Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

 

• Slap across the face

• Cornel West says Obama’s homies are Jews who think they’re smart, and Larry Summers blows his mind

• How many years of struggle before Gandhi was mentioned by the State Department– or Mandela?

• Yale to stick thumb in Obama administration’s eye

• Anti-Muslim bigot Walid Shoebat, brought to you by U.S. taxpayers

• What rough beast slouches toward Jerusalem?

• Egyptians demand shut down of Israeli embassy

• The Arab spring comes to Palestine

• ‘Goldstone Report’ is at once a tragedy and a utopian document

• Palestinians are driving the train of history now, Beinart acknowledges

Slap across the face

May 16, 2011

annie

This incident occurred inside Israel near the site of two ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages, Kafr Bir’im and Iqrith. The Palestinian Israeli protestors originally made plans to meet up with Palestinian refugees coming from Maroun al Ras, Lebanon. After being prevented from traveling to that meeting place they took their protest to Kafr Bir’im and Iqrith.

These are Israeli police and unarmed Israeli protestors.

Below is a description of the demolition of Iqrit from The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East by David Hirst(Nation Books)

“In July 1951 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of another Christian village, Iqrit, whose inhabitants had been ordered, three years earlier, to leave their homes ‘for two weeks’ until ‘military operations in the area were concluded.’ After this judgement the Military Government found another justification to prevent them from returning. The villagers once more appealed to the Supreme Court, which decided to consider the case on 6 February 1952. But a month and a half before that date, on Christmas Day to be precise, the Israeli Defense Forces took the mukhtar of this Christian community to the top of a nearby hill and forced him to watch the show—the blowing up of every house in the village—which they had laid on for his benefit.”

The village of Bir Am was similarly demolished on September 16, 1953 while an appeal for the residents to return was pending.

More information about the protest in the video and photos @ Arabs48 (Arabic).

Update: Thanks to bijou in comments for providing context and a link to Ami Kaufman over @ +972.

you can see Kobi Bachar, deputy commander of the Galilee District Police, slapping an Arab lawyer roughly in the face after she asked him why he was arresting protesters.

IMHO, the best quote in Kaufman’s the article is from ynet:

forces were forced to use reasonable force

Cornel West says Obama’s homies are Jews who think they’re smart, and Larry Summers blows his mind

May 16, 2011

Philip Weiss

Brother Cornel West talks to brother Chris Hedges at truthdig about his Obama disappointments:

“I was thinking maybe he has at least some progressive populist instincts that could become more manifest after the cautious policies of being a senator and working with [Sen. Joe] Lieberman as his mentor,” he says. “But it became very clear when I looked at the neoliberal economic team. The first announcement of Summers and Geithner I went ballistic. I said, ‘Oh, my God, I have really been misled at a very deep level.’ And the same is true for Dennis Ross and the other neo-imperial elites. I said, ‘I have been thoroughly misled, all this populist language is just a facade. I was under the impression that he might bring in the voices of brother Joseph Stiglitz and brother Paul Krugman…

“He feels most comfortable with upper middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart, very savvy and very effective in getting what they want,” he says. “He’s got two homes. He has got his family and whatever challenges go on there, and this other home. Larry Summers blows his mind because he’s so smart. He’s got Establishment connections. He’s embracing me. It is this smartness, this truncated brilliance, that titillates and stimulates brother Barack and makes him feel at home. That is very sad for me.

How many years of struggle before Gandhi was mentioned by the State Department– or Mandela?

May 16, 2011

Philip Weiss

Today the great Mazin Qumsiyeh’s name was mentioned in a State Department briefing by acting deputy spokesman Mark Toner. The geneticist, the author, the nonviolent activist, Qumsiyeh was arrested yesterday in occupied Al Walajah which is being devoured by Jerusalem. I saw Qumsiyeh last month in Boston, I still haven’t reported on it. I will. What an inspiring figure. The mention:

QUESTION: Are you aware of the arrest in the West Bank of a Palestinian – or American citizen, Palestinian academic, whose last name is Qumsiya?

MR. TONER: Matt, I’m not. We’ll look into it.

QUESTION: Can you check into that?

MR. TONER: Yeah.

QUESTION: He was arrested by the Israelis as part of a —

MR. TONER: Was that today, Matt?

QUESTION: — or during a march.

MR. TONER: Or – was that today or over the weekend?

QUESTION: I believe it was on Saturday or Sunday.

MR. TONER: Okay. We’ll look into it.

QUESTION: Thanks.

MR. TONER: Do you have the name?

QUESTION: Yeah. I’ll give it to you.

MR. TONER: All right. Go ahead.

QUESTION: I have a follow-up on that question. Do you think that the Israelis used excessive force in dealing with the demonstration – demonstrators?

MR. TONER: Well, again, I think what we’re looking for is restraint on all sides. We certainly don’t want to see a continuation of the violence, and certainly, Palestinian security forces did play a constructive role, and that was an encouraging sign. But we call on all sides, I think, to show restraint moving forward. We don’t want to see any more deaths or violence.

Yale to stick thumb in Obama administration’s eye

May 16, 2011

Philip Weiss

by giving George Mitchell an honorary degree at next Monday’s commencement, says my source.

Even as Obama and Netanyahu are speaking at AIPAC. Which side are you on, boys, which side are you on?

Anti-Muslim bigot Walid Shoebat, brought to you by U.S. taxpayers

May 16, 2011

Alex Kane

Late last year, Walid Shoebat, a self-styled “expert” on Islamic extremism, reportedly told public safety personnel attending a Las Vegas anti-terrorism conference that the way to solve the threat posed by terrorists was to “kill them…including the children.”

And on May 11, despite criticism of the Las Vegas speech, Shoebat, who continues to tout his credentials as an “ex-terrorist” in the Palestine Liberation Organization despite serious questions about his purported biography, was welcomed to a similar place. He delivered a keynote address to more public employees who attended the second annual South Dakota Homeland Security Conference held in Rapid City–a conference entirely funded by federal tax money. The topic was “Jihad in America.”

David Montgomery of the Rapid City Journal reported on the speech:

Walid Shoebat, who says he was a former terrorist in the Palestine Liberation Organization before converting to Christianity, said that Americans should focus on what he called the “culture of terrorism” among Muslims rather than “only the ones who carry out the explosive act.”

Shoebat said closet supporters of terrorism exist throughout the Muslim community in mosques, community groups and in the U.S. armed forces.

“You’ve been infiltrated at all levels,” Shoebat said. “Are all Muslims who interpret for the U.S. military terrorists? Of course not. But that doesn’t mean you play Russian roulette.”

Shoebat’s appearance was paid for by a federal grant from the Department of Homeland Security as part of the second annual South Dakota Homeland Security Conference. He also spoke at the first conference last year in Sioux Falls.

Shoebat was invited for a second time to the conference because the speech was highly popular among attendees, Jim Carpenter, the state’s director of homeland security, told Montgomery. “The critiques and evaluations that came back highly recommended that he come back again…We acted on those, and that’s why he came back.”
But even more alarmingly, Shoebat, described by religion writer Richard Bartholomew as “a pseudo-expert on terrorism…[who] teaches thatObama is a secret Muslim and that the Bible has prophesised a Muslim anti-Christ,” is only the tip of an anti-Muslim iceberg being funded by taxpayers. Author and journalist Chris Hedges recently reported that “much of this [anti-Muslim] indoctrination within the law enforcement community is funded under two grant programs for training—the State Homeland Security Program and Urban Areas Security Initiative—which made $1.67 billion available to states in 2010.”

Since September 11, the federal government has poured money into fighting terrorism. But some of this money has gone to pay for public employee attendance at seminars and trainings that feature crude propaganda about Islam. The speakers at these trainings, like Shoebat, also often push a far-right agenda when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict. For example, on his website, Shoebat claims that “the Arab refugees are being used as pawns’ to create a terror breeding ground, as a form of aggression against Israel.”

Shoebat and others like him preach bigoted tropes about Islam across the country at similar conferences paid for with taxpayer money. The trend has continued despite more public scrutiny in the form of investigations published by the Washington Post and a March 29 letter from top senators in the Senate’s Homeland Security committee. The letter, authored by Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins, expressed concern about “state and local law enforcement agencies…being trained by individuals who not only do not understand the ideology of violent Islamist extremism but also cast aspersions on a wide swath of ordinary Americans merely because of their religious affiliation.”

The Senate letter came after the publication of a comprehensive report by the Political Research Associates that documented how “public servants are regularly presented with misleading, inflammatory, and dangerous information about the nature of the terror threat.”

“What we are documenting here is the institutionalization of these views in a critical part of our government—those who have the power to monitor, extract, arrest and interrogate people,” Thom Cincotta, the author of the report, told me in a recent interview published in AlterNet.“This isn’t the type of country we want to be. We want to embrace our diversity and build ties with the Muslim-American community.”

But despite the increase in public scrutiny, and demands from the Council on American-Islamic Relations to drop Shoebat from the South Dakota conference, the Shoebat show went on.

The scrutiny of Shoebat was met with a shrug from Carpenter, the state’s director of homeland security. He told the Rapid City Journal that he doesn’t think that “we should be complacent in any way…Sometimes it takes folks to wake us up a little bit.” But in reality, Shoebat and others like him let law enforcement go to sleep on the real work of counter-terrorism.

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

What rough beast slouches toward Jerusalem?

May 16, 2011

Philip Weiss

Writes a friend: Did you see that Glenn Beck wants to hold one of his cross burnings — I mean, rallies — in Jerusalem?

Glenn Beck announced on his radio show Monday that he is planning to hold a rally in Jerusalem in August called “Restoring Courage.”

It’s like if Father Coughlin had announced he was going to do a Passover broadcast from a moshav in Palestine in 1930-something.  It’s so cynical and evil. As a Jew, I want to pull his hair and shout, STOP USING US!  It makes me rage inside.

Egyptians demand shut down of Israeli embassy

May 16, 2011

Seham

Egypt poll leader calls to change policy toward Israel
CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) – The frontrunner in Egypt’s upcoming presidential election, Amr Moussa, distanced himself from his country’s past policies towards Israel and told AFP in an interview his government would be frank with the US.The outgoing Arab League secretary general said that Egypt’s regional standing had diminished under ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, who was seen as a key ally of the United States and Israel.
Egyptians lay siege to Israeli embassy in commemoration of Nakba
With efforts to demonstrate at the Rafah border crossing thwarted by the army, the Israeli embassy in Cairo becomes the focus of protests in solidarity with Palestinians on Nakba Day
Will Anthony Shadid and Ethan Bronner dismiss those as agents of the Syrian regime too?
“Several thousand Egyptians protested in front of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, waving Palestinian flags, clapping and chanting “Down with Israel.” After midnight some protesters tried to storm the embassy and were repelled by Egyptian Army guards, witnesses reported.”
Scores injured at ‘Nakba’ rally in Cairo
Security forces disperse “Nakba Day” demonstrators after group attempts to “storm” Israeli embassy in Egyptian capital.
VIDEO – SHUT DOWN THE ZIONIST EMBASSY NOW!
Photos – Israeli Embassy Nakba
Hussein: Palestine cause is a priority for Egypt
Secretary General of the Egyptian Labor party Majdi Hussein said that his country has embraced the Palestine cause anew as one of its priorities.

Tell that to Thomas Friedman and other Zionists: Egyptian youth and foreign policy
Comrades from Egypt yesterday sent me tons of pictures and links about the Palestinian theme from yesterday’s massive demonstrations all over Egypt.  Here is one person kissing this slogan which says:  “Against the will of America and Israel, Jerusalem is ours and Palestine is Arab.”  It is amazing how Thomas Friedman and other Zionists–in an attempt to reassure themselves really–insisted that the Egyptian youths have no foreign policy goals whatever.

And more news from the Arab uprisings:

Egyptian committee to liberate Palestine
They have called for an end to gas exports to the Zionist usurping entity.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/egyptian-committee-to-liberate.html
Egyptian youth carry a giant Palestinian flag
This is an image from above as some Egyptian youth carry a giant Palestinian flag to Tahrir Square.  Show this picture to Zionists and watch them weep for Husni Mubarak.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/egyptian-youth-carry-giant-palestinian.html
Palestinian flags in Tahrir Square
Even the website of the news station of King Fahd’s brother-in-law, Al-Arabiyyah, had to write a special feature about “Palestinian flags in Tahrir Square.”  The youth called for trying Mubarak for killing Palestinians in Gaza and called for a march to Jerusalem.  They chanted in unison:  “To Jerusalem we are heading, martyrs in the millions.”  Why do US newspaper not report on that?  Well, because they are weeping for Husni Mubarak.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/palestinian-flags-in-tahrir-square.html
For those who think that Egyptian youth don’t care about Arab issues
This is a scene from Tahrir Square: they carried flags of all members of the Arab League.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/for-those-who-think-that-egyptian-youth.html
Why Zionists worldwide continue to weep for Husni Mubarak
Egyptian youth carry a giant Palestinian flag: those who insisted that Egyptian youth had no foreign policy goals should look at this picture carefully. (thanks Samia) PS I don’t like flags and I don’t like nationalism, but for Palestine and the Palestinians anything and everything.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-zionists-worldwide-continue-to-weep.html
Buckets of tears from Zionists to Mubarak
“Thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Friday to push their military rulers to do more to help Palestinians following the overthrow of the country’s president Hosni Mubarak.  Many Egyptians felt Mubarak, a U.S. ally, was too soft on Israel and want their new government to take a much stronger pro-Palestinian stand.  The gatherings in Cairo, Alexandria and El-Arish come amidst preparations by activists to organize a march to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, May 15 — which Palestinians mark as the anniversary of their 1948 displacement following the establishment of Israel.  Egyptian authorities have banned the march, saying the timing was inappropriate given sectarian tensions in Egypt.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/buckets-of-tears-from-zionists-to.html
Haneyyah lauds Tahrir Square rally
The Palestinian Prime Minister of the Gaza government, Ismail Haneyyah lauded the participant in the rally that took place Friday in the Egyptian capital Cairo in support of the Palestinian cause.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc

Bahrain
Bahrain court adjourns trial of protest activists (AP)
AP – Bahrain’s special security court on Monday adjourned until next week the trial of 21 opposition leaders and political activists, mostly Shiites, accused of plotting against the state.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110516/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain
Bahrain urged to release former military officer
A former military officer is still detained months after speaking out in support of pro-reform protests in Bahrain.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/bahrain-urged-release-former-military-officer-2011-05-13
Bahrain’s hospitals are used as bait
In a health system that is being dragged deeper into the political crackdown, patients risk imprisonment just for seeking care. In Bahrain, to be wounded by security forces has become a reason for arrest and providing healthcare has become grounds for a jail sentence. During the current civil unrest, Bahraini health facilities have consistently been used as a tool in the military crackdown against protesters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/13/bahrain-hospitals-political-crackdown
‘Hundreds held’ in Bahrain crackdown
Wife tells Al Jazeera how her husband was arrested by masked man in a wave of arrests targeting Shias.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201151511050523260.html
‘Mass sackings’ in Bahrain crackdown
Part four in our exclusive series on Bahrain examines claims that a government crackdown has moved into the workplace.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011514104251715508.html
Bahraini rights activist Nabeel Rajab speaks to Al Jazeera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=663ueQ–HY4&feature=youtube_gdata
Saudis denounce Bahrain occupation
Hundreds of Saudi protesters have poured into the streets in the eastern city of Awamiya to condemn Saudi Arabia’s occupation of Bahrain.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179754.html
Burns & Feltman decline to testify on Bahrain …
WASHINGTON — “Human rights activists at a congressional hearing Friday implored the to publicly and forcefully denounce Bahrain’s violent and abusive crackdown against anti-government protesters. The only problem was nobody from the administration attended the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing to listen to the pleas. Two top State Department officials — Political Affairs Undersecretary William Burns and Jeffrey Feltman, an assistant secretary in State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs — were invited to testify, but didn’t show up. “I was expecting at least one, possibly two witnesses from the State Department to testify,” said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., the bipartisan commission’s s co-chair. “Regrettably, over the past 72 hours, we were informed that no one in any of the bureaus is available today.”
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/05/burns-feltman-decline-to-testify-on.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+friday-lunch-club+%28%22friday-lunch-club%22%29
Patrick Cockburn: Bahrain is trying to drown the protests in Shia blood
World View: Claiming that the opposition is being orchestrated by Iran, the al-Khalifa regime has unleashed a vicious sectarian clampdown
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-bahrain-is-trying-to-drown-the-protests-in-shia-blood-2284199.html
Bahrain indifferent to international criticism
In just one example, Bahrain’s government failed to respond to a scathing report accusing authorities of detaining wounded protesters rather than allowing them to get treatment.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/9siSSxeJ4SY/Bahrain-indifferent-to-international-criticism
Egypt
Dozens hurt in Egypt as Copts are attacked
Riot police stand aside as motorists and residents in Cairo attack Coptic Christian demonstrators who set up a roadblock to press for more security after deadly sectarian clashes a week ago. Scores of mostly Coptic Christian protesters were injured when their weekend demonstration blocking a street near the heart of downtown Cairo was attacked by motorists and residents as riot police stood by, prompting new questions about the ability and willingness of Egypt’s military-led government to maintain security.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/gX8pRGE8FKA/la-fg-egypt-violence-20110516,0,5436028.story
Nabil Al-`Arabi
So the League of Arab Tyrants yesterday picked Nabil Al-`Arabi as the new secretary-general of the League.  This was a clear attempt to not honor Al-`Arabi, but to remove him from the foreign ministry. Saudi government has been really pissed at Al-`Arabi, especially his refusal to join the Saudi regional plot which does not see Israel as the enemy.  Saudi press has been quite clear in its disapproval of Al-`Arabi.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/nabil-al-arabi.html
Mubarak’s wife suffered ‘panic attack’
Reports of Egypt’s former first lady having suffered heart attack following arrest downgraded to “panic attack”.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/201151414405360569.html
Suzanne Thabet joins the rests of the Mubaraks in the 15 Day pending investigations club

Suzanne Thabet is imprisoned in jail for 15 days pending investigation of corruption charges after being interrogated in Sharm El Sheikh. We do not know if she is going to be transferred to Cairo or not. According to Al Ahram portal and Al Jazeera Mubsar Misr she is going to transfer to the famous Kantar women prison and that the prison was being prepared for her reception for days. Al Ahram claims that she would be transferred on a military jet to Cairo like her son. On the other hand other sources say that she is not going to be transferred to Cairo because of security reasons and she will stay with her husband in suit 309 in Sharm El-Sheikh hospital. We are not sure if she is there yet or not. The security authorities in jail stated that they had not received yet any order regarding Thabet.
http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/05/suzanne-thabet-joins-rests-of-mubaraks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29
Gag order in case of Egyptian spying for Israel (AP)
AP – An Egyptian court has imposed a gag order on the trial of a local businessman accused of spying on his country, Syria and Lebanon for Israel.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110514/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_israel_spying
Two dead in sectarian clashes in Egypt
At least two people have died and 60 have been injured in fighting involving Coptic Christians at state TV building.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201151423163669237.html
Egypt to review trial procedures, free protesters
Reuters, CAIRO, May 13 (Reuters) – Egypt’s military rulers said on Friday they would review legal procedures used to try young activists detained after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, and free some., The move meets some of the demands made by anti-corruption activists who staged sit-in strikes in March and April to push for Mubarak and other former top government officials be put on trial.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/egypt-to-review-trial-procedures-free-protesters
Opening a Border, Ending an Era, Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO, May 14, 2011 (IPS) – In a dramatic policy shift late last month, Egypt’s post-revolutionary government announced plans to reopen the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. And on Friday, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians amassed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand the decision be carried out without delay.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55636
Lebanon
Lebanon’s Palestinians bury victims of Israeli shooting (AFP)
AFP – Thousands of bereaved Palestinians in camps in south Lebanon on Monday laid to rest victims of a cross-border Israeli shooting, as shops and schools in the camps closed for a day of mourning.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110516/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictnakbalebanon
Eye witness from Marun Ar-Ras
As`ad–not me was in Marun Ar-Ras.  He sent me some observations (I am citing with his permission).  I hope that Anthony Shadid would not dismiss my friend and the others who are in the pictures as agents of the Syrian regime.  As`ad–not me said shorting after he returned hom:  “I saw courage and heroism today in front of my eyes. The sight was unbelievable. 10 death and dozens injured and the Palestinian guys would not stop. It is mind boggling. I was 200 meters behind the fence. The Lebanese army at the end attached us and was shooting like crazy up in the air. They chased us up the whole mountain. A day I won’t forget in my life. Thoussands of bullets wire fired above us to drive us back. Friends were literally at the fence and saw the guys falling. I will upload pics and videos later on FB.  I will email you my thoughts later. We are still under shock. We were literally taking cover behind rocks, I really don’t know what to say.i swear if only these Palestinians are trained, given arms and support, Israel will not last a week. Every shot Asad from Israelis, a wounded or a killed from our side, dozens of ambulances leaving the scene.. and the guys would not stop. Showers of rocks were going the other way, and the damn Israelis snipers were shooting them down one by one.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/eye-witness-from-marun-ar-ras-asad-not.html
Palestinians in Lebanon, at the lonely end of the Arab uprisings, Matthew Cassel
Never is a refugee’s right to return brought into question – except when that refugee is a Palestinian. Climbing up the mountain to reach the Palestinian right-of-return protest in Maroun al-Ras in south Lebanon on Sunday felt a bit like being back in Tahrir Square. The thousands of mostly Palestinian refugees were smiling as they joked about the strenuous climb, and helped each other up the mountain to reach the site where they were going to stage their demonstration. Some knew it could even be dangerous, but that didn’t matter as much as the rare opportunity to join together and call for their rights.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/16/palestinian-refugees-lebanon-right-to-return
Libya

ICC seeks Gaddafi arrest warrant
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor seeks the arrest of Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, his son and brother-in-law for crimes against humanity.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13408931
Arab League votes to ban Libyan State TV from all Arab-owned satellites
The Arab League convened on Sunday and finally justified their existence by doing something useful— ban Libyan State TV.
http://abudai.tumblr.com/post/5517693119/arab-league-votes-to-ban-libyan-state-tv-from-all
Libya: UN official voices concern as fighting blocks aid delivery in west
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4dcd25201a.html
LIBYA: Looming threat of scattered munitions in the east
CAIRO 16 May 2011 (IRIN) – There is so much ammunition and unexploded ordnance (UXO) scattered across eastern Libya that local people will face a serious threat when they return home. However, it is difficult to determine the exact quantities because of ongoing fighting, experts say.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=92721
Gaddafi To NATO: ‘You Cannot Kill Me’
TRIPOLI, May 13 (Reuters) – Libyan state television carried brief audio remarks it said were by leader Muammar Gaddafi on Friday in which he taunted NATO as a cowardly crusader and said he was in a place they could not reach. The comments came after Italy’s foreign minister said Gaddafi had very likely left the Libyan capital and probably been wounded by NATO air strikes, a report that Tripoli immediately dismissed as nonsense. “I tell the cowardly crusader (NATO) that I live in a place they cannot reach and where you cannot kill me …. I live in the hearts of the millions,” said the voice, which sounded like Gaddafi’s. There was no accompanying video.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/gaddafi-to-nato-you-canno_n_861814.html
Libya refugees land on Italian island
A total of 1300 refugees, crammed in six boats, have landed on the tiny Mediterranean island of Lampedusa in the last twenty-four hours to escape the civil war in Libya. Some of the refugees accuse coastguards and NATO troops of illegally ignoring distress calls, despite spotting their boats from the air and sea. Around 20,000 migrants have fled to Lampedusa this year alone to escape uprisings in North Africa. Meanwhile, Europe fears a growing wave of migration and is discussing more stringent border controls and ways of sending the immigrants back home. Jonah Hull reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1TzR1kiGmw&feature=youtube_gdata
Libya Ends College Funding For 2,000 US Students
SPOKANE, Wash. — Educators say about 2,000 Libyan students who attend college in the United States are losing financial support from their home government. The Spokesman-Review reports the Libyan government stopped funding the Libyan-North American Scholarship Program after the U.S. froze about $30 billion of its assets.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/libya-ends-college-fundin_n_861682.html
Libyan rebel morale spikes after week of gains
Libyan rebels saw significant progress on both the military and diplomatic front in recent days, even as Qaddafi’s regime disparaged their efforts.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/xqVklNqrWJY/Libyan-rebel-morale-spikes-after-week-of-gains
Letter from Libya: To live and lose in Misurata
Times staff writer Ned Parker recalls arriving and covering the fighting in the western Libyan town, within reach of Kadafi’s capital — and where two colleagues would be killed before he left again. We watched the African refugees wait placidly at the port for the boat to take them out of a city under siege. The day before, one of their own had been killed waiting at the port’s entrance, and today, shells were falling nearby. But they still filed quietly in line.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/8inCNVchhF4/la-fg-misurata-letter-20110514,0,4958877.story
Morocco
Moroccan journalist set to face trial over security forces criticism
Morocco is due to prosecute a newspaper editor for his criticism of the country’s counter-terrorism policies.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/moroccan-journalist-set-face-trial-over-security-forces-criticism-2011-05-16
Syria
Syria: Targeted Arrests of Activists Across Country
(New York) – Syria’s security forces continue their nationwide campaign of arbitrary arrests and intimidation against political and human rights activists, holding them incommunicado, forcing them to sign undertakings to stop protesting, and in some cases torturing them, Human Rights Watch said today.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/15/syria-targeted-arrests-activists-across-country
Seven killed in Syria crackdown
Seven people died in the Syria border town of Talkalakh on Sunday after shelling by security forces, human rights activists say.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-13406821
No Syria dialogue until killings stop-activist group
AMMAN, May 15 (Reuters) – The main activists’ group coordinating demonstrations against autocratic rule rejected on Sunday a “national dialogue” announced by the authorities, saying they must stop shooting protesters first. “The peaceful demonstrations and civic disobedience will continue … It is morally and politically unacceptable to have national dialogue before stopping all forms of killings and violence against peaceful protesters … lifting the siege on cities and releasing all political prisoners,” the Local Coordination Committees said in a statement sent to Reuters.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/no-syria-dialogue-until-killings-stop-activist-group
Syria sees “relatively peaceful’ protests
A relatively lower number of deaths and injuries of civilians have been reported as large anti-demonstrations were staged across Syria on Friday. Unlike previous Fridays, security forces mostly held their fire – reportedly on the orders of president Bashar al-Assad. But some activists say the reason for the lower number of casualties is a result of a low-turnout of protesters amid heavy military crackdowns and sieges across the country. Zeina Khodr reports on nationwide demonstrations that some activists said were dedicated to Syrian women imprisoned for protesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtzgDuUL9aw&feature=youtube_gdata
Assad regime may be gaining upper hand in Syria
One indication of Syria’s confidence is that it has not yet attempted to wreak havoc regionally – a tactic it has employed in the past when feeling threatened.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/ptxQKCcBgiA/Assad-regime-may-be-gaining-upper-hand-in-Syria
Sign of Assad’s confidence is that ‘he decided not to play his regional cards
“Rifaat Eid, the leader of the small Alawite community in Tripoli in north Lebanon, says that an indication of the regime’s confidence that it could overcome the rebellion is that it has not yet played its regional cards. Mr. Eid was referring to the sometimes malevolent influence that Syria can exert over its neighbors, including Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. “Syria could open the border with Iraq to jihadists, it has influence with Hamas and Hezbollah. It has many cards to play in Lebanon, but the regime has not used any of them which shows that it is confident,” he says…”
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/05/sign-of-assads-confidence-is-that-he.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+friday-lunch-club+%28%22friday-lunch-club%22%29
Karin Leukefeld, “Syria: Releasing Detainees, Government Seeks to Meet Opposition Demands”
The release of detainees followed a meeting between the Syrian opposition and Bouthaina Shaaban, the media adviser to President Bashar al-Assad, which Shaaban had mentioned in an interview with a New York Times reporter. Besides the release of prominent civil rights activists, also on the agenda at the meeting was the need to pass a new press law, a law for the establishment of new parties, and a new electoral law, said Shaaban. She announced a national dialogue, which should begin as soon as possible, “possibly next week.” Civil rights activist Louay Hussein, who also participated in the meeting with Shaaban, said that activists demanded that the government permit peaceful protests and sit-ins. Meetings must be also permitted, so that protesters can come to an agreement on a political program and choose their own representatives who will be tasked to convey their demands to government officials. Hussein said to Reuters that activists demanded the withdrawal of plainclothes security forces from all locations and the media’s access to the towns and villages that have been made off limits to them. The release of civil rights activists is a good sign, in the opinion of Hussein. The Syrians with whom I have talked in Damascus welcomed a national dialogue. “We, the Communist Party, have been calling for a national dialogue for a long time,” says a party member, who wishes to remain anonymous. The original protests of people were legitimate, says the party member, especially since the economic development of recent years drove many into deeper poverty. Another Syrian tells me that he is cautiously optimistic. Noting that history shows that it takes time to make reform in Syria, he hopes that the dialogue will be successful.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/leukefeld130511.html
Tunisa
VIDEO: What job hopes for young Tunisians?
More than half of Tunisia’s population is under the age of 25 and despite the fact that the country has a high number of graduates, the youth unemployment rate is around 30%.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-13400010
Yemen
Yemen protesters shot as Saleh vows defiance
Three protesters killed in city of Ibb, as president tells supporters “we will confront a challenge with a challenge”.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/2011513121553593783.html
Yemen thrust into deeper uncertainty after Gulf deal falls through
A Gulf-brokered deal to usher Saleh out of power has failed. Yemeni protesters have settled in for the long haul with tents wired for Internet access and satellite TV.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/p4cFBN1O_tM/Yemen-thrust-into-deeper-uncertainty-after-Gulf-deal-falls-through
Massive crowds descend on Yemen capital to demand ruler’s exit
SANAA (Reuters) – Huge crowds across Yemen demanded on Friday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh leave after months of unrest which has put the Arab world’s poorest country on the brink of an economic meltdown.  But in a defiant speech to thousands of flag-waving supporters in the Yemeni capital, Saleh declared: “We will confront a challenge with a challenge.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/13/massive-crowds-descend-on-yemen-capital-to-demand-rulers-exit/
Other Mideast
Qataris avoiding Lebanon because of the ‘Shia’ mood’
“This summer, though, there are hardly any bookings for an Arab destination, not even for the three most favourite holiday destinations, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria,” said an industry source. Egypt is being ruled out by most holiday makers since trouble is still brewing there. Syria is witnessing intense anti-government demonstrations. And as for Lebanon, political uncertainties prevailing there and the mood in the Shia-dominated south of the country being largely pro-Syria, not many Qatari families want to visit Beirut, the source said.http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/05/qataris-avoiding-lebanon-because-of.html?
Analysis/Op-ed
The Arab Spring’s second wave
The current uprisings differ from their predecessors, marked by a series of more violent crackdowns.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115151582859118.html
Osama
EXCLUSIVE-Father of bin Laden’s wife rebuffed union at first
SANAA, May 15 (Reuters) – The Yemeni father of Osama bin Laden’s youngest wife, wounded in a U.S. raid that killed the al Qaeda leader, said he initially rebuffed a matchmaker’s proposal that his daughter marry bin Laden, before blessing their union. Ahmed Abdul-Fattah al-Saada said they were married in 1999, well before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, and that all he knew about bin Laden’s politics then was that he had backed insurgents fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/exclusive-father-of-bin-ladens-wife-rebuffed-union-at-first
Pornography Is Found in Bin Laden Compound Files, U.S. Officials Say
Officials would not say whether there was evidence that Bin Laden or the other men living in the Abbottabad compound had acquired or viewed the material.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/world/asia/14binladen.html
Bin Laden
Now we know why Bin Laden never cared about the plight of the Palestinians.  He was too busy attending to his porn collection.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/bin-laden.html
The Killing of Osama bin Laden:Vengeance Has Been Done, Nima Shirazi
It has taken a while for me to write anything regarding Barack Obama’s announcement last Sunday night that members of the US Special Operations Forces (JSOC’s Navy SEAL Team Six) had shot and killed Osama bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The reason is primarily due to so many other excellent analysts beating me to the punch and voicing my own feelings far better than I could have myself (thus saving me the time and effort). My own reaction to the news lies somewhere within an amalgam of these articles by Glenn Greenwald and David Sirota in Salon, Chris Floyd from Empire Burlesque, Haim Baram in H’aretz, Cord Jefferson in Good, Chris Hayes in The Nation, Kai Wright ofColorLines, and this post by W.W. from The Economist.
http://www.wideasleepinamerica.com/2011/05/killing-of-osama-bin-laden-vengeance.html

Bin Laden’s porn collection
Comrade Max is right to be suspicious.  Personally, I only believe that Bin Laden was killed during the raid: the rest are a combination of lies, fabrications, and psychological operations–as they are officially called.  We don’t even know how Bin Laden was killed.  So the porn story could be made up: and it is suspicious that they announced the porn find many days later. I mean, porn did not have to wait for the Arabic linguists of the NSA to translate it before they realize that they stumbled on a porn collection.  I mean, that would have been announced and photographed immediately.  This is not to deny that it is a possibility and that pious Muslims (if we accept that Bin Laden was pious which is a stretch given his bloody record), like other pious members of other religions, are full of hypocrites.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/bin-ladens-porn-collection.html

The Arab spring comes to Palestine

May 16, 2011

Adam Horowitz

Karl Vick reports for Time:

After more than 100 Palestinians breached Israel’s border with Syria on Sunday, knocking down a fence and striding into a village in the Golan Heights, overmatched Israeli security forces scrambled to glean what they could from the protesters who had just, without so much as a sidearm, penetrated farther into the country than any army in a generation.

Under close questioning, the infiltrators closed the intelligence gap with a shrug and one word: Facebook. The operation that had caught Israel’s vaunted military and intelligence complex flat-footed was announced, nursed and triggered on the social networking site that has figured in every uprising around the Arab World — and is helping young Palestinians change the terms of their fight against Israel.

The headlines Sunday were all about the violence of the day: at least four people were shot dead by Israeli forces on the Syrian fence line, and as many as 10 were killed either by Israeli or Lebanese army gunfire at a similar demonstration on the nearby frontier with southern Lebanon. The death toll, along with the accounts of stone-throwing and tear gas, comport with the familiar narrative of the conflict, one constructed over years of Israel describing efforts to defend itself. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged that narrative on Sunday, arguing that the protesters were undermining the very existence of the State of Israel.

But those closer to events found in the day the makings of a new narrative. The Palestinians in Syria, Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian enclaves of Gaza and the West Bank approached Israeli gun positions on Sunday without arms of their own. If some teenagers threw rocks, a protest leader said they had apparently failed to attend the workshops on nonviolence the organizers arranged in what they call a new paradigm for the conflict. The aim, which appears to be building support, aims to re-cast the Palestinian-Israel conflict on the same terms that brought down dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia.

Massive non-violent protests are aimed at winning international sympathy for the Palestinian perspective, and as a result, forcing Israel to pull out of territories its army has occupied since 1967. As the dust settled Sunday, senior Israeli officers acknowledged their vulnerability to the approach, which dovetails with the strategy of Palestinian leaders to ask the UN General Assembly to recognize a Palestininian state in September.

“What we saw today was the promo for what we might see in September on the day the United Nations declares a state: Thousands of Palestinians marching toward Israeli checkpoints, Israeli settlements and the fence along the West Bank and Gaza Palestinians coming with their bare hands to demonstrate,” a senior Israeli officer tells TIME. “This is a huge problem. Well have to study what happened today to do better.”

Read the entire article “Palestinian Border Protests: The Arab Spring Model for Confronting Israel” here. And for a more indepth report on the background to the protests see Matthew Cassel’s article “Refugees march to return” in the Electronic Intifada.

Update: Tony Karon hits a similar note writing on the Time website putting the protests in the context of the “post-peace process” world and thediscourse’s shifting center of gravity from 1967 to 1948:

Welcome to the post-peace process: The drama that unfolded on Israel’s boundaries on Sunday as 12 Palestinians were killed in a wave of unarmed civil disobedience was but a taste of things to come. That was the warning from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Sunday night, and he’s certainly got reason to worry: Rather than pin their hopes on a moribund peace process, Palestinians have begun instead to align themselves with the Arab Spring  by pressing for their own rights through acts of people power. Even if there’s no immediate followup to Sunday’s protests, they represent a political crisis of epic proportions, not only for Israel and the United States, but also potentially even for the Palestinian leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas (and even, possibly, for his new Hamas partners in government).

Israel’s security establishment has always seen mass unarmed civil disobedience as far more threatening than rocket fire or suicide bombers, because military responses to non-military challenges weaken Israel’s diplomatic and political standing. The protests also represent a challenge for Abbas, whose proclivity to compromise on issues such as the rights of Palestinian refugees in order to achieve an agreement with Israel is not shared by those taking to the streets.

And while Sunday’s protests that turned deadly on the border with Lebanon and on the cease-fire line with Syria will have suited the agenda of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, those refugees — whose families have lived in squalor since their dispossession by Israel in the conflict over its founding in 1948 — do not need the Assad regime to spur them to stake their (often downplayed) claims in the outcome of any Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Not that there is any Israeli-Palestinian peace process left to speak of. Just last Friday, Obama’s Middle East Special Envoy, Sen. George Mitchell, gave up the pretense that defined his position and resigned. And Sunday’s events were a sharp reminder that the collapse of the peace process does not mean ordinary Palestinians are simply going to accept their lot. Indeed, the conflict is now heading into uncharted waters in which many of the assumption of the past two decades are called into question.

‘Goldstone Report’ is at once a tragedy and a utopian document

May 16, 2011

Lizzy Ratner

Editor’s note: This Thursday night in New York we’re going to be holding an event with a smashing array of speakers, from Naomi Klein to Laura Flanders to Trudie Styler to Noura Erakat to Desmond Travers. (Click on the image above to go buy a ticket.) And also: our co-editor on the Goldstone Report book, Lizzy Ratner, whose genuineness and presence have stirred audiences during our book launch. Last Friday Ratner spoke about the Goldstone Report at the United Nations, to a gathering hosted by the Egyptian Mission and also by the Palestinian observer mission. Here are some of her remarks:

I want to thank the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine for hosting us. We are so honored to be here today and I have to say that I look forward to the day with great anticipation when we are hosted in the Permanent Mission of Palestine, in your own home here at the United Nations. I can’t wait for that moment. And I want to thank the Egyptian mission. It’s an important reminder today– to remember, thanks to the people of Egypt, what is possible when so much seems impossible. When we talk about a situation that’s enormously challenging and depressing and distressing, it’s important to keep this vision of possibility in front of us.

And finally I want to just acknowledge what yesterday was. Israel celebrated it as its Independence Day. For the people of Palestine it marks the Nakba, a day marking 63 years of occupation and expulsion, 63 years of attempting to reclaim dignity and rights. As we talk about the Goldstone Report today, we have to keep that in mind, particularly since so many of the people who lost their homes 63 years ago wound up as refugees in Gaza, which of course was subject to terror and bombardment in 22 days in December 2008 and January of 2009. Many of those people were refugees from the creation of the state of Israel 63 years ago.

[Ratner then read the testimony of Khaled Abd Rabbo about the killings of his three daughters, described here at paragraphs 770 on.]

I read that testimony not to traumatize people and not to try to bludgeon people but to put the suffering of victims, of real people, at the foreground. Today we’re talking about a legal document but this document tells the story of and is based on the suffering of real people, people who do not have justice yet. And for me as a journalist the suffering of civilians during Operation Cast Lead, and the stories throughout the Goldstone Report–that is the reason that the Goldstone Report is so important and that we wanted to create this book and put it out there to the world.

And of course civilians, innocent people, are at the heart of international law, they’re protected under international law, they’re at the heart of the Goldstone Report, and I believe the protection of civilians, the rights of civilians are at the heart of the mission of the United Nations. It was really the horror of what happened to civilians, the extremity of the attack, the negligence, the lack of concern, the disproportionate and in some cases the intentional killing of civilians that made Operation Cast Lead so horrible and that makes the Goldstone Report so incredibly important. It was out of this slaughter that the Goldstone Report emerged….

The report also does a number of other things for us as readers that are incredibly important, to the ongoing struggle for justice for Palestine and Palestinians. The report offers a history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it really maps out the power relations and the history of occupation, and how an event like Operation Cast Lead stems from 63 years of occupation and dispossession and a system of laws in place that puts one population, the Palestinian population, that holds them oppressed and very much unequal to the Israeli population.

It’s also a tragedy, a book that is a tragedy, and yet it is most important, I would say, as a manifesto for accountability. That’s really what is at the heart of the Goldstone Report. And this is what I say makes it a utopian document. There are lots of people out there right now who are saying this is an evil document, a dangerous document, it needs to be rescinded, it’s a flawed ocument. And I want to say very strongly today that it is actually a visionary document, a hopeful document, a utopian document, which posits a notion of the world where there are international laws that create the possibility of equality, accountability and justice, and these international laws say that perpetrators of gross violations of human rights and human dignity can be brought to justice and should be prosecuted, and through this prosecution you can create a deterrence to future violations of human rights, and you can possibly bring about some sort of reconciliation in the future and end the ongoing violation of people’s dignity.

And so I think this is the heart of what the United Nations is about, and accountability is not yet here. In the case of Khaled Abd Rabbo whose story I began with there’s been no prosecution. No one has been held to account for what was done to his family and to his daughters, and while the Goldstone Report holds forth the possibility of accountability and justice, its promise has not yet been lived up to and I think all of you sitting here who work for the United Nations, you have the ability to make the document live up to its promise, and I would just ask you and beg you to make the document hold up to its promise.

Palestinians are driving the train of history now, Beinart acknowledges

May 16, 2011

Philip Weiss

Peter Beinart has a good piece at Daily Beast. Yes I’ve been saying this for a while. But a good thing that he and the mainstream are waking up. Not denying the moment. This is the greatest wisdom of Rabbi Hillel, readers: If not now, when? (Oh by the way Sullivan is hip too.)

What hit Israel yesterday was the Palestinian version of the Arab spring. Something fundamental has changed. I grew up believing that we—Americans and Jews—were the shapers of history in the Middle East….

For millennia, we [Jews] had been acted upon. Mere decades earlier, American Jews had watched, trembling and inarticulate, as European Jews were destroyed. But it was that very impotence that made possible the triumph of Zionism, a movement aimed at snatching history’s reins from gentiles, and perhaps even God. Beginning in the early 20th century, Zionists created facts on the ground. Sometimes the great powers applauded; sometimes they condemned, but acre by acre, Jews seized control of their fate. As David Ben-Gurion liked to say, “Our future does not depend on what gentiles say but on what Jews do.” The Arabs reacted with fury, occasional violence, and in Palestine, a national movement of their own. But they could rarely compete, either politically or militarily. We went from strength to strength; they never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

That world is gone. America and Israel are no longer driving history in the Middle East; for the first time in a long time, Arabs are.