take my hat off right here to the 92d Street Y for staging the event. And Pen World Voices for setting up the panel. The 92d Street Y is a Zionist organization. It will brook no criticism of the Jewish state; and don’t worry, I will get to the horror of these intellectual conditions in a subsequent post, because even last night’s conversation plays a role in this destitution that is threatening all our lives.

But let’s not talk about Jews, let’s talk about Arabs, and let me celebrate the important ideas that were expressed last night. They were ideas about the universality of the human experience, the chain of ideas and spirit that unites western culture to the Arab world, and the incredible leadership that young Arabs have demonstrated in breaking all our minds out of horrible prejudice, the prejudice that has built an iron wall across the Arab world, from Palestine to Iraq.

And so let me get to the argument. I am going to quote four disputing Arab intellectuals, after Jake Weisberg, the deft moderator, got out of the way, and the intellectuals got to fight. The argument began over a simple issue: Why did we leave the Arab world? For three of the intellectuals had left. One lives in Holland, one in Paris, one in New York. Only Issandr El-Amrani, of the Arabist.net (and LRB on Libya), lives in the Arab world.

I will begin with Rula Jebreal, and her explaining why she left Palestine and Egypt.

She said that the Egyptians created files on cultural figures to use against them, and a great singer, who had been a lover of Mubarak’s son, the son threw her out of a second floor window and she broke her back and her career was blocked.

“This is the lever that they use, the regime uses, against intellectuals. If you notice, all of us live abroad. You have no choice. [pointing at the others on stage] He lives in Holland, he is in Paris, I live in New York…. For Arab intellectuals and journalists, you have no choice– disappear, be in jail, or leave. These are the choices. 100 percent of them.”

So during the revolutions, Jebreal said, the intellectuals were absent. They were dead or in jail or abroad. “So we watched our countries from abroad.”

And from there Jebreal got to the heart of the discussion, the anti-Arab feeling in the west.

“The prejudice it was very hard. It was very hard to talk about our countries after September 11…. But the truth– the prejudice against us–we have to fight our regimes, but abroad we have to fight the prejudice, the discrimination, and we have to fight something stronger, the idea that is in the head of the majority of the people in this room and in this country before Tahrir Square, this idea that most of us, we are not liberal. We beat our women, that we marry more than once, whatever, and we are terrorists. If we are not terrorists, then we are potential terrorists. This idea started changing in Tahrir Square.

“So I really would like to thank these women and men who stood for three weeks asking for freedom and dignity and asking for a better life. They convinced all of us that we have a right to that, but I ithink they changed somehow the opinion in the western world.”

There came a showering of applause for Jebreal, and then Issandr El-Amrani said that the analysis was “a little unfair.” He suggested that Jebreal was not in touch with the Arab world.

He said that in the last five or six years, Arab culture had changed. He spoke of an underground Moroccan gay magazine. The editor was not from an elite background. His family had not lived abroad. And the editor was not out to his family. “But slowly he’s creating room for debate, this is one of the most wonderful things about what is happening in Tunisia, Egypt.”

El Amrani said that when he went to Tunis in January after Ben Ali left, he heard people arguing in the streets about a parliamentary system or a presidential system. Some said, “We are Arabs, we need a strong president—and back and forth it went.”

And then the same happened in Tahrir. It was not just the secular elites. He saw a peasant, whose shoes were falling apart, who had come on a third class train from southern Egypt, unemployed, dirty, uneducated. And the man said, “I’m staying here either until Mubarak goes or I die.”

And bearded Islamists were participating alongside Christians, and women trading food. “It was a gasp of fresh air. People feel that they can have a conversation.” Yes it may take 25 years, El Amrani said, as it had taken 25 years after the French revolution for things to sort out. “It may be generations. But the conversation is now possible. The conversation wasn’t possible before because the public space wasn’t there.”

Then it was Abdellah Taia’s turn, and he was in the Jebreal camp. He is a Moroccan gay writer who has lived in Paris for the last eight years, lithe with close cropped hair and a plaid shirt. He talked about the political space in Morocco, and how closed it was. There was no room to criticize; he was made to feel that Islam was against him. Though inside he understood, it is their problem not mine– he could be both “gay and Muslim.” This absence of political space was created by a dictator, Hassan 2. “He put all the leaders in jail in the 70s and 80s, he invented a literary prize.” And this is why Taia had had to get away. Because there was no room to criticize. There were no intellectuals on TV.

Now came the fourth speaker, Abdelkader Benali. He grew up poor in Morocco. He has lived in Holland for 30 years; and his ideas, which echoed El Amrani’s, were simply electrifying.

He began by speaking of the cultural space that develops in a closed society. When there is oppression and people are put into prison just for speaking their own language, well then the society changes, and people change. Because cultural and political ideas need to be exchanged regardless of conditions.

“Suddenly grocery sellers become poets, taxi drivers are commentators. And someone who cleans the street becomes achronicleur of what is happening in the streets.”

Wow. And when Benali went back to Morocco from Europe, “even my grandmother who is illiterate, she knew what was going on in the world, how Morocco was faring.” She told his sisters to get an education, never to stay in the kitchen. School “is the only thing you have, otherwise you become like me.” She wanted those children in Europe.

Then came 9/11. And that is when the Arab revolution began.

“I have a feeling that the Arab intellectuals, especially the ones who became articulated in the west, they came back to their own homes and their own countries. They decided there was so much orientalist militarist language going on about the Orient, that they said, there is no place in the west now for us to create a discourse.”

This had befallen Benali himself. The hatred toward Arabs in Amsterdam even as the towers fell, a neighbor’s belief that he had no empathy, and the Israel-Palestine issue too (though I am keeping my powder dry, reader)—he had felt alienated from this great western society that was putting “experts” on television to speak about the Arab world, when he knew so much more about the Arab world.

And it had driven him back to the Arab world.

“We go back home and we see what we can do here. This is our west actually. We created our own kind of version of intellectual climate, and it was going to be a secret Nobody should know about it. So what you see is all these young urban intellectuals flying under the radar, doing things sometimes only once, because if you do it once, it will be closed down.”

And these were the materials of the revolution.

“In the last five or six years this has become a very fruitful terrain for dialogue, for talking about the responsibility of an intellectual writer to form his society, to give an idea of how it could look like, to create new dreams…”

The conceit of the evening was that Arab societies are shut down and now they are being liberated. It’s an arrogant western conceit, god knows that I feel some of it in myself. We gave them the tools. Yes and one of the tools was our prejudice. They had to build their own west.

Backgrounder on Hamas-Fatah split

Apr 28, 2011

Pamela Olson

Shortly after Hamas won Parliamentary elections in 2006, I wrote an essay that addressed frequently asked questions about the Hamas election victory. I thought now would be a good time to link to it (read the full essay here), given that it looks like Hamas and Fatah have finally closed a unity deal — to remind people what got us here in the first place.

It should go without saying, but this should not be read as a personal endorsement for Hamas. It’s nothing more or less than a description of the atmosphere in Palestine in 2006.

An excerpt:

Why is Hamas popular?

After the results were announced, many in the West were worried that the Palestinians had elected a rejectionist terrorist organization and that the will of the Palestinian people was endless warfare or even collective suicide.

But polls consistently reveal that a solid majority of Palestinians are anxious for a negotiated peace with Israel based on international law, and that most desire a secular democratic state alongside a sovereign Israel. So why was there so much support for an Islamist movement?

Palestinians elected Mahmoud Abbas as President of Palestine in January 2005 as a vote of confidence in his pragmatic message of peaceful negotiations toward a two-state solution. Palestinians gave him a chance despite Fatah’s long history of corruption, nepotism, undemocratic methods, and counterproductive political calculations. Hamas also respected the ceasefire that Abbas brokered in Sharm el-Sheikh on February 8, 2005, in deference to public opinion. Hopes for peace after the election of Abbas were enthusiastic and genuine.

What did the Palestinian people receive in return? From February 2005, after Abbas was sworn in and the ceasefire was brokered, until January 2006, when the Hamas elections took place, more than 150 Palestinians were killed, including 38 children, at least 23 men assassinated by Israeli soldiers, and 8 innocent bystanders killed in the course of assassinations. Thousands more were arrested, making a mockery of Israel’s agreement to release Palestinian prisoners as stipulated by the terms of the ceasefire.

In the same period, 37 Israelis were killed, most in suicide bombings conducted by a rogue faction called Islamic Jihad. Scores of homemade rockets were also launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel both before and after the disengagement, causing very little damage or injuries but a great deal of fear. It is unclear whether Abbas was unwilling or unable to stop them. Israeli closures and refusal to allow necessary equipment and ammunition into the Palestinian territories weakened and splintered Abbas’s police force, and Israel’s failure to abide by the terms of the ceasefire weakened his political mandate.

Israel also continued to expand its illegal settlements in the West Bank at such a rate that the number of settlers actually increased in 2005 despite the Gaza disengagement. Settler terrorist attacks against unarmed Palestinian farmers and villagers continued and intensified, with their usual near-impunity from the law. Hamas, though not responsible for any suicide attacks on Israeli soil since August 2004, was constantly targeted, and Abbas was soon declared “no partner.”

When Israel refused even to negotiate the terms of the Gaza redeployment, Hamas was able to take credit for the withdrawal and Abbas, his party, and the PA were made to look irrelevant and foolish. Palestinian hopes that Israel would negotiate in good faith plummeted. Meanwhile conditions in Gaza only worsened with constant Israeli bombardments, sonic boom attacks, and closures that made it even more difficult for Gaza’s goods to reach world markets than before the disengagement.

When it became clear that even Fatah, which was supported by the West, could not bring Israel to the negotiating table, even symbolically in the case of the disengagement, the party lost its biggest selling point. Business as usual continued even under a pragmatic leader while most factions respected a ceasefire. The occupation had no end in sight.

With these and many other statements and actions, the Israeli establishment made it clear that its vision for a two-“state” solution was a unilateral one, not a negotiated one, no matter who came to power in Palestine. It would be based on the route of the Wall, which annexes 10% of the West Bank, including most of the so-called “settlement blocs,” and Israeli control over the Jordan Valley—another 30% of the West Bank. Settlement blocs Israel plans to keep include Ma’ale Adumim, which severs the West Bank’s north-south contiguity; Ariel, which splits the northern West Bank in two and sits atop an important fresh water aquifer; and Gush Etzion, which steals much of Bethlehem’s land and strangles several Palestinian villages.

An Israeli journalist summarized the ruling party’s plans: “Kadima’s practical diplomatic program, as elucidated by Ehud Olmert, adds up to no more than direct Israeli control over approximately one-half of West Bank territory, and the splintering of the remainder into cantons.”

To Palestinians, the resulting series of non-viable, non-contiguous, Walled-in ghettoes on the remaining 60% of the West Bank, devoid of any real sovereignty, with Arab East Jerusalem and its surroundings illegally annexed to Israel, and with no control over water or borders, would be no more acceptable as a “state” than the Bantu Homelands were to black South Africans under Apartheid. Ariel Sharon openly used terms like ‘cantons’ or ‘Bantustans’ to describe his plans for Palestine. Though Olmert has been slightly more discreet, he is committed to the same agenda.

Into this fray, and after 18 months of refraining from attacks on Israel, Hamas ran in the first elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council in a decade under a ticket called “Change and Reform” — not “Islamism and Terrorism.” Because Palestinian voters understood that Fatah could not deliver peaceful negotiations anyway, they voted based on other considerations. According to Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, “The two most important issues for the voters were corruption… and the inability of the PA to enforce law and order.”

Hamas was elected because it was seen as a disciplined and clean-handed organization that provided a social safety net for some of the poorest and most vulnerable Palestinians when the Palestinian Authority was unwilling or unable to do so. Its charitable organizations include schools, food distribution centers for the needy, and community centers upon which tens or hundreds of thousands of Palestinians depend. Many of these people have, in real and measurable terms, been better-served by Hamas than Fatah.

Why are secular assimilating American Jews so Zionist?

Apr 28, 2011

Elliot

Our friend Elliot had this comment on a post on Christian Zionism the other day. We’re trying to break out comments from time to time.

Many Orthodox Jews are not believers. That’s where Jews are different to Christians. Orthodox Judaism is also a lifestyle.
Commenter Michael W. is right. There is a large contingent of Orthodox Jews who very fervently believe that the exile is over. The hardcore of that group are the ideological settlers of the West Bank.
And as for eee, the fact that the mainstream ultra-Orthodox (commonly known as “black hats” or “black skullcap”) no longer openly oppose the State of Israel does not mean that they believe the exile is over. They still say all the traditional prayers mourning the exile and have added nothing to the liturgy to indicate that anything has changed.
To the extent that there is an ultra-Orthodox dogma, they still believe in the exile. And for the reasons Craig Nielsen gives in the article.

What is mystifying to me is how Zionist secular American Jews are. Even as cultural and family assimilation picks up pace their Zionism remains undimmed. That indicates that the source of their Zionism is not Judaism (or the Judaism that is practised today in America).
Secularized Christian America may have done away with fish on Fridays but they are still good Zionists. American Jews are good Americans too ergo: they are just as Zionist as their Christian neighbors.
Christian Zionism is the reason American Jews support Netanyahu and settlements.

Where does Israel end and the Diaspora begin? Or Zionism end and Judaism begin?

Apr 28, 2011

Philip Weiss

This is interesting. AB Yehoshua writes at Haaretz that the conflict remains unresolved because it is unprecedented in human history. John Mearsheimer has said the same thing: the special relationship is unprecedented, indeed for reasons that touch on Yehoshua’s reasoning. But Gilad Atzmon, whom I generally avoid here, seizes on Yehoshua’s point, to explore the borderless national and religious identity issues:

According to Yehoshua, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is not really about territorial issues. “Territorial issues can be resolved” he says.  “In our conflict, both sides, struggle over national identity of the whole country.” Yehoshua offers here a very interesting insight that cannot be uttered within the boundaries of the Left discourse. For both parties, especially the Palestinians, he says,  “it is unclear what is the size of the people it is up against, is it only the Israelis or is it also the Jewish Diaspora as a whole.” Yehoshua raises here an issue I myself have been stressing for years. It is far from being clear to anyone (including  Israelis and Jews) where Israel ends and the Diaspora starts. It is also far from being clear where the Israeli ends and the Jew starts. I guess that for most contemporary Jews it is even far from being clear anymore where Zionism ends and Judaism starts. In the contemporary Jewish world there are no clear dichotomies. We are dealing with a spineless elastic metamorphic identity that shapes itself to fit every possible circumstances. This may explain how come the Jewish state can dually operate as an oppressor and a victim simultaneously.

The Israelis, according to Yehoshua are also subject to a similar confusion. They also cannot figure out whether it is just the Palestinian people they are up against or is it the whole Arab nation or even the entire Muslim world.  For Yehoshua, the conflict “lacks a clear demographic boundaries. This fact alone creates an initial deep distrust between the two peoples that prevents a possible solution.”

Yeshoua is far from being a brilliant mind, yet, he manages to analyse the conflict correctly just because he is free to think out of the Leftist box. Being a proud Israeli Jew he is free to say what he thinks without the need to appease half a dozen so-called ‘progressive’  Jews.  Yehoshua’s analysis makes a lot of sense to me though we draw the complete opposite conclusions. I believe that ti the Palestinian solidarity discourse  better liberate itself of any form of  dogmatic political thinking. It is about time  and look at the conflict for what it is.  We must engage in a true plural debate and emancipate ourselves of any traces of rigid and anachronistic thinking.

Bipartisanship at last: U.S. politicians line up to castigate Palestinian unity deal

Apr 28, 2011

Alex Kane

In stark contrast to partisan wrangling over the budget and women’s rights, Democrats and Republicans are lining up to demand the cut-off of U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority as a response to the reported unity deal between Hamas and Fatah. Expect the Obama administration to take heed and agree with Congress–especially with the 2012 elections approaching.

The rhetoric from both sides of the aisle is uniform. It’s the Israel lobby’s line. It’s telling, for example, that a staunch Republican and neoconservative pro-Israel hawk like Jennifer Rubin would approvingly quote an otherwise reliable liberal like Representative Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York:

The purported deal, which does not require Hamas to accept Israel’s right to exist, or the binding nature of prior Palestinian commitments, or even to require Hamas to temporarily forgo violence against Israel (as if it were some kind barbaric of addiction, or compulsion), is a recipe for failure, mixed with violence, leading to disaster. It is a ghastly mistake that I fear will be paid for in the lives of innocent Israelis.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs committee, similarly said:

The reported agreement between Fatah and Hamas means that a Foreign Terrorist Organization which has called for the destruction of Israel will be part of the Palestinian Authority government. U.S. taxpayer funds should not and must not be used to support those who threaten U.S. security, our interests, and our vital ally, Israel.

Interestingly, though, there are some, if not many, analysts and activists in solidarity with the Palestinian cause that will be happy with a cut off of U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority (for different reasons than Congress). U.S. aid, which has gone to train the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, has contributed deeply to the split between Hamas and Fatah.

As Ali Abunimah noted for the Electronic Intifada, “in The Palestine Papers, the main concern of Ramallah officials was always to maintain Western financial aid to the PA, and not to make any agreement with Hamas that would jeopardize American and European financing for the PA.” The Western financial aid has been used to crack down on Hamas. But if U.S. and European aid is cut off, perhaps the Palestinian Authority would no longer imprison Hamas members and quash dissent. That would go a long away towards true Palestinian unity.

Alex Kane, a freelance journalist based in New York City, blogs on Israel/Palestine and Islamophobia in the United States atalexbkane.wordpress.com, where this post originally appeared.  Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.