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Axis of Evil

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The Economist
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:07 EST

As America drops its demand for a total freeze on the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, angry Palestinians say there is no scope for resuming talks

Five months after Barack Obama went to Cairo and persuaded most of the Arab world, in a ringing declaration of even-handedness, that he would face down Israel in his quest for a Palestinian state, American policy seems to have run into the sand. The American president's mediating hand is weaker, his charisma damagingly faded. From the Palestinian and Arab point of view, his administration - after grandly setting out to force the Jewish state to stop the building of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land as an early token of good faith, intended to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiation - has meekly capitulated to Israel.

The upshot is that hopes for an early resumption of talks between the main protagonists seem to have been dashed. Indeed, no one seems to know how they can be restarted. The mood among moderates on both sides is as glum as ever.

Mr Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, made matters worse by actually praising Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, for promising merely to "restrain" Israel's building rather than stop it altogether, as he was first asked to do. Previously Mrs Clinton had insisted that stop meant stop. There should be no "organic growth" of existing settlements and no exceptions for projects under way. Nor did she specifically exempt East Jerusalem, which Palestinians view as their future capital but which many Israelis see as theirs alone. And she had earlier castigated Israel for demolishing Palestinian houses in the city's eastern part. Now, in Israel on October 31st, she changed her tune, seeming to acquiesce in Mr Netanyahu's refusal to meet those earlier American demands and congratulating the prime minister on his "unprecedented" offer to build at a slower rate than before.

Sarah Stricker
YNet
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:16 EST

Left-wing groups enraged by Germany municipality's decision not to allow anti-Zionist Israeli historian to speak at governmental institution. Pappe writes to Munich mayor his policy reminiscent of Nazi Germany

Anti-Zionist historian Prof. Ilan Pappe, one of the most important "New Historians", was scheduled to speak last weekend at the Pedagogical Institute of Munich. But a letter received from the "Israeli-German association of Munich", claiming that Pappe's lecture would turn into "an anti-Israeli propaganda show," led the Munich Municipality to reconsider the event.

The municipality eventually did not let Pappe use the room, claiming its decision was prompted by fears of violent clashes breaking out in the area. The Munich police insisted that there was no danger of fear for the security of those attending the lecture.

DesertPeace
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:57 EST

Just my two cents.....

At one time I was impressed every time Noam Chomsky spoke. Seeing his name on lists endorsing political actions was most encouraging.... but NOT seeing him participate in those actions sort of put a damper on the situation.

In recent days he has been very vocal about the situation in Gaza. He speaks of International Solidarity as a new phenomena in People's Struggles. Did he never hear of the International Brigades that went to Spain to fight Franco? Did he not hear of the worldwide movement to eliminate apartheid in South Africa? Does he think Cuba could have survived as a free nation all these years without the support of International Support Groups?

Chomsky overlooks the movements of Palestinians within Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. He gives the impression that without his endorsements, nothing will change. So typical of so many 'ivory tower' dwellers. The problem with these people is that their views of reality are often obstructed and they never really see the entire picture of a situation.

Emptywheel
Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:33 EDT

I've put this detail in a series of posts, but it really deserves a full post. According to the May 30, 2005 Bradbury memo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 and Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002.

On page 37 of the OLC memo, in a passage discussing the differences between SERE techniques and the torture used with detainees, the memo explains:

The CIA used the waterboard "at least 83 times during August 2002" in the interrogation of Zubaydah. IG Report at 90, and 183 times during March 2003 in the interrogation of KSM, see id. at 91.

Comment: Little wonder then that Khalid Sheik Mohammed confessed to masterminding thirty terrorist plots including an assassination attempt on President Jimmy Carter!

Israel's Pathology

Ira Chernus
Truthout
Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:08 EST

Nobody seems to know just what Barack Obama said to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two met recently at the White House. In fact, when it comes to Middle East policy, nobody seems to know much of anything about what goes on inside the White House. I've heard more than one Washington insider say that this administration is totally tight-lipped on the subject.

From the outside, it looks like Obama and his advisers are drifting without a rudder, unable to guide themselves, much less the Israelis and Palestinians, toward the peace the president says he's committed to. Pundits chalk it up to the administration's ineptitude or the power of the Israeli lobby or the chaotic state of Palestinian politics, or all of the above.

Perhaps, though, none of these factors ultimately make much difference. Perhaps it matters not a whit what the US or the Palestinians do, because the Israeli government and the bulk of Jewish Israeli voters are just too sick to move toward a just peace. At least that's one man's opinion.

The Jewish Israeli body politic is diseased, that one man writes, because it has not adjusted to the Jews' reentry into history with a state of their own. Too many Jews are still stuck in the ancient feeling of powerlessness and victimhood.

Walter Pincus
Washington Post
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:10 EST

National security adviser James L. Jones has decided that CIA chiefs of station in countries across the world will continue also to represent the office of the director of national intelligence, ending a brief turf battle between the heads of the two spy organizations, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

At issue was a May directive by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, who as head of the 16 agencies that make up the intelligence community, including the CIA, asserted that in "rare circumstances," he could select someone other than a CIA station chief to be his representative to foreign governments or international organizations. The directive provided that, in "virtually all cases globally," the representative would be a CIA station chief and that, before the appointment of anyone else, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta and the local U.S. ambassador would be consulted.

Robert Reynolds
IrishCentral.com
Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:58 EST

The resignation of Greg Craig as White House counsel is a sad day for civil liberties in America. Craig, who was a member of the Irish Voice Legal 100 group this year, was a fearless proponent of exposing those who ordered torture of prisoners in American custody.

The first set of torture abuse photos got out because of Greg Craig and no one else. Isn't it interesting that his resignation is followed by a major publicity offensive about the upcoming trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and those from 9/11?

Daniel Tencer
Raw Story
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:01 EST

'Torture at the touch of a button'

Israeli researchers have developed a portable device that causes excruciating sensations of burning and can be built for just $250,000, raising fears that even the world's poorest, most oppressive governments will now be able to use advanced non-lethal weapons on their civilian populations.

The Man-Portable Active Denial System, developed by researchers at the College of Judea and Samaria, can beam a microwave ray that causes skin surface to heat up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the nerve cells in the skin to think they're on fire.

Jeff Gates
Criminal State
Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:55 EDT

The lead-up to the first U.S.-Iran talks in three decades saw a replay of the same modus operandi that induced the U.S. and its allies to invade Iraq in March 2003. Then as now, the invasion of Iran is consistent with a regime change agenda for Greater Israel described in a 1996 strategy document prepared by Jewish-Americans for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As with Iraq, the threat of weapons of mass destruction is again marketed as a causa belli. As with Iraq, the claim is disputed by weapons inspectors and intelligence analysts. The Iraqi program had been shut down a dozen years before the invasion. In Iran, there is no evidence that uranium is being enriched beyond the low levels required for energy and medical purposes.

Reports of a "secret" processing plant failed to note that Iran suspended uranium enrichment from 2003 until 2005. Seeing no change in the political climate except more sanctions and more Israeli threats to bomb its nuclear sites, Iran began building and equipping a new facility.

As with Iraq, there is no direct threat to the U.S. As with Iraq, mainstream U.S. media focused not on Israel - the only nation in the region known to have nuclear weapons - but on Iran. Enrichment is relatively easy compared to the steps required to design, build and reliably deliver a nuclear warhead. Activity around each of those steps can be readily detected.

Flashback: At What Cost the Israel Lobby?

Jeff Gates
Criminal State
Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:41 EDT

More than 46 years ago, President John F. Kennedy sought to preclude a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. In June 1963, he wrote the last in a series of insistent letters to Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Those letters sought what Israel now demands of Iran: international inspections of its nuclear facilities. The key difference: Kennedy knew for certain that Israel, while portraying itself a friend and ally, repeatedly lied to Kennedy about its nuclear weapons development at the Dimona reactor in the Negev Desert.

Best estimates point to sometime between 1962 and 1964 when Israel produced its first weapon in what is now a vast nuclear arsenal estimated at 200-400 warheads. Kennedy's letter to Ben-Gurion was anything but friendly. The words he chose were drawn not from diplomacy but from the instructions that a judge gives a jury on criminal culpability. In that brusque letter, the U.S. commander-in-chief insisted that this purported ally prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the Zionist enclave was not developing nuclear weapons.

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