Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow will advocate the lifting of sanctions on Iran and the full implementation of a nuclear deal – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] – between Iran and a number of other countries in the upcoming talks slated to start in the Austrian capital Vienna at the end of this month.
The JCPOA was signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council [UNSC] – namely Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France – plus Germany in 2015.
Former American president Donald Trump, however, unilaterally withdrew the US from the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed the anti-Iran sanctions that the historic deal had lifted. He also unleashed additional sanctions on Iran under other pretexts not related to the nuclear case as part of his so-called “maximum pressure” campaign, which practically deprived the country of all of the deal’s economic benefits.
Following a year of strategic patience, Iran resorted to its legal rights stipulated in Article 26 of the JCPOA, which grants a party the right to suspend its contractual commitments in case of non-compliance by other signatories, and let go of some of the restrictions imposed on its nuclear energy program.
Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA have since April held six rounds of talks in Vienna, which began after the US administration of Joe Biden voiced willingness to rejoin the nuclear agreement, although Washington has shown an overriding propensity for maintaining the sanctions as a tool of pressure.
Envoys from Iran and the P4+1 are expected to hold the seventh round of discussions in Vienna on November 29.
“We will advocate that the agreements that were concluded within the framework of this document in 2015 be resumed in full. Of course, this implies the return of the United States to fulfill its obligations, including the lifting of all sanctions introduced in the context of the JCPOA,” Lavrov said on Friday.
The Russian foreign minister also said that the JCPOA had been among the topics discussed in Paris in the “2+2” format between Russian and French defense and foreign ministers. “Here, we have prospects for more constructive cooperation,” Lavrov added.
In recent weeks, there has been mounting pressure on Tehran to return to the negotiating table. The administration of Ebrahim Raisi has announced on several occasions that it will resume the talks only to remove all of the illegal US sanctions and that it will not take part in negotiations for the sake of negotiations.
Apart from breaching the JCPOA, the US’s departure and its re-introduction of the sanctions are in violation of UNSC Resolution 2231 that endorses the nuclear agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian says Tehran and the remaining parties to the landmark nuclear deal of 2015 can reach a “good agreement in a short time” only in case of a “serious and positive” approach to the upcoming talks slated to start in the Austrian capital of Vienna at the end of this month.
“The Islamic Republic has no intention to be locked in the stalemate remaining from the previous negotiations…I believe that if the opposite sides enter in the Vienna [talks] with a serious and positive approach, it will be possible to achieve a good agreement in a short time,” Amir Abdollahian said in a post on Instagram on Friday.
The top Iranian diplomat said it was necessary to once again outline Iran’s stance and views about the sanctions-removal talks in Vienna as the date of the negotiations has been finalized. He noted that he held “detailed and separate” phone talks with the foreign ministers of the P4+1 group of countries – China, Russia, Britain, Germany and France – last week and emphasized that the Islamic Republic would pursue a result-oriented approach to the talks and is “determined to achieve a ‘good agreement’”.
Amir Abdollahian emphasized that achieving a good agreement calls for the “effective and verifiable removal of sanctions and the return of the opposite sides to their full obligations” as per the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA].
He said Washington’s behavior, including in imposing new sanctions against Iran, has made the provision of its “objective guarantees” an unavoidable necessity.
The foreign minister noted that his deputy and the country’s chief negotiator, Ali Baqeri Kani, held “explicit and useful” talks in European capitals this week.
Recently, Baqeri Kani traveled to France, Germany and Britain. In Paris, he held a meeting with Philippe Errera, the director general for political and security affairs at France’s Foreign Ministry. Iran’s chief negotiator on Friday held talks in the Spanish capital of Madrid with EU deputy foreign policy chief Enrique Mora, who chairs the JCPOA Joint Commission on behalf of EU High Representative Josep Borrell.
Amir Abdollahian further said, “As I have repeatedly emphasized, the administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue the policy on the expansion of balanced ties with countries based on mutual respect and common interests with seriousness and is determined not to tie the improvement of bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation to the issue of the JCPOA.”
The JCPOA was unilaterally abandoned by the US in 2018 despite Iran’s full compliance with its nuclear undertakings, as repeatedly certified by the UN nuclear agency. The US then unleashed a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, which practically deprived the country of all of the deal’s economic benefits.
Iran fully honored its nuclear obligations for an entire year, after which it decided to ramp up its nuclear work as a legal “remedial measure” against the US violation of the deal and the abject failure on the part of the other signatories, the E3 in particular, to safeguard its benefits.
Envoys from Iran and the P4+1 are expected to hold the seventh round of discussions in Vienna on November 29. The negotiations were paused in June, when Iran held its presidential election. Since then, the new Iranian administration has been reviewing the details of the six rounds of discussions held under the previous administration.
The US administration of Joe Biden has said it is willing to compensate for former President Donald Trump’s mistake and rejoin the deal, but it has shown an overriding propensity for maintaining some of the sanctions as a tool of pressure. Tehran insists that all sanctions should first be removed in a verifiable manner before it reverses its remedial measures.
لم أكن يوماً مضلَّلاً، أو تعرضت للغش ولم أكن أعرفك. بل كنتُ أرى فيك صحافياً ناجحاً، وأقبلُك كما أنت. صحافياً نمت علاقاته المهنية والشخصية كغيره في ظل هذا النظام الذي تقول اليوم إنك ضده.
لكنني أعرف، ولا ينتقص ذلك منك شيئاً، أنك لم تكن يوماً رأس حربة، لا ضد الوصاية السورية، ولا في مواجهة الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، كما لم تكن يوماً رأس حربة في مواجهة الظلم والتعسّف والدولة الأمنية اللبنانية والعربية والدولية التي حكمت لبنان باسم التحقيق في جريمة اغتيال رفيق الحريري. ولا في مواجهة الفساد الذي أطل برأسه قبل وأثناء وبعد رحيل رفيق الحريري.
ولم أكن، كغيري، لأطالبك بما لا تريده أو لا قدرة لك عليه. لم يسألك أحد، في «الأخبار»، لا قبل 17 تشرين ولا بعده، عن علاقاتك الوطيدة بكل أركان النظام، من رؤساء جمهورية وحكومات ورئيس مستمر لمجلس النواب وحاكم دائم لمصرف لبنان، ولا عن علاقاتك الوثيقة بكل نادي الوزراء والنواب وقادة الجيش ورؤساء الأجهزة الأمنية وأركان «الاقتصاد الحر»، وبكل زعماء القبائل اللبنانية، والقيادات الحزبية على اختلافها. كما لم يسألك أحد عن نفوذك القوي في قلب الدولة العميقة التي أدارت البلاد ولا تزال، والتي قرّرت أنت، في لحظة ما، الثورة ضدها.
حتى في سياق عملك المهني مع بيار الضاهر، الرجل الذي حار ودار ولم يتوقف عن القيام بكل ما يقنع أو لا يقنع، لحماية المؤسسة، كنت أنا ممن يحترمون حقّك في الحفاظ على مسافة تقيك شرّ الظلم المهني، وتمنحك عدلاً حتى في العقد المالي المجحف مع هذه المؤسسة، وما كان أحد يلومك على كل أنواع التسويات التي أبرمتها باعتبارها حقاً لك.
وعندما كتبتُ دفاعاً عنك في «الأخبار»، قبل تسع سنوات، في وجه من أراد النيل من حريتك، لم أفعل ذلك محاباة أو مراضاة، وأظنّك تعرفني جيداً، وتعرف أنني ما كنت لأقف صامتاً عندما يصيب الظلم أياً كان. أنت شخصياً، تعرف، عن قرب، موقف سعد الحريري مني شخصياً ومن الجريدة. مع ذلك، وحْدنا في «الأخبار» دافعنا عنه يوم اعتقله الدبّ الداشر، بطل العروبة الأغرّ كما تصورونه في قناتكم اليوم. فعلنا ذلك عن قناعة، بينما ران الصمت على كل المنصات، بما فيها حيث كنت تعمل، وحيث تعمل اليوم.
لكن، ثمة ما تغير فيك يا عزيزي، ومنذ ما قبل مغادرتك المؤسسة اللبنانية للإرسال. ما تغير لم يكن (فقط) تعبيراً عن طموح مهني محقّ في تطور تطمح إلى تقديمه، بل هو أنك قررت في لحظة سياسية ومهنية ومالية – وهذا خيارك الحر أيضاً – أن تنتقل إلى ضفة لها وجهها الأكثر وضوحاً في الإعلام، وفي السياسة والاقتصاد والاجتماع أيضاً. قرّرت أن تطلّ، هذه المرة، من بوابة مفتاحها في يد شاب تعرف، وأعرف، ما الذي جرّب فعله في العديد من المحطات، حتى إبان اعتقال صديقك الحريري الذي لم تنتفض يومها من أجل حريته الشخصية أو دفاعاً عن كرامة بلدك. مع ذلك، لن ألومك على عدم الإقدام على فعل لست مقتنعاً به، أو لا قدرة لك عليه.
ما حدث، يا عزيزي، أنك انضممت إلى ماكينة تعرف مسبقاً إلى أين تقود. وصدمتي أنك قبلت بأن ينتهي بك الأمر مجرد «برغي» في ماكينة صدئة لا تملك فكرة أو قولاً أو عملاً أصيلاً، وقبلت الانضواء في برنامج قاده أنطون الصحناوي الذي رتّب كل عملية انتقالك إلى محطة الـ«مر تي في». وأنت تعرف، أيضاً، أن آل المر لا يفعلون سوى بيع الهواء. ويسرقون الأفكار مما هو رائج في الغرب، كما سرقوا الإنترنت والاتصالات أيضاً بحسب التحقيقات والأحكام القضائية. وهم اليوم يعرضون منصتهم لمن يدفع أكثر. ولا مانع لدى ابن المر في أن يختار الشاري الآلية التي تناسبه للتمويل، مباشرة أو عبر رعاية إعلانية أو غيرها. فالمهم، بالنسبة إليه، هو أن يحتل الموقع الأول في عالم «التتفيه» لا «الترفيه»، على ما كان يقول الراحل رمزي نجار. لكن الرجل لم يعد يكتفي بذلك. ولو أنك قرأت تفاصيل مفاوضاته مع السعوديين لبيعهم حصصاً في قناته، لكنت عرفت، وأعتقد أنك تعرف جيداً، مع من تعمل. فالرجل اليوم مصاب بعارض أصاب كثيرين في لبنان. من المخلّص سمير جعجع الذي أرسله الله لتطهيرنا من خطيئتنا الأصلية والمستمرة فينا، مروراً بالمحقق العدلي الذي نزل عليه وحي إلهي بإنقاذ لبنان من الفاسدين والزعران، وصولاً إلى «الثائر» ميشال المر الذي لن يقبل بأقل من كتلة نيابية يقودها من أجل تحرير لبنان من الاحتلال الإيراني، بعدما قاد عملية تحرير لبنان من الاحتلال السوري… ألم يقل هو ذلك؟
لم أكن يوماً مضلّلاً حيالك. تعلم جيداً أنني أعرفك، وأعرف من أي بيت خرجت، لذلك أحزن على ما آلت إليه أمورك، وعلى أنك صرت واحداً ممن يرى فيهم الناس بومة تحرض على الفتنة. كما أحزن كيف تعطينا درساً في أصول العمل الصحافي، من دون أن تكلّف نفسك التدقيق قليلاً قبل استقبال «شاهد» مسكين أنقذه تقرير طبي من ورطة كان برنامجك مدخلاً لها.
وحْدنا في «الأخبار» دافعنا بقناعة عن سعد الحريري يوم اعتقله الدبّ الداشر، بطل العروبة الأغرّ كما تصورونه في قناتكم اليوم، بينما ران الصمت على كل المنصات
ثم، هل أنت مقتنع حقاً بأن السعودية وسفارتها في بيروت ومخابراتها المتخلفة لا تقرّر كل كبيرة وصغيرة ليس في قناتك فحسب، بل في كل النادي السياسي الذي انضممت إليه من دون مقدّمات؟
ألا تعرف أنت، وتفصيلياً، عن دور السفارة الأميركية في عوكر، ومسؤولين في واشنطن من أصدقاء الصحناوي، في رعاية «إعلام التغيير»، ومنه القناة التي تعمل فيها، وتوفير التمويل، رغم أن بين الأميركيين، في بيروت وفي واشنطن، من لا يستهضم ابن المر نفسه. ومع ذلك، يساهمون في تمويل ودعم «التدريب على الديموقراطية» في الإعلام اللبناني، وفي برنامجك بالتحديد. وهل تعتقد أن الوثائق التي تكشف عمليات التمويل والتجنيد، ولو صُنّفت على أنها فائقة السرية، عصية على أن تصبح متاحة بفعل قوانين وقواعد وأعراف… وفوق ذلك بقدرة وإصرار من يريد أن يعرف أيضاً…
ألم تسأل نفسك يوماً، أو هل حاولت أن تعرف، عن مصير الداتا التي تخص كل من يريد المشاركة في البرنامج حضوراً أو مساهمة في صفوف الجماهير – عفواً الجمهور. لن أسألك عن كيفية الاختيار بينهم، لكنني أسألك إن كنت تعلم بمصير الداتا – وما هو أكثر – التي تحوي الأسماء وأرقام الهواتف وعناوين البريد الإلكتروني الخاصة بهم، والتفاصيل الخاصة بميولهم السياسية وطوائفهم ومذاهبهم وتعليمهم وأين يعيشون وماذا يعملون؟
هل فكرت من يستعمل هذه الداتا، وكيف صُرف جزء منها في حراك تشرين وما بعده في المجموعات التي نبتت كالفطر، و«صودف» أن الثائر الأممي ديفيد شينكر، ومن سبقه وخلفه، ظلوا يعملون على الاستثمار فيها؟
ألا تعرف أن كل البرنامج الأميركي عندما تقرر تفعيله في لبنان وتمت ترجمته إعلامياً عبر أشكال مختلفة في مقدمها رعاية «قنوات الفتنة»، كانت المهمة وحيدة، وعنوانها أوضح من الشمس: شيطنوا حزب الله وما يسمى المقاومة وأنصارها، واضربوا التيار الوطني الحر من ميشال عون وجبران باسيل إلى آخر نصير لهم، واصرخوا عالياً، ولو شمل سبابكم غالبية الشعب اللبناني.
لماذا يهتاجون لتحقيق هذا الهدف، وهل من مشكلة عندهم مع المقاومة غير أنها تهزم إسرائيل وتقاوم بقية الهيمنة الأميركية في بلادنا، وتتصدى لشياطينهم؟
وهل أنت مقتنع فعلاً بأن برنامجك لم يتحول منصة لشعارات وأحقاد تعيدنا إلى أيام المحافظين الجدد الذين أرادوا تغيير وجه الكون بعد 11 أيلول؟ ولا بأس لو سُمح لك، نعم لو سُمح لك، بتلوين المشهد بأصوات «الرأي الآخر»، على طريقة ما فعلته القنوات التي فتحت باب التطبيع مع العدو. أم أنك تصدق الرواية عن تدريب الشباب اللبناني على الحوار والديموقراطية، وصرت تعتقد فعلاً أنك صاحب دور استثنائي لا يقتصر دوره على صداقة الطبقة السياسية، بل على صناعة بديلها أيضاً.
اقرأ الفقرة التالية وابحث عن مصدرها – وأعتقد أنه ليس مستحيلاً عليك العثور عليه، أما بقيتها فجرّب حظك – وفيها يرد الآتي: «يأمل مارسيل غانم والـ mtv بأن نشر ثقافة المناظرة في لبنان وإثبات قدرة التلامذة على النقاش سيفسحا المجال لاستضافة أولى المناظرات في لبنان بين القيادات السياسية الوطنية قبيل الانتخابات النيابية القادمة التي يفترض أن تقام في عام 2022».
أسفي عليك كبير لأنك قبلت أن تكون «برغياً» في ماكينة صدِئة، لن تنفع أموال الدنيا في إعادتها إلى العمل. وإذا كنت لا تجيد القراءة، وهذا أمر غريب عليك، فتذكّر بأن ما أشرتُ إليه في مقالتي عن دور وليد البخاري لا صلة له بالفيديو الذي وُزّع بعد الحلقة. وأنت تعرف أنني لست بالخفة التي تجعلني أصدق كل ما يشاع من هنا أو هناك، ولديّ مثلك، أو أقل منك، خبرة في كيفية إدارة الحلقات عن قرب أو عن بعد. ويمكنك أن تسأل العزيز جورج، الذي حدثته عن الحلقة وعن الفيديو نفسه، وكررتُ على مسامعه ما قلتُه له مرات ومرات من ملاحظات كنت أشعر دوماً أنني ملزم بها من باب الحرص. وأقرّ هنا، علناً، بأنني أهملت من تسريبات «أقبية السوء» في ممالك القهر والإذلال، ما كتبه سفراؤهم أو نسبوه إلى غيرهم، قولاً وتوصيفاً وتقديرات… أهملتُ عن وعي كل ما قد يشكّل إساءة لك، وخاصة أنني أحفظ للراحلة والدتك، ولو عن بُعد، مكانتها الخاصة، كما حفظت الودّ لجورج ودوللي، ولك أيضاً.
أما وأنك تلبّستَ دور البطل القادر على هزم جيوش وتحرير البلاد وقيادة العباد إلى الصالح، وقررتَ دخول معركة تستخدم فيها ما تعتقد أنه حق لك، واستلّيت من الكلام سيوفاً أثقل من قدرتك على حملها، وشتمت وحقّرت واستخدمت ما وجدته مناسباً في القول والنبرة والاتهام… فلا مانع من المنازلة.
لكن، نصيحتي لك، احصر معركتك معي ومع «الأخبار»، ولا تقحم حزب الله في الأمر. وأنت، كما جورج، والبقية، تعرفون جيداً على أي أرض أقف أنا ورفاقي. كل ما أنصحك به هو التالي: واجهني مباشرة، وها أنا أبلغك مسبقاً بأن ليس في مقدورك اختيار المسرح والتوقيت والطريقة. وبما أننا نعمل في منصات تمثل كل أسلحتنا، فدعوتي لك بأن تكون في المرات المقبلة أقل توتراً وأكثر استعداداً!
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani said that a 400 million pound [$535 million] debt owed by the UK over a decades-old military contract will hopefully be settled “soon,” and that the two countries were trying to work out how the payment can be made.
In an interview in London, Kani lead negotiator in forthcoming talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, said the matter had been discussed in his meeting with British Foreign Ministry officials Thursday.
“The main issue about paying the debt and its level is agreed, but the method and process of how the payment is made hasn’t yet been resolved,” he said, adding discussions will continue in Tehran next week.
The minister said that the talks were “serious” and a step forward in bridging some differences. UK officials had raised the issue of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s detention, he said.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has been in custody in Iran since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the government, a charge she has repeatedly denied.
Bagheri Kani said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s detention is a “judicial issue that’s handled within the framework of the judiciary and has every chance of being followed up within the judiciary.”
Bagheri Kani is on a tour of European capitals ahead of the resumption later this month of talks aimed at reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. He’ll lead the Iranian delegation once negotiations begin in Vienna.
There will be no free and peaceful Arab-Persian world as long as the Israeli colonial Euro-Zionist regime exists.
I. By way of dialogue
1907
ABDALLAH: Mustafa, British colonialism prepared a scientific report (Bannerman), in order to prolong itself as an empire. The report says that the Arab world is an obstacle to the European colonial order, and for this, it is necessary to articulate our disintegration, division, and separation. Imposing politicians to serve imperial interests. To combat any movement of unity, whether intellectual, cultural, ethnic, historical, political, religious, economic, scientific, military, etc. And to achieve this it must be through the establishment of an “agent state”, with a foreign population affectionate to Europe and its interests.
MUSTAPHA: That is absurd, it is impossible to achieve that, and even less so within the Arab idiosyncrasy. It’s ridiculous, it’s nonsense.
1915
ABDALLAH: Mustafa, the French and British colonialists are making a secret agreement called Sykes Pico. Creating borders to divide our Arab lands between them.
MUSTAFA: Let’s abolish any colonizing savage.
1917
ABDALLAH: Mustafa, you remember when in 1907 I told you about the Bannerman Report. British colonialism has just passed The Balfour Declaration. It is for the establishment of a Jewish “Home” here, in our Palestine.
MUSTAFA: Home? It’s a trap and they will never, never achieve it. The Arab spirit will never allow these Europeans to impose colonialism under the mantle of the Jewish religion in our Palestine. Today we must free ourselves from this British colonial yoke and our Palestine will be free.
1947
ABDALLAH: Mustafa, do you remember when in 1917 I told you about the Balfour Declaration? A newly created international organization, I think it’s called the UN, the United Nations. It has voted a resolution for the creation of the “State of Israel” in our Palestine. They gave it 64% of our homeland.
MUSTAFA: I don’t believe that a newly created international organization has that power. It is absurd and impossible.
May 14, 1948
ABDALLAH: Mustafa my love, I knew your sister was beheaded. The European Zionist movement has proclaimed, The Declaration of the Creation of the “State of Israel”. Terror, panic, macabre killings, this is genocide, Al-Nakba. The British handed over our Palestine to the Jewish Europeans.
MUSTAFA: We will go to war, we will liberate our Palestine. The Arab world will rise up. Long live Arab love.
1967
ABDALLAH: Mustafa, Israeli colonialism in 1948 took away part of our Palestine, and today, they have colonized all of our historic Palestine. And they have also taken territories from Egypt and Syria.
MUSTAFA: We must continue to fight my beloved Abdallah.
1978
ABDALLAH: Mustafa, the dictator of Egypt, Anwar El Sadat, has recognized the colonial regime of “Israel” in exchange for the return of the Egyptian territories in the Sinai that were taken by colonization in 1967.
MUSTAFA: Abdallah, Anwar El Sadat is a traitor and all these Arab dictators are traitors, that’s why they are in power. We must fight and we will win.
1987
ABDALLAH: Mustafa my love…The Intifada…how beautiful and divine is this popular uprising against colonialism. It’s a popular uprising, it has no leaders, it comes from the entrails of the people. It is magical, it is wonderful, it is loving… Mustafa my love. It must not stop, it must go on until victory until the liberation of our Palestine.
MUSTAFA: Yes, the Intifada must not stop. How divine is the Revolution, how sweet is this love, Palestine, Palestine, Palestine! My two great-grandchildren are imprisoned and they destroyed my brother’s house. The world is watching our pain. When Israeli colonialism falls, all the Arab dictatorships will fall, and above all the bloody Gulf dictatorships.
1993
ABDALLAH: Mustafa they have stopped the Intifada. The PLO in Oslo recognizes the colonial regime of “Israel”. They talk about two states. They do not talk about the right of return of Palestinian refugees. They only give us 22% of our homeland. It is a hoax, it is a trap.
2000
MUSTAFA: Abdallah, Israeli expansionist colonization has been defeated in Lebanon, it has had to withdraw from Lebanon. This is a victory for our Lebanese people. They withdrew without imposing any conditions. Long live Hezbollah and long live the armed resistance! This is the greatest victory we have achieved.
ABDALLAH: Yes Mustafa, it is a victory, it is the unquenchable faith and determination in the struggle. And thanks to the union, the union between Hezbollah and Iran, we Palestinians, in Oslo, accepted humiliating conditions. Colonialism was supposed to give us 22% of the territory and far from withdrawing, they have taken more of our homeland.
2003
ABDALLAH: Mustafa, the Zionist lobby is asking the United States to invade Iraq, they created the attacks of September 11 to justify this cruel invasion, slandering that Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction.
MUSTAFA: It is about dismembering the Arab world bit by bit.
2010
ABDALLAH: Mustafa, there is a popular revolt in Tunisia against the tyrant Ben Ali, that puppet of France. This is going to have a domino effect in the Arab world. Oh, I have fear and hope.
MUSTAFA: Abdallah, remember that the Intifada was popular and then it was hijacked and now we are worse with this Palestinian Authority which is a collaborator of colonialism. We have to be very careful, we cannot be naïve.
2020
ABDALLAH: Mustafa, the Gulf monarchies already shamelessly recognize the colonial “state of Israel”, they do it to perpetuate themselves in power, they are making astronomical economic investments. The shedding of our Palestinian blood is the throne of these macabre Arab traitors. They are falsifying Islam and making it look like the enemy is Iran. These traitors do not see that by defending Palestine they are protecting their own nation, as colonialism will come after for them, they are putting the sovereignty of the Arab peoples at risk. I thought these traitors were smarter.
MUSTAFA: Yes, I also thought these miserable traitors were smarter.
2062
MUSTAFA: Abdallah, our noble cause of Palestinian liberation is no longer in the conscience of the international community, as it once was. Today we are a tourist attraction of the Israeli colonial regime. In Jerusalem we sell Tatriz (embroidery), we dance Dabke, we sell our typical culinary dishes, as typical of the colonial regime of “Israel”. Arabs come from the Gulf and say they are happy to be in “Israel”, in the land of their “cousins”.
2073
MUSTAPHA: Abdallah, “Israel’s” expansionist colonialism has occupied part of Jordan…
II. The Mutilated Arab-Persian History
Walking through the streets of Damascus, Syria.
– Uncle, uncle, Habibi, good morning, where is the train station? I have to go to Jerusalem for a few days. Then I have to go to Baghdad and Iran. By train, it is cheaper and I will be able to see all those landscapes and villages…
III. Zionism, radiography of the end of the Arab-Persian world. This is impossible, absurd, nonsensical, and ridiculous.
“When the truth is too weak to defend itself, it will have to go on the attack.”
– Bertolt Brecht
At this stage of the Zionist colonial process, in its advance to put an end to the original Palestinian people, there are two aspects that I want to point out in this article: the return to armed struggle as an alternative for national liberation and the end of “Israel’s” colonial regime.
After the imposition of “Israel’s” colonial regime in Palestine from Europe, which was seen and felt like an impossible, absurd, nonsensical, and ridiculous project from the point of view of logic; today, from logic, the same will be said when it is considered that the Arab-Persian and Kurdish world and culture can be plundered, falsified… modalities of dispossession for its disappearance.
It could be said that there will be no free and peaceful Arab-Persian world as long as the Israeli colonial Euro-Zionist regime exists. But that is not the point, the point is that the Arab-Persian world is threatened to disappear.
Since the Oslo accords, fewer Palestinians are talking about the liberation of Palestine, about the independence of historic Palestine. Fewer Palestinians are expressing their struggle against the colonial yoke and anachronism of “Israel”. And especially the Palestinians in the Diaspora, because Western repression is so strong. The Palestinians have submitted and are dragging themselves to the Western Euro-Zionist agenda by only debating on one or two states. While colonialism has it clear and is moving to put an end to the original Palestinian people.
There are honest Western souls devoted to solidarity with the Palestinian people, sincere beings, but I am opposed to them, I’m opposed to the ones who demand the right for “Israel” to exist in our historical Palestine. The concept of peace does not come from the comfort, fear, functionalism, immediacy, and naivety of a trade unionist, feminist, academic, intellectual, politician, student, artist, activist. There is implicit colonialism there, even if they act in good faith.
Every native people has the dignified right to abolish their respective colonizer and that is always a contribution to humanity.
This would be an artificial and dead struggle, if it is not fought from the raison d’être of the Palestinian cause, from the essence and root of the Palestinian cause, that is, the struggle of a native people against a colonial yoke, today, in the 21st century.
As anti-Zionists, we must be a philosophical and moral challenge to the obscurantism of the academic-intellectual priesthood.
I find it degrading, contrary to the spirit of the human thinking verb, to exclude, ban, censor, repress, and silence from the world of debate the end of “Israel’s” colonial regime in Palestine, on the pretext that we must think about peace. One has to be realistic, especially because of the fear of not being accused of anti-Semitism. Everyone has the right to express his or her belief that this colonial regime should exist in Palestine. What should not be accepted is that this point should be banned from the universe of debate.
In the liberation of the Palestinian people against the colonial yoke and anachronism of “Israel”, it is intrinsic to never, ever expel the so-called Israeli, otherwise, it would be a philosophical and moral betrayal. The figure known as an Israeli would become a Palestinian citizen. That is what the statutes of the extinct League of Nations demanded, where thousands of thousands of Jews applied.
If you tell me that this is impossible and that I must be realistic, I say: don’t be creative people with complex and articulate cowards. Let us be able to position justice, to transcend intellectuality. And as Ernesto Guevara said: Let’s be realistic, let’s do the impossible.The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
This is how the US used its propaganda and influence to spread its ideals during the Cold War to “modernize” (i.e Americanize) the Middle East.
The Modernization of “Traditional Society”
At the height of the Cold War, print media, and more importantly, the radio, proved to be extremely important tools of influence. The Voice of America, Radio Free Liberty, and Radio Free Europe, were all, for example, very efficient tools of US propaganda, though they all adopted different forms of influence. The VOA, being the media machine of the Department of State, was constrained by bureaucracy and official policy.
The RFL and RFE, on the other hand, were founded as private enterprises by ex-intelligence and military operatives, and employed foreign nationals. The US didn’t just want to influence people from various countries as the USSR’s reach was growing, it sought to employ people from inside those communities in order to have Ukrainians speaking to Ukrainians, Poles to Poles. Why? Because if “reform” was to happen, it would happen from within, through voices sympathetic to the US and the “liberties” it espoused.
This is where Daniel Lerner’s chef-d’oeuvre comes into play. Lerner was tasked by the University of Columbia, which was in turn tasked by the Voice of America (as an extension of the State Department), to conduct a comprehensive study of media consumption in the “Middle East.” The aim was to propagate Western ideals in the “Middle East” through media. Hollywood films, radio music broadcasts, news broadcasts, print media, were all heavily consumed tools of influence. On the receiving end, peoples in different “Middle Eastern” countries needed to be studied: their aspirations, thoughts, political leanings were to be discerned, to best learn how best to approach them. This resulted in what is now known as one of the “bibles” of modernization, Daniel Lerner’s The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East.
Interviewing the “Middle East”
A total of 1600 interviews were conducted in Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, and Syria by local anthropologists in 1950-1951. Through these interviews, three personality types were constructed, based on their degree of “empathy”, the gold standard for judging how modern a person is (according to the author), thereby informing Lerner how modern a society is. The more empathy one possesses, the more they are able to imagine themselves as other people. Lerner categorized people into 3 classes: the empathetic modern, the semi-empathetic “transitional”, and the unempathetic traditional.
For Lerner, the features of modernity lay in urbanization, literacy, and a participant lifestyle. The literate urban dweller, who is engaged in democracy and has opinions exceeding his immediate needs, is the modern. The modern is presented as being the polar opposite of the illiterate country dweller who only cares about his immediate needs, thus presenting a clear dichotomy that the “aspiring” transitional lies in between. This helped him classify societies in his “Middle East” along these lines.
Lerner’s model of modernization, that of communication, was in fact the dominant model throughout the golden age of modernization, so much so that it is in fact still in use by UN organizations and US NGOs (USAID being a major example). Its basic premise was that for modernization to take place, people must be influenced to adopt modern ideals, and let go of tradition, either through communication and media or through government (and non-government) influence. The interviews were not only meant to classify people, but to study them in a manner so detailed as to see what their wants and leanings are, and adjust propaganda efforts accordingly.
The message that needed to be delivered to receivers, was that the West’s “superiority” and their “inferiority” were largely thanks to the US’ ideals and way of life, the driving forces behind its progress. Tradition, and everything associated with it, is restrictive and constraining, it is outdated and backward, rather it is destructive and counter-progressive. If societies are to move forward and emulate the West, they need to adopt its ideals. Practically speaking, this would further propagate cultural and economic consumerism in these societies, increasing dependency on the West, instead of the independence they claim to propagate.
The Grocer and the Chief
The story of the book, to sum it up, lies in the author’s parable of the Grocer and the Chief. Lerner learned of the small village of Balgat as he was reading the interview conducted by one Tosun B., which he dispatched to the village.
Balgat was a small village, located some eight kilometers outside of Ankara, and the interview in question was conducted in 1950, long after Ataturk’s modernization policies began to take root. However, Balgat was still a village, its youth were still farmers, and they all followed the Chief (the Muhtar), who Lerner described as a traditional leader (despite his being an adamant supporter of Ataturk), who wears traditional clothing, and thinks along traditional (read, unempathetic) lines.
Though everyone followed the Muhtar’s word, as he was the leader, the village did have one “dissident”, the grocer.
The grocer is portrayed as the village’s most “modern” person: a tradesman who enjoys his trips to the city – where he wishes he can live later on – and loves the fact he can put on Western clothing there, who goes to the cinema and loves watching American flicks.
Four years later, in 1954, Balgat is revisited, but this time it’s changed. The village has roads, transmission towers, power lines, and its youth live in the city where they went to lead an urban lifestyle and make more money. The Muhtar is portrayed as having lost his traditional power, with the grocer, the transitional, having ultimately won. The lesson to be learned is: if we can change the grocer, we can change the “Middle East.”
The book’s ideological underpinnings
Lerner is a veteran of propaganda, serving as a “propaganda officer” in the US Psychological Warfare department during World War II. He is a seasoned propagandist who knows how best to target “the other” in influence campaigns.
Looking into Lerner’s other writings, one can clearly see how Lerner’s worldview and his ideological biases are present. This is a man who, citing other works, believes that a group of psychological conditions and cultural behaviors form an “oriental mentality”. This mentality, according to Lerner, acts as an impediment to “development”, and comprises religion, language, writing, tradition (culture), and fashion (how they dress).
One can clearly see his anti-Islam and anti-Arab bias when he describes them as impediments to change when discussing Ataturk’s approach to modernization:
Cultural rather than phonetic languages were what he [Attaturk] sought in the change. He knew that so long as Turkish was written from right to left it could never properly diffuse the ideals of European civilization. The picturesque involutions and intricacies of Arabic script afforded a psychological background to the Oriental mentality which stood as the real enemy of the republic; its mere difficulty acted as a barrier against the universal diffusion of reading and writing.
How does he conclude that religion is complicit in this backwardness? Quite simply because the more “modernized” or “developed” social groups in the “Middle East” were the “non-Muslim” ones, according to his understanding.
Christianity and Westernization grew together. Channels of communication with the West were ready-made for members of the Uniate, Orthodox and Protestant sects [in the Middle East, specifically Lebanon]. They, in turn, relayed Western influence internally.
Quite simply, Lerner is another orientalist, who made use of the scientific method and academic know-how to justify the Americanization of the world at the height of the Cold War. He constructed an “other” and sought to show them as inferior, and in need of the helping hand of change that the US can offer.
Sure, this is yet another example of the West’s mission civilisatrice at play, but that doesn’t mean that the book isn’t a valuable piece of work. It offers a very real and very important study into how “Middle East” was at the time, how people’s political and media leanings were, and most importantly, a tangible example of how the US was able to employ media so effectively in the Cold War to gain such an important foothold in the “Middle East” and influence its people.
Sources:
– Daniel Lerner (1964) The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East, First Free Press Paperback Edition.
– Hemant Shah (2011), The Production of Modernization: Daniel Lerner, Mass Media, and The Passing of Traditional Society, Temple University Press.
– Umaru Bah (2008), Rereading The Passing of Traditional Society, Cultural Studies, 22:6, 795-819.
– John Gulick (1959), Review: The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East by Daniel Lerner, American Anthropologist, Vol. 61, No. 1, pp. 135-138
In an interview with France 24, the US former ambassador to Syria Robert Ford admits Bashar al-Assad’s victory, among other things.
Former US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford
In an exclusive interview with France 24, former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said that the “US policy has failed to establish a Syrian government through negotiations,” in addition to failing to unite the Syrian “opposition” groups.
Ford also mentioned that there are many divisions between the “opposition” groups, which were present since the beginning, contributing to the US’ failure in achieving its interests.
He noted that “As the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is present, and controls 70% of the Syrian territory, including major cities, the armed opposition is unable to remove him,” stressing that “despite the destruction of the Syrian economy, in the end, Assad won the war.”
Ford also acknowledged that “the United States bears responsibility for what happened in Syria,” admitting “we armed [“opposition”] groups open to finding solutions through negotiations.”
On Arab coexistence
Ford said that Arab countries such as the UAE, Egypt and Jordan have recognized the authority of the Syrian government, acknowledging that it is ‘here to stay’ and that Arab countries will have to find a way to coexist with it.
While he revealed that no US politician encourages restoring diplomatic relations with Damascus, he considered that the US’ circumstances are different when it comes to Syria’s Arab neighbors.
However, this does not mean that Washington is happy with the Arab efforts to coexist with Damascus,” also saying that the US is unable to offer an alternative to these offers.
The reconciliation efforts, according to Ford, could be seen in examples like UAE Foreign Minister Abdallah bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s recent visit to Damascus. The UAE foreign minister, last March, said that “Syria’s return to its Arab surroundings is inevitable, and it is in the interest of Syria and the region.”
When it came to whether Arab countries would be sanctioned for restoring relations with Damascus, Ford ruled out the possibility, saying that Biden’s efforts are currently focused on Asia.
قال السفير الأميركي السابق في سورية روبرت فورد إنّ «السياسة الأميركية فشلت في إنشاء حكومة سورية عن طريق المفاوضات».
وأضاف فورد في حديث خاص لوكالة «فرانس 24» أنّ «هناك انقسامات عديدة داخل صفوف المعارضة السورية، منذ البداية، والسياسة الأميركية فشلت في توحيد الصف بين مجموعات المعارضة».
وإذ أشار إلى أنّ «حكومة الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد موجودة، وتسيطر على 70% من الأراضي السورية، وبينها المدن الكبرى المعارضة المسلحة غير قادرة عل تنحية الأسد»، أكّد أنه «على الرغم من تدمير الاقتصاد السوري، ولكنه في نهاية المطاف الأسد فاز في الحرب».
وتابع: «أعتقد أن الدول العربية، وليس الإمارات فقط، بل مصر والأردن، اعترفت بأنّ الحكومة السورية باقية وتستمر بالسلطة».
وأقرّ السفير الأميركي السابق لدى سورية بأنّ «الحكومة السورية باقية، وعلى الدول العربية إيجاد طريقة التعايش معها».
وفي حين كشف أنه «لا يوجد أي سياسي أميركي يؤيد فكرة إعادة العلاقات الدبلوماسية مع دمشق»، اعتبر فورد أنّ «الولايات المتحدة لها ظروف تختلف مع البلدان العربية جيران سورية».
كما اعترف أنّ «واشنطن فهمت أن من الصعب عليها أن تمانع جهوداً عربية لإيجاد طريقة تعايش مع الحكومة السورية المستمرة في السلطة في دمشق، وهذا لا يعني أنّ واشنطن فرحة بالجهود العربية للتعايش مع دمشق»، مؤكداً أنّ «واشنطن غير قادرة على عرض بديل للاستراتيجية العربية التي رأيناها مع وزير الخارجية الإماراتي عبد الله بن زايد آل نهيان».
واستبعد فورد فرض عقوبات على الأنظمة العربية التي تعيد علاقاتها مع دمشق، مشيراً إلى أنّ «إدارة الرئيس بايدن تركز على ملف آسيا حالياً».
وفي الختام، أقرّ السفير الأميركي السابق لدى سوريا أيضاً أنّ «الولايات المتحدة تتحمل مسؤولية في ما جرى في سورية»، وقال: «أرسلنا السلاح إلى المجموعات المنفتحة حول فكرة إيجاد حل تفاوضي»، في إشارة إلى المعارضة، التي كان قد أكّد لها في العام 2019 أن «لا تنتظر شيئاً من واشنطن».
Photograph Source: Billionaires Success, OnInnovation – CC BY 2.0
Those who are not familiar with how Israel, particularly the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, is actively and irreversibly damaging the environment might reach the erroneous conclusion that Tel Aviv is at the forefront of the global fight against climate change. The reality is the exact opposite.
In his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Israel’s rightwing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett pushed the Israeli brand of “innovation and ingenuity” to “promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gases”.
Israel uses this particular brand to sell everything, whether to promote itself as the savior of Africa, to help governments intercept fleeing refugees, to push deadly weapons in the global market or, as Bennett has done in Scotland, supposedly save the environment.
Just before we hastily dismiss Bennett’s rhetoric as empty words, we must remember that some are actually buying into this Israeli propaganda, one of whom is the American billionaire, Bill Gates.
The day following Bennett’s speech, Gates met with the Israeli Prime Minister on the sidelines of COP26 to discuss the establishment of a “working group” to study potential cooperation “between the State of Israel and the Gates Foundation in the area of climate change innovation,” the Times of Israel newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, Gates, who had asserted in his meeting with Bennett that only innovation can solve the problem of climate change, said, “That’s really what Israel is known for”.
Gates’ obsession with ‘innovation’, however, might have blinded him from addressing other issues that Israel is also ‘known for’ – namely, being the world’s leading human rights violator, whose horrific track record of racial apartheid and violence is known to every member of the United Nations.
However, there is something else that Gates might also not be aware of – the systematic and purposeful destruction of the Palestinian environment, resulting from the Israeli occupation of Palestine and Tel Aviv’s insatiable appetite for military superiority, thus constant ‘innovation’.
Every act that is carried out to entrench the military occupation consolidates Israel’s colonial control and expanding illegal Jewish settlements directly impacts the Palestinian environment.
Not a single day passes without a Palestinian tree or an orchard being set ablaze or cut down. ‘Clearing’ the Palestinian environment is, and has always been, the prerequisite of constructing or expanding Jewish settlements. For these colonies to be built, countless trees have to be ‘removed’, along with the Palestinians who have planted them.
Over the years, millions of Palestinian olive and fruit-bearing trees were uprooted in Israel’s constant hunger for more land. The soil erosion in many parts of occupied Palestine speaks volumes of this horrendous ecocide.
But it does not end here, of course. For hundreds of illegal Jewish settlements – hosting a population of more than 600,000 settlers – to survive, a heavy price is being exacted from the Palestinian environment on a daily basis. According to the thorough research of Ahmed Abofou, an independent Legal Researcher with Al-Haq rights group, illegal Israeli settlements “generate around 145,000 tons of domestic waste daily.” Abofou reported that “in 2016 alone, around 83 million cubic meters of wastewater were pumped throughout the West Bank.”
Moreover, Israel has near-total control of Palestinian water resources. It relies on the occupied West Bank’s aquifers to supplant its need for water, while denying Palestinians access to their own water.
According to Amnesty International, the average Israeli receives 300 liters of water per day, while a Palestinian receives a much smaller share of 73 liters. The problem is accentuated when the water usage of illegal Jewish settlers is taken into account. The average settler consumes as much as 800 liters per day, while entire Palestinian communities could be denied a drop of water for days and weeks, often as a form of collective punishment.
The issue with the water is not just that of outright theft, denial of access or unequal distribution of water resources. It is also that of the lack of clean and safe drinkable water, an issue that has been highlighted by international human rights groups for many years.
The result of these unfair policies has forced many Palestinians “to purchase water brought in by trucks” at prices “ranging from 4 to 10 USD per cubic meter,” Amnesty International found, highlighting that, for the poorest Palestinian communities, “water expenses can, at times, make up half of a family’s monthly income.”
As bad as the situation may sound, the plight of besieged Gaza is much worse than that of the occupied West Bank. The tiny and overcrowded Strip is the perfect example of Israeli cruelty. Two million Palestinians live there, while being denied the most basic human rights, let alone freedom of movement.
Since the Israeli military blockade on Gaza in 2007, the environment of the coastal region has been in constant deterioration. With little electricity and with bombed-out sewage plants, Palestinians have been forced to dump their unprocessed sewage into the sea. Gaza’s underground water is now polluted to the extent that 97 percent of the available water is now undrinkable, according to United Nations reports.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. From the destruction of Palestinian wells to the poisoning of trees, to the demolishing of entire ecosystems to make space for Israel’s apartheid wall, to the use of depleted uranium in its various wars against Gaza, Israel has been on an unrelenting mission to ruin Palestine’s environment in all of its manifestations.
In truth, Mr. Gates, this is what Israel is ‘known for’ to anyone who cares to pay attention. Allowing Bennett to present his country as a potential savior of humanity, while validating Israel with massive investments in ‘innovation’, mischaracterizes – in fact, invalidates – the entire global campaign to truly understand the nature of the problem at hand.
Those who are hurting the planet have no right to claim the role of being its saviors. Israel, in its current violent state, is the enemy of the environment, and this is what it truly should be ‘known for’.
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