Friday, June 13, 2014
So Much for Arab Nationality; Ditto for "Occupation"
Rejection of Jewish nationalism from the 1920s, attempted to prevent the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine by violence and defiance of any form of Jewish political power; including any plans to share stewardship with Arabs which crystallized into the expression of Palestinianism.Why the US supports Hamas, and why it may help Iran
No other positive definition of an Arab-Palestinian people has surfaced. This point is admirably illustrated in the following historic incident:
“In 1926, Lord Plumer was appointed as the second High Commissioner of Palestine. The Arabs within the Mandate were infuriated when Plumer stood up for the Zionists’ national anthem Hatikva during ceremonies held in his honor when Plumer first visited Tel Aviv.
When a delegation of Palestinian Arabs protested Plumer’s ‘Zionist bias,’ the High Commissioner asked the Arabs if he remained seated when their national anthem was played, ‘wouldn’t you regard my behavior as most unmannerly?’ Met by silence,
Plumer asked: ‘By the way, have you got a national anthem?’ When the delegation replied with chagrin that they did not, he snapped back, “I think you had better get one as soon as possible.”
But it took the Palestinian Arabs more than 60 years to heed Plumer’s advice.
Why is the US supporting the PA? Ostensibly because it is the most likely candidate to take over in the territories that the US so passionately wants Israel to vacate. But negotiations between the PA and Israel broke down because the Palestinians were unable to accept the existence of a Jewish state between the river and the sea with any borders. Now with Hamas in the government, an agreement is even less likely.
What will it take for the administration to understand that a) the only acceptable deal with the Palestinians involves Israel’s suicide, and b) Israel isn’t suicidal?
I suspect that the US fears that even Hamas is better than the more radical Sunni Islamists out there. But if it wants stability, why doesn’t it simply support Israeli sovereignty over the territories?
That would be too logical, apparently.
If the prospect of Israel and the US on opposite sides of a war feels strange, the situation in Iraq is equally strange. The prospect of ISIS overthrowing the al-Maliki regime in Iraq has the US contemplating intervention of some kind — which would put it on the same side as Iran.
This is happening very rapidly — as I write — so a decision will have to be made soon.
Salafi-Jihadists: "A Persistent Threat" to Europe and America
The threat to Europe and the United States from Islamic terrorism is serious and growing, and new attacks with unexpected targets and timings are increasingly likely, according to two new reports that provide insights and predictions about the threats posed by al-Qaeda and other Salafi-jihadist groups.Daniel Pipes: ISIS rampages, the Middle East shakes
The reports — one by the US-based RAND Corporation and another by the EU-based Europol — show that al-Qaeda and related jihadist groups are evolving, splintering and morphing, and that the number of Islamic militants, especially from Western countries, is growing apace.
Taken together, the two reports thoroughly dispute claims by members of the Obama Administration and other policymakers that al-Qaeda has been severely weakened and no longer poses a major threat to the West.
The jihadis' takeover of Mosul on June 9 won them control of Iraq's second-largest city, a major haul of weapons, $429 million in gold, an open path to conquer Tikrit, Samarra, and perhaps the capital city of Baghdad. The Iraqi Kurds have seized Kirkuk. This is the most important event in the Middle East since the Arab upheavals began in 2010. Here's why:World Shocked That Arbitrary Mideast Borders Untenable Without Repressive Strongmen (satire)
Regional threat: The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a designated terror group, is in a position to overthrow the governments of Iraq and Syria and perhaps beyond, starting with Jordan. Straddling the Iraq-Syrian border, it may both erase the nearly century-old border between these two colonial creations and end their existence as unitary states, thereby overturning the Middle Eastern political order as it emerged from World War I. The U.S. government is right to call ISIS "a threat to the entire region."
Unexpected strength: These developments establish that the most extreme and violent form of Islamism, as represented by al-Qaida and similar groups, can go beyond terrorism to form guerrilla militias that conquer territory and challenge governments. In this, ISIS joins the Taliban in Afghanistan, al-Shabab in Somalia, al-Nusra Front in Syria, Ansar Dine in Mali, and Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Though a majority in Iraq and neighboring Iran, Shiite Muslims are a minority through most of the rest of the region, and their conflict with the Sunnis transcends the artificial national borders. Similarly, the Kurds of northern Iraq have long yearned for self-determination, but the areas they inhabit are spread across Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, all of whose borders are artifacts of British and French imperialist ambitions. The West nevertheless seems thrown for a loop by recent developments, despite generations of agitation or outright conflict around these same issues.Israel Should Exploit Palestinian "Unity" - Here's How
Beyond Iraq and Syria, which has similar challenges, Lebanon remains a tinderbox of sectarianism, with Shiites, Druze, and Maronite Christians in a volatile power-sharing arrangement that has more than once exploded into war. Israel, which most inhabitants of the Middle East regard as an outpost of the same Western imperialism, sits on land that well into the 1930′s was widely considered by its Arab inhabitants a province of southern Syria, with the development of Palestinian nationalism per se only a reaction to Israel’s creation and expansion.
Western politicians and diplomats remain committed to maintaining the discreteness of artificial national identities, and of course continuously express shock when the people who actually live in those areas decline to accede.
Like Kerry in the case of Syria, Israel might be surprised by positive reactions. For example, the US administration wants to continue to finance the PA, but many in the Congress are opposed to it in view of the involvement of Hamas. So let the US Congress, too, tell the new Palestinian government: "Since you now rule over Gaza, you will not get any more money from us until you agree to surrender all those rockets in Gaza to be destroyed under international control."88 Senators Sign Letter Calling Hamas-Abbas Gov’t a “Setback to Peace”
Failing that, Israel has the power to frustrate further Palestinian plans if those conditions are not met. Whereas the US was and is far from Syria, Israel is right on top of the PA. So Israel can demand that "every bit" of the rockets and the tunnels be removed, if not "in the next week," then within the six months that the Palestinians have decreed for organizing elections. Otherwise, Israel can threaten, there will be no negotiations – and probably no elections either.
On Wednesday, Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME) led “a bipartisan supermajority of 88 Senators in sending a letter to President Barack Obama” calling the Palestinian unity government “a serious setback to efforts to achieve peace.”Effort to Cut Palestinian Authority Funding Moves to Formal U.S. House Resolution
The Times of Israel reported further:
"According to the senators, Hamas’s role in the formation of the government has “undermined Congressional support for US assistance to the Palestinians.” That aid, they wrote, should only be provided when “we have confidence that this new government is in full compliance with restrictions contained in current law.” …
In recent weeks, lawmakers have taken a number of directions in their interpretation of the Palestinian Anti-Terror Act of 2006. Those who support the immediate application of the act argue that Hamas’s support for the government — even if it does not hold any ministries – makes the law applicable."
Congressional sentiment on cutting funding of the Palestinian Authority escalated to a formal resolution in the House of Representatives on Thursday.Gaza Unity Minister Was Hamas Education Minister
Some fifteen cosponsors, led by Representatives Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), officially presented their resolution to defund the PA based on two violations of American law: the unity with Hamas and the recently-publicized program of monthly salaries paid to Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons via the PA’s Ministry of Prisoners.
The resolution framers call for a “sense of the House” that all funding be stopped unless the PA takes verified actions “dissolving the unity government with Hamas,” regardless of any technocratic appearances, as well as “repealing the Law of the Prisoners and abolishing the Ministry of Prisoners … relating to compensation and recognition of convicted terrorists.”
The American administration has justified its decision to "work with" the new Fatah-Hamas unity government, sworn in last Monday, on the claim that it does not include Hamas ministers.Oren: Israel Views Hamas-Abbas Gov’t as “Ribbon on a Package” that Includes Terror
However, at least one Gaza-based minister in the new government was previously a minister in the terrorist group Hamas's government.
In an interview with Wall Street Journal editorial board member Mary Kissel, (embedded below) former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren explains that the reason for the “outrage” expressed by Israeli officials to the Obama administration’s acceptance of the Fatah-Hamas unity government is that the United States reversed a decades-old policy of treating Hamas as a terrorist and genocidal organization. Hamas has failed to meet the American and Quartet conditions to “recognize the state of Israel, disavow terror and accept all previous agreements between the state of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.” In Oren’s words, Israel viewed the deal as “putting a ribbon on a package that includes a terrorist organization.” Oren cited Israeli intelligence officials as saying that the agreement is not “a matter of the Palestinian Authority reasserting its control over Gaza, it is rather a case of Hamas regaining access to the West Bank.” As Oren points out, this opens the potential of Hamas transferring its massive arsenal to the West Bank, well within range of Israel’s major population and industrial centers.Despite Ban, Livni Continues to Meet PUG Officials Overseas
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni continues to meet with Palestinian Unity Government (PUG) officials overseas, according to a report in Walla.Israeli envoy to UN General Assembly: Israel is used to terrorist threats
Livni met with PUG Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki in London on Thursday at an international conference on “war crimes and violence against women in conflict zones”.
Walla published a photo of the meeting between Livni and al-Maliki.
PUG sources are saying that Livni also talks on the phone with PUG Intelligence Chief Majed Faraj, PUG negotiator Saeb Erekat and even with Fatah head Jabril Rajoub.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor spoke at the 94th plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly on Thursday afternoon, and touted his country’s accomplishments in fighting insurgency and terrorism. He also called out Iran, as he had in many previous speeches, for fulling the Syrian conflict and for being “the world’s primary sponsor of terrorism.”Caroline Glick: Hezbollah and Israel’s Lawyers-in-Chief
“Since its rebirth 66 years ago, Israel has found itself under constant threat from terrorist organizations,” Prosor said. “Out of this persistent need to defend our citizens, Israel became a specialist in the field of counter-terrorism – with technologies and tools unmatched by any other country.”
“Israelis are the targets of a terror campaign directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah,” he continued. “Iran’s fingerprints can be seen on attacks from Bulgaria to Kenya to Thailand, where just a few weeks ago, authorities foiled a plan by Hezbollah agents to attack Israeli tourists.”
Law professor Ruth Gavison, who was a member of the commission, found their testimony deeply disturbing.Brussels gunman afraid of being extradited to Israel
“I find this analysis harsh,” she chided. “I think that you have ignored the fact that international law is plagued with problems of selective enforcement and that the application and use of international law in the context of international conflicts is very biased and very political…. Therefore, [reliance on international law] seems to me to be a position that is possible to argue on a rhetorical level, but to internalize it as a real position, that looks to me like a strategic danger.”
Unfortunately, Gavison’s warning fell on deaf ears. Not only has the power of radicalized lawyers with a distorted view of the laws of war not been rolled back in the intervening years. It has expanded, to the point where today, staff officers in the military refuse to carry out lawful instructions from the government.
Nemmouche, 29, shot dead an Israeli couple and a French woman in the Brussels Jewish Museum on May 24, and seriously wounded a fourth victim.IPS uncovers tunnel dug by Palestinian security prisoner to escape from Israel jail
When a judge on the panel asked Nemmouche whether he agrees to be extradited to Belgium, the suspect answered, as reported by French web news medias quoting judicial sources and journalists present: “I [will] keep opposing this extradition till Belgium [assures me] that there will be no transfer to a third country [Israel].” Pepiezep said “that’s the only request we have,” and that his client, innocent until proven guilty, is not trying “to escape the justice system.”
A group of Islamic Jihad prisoners, some of them serving life sentences, dug a tunnel in Shateh prison in northern Israel, in a failed bid to escape from the facility, the Israel Prison Service said Thursday.Defense Experts Warn Israel of Possible ISIS Threat
The IPS said that they began searching the cells after they got a lead that some prisoners were plotting an attack on guards in the facility. While carrying out what they said were intensive searches of one of the cells in the security prisoners branch, they found a tunnel inside the bathroom.
On Friday, former Israeli intelligence expert Jacques Neriah suggested in a CNN interview that Israel must prepare itself for the eventuality that the battle could reach the shores of Tel Aviv - despite the fact that the fighting rages more than 915 kilometers (595 miles) away.PA Official: Israel Planning to Blow Up Al-Aqsa
According to Neriah, the current crisis in the Middle East has made Israel relatively quiet, and could buy the IDF time to prepare.
"Everyone is busy killing one another in the Arab world - it gives Israel a 'time out' to reorganize and to prepare itself for the long run," Neriah stated.
"If Iraq falls in the hands of ISIS, then we will have a terrorist state - where terrorists will be trained, will be equipped, will be financed by an [entire] state and not by an organization which is [in] hiding."
Mahmoud al-Habash, formerly the Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Religious Affairs and now a consultant to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, claimed Thursday that Israel is planning to blow up the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.IDF Makes Arab Newspaper Group Pull Hamas Papers
Habash cited as proof of his accusations a tiny aircraft equipped with a camera that flew over the mosque.
An Arab newspaper group in Judea and Samaria announced Thursday that it had stopped printing titles from the terrorist group Hamas, after receiving a series of warnings from the IDF.PA Cops 'Savagely' Beat Journalist Syndicate Head
The Al-Ayyam newspaper group has stopped printing and distributing Hamas newspapers Falastin, Al-Resala and Al-Istiqlal, its managing editor Abdel Nasser al-Najjar told AFP.
The decision followed an alleged phone call late Wednesday from the IDF, threatening to close Al-Ayyam's offices if it did not stop publishing the papers, al-Najjar said.
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces reportedly beat Arab journalists protesting in the central square of Ramallah in Samaria on Wednesday.As Sanctions Unravel, France Re-Affirms Red Lines while Congress Moves to Assert Oversight Role
In the process, PA forces injured three journalists, including the Chairman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate Abed Nasser al-Najjar [printer of the Hamas newspapers above], according to the Judea and Samaria-based Arab news agency Wafa.
The protests reportedly came in response to several recent attacks on journalists in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. Indeed, three Arab journalists allegedly were assaulted on Monday by PA security forces as they cracked down on a Hamas rally in Ramallah, beating Hamas members and a leader of the group, and showing the fragile nature of the "unity" government.
Reuters on Tuesday conveyed new statements from French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius declaring that Iran must only be allowed to maintain a few hundred centrifuges in the context of any comprehensive deal between Tehran and the P5+1 global powers, amid moves by the Iranians to hold bilateral negotiations with various other P5+1 powers.Congress warns Obama: Nuclear deal with Iran may not be enough to lift sanctions
Those efforts – which now have Iran holding separate talks with the U.S., Russia, France, and Germany – had quickly triggered concerns that the Islamic republic was seeking to peel away relatively tough parties from what had been, at least publicly, a somewhat united front.
Attained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, the letter outlines what Engel has referred to in the past as the "minimum requirements for a good deal," noting that any deal "demands congressional approval."Iran sends elite troops to aide Iraq against insurgents
"The concept of an exclusively defined 'nuclear-related' sanction on Iran does not exist in US law," the letter reads. "Almost all sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program are also related to Tehran’s advancing ballistic missile program, intensifying support for international terrorism, and other unconventional weapons programs."
Iran is sending special forces to Iraq to help Baghdad halt militants advancing on the capital, the Times of London reported on Friday.Senior Analyst: Deepening Entente with Iran “Raises Questions about Turkey’s Reliability as a U.S. Ally”
The predominantly Shiite Muslim nation has reportedly sent a team of 150 elite Revolutionary Guard troops to aide Iraq’s faltering government as it struggles to form a coherent response after the Sunni militants blitzed and captured the country’s second-largest city of Mosul as well as other, smaller communities and military and police bases — often after meeting little resistance from state security forces.
On Thursday President Hassan Rouhani warned Iran will combat the “violence and terrorism” of Sunni extremists in Iraq.
Turkey’s office of the presidency issued a press release – and linked to it from the office’s official Twitter account for good measure – declaring that “Rouhani’s visit will open a new chapter in our bilateral relations.”
The mostly Persian-language Twitter account thought to speak for Rouhani boasted that “Turkish and Iranian presidents signed 10 documents of cooperation” during the visit.
Ankara has come under increasingly public criticism from Washington over literally years of sanctions-busting transactions with Iran, and the Washington Free Beacon quoted Jonathan Schanzer – vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) – explicitly contextualizing Monday’s events as coming amid Turkish sanctions busting:
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