Iran's Supreme Leader: Sanctions Made Us Stronger

almanar

Readers Number : 80

07/02/2009 Iran has achieved breakthroughs in nuclear and space technology despite international sanctions against it, the country's top leader said Saturday.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei told military commanders that instead of weakening Iran, sanctions by the US, the UN and others have forced it to become more self-reliant, leading to greater strides by Iranian scientists and to technological advancements unseen in the country's history.

"It was from the depth of various kinds of sanctions imposed on Iran for years that the Omid satellite came into existence and was sent into orbit," state television quoted Sayyed Khamenei as saying.

"And it was out of all restrictions imposed against the Iranian nation that (Iran) achieved uranium enrichment technology, which is in the hands of few powerful countries," his eminence was quoted as saying.

On Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the launch of Iran's first domestically produced satellite.

Since 2006, Iran has been under UN Security Council sanctions, applied to its nuclear and missile industries, for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants or the material for atomic bombs. Iran stresses that its nuclear program aims for peaceful use only and it is its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

On Monday night, Iran sent its first domestically made satellite - called the Omid, or hope in Farsi - into orbit using an Iranian-built satellite-carrier rocket. Analysts described it as a key step for an ambitious space program that worries the US and other world powers.

US Vice President: US Willing to Talk to Iran
Readers Number : 101

07/02/2009 US Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the new US administration will set a "new tone" in its foreign relations but warned that other nations must also raise their game.

"I come to Europe on behalf of a new administration determined to set a new tone not only in Washington, but in America's relations around the world," Biden said at the international security conference in Munich. But he added: "America will do more, but America will ask for more from our partners."

"As we seek a lasting framework for our common struggle against extremism, we will have to work cooperatively with nations around the world -- and we will need your help," Biden said in his first trip abroad since taking office along with Obama on January 20. "As a great Irish poet once wrote, our world has changed utterly -- a terrible beauty has been born. We must change too."

As an example, Biden said the United States would ask other countries to take in inmates from its Guantanamo Bay prison, which President Barack Obama has said he will close.

Biden reiterated Obama's position that Washington was willing to talk to Iran after three decades of frozen diplomatic relations, but he said that the Islamic republic must abandon its "secret atomic program." "We will be willing to talk to Iran, and to offer a very clear choice: continue down the current course and there will be continued pressure and isolation; abandon the illicit nuclear program and your support for terrorism and there will be meaningful incentives," he said.

He said that Washington would press ahead with its missile defense program, but only if it works and is not too expensive -- and also in consultation with Moscow, which has been angered by the plans. "We will continue to develop missile defense to counter a growing Iranian capability, provided the technology is proven and it is cost effective. We will do so in consultation with you, our NATO allies, and with Russia," Biden said.

He also confirmed that Obama would attend a summit of the G20 group of advanced and developing nations in London on April 2, and said that Washington would "lead by example and act aggressively" on climate change.

Biden also said that Washington was ready to "press the reset button" in strained relations with Russia. "It is time to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should work together," he said, at a major international security conference in Munich, southern Germany.

MERKEL, SARKOZY THREATEN MORE IRAN SANCTIONS
Germany is hoping for a diplomatic solution to the conflict over Iran's nuclear program but is ready for tougher sanctions if no progress is made, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in the conference.

"We want a diplomatic solution," Merkel said, referring to new Obama's offer to hold talks with Tehran on the nuclear issue. "I think the new US administration will make its approach towards Iran clear to us in coming months. We are ready to walk this path together. But we are also ready for tougher sanctions if there is no progress," Merkel said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said during the conference that there was no alternative to tightening sanctions against Iran over its nuclear work if it does not meet western demands and Russia must show it is ready help with such a move. "We need the Russians to help so that sanctions against Iran are effective," Sarkozy added.

"We only have one solution left, reinforce sanctions against Iran and link Russia to this process," he said. "It is up to Russia to decide which face it wants to show. If it wants peace it should show it. If it wants to be a (global player), it should help us with Iran."

Ezbet Abed Rabbo: “They make like art here”

February 7, 2009, 6:34 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

*sifting through the remains of Mahmoud Abed Rabbo’s home, destroyed along with over 35 others by the Israeli army.

On a visit to Ezbet Abed Rabbo during which I heard more harrowing testimonies of life under invasion, children shot dead before parents’ eyes, and being held captive for days on end, I took more photos than I could testimonies. Such is the widespread destruction in the eastern Jabaliya region that the testimonies will be spilling forth for weeks, if not longer.

Below are photos for which there wasn’t enough time that day to get the stories. Many of them speak for themselves, and the general theme is one of being held captive in one’s house or a neighbour’s for 3-5 days in general –in miserable conditions, without food, water, medicine, toilets…–and either having family members shot or being terrorized as captives who when finally released tried to run away only to be sniped or accosted by further Israeli snipers and soldiers positioned in occupied houses and on the streets.

Of those who survived the ordeal, or had evacuated before the land invasion, many came back to partially or completely destroyed homes. With no where else to live, some have erected tattered tents in the place of their houses, some are moving into refugee tents reminiscent of the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland (the “Nakba”), when over 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes, left to miserable conditions in refugee tents which have evolved into the densely inhabited refugee camps throughout Gaza and the West Bank (as well as those in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria).

While many buildings were evidently hit by missiles from F-16s, Apache helicopters, and the massive tanks occupying the area, others were leveled by bulldozers and by explosives, the remnants of which were littered in and around houses in the region.

My friend escorting me through the ravaged area pointed out of the Israeli invasion: “They make like are here,” of the houses. Indeed, Dali and Escher seem to have created these houses whose angles defy proportionality, which seem to melt into the earth.

He also pointed out various destroyed houses belonging to Fatah members, including one with a toppled roof resembling icing dripping off of a cake: it belonged to a high-up Fatah intelligence officer.

Down the road, Mahmoud Abed Rabbo stood outside a home which had housed 38 people. He said it was the 4th attack by invading Israeli soldiers on his house in 3 years, though by far the worst. He gestured to the A-frame which had been a normal 90 degree angle home, and said that his family had been home on Jan 7, when the Israeli military began heavy attacks on homes in the area.

“First, the Israeli army attacked around the house,” he said. “Then, the Israeli army attacked the home with 2 tank missiles. The radio said the army had declared a ceasefire from 1-4 pm, so our neighbours [the family of Khaled Abed Rabbo] left their home, to flee. They were carrying a white flag but the Israeli soldiers shot at them anyway, killing 2 children (2 year old, 1 year old), and injuring another child and an older man.”

At 2 pm, Mahmoud explained, the Israeli army detonated some explosives next to the wall of the house, then entered through the hole they’d made. His family was still inside.

He reported that the Israeli soldiers ordered his family to leave, to ‘go to Jabaliya and don’t turn back or we will kill you.’ Yet, he said they’d only gone about 200m down the road leading out of his area, arriving at the mosque, when they were stopped by more Israeli soldiers. The army picked out the young men, ordering the women and children to continue walking. Sixty men were led to a shelter for animals, their IDs were taken, and they were ordered to take off their clothes.

Naked except for their underclothes, they were used by the Israeli army as human shields while the army went house to house, knocking and blasting holes in walls to use as doors.

Mahmoud said that around 10 pm, most of the young men were released, all but 10 of them. Those 10 were abducted, believed to have been taken to Israel’s notorious Nakab prison. The rest were ordered rest to walk to Jabaliya, not to turn back or they would be killed.

When ground strikes finished and Israel army left the areas they had occupied, Mahmoud Abed Rabbo’s family, like many of those from Ezbet Abed Rabbo, came back home to find it destroyed.

[except for the first 4 photos (all of the Mahmoud Abed Rabbo home, in Ezbet Abed Rabbo), all others below are of different homes in the ravaged Ezbet Abed Rabbo area.]

*Mahmoud Abed Rabbo and wife outside their destroyed home.

*explosive used to bring down a house.

*spent explosive on the slanted floor of a former house.

*house belonging to Fatah high intelligence officer

*one of many such tent camps erected to house the over 4,000 Palestinians displaced by Israel’s attacks on Gaza and destruction of their homes.

see: In Gaza, a ‘ranch’ turned to rubble

Trauma too hard to bear for Gaza

Testimony: Army forces neighborhood residents from their homes, Jan. ‘09

Sami Jamil Jadallah - The Forbidden Debate

By Sami Jamil Jadallah • Feb 7th, 2009 at 12:56 • Category: Analysis, Israel, Opinions and Letters, Palestine, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, War, Zionism

In the US and the West, we are able and free to debate God and HIS/HER existence, debate Jesus, Moses, Mohamed, debate America, its failures and its successes, debate our constitution and its interpretations. We are free to debate George Bush and his stupidity, his crimes against America and the world, and his many failures. We are free to debate anything and everything except Zionism, Israel and Judaism. In Palestine and the Arab world, we are allowed to discuss few things but one thing no one dares to discuss is the PLO, its illegitimacy and its failures.

Israel committed war crimes for over 20 days in Gaza, killing and murdering in cold blood women and children, destroying homes, schools, social centers, UN facilities, mosques and hospitals yet, no one in the US and the West dare to say anything let alone criticize Israel, its racist and criminal practices, as we have seen in the BBC’s refusal to air calls for aid to Gaza and in the attack on Paul Simon and CBC for its airing of the recent special of why a two state solution is not possible any more.

Mahmoud Abbas, whose presidential term finished and expired a couple of weeks ago and who lost any and all legitimacy as president of Palestine and the Palestinian Authority stood up yesterday in Cairo and declared that under no circumstances will there be any dialogue with those who (Hamas) questions the legitimacy of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

I am sure all Palestinians and the Arab world, with the exception of the very few Palestinians who are on the payroll of the PLO know well that the PLO lost any and all of whatever legitimacy it had to begin with 20 years ago. What remains now of the PLO is nothing more than perhaps a couple of dozen “parasites” around Mahmoud Abbas, direct beneficiaries of his financial generosity. I am sure if the payroll stops they will drop the PLO as hot potatoes.

To begin with, the PLO was never elected, voted or chosen by the Palestinian people, rather the PLO was chosen by the Arab League, which itself is of questionable legitimacy with many Arab leaders coming to power by tanks but not by the ballots and have no legitimacy whatsoever. As at no time did the Palestinian people in an open debate, forums, votes or ballots ever vote for and selected the PLO as “the sole and only representative of the Palestinian people”. An organization like the Arab League with questionable legitimacy cannot vote on or select an organization for and on behalf of the Palestinians people. The Arab League never had a mandate to represent the people of Palestine let alone select its representative, never.

Even in its heyday, the PLO was never legitimate since its officers and members were not elected by the people, but through a process similar in so many ways to the old Communist Party of the old Soviet Union, where the party on its own, without ever going back to the people, chose its general members and this general membership elected a slate of candidates that the leadership put forward. The same is true of the PLO. Arafat as a party leader funded and organized unions such as teachers, artists, social scientists, engineers, students, etc to be part of the “party” and put forward the slate of leadership to head and represent these “unions” and in turn these selected leaders voted the same (Arafat) leadership that voted them in. Thus the Palestine National Council, which is the “elected” people’s congress, was never elected through open election: rather its members where selected by Arafat and his gangs and where voted in. Faulty process to the core.

Thus the Palestine National Congress never truly represented the people and Arafat and his gangs were never voted in by the Palestinian people inside or outside Palestine. That is why there was never ever an open and serious debate on issues of concern to the people such as the occupation, liberation, building institutions, representing the people of the Diaspora, let alone the many fatal and criminal decisions taken by Arafat and the PLO leadership. There was never a debate on what happened in Jordan in 1970, never a debate on what happened in Lebanon, never a debate on what happened in Tel-Zaater and Sabra and Shatila, never a debate on what happened to cause of the forced exiles of 350,000 from Kuwait, never a debate let alone filing criminal and civil charges against all those who committed war crimes against the Palestinian people. Equally troublesome is the lack of debate or call for accountability of the tens of billions of the people’s money that simply disappeared during the tenures of Arafat, Qurai and Abbas. Tens of billions of the people’s money stolen by the very same leadership that is supposed to be the people’s trustees of their money and future. As such the Palestine National Council was nothing more than a ‘yes’ congress for the leadership so similar to the party congress of the Soviet Union, a bunch of ‘yes’ people who serve the wills of their masters, the leadership.

It was the late Arafat and his partners Abbas and Qurai who, once they signed the Oslo agreement recognizing Israel and its occupations, and becoming its agents and administrators, simply discarded the PLO as no entity. The Palestinian Trio of Arafat, Abbas and Qurai, turned the PLO into a “shell” organization putting a number of loyal cadres on the payroll just to keep the PLO under “oxygen”. The Palestinian Authority became the legal and financial partner of the Jewish Occupation. Arafat and Abbas simply put the PLO in a cold freezer, to use only when needed and to serve the purpose of the Jewish Occupation.

Under Oslo, Israel recognized the PLO as “the representative of the Palestinian people” and the only one authorized to sign and execute a “peace agreement” with Israel. Thus Mahmoud Abbas’s insistence on the PLO and its role in the “peace process”. Without Abbas’s PLO, Israel could not consolidate its occupation, could not settle the issue of the refugees, could not keep the Jewish settlements and could not have a financial and security partner.

Abbas’s insistence on the legitimacy of the PLO has nothing to do with ending the Jewish Occupation, has nothing to do with the Apartheid Wall, has nothing to do with ending the Jewish settlements, has nothing to do with return of refugees, has nothing to do with Jerusalem, has nothing to do with Jewish war crimes, has nothing to do with the 11,000 hostages held by Israel, certainly it has nothing to do with the siege of Gaza, with the war on Gaza and the Jewish war crimes committed in Gaza. It has everything to do with his the PLO legal obligations under Oslo to deliver Palestine and the Palestinian people under occupation and in the Diaspora to Israel. Without the PLO Israel could not reach a “peace agreement” that makes Israel a controlling partner of all Occupied Palestine of ‘67 including Jerusalem.

As for Israel and the lack of debate, we all know what happened to anyone and everyone who dares to say or speak out. They end up on the side streets of Washington, Berlin, Paris and London, politically finished and ruined. A deadly bullet waits all those who dare to speak out. The same is true in Palestine and the Arab world.

http://www.jeffersoncorner.com/the-forbidden-debate/

Tagged as: Abu Mazen, Arafat, gaza, Israel, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestine, PLO, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Zionism

Sami Jamil Jadallah is Palestinian-American born in El-Bireh, Palestine, an international business and legal consultant, and a veteran of the US Army. His comments are posted at his website http://www.jeffersoncorner.com.
Email this author All posts by Sami Jamil Jadallah

Spanish court to probe Israeli war crimes in 2002

Source

[ 07/02/2009 - 02:23 PM ]




PARIS, (PIC)-- The international federation for human rights, the human rights association in Spain and the Palestinian center for human rights hailed the decision taken by the examining magistrate in the central Spanish court on the 29th of January which confirms the court's eligibility to investigate a complaint about war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip in 2002.

The crimes date back to July 22, 2002 when an Israeli warplane dropped a one-ton bomb on a densely populated area in the Gaza city killing a Hamas leader and 14 Palestinian citizens.

In a statement received by the PIC, the three organizations said that the investigation targets seven Israeli security and military officials, namely, Benjamin Ben Eliezer, Dan Halutz, Doron Almog, Giora Eiland, Michael Herzog, Moshe Ya'alon and Abraham Dichter.

According to the statement, in January 2006, the Israeli high court had said that the Israeli bombing was proportionate to the military objective, which was the assassination of the Hamas leader.

Six Palestinian survivors of the bombing filed on June 24, 2008 a complaint in Spain with the assistance of the Palestinian center for human rights, based on the doctrine of international jurisdiction.

The doctrine allows prosecution in Spain of crimes against humanity or crimes such as terrorism or genocide, even if they are committed in another country.

Suhair Belhasen, the head of the international federation, said that the decision is an important step in the struggle against impunity in respect of the crimes committed by the IOF troops in Gaza.

Piracy in Palestinian territorial waters

Piracy in Palestinian territorial waters

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4712&Itemid=1

A Lebanese ship is escorted by an Israeli naval boat near the port in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. Feb 6, 2009 Gaza / PNN – The Israelis committed blatant piracy says the European Campaign to Lift the Siege on Gaza. The reference is to a Lebanese ship carrying aid to the Gaza Strip which Israeli naval vessels commandeered yesterday. Not only did the Israelis take the ship, the humanitarian aid, including blood, they took the passengers. Gaza City’s Jamal Al Khudari, an independent member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the Chairman of the Popular Committee against the Siege, issued an urgent call to release the crew. He also noted that the Israelis had put their lives in danger while still at sea by knocking out communications. Among the 20 passengers was an Al Jazeera correspondent who reported Israeli forces opening fire at the ship, climbing aboard and then beating passengers. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said of the Israelis, "those who commit massacres against innocent civilians in Lebanon and Gaza will not hesitate to attack a ship carrying humanitarian supplies to the world." After holding the ship in Ashdod Port the Israeli administration is expelling it to Lebanon and deporting the passengers. However one man is missing. As far as the aid is concerned, the Israelis confiscated the medical supplies and humanitarian cargo, but says it will transfer 1,000 units of blood on board to Gaza City hospitals. Under the year and a half siege most medical supplies and medicines are periodically banned. The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is still considered disastrous by human rights organizations. PLC member and head of the Palestinian National Initiative Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi referred to conditions as catastrophic. The European Campaign said on Friday in a statement issued from Brussels that it holds the Israeli administration responsible for the lives of those on board and called for international intervention in stopping Israeli aggressions in Palestinian territorial waters. "The Israeli piracy comes in the framework of the occupation’s efforts to undermine international solidarity and break the will of a million and a half people trapped in the Palestinian Gaza Strip."

Egypt Detains Hamas Member with Millions of Dollars: Official

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Egyptian officials on Thursday detained a senior Hamas official who was carrying nine million dollars and two million euros in cash at the Rafah crossing with Gaza, a security official said. Border official had held up a six-member delegation on its way back from truce talks in Cairo after insisting that they search their bags. The officials allowed five members to cross, but detained Gaza-based Hamas spokesman Ayman ... Details

• Mubarak Slams Resistance, Holds It Responsible of Arab Blood!

• Egypt Prevents Al Jazeera Journalists from Entering Gaza

• Hamas Meets Egypt Intelligence Chief on Gaza Truce

Who's Behind the THEFT of $550 Billion from American Banks?

Who's Behind the THEFT of $550 Billion from American Banks?

On September 15, 2008, $550 BILLION disappears from the American banking system in a matter of hours and Congress is choosing to NOT look into this theft? Why?

Let's narrow down the suspects. We can leave Iran, Syria and North Korea off the list, since if any of those states had been in on this heist, Bush would have went on national TV, addressing the nation about the actions of one of these "rogue" nations and said he had directed the Pentagon to take any and all necessary actions to recover the purloined loot.

That has not happened, either with Bush or Obama.

So, what other nation would have the balls to steal that much money from Americans?

It would be a nation that attacked one of our ships in broad daylight, firing rockets, large caliber machine guns and dropping napalm on the ship in a brutal and savage attack that lasted 75 minutes.
They would be so sadistic that they would machine gun survivors trying to escape, even shooting up the life rafts.

An attack that murdered 34 of our people.

It would be a country that has sent an army of spies to steal sensitive military info and financial data from the USA, at the same time, always proclaiming that the USA is their "best friend."

A country that, thru the use of tremendous amounts of money and threats, has taken over the US Congress.

A country that sent some of its intelligence operatives to a New Jersey state park on 9/11, to "document" that tragic event.

A country who's leaders said that 9/11 was very good for them.

A country that is well known for its use of "false-flag" attacks against its allies, to get those allies enraged and fighting wars for that nation.

A country that is so paranoid, it thinks the entire world is out to get them, and has threatened to nuke the entire world, using their "Sampson" option.

Hmmm, wonder what nation could be so depraved, sadistic and immoral? Any guesses? More

RACIST PARTIES DIVIDED IN ISRAELI ELECTION

SOURCE

February 7, 2009 at 10:56 am (Corrupt Politics, Democracy, DesertPeace Editorial, Israel, Israeli Election, Racism)

This coming Tuesday is Election Day in Israel. One hundred and twenty people will be elected to serve in the Knesset (Parliament). Israel fancies itself as a country with a Parliamentary System as is found in England and Canada. Nothing is further from the truth.

In countries such as England and Canada, the people vote according to the electoral district that they live in. Each district has an elected official that is answerable to the voters in that area. The government is formed by the Party that received the most votes, and the leader of that Party becomes the Prime Minister. It’s about as democratic a system as one can find anywhere.

In Israel, the so-called ‘only Democracy in the Middle East’, this is not the case. On a countrywide basis the people vote by Party, regardless of where they live. None of the candidates are answerable to anyone as is the case above. The government is formed by the Party which receives the most votes. Again, the leader of that Party becomes the Prime Minister.

For decades now, none of the major Parties received enough support to form a government. The result has been coalition government after coalition government. In other words, sell out after sell out.

In all honesty, there is nothing more boring than the election adverts presented on Israeli T.V. All the Parties promise you the moon, but none ever deliver. The right has moved further to the right over the past few years, the so-called ‘left’ has become what the right used to be….. there is hardly a difference.

BUT….. a division has developed between the racist Parties that are in the running. Arch racist and former Chief Rabbi, Ovadia Yosef, head of the Shas Party has come out against the Party headed by our resident nazi Lieberman. Over what??? Issues facing the people??? Read the following from today’s Jerusalem Post to get the answer.

May this division lead to neither of the Parties involved receiving even a single mandate! May the racists in Israel, and throughout the world, destroy each other.

******************************************

Shas’s Yosef: Voting for Israel Beiteinu an unforgivable sin

Matthew Wagner

In a bid to stem defection of voters from Shas to Israel Beiteinu, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef warned on Thursday that anyone who votes for Avigdor Lieberman’s party is a transgressor whose sin will never be expiated.

“If someone plans on voting for a party that is in favor of assimilation, of selling pork, then his sin is too great to bear, his sin will never be forgiven,” the Shas mentor said in a televised appearance without explicitly mentioning Israel Beiteinu’s name.

A source in Shas estimated that the party had lost as much two mandates to Lieberman, which, he said, explained Shas’s fall from 12 Knesset seats in the 2006 elections to about 10 seats in current election surveys.

“There is the hard core of haredi Sephardim, who will continue to vote for Shas, and there is a larger group of tradition Sephardim who light Shabbat candles but go to soccer games on Saturday morning. This second group is attracted to Lieberman’s hard line on Israeli Arabs and the impression of being decisive,” the source said.

Shas’s main criticism is directed at Lieberman’s support for a type of civil marriage called “the union of couples” (brit hazugiut).

Since the establishment of the state all marriages and divorces of Jewish Israelis have been controlled by the Orthodox Rabbinic establishment. As a result, Jews are not permitted to marry non-Jews, which prevents assimilation, although mixed marriages performed abroad are recognized by the state.

There are about a quarter of a million Israeli citizens who immigrated under the Law of Return but who are not Jewish according to Orthodox Jewish law, and who cannot marry in Israel.

Israel Beiteinu intends to push for a change in the religious status quo that would enable these non-Jews to form a type of marital union recognized by the state.

MK David Rotem, No. 8 on Israel Beiteinu’s candidates list and an Orthodox Jew, rejected Shas’s attack on the civil marriage initiative. Rotem argued that the amendment would reduce the likelihood of mamzerut - the birth of children as a result of an illicit sexual relationship.

“In consultation with religious Zionist rabbis, we created a type of union that does not constitute a full-fledged marriage according to Halacha. This prevents a situation in which a woman who is married according to Halacha will have an illicit sexual relationship with a man who is not her husband,” he said.

Meanwhile, Haredi political parties are concerned that the rise of Israel Beiteinu will hurt their bargaining power in the next government coalition.

Two leading haredi weeklies - Hamishpaha and Bakehila - featured analyses on how the rise of Israel Beiteinu could hurt Shas and United Torah Judaism.

Ya’acov Rivlin, senior political pundit for Bakehila, speculated that a strong Israel Beiteinu might bring about a haredi-free government coalition based on Likud, Kadima and Israel Beiteinu.

“Bibi [Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu] would have to be crazy to do it… but in a political system the very possibility that this might happen is weakening Shas and United Torah Judaism.

“These two parties might end up in the coalition, but at a much lower premium than previously thought,” Rivlin said.

Yossi Elituv warned in Hamishpaha that the rise of Israel Beiteinu signaled the undermining of the religious status quo.

“Hundreds of thousands of immigrant goyim who are fed up with the religious establishment are roaring for Lieberman,” Elituv wrote. “His followers include a large swathe that will demand reforms in the minimalist religious character that remains in Israel. Huge populations are calling to dismantle the status quo.”

Source

Arab medicine, food supplies rot in Al-Arish

Link

[ 07/02/2009 - 08:13 AM ]




AL-ARISH, (PIC)-- Dr. Bakat Barkani, the chairman of the Algerian doctors syndicate, has plainly accused the Egyptian government of wasting tons of medicine and blood supplies donated by Arab countries to their Palestinian brothers in Gaza Strip.

According to Barkani, tens of Algerian doctors dispatched to Gaza to help their Palestinian counterparts to treat thousands of Palestinians wounded in the cruel Israeli war on Gaza last month were held at Al-Arish and denied entry into the beleaguered Strip.

He explained that the blood donated by the Algerian people to their Palestinian brothers had expired because Egypt neither sent it to Gaza nor kept it in a safe place to avoid the damage.

"Egypt is accused of deliberately damaging tons of medicine, food supplies, and blood", stressed Barkani, adding that the Israeli occupation authority allowed little amount of medicine and food to come into the Strip through crossing points it controls, but Egypt failed to do so.

News correspondents stationed at Al-Arish city quoted Egyptian residents as saying that the government was deliberately seizing and delaying passage of those goods into the Strip although it knows that they might rot because they weren’t kept in a safe place.

Cairo abandoned the Palestinians:
Meanwhile, the Arab Bar accused the Egyptian government of abandoning the Palestinian people and leaving them to starve, saying that Egypt wants the Palestinian resistance to accept Israeli dictates.

Abdul Athim Al-Maghrabi, deputy secretary-general of the Bar, explained that the Egyptian decision to close the Rafah crossing point came after Hamas refused the Israeli dictates, and added that the opening of the crossing is linked to Hamas's "acceptance" of those humiliating conditions.

"The Egyptian administration is wrong in taking such a decision, and the justification it tries to convince us with that it is abiding by the 2005 crossings agreement is of no sense, as Egypt wasn’t a signatory to that deal and thus it isn’t bound by any obligation in this regard", Maghrabi added.

He stressed that in addition to the fact that the agreement had expired in 2006, Egypt is duty-bound by the international law to open the crossing point to save the lives of 1.5 million Palestinians who are suffering slow death in the tiny Strip.

However, Maghrabi explained that the Egyptian official stand doesn’t reflect the pulse of the Egyptian street.


Mizan: Israeli aggression destroyed water networks, put lives of Gazans at risk

[ 07/02/2009 - 07:39 AM ]





GAZA, (PIC)-- Al-Mizan center for human rights has asserted that the Israeli war on Gaza Strip destroyed water networks, and mixed potable water with waste water that affected the lives of the 1.5 million Palestinians living there.

According to a report it issued on the adverse repercussions of the brutal war on the water sector in Gaza, the center explained that the water infrastructure in Gaza was completely destroyed by the Israeli aggression.

The report also accused the Israeli occupation authority of deliberately ignoring its obligations to deliver potable water to the Palestinians in the Strip, being the occupation force on the land, and of banning international experts willing to restore the devastated water networks from entering the Strip.

As a result, drinkable water was mixed with sewerage water, putting the lives of the Palestinians at risk, the report explained, adding that at least 11 main water pumps were completely destroyed, in addition to a number of big water reservoirs.

Moreover, the center stressed that Israeli refusal to allow industrial fuel into the Strip causes sharp shortage in electricity which is needed to pump water to high residential buildings, leaving residents of those towers without water.

In this concern, the center urged international human rights institutions and UN agencies to pressure the IOA to open the crossing points and to allow fuel and basic spare parts of water networks into the Strip in order to avoid a looming human catastrophe.

Gaza shakes American Arab and Muslim youth

Link

Yasmin Qureshi, The Electronic Intifada, 6 February 2009



A Gaza solidarity demonstration in San Francisco, US, 10 January 2009. (Sharat Lin)
The most recent assault on Gaza has been an awakening for American Arab and Muslim youth. The attacks came at the most festive holiday season of the year. Instead of celebrating, many young American Arab and Muslim teenagers and kids spent their time protesting on the streets as they watched disturbing and devastating images streaming into their living rooms and onto their computers.

This is a new generation of youth: a generation that grew up witnessing gross violations of US civil liberties, under the shadow of the Patriot Act. They grew up watching Iraq and Afghanistan being destroyed by US military weapons; they saw citizens of countries of their ancestors tortured and humiliated. They have not forgotten Israel's unjustified attack on Lebanon only two years ago. Many youth have profound attachments to the lands that their parents or great-grandparents came from, and where many still have family.

"We were very young when [the 11 September 2001 attacks] happened. We grew up under Bush's presidency and witnessed our community being marginalized. We were often questioned about our religion and culture. This brought many of us closer and we started organizing awareness events on campus," said Billal Asghar, a senior global studies and health science major at San Jose State University.

The Arab and Muslim communities were largely quiet the first few years after the 11 September 2001 attacks. Some stayed away from political activism and limited their social activities to the mosque. A conscious decision was made to focus on Islam and Muslim issues within the US and stay away from speaking up against the atrocities being committed in countries where their family roots are.

Today Arab and Muslim youth in the US are increasingly visible as they stand up against injustice. A 22-year-old University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) student, Yasmine Alkhatib's family migrated from Iraq when she was five. She organized Palestinian events to mark the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the dispossession of the Palestinian homeland in 1947-48, last year. "Growing up in America, which preaches virtue and justice, I always felt that I could express my views and opinions about the way the world works," she said. "When we see war crimes being committed by Israel on women and children or our rights being vandalized in the United States, we feel incensed and consider it our duty to fight against it," she continued.

Karimah Al-Helew, a student leader at San Jose State University and one of the organizers of the protests in San Jose, has traveled to the West Bank four times. "I know what it means to live under an illegal occupation. I can see that my tax dollars are going to support the poverty that has suffocated my family there," she said. Her father, who passed away a year ago, is Palestinian. Her mother is from Cuba. Speaking in Spanish at an immigrant rights rally in San Jose last month she said, "I am not speaking as a Palestinian or Cuban or American, I am speaking as a human being; you only have to be human to understand what is just."

Raunaq Khodaai, who was born in India and is a mathematics major at Mission College Santa Clara said that a class on Modern History of Europe a year ago motivated her to become politically active. "As I started reading more I felt that the Palestinians have been suffering for the longest time post-World War II," she said.

The unbalanced reporting by the mainstream media on the Iraq war and Israel-Palestine has lead to new, innovative ways of information gathering for the youth. Their sources of information are alternative media like Democracy Now!, YouTube or blogs, as well as social networking applications like instant messaging and Facebook.

"We are web savvy and like to search for other perspectives online," said Khodaai. At a time when Israel banned the media from entering Gaza, these channels of communication were used effectively to broadcast the personal horror stories and images coming out of Gaza. "Facebook became a news stand when the war broke out. The quickest way to get the word out for a rally would be to simply change your [Facebook] status," said Al-Helew.

In California's Bay Area, some of these students joined hands with African Americans to protest against the shooting of Oscar Grant, an unarmed black youth, by a police officer in Oakland. "The struggle for justice and equal rights in occupied Palestine is no different from what the African Americans struggled for in this country," said Laila Khatib, a 2008 San Francisco State University graduate. "Racism witnessed against Arabs throughout the recent election campaign is still fresh in my mind," she added.

Arab and Muslim youth have become more and more organized during the past couple of years. They realize that to become part of the "American story" it is important to participate in the local community and be involved in the political process. Their struggles for civil liberties and justice are their "American story."

Their participation in electing the first African American president of the US has given them new hope. Arab and Muslim student groups mobilized youth to register and vote. "After seeing the election results of 2004, we wanted to make sure Republicans do not win this time," said Asghar. "There is new excitement about bringing change bottom-up. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine have invoked a lot of passion and energy as well as dismay at US foreign policy. People are tired of these wars and can see what they have done to our economy," added Asghar.

Yasmin Qureshi is a Bay Area, California activist involved in South Asian and Palestinian issues. She is a member of The Free Gaza Movement, South Bay Mobilization and Friends of South Asia. She was one of the organizers of the Mumbai peace vigil in San Francisco and worked closely with youth to organize protests in San Jose against the Gaza attacks.


Related Links

BY TOPIC: Gaza massacres

World needs credible body to pursue Israeli war criminals

Link

[ 07/02/2009 - 12:55 AM ]

By Khalid Amayreh


On 27th December, Israel carried out a genocidal blitzkrieg against the estimated 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, using state-of-the-art of the American technology of death.

These deadly weapons used against the imprisoned Gaza inhabitants include , inter alia, F-16 war planes, equipped with all sorts of lethal missiles including bunker buster bombs, apache helicopters, white Phosphorous shells, flechette dart shells, as well as the Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME), a deadly weapon recently developed by the United States army to create a powerful and lethal blast over a small area.

DIME is believed to still be in the experimental stage. However, it is widely believed that Israel had received a green light from the Pentagon to use Gaza as a testing ground.

In addition, Israel used all other conventional weapons, including tank and artillery shells against densely populated neighborhoods.

According to David Halpin, a retired British surgeon and trauma specialist, the Israeli army used Gaza as a “laboratory for testing what I call weapons from hell.”

“I fear the thinking in Israel is that it is in its interests to create as much mutilation as possible to terrorize the civilian population in the hope they will turn against Hamas.” (see, Is Gaza a Testing Ground For experimental Weapons, Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 13 January).

By the 23rd day of the criminal onslaught, when Israel halted its blitz, Gaza looked very much like a real concentration camp, with over 10,000 Palestinians dead and mutilated, including more than 300 kids mercilessly killed and five times as many kids seriously injured or maimed.

In addition, the civilian infrastructure all over the Gaza Strip was utterly destroyed. This includes apartment and public buildings, dozens of mosques, college and dorm buildings, businesses, schools, hospitals, power plants, water supply treatment facilities, UN Shelter schools, civilian police stations, farmland, and thousands of homes.

It was a no-holds-barred assault, and many older people who lived through the Second World War have likened Gaza on 18 January with the bombed-out German City of Dresden before the end of the Second World War.

The massive killing of civilians carried out by the Israeli army was done knowingly and deliberately, as Israeli soldiers were instructed not to show any mercy toward the civilian population. This explains the total annihilation of numerous entire families by bombing residential homes.

Israel claims that the offensive targeted Hamas, not the people of Gaza . However, Israeli political and military leaders as well as many intellectuals readily stretched their concept of “Hamas” to encompass virtually the entire Palestinian community in Gaza .

For example, Yaron London, a “left-leaning” Israeli intellectual and prominent media figure told reporters that “The time has come to shock the Gaza population with actions that until now have nauseated us-actions such as killing the political leadership, causing hunger and thirst in Gaza, blocking off energy sources, causing widespread destruction, and being less discriminating in the killing of civilians. There is no other choice.”

He added : “I am referring to both the population and their leadership; they are the same, because the population voted for Hamas. I can’t separate between one who voted for Hamas and a Hamas leader.”

There are actually numerous other quotations by Israeli leaders condoning and even gloating over the crimes the Israeli army has committed in Gaza.

Pornographic war crimes

Israeli officials and spokespersons don’t really deny that war crimes have been committed in Gaza. However, they try desperately to extenuate the severity and seriousness of these crimes by arguing that “things like that happen in war time,” and that “Hamas, too, committed war crimes.”

Non the less, comparing Hamas’s crimes with the holocaust-like blitz in Gaza flies in the face of the dignity of language. It is a verbal promiscuity, a sort of fornication with words.

Indeed, using Israeli crimes and Hamas’s “crimes” in the same breath would be as absurd and corrupt as equating the Nazi atrocities with the resistance in Nazi-occupied Europe.

The crimes committed in Gaza by the Israeli Occupation Forces are not questionable or controversial and don’t require much efforts to ascertain them.

The factuality of these crimes, which transcend reality, is not only established by the naked physical reality, but are also further ascertained by Israel’s confused efforts to cover up these crimes.

Indeed, Israel has embarked on quiet but massive efforts to cover up the Gaza war crimes by falsifying the names the alleged war criminals who are numbered in the thousands.

On 5 February, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that the Israeli army began removing the names and details of army officers involved in the Gaza blitz from legal documents.

“The censor’s office issued sweeping gag orders on the names of all officers who participated in the operation, fearing their identification would expose them to legal action abroad.”

This shows that Israel is trying to evade the consequences of its crimes against humanity by hiding the facts and preventing the relatives of Palestinian victims from knowing the names of the killers.

In light, it is imperative that a credible, honest, a non-political and non-governmental body is established to thoroughly investigate these crimes and pursue the war criminals wherever they may be.

Luckily, the names of many of these criminals are already known.

The criminals include not only soldiers and officers taking part in the genocidal atrocities, but also political leaders who gave the orders and instructions.

It is true that there are no guarantees at the moment that the war criminals will be apprehended, and prosecuted, let alone punished for their crimes, given the international political environment and the absence of the international will to challenge the quasi-Nazi state and her guardian-ally, the United States.

However, if actual prosecution proves difficult, and it undoubtedly is, it doesn’t mean that the war criminals should be allowed to get away with impunity.

Therefore, a comprehensive, professional and highly concentrated effort to amass, classify and authenticate all available evidence should get underway immediately.

The souls of these Gaza children, mercilessly killed and incinerated by the hellish Israeli-American war machine are calling on us to pursue the murderers.

We must not let these vile murderers and child killers sleep quietly.

Indeed, pursuing these human animals will eventually prove instrumental in determining whether the future of our children will be governed by the laws of humanity or the rules of the jungle.

Aoun to Al-Manar: MOU Results Great despite Challenges

Almanar

Hussein Assi




06/02/2009 Three years have passed…
Three years have passed since the Memorandum of Understanding between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement has been signed…
Three years have passed on the understanding that opened a new page in the lives of the Lebanese people, a page based on dialogue and coexistence and put an end to the era of collision and conflicts…
Three years have passed on the understanding that constituted a pattern of national unity and Islamic-Christian coexistence…

Three years have passed… Yet, the MOU is always as solid as it was in the first day…
A lot were the "challenges" that the understanding met, challenges that threatened the whole understanding but were unable of removing it from the memory of the Lebanese nation…
But once again, the Memorandum of Understanding proved to be above all considerations, surpassed all challenges and prepared itself to even more challenges…

In the third anniversary of the understanding signing, Lebanese can't but recall the historic meeting that joined at one time the "Resistance leader" in reference to Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and the "Reform General" in reference to the head of Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun… a meeting that produced an understanding that turned to be the "topic of the town" for at least three years…

Commemorating the MOU's third anniversary, Aoun spoke exclusively to Al-Manar and declared that the results of the mentioned understanding were not only great but also huge and enormous despite all the challenges. "The results were more than positive and great because the challenges we met were huge," Aoun said. He explained that the challenges were not easy to tackle: re-initiating the positioning of the two parties in the Lebanese polical scene in order to create the harmony between the nation's real components, achieving the Resistance's victory against the Zionist entity in the July 2006 war, demonstrate openness to all political factions. "The national unity, safeguarded by the MOU, finally triumphed," the General emphasized.

According to the General, persisting in targeting the MOU was not strange. "It's consistent with the principle stating that everything that contradicts the Israeli goals in Lebanon must be beaten," he stressed.

Aoun made sure to tell all those who were betting on an Israeli war against Lebanon following the parliamentary elections that they were completely mistaken. "This is a strategic error in analysis," Aoun said, recalling that the MOU has actually closed the door before any attempt to de-stabilize the situation in Lebanon as well as to beaten the Resistance.

He concluded by noting that the live contacts between him and Sayyed Nasrallah were not so many. "But actually we don't need to meet a lot since our general principles are known and they are very close," he said, noting that everything that happened in the past three years has actually proved that.

• Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir warns against the opposition triumph in elections.
  Hezbollah, FPM MOU Three Years on...
• Sayyed Nasrallah, General Aoun: Understanding Strong
• Full English text of Aoun-Hezbollah agreement
• Joint Statement: Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbullah
• MP. Michele Aoun Represent the Axis Of Evil, & not the Lebanese Christians

Abbas's forces in West Bank arrest more Hamas supports despite Gaza wound

Link

[ 06/02/2009 - 06:28 PM ]



RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- US-trained PA security forces of Fatah leader and former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank continued the frenzied arrest campaign in the ranks of Hamas supports across the West Bank despite the deep wound in Gaza Strip.

According to local sources and eyewitnesses, Abbas's forces arrested nearly 61 Hamas's sympathizers in different parts of the West Bank since the end of the 23-day Israeli occupation aggression on Gaza.

Most of the arrestees were university students, professors, PA officials, and lawyers, in addition to former captives in Israeli jails. Most of the arrests took place in Al-Khalil governorate, which is a stronghold for Hamas, in addition to other West Bank cities.

According to human rights and local records, there were more than 600 Hamas political prisoners retained in Abbas's jails out of more than 3500 arrested at the hand of those forces since Hamas took control of Gaza Strip.

IOF says its troops killed Palestinian near Sofa crossing

Funding struggle slowing cluster bomb clearance in south Lebanon

Link

Report, Electronic Lebanon, 6 February 2009

BEIRUT (IRIN) - Waning international interest and funding is harming efforts to rid southern Lebanon of its hundreds of thousands of remaining cluster bomblets, posing a continuing threat to farmers and children, according to mine clearance organizations.

Israel dropped a large number of cluster bombs on southern Lebanon during the July 2006. Each bomb can release hundreds of individual bomblets, and about a quarter failed to explode on impact, effectively becoming landmines that can kill or maim.

"For almost all the organizations, it's a continuous struggle to generate enough interest and funding to keep the teams on the ground working, which obviously has an impact on the amount of cluster bombs [bomblets] they can clear," said Tekimiti Gilbert, the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre's (UNMACC) acting program manager.

This year started with 33 teams on the ground, down from 44 last year, he said. But six of those teams, hired by the UK-based non-governmental organization Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and Denmark's DanChurchAid, have been dropped since then.

"We stand to lose a further six teams by the end of March if the situation doesn't change; and if it still doesn't change, we'll continue to lose more throughout the course of the year," Gilbert told IRIN, adding that the further six at risk were from the Swedish Rescue Services Agency and private company BACTEC International.

Cutting demining operations will slow clearance of the estimated 12 million square meters remaining of contaminated land, a quarter of the estimated original strike area.

During 2008, 44 teams cleared just over 10 million square meters, Gilbert said. All 12 million square meters have been defined as "high priority" -- either farmland people rely on for their livelihoods or close to populated areas and a risk to safety.

Revised figures

In the aftermath of the 2006 war, the UN put the figure of unexploded duds at about one million. So far deminers in south Lebanon have cleared about 155,000 cluster bomblets, though the rate of new discovery is slowing. By January 2008, deminers had cleared 137,000 bomblets, meaning only around 18,000 bomblets were cleared in the past year.

Though the initial number of duds estimated by the UN now appears to have been too high, Gilbert said the only certainty was that there were "hundreds of thousands" of unexploded duds left in south Lebanon after the war and many thousands still left to clear.

"We don't know exactly what is left for the simple reason the Israelis haven't told us," he said. Israeli has ignored repeated demands by the UN to hand over strike data. Not having the strike information forces teams to search non-contaminated land unnecessarily, Gilbert said, a painstaking and costly process.

International ban

Israel's showering of south Lebanon was one of the worst uses of cluster bombs in history and spurred the formation of an international treaty banning the use, production and sale of cluster bombs. A total of 95 countries signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, Norway, last December.

The treaty, the most significant advance in the field of disarmament since the 1997 ban on antipersonnel mines, will enter into force after being ratified by 30 states; as of the end January four states have ratified it and another 91 have signed but not yet ratified it.

Key weapons-producing states the US, Russia, China and Israel refused to sign up, arguing for their right to use cluster bombs in self defense, though important European powers such as France, Germany and the UK are signatories. From the Arab nations, only Lebanon and Tunisia signed.

This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Fair trade, not aid, is the way forward

Link

Gen Sander, The Electronic Intifada, 6 February 2009



Palestinians harvest olives in Gaza City, October 2008. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

Some would argue that fair trade never really existed in the Gaza Strip -- at least not in the "certified" way. Needing to meet certain standards for present-day international export is reasonable enough, but fair trade can also exist domestically or internationally, without all the fuss and formalities. If we understand fair trade to be about dignity, empowerment, sustainability, justice and social responsibility, then any form of exchange that meets those criteria should be recognized as just that.

Before the days of Israel's crippling siege of the Gaza Strip, six women's couscous processing cooperatives were in operation in Gaza, built on the foundation of the above criteria. Their products, however, did not bear a fair trade certification mark that made the product instantly and internationally recognized as being fair trade. They were, however, exported by the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), a member of the International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT, recently renamed the World Fair Trade Organization), so there is no question as to whether or not the products were actually fair trade. With the help of the Fair Trade department of PARC, which also provided their founding infrastructure, these co-ops exported more than 100 tons of couscous in 2006 to fair trade organizations all over Europe. That initiative had so much potential and seemed like a viable and promising avenue for economic development -- "had" being the pivotal word.

Following Hamas's victory in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Israel's immoral and illegal collective punishment of Gaza's 1.5 million people began. It has been two and a half years now since the siege was imposed, and Gaza has since been described as the world's largest prison. Its borders are hermetically sealed, the free movement of people and essential goods and services severely restricted, and its economy and society stunted by a prohibition on partaking in any kind of trade, never mind fair trade.

Last year PARC issued a release outlining its concerns regarding the effects of the blockade on the agricultural sector in general, but more specifically on the six women's couscous processing cooperatives operating in Gaza. It seemed as though the situation could not get any worse; production requirements were not allowed into the Gaza Strip, and all agricultural products were not allowed out. The results were visibly devastating. The ban on exports led the deterioration of the agricultural sector, which led to the closure of many farms and all six couscous co-ops, which had a direct impact on hundreds of people whose lives depended on their continued existence. Additionally, with the incapacity to produce and the inability to purchase or sell came an unprecedented surge of food insecurity in Gaza.

The likelihood of the situation further deteriorating seemed impossible at the time but, obviously, it just got worse -- much worse. Gaza's initial break just became a compound fracture.

Israel's deadly 22-day assault on Gaza killed more than 1,300 persons, mainly civilians, and left nearly 5,000 injured. The damage caused to public and private infrastructure was massive, and the agricultural sector suffered a nearly insurmountable amount of devastation. The day after Israel unilaterally declared a ceasefire on 18 January, the agriculture minister in Gaza declared that 60 percent of the Strip's agricultural land was destroyed, along with 80 percent of all agricultural products for this season, with a total economic loss for the sector alone estimated at $170 million. The fair trade sector, which had already been rendered inept by the siege, has endured an even greater setback. According to PARC's Gaza branch, one of the couscous co-ops in the Sheikh Radwan area was completely destroyed, leaving five co-ops (barely) standing and in a condition so fragile their future has become even more tenuous than it was just one month ago. Clearly, the Israeli war machine has systematically left in its wake a mess so colossal that it has been estimated that the Gaza Strip has just been set back at least 20 years.

Whatever hope Gaza was holding onto for the possibility of fair trade ever catching on again has now been ruthlessly thwarted by Israel. Understandably, the focus is no longer on fair trade, or even on trade for that matter, but on survival and other immediate needs that generally need tending to after an atrocity of this sort. For the moment, Gaza desperately requires immediate humanitarian aid for immediate relief to the civilian population. PARC, however, firmly believes that aid is indisputably unsustainable. Instead, PARC urges the international community to foster an environment and humanity of fair trade, rather than one of aid. Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip needs to be lifted immediately in order to help put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe that is occurring, before it's too late, and before we regret our inaction once again.

Gen Sander currently lives in Ramallah, West Bank. She works in the Fair Trade Department of PARC and teaches a beginner's photography class at Aida refugee camp.


Related Links

• BY TOPIC: Gaza massacres

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir warns against the opposition triumph in elections.

I moved this post forward for Hanna being sure the March 14 will win, and aoun will loose. I added Patriarch Sfeir's warning against Opposition Triumph in Elections. His warning, and, supporting the so called "centrist bloc" (Masked March 14) confirms the weekness of March 14 Movement.
March 14 is in a big mess, neither Saudi and Egyptian Potato nor Patriarch Sfeir's will help'

As usual Rats leave sinking ships.

Walid Jumblatt '"hooted in all directions, including both allies and foes".... Speaking to LBC on Thursday night, Jumblatt attacked the March 14 representatives in the current government of national unity. According to Jumblatt, the March 14 representatives in the former cabinet were a lot better than the current one.


Source

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 9:52 AM

[From Oxford Analytica]

SUBJECT: The outlook for parliamentary elections on June 7.

SIGNIFICANCE: The Western-oriented, anti-Syrian March 14 alliance currently holds a slim majority in the parliament, sensitive ministerial portfolios such as Defence, and the key office of prime minister. These repositories of institutional power, critical to Lebanon's future domestic, regional and international bearing, are up for grabs in June's contest with the March 8 minority alliance.

ANALYSIS: The race between the March 14 alliance and the March 8 alliance headed by Hizbollah and General Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) will be decided in as many as 30 battleground seats including several in the western Bekaa, Zahle and even in the Shia-dominated South -- surpassing the historic focus on a few Christian battlegrounds in Mount Lebanon. Peaceful outlook. The close nature of the contest augurs well for stability and calm before the polls. At a popular level both sides:

• believe they hold a slight advantage; and
• are invested in the electoral process, which is seen as legitimate at home and abroad.

Central figures in the majority and the opposition alliances appear to have come to terms with a minimally acceptable scenario should the other side win, further mitigating the prospects for violence:

• For March 8, this would likely mean the continuation of the post-Doha period of power-sharing realities.
• For March 14, a loss would likely entail a strategic withdrawal from any new national unity government -- leaving March 8 in the difficult and unfamiliar position of having to govern, conduct international relations, and hold together its own potentially unstable alliances.

Minority edge? However, there are signs that the March 14 alliance may be facing electoral difficulties:

• The clearest indicator is the alliance's subtle encouragement of "neutral" or "independent" candidates.
• Given the FPM's continued strength amongst Christians, March 14 leaders appear to believe that the best chance of winning battleground seats in Metn, Kesrouan, Jbeil, Baabda and Aley is to tap into the popularity of Maronite President Michel Suleiman rather than rely on the March 14 brand.

The "neutrals" strategy is vulnerable on at least two counts:

1. Suleiman reluctance. Suleiman has made it clear that he does not want to engage in electioneering on behalf of neutral candidates. Without the president's political capital, it remains doubtful whether any such candidates could beat the FPM list or stymie efforts already underway to paint such figures as a kind of 'March 14 lite'. Given Suleiman's longstanding avoidance of politicking, as well as his evident belief in the need for a president who can credibly mediate between the majority and minority, his active involvement on behalf of a neutral
list appears unlikely ahead of the June contest.

2. Dividing forces. Although March 14 -- like the minority alliance -- is still engaged in the process of assembling its list and ironing out internal conflicts over seats, it may prove difficult to avoid three-way races where March 14 and neutral candidates compete for votes to the benefit of the FPM. Deeper troubles. Even if the strategy of relying on neutrals progresses under ideal circumstances, March 14 faces more serious problems:

a. Organisation. The August 2007 by-election in the Christian battleground of Metn, in which a relatively unknown FPM candidate defeated leading March 14 figure and former President Amin Gemayel, provided compelling evidence that the decades-old machinery of voter mobilisation employed by key March 14 parties was woefully inadequate against the modern campaign methods of the FPM and some of its allies:

• Unlike past elections, the contest this June will be held on only one day, with agility, communication and voter enthusiasm more critical than ever.
• The Sunni Future Movement led by Saad al-Hariri is intent on increasing dismal turnout among its potential supporters in some battleground areas, reportedly offering free travel to Lebanon, among other incentives, in the hope of overcoming daunting statistical prospects.
• In the crucial district of Baabda, voter turnout among the approximately 8,000 registered Sunni voters was only 25% in 2005; Hariri and March 14 more generally hope to increase this number markedly but will be facing long odds given that Hizbollah and Amal are also trying to boost their own turnout; 45% of the 32,000 registered Shia voted in Baabda in 2005.

b. Ideas. Adding to March 14's troubles, the alliance's ideological approach -- with its emphasis on condemning Hizbollah's arms and demonising Syria -- appears increasingly anachronistic:

• The raft of cordial and arguably productive visits to Damascus by key Lebanese figures, including the president, the heads of the army and the interior ministry, and more recently March 14's own defence minister, Elias Murr, has diminished the appeal of anti-Syrian rhetoric.
• The international trend towards direct engagement and even rapprochement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has diminished the geopolitical viability of a straightforwardly anti-Syrian stand
• The March 8 alliance is advantageously positioned to take advantage of the engagement trend, implying that it is at the vanguard of European and US thinking on how to approach Damascus.
• The March 8 alliance is also well positioned to take advantage of concerns about war; after Gaza, the Israeli leadership appears more dangerous and unpredictable than ever to most Lebanese, making the case for resistance capabilities clear, while March 14's dogged emphasis on UN Security Council resolutions rings hollow.
• Aoun can now tout Hizbollah's lack of military intervention in the Gaza crisis as a vindication of his alliance with the party; the alliance could shatter, however, should Hizbollah drag Lebanon into another devastating conflict with Israel.

Outlook. Although electioneering has only begun recently with the announcement of several small party alignments, the minority coalition presently appears well positioned to gain a slim majority in the next four-year parliament. Key to the minority's early advantage in all of these areas is its greater coherence, its superior ability to mobilise constituencies, and its better ideological positioning in the context of regional developments. However, these regional dynamics -- particularly regarding war risks with Israel and prospective moves by the Obama administration on the Syrian, Palestinian and Iranian tracks -- could yet again shift the electoral battlefield.
CONCLUSION: Organisational advantages, tighter alliances and, most importantly, present regional political trends all favour the March 8 alliance. There is a strong chance that the next Lebanese government will be formed by a coalition underpinned by Hizbollah -- raising difficult questions for the United States in its policy of isolating and undermining the party.

COMMENTS

hanna said...

14 mars will win, aoun will loose, u know y??? because he doesn't rpresent the christian point of view.simple
8:11 AM, February 06, 2009

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uprooted Palestinian said...

But, Hana, your Batrak is not so Sure
9:25 AM, February 06, 2009

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Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir is worried , here is the English version
Update

Sfeir Warns against Opposition Triumph in Elections

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir warned on Friday against the opposition's potential triumph in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Speaking to Lebanese magazine Al-Massira, Sfeir warned that that if the balance goes in favor of the March 8 forces, then historical mistakes would take place. According to the magazine, which is related to the Lebanese Forces, Patriarch Sfeir expressed his concern that there were some who ... Details

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Maronite Patriarch's Hats Watch. ( FROM ANGRY ARAB)



Maronite Patriarch's Hats Watch. Here are two hat submissions from Emily in Beirut.

posted by As'ad @ 11:59 AM link

Maronite Patriarch's Hat Watch. Here are some other ones. (Please submit your entries for the hats of Patriarch Sfayr. We will then have a poll of the best hat).

posted by As'ad @ 11:33 AM link

Zeina submitted this one.

posted by As'ad @ 1:01 PM link