Monday, March 21, 2016

Well, Bernie Sanders does not rule out US war on Iran for Israel's sake

"we should re-impose sanctions and all options are back on the table.  Moreover, the deal does not mean we let Iran’s aggressive acts go unchecked. The world must stand united in condemningIran’s recent ballistic missile tests as well as its continued support for terrorism through groups like Hezbollah."

Flash: Bernie Sanders calls on the only Social Democratic states of the Middle East to lead the Middle East region

"What I am saying is that the major powers in the region – especially the Gulf States – have to take greater responsibility for the future of the Middle East."  If this is what the US socialist candidate thinks, imagine how bad the rest would be.

Here it is: text of the speech by Bernie Sanders to AIPAC

Let me summarize the speech for you in one sentence from his speech: "I agree with Jordanian King Abdullah".

Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Dictatorships supportive of Israeli wars and occupation

I think that people often miss how influential this shop has become in US foreign policy debates.

US Presidential candidates and foreign policy

Why don't they all make the task of reporters easier: why don't they all declare that Netanyahu is their collective and sole adviser on foreign policy?

Hillary asks: why has it taken the US so long to elect a woman who would order fighter jets to bomb children in refugee camps

"And, of course, some of us remember a woman, Golda Meir, leading Israel’s government decades ago and wonder what’s taking us so long here in America?"

Donald Trump reveals foreign policy team in meeting with The Washington Post

"“Walid Phares, who you probably know. Ph.D., adviser to the House of Representatives. He’s a counter-terrorism expert," Trump said." Some background on Walid Phares.

Saudi cleric arrested

Did I not predict to you below that the Saudi Shi`ite cleric who defended Hizbukkah would be arrested? He was arrested today. 

Only in America

Only in America is neutrality toward a conflict is considered a bad word.

When they talk about the next level of US-Israeli relations: what do they have in mind? Sexual relations?

"That’s why I believe we must take our alliance to the next level."

At AIPAC: Hillary pledges to combat freedom of speech

"and the growing effort to de-legitimize Israel on the world stage — are converging to make the U.S.-Israel alliance more indispensable than ever.
(APPLAUSE)
We have to combat all these trends"

Some people should avoid joking as they are very unfunny: Hillary at AIPAC

"although I don’t think Yitzhak Rabin ever forgave me for banishing him to the White House balcony when he wanted to smoke."  Who wrote this joke for her?  

The woman to the right claims that she is a global supporter of women's rights


Gulf regimes buying influence in Washington DC think tanks

"By 2014, the Gulf money in Washington had become unmistakable. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), for example, had opened a towering, gleaming new office downtown, financed with a $1 million donation from the United Arab Emirates.
The New York Times, that year, published an investigation on foreign government funding at think tanks, which the paper found had risen dramatically. It identified millions in donations going to many of Washington's most influential institutions, which were "producing policy papers, hosting forums and organizing private briefings for senior United States government officials that typically align with the foreign governments’ agendas."  The Times investigation detailed several incidents in which donations from foreign governments had seemed to directly influence think tank behavior:
  • Saleem Ali, a former visiting scholar at the Brookings center in Qatar, said he had been told not to write critically of the Qatari government. 
  • Emails between the Center for Global Development and the Norwegian government seemed to indicate a quid pro quo in which Norway would "donate" to CGD, which in turn would help persuade US government officials to increase funding for global forest protection efforts by $250 million. 
  • The Japanese government gave to CSIS, which now sponsors Japanese officials as "visiting scholars" who are granted access to US government officials by way of CSIS events and preexisting relationships. 
  • The United Arab Emirates, also a CSIS donor, got its ambassador to the US invited to participate on a public panel alongside then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey, whom the ambassador grilled about US commitments to the UAE."

American and Saudi war crimes in Yemen: they will live on the resume of human rights poseur, Samantha Power

"But when US intelligence agencies checked the list against their own information, they found that many of the targets had little or no military value, according to a report at the time by the Wall Street Journal's Maria Abi-Habib and Adam Entous. Many were civilian structures in or near population centers.  The US warned Saudi Arabia off the targets, and Saudi officials said they complied. But when the air war began, Saudi bombs fell heavily on "hospitals, schools, a refugee camp, and neighborhoods," according to the Journal.  The US initially held back from the war. But soon, in an apparent effort to purchase Saudi acquiescence to the nuclear deal with Iran, the US substantially increased support for the Saudi-led campaign, providing midair refueling, weapons and supplies, targeting information, and 45 dedicated intelligence analysts."

In this picture, Obama is seen telling Saudi King that he is a free rider and a dictator


Explosive report about US role in assisting Al-Qa`idah in Syria: 50% of US arms in Syria land with Nusrah Front

There is so much here about how US wittingly or unwittingly has been helping Al-Qa`idah in Syria.  Furthermore, it seems that Jamal Ma`ruf (who at one point was hailed as the last hope of US foreign policy in Syria and who was hailed as a moderate and secular rebel leader by David Ignatius and Liz Sly among many others in the Western press) had pledged allegiance secretly to Abu Muhammad Julani.  

Europe's alliance with the sponsors of terrorism

"Not one of the EU nations has, to date, taken on Saudi Arabia, the promulgator of hardline Islam and zealous intolerance. Saudi Arabia went into Belgium in the late sixties and spread Wahhabism among the newly arrived Muslim migrants. To date, $70bn has been spent on this global brainwashing and destabilisation programme. This Tuesday evening on ITV, a secretly filmed documentary investigates the nefarious kingdom. Will this exposure alter Europe’s special relationship with the most evil of empires? No." "The European crusaders who attacked Iraq and Libya and play hidden war games in Syria have never accepted responsibility for the churn, chaos, rage and violence that they left in their wake. Western sanctions and bombs wiped out more people in Iraq than Saddam ever did." (thanks Amir)

Patrick Cockburn on Western responsibility for ISIS

" Al-Qaeda is expanding in Yemen, where Western leaders have given a free pass to Saudi Arabia to launch a bombing campaign that has wrecked the country." "By taking up the cause of the Syrian and Libyan opposition and destroying the Syrian and Libyan states, France and Britain opened the door to Isis and should share in the blame for the rise of Isis and terrorism in Europe."

This is what I call safe human rights advocacy: like those who fly in private jets but insist on recycling

"Clooney mentioned countries such as Sudan, Iran and North Korea in her 12-minute speech, however she made no specific references to rights abuses in Gulf Arab countries or the humanitarian toll of the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, which the UAE is taking part in."

Obama in Cuba: by Emad Hajjaj


Elliott Abrams: advising Ted Cruz

Elliott Abrams is now considered a Middle East expert.  Back when I came to the US in the 1980s, he posed as a Latin American expert in the Reagan administration.  Of course, he had studied neither the Middle East nor Latin America.  In the US, zealotry makes up for lack of expertise.

AIPAC speaker: on non-violence: one of two Arab speakers at AIPAC

Is it not hilarious that AIPAC would feature this (unknown) Palestinian speaker who runs a non-violence shop but AIPAC would never feature an Israeli advocate of non-violence. But this is Zionism: violence is endorsed for one side one the conflict only.  "Mr. Ali Abu Awwad:
Founder, Taghyeer (Change) Palestinian National Nonviolence Movement
Co-Director of Roots/Judr/Shorashim: A Local Israel Israeli-Palestinian Initiative for Understanding, Nonviolence and Transformation".

This Saudi Shi`ite cleric will be arrested: he defends Hizbullah (see the last ten minutes)

This is a punishable crime in Saudi kingdom of horrors.

Amal Clooney offers advice to Gulf tyrants on how to best repress their people and manage the PR problem of Oppression

""Governments must be prepared to be transparent and get their message out first."
Clooney mentioned countries such as Sudan, Iran and North Korea in her 12-minute speech."  How brave of her to mention human rights violations in Iran and North Korea and Sudan while in the Gulf. How courageous of her.

Joe Biden rails against wall builders forgetting that he was speaking to a pro-Israeli audience

"“As the Jewish people know better than any other people, any action that marginalizes one religious or ethnic group imperils us all,” Biden said to loud applause from the crowd of more than 18,000. “It is incumbent on all of us to stand up against those who traffic in pernicious stereotypes, who seek to scare and divide us for political gain, because the future belongs to the bridge builders, not the wall builders.”" (thanks Mick)

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Trudeau and his theatrics

I am getting quite sick of the empty theatrics of Trudeau.  On matter of policy, he does not represent what people are projecting onto him.  The repeat of the Obama syndrome.  What is that Texas saying?Diddle me once?

HRW and Raqqa

HRW has joined the Gulf regime chorus (not the first time). It is suddenly concerned over the plight of civilians in Raqqa.  Has it ever expressed concern over the plight of civilians in Raqqa when US bombs fall on it? I don't recall.  Of course, both Russian and US bombs kill civilians but according to HRW US bombs in Syria don't kill civilians. 

Saudi religious elite calls for US ruin

A Saudi student told me a few days ago that in mosques across the kingdom, regime clerics used to include in their prayers this call: "God, may you bring ruin to US. God, may you bring ruin to Israel".  But around six years ago an order came to end those calls.

PS In Arabic the call was: اللهم اهلك أمريكا. اللهم اهلك إسرائيل

On refuting Bourdieu

"Je pense qu’on est fondé à parler de science, même si notre science est débutante, balbutiante, il y a malgré tout une séparation de nature entre l’effort scientifique que fait l’historien, l’ethnologue, le sociologue ou l’économiste, et ce que fait par exemple le philosophe. Nous travaillons à être vérifiables ou falsifiables [...] Jusqu’à présent j’étais l’objet d’attaques, mais jamais de réfutations au sens rigoureux du terme, je dirais que une des raisons de ma tristesse, c’est que dans le champ intellectuel français, j’ai beaucoup d’ennemis mais je n’ai pas d’adversaires, c’est-à dire des gens qui feraient le travail nécessaire pour opposer une réfutation. On me répond à Paris IV : "Mais ça c’est totalitaire puisque que vous êtes irréfutable". Pas du tout... simplement, pour me réfuter, il faut se lever de bonne heure : il faut travailler. C’est un peu arrogant, mais…" (I was never the object of serious refutations... in the french intellectual field, I have a lot of ennemies, but no adversaries, meaning people who would do the proper work to oppose me a refutation. In Paris 4 (A university with a conservative philosophy department), they say to me: "But this is totalitarian, since you cannot be refuted". Not at all... basically, to refute me, you have to wake up early, you have to work. It's arrogant to say this, but...) (thanks Raed)

Rejection of Israel?

Zionists say: but the rejection of a Jewish state is anti-Semitic because why one would single out in rejection this Jewish state? To that one says: 1) Oh, no. I also reject Christian and Islamic and Buddhist states as well. 2) but also one can maintain that one is not necessarily opposed to a Jewish state per se but is opposed to the particular Jewish state which was constructed atop an existing Palestinian homeland.  Maxine Robinson once explained his position this way, he said: I would not be opposed to a Jewish state on the moon, for example.

Zionists can't have it both way

If Zionists in the US want us to believe that anti-Semitism includes criticisms or even rejection of the very existence of the Jewish state in Palestine, then they should also accept the parallel notion that any criticisms or even rejection of the Saudi or Iranian regimes among to anti-Islam bigotry.  Is that your position, o Zionists?

Urban planning in Egypt

I will be furious if the rent in the second building is not very very cheap.

Huffington Post Qatari regime

The Arabic Huffington Post is one of the most misogynistic Arab news site these days (and the competition is stiff given the sponsorship of media and websites by the polygamous oil and gas princes).  Here they talk about "female bickering" at weddings.

Syrian "revolution" festival in DC

Look who the speaker is for an event by the Syrian "revolution" supporters in DC: "Jamal Khashoggi, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Arab News Channel".  I revolution sponsored by the Saudi regime. Where is Karl Marx to see this?

Russia and the bombing of ISIS

Last week, Saudi and Qatari regime media condemned Russia for not bombing Raqqa and accused it because of that of under-the-table non-aggression deal with ISIS.  Yesterday, all Saudi and Qatari regime media were condemning Russia for bombing Raqqa and killing women and children.  I kid you not.  If only I can understand what Qatari and Saudi regime media want exactly.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

How Roger Cohen makes his case for equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism

So Roger Cohen of the Times begins by providing anecdotal evidence from one student (he thinks that just because the student is at Oxford that we should be more impressed: "Last month, a co-chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club, Alex Chalmers, quit in protest at what he described as rampant anti-Semitism among members."
But that is not it: the evidence provides the evidence, if there is such a thing in logic. Or the anecdotal evidence presents an anecdotal evidence of his own: "Chalmers referred to members of the executive committee “throwing around the term ‘Zio’”".  I have been in the US since 1983, and have been around many pro-palestinian events and at leftist gatherings and I have never ever heard such a term used, ever.  But then again: my evidence is anecdotal. But he (or his one source) adds another evidence of anti-Semitism: "high-level expressions of “solidarity with Hamas”".  Wait: so solidarity with Hamas is evidence of anti-Semitism? I am no fan of Hamas but how is solidarity with Hamas or with Mahmoud Abbas evidence of anti-Semitism? Please explain.  Unless he considers solidity with the Israeli government evidence of anti-Islam and anti-Arabnss.  But wait: Roger Cohen is not done with his persuasive piece in which he marshals one evidence after another. Here, he stumbles on another example of anti-Semitism among the left: "A recent Oberlin alumna, Isabel Storch Sherrell, wrote in a Facebook post of the students she’d heard dismissing the Holocaust as mere “white on white crime.”"   He is not kidding.  So a Facebook post based on "students she'd heard"?  That is your evidence?  Can you imagine Roger Cohen making his case in a court of law, even a kangaroo court of law?   And I don't doubt that there are anti-Semitic sentiments in the US and there are kooky deniers of the Holocaust, but why is that related to the Palestinian cause? Is the Palestinian cause responsible for notorious Western anti-Semites like Henry Ford and others? He then blames Jeremey Corbyn for the rise in anti-Semitism among the left but then adds: "Corbyn is no anti-Semite".  If Corbyn is not anti-Semitic, why did you mention him then?  He then cites another student from Oxford University: "one Oxford student, James Elliott, put it. Elliott was narrowly defeated last month in a bid to become youth representative on Labour’s national executive committee."  I don't understand this part here. Does he mean that the defeat of an Zionist in any election proves anti-Semitism? So does that mean that humans should vote for Zionists in every and all election to prove that they are not anti-Semitic?  But forget about all this, he finally makes his case why anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism: "What is striking about the anti-Zionism derangement syndrome that spills over into anti-Semitism is its ahistorical nature. It denies the long Jewish presence in, and bond with, the Holy Land. It disregards the fundamental link between murderous European anti-Semitism and the decision of surviving Jews to embrace Zionism in the conviction that only a Jewish homeland could keep them safe."   OK, here is my response as an anti-Zionist: 1) no, anti-Zionists don't deny the historical bond between Jews and the holy land.  I would never also deny the long Jewish presence in Palestine.  But I don't think that the Jews who belonged to Palestine in 1917 and who  constituted less than 10% of the population and who owned less than 3% of the land of Palestine deserved a homeland atop the existing Arab Palestine, or that the aspirations of the 10% should disregard the aspirations of the 91% of the population (the "existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine", as they were outrageously referred to in the Balfour Declaration of 1917).  2) I also don't deny that there is a link between the murder of Jews in Europe and the foundation of Israel, but don't think that it was just to penalize the Palestinian national community for a crime that they didn't commit.  It is not anti-Semitic to believe that the establishment of a Jewish state should not take place at the expense of the Palestinian Arab nation. That is not anti-Semitic, no matter what a student at Oxford told Roger Cohen.  He then adds: "It dismisses the legal basis for the modern Jewish state in United Nations Resolution 181 of 1947. This was not “colonialism” but the post-Holocaust will of the world: Arab armies went to war against it and lost."  It is not anti-Semitic either to dismiss UN resolutions and no one has dismissed UN resolutions more than the occupation of the state of Israel.  And the UN Resolution (non-binding coming from UNGA) does not give the Jewish state what it has today: it was allotted (unfairly) 55% of Palestine when the Jewish population was only a third of the population of Palestine.  And Arab Armies had ever reason to go to war to defend the Palestinians from a Zionist assault: they went to war in order to prevent the massacre of Palestinians and their uprooting and the illegal occupation of Palestine. I only wish that Arab armies went with more force to prevent the larger force of Zionist forces (at the height of the conflict, the ratio of soldiers was 3-1 in favor of Zionist armies.  No matter what propaganda tactics Zionist hoodlums use, they won't shut down anti-Zionist voices in the US and around the world.  The notion that support for Palestinian restoration of rights and liberation of Palestine is anti-Semitic is as absurd as the notion that calling for the overthrow of the Iranian regime or the Saudi regime is anti-Muslim.  Anti-Zionism should never waver and should never quiver and should never compromise but it should also never ever allow anti-Semites to creep into the movement. Anti-Zionism should be clear in rejecting any association with anti-Semitism. 

PS If Roger Cohen accepts (he won't, like most Zionists), I would challenge him to a debate anywhere on anti-Zionism and the left.  

Saudi (and consequently US) war crimes in Yemen

"The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen may be responsible for "international crimes", a category that includes war crimes and crimes against humanity, the top U.N. human rights official said on Friday.   Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned an air strike in Yemen this week and added that the coalition was "responsible for twice as many civilian casualties as all other forces put together".  More than 6,000 people have been killed since the coalition campaign began a year ago to fight Iranian-allied Houthis and forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh and to restore the president they ousted, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Tuesday's strike near Mustaba in northwest Yemen hit an outdoor market and killed more than 100, a provincial health director and a U.N. official in Sanaa said, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the war."

Finally. David Ignatius found real moderate Syrian rebels who really can defeat the regime and defeat ISIS--but he is serious this time

The man who previously declared that Riyad Al-As`ad of FSA is the best hope for the West since Churchill, and who later said that in fact General Engineer Doctor Musician Potato Slicer, Salim Idriss will be leading Syria to a bright future, and who later declared that Harak Hazm will be liberating all of Syria from the regime and from ISIS has finally stumbled--in Geneva of all places--on two people who command the most moderate and secular forces in Syria: "The two spoke through a translator, in a conversation that was arranged by the Higher Negotiation Committee, the umbrella group for the Syrian opposition. Both commanders are members of opposition groups that have been armed and trained by the United States, Jordan and other partners. They carry modern, U.S.-made anti-tank missiles and other weapons that have given them more heft on the battlefield than some other opposition groups."

These are the forces created and funded and equipped by US and Israel

"South Sudan pro-govt forces offered women to rape in lieu of wages – UN report"

Date: 2000-12-31 22:00 Subject: NEW IRAN AND SYRIA 2.DOC (From Wikileaks)

"What Israeli military leaders really worry about -- but cannot talk about -- is losing their nuclear monopoly." "Israel's leadership understands well why defeating Assad is now in its interests." "Bringing down Assad would not only be a massive boon to Israel's security, it would also ease Israel's understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly."  Of course, the Syrian regime never lifted a finger to liberate the Golan and defended the Israeli occupation border zealously.

Conspiracy in Syria? What conspiracy? From Hillary's emails

"we are partnering with Al-Jazeera who will take primary ownership over the tool we have built, track the data, verify it, and broadcast it back into Syria. I've attached a few visuals that show what the tool will look like."

US-backed despot imprisons human rights activist

"Prominent human rights activist Zainab al-Khawaja was imprisoned this week for ripping up a photo of the king of Bahrain, a close ally of the U.S." "Her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, himself a renowned human rights activist and a co-founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was sentenced to life in prison for helping lead peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011, which were crushed when Saudi Arabia and the UAE sent in more than 1,500 soldiers, with U.S. support."

Israeli theft of Palestinian water

"The letter from Gaza to Flint — signed by various activists, including the prominent doctor Mona el-Farra — notes that Israel controls Palestinian water. The Israeli occupation steals from the coastal aquifer that is Gaza’s main source of water, prevents Palestinians from building sewage treatment facilities and forces them to buy water at prices they cannot afford." "Palestinians live under an apartheid system. And the impacts of apartheid are especially pronounced when it comes to water. While Israeli settlers in the arid West Bank can enjoy the sight of well-irrigated floral displays and dips in swimming pools all year round, Palestinians have access to considerably less drinking water than the levels recommended by the World Health Organization." (thanks Amir)

On the forgotten Golan Heights and Israeli theft of the water of the lake

This is a movie by a resident of the occupied Golan.