Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

‘NYT’ gives Oren a lectern to spew potted history

Feb 20, 2011

Scott McConnell

Ever notice how the Times will happily publish any claim by an Israeli spokesman, regardless of its relationship to facts? Note today’s op-ed by ambassador Michael Oren: “Will Egypt Be a Partner in Peace?” It would take a while to discuss thoroughly the record between Israel and Nasser in the early years, and the story is somewhat complicated. But any honest account would HAVE to include the 1955 Gaza Raid, (Sharon-led Israeli companies killed 37 Egyptian soldiers in a raid) the 1954 Lavon Affair (an attempted Israel false-flag terrorism operation in Egypt, designed to short-circuit Anglo-American overtures to Nasser), and of course the Suez invasion of 1956. None of which appear in Oren’s account.

The Israeli attitude towards the early Nasser regime might be exemplified by the words of defense minister Pinhas Lavon, spoken in a Mapai Central Committee meeting of 1954. If one looked at war from a military point of view, “Today would be better for us than tomorrow, and tomorrow would be better than the day after tomorrow. . . I cannot say I do not want war. I say, I want it, and I wish there was a situation in which there were no Englishmen and no Americans, and there were only us and the Arabs and we could do that.” (The Iron Wall, Avi Shlaim, p. 100)

Next, Palestine

Feb 20, 2011

Philip Weiss

Earlier today at this site, Seham likened Palestine to Libya, as opposed to Egypt, because in Libya nonviolent protests that would overthrow the regime have been met with violent crackdowns. And Israel has so far crushed nonviolent protest in the West Bank. Will this trend continue as the cell-phone revolutions continue? Will the media finally pay attention to Bil’in’s weekly protests? Or will Israel continue to sew up the revolutionary feeling on the Arab street?

Michael Omer-Man offers a hopeful view of liberation in this piece in JPost, envisioning an end to occupation. I wonder why we can’t read this kind of analysis in the U.S. press. The answer to my question is also the answer to Omer-Man’s question about what the next Palestinian intifada will look like– Israel is already killing a lot of nonviolent demonstrators (like American Furkan Dogan), and maiming others (like American Emily Henochowicz) and getting away with it completely. (h/t Blankfort)

The popular uprisings and ensuing overthrow of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt were about self-determination (not nationalistic), ending violent oppression and demands for personal, political and economic freedoms….

These largely non-violent tactics have shattered the framework the world once viewed Palestinians through – terrorism. Protests in Bil’in, Budrous, Ni’ilin and Nebi Saleh have in many ways won the world’s empathy. However imperfectly, to the outside world, these movements engender the non-violent, civil disobedience, “We will overcome” ideologies of Martin Luther Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and even Natan Sharansky that are idolized in the West. Protest leaders in the West Bank draw diplomatic and moral support from Israel’s strongest allies. Their participants and leaders’ arrests are condemned and the demonstrations themselves declared legitimate resistance by freedom-loving countries otherwise sympathetic to Israel’s positions.
Now imagine what would happen if overnight, as happened in Egypt, those movements grew from the hundreds that demonstrate every Friday into tens of thousands of Palestinians overwhelming every checkpoint in the West Bank, not to mention if East Jerusalem’s Palestinian population brought the same tactics into Israel’s capital.
The world has changed since the First Intifada. Yitzhak Rabin’s “break their bones” tactics would not work on a large scale in the 21st century…

The IDF is neither equipped nor prepared to handle massive demonstrations in a way that doesn’t bring immediate condemnation and action against Israel from even its staunchest allies. The first (and inevitable) death that takes place would be captured simultaneously on three different cell phone cameras and uploaded to YouTube within an hour, at which point Al Jazeera, the BBC and (a few days later) CNN would rebroadcast the ugly face of an occupation fighting for its survival into living rooms worldwide. With the Western public confronted by images of suppressive state violence on the evening news, combined with Israel’s already weakened international stature vis-à-vis the Palestinians, the consequences of an IDF response to an Egypt-like uprising would be completely untenable for Israel and the occupation.
Already having embraced non-violent Arab uprisings against illegitimate and oppressive rule, the world would have no option but to support the Palestinian street’s immediate demands to end the occupation should such a scenario play out.

Israel to consider applying Israeli law to settlements

Feb 20, 2011

Kate

and other news from Today in Palestine:

Land, property, resources theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
Panel to consider applying Israel law to settlements
JPost 20 Feb — The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is set on Sunday to debate a bill that would apply Israeli law to West Bank settlements which are now under military rule. It would also make it difficult, if not impossible, to impose a freeze on West Bank Jewish construction. Such a move would automatically strip Defense Minister Ehud Barak of the ability to authorize Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, as such activity would then be determined by the Ministry of Housing and Construction in a manner no different from what happens with construction projects within the Green Line.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=208959
Settlers uproot 220 olive trees near Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 20 Feb — A mob of extremist settlers stormed Palestinian farmland and uprooted olive trees near Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said. Residents of an an illegal outpost “waged war on olive trees uprooting 220 using chainsaws and other means,” in Duma and Qusra villages
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361619
Witnesses: Israel demolishes tents in West Bank village
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 20 Feb — Israeli forces bulldozed dozens of tents on Sunday, donated by the Palestinian Authority to the residents of Tana, a village east of the West Bank city of Nablus, locals said … Hanini said residents were left homeless in harsh weather conditions, and appealed to international organizations to intervene in Israel’s treatment of Palestinians … The demolitions were the fourth in just over a year … Most of the tents had been provided by the Red Cross.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361576
Jewish settlers attack Palestinian village
AL-KHALIL, (PIC) 19 Feb — Armed Jewish settlers attacked Palestinians in Um Al-Khair area south of Yatta village, in Al-Khalil district, on Saturday, local sources said. Eyewitnesses told the PIC that the settlers, escorted by Israeli occupation soldiers, threw stones and empty bottles on the Palestinian citizens. They added that the settlers prevented the villagers from tending to their land and forced them out of it, noting that the settlers were armed with swords and slingshots.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2
Settlers attack Bedouins in Al-Aghwar
West Bank, (Pal Telegraph) 20 Feb –Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Bedouins in the area of Ain Helwa in the north of al- Aghwar and severely beaten a citizen and his wife inside their home forcing them to evacuate the region. Israeli attack caused a state of fear and panic among civilians.The mayor of the village council, Aref Daragma, said “Israeli settlers made a sudden assault to a house owned by Sati Daraghma who was beaten with his wife.” Daraghma pointed out that it was not the first time for Israeli soldiers to attack women inside their homes
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/8510-settlers-attack-bedouins-in-al-aghwar.html
The real lesson of the tomb / Zvi Bar’el
Haaretz 20 Feb — The call to oppose the visit to the Tomb of the Patriarchs is a blatant expression of the public’s frustration with the galloping takeover by racist and fascist ideas, thought up by right-wing politicians… Let them go and see. Because next to the Tomb of the Patriarchs they will also pass – there is no way to avoid it – the separation fence that surrounds Bethlehem on your way to Hebron. And near the lines at the checkpoints, they will see the shops in the Hebron market that were closed down because the settlers demanded it.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-real-lesson-of-the-tomb-1.344501

NY congressman concerned over security on Mount of Olives, East Jerusalem / Mairav Zonszein
Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler, of the 8th district of New York, wrote a letter to Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren on Friday about his concern over vandalism of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem … Congressman Nadler is right to be concerned – but he is omitting/missing some vital information. The cemetery, which is just paces away from the Dome of the Rock and in the middle of the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al Amud, is adjacent to one the most contentious Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem: Maale Zeitim. (“Olive Hillside”)
http://972mag.com/ny-congressman-concerned-over-security-on-mount-of-olives-east-jerusalem/
UN settlement vote
PA to call urgent UN session over settlement resolution veto
Haaretz 20 Feb — …the Palestinian Authority is to call this week for an emergency session of the UN General Assembly to condemn Israel. That resolution is expected to pass easily … Sources in the Foreign Ministry said the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, is looking into the possibility of invoking General Assembly resolution 377 from 1950. That resolution states that an emergency General Assembly session can be called within 24 hours to circumvent the veto of a Security Council resolution.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/pa-to-call-urgent-un-session-over-settlement-resolution-veto-1.344479
Deputy FM: Anti-settlement vote proves UN is a rubber stamp for Arab nations
Haaretz 20 Feb — A recent attempt to condemn Israel’s settlement building in the United Nations proves that the international organization serves as a mere rubber stamp for Arab nations, Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon told Israel Radio on Sunday, adding that the United States proved itself to be the only country capable of promoting peace in the Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/deputy-fm-anti-settlement-vote-proves-un-is-a-rubber-stamp-for-arab-nations-1.344546
‘Israel’s isolation may affect financial ties with Europe’
Ynet 20 Feb — State officials warn of political isolation following European nations’ support of Palestinian bid to condemn settlement construction in Security Council. ‘Every tender for settlement construction distances us from Europe. Some countries boycott Israeli goods and things can deteriorate,’ one official says
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4030891,00.html
‘Clinton threatened to cancel aid to PA’
Ynet 19 Feb –Palestinian President Abbas stresses PA won’t boycott US, after Yasser Abed Rabbo slammed American mediation. Fatah element claims Obama told Abbas no other US president has done more to promote Palestinian issue.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4030816,00.html
Palestinians will not spurn US despite veto: Abbas
Reuters 19 Feb — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he would continue to cooperate with the United States despite Washington’s veto of a U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlements on occupied land. “We do not seek to boycott the American administration and it is not in our interest to boycott anyone,” Abbas told Palestinian Wafa news agency in Ramallah.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/19/us-palestinians-usa-idUSTRE71I2SU20110219
Peres calls Abbas to discuss peace process in wake of failed UN settlement resolution
Haaretz 19 Feb — Palestinian president reiterates that in order to return to negotiating table, Israel must halt all settlement building, including in East Jerusalem. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/peres-calls-abbas-to-discuss-peace-process-in-wake-of-failed-un-settlement-resolution-1.344446
Hamas says US veto of UN settler vote ‘outrageous’
19 Feb — GAZA CITY (AFP) – Hamas said on Saturday that the US use of its veto to block a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements was “outrageous” and urged an end to Palestinian-Israeli contacts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110219/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansusunsettlervetohamas
‘Obama can go to hell’, says Arab MK on UNSC vote
Ibrahim Sarsour says Arab world should punish US economy after the US vetoes Security Council resolution condemning settlements.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=208962

Ghassan Al-Masri: US veto ‘diplomatic terrorism’
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 20 Feb — Al-Masri said both the veto of the resolution and Obama’s attempt to dissuade Palestinians from pursuing international law were forms of diplomatic terrorism, both of which failed, he added. The veto revealed the true intentions of US foreign policy, and undermined what remained of Washington’s credibility as a sponsor of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Al-Masri said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361633
A Pyrrhic victory in the UN Security Council / Gush Shalom
Israel is becoming a liability to the United States, bringing US into the same international isolation into which Israel itself was cast.The so-called “Israel Lobby”, which prevents Israeli misconduct from ever being corrected, is a grave danger to Israel’s future
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1298111589
Barack Obama has joined Likud / Gideon Levy
20 Feb — A friendly U.S., concerned for Israel’s fate, should have said no. An America that understands that the settlements are the obstacle should have joined in condemning them … If the U.S. had been a responsible superpower, it would have voted for the resolution on Friday to rouse Israel from its dangerous sleep. Instead, we got a hostile veto from Washington, shouts of joy from Jerusalem and a party that will end very badly for both.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/barack-obama-has-joined-likud-1.344502
Thank you, Mr. President / Jerry Haber
Thank you, Mr. President, for vetoing the UN Security Counsel Resolution condemning the Israeli settlements as illegal. Thank you for making America the only country in the world to support Israel on this matter. Thank you for contradicting long-standing US policy on the settlements. Thank you for not abstaining on this vote – which is what the US has done in the past. Thank you for talking the talk on settlements but not walking the walk. Thank you for allowing Israel to say, as it always does, “We and the US have disagreements on various items, but our bond is strong.” ….
http://972mag.com/thank-you-mr-president/
It’s official: America’s role in the Mideast is over / Ami Kaufman
18 Feb – They’re not “illegal”. They’re “illegitimate”. Those guys in the West Wing really got their act together when it comes to copy writing. Good stuff. But I still don’t get it. All you had to do was abstain. What’s the worst that could have happened? Lieberman would have gotten angry? Netanyahu would have frowned? Honestly, what is the worst thing that could have happened from just sitting back and letting the world show some solidarity with the Palestinians? Were the threats coming from AIPAC that bad? What other explanation could there be?
http://972mag.com/it%E2%80%99s-official-america%E2%80%99s-role-in-the-mideast-is-over/
Israeli activists protest US veto in front of embassy in Tel Aviv / Joseph Dana
19 Feb — Roughly 70 Israelis gathered in front of the US embassy in Tel Aviv to protest the recent American veto of a UN resolution confirming the illegality of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The activists rallied under a banner declaring that the “US is fully complicit in Israel’s occupation and colonization through settlement construction”
http://972mag.com/israeli-activists-protest-us-veto-in-front-of-embassy-in-tel-aviv/
Violence / Detention
Israeli police injure 5 Palestinians in brutal attack in Jerusalem
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) 20 Feb — A group of Israeli soldiers and settlers assaulted five people, including the director of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (PPC) Nasser Qaws, in the old city of Jerusalem. Qaws told WAFA that a group of soldiers stopped and beat an 18 year old Palestinian man. Passersby tried to interfere to prevent his arrest, but soldiers and passing settlers attacked all those present on the scene, and Israeli police destroyed a number of stalls belonging to shops in the area.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=15240
Israeli forces release 3 Gaza fishermen
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) — Israeli forces released three Gaza fishermen on Sunday, detained at sea a day earlier, local sources told Ma‘an. Residents reported that Mustafa Hijazi Lahham, Mahmoud Hasan Lahham, and Hijazi Hani Lahham went missing after leaving the Khan Younis harbor early Saturday morning. Relatives feared the men may have drowned. An Israeli military spokesman had not responded to repeated inquiries about whether the men were in Israeli detention.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361621
Silwan teenager released from several months’ detention
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 19 Feb — Mohammad Shehadeh, 18, was released by the Israeli Magistrates Court today, bringing several months of detention and house arrest to conclusion. The release was ordered by the judge after conflicting statements were given by undercover Israeli forces involved in his arrest, which took place while Shehadeh had been in Bir Ayyub district of Silwan searching for work. A detailed Silwanic investigation of Shehadeh’s case is pending.
http://silwanic.net/?p=12155
Palestinians jailed in Egypt announce hunger strike demanding freedom
GAZA, (PIC) 19 Feb — Palestinians held in a prison in Egypt announced Saturday they will go on hunger strike after hopes for freedom under the new hold of power were crushed. All of the 19 Palestinians detained at the Al-Aqrab Prison in Hilwan (Greater Cairo) kicked off a hunger strike on Saturday
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b
Hamas: Efforts ongoing in Shalit swap deal
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) 19 Feb — Efforts are ongoing to conclude a prisoner swap for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, informed Hamas sources told Ma’an on Friday. Sources said a German mediator was still involved in the deal, and that a German official has visited the Gaza Strip more than once to discuss the issue. Hamas is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Shalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid in 2006 … For tens of thousands of Palestinians, a swap deal for Shalit is the only hope of seeing their imprisoned loved ones.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361108

Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
13 boys arrested from playground after army represses Beit Ommar demonstration
19 Feb — On Saturday the 19th of February at 1 pm, the Beit Ommar National Committee held a large demonstration to protest the Israeli government’s decision to expand settlements, with support from the United States. They were joined by Palestinian Popular Committees from Hebron, Al-Masar‘a, Beit Ola, Tuwani, Surif, and Wadi Rahal, as well as members from the Beit Ommar municipality. The gathered Palestinian activists were also supported by a large number of Israeli and International solidarity activists.
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2011/02/19/13-boys-arrested-from-playground-after-army-represses-beit-ommar-demonstration/
Child, Beit Ummar mayor wounded in weekly nonviolent protest
(IMEMC) 20 Feb –Palestinian medical sources reported Saturday that a child and the mayor of Beit Ummar town, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, were wounded after the Israeli army opened fire at the weekly nonviolent protests against the Wall and settlements. Medical sources reported that the mayor was shot in his left leg, while the child was mildly injured after being hit by fragments of a concussion grenade fired by the army.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60676
Israeli army targeting children in Beit Ummar / Joseph Dana
20 Feb — The Israeli army has been arresting children in the village of Nabi Saleh for the past two months as a means of applying pressure on the village to end its popular unarmed resistance against the occupation. On Saturday 19 February, Israeli army officials adopted a similar strategy against the southern West Bank village of Beit Ummar. The village has been holding weekly unarmed demonstrations against the occupation and the confiscation of their land by illegal Jewish settlements such as Karmaei Tzur.
http://josephdana.com/2011/02/israeli-army-targeting-children-in-beit-ummar/
Protesters: 7 detained in Ramallah village
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 19 Feb — Seven people were arrested Friday in a village near Ramallah during a weekly demonstration against the Israeli occupation and settlements on Palestinian land. The army seized two Palestinians, four Israelis, and one foreign national in An-Nabi Saleh, protesters said. They were still held being held by Israeli police, their colleagues said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361437
Army shuts down anti-wall rally
TULKAREM (Ma‘an) 19 Feb –Israeli forces on Saturday attacked four journalists and detained five teenagers at an anti-wall rally in the West Bank district of Tulkarem, witnesses said. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine organized the rally, attended by international and local activists, Tulkarem governor Talal Dweikat and leaders of several factions.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361473
Novelist Ian McEwan plays for both teams in East Jerusalem / Noam Sheizaf
18 Feb — The celebrated British author Ian McEwan joined today the weekly protest in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families have been evacuated from their homes to make room for Jewish settlers. Ironically, McEwan arrived to Israel to receive the Jerusalem Prize for Literature from the hands of the city’s mayor, Nir Barkat. Mayor Barkat is one of the driving forces behind recent attempts to expand Jewish settlements and housing projects into Palestinian East Jerusalem.
http://972mag.com/novelist-ian-mcewan-plays-for-both-teams-in-east-jerusalem/
Ian McEwan to accept Israel book award but criticize occupation / Harriet Sherwood
18 Feb — Novelist defends his acceptance of prize after calls to reject it in protest at occupation of Palestinian territories
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/18/ian-mcewan-israel-book-award
Turkish flotilla victim’s father to seek legal remedy in US
Ahmet Doğan, father of 19-year-old Furkan Doğan, who was killed in a lethal Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara, which was carrying humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza on May 31 of last year, is headed to the US to launch an investigation into his son’s killing. Ahmet Doğan went to Chicago with two lawyers, Ramazan Arıtürk and Uğur Sevgili, on Friday to seek legal action in the US for his son’s death during the Israeli raid, which also killed eight Turkish nationals, Cihan news agency reported.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=69981
Siege
Rafah crossing to open for Gazans to enter Egypt
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 20 Feb — The Rafah crossing will be open for Gaza residents to enter Egypt starting on Tuesday, Palestinian crossings officials said. Around 300 Palestinians will be allowed to cross to Egypt every day, officials in Gaza said Sunday. Egypt reopened the Rafah crossing Friday evening for Palestinians stranded in Egypt to return to Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361528
Action Alert: Tell Egypt to open Rafah Crossing
19 Feb — The International Solidarity Movement has received a request from Palestinians in Gaza that concerned people contact the Egyptian embassies to ask them to reopen the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza. They have prepared a statement which you can sign and fax to your embassy in order to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis caused by the closing of the crossing. Below is the email correspondence, and a link to a document containing the statement.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/02/16705/
Political developments
Palestinian PM: Hamas can keep Gaza if it joins unity cabinet
(AP) 20 Feb — In appeal to join forces with West Bank-ruling Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad says Hamas must preserve ceasefire with Israel in order to join unity government.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-pm-hamas-can-keep-gaza-if-it-joins-unity-cabinet-1.344612
WikiLeaks: Bahrain FM planned to meet Israeli officials in support of peace process
Haaretz 20 Feb — Evidence of Bahrain’s moderate attitude appeared in a 2007 cable about a meeting between Khalifa and U.S. Jews, at which he told them that Palestinian refugees should return to Palestine, not to Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/wikileaks-bahrain-fm-planned-to-meet-israeli-officials-in-support-of-peace-process-1.344488
Yousef: Hamas, Fatah at risk from regional turmoil
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 18 Feb — Hamas and Fatah will not escape the wave of revolutions sweeping the region, says Ahmed Yousef, former adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza. Yousef said Fatah and Hamas must work to quickly end the division between Gaza and the West Bank to avoid an uprising in Palestine. They must convene and settle their dispute, he says, now that the Egypt-mediated unity paper is inactive.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361054
Eckstein: Social issues will explode here, too
JPost 17 Feb — It’s only a matter of time before public concern over social issues explodes here, just as it has done across the region, with Israelis no longer willing to accept the growing economic gaps between rich and poor, Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=208590
Confusion over Suez ship crossing
(AJ) 20 Feb — Iran media says two warships used the waterway to reach Mediterranean, a claim dismissed by an Egyptian official … “No Iranian ships have passed. Not today, not yesterday, not the day before,” Ahmed al-Manakhly, the head of the canal’s operations room, told AFP news agency.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201122095716697734.html
Israel eyes Iranian navy move ‘with gravity’
JERUSALEM (AFP) 20 Feb — Israel views with “gravity” what Iran says is the “routine” dispatch of two warships to the Mediterranean, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, as the vessels were expected to pass through the Suez Canal. During his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel viewed the movement as an Iranian power play.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361703
Other news
Haniyeh invites prominent cleric to Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 19 Feb — Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza has invited influential Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to the Strip … The Gaza-based premier thanked Al-Qaradawi for mentioning the Palestinian struggle, the occupation of Jerusalem and the siege of Gaza when he addressed crowds in Tahrir Square.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361438
New website debunks anti-Israel charges via Q&A
A group of IDF veterans has set up a new website aimed at debunking accusations against Israel and its military in the most direct way — questions and answers. Called “Friend-a-Soldier,” the site was established by IDF veterans … American and British immigrants in their early 20s who were distraught over the way IDF soldiers were being vilified in news stories, blogs, and online chat rooms … Since the launch of the site, Friend-a-Soldier has had visits from over 3,000 unique users from over 50 countries, including Kuwait, Yemen, and Turkey. “The most interesting e-mails have come from Arabs,” said Beinglass.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=208969
AG: Probe of Left violation of basic rights
Ynet 20 Feb – Weinstein tells High Court appeal filed against parliamentary inquiry commission into funding, activity of Israeli human rights groups premature, but voices concern panel may violate freedom of expression, thought
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4031203,00.html
1st ever Bnei Menashe officer in IDF makes history
History was made on Wednesday when Shalem Gin became the first IDF officer from the Bnei Menashe community. Gin received the rank of second lieutenant in front of friends and family at a ceremony held at the Bahad 1 military base in the Negev. Gin, 20, was born in Mizoram, a state in northeastern India.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4030176,00.html
Analysis / Opinion
Listening Post – The Palestine Paper fallout
Al Jazeera — On this episode of Listening Post: The massive leak of documents from the Middle East peace process and the media fallout from that story. Plus, the David and Goliath tale of corporate America versus documentary filmmakers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Lmqqtmt1k&feature=youtube_gdata
What Egypt’s revolution means for Palestinians / Abdel Bari Atwan
19 Feb — …While Mubarak at least had the counterfeit mandate of November’s rigged election, Abbas and Fayyad have no mandate at all — Abbas’ presidential term ran out in January 2009, while Fayyad has never faced voters. The PNA is in bureaucratic disarray. Any new cabinet would need to be sanctioned by the PLC, but the PLC’s own mandate expired in January 2010 and the parliament hasn’t been functioning since July 2007 in any case, mainly because several of its Hamas members are in Israeli jails. In terms of internal Palestinian politics, Hamas has been greatly strengthened by the Egyptian revolution.
http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/what-egypt-s-revolution-means-for-palestinians-1.764028
Book review: Our mysterious man on the Nile
JPost 17 Feb — Why would Marwan Ashraf become a Zionist agent? A new book creates an insightful third dimension into the mind of the superspy.
http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=208712
US / US wars / UK
Saturday: 5 Iraqis killed, 14 wounded
At least five Iraqis were killed and 18 more were wounded in the latest violence, while one U.S. airman was killed in a non-combat incident.Demonstrations continue in Baghdad, Basra, and other locations, but today’s hotspot is again Suleimaniya, where demonstrations turned deadly on Thursday. Turmoil throughout the Arab region could halt plansfor an Arab League summit scheduled for March. Iraq is looking forward to hosting the summit as evidence of improving conditions there. Jaafar al-Sadr, the son of the founder of the Dawa Party, has resigned over a controversial Supreme Court ruling that gave authority of several important–and previously independent–state institutions to the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s cabinet.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/02/19/saturday-5-iraqis-killed-14-wounded/
Factbox: Civilian casualties in Afghanistan
Feb 20 (Reuters) – Joint operations by Afghan forces and NATO-led foreign forces have killed 64 civilians in eastern Kunar province, including many women and children, over the past four days, the governor of Kunar said on Sunday. Following are some major incidents which have led to large numbers of civilian casualties in Afghanistan:
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/factbox-civilian-casualties-in-afghanistan
Factbox: Security developments in Afghanistan Feb 19
JALALABAD (Reuters) — Suicide bombers and gunmen dressed as Afghan border police killed at least nine people and wounded more than 70 in an attack on a Kabulbank branch in the eastern city of Jalalabad, witnesses, police and government officials said. Shooting continued for several hours after the attack began and at least two blasts were heard, witnesses said.
KABUL – A service member from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in an attack by insurgents in southern Afghanistan, ISAF said in a statement. It gave no further details
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/factbox-security-developments-in-afghanistan-feb-19
Afghan leader says US bases depend on neighbors
KABUL, Feb 19 (Reuters) – The possibility of the United States retaining long-term bases in Afghanistan could only be addressed once peace has been achieved and must take into account the country’s neighbours, the Afghan president said on Saturday. Russia has urged the United States not to establish long-term military bases in Afghanistan
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/afghan-leader-says-us-bases-depend-on-neighbours
US entering direct talks with Taliban: report
WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (Reuters) – The United States has entered into direct talks with leaders of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but contacts are exploratory and not yet a peace negotiation, according to an article on Saturday in The New Yorker magazine. The article, citing people briefed on the talks, said the talks are to assess who in the Taliban leadership, if anyone, might engage in formal peace negotiations and under what conditions.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/us-entering-direct-talks-with-taliban-report
Guantánamo prisoner to help prosecute others
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba, Feb 18 (Reuters) – A U.S. military jury sentenced an admitted al Qa‘eda conspirator from Sudan to 14 more years in prison on Friday but he will serve far less if he keeps his promise to help prosecutors in cases against other Guantánamo captives.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/guantanamo-prisoner-will-serve-34-more-months
UK: Muslim airport worker says denied job interview
Ynet 20 Feb — Algerian-born handling agent Salim Zakhrouf offered interview only after he applied again as ‘Ian Woodhouse’; says way Cathay Pacific handled application was ‘racist and unfair’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4031098,00.html
Michigan mosque plot suspect’s criminal past
DEARBORN, Mich.(AP) 19 Feb — Since holding a psychiatrist hostage in 1977, Roger Stockham has kidnapped his young son, tried to hijack a plane, crashed a plane, set fire to buildings, planted a bomb at an airport and threatened to kill the president … Last month, police say the California man was at it again: Officers arrested Stockham near a popular Michigan mosque they say he planned to attack.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110219/ap_on_re_us/us_mosque_terror_threat

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‘Gaza Youth Breaks Out’ calls for a unified Palestinian leadership to ‘lead us to freedom with all pride and dignity’
Feb 20, 2011 02:56 pm | Adam Horowitz

Gaza Youth Breaks Out issued the following call earlier today:

On behalf of the Palestinian Arab people, on the blood of the martyrs, widows and bereaved, orphans and thousands of prisoners in Israeli jails and all our people in the Palestinian diaspora, we call on all the Palestinian factions to unite under the banner of Palestine, in order to reform the political system in Palestine, based on the interests and aspirations of the Palestinian people in the homeland and the diaspora.
The seriousness of the current phase of Israeli settler incursions and looting of land in our Sacred Jerusalem and the violence of the siege against the Palestinian people in Gaza require us all to stand as one against this brutal occupation.
We have heard that the Palestinian people call for legislative and presidential elections to end the state of division. Yes, we all want to end the division, but we also want a complete re-building of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to include within it all the colors of the Palestinian political spectrum, including Hamas, and to reform it in order to fight again for Palestine’s liberation, as it was initially intended.
We, Palestinian people in the homeland and abroad, have always heard that peaceful actions would achieve victory and restore the land, but 20 years of negotiations have not achieved the leastest demands. Our people remains under a brutal and oppressive occupation that steals land, violate the Holy sites and kills our children, and all of this while the world that claims democracy and human rights is watching and hearing! On the other hand, the resistance is stalling, leaving more than a million and a half Palestinians under Israeli blockade, choking them to the point that our patients, including the sons of the leaders of the resistance, are sent to be treated abroad.
We must agree; it is necessary that we unite for all Palestinians here and there and everywhere, still dreaming of six million Palestinian refugees to return to their homes stolen by the Occupation that only understands the language of force! Let us be strong, let unity be our strength and unanimously agree on a unified leadership that can lead us to freedom with all pride and dignity!
From here we call on the governments of the West Bank and Gaza to respond to the legitimate demands of the people: 1 – the release all political detainees in the prisons of the PA and Hamas
2 – the end of all forms of media campaigns against each others
3 – the resignation of the governments of Haniyeh and Fayyad to re-build a government of national unity agreed by all Palestinian factions representing the Palestinian people.
4 – the restructuring of the Palestine Liberation Organization to contain all the Palestinian factions and get back to its initial aim: Palestine’s freedom
5 – the announcement of the freeze of negotiations until the full compatibility between the various Palestinian factions on a political program
6 – the end of all forms of security coordination with the Zionist enemy
7 – the organization of presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously in the time chosen by all the factions
Events will start on Tueseday, 03/15/2011 at 11:30 pm and will continue until the achievement of all goals. We will be gathering in the following places (modifications possible):
Gaza: the Unknown Soldier Square
Ramallah: Manara Square
Tulkarm: Roundabout Gamal Abdel Nasser
Jenin: complex of garages near the old Cinema Jenin
Hebron: in front of the governor’s office
Bethlehem: Church of the Nativity Square
Nablus: Martyrs Square
Jordan and Lebanon: no location yet
All over the world: in front of the Palestinian embassies, in coordination with the Palestinian communities abroad.
Please join our page.
http://www.facebook.com/Palest inians.United?sk=info
Gaza Youth Breaks Out Abu Yazan
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Q: Which countries in the Middle East routinely attack funeral processions? A: Libya and Israel
Feb 20, 2011 10:55 am | Seham

and other news from Today in the Middle East:

Photo above is from Muhammad Nusair, 21, an activist and engineering student in Egypt. He blogs at <politirature.wordpress.com>. Cf. Muhammad Nusair, “From Tahrir to Wisconsin” (19 February 2011).

2009- Israeli army attack funeral of Mohammed Khawaje, the second martyr from Ni’lin in four days
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/3761/

Libya

Libyan protesters return to street after Saturday’s ‘massacre’
Government forces loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi reportedly opened fire on a funeral procession Saturday, killing more than 20.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/pYQqe8YJ_fA/Libyan-protesters-return-to-street-after-Saturday-s-massacre
Libya unrest death toll ‘tops 200’
Dozens of Muslim leaders call for end to civilian deaths after security crackdown on funeral procession of protesters.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/20112206386812127.html
Libyan anti-government protesters describe “massacre”
Al Jazeera talks to two witnesses in the eastern coastal city of Benghazi, where more than 100 have reportedly died, including young people. In the United States, activist Mohamed Eljahmi says he has been told longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi is using mercenaries from Chad, Niger and Bangladesh to put down proteseters.

‘Intense violence’ in Libyan city
Security forces in Libya use machine-guns and mortars against anti-government protesters in Benghazi, reports say, amid ongoing rallies against leader Muammar Gaddafi.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-12516156
Libyan forces step up crackdown
As fresh violence grips Libya – there are claims that some of those cracking down on demonstrators are foreign mercenaries. Al Jazeera’s Hazem Sika reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDfVWc7Gbkk&feature=youtube_gdata
‘Many killed’ in Libya’s Benghazi
At least 15 mourners reportedly killed in eastern city as anti-government protests continue unabated.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/02/2011219232320644801.html
Libyan Forces Again Fire on Residents at Funerals
Residents of Libya’s second-largest city were attending funerals Sunday when they were attacked on a fifth day of protests against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s rule.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=084a03679ce3738eddb14271125dfdfe
Libya forces ‘open fire’ at funeral
At least 15 mourners reportedly killed in eastern city of Benghazi, as anti-government protests continue unabated.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/02/2011219811665897.html
African Mercenaries say they were promised 30K each
As fresh violence grips Libya – there are claims that some of those cracking down on demonstrators are foreign mercenaries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDfVWc7Gbkk&feature=player_embedded
Videos of the killings in Libya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uixaMQKibMw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuGd4AaA9lY&feature=player_embedded
the killing of protesters in benghazi libya with open gun shot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUyIS5kGl98&feature=youtu.be
Libya revolution resistance Fighters on street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4eGuUbQarg&feature=player_embedded
Libyan Youth Movement’s Photos – Wall Photos
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=137139319685226&se
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=137139319685226&set
Libya Muslim leaders tell security: stop “massacre”
TRIPOLI, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Libyan Muslim leaders told security forces to stop killing civilians, responding to a spiralling death toll from unrest which threatens veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi’s authority.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libya-muslim-leaders-tell-security-stop-massacre
Libya arrests Arab “network” for destabilizing state
Libyan authorities have arrested dozens of members of a “network” of Arab nationals allegedly seeking to destabilize the country, the official Jana news agency reported Saturday. Those detained in several Libyan cities were members of a “foreign network (and were) trained to damage Libya’s stability, the safety of its citizens and national unity.” Sources close to the investigation, quoted by the agency, said the group included Tunisian, Egyptian, Sudanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish citizens.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/02/20/138375.html
Congratulations Gaddafi
Nearly 25 years ago, U.S. air strikes on Libya killed 41 people in Tripoli and Benghazi, including the adopted daughter of Muammar Gaddafi, in what Noam Chomsky has referred to as the “major single terrorist act” of 1986.
http://pulsemedia.org/2011/02/20/congratulations-gaddafi/
Show of solidarity from Libyan Americans
The anti-government protesters in Libya have been getting support from a coalition of demonstrators in the United States. Hundreds of Libyan-Americans made their voices heard outside the White House on Saturday. Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett reports from Washington DC.

Bahrain
Protesters in Bahrain return after deadly clashes
In Bahrain, thousands of people have returned to Pearl Roundabout, the centre of anti-regime protests and the scene of two separate attacks by security forces. But police and soldiers have now left the area and the government says talks with opposition groups are under way. Al Jazeera’s James Bays reports from Manama where many protesters say they won’t be attending.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UWkbkVGq2k&feature=youtube_gdata
Bahrain government says dialogue started with opposition
Anti-government protesters swarmed into a symbolic square in their thousands, putting riot police to flight in a striking victory for their cause.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/bahrain-government-says-dialogue-started-with-opposition-1.344463?localLinksEnabled=false
Bahrain protesters shot as heir promises talks
MANAMA (AFP) – Bahraini security forces opened fire Friday on anti-regime protesters in the capital, with reports of up to 55 wounded, after the army vowed “strict measures” to restore order after a deadly police raid.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/19/bahrain-protesters-shot-as-heir-promises-talks/
50,000 Protest in Bahrain Before Another Bloody Crackdown, Juan Cole
Breaking News: Bahrain security forces appear to have run out of ammunition at the downtown Pearl Roundabout, as thousands of Shiite protesters flooded in Saturday morning. The demonstrators took the square and a festive mood settled in. The Wifaq Party, which had represented the majority Shiites in parliament until its members resigned en masse on Thursday, had announced that it would not enter talks with the Sunni monarchy as long as police were attacking peaceful protesters.
http://www.juancole.com/2011/02/50000-protest-in-bahrain-before-another-bloody-crackdown.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29
Protesters retake Bahrain centre
Anti-government protesters reoccupy Pearl roundabout after troops and police withdraw from protest site in capital.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/02/201121914336940622.html
Pictures from the Protests in Bahrain
http://blog.flickr.net/en/2011/02/19/protests-in-bahrain
General Strike in Bahrain
When the General Strike was announced yesterday, I didn’t give it much heed. I guess I’m conditioned to ignore trade unions as they have very little and smooth teeth which tickle more than cause injury. Well, it seems that today, they’ve sharpened them a bit and they’re starting to leave a mark.
http://mahmood.tv/2011/02/20/general-strike-in-bahrain/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MahmoodsDen+%28Mahmood%27s+Den%29
WikiLeaks: Bahrain FM planned to meet Israeli officials in support of peace process
Evidence of Bahrain’s moderate attitude appeared in a 2007 cable about a meeting between Khalifa and U.S. Jews, at which he told them that Palestinian refugees should return to Palestine, not to Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/wikileaks-bahrain-fm-planned-to-meet-israeli-officials-in-support-of-peace-process-1.344488
Notes from the Bahraini Field
As of Saturday February 19, 2011, several people have been killed and hundreds more have been brutally injured in Bahrain. The Bahraini police and military’s violent oppression of the peaceful demonstrators was further escalated after the GCC’s 28th extraordinary meeting that took place in Manama last Thursday, February 17. The GCC ministers’ message was clear: The Bahraini monarchy (and by extension all other Gulf state regimes) will not tolerate such acts of resistance to its rule and will put down the protests at any cost. The grave media and internet restrictions that the al-Khalifa regime imposed since the beginning of the demonstrations on February 14th has compounded the already-deplorable coverage that the Gulf island has received. The absence of Al-Jazeera coverage, dubbed the “Arab Spring’s News Channel” by revolutionaries in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, sent a clear message to everyone: revolutions, and the mainstream media that cover them, stop at the doors of the oil monarchies.
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/677/notes-from-the-bahraini-field
Bahrain: Oppression, Murder, and Myths of Reform, Ali Jawad
In the early hours of Thursday morning a brutal and utterly heartless assault was carried out by the security forces of the Bahraini regime against peaceful citizens. Having taken to the streets to protest against the discriminatory policies of the Al-Khalifa monarchy, the demands of the protestors were evidently met not only with outright denial, but rather, the nature of the crackdown was to be read as an adherence to a scorched-earth policy on the part of the regime. There would be no Tahrir Square in Bahrain – whatever the costs. State-sanctioned murder and a policy of intimidation and terror were to be the primary weapons in the arsenal of a regime adamant to intimidate and crush all forms of protest.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/02/bahrain-oppression-murder-and-myths-of-reform/
Blood on the Streets of Bahrain, RANNIE AMIRI
February 14th was Bahrain’s turn for its “day of rage” against the striking social, political and economic inequities found in the tiny island kingdom. For those familiar with its modern history, however, they know there was no need to dub it such; Bahrainis have long raged against policies of exclusion, marginalization and sectarianism embodied in al-Khalifa family rule.
http://www.counterpunch.com/amiri02182011.html
The role of women in Bahrain protests
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/16/live-blog-bahrain
Sunni Shia unity in Bahrain
http://twitpic.com/41hlg2
Ahlulbayt TV, “Bahrain: This Is NOT a Sectarian Revolution” (Video)
Shias and Sunnis, we stand as brothers, chanting, “We Will Not Sell Our Nation!”
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/ahlulbayt200211.html
Fisk on Bahrain

Morocco
Thousands protest in Morocco
Demonstrators demand large-scale political and economic reforms in the North African kingdom.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/201122013428971616.html
Riots in Moroccan city over utility costs
RABAT, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Protesters attacked a police station and premises linked to French firms in the Moroccan city of Tangier late on Friday in a dispute over the local utility firm’s management, organisers and residents said on Saturday.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/riots-in-moroccan-city-over-utility-costs
Casablanca Demonstrations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzKG5CTTpzI
Palestinian flag at Moroccan protests
http://twitpic.com/41twg3
More pics from Morocco
http://yfrog.com/h0snavnj
http://yfrog.com/h33njuhj
Rabat
http://twitpic.com/41sxak
Iraq
Gunmen attack Iraqi TV station that showed protest (AP)
AP – Gunmen burst into a Kurdish television station in northern Iraq on Sunday, shooting up the equipment and setting fire to the building, apparently in retaliation for footage they aired earlier in the week of a deadly protest, station officials said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110220/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq
Iraqis protest in Kurdish region, capital (Reuters)
Reuters – Hundreds of people rallied for political reforms in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region on Saturday while demonstrators in Baghdad protested demanding better rights for widows and orphans.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110219/wl_nm/us_iraq_protests
At least 8 wounded in protest in northern Iraq
BAGHDAD, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — At least eight protestors were wounded on Saturday in a demonstration in the province of Sulaimaniyah in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, a local security source said. Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds demonstrated during the day in central the city of Sulaimaniyah, located some 330 km northeast of Baghdad, and marched towards the city government building, demanding the release of people detained earlier by the Kurdish security forces after Thursday’s demonstration, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-02/20/c_13740077.htm
4 Kurdish protesters killed in N Iraq
Video: A peaceful protest in northern Iraq against the local government of Iraqi Kurdistan President Masud Barzani has ended in violence with 4 dead and over 50 injured.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165817.html
Iraqi forces shoot Sulaymanieh students
Security forces have opened fire on students in the Iraqi University of Sulaymanieh after they joined popular protests in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, PressTV reported.
http://en.trend.az/regions/met/iraq/1832558.html
Thousands protest in Iraq’s Kurdish north over shooting; orphans, widows rally in Baghdad
Demonstrators thronged streets in northern Iraq Saturday to demand justice over a deadly shooting at a protest earlier this week. In Baghdad, hundreds of orphans and widows rallied to call on the government to take care of them.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jXkUlhwYfaCg8IIn8sMyp3DqZ7LA?docId=6004225
Yemen
Shots fired at Yemen demonstration
Leader of Yemen’s separatist movement arrested in Aden amid countrywide protests against President Saleh.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011220132734826964.html
Saleh Supporters Break into University, Students Hurl Stones
New clashes between pro-democracy protesters and Yemeni government supporters have left at least one protester martyred and five wounded near the capital Sanaa’s university campus. The Saturday death came as “government supporters, armed with guns, batons and rocks, tried to break into the campus and students responded by hurling stones,” AFP reported.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=3071&cid=23&fromval=1&frid=23&seccatid=31&s1=1
Djibouti
Two killed in Djibouti protest: ministry
A protester and a policeman were killed in Djibouti when an unprecedented opposition demonstration demanding regime change flared up, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5juoQKC-EAIfWZgRl6-_FuwoOeBvw?docId=CNG.30a7eb6de98a36de2dbb441ffee98187.341
A Word on Africa: Djibouti
“Arab world unrest reaches Horn of Africa” was how the Israeli website Ynet led off its coverage of the demonstrations that began in Djibouti yesterday. On Friday, thousands of protesters — 6,000, according to the Independent, in a country with a population of less than a million people — demanded the resignation of President Ismail Omar Guelleh, among other political reforms. Authorities used batons and fired tear gas grenades at demonstrators; by the end of the day, according to official reports, one protester and one policeman had been killed.
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/684/a-word-on-africa_djibouti
Other Mideast Protests
Jordan’s Islamists condemn assault against demonstrators
AMMAN, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — Jordan’s Islamic Action Front (IAF) on Saturday condemned an assault by “gangs of thugs” against demonstrators who took to streets Friday demanding political and economic reforms. The IAF, which is the political arm of Muslim Brotherhood, said the government should live up to its responsibilities and punish all those behind the “barbaric” attack, which contradicts the government’s pledges to realise comprehensive political reform.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-02/20/c_13740099.htm
Palestinians Plan ‘Day Of Rage’ To Protest U.S. Veto on UN Settlement Resolution
“They are liars who pretend to support democracy and peace. Far from it,” Fatah official and former Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi, referring to the U.S., told the news agency.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-plan-day-of-rage-to-protest-u-s-veto-on-un-settlement-resolution-1.344425
Omanis rally against corruption, low wages
About 500 Omanis, mostly youths, staged a peaceful Green March on Friday in the ministry area in the Al Khuwait District of Muscat, demanding better wages, lower prices and an end to corruption.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/oman/omanis-rally-against-corruption-low-wages-1.764024
Egypt
Egyptian officials: Iran warships to cross Suez Canal on Monday
Israel is following the movement of the warships closely, although it does not believe the Iranian vessels have hostile intentions toward Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/egyptian-officials-iran-warships-to-cross-suez-canal-on-monday-1.344508?localLinksEnabled=false
Iran says its warships completed Suez Canal crossing
Iran’s state broadcaster says vessels reach Mediterranean, despite recent reports that the controversial crossing, the first since 1979, would only take place later this week.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-says-its-warships-completed-suez-canal-crossing-1.344542?localLinksEnabled=false
Egypt is no longer committed to an alliance with Israel against Iran
There is growing concern in Israel that Egypt will become a hostile front, adding to the feeling of international isolation which has only intensified since Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/egypt-is-no-longer-committed-to-an-alliance-with-israel-against-iran-1.344482
Rafah crossing to open for Gazans to enter Egypt
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The Rafah crossing will be open for Gaza residents to enter Egypt starting on Tuesday, Palestinian crossings officials said. Around 300 Palestinians will be allowed to cross to Egypt every day, officials in Gaza said Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=361528
Egypt releases 14 Palestinians
GAZA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — Egypt released 14 Palestinians from its prisons for the first time since former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down this month, a Palestinian spokesperson said Saturday. Imad Al-Sayed of the gathering of families of Palestinians detained in Egypt said that they are waiting the 14 to arrive in the Gaza Strip. He added that after the release of the 14, the number of Palestinians jailed in Egypt has dropped to 31.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-02/19/c_13740014.htm
Egypt Prisoners To Be Released, According To Prime Minister
CAIRO Feb 19 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said on Saturday Egypt would release more than 200 political prisoners, saying only a few were detained during a popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/19/egypt-prisoners-being-rel_n_825617.html
Egyptian caretaker government to reshuffle soon: PM
CAIRO, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said Saturday a reshuffle will soon be carried out in his caretaker government. The reshuffle will be presented to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces for approval in conformity with the law, Egyptian official news agency quoted Shafiq’s words at a meeting with the country’s chief editors, reporters and some other media staff.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-02/20/c_13740092.htm
Egypt’s constitutional amendments almost done: committee
CAIRO, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — Egypt’s constitutional amendment committee said Saturday it has almost completed its task to amend a number of controversial articles in the country’s constitution, official MENA news agency reported. The committee, which was formed by Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, is expected to complete its mission within a few days, the committee’s chairman Tarek al-Bishri said in a statement following its third session.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-02/20/c_13740094.htm
Any action over Mubarak wealth up to military: PM
Egypt’s prime minister said on Saturday he was not aware of any action taken regarding ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s wealth and that any procedures would be in the hands of the country’s military rulers.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/02/19/138354.html
Military tactics
What role did Egypt’s army play in ousting Mubarak?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-12514316
Egyptians from slum protest over fire
CAIRO, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Egyptians from a slum on the edge of Cairo protested on Saturday after a fire tore through their tightly packed homes, joining a wave of complaints about the state set off by the downfall of Hosni Mubarak. Residents of the slum affected by the fire, emboldened to speak out by their new-found freedom of speech, said they had been neglected by officialdom, witnesses said.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/egyptians-from-slum-protest-over-fire
Regarding the Constitutional Amendments “Myth And Reality”
Since army’s constitutional announcement or declaration or whatever you can call it and there is a huge debate about the constitution amendments and the constitutional amendments committee.
http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/02/regarding-constitutional-amendments.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29
VIDEO: Egyptian activist: ‘We can kick anyone out’
Egyptians are celebrating their new found freedom. The state news agency is reporting that the country’s emergency laws will be cancelled within six months. This was one of the protester’s demands. The BBC’s Jon Leyne has visited four key activists and asked them how they felt about the situation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-12515970
Women of the revolution
Egyptian women describe the spirit of Tahrir and their hope that the equality they found there will live on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aljazeeraenglish/sets/72157626073684128/
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/02/2011217134411934738.html#
TIME Exclusive Photos: Uprising in Cairo
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2045373,00.html#ixzz1ESHCEXjh
Best banners of the Egyptian Revolution
http://english.ahram.org.eg/UI/Front/MultimediaInner.aspx?NewsContentID=5925&newsportalname=Multimedia
Foreign policy goals of Egyptian democrats…, Helena Cobban
Many U.S. commentators have tried to “sanitize” the foreign-policy impact of Egypt’s still-ongoing revolution, by claiming that Egypt’s current democrats have no foreign policy goals (unlike all those “uncivilized” Egyptians in the past who had dreams of Arab nationalism and such.)
http://justworldnews.org/archives/004166.html
Rebranding Egypt’s Revolution, Mamoon Alabbasi
The revolution in Egypt came in spite of (or because of) a long-standing US backing of the dictatorship there. It was clear from the beginning that the protestors were united on one demand: namely that the unelected regime stands down or allows for genuine political reform to be carried out.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16665
Dictators are “Disposable”: The Rise and Fall of America’s Military Henchmen
The Western media in chorus pointed to “democratization”: the “King of Java” had been deposed by mass protests, much in the same way as Hosni Mubarak, described by today’s media as “The Pharaoh of Egypt”.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23252
Tunisia
Tunisia forces fire in air, fail to end rally
TUNIS, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Tunisian security forces fired in the air on Sunday in a vain attempt to disperse tens of thousands of demonstrators in the capital calling for a new interim government, a Reuters witness said.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/tunisia-forces-fire-in-air-to-disperse-rally
Protests clog downtown Tunis after weeks of calm
* Main protest group seeking religious tolerance
* Security forces thin on the ground, govt issues warning
* Ends weeks of relative calm in Tunisia’s capital
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/protests-clog-downtown-tunis-after-weeks-of-calm
Thousands of Ben Ali’s political prisoners released under amnesty
An amnesty for political prisoners held under ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali came into force on Saturday and some 3,000 prisoners have already been conditionally released. The amnesty was approved at a cabinet meeting on Friday.
http://www.france24.com/en/20110219-thousands-political-prisoners-held-under-ben-ali-released-under-general-amnesty-tunisia
Revolution/Uprising News
Arab world protests at a glance (AP)
AP – A summary of Saturday’s developments in the Arab world, as instability and anti-government protests inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia spread in the region.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110219/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_mideast_protests_glance
Nayef bin Abdul Aziz: “Saudi Arabia is “immune” to the protests because it is guided by religious law that its citizens will not question
The Saudis are completely encircled by the problem, from Jordan to Iraq to Bahrain to Yemen,” said one Arab diplomat, voicing a view that is common in the halls of power in Riyadh, the capital. “Saudi Arabia is the last heavyweight U.S. ally in the region facing Iran.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with diplomatic protocol. The Saudis tend to see any threat to the established order in the region as a gain for their nemesis Iran, and its allies Syria and Hezbollah. They have grown increasingly worried that the Obama administration is drifting away from this perspective and supporting movements for change whose outcome cannot be guaranteed. Those worries were heightened by the crisis in Egypt, where the Saudis felt that Mr. Mubarak should have been allowed to stay on…
King Abdullah had at least two phone conversations with President Obama to convey his concerns in the weeks before Mr. Mubarak’s ouster, and the last conversation ended in sharp disagreement, according to officials familiar with the calls.
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/02/nayef-bin-abdul-aziz-saudi-arabia-is.html
Morocco on the Eve of the Demonstrations
“When I go out in the street, no cares about #feb20, I connect and boom, the revolution is brewing” (Qd je sors ds la rue, no one cares about #feb20, je me connecte et boom c’est la révolution qui couve). The above, tweeted yesterday in the style of much that’s being produced on the internet about the demonstrations on Sunday — a combination of text message French and English (and often transliterated Darija) — is a perfect encapsulation of the immediate situation, at least in Rabat (as I write this, demonstrations have just turned to riots in Tangier, to which I’ll return below).
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/676/morocco-on-the-eve-of-the-demonstrations
Photos of the Day: Feb. 14
http://blogs.wsj.com/photojournal/2011/02/14/pictures-of-the-day-feb-14/
Arab and Middle East protests – in pictures
Bahraini protesters take back the area around the Pearl monument in central Manama
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/feb/19/middle-east-protests-bahrain
Analysis/Op-ed
Robert Fisk: These are secular popular revolts – yet everyone is blaming religion
Mubarak claimed that Islamists were behind the Egyptian revolution. Ben Ali said the same in Tunisia. King Abdullah of Jordan sees a dark and sinister hand – al-Qa’ida’s hand, the Muslim Brotherhood’s hand, an Islamist hand – behind the civil insurrection across the Arab world. Yesterday the Bahraini authorities discovered Hizbollah’s bloody hand behind the Shia uprising there. For Hizbollah, read Iran. How on earth do well-educated if singularly undemocratic men get this thing so wrong? Confronted by a series of secular explosions – Bahrain does not quite fit into this bracket – they blame radical Islam. The Shah made an identical mistake in reverse. Confronted by an obviously Islamic uprising, he blamed it on Communists.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-these-are-secular-popular-revolts-ndash-yet-everyone-is-blaming-religion-2220134.html
News Analysis: Unrest Encircles Saudis, Stoking Sense of Unease
The rulers are feeling more isolated and worried that the United States may no longer be a reliable backer, officials and diplomats say.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=5261b81456a58019037e5c51f27a720c
Ban all weapons sales to authoritarian regimes | Observer editorial
British governments have been deeply selective in what they profess to know about human rights abuses when it comes to approving arms deals. When it comes to approving the sale of arms to unpleasant regimes, as the cases of Bahrain and Libya displayed depressingly last week, British governments, Labour and coalition, have been deeply selective in what they profess to know about human rights abuses and their criteria for refusal. It is to be welcomed that the government has now revoked the licences, but in the case of Bahrain there should have been no excuse. In the past two years, as each batch of new arms licences was waved through, Bahrain’s government and its National Security Service committed well-documented abuses. In 2009, Bahraini police used shotguns twice to disperse people demonstrating against the seizure of their land by the military. Last year, in the run-up to elections, 250 opposition activists were arrested on “terrorism” charges.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/20/observer-editorial-arms-deals-bahrain
Cycle of Suppression Rises in Libya and Elsewhere
A deadly cycle is emerging: Security forces fire on funerals, killing more people, creating more funerals.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=63eb919e8de14c47256d8baa14baa854
How Mideast Autocrats Win Friends And Influence People In Washington
NEW YORK — Shortly after 20 Shiite opposition leaders, including clerics and human rights activists, were arrested on the eve of elections in Bahrain last September, U.S. State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley was asked about the situation, including allegations of police torture, “given the close relations between Bahrain and the United States.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/19/how-mideast-autocrats-influence-washington_n_825574.html
Next Stop: The House of Saud, Pepe Escobar
The Gulf Cooperation Council – the scandalously wealthy club of local kingdoms which holds over US$1 trillion stashed away in foreign reserves and almost 50% of the world’s proven oil reserves still underground – issued, what else, a bland statement supporting Bahrain.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB19Ak01.html
The Middle East is Changing, RAMZY BAROUD
Low that the Egyptian people have finally wrestled their freedom from the hands of a very stubborn regime, accolades to the revolution are pouring in from all directions. Even those who initially sided with Hosni Mubarak’s regime, or favored a neutral position, have now changed their tune.
http://www.counterpunch.com/baroud02182011.html
The Tweet and Revolution, ALEXANDER COCKBURN
President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton rushed to contrast the repressive brutality of the Iranian authorities with what they now seek to present as the bloodless, US-managed triumph of pro-democracy forces in Egypt. By any measure this was brazen impudence, starting with the fact that across the past few weeks the 300 dead, slaughtered by security forces and government-hired thugs fell in Tahrir Square and the streets of Cairo, not in Teheran, with more dead piling up in Bahrein, home of the US Fifth Fleet.
http://www.counterpunch.com/cockburn02182011.html
From Cairo to Madison: the New Internationalism the Re-Mystification of the Middle East
After being glued to Al-Jazeera for what seemed like decades, I returned to semi-normal life and found that there was breaking news in the academic circles as well. In the last three weeks, the popular overthrow of Ben Ali and Mubarak seems to have brought about the demise of another oppressive foe of the Arabs: Islam. Once fixated on Muslim psychology and Qu’ranic exegisis, commentators now have no choice but to emerge from their essentialist slumber to return to the Clintonian adage (not Hillary, the other one): it’s the economy stupid. It struck me that finally Marxists and liberals, literary critics and political scientists, beltway pundits and Russian revolutionaries, can agree on something.
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/678/from-cairo-to-madison_the-new-internationalism-the-re-mystification-of-the-middle-east
Muhammad Nusair, “Photo from Egypt: ‘Egypt Supports Wisconsin Workers'”
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/nusair190211.html

Why the U.S. will not ‘do something’ about Palestine

Feb 20, 2011

Virginia Tilley

People are always getting US foreign policy wrong. For over two decades, people anxious about human rights violations in the Middle East, especially Israeli occupation, have regularly asked me, “When is the US going to do X, Y or Z?” When is the US going to put real pressure on Israel? When is the US going to live up to its rhetoric about democracy? When is the US going to stop supporting Arab dictators? The answer was always “never” but the question kept coming.

Especially among the Palestinian movement, the illusion was that, if the US really knew what was going on, it would “do something”. Vast amounts of activist work went into publicizing atrocities and trying to get the US foreign policy establishment to notice so it would “do something”. Of course, US analysts already knew what was going on and the US was not going to “do something”—for one simple reason: it was getting what it wanted from the situation—Israeli cooperation as a regional power and Palestinian political passivity. Yet the naiveté about US leverage and motivations persisted and political paralysis was the result.

Now that the people of the Middle East have had enough and taken power into their own hands, they are still getting US policy wrong. They are outraged that the US position has seemed wobbly, uncertain, vague or vapid and they are especially angry with President Obama. The US veto of the UN Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements (the last nail in the coffin for the “do something” crowd, hopefully) was greeted with scandalized denunciations, although it was always predictable. Even perceptions that US regional standing is withering, which it certainly is, have led people to get the US wrong. The Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas believes that diminished US regional power will prevent it from vetoing a UNSC resolution recognizing the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. This is entirely wrong.

There are three fundamental truths about US foreign policy that it is high time people in the Middle East grasp more fully.

First, the US is a world hegemon. Even with its credibility sinking and other powers rising, like China, the US comprises about one-fourth of the entire world’s economy by itself, controls most of the UN as well as the IMF and World Bank, and has vast influence over states everywhere. This factor has two effects that matter here. One is that US will not stop acting like a hegemon until it isn’t one anymore, which is still a long way off, and no political hegemon in history has ever acted altruistically. Especially, no hegemon has ever simply backed out of the affairs of a long-standing client and tossed its own hard interests to the wind in the name of human freedom. Human rights and democracy are optional to hegemons: they matter only where they impact the hegemon’s realist interests. And the driving interests of any hegemon are wealth and security: to abuse the phrasing of a famous Jewish philosopher, “the rest is commentary”. To expect a hegemon to behave any other way is futile fantasy.

The other inescapable effect of US global hegemony is global dependency on the US. It’s not just that no country in the world is immune from US economic clout, including both trade and technology (such as licenses for essential telecommunications and the like). More directly pertinent to Middle East events is that militaries the world over (with very few exceptions) are dependent on US spare parts to keep themselves running. The US need only cut off the spare-part spigot and the military forces of states around the globe will find their planes, ships and tanks dead in the water. Asking any state’s military to paralyze itself this way is futile. This dependency on US prerogatives is recognized by many today and indeed cited as the evil foundation of US global influence in propping up dictators. But it also means that the US has back-channel contacts around the world that are not part of the public rhetoric, and this is being overlooked. Second, the US is a democracy. Be warned, all ye lands: democracy is a necessary but not sufficient condition for good governance. It too can be hijacked by unprincipled populists to serve graft, inefficiency, corruption and greed, and this is what has happened in the US. For decades, the Christian right wing has infiltrated the US school system through its effective veto over school textbooks. Among other debilitating effects, this suffocating influence by religious bigots has furthered rampant popular ignorance both about domestic affairs and the rest of the world. Ignorance has made a large minority of the voting public bizarrely gullible to Republicans lies, nativist xenophobia and wild distractions—such as hysterical accusations that universal health care would result in “death panels” or that Islamic radicals are about to take over the Arizona legislature. Washington politics today reflects the terrible clout of this pro-rich sabotage of public debate. Real debate on urgent public issues is mostly impossible because it is derailed by fear-mongering about bogus threats. The old compromise climate in Washington and Congressional inter-party deal-making—the very heart of politics, “the art of the possible”—is infamously crippled. This dysfunctionality in Congress impacts both domestic and foreign policy because the US constitution places severe limits on presidential power: no president can govern without the will of the Congress. Today, with the right wing clamping down, latitude for policymaking by a liberal president is especially confined.

Previously, US presidents had relative freedom of action regarding foreign policy, which the US Constitution grants to the Executive branch. But here we face the third fundamental truth: the Zionist movement has sunk its bloody talons into US politics (and European politics) to a degree unprecedented for a hegemon in the modern world. As US professors Mearsheimer and Walt have famously warned (along with many others), Zionist lobbyists effectively control the Congress today on anything regarding Israel: partly through hard money and the real or imagined leverage to remove representatives from office, and partly by playing on the severe ignorance of Representatives and Senators about the way the world really works (fostered by the crappy school system). For some ninety percent of Congresspeople, the only country they have visited outside the US is Israel, on Israeli-government-sponsored propaganda tours. They are, as a consequence, dupes as well as tools of pro-Israel forces. As the president cannot pursue foreign policy without at least Congressional acquiescence, regarding the budget, this influence hamstrings any president regarding Middle East policy. The Zionist lobby has done the same in most of the fifty American states, so political influence outside of Washington cannot be brought to bear on Congress to correct the situation. Israeli intelligence, which is brilliant, has also persuaded the US security establishment of its indispensability to the point that US intelligence is regularly hijacked by Israeli lies (as the shameful nonsense about “Curveball” freshly highlights).

Worse, bullying and screaming by pro-Israel fanatics in the US media has converted all attempts at sensible debate about Israel-Palestine to circular arguments over distracting myths, which about twenty percent of the US electorate, wallowing in ignorance about the world, can’t follow. Hence a hefty proportion of the electorate remains saturated with endemic Israeli-Zionist and Christian-Zionist propaganda about sweet vulnerable Israel nobly defending the only democracy in the Middle East against backward anti-Jewish Arab hordes. Thanks to the blood, sweat and tears of the Arab peoples in the streets over recent weeks, this clamp on the American imagination about Arabs has been severely jolted. Let us hope it is fatally damaged. But popular US Zionism remains a problem that filters up to the White House through many channels, further steering policy on the Middle East. As a consequence of these three factors—hegemony, democracy, and Zionist-lobby subversion—Obama is circumvented in all options by the Democratic Party that he nominally (temporarily) leads. That party is dominated in Washington by a hard-core foreign policy party establishment that is (a) always compromised on foreign policy by lobbying by the military-industrial complex (and its individual members’ own personal financial investments in the security industry); (b) constrained by the Zionist lobby from taking any position objectionable to Israel; and (c) blind to its effective betrayal of true US national interests, due both to its venality and its members’ actual ignorance about the world. The Republic elite establishment is, of course, still poisoned by neoconservative lies that were disseminated during the nightmare era of Bush the Younger. But the Democratic establishment, reshaped by the Bill Clinton era, is also saturated with overt Zionists, pro-Israel propaganda and overt political dependency on the Zionist lobby. This bloc is emblemized by the gullibility of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has appalled people otherwise prone to support her since her earliest years as an independent politician, when she so shamelessly sucked up to Jewish-Zionist votes while campaigning for the Senate in New York State that she was lampooned by embarrassed Jewish late-night television comedians. Obama is surrounded by these people and their networks: just getting objective information is very difficult—although now, thankfully, a little easier because of the mass Arab uprisings and scandalised commentary now splashed across the world’s mainstream media. (See an interesting piece in the New York Times about the White House’s “Nerd Directorate”.)

On top of this, outsiders may not fully appreciate the special vulnerability that Obama faces as the country’s first black president. Of course, this factor is widely known but its depth is often not grasped. Here those disgusted with him might usefully pause from fascinated focus on Middle East uprisings to take a closer look at Washington politics—e.g., cruise the “Politics” section of the Washington Post over two or three days—to get a handle on it. His skin color alone sends about 20 percent of the electorate into racist heebie-jeebies. While the world sits glued to visions of Middle East democracy struggles, a horrifyingly large portion of US voters is still fastened like mad-eyed ferrets on Fox News debates about whether Obama was really born in the US and whether he is in fact a Muslim. The debasement of US politics is signalled by the horrible fact that idiotic Sarah Palin—a cartoon of a politician—is actually a serious force in US politics.

The result? President Obama is one of the most politically besieged presidents in modern times. The US economy is in emergency straits: he is battling to preserve even truncated health care reforms and faltering worker’s rights to decent wages against a torrent of unprincipled Republican lies and manipulation. He will lose all those battles if the Zionist lobby undertakes to undermine him. In any case, a US president is not as powerful as people think. The seeming latitude of Bush the Younger to radically alter US foreign policy—the neoconservative hijacking of US foreign policy to attack Iraq—was born along by the pro-Zionist tide created by the three factors above. Any effort by Obama to swim the other way runs smack against that tide. And all presidents must have their party establishment behind them. If Obama loses the Democratic party elite, he will fail on every agenda he now has on his desk, and he will lose that elite if he takes on Israel’s settlements or any other Israeli crimes. If he attempted a full-scale change of policy on Israel, Obama’s frail political boat would sink directly into the drink – and take his domestic agenda with it. Hence the Israel’s stranglehold on US foreign policy is translating into a fatal vulnerability by the White House regarding both foreign and domestic policy. Hence Obama spent 50 desperate minutes pleading with Abbas not to make him veto the UN Security Council resolution on settlements. US domestic policy is being held hostage to Israel’s foreign policy.

So what does this mean for people scandalised by US policy in the Middle East? First, don’t expect foreign policy of the US hegemon to stop being concerned for stability (economic and security) and Israel. The concern for “stability” will never change—hegemons don’t change their spots—and the ruinous fixation on Israel won’t change until some catastrophe alters the US domestic electoral environment regarding Israel, which will be triggered by events outside the US if it happens at all. Second, don’t expect Obama to wave a magic wand and transform US foreign policy by himself. Every speech he makes—sincerely, I believe—about democracy in the Middle East is instantly undercut or contradicted by the foreign-policy establishment of Clintonian Democrats on which he depends for everything and he has very limited options to transform that establishment. Finally, recognize that namby-pamby public statements by the White House are not the full substance of US involvement in Middle East dramas. The White House has actually contributed quietly but powerfully to the relatively peaceful transition in Egypt by using all its backroom contacts—especially personal contacts between US and Egyptian military officers—to help preclude the open military repression that we now know Mubarak ordered unleashed and Egyptian generals were debating. The US is doing the same, hastily if late, in Bahrain. This isn’t close to what people want from the US but it has certainly reduced the death count. (Consider what is happening in Libya, where comparable hegemonic influence is missing.)

Rather than look to the hegemon to abandon and undercut its former dictator clients, we must look to the lesson of recent events. If there is any single glaring lesson from the present tectonic shift in Middle East politics, it is that the peoples of the region have immense power to transform the situation themselves. As a hegemon, the US is in fact neutral about human rights abuses; Obama and others may personally care about human rights, but as a state actor on the world stage the US is, again, concerned only about stability favourable to its trade and security. When the people themselves make repressive regimes unstable, then the US will back whatever measures restore that stability. Where democracy promises to make countries more stable, the US will support it. People in the streets, in other words, will reshape US foreign policy through their power in the streets and not by futile appeals to the hegemon’s (nonexistent) better nature.

The exception, of course, is US policy regarding Israel, where US policy is entirely destructive to stability. And this brings us at last to the lesson for Palestine—and this lesson is glaring: stop expecting the US to “do something” to change the status quo in Israel-Palestine. Corrupted by the Zionist lobby, US policy about the Palestinians and Israel will change only after the Palestinians transform their movement to demand full democracy and so compel the same overwhelming global sympathy that Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and other Arab countries are now reaping. When they do this, Zionism will stagger and fall under the weight of its own lies. For the main Zionist lie is that stability can be achieved through racist partition of the country (on its own terms). In fact, stability depends on justice, and justice and racism are contradictions in terms. As in Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Yemen, South Africa and everywhere else, only one road leads to real freedom in Palestine: absolute rejection of ethnic/sectarian supremacy in any form, full democracy, unity, and equal rights for all. May the Palestinians seize that banner and shout it out on al-Jazeera and Twitter and Facebook like other peoples in the region. May they take to the streets in their millions, insisting on full rights in their own country, send several hundred thousand people over the hideous Wall with signs saying “We are coming home!” and restore justice to the land. I hope they do this soon, for their own sakes, and not wait for any party or “authority” to lead the way. But I must admit to praying they do it soon also for the sake of US politics, foreign and domestic. For, through a strange twist of fate, US foreign and domestic policy has become intertwined in ways that make the future health of my home country just as dependent on the vision and determination of the Palestinian people on their own liberation.

Shame of the liberals: Nadler presses for more security for settlers

Feb 20, 2011

Philip Weiss

Incredible. Mairav Zonszein at +972: Congressman Jerrold Nadler writes to Israeli ambassador Michael Oren about a Jewish graveyard in occupied East Jerusalem, and threats to visitors there. The graveyard is right next to an illegal Israeli settlement, of which the U.S. approves of course:

“I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me what steps are being taken in terms of securing the area, what the timeline is for these measures, and what is being done in the interim to ensure that visitors are safe. It is in all of our interests to make sure that this site, which is of the utmost importance to so many Jews in my district and around the world, is protected and secure from attacks and vandalism.”

…To Congressman Nadler’s request Amb. Oren will likely respond by assuring him that Israeli authorities are taking all measures necessary to increase their control of the area, which just happens to be one of the most sensitive sites in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and paces away from where the Second Intifada began.

I doubt he will mention the fact that dozens more housing units are now under construction in Maale Zeitim, or that just across the street, a new settlement called Maale David is being built, which is slated to connect to Maale Zeitim, together making them the largest settlement in East Jerusalem.

What Congressman Nadler should have added in his letter to Amb. Oren, is his concern and disdain for Israel’s reckless and disingenuous policy in East Jerusalem, which is directly responsible for endangering the lives of Israeli citizens and all the residents of the city, not to mention further deepening the reality of an apartheid state,

Obama’s Dred Scott decision

Feb 20, 2011

Philip Weiss

I find myself incredibly dispirited by the Obama veto of the UN Security Council resolution against the settlements. There hasn’t been a sadder more craven day in recent Amercan history. Two years after Obama promised in the largest Arab city that he would stop the settlement project, he caved to neoconservatives and the Israel lobby.

I’m not talking about the end of the two state solution. The two state solution probably died a long time ago. James North says that Israel might have preserved itself in 2002 with the Arab Peace Initiative; that was its best chance to survive as a Jewish state. But it rejected the offer.

That is Israel’s problem, I am talking about America. The Israel lobby is in America, and it twisted the progressive president’s arm. Huckabee has now positioned himself as the defender of greater Israel, and because of the Israel lobby, Obama must accommodate the Huckabee position rather than taking it on and politicizing the question and trusting the people. He doesn’t want Democratic money to go over to the Republicans. That’s the game. AIPAC and the Israel Project urged him to veto, and neocon Jennifer Rubin, supported fully by the Washington Post, told Obama that if he voted against settlements he would join a “pack of jackals” that is against Israel. He heeded her.

Our politics are hopelessly corrupted on a question of basic fairness, as they were corrupted by the slave power, which everyone knew was wrong in the 1850s. Still the Establishment kept extending slavery. Other countries were abolishing slavery; but both our existing political parties were for it, and the Supreme Court made the historic decision in the Dred Scott case in 1857 to return a slave to his owner. And the president supported the decision, thinking that if the court so ruled slavery could be removed from politics. And look what befell the country in 3 years, an issue that was never fully politicized was the cause of a terrible war.

Lincoln rose by exposing and denouncing that conspiracy; and the good thing about this moment is that it exposes the lobby’s power. Dennis Ross used to claim it was just in Congress, that was a lie. David Gergen said no one talked about the politics of the issue in the White House—another lie. When the actual political understanding in the Establishment is that Jimmy Carter lost his second term due in good part to the lobby, and ditto George HW Bush, who opposed settlements in ’91 and lost his head a year later. This was a lesson not lost on George W. Bush, who rode the lobby into Baghdad, or Barack Obama, who thought he could run against the hardline lobby and now kneels to it on settlements so as to escape Carter and Bush 1’s fate.

The veto also helps expose the weakness of the Chomsky view that American rigidity in the Middle East is a corporate policy. If the corporations have so much power, and if the corporations had a real interest in Middle East authoritarianism, why did they let us lose Egypt in the face of a popular rebellion– why did they let us side with the good guys? When meantime, we continue to side with the thugs in Israel and squelch all Arab protest? Because corporations don’t govern this policy, the Israel lobby does, and the lobby cares a lot less about who is in Egypt than about whether Israel must sacrifice an inch of territory.

The weakness in Chomsky’s materialist analysis is his blindness to passions other than greed, and the premise that an ethnic lobby cannot wield power, or more specifically, that Jews don’t have power. This premise is based on tragic history in Europe, in which Jewish power was problematized and the answer was genocide; but it represents a collapse of understanding when it comes to the U.S. The Chomsky analysis simply refuses to reckon with messianism. It cannot reckon with the fact that a leading liberal Jewish institution, the 92d Street Y, has now banned the appearance of a Palestinian author whose three daughters were murdered in Gaza two years ago because the Jewish author who was to counterbalance that author cancelled her appearance. The materialist analysts would probably say, Oh that is just one cultural institution, it has no power. And as they cannot reckon with messianism inside Jewish life, they cannot reckon with the prominence of pro-Israel Jews in our politics. They wield power in much the way that the Christian right lifted Reagan in 1980.

How much power, I don’t know, because the press never investigates the question; but the Security Council veto suggests that it is backbreaking power. For the lobby is now blinding Americans to the most basic facts about the Israel/Palestine issue: that Palestinians have been dispossessed for 63 years and are losing land by the minute. It is a situation as grossly unfair as slavery– 5 million people denied their rights– and Hillary Clinton says it is unsustainable even as she sustains it.

These people are whistling in the dark the same way that President Buchanan was when he pushed the Supreme Court to uphold slavery in Dred Scott so that the issue would go away.

It won’t go away. Arab societies are being ravished by democracy; and thinkers I trust believe the Jewish state is finished. Jack Ross said it lately, Ali Abunimah predicted it some time ago. John Mearsheimer all but says it also. The only way to save it was the Arab Peace Initiative; and Israel was too greedy to listen.

I am not crying about the end of Israel– I would prefer a democracy in Israel and Palestine. What I’m crying about is my country’s inflexibility, its inability to support any semblance of fairness, any semblance of Arab self-determination. Because remember, the Palestinian Authority wanted this resolution; and now the neoconservative Washington Post is slamming them for even daring to want to hold a fragment of their own land. And Obama has sided with the Post. So we respect the idea of Arab self- determination in Egypt, we rubbish it in Israel and Palestine.

It may be 5 years, it may be 20, but Israel is finished; it will some day be a state of its citizens. And my fear surrounds the fact that the most powerful country in the world is the last to have figured out where things are going, we are living in denial, and feeding an Israeli denial of the reality that surrounds it. I believe that Obama made a deal with the Israelis not to bomb Iran and he would protect the settlements, but even that was a craven deal; and now as Iran fades as an existential threat because Israel has lifted its foot off that pedal, we will be bludgeoned with other existential threats. What will happen when the Palestinians rise up in another intifadah, or the Egyptians demand that Gaza be free, or Israel Arabs launch protests? The U.S. will snap to attention.

In Egypt we got on the right side of history. In Israel we are firmly on the wrong side. And if history teaches anything it is that such gross errors of judgment about the direction of civilization are not overcome peaceably.

Carl Coon has a good post on the exposure of American weakness here. And John Robertson makes many similar points to me, about Obama choosing the wrong side of history and opposing self-determination, and the likelihood that the Jewish state will come to an end, here.

When your number comes up

Feb 20, 2011

Philip Weiss

When my wife and I say that we hope to go to Egypt soon, some friends say, Why would you take that risk? My wife says, How many Americans have been killed there? Or she says, I believe in Appointment in Samarra: when your number comes up, your number comes up.

When I was 8 or 9 my parents were getting seatbelts put in their car. Ahead of the federal regulations, they got them put in. They were fearful about American highways and also American nuclear-test radiation. My mother used to chew out mothers who drove her kids home in the front seat. Once my mother reported, “And she told me, ‘I believe when your number comes up, your number comes up.’ What a fool.”

Typically, I asked my wife how to square her view with my mom’s. She said, Well I’m not an idiot, I don’t take ridiculous risks. But how many accidents did you get in after they put in the seatbelts? Your mother may be safe in her car but some people might say, I’d rewire that old house. People rationalize the risks they want to take and magnify the ones they don’t want to take. Like my friend X who says, Why would anyone take hormone replacement therapy, it could give you cancer– as she’s smoking cigarette after cigarette. I love travel. So I accept the risks of travel.

2 thoughts on “Mondoweiss Online Newsletter”

slowacja gorace zrodla says:

June 14, 2011 at 13:57

Fantastic post but I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this topic? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Kudos!

1. admin says:
  
  June 14, 2011 at 14:05
  
  HI KUDOS
  CAN YOU WRITE TO ME WITCH TOPIC AND I WILL DO.
  THANK YOU
  SHOAH

NOVANEWS

‘NYT’ gives Oren a lectern to spew potted history

Feb 20, 2011

Scott McConnell

Next, Palestine

Feb 20, 2011

Philip Weiss

The popular uprisings and ensuing overthrow of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt were about self-determination (not nationalistic), ending violent oppression and demands for personal, political and economic freedoms….

Israel to consider applying Israeli law to settlements

Feb 20, 2011

Kate

and other news from Today in Palestine:

‘Gaza Youth Breaks Out’ calls for a unified Palestinian leadership to ‘lead us to freedom with all pride and dignity’ Feb 20, 2011 02:56 pm | Adam Horowitz

Gaza Youth Breaks Out issued the following call earlier today:

Q: Which countries in the Middle East routinely attack funeral processions? A: Libya and Israel Feb 20, 2011 10:55 am | Seham

and other news from Today in the Middle East:

Photo above is from Muhammad Nusair, 21, an activist and engineering student in Egypt. He blogs at <politirature.wordpress.com>. Cf. Muhammad Nusair, “From Tahrir to Wisconsin” (19 February 2011).

2009- Israeli army attack funeral of Mohammed Khawaje, the second martyr from Ni’lin in four days http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/3761/

Libya

Why the U.S. will not ‘do something’ about Palestine

Feb 20, 2011

Virginia Tilley

There are three fundamental truths about US foreign policy that it is high time people in the Middle East grasp more fully.

Shame of the liberals: Nadler presses for more security for settlers

Feb 20, 2011

Philip Weiss

Incredible. Mairav Zonszein at +972: Congressman Jerrold Nadler writes to Israeli ambassador Michael Oren about a Jewish graveyard in occupied East Jerusalem, and threats to visitors there. The graveyard is right next to an illegal Israeli settlement, of which the U.S. approves of course:

I doubt he will mention the fact that dozens more housing units are now under construction in Maale Zeitim, or that just across the street, a new settlement called Maale David is being built, which is slated to connect to Maale Zeitim, together making them the largest settlement in East Jerusalem.

Obama’s Dred Scott decision

Feb 20, 2011

Philip Weiss

I’m not talking about the end of the two state solution. The two state solution probably died a long time ago. James North says that Israel might have preserved itself in 2002 with the Arab Peace Initiative; that was its best chance to survive as a Jewish state. But it rejected the offer.

These people are whistling in the dark the same way that President Buchanan was when he pushed the Supreme Court to uphold slavery in Dred Scott so that the issue would go away.

In Egypt we got on the right side of history. In Israel we are firmly on the wrong side. And if history teaches anything it is that such gross errors of judgment about the direction of civilization are not overcome peaceably.

Carl Coon has a good post on the exposure of American weakness here. And John Robertson makes many similar points to me, about Obama choosing the wrong side of history and opposing self-determination, and the likelihood that the Jewish state will come to an end, here.

When your number comes up

Feb 20, 2011

Philip Weiss

When my wife and I say that we hope to go to Egypt soon, some friends say, Why would you take that risk? My wife says, How many Americans have been killed there? Or she says, I believe in Appointment in Samarra: when your number comes up, your number comes up.

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2 thoughts on “Mondoweiss Online Newsletter”

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‘Gaza Youth Breaks Out’ calls for a unified Palestinian leadership to ‘lead us to freedom with all pride and dignity’
Feb 20, 2011 02:56 pm | Adam Horowitz

Q: Which countries in the Middle East routinely attack funeral processions? A: Libya and Israel
Feb 20, 2011 10:55 am | Seham

2009- Israeli army attack funeral of Mohammed Khawaje, the second martyr from Ni’lin in four days
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/3761/