*
o Rachel Shabi
o guardian.co.uk,
o Friday June 27, 2008
Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) thinks that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinian refugees should somehow be offset against each other – the rights of one side counterbalancing the rights of the other. It's a neat argument: Jews were forced to abandon material assets and leave Arab countries; Palestinians similarly fled or were expelled from their homes. Ergo, the region witnessed an exchange of populations and if Palestinian refugees are to be compensated by Israel, so too must the Jewish "refugees" from the Middle East, by the Arab nations that expelled them.
Nice try, but there are many reasons why this formula is all wrong. First off (as David Cesarani points out), it's tasteless. There is no need for the fate of these two peoples, Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians, to be so fused materialistically. Middle Eastern Jews may indeed have a claim to lost assets, but those genuinely seeking peace between Israel and its neighbours should know that this is not the way to pursue it.
Second, defining Jews from Arab lands as "refugees" is problematic – and many Middle Eastern Jews would be angered by it. Countless Israelis recount leaving former homes in Arab countries and illegally, dangerously migrating prior to 1948. Such experiences do not include a component of expulsion: they left because they wanted to.
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Arab States Will Be ‘Delighted’
This morning on Fox News, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton continued his drumbeat for war against Iran. Adopting Bill Kristol’s argument, Bolton suggested that an attack on Iran depends on who Americans elect as the next President:
I think if they [Israel] are to do anything, the most likely period is after our elections and before the inauguration of the next President. I don’t think they will do anything before our election because they don’t want to affect it. And they’d have to make a judgment whether to go during the remainder of President Bush’s term in office or wait for his successor.
Bolton gamed out the fallout from an attack on Iran. He claimed that Iran’s options to retaliate after being attacked are actually “less broad than people think.” He suggested that Iran would not want to escalate a conflict because 1) it still needs to export oil, 2) it would worry about “an even greater response” from Israel, 3) and it would worry about the U.S.’s response.
--MORE WITH VIDEO--
Why Iraq won't be South Korea
06/18/08
By Ismael Hossein-zadeh
Ismael Hossein-zadeh is the author of The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism
Payvand.com - A most widely-cited factor behind the recent U.S. wars of choice is said to be oil. "No Blood for Oil" has been a rallying cry for most of the opponents of the war. While some of these opponents argue that the war is driven by the U.S. desire for cheap oil, others claim that it is prompted by big oil's wish for high oil prices and profits. Interestingly, most antiwar forces use both claims interchangeably without paying attention to the fact that they are diametrically-opposed assertions.
Not only do the two arguments contradict each other, but each argument is also wanting and unconvincing on its own grounds; not because the U.S. does not wish for cheap oil, or because Big Oil does not desire higher oil prices, but because war is no longer the way to control or gain access to energy resources. Colonial-type occupation or direct control of energy resources is no longer efficient or economical and has, therefore, been abandoned for more than four decades.
The view that recent U.S. military adventures in the Middle East and the broader Central Asia are driven by energy considerations is further reinforced by the dubious theory of Peak Oil, which maintains that, having peaked, world oil resources are now dwindling and that, therefore, war power and military strength are key to access or control of the shrinking energy resources.
--MORE-- Why Iraq won't be South Korea
Arab leaders have reacted with anger and disbelief to an intensely pro-Israeli speech delivered by Barack Obama
UNBREAKABLE TODAY, UNBREAKABLE TOMORROW, UNBREAKABLE FOREVER
Is This Change?
Obama Woos AIPAC
By JOHN WALSH
I have tired of reading cyptic Obama endorsements, masquerading as attacks on “illogical” women feminists. Clearly Hillary’s sins are legion, but Obama is making it clearer by the day that he is eager to follow in her bloody footsteps. And the Left? It is running after Obama in the “hope” that he can be pressured “like FDR” into responding to a “real grass roots movement.” That simply does not cut the mustard for any rational being. Obama beat Hillary Clinton by taking on the mantle of the “antiwar candidate” who ceaselessly pointed out she voted for the war. Obama of course was not yet in the Senate for that vote. But once a Senator Obama voted for each and every appropriation for the brutal Iraq war and occupation – hundreds of billions of dollars to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and lay waste that ill-starred nation. In fact his votes were not different from hers in this crucial area.
Meanwhile, the Left remains completely silent about the Nader/Gonzalez candidacy. Want to see what Nader/Gonzalez offers compared to Obama? I quote from today’s message on the VoteNader.org web site:
“There is one clear choice this year for peace in the Middle East. Nader/Gonzalez. Only Nader/Gonzalez stands with the courageous Israeli and Palestinian peace movements. Only Nader/Gonzalez stands with the majority of Jewish Americans and Arab Americans which polls repeatedly show support a two-state solution as a way for peace in the Middle East. Only Nader/Gonzalez would reverse U.S. policy in the Middle East.
“Doubt it? Then just listen to Barack Obama's speech from this morning to the militarist and right-wing American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Bahrain names Jewish ambassador | |
Bahrain's king has appointed a Jewish woman as the country's envoy to the United States. Houda Nonoo said she was proud to serve her country "first of all as a Bahraini" and that she was not chosen for the post because of her religion.She is believed to be the Arab world's first Jewish ambassador. Ms Nonoo, 43, has served as a legislator in Bahrain's 40-member Shura Council for three years and is head of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch. "It is a great honour to have been appointed as the first female ambassador to the United States of America and I am looking forward to meeting this new challenge," Ms Nonoo told the Associated Press news agency. | |
* Story Highlights
* President Bush speaks at the World Economic Forum in Egypt
* Bush tells Mideast leaders, "peace, freedom are within your grasp"
* Bush counsels Arab states to "move past their old resentments against Israel"
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) -- At the start of his Mideast trip, President Bush gave Israel glowing praise. As it ended on Sunday, the president gave the Arab world a stern lecture: Isolate state sponsors of terror and give citizens more freedoms.
"Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail," Bush said at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East. "The time has come for nations across the Middle East to abandon these practices, and treat their people with the dignity and respect they deserve."
Bush's address to hundreds of global policymakers and business leaders gathered in this Red Sea beach town was his finishing touch on a five-day Mideast trip to Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
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Feuding Lebanese factions reach deal to elect president
Related
Lebanese government capitulates to Hizbullah
What was not mentioned in Nasrallah’s press conference: To Gain Victory, Wipe out Arab “States/Regimes”
Hanan Awarekeh
15/05/2008 Once again, the Zionist entity closely watches the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon and gives its own analysis.
Hezbollah proved last week that it is the strongest force in Lebanon and could have seized power if it had wanted to, Israel's military intelligence chief said in remarks published on Thursday.
"Hezbollah did not intend to take control... If it had wanted to, it could have done it," Major General Amos Yadlin said in an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz.
Lebanon was rocked last week by the worst violence since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war between the Lebanese national opposition and the ruling bloc’s militias. But Yadlin said Hezbollah did not want to follow the example of the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas, which seized power in the Gaza Strip in June by ousting the forces of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
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