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There is no good in much of their secret conferences save (in) whosoever enjoineth charity and fairness and peace-making among the people and whoso doeth that, seeking the good pleasure of God, We shall bestow on him a vast reward.
(Al-Nisa, 4:114).

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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Israel’s Netanyahu hails Jonathan as Nigeria pulls last-minute surprise to block Palestinian UN resolution

Vote on the resolution:
China - y France - y Russian Federation - y Argentina (2014) - y Chad (2015) - y Chile (2015) - y Jordan (2015) - y Luxembourg (2014) - y

United States - n Australia (2014) - n

Lithuania (2015) - a United Kingdom - a Nigeria (2015) - a Republic of Korea (2014) - a Rwanda (2014) - a As of 1 Jan 2015, Rwanda, S. Korea, Australia and Luxemburg are gone, replaced by Venezuela, Angola and Malaysia and Spain. It would have carried, and the US would have been alone (11-1-3) and forced to veto. 


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Netanyahu and Jonathan

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, praised President Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday, after Nigeria pulled a last-minute surprise that helped thwart a resolution calling for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory by 2017.
The resolution, presented to the United Nations for approval, called for new talks based on territorial lines that existed before Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967.
The proposal was the culmination of three months of campaigning by the Palestinians at the UN, and was backed by 22 envoys from Arab states.
The Palestinians required nine votes from 15 permanent and non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Nigeria is currently one the 10 non-permanent members, with its tenure expiring in 2015. Chad and Rwanda are the other African members.
But Palestine received eight votes, short of one, during the vote which took place 11pm Nigerian time.
The United States and Australia voted against the resolution, while Russia, China, France, Luxembourg, Jordan, Argentina, Chile and Chad voted for the resolution.
Nigeria, Britain, South Korea, Rwanda and Lithuania abstained.
Nigeria’s role stood out because until shortly before the vote, diplomats had expected the resolution to get nine “yes” votes, with Nigeria believed to be in support.
But at the last minute, Nigeria’s envoy, Joy Ogwu, abstained from voting, echoing the position of the United States that the ultimate path to peace between Israel and Palestine lies “in a negotiated solution”.
Regardless of whether Palestine received nine votes, the resolution still stood no chance as U.S. would have deployed its veto powers as a permanent member to block it.
But analysts believe the U.S. sought to avoid that scenario as it would have angered Arab allies who are currently supporting a US-led international coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS.
To save the U.S. from that awkward position, its Secretary of States, John Kerry, reached out to Nigeria to help block the move, the Times of Israel reported.
After the vote, U.S. envoy, Samantha Power, said “We voted against this resolution not because we are comfortable with the status quo. We voted against it because… peace must come from hard compromises that occur at the negotiating table.”
The Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu, also said he personally spoke to President Jonathan and received his assurance of support.
“I would like to voice appreciation and thanks to the United States and Australia, and also special appreciation for the president of Rwanda, my friend Paul Kagame, and the president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan. I spoke with both of them. They told me and promised me, personally, that they would not support this resolution. They kept their word, and that’s what clinched this matter. I think this is very important for the state of Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
Some Israeli media hailed the cordial relations between Mr. Jonathan and Mr. Netanyauhu, with the Times of Israel recalling how President Jonathan visited Israel during his last pilgrimage with a 20-member delegation, and how Mr. Netanyahu condoled with Nigeria after the Kano Mosque blast that killed more than 100 people.
Nigeria’s position on the complex Israel and Palestine issue has been that of neutrality for years, in the belief that any decision must be attained through negotiations.
Nigeria has maintained that policy in what analysts believe is informed by the government’s sensitivity to many factors including, not wanting to be seen as supporting Palestine’s Hamas, or opposing the United States.
A major factor also is the religious angle back home, with many Nigerian Muslims supporting Palestine, while there is also the Christianity affiliation between Nigeria and Israel.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

WHO MAKES UP THE “ISLAMIC EMIRATE”?, BY THIERRY MEYSSAN

In our continuing look at this artificial western construct, the Caliphate, we would like to bring as much informed opinion on the table as possible. Thierry does a marvelous job of getting to the heart of the matter.
While Pepe Escobar is roving the Eurasian plains and showing us the future, he has also talked to our featured analyst, Thierry Meyssan, on ISIS.




While Western public opinion is fed information about the constitution of a purported international coalition to fight against the “Islamic Emirate”, the latter changes shape discreetly. Its principal officers are no longer Arab, but Georgian and Chinese. For Thierry Meyssan, this mutation shows that NATO ultimately intends to use the “Islamic Emirate” in Russia and in China. Therefore, both countries must act now against the jihadists before they return to sow chaos in their countries of origin.

The “Islamic Emirate” initially displayed its Arab origin. This organization sprang from “Al-Qaeda in Iraq” who fought not the US invaders, but Iraqi Shiites. It became the “Islamic Emirate in Iraq” and the “Islamic Emirate in Iraq and the Levant.” In October 2007, the US Army seized 606 records of foreign members of this organization near Sinjar. The records were inventoried and examined by experts from the Military Academy at West Point.
[Please click below to continue reading]

Friday, August 1, 2014

Preparing the Chessboard for the “Clash of Civilizations”:

Divide, Conquer and Rule the “New Middle East” | Nov 26 2011



The name “Arab Spring” is a catch phrase concocted in distant offices in Washington, London, Paris, and Brussels by individuals and groups who, other than having some superficial knowledge of the region, know very little about the Arabs. What is unfolding amongst the Arab peoples is naturally a mixed package. Insurgency is part of this package as is opportunism. Where there is revolution, there is always counter-revolution.

The upheavals in the Arab World are not an Arab “awakening” either; such a term implies that the Arabs have always been sleeping while dictatorship and injustice has been surrounding them. In reality the Arab World, which is part of the broader Turko-Arabo-Iranic World, has been filled with frequent revolts that have been put down by the Arab dictators in coordination with countries like the United States, Britain, and France. It has been the interference of these powers that has always acted as a counter-balance to democracy and it will continue to do so.

Divide and Conquer: How the First “Arab Spring” was Manipulated

The plans for reconfiguring the Middle East started several years before the First World War. It was during the First World War, however, that the manifestation of these colonial designs could visibly be seen with the “Great Arab Revolt” against the Ottoman Empire.

Despite the fact that the British, French, and Italians were colonial powers which had prevented the Arabs from enjoying any freedom in countries like Algeria, Libya, Egypt, and Sudan, these colonial powers managed to portray themselves as the friends and allies of Arab liberation.

During the “Great Arab Revolt” the British and the French actually used the Arabs as foot soldiers against the Ottomans to further their own geo-political schemes. The secret Sykes–Picot Agreement between London and Paris is a case in point. France and Britain merely managed to use and manipulate the Arabs by selling them the idea of Arab liberation from the so-called “repression” of the Ottomans.

In reality, the Ottoman Empire was a multi-ethnic empire. It gave local and cultural autonomy to all its peoples, but was manipulated into the direction of becoming a Turkish entity. Even the Armenian Genocide that would ensue in Ottoman Anatolia has to be analyzed in the same context as the contemporary targeting of Christians in Iraq as part of a sectarian scheme unleashed by external actors to divide the Ottoman Empire, Anatolia, and the citizens of the Ottoman Empire.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, it was London and Paris which denied freedom to the Arabs, while sowing the seeds of discord amongst the Arab peoples. Local corrupt Arab leaders were also partners in the project and many of them were all too happy to become clients of Britain and France. In the same sense, the “Arab Spring” is being manipulated today. The U.S., Britain, France, and others are now working with the help of corrupt Arab leaders and figures to restructure the Arab World and Africa.

The Yinon Plan: Order from Chaos…

The Yinon Plan, which is a continuation of British stratagem in the Middle East, is an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority. It insists and stipulates that Israel must reconfigure its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states.

Israeli strategists viewed Iraq as their biggest strategic challenge from an Arab state. This is why Iraq was outlined as the centerpiece to the balkanization of the Middle East and the Arab World. In Iraq, on the basis of the concepts of the Yinon Plan, Israeli strategists have called for the division of Iraq into a Kurdish state and two Arab states, one for Shiite Muslims and the other for Sunni Muslims. The first step towards establishing this was a war between Iraq and Iran, which the Yinon Plan discusses.

The Atlantic, in 2008, and the U.S. military’s Armed Forces Journal, in 2006, both published widely circulated maps that closely followed the outline of the Yinon Plan. Aside from a divided Iraq, which the Biden Plan also calls for, the Yinon Plan calls for a divided Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria. The partitioning of Iran, Turkey, Somalia, and Pakistan also all fall into line with these views. The Yinon Plan also calls for dissolution in North Africa and forecasts it as starting from Egypt and then spilling over into Sudan, Libya, and the rest of the region.

Securing the Realm: Redefining the Arab World…

Although tweaked, the Yinon Plan is in motion and coming to life under the “Clean Break.” This is through a policy document written in 1996 by Richard Perle and the Study Group on “A New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000″ for Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel at the time. Perle was a former Pentagon under-secretary for Roland Reagan at the time and later a U.S. military advisor to George W. Bush Jr. and the White House. Aside from Perle, the rest of the members of the Study Group on “A New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000″ consisted of James Colbert (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs), Charles Fairbanks Jr. (Johns Hopkins University), Douglas Feith (Feith and Zell Associates), Robert Loewenberg (Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies), Jonathan Torop (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy), David Wurmser (Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies), and Meyrav Wurmser (Johns Hopkins University). A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm is the full name of this 1996 Israel policy paper.

In many regards, the U.S. is executing the objectives outlined in Tel Aviv’s 1996 policy paper to secure the “realm.” Moreover, the term “realm” implies the strategic mentality of the authors. A realm refers to either the territory ruled by a monarch or the territories that fall under a monarch’s reign, but are not physically under their control and have vassals running them. In this context, the word realm is being used to denote the Middle East as the kingdom of Tel Aviv. The fact that Perle, someone who has essentially been a career Pentagon official, helped author the Israeli paper also makes one ask if the conceptualized sovereign of the realm is either Israel, the United States, or both?

Securing the Realm: The Israeli Blueprints to Destabilize Damascus

The 1996 Israeli document calls for “rolling back Syria” sometime around the year 2000 or afterward by pushing the Syrians out of Lebanon and destabilizing the Syrian Arab Republic with the help of Jordan and Turkey. This has respectively taken place in 2005 and 2011. The 1996 document states: “Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions.” [1]

As a first step towards creating an Israeli-dominated “New Middle East” and encircling Syria, the 1996 document calls for removing President Saddam Hussein from power in Baghdad and even alludes to the balkanization of Iraq and forging a strategic regional alliance against Damascus that includes a Sunni Muslim “Central Iraq.” The authors write: “But Syria enters this conflict with potential weaknesses: Damascus is too preoccupied with dealing with the threatened new regional equation to permit distractions of the Lebanese flank. And Damascus fears that the ‘natural axis’ with Israel on one side, central Iraq and Turkey on the other, and Jordan, in the center would squeeze and detach Syria from the Saudi Peninsula. For Syria, this could be the prelude to a redrawing of the map of the Middle East which would threaten Syria’s territorial integrity.” [2]

Perle and the Study Group on “A New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000″ also call for driving the Syrians out of Lebanon and destabilizing Syria by using Lebanese opposition figures. The document states: “[Israel must divert] Syria’s attention by using Lebanese opposition elements to destabilize Syrian control of Lebanon.” [3] This is what would happen in 2005 after the Hariri Assassination that helped launch the so-called “Cedar Revolution” and create the vehemently anti-Syrian March 14 Alliance controlled by the corrupt Said Hariri.

The document also calls for Tel Aviv to “take [the] opportunity to remind the world of the nature of the Syrian regime.” [4] This clearly falls into the Israeli strategy of demonizing its opponents through using public relations (PR) campaigns. In 2009, Israeli news media openly admitted that Tel Aviv through its embassies and diplomatic missions had launched a global campaign to discredit the Iranian presidential elections before they even took place through a media campaign and organizing protests in front of Iranian embassies. [5]

The document also mentions something that resembles what is currently going on in Syria. It states: “Most important, it is understandable that Israel has an interest supporting diplomatically, militarily and operationally Turkey’s and Jordan’s actions against Syria, such as securing tribal alliances with Arab tribes that cross into Syrian territory and are hostile to the Syrian ruling elite.” [6] With the 2011 upheaval in Syria, the movement of insurgents and the smuggling of weapons through the Jordanian and Turkish borders has become a major problem for Damascus.

In this context, it is no surprise that Arial Sharon and Israel told Washington to attack Syria, Libya, and Iran after the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. [7] Finally, it is worth knowing that the Israeli document also advocated for pre-emptive war to shape Israel’s geo-strategic environment and to carve out the “New Middle East.” [8] This is a policy that the U.S. would also adopt in 2001.

The Eradication of the Christian Communities of the Middle East

It is no coincidence that Egyptian Christians were attacked at the same time as the South Sudan Referendum and before the crisis in Libya. Nor is it a coincidence that Iraqi Christians, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, have been forced into exile, leaving their ancestral homelands in Iraq. Coinciding with the exodus of Iraqi Christians, which occurred under the watchful eyes of U.S. and British military forces, the neighbourhoods in Baghdad became sectarian as Shiite Muslims and Sunni Muslims were forced by violence and death squads to form sectarian enclaves. This is all tied to the Yinon Plan and the reconfiguration of the region as part of a broader objective.

In Iran, the Israelis have been trying in vain to get the Iranian Jewish community to leave. Iran’s Jewish population is actually the second largest in the Middle East and arguably the oldest undisturbed Jewish community in the world. Iranian Jews view themselves as Iranians who are tied to Iran as their homeland, just like Muslim and Christian Iranians, and for them the concept that they need to relocate to Israel because they are Jewish is ridiculous.

In Lebanon, Israel has been working to exacerbate sectarian tensions between the various Christian and Muslim factions as well as the Druze. Lebanon is a springboard into Syria and the division of Lebanon into several states is also seen as a means for balkanizing Syria into several smaller sectarian Arab states. The objectives of the Yinon Plan are to divide Lebanon and Syria into several states on the basis of religious and sectarian identities for Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, Christians, and the Druze. There could also be objectives for a Christian exodus in Syria too.

The new head of the Maronite Catholic Syriac Church of Antioch, the largest of the autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches, has expressed his fears about a purging of Arab Christians in the Levant and Middle East. Patriarch Mar Beshara Boutros Al-Rahi and many other Christian leaders in Lebanon and Syria are afraid of a Muslim Brotherhood takeover in Syria. Like Iraq, mysterious groups are now attacking the Christian communities in Syria. The leaders of the Christian Eastern Orthodox Church, including the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, have also all publicly expressed their grave concerns. Aside from the Christian Arabs, these fears are also shared by the Assyrian and Armenian communities, which are mostly Christian.

Sheikh Al-Rahi was recently in Paris where he met President Nicolas Sarkozy. It is reported that the Maronite Patriarch and Sarkozy had disagreements about Syria, which prompted Sarkozy to say that the Syrian regime will collapse. Patriarch Al-Rahi’s position was that Syria should be left alone and allowed to reform. The Maronite Patriarch also told Sarkozy that Israel needed to be dealt with as a threat if France legitimately wanted Hezbollah to disarm.

Because of his position in France, Al-Rahi was instantly thanked by the Christian and Muslim religious leaders of the Syrian Arab Republic who visited him in Lebanon. Hezbollah and its political allies in Lebanon, which includes most the Christian parliamentarians in the Lebanese Parliament, also lauded the Maronite Patriarch who later went on a tour to South Lebanon.

Sheikh Al-Rahi is now being politically attacked by the Hariri-led March 14 Alliance, because of his stance on Hezbollah and his refusal to support the toppling of the Syrian regime. A conference of Christian figures is actually being planned by Hariri to oppose Patriarch Al-Rahi and the stance of the Maronite Church. Since Al-Rahi announced his position, the Tahrir Party, which is active in both Lebanon and Syria, has also started targeting him with criticism. It has also been reported that high-ranking U.S. officials have also cancelled their meetings with the Maronite Patriarch as a sign of their displeasure about his positions on Hezbollah and Syria.

The Hariri-led March 14 Alliance in Lebanon, which has always been a popular minority (even when it was a parliamentary majority), has been working hand-in-hand with the U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the groups using violence and terrorism in Syria. The Muslim Brotherhood and other so-called Salafist groups from Syria have been coordinating and holding secret talks with Hariri and the Christian political parties in the March 14 Alliance. This is why Hariri and his allies have turned on Cardinal Al-Rahi. It was also Hariri and the March 14 Alliance that brought Fatah Al-Islam into Lebanon and have now helped some of its members escape to go and fight in Syria.

There are unknown snippers who are targeting Syrian civilians and the Syrian Army with a view of causing chaos and internal fighting. The Christian communities in Syria are also being targeted by unknown groups. It is very likely that the attackers are a coalition of U.S., French, Jordanian, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi, and Khalij (Gulf) Arab forces working with some Syrians on the inside. 

A Christian exodus is being planned for the Middle East by Washington, Tel Aviv, and Brussels. It has been reported that Sheikh Al-Rahi was told in Paris by President Nicolas Sarkozy that the Christian communities of the Levant and Middle East can resettle in the European Union. This is no gracious offer. It is a slap in the face by the same powers that have deliberately created the conditions to eradicate the ancient Christian communities of the Middle East. The aim appears to be either the resettling of the Christian communities outside of the region or demarcate them into enclaves. Both could be objectives.

This project is meant to delineate the Arab nations along the lines of being exclusively Muslim nations and falls into accordance with both the Yinon Plan and the geo-political objectives of the U.S. to control Eurasia. A major war may be its outcome. Arab Christians now have a lot in common with black-skinned Arabs.

Re-Dividing Africa: The Yinon Plan is very Much Alive and at Work…

In regards to Africa, Tel Aviv sees securing Africa as part of its broader periphery. This broader or so-called “new periphery” became a basis of geo-strategy for Tel Aviv after 1979 when the “old periphery” against the Arabs that included Iran, which was one of Israel’s closest allies during the Pahlavi period, buckled and collapsed with the 1979 Iranian Revolution. In this context, Israel’s “new periphery” was conceptualized with the inclusion of countries like Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya against the Arab states and the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is why Israel has been so deeply involved in the balkanization of Sudan.

In the same context as the sectarian divisions in the Middle East, the Israelis have outlined plans to reconfigure Africa. The Yinon Plan seeks to delineate Africa on the basis of three facets: (1) ethno-linguistics; (2) skin-colour; and, finally, (3) religion. To secure the realm, it also so happens that the the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS), the Israeli think-tank that included Perle, also pushed for the creating of the Pentagon’s U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).

An attempt to separate the merging point of an Arab and African identity is underway. It seeks to draw dividing lines in Africa between a so-called “Black Africa” and a supposedly “non-Black” North Africa. This is part of a scheme to create a schism in Africa between what are assumed to be “Arabs” and so-called “Blacks.”

This objective is why the ridiculous identity of an “African South Sudan” and an “Arab North Sudan” have been nurtured and promoted. This is also why black-skinned Libyans have been targeted in a campaign to “colour cleanse” Libya. The Arab identity in North Africa is being de-linked from its African identity. Simultaneously there is an attempt to eradicate the large populations of “black-skinned Arabs” so that there is a clear delineation between “Black Africa” and a new “non-Black” North Africa, which will be turned into a fighting ground between the remaining “non-Black” Berbers and Arabs.

In the same context, tensions are being fomented between Muslims and Christians in Africa, in such places as Sudan and Nigeria, to further create lines and fracture points. The fuelling of these divisions on the basis of skin-colour, religion, ethnicity, and language is intended to fuel disassociation and disunity in Africa. This is all part of a broader African strategy of cutting North Africa off from the rest of the African continent.

Preparing the Chessboard for the “Clash of Civilizations”

It is at this point that all the pieces have to be put together and the dots have to be connected.

The chessboard is being staged for a “Clash of Civilizations” and all the chess pieces are being put into place. The Arab World is in the process of being cordoned off and sharp delineation lines are being created. These lines of delineation are replacing the seamless lines of transition between different ethno-linguistic, skin-colour, and religious groups.

Under this scheme, there can no longer be a melding transition between societies and countries. This is why the Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, such as the Copts, are being targeted. This is also why black-skinned Arabs and black-skinned Berbers, as well as other North African population groups which are black-skinned, are facing genocide in North Africa.

After Iraq and Egypt, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Syrian Arab Republic are both important points of regional destabilization in North Africa and Southeast Asia respectively. What happens in Libya will have rippling effects on Africa, as what happens in Syria will have rippling effects on Southeast Asia and beyond. Both Iraq and Egypt, in connection with what the Yinon Plan states, have acted as primers for the destabilization of both these Arab states.

What is being staged is the creation of an exclusively “Muslim Middle East” area (excluding Israel) that will be in turmoil over Shiite-Sunni fighting. A similar scenario is being staged for a “non-Black North Africa” area which will be characterized by a confrontation between Arabs and Berber. At the same time, under the “Clash of Civilizations” model, the Middle East and North Africa are slated to simultaneously be in conflict with the so-called “West” and “Black Africa.”

This is why both Nicolas Sarzoky, in France, and David Cameron, in Britain, made back-to-back declarations during the start of the conflict in Libya that multiculturalism is dead in their respective Western European societies. [9] Real multiculturalism threatens the legitimacy of the NATO war agenda. It also constitutes an obstacle to the implementation of the “Clash of Civilizations” which constitutes the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy.

In this regard, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. National Security Advisor, explains why multiculturalism is a threat to Washington and its allies: “[A]s America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues [e.g., war with the Arab World, China, Iran, or Russia and the former Soviet Union], except in the circumstances of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat. Such a consensus generally existed throughout World War II and even during the Cold War [and exists now because of the 'Global War on Terror'].” [10] Brzezinski’s next sentence is the qualifier of why populations would oppose or support wars: “[The consensus] was rooted, however, not only in deeply shared democratic values, which the public sensed were being threatened, but also in a cultural and ethnic affinity for the predominantly European victims of hostile totalitarianisms.” [11]

Risking being redundant, it has to be mentioned again that it is precisely with the intention of breaking these cultural affinities between the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region and the so-called “Western World” and sub-Saharan Africa that Christians and black-skinned peoples are being targeted.

Ethnocentrism and Ideology: Justifying Today’s “Just Wars”

In the past, the colonial powers of Western Europe would indoctrinate their people. Their objective was to acquire popular support for colonial conquest. This took the form of spreading Christianity and promoting Christian values with the support of armed merchants and colonial armies.

At the same time, racist ideologies were put forth. The people whose lands were colonized were portrayed as “sub-human,” inferior, or soulless. Finally, the “White Man’s burden” of taking on a mission of civilizing the so-called “uncivilized peoples of the world” was used. This cohesive ideological framework was used to portray colonialism as a “just cause.” The latter in turn was used to provide legitimacy to the waging of “just wars” as a means to conquering and “civilizing” foreign lands.

Today, the imperialist designs of the United States, Britain, France, and Germany have not changed. What has changed is the pretext and justification for waging their neo-colonial wars of conquest. During the colonial period, the narratives and justifications for waging war were accepted by public opinion in the colonizing countries, such as Britain and France. Today’s “just wars” and “just causes” are now being conducted under the banners of women’s rights, human rights, humanitarianism, and democracy.

By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya: is an award-winning writer from Ottawa, Canada. He is a Sociologist and Research Associate at the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal. He was a witness to the “Arab Spring” in action in North Africa. While on the ground in Libya during the NATO bombing campaign he was Special Correspondent for the syndicated investigative KPFA program Flashpoints, which is aired from Berkeley, California.

NOTES
[1] Richard Perle et al., A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm (Washington, D.C. and Tel Aviv: Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies), 1996.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Barak Ravid, “Israeli diplomats told to take offensive in PR war against Iran,” Haaretz, June 1, 2009.
[6] Perle et al., Clean Break, op. cit.
[7] Aluf Benn, “Sharon says U.S. should also disarm Iran, Libya and Syria,” Haaretz, September 30, 2009.
[8] Richard Perle et al., Clean Break, op. cit.
[9] Robert Marquand, “Why Europe is turning away from multiculturalism,” Christian Science Monitor, March 4, 2011.
[10] Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (New York: Basic Books October 1997), p.211.
[11] Ibid.


Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Israeli crimes - Getting away with it for over 60 years

The people of Gaza must suffer from serial déjà vu. Another Israeli invasion, yet more death and destruction, flattened urban quarters and above all hundreds of innocent civilians killed. Yet so much of the media reporting might suggest this was the first time it had ever happened.
The massacres of 500-700 Palestinian civilians in Khan Younis in took place during the first Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip on Nov. 3, 1956. According to the BBC’s Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, there was one family that lost 21 members.
Fast forward to the first day of the second Israel occupation on June 6, 1967, and Bowen cites the 28 young men from the Abu Rass family from the Zaytoun district in Gaza who were captured and just executed. To show Israel’s consistency 23 members of the Al Samouni family were killed in 2009, one of many extended families to be suffer mass losses. In this current aggression at least 20 members of one were killed in Khan Younis on 20 July. Are Israeli soldiers unaware that this unarmed civilian population are ‘protected persons’ under International humanitarian law?
The United Nations has also been a regular target for Israeli bombing rarely missing out on a pounding. Are Israeli forces not aware that U.N. buildings should enjoy immunity? There have been Israeli shelling of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools and health centres including ona school in Beit Hanoun on July 24. Go back to 1967, one finds that the headquarters of the United Nations Expeditionary Force was bombed in Gaza and 90 of UNRWA’s 100 schools were damaged in the fighting. On Jan. 152009 the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was bombed. Israel also targeted a U.N. compound at Qana in Lebanon in April 1996 killing 106.
An Israeli speciality is bombing power stations. On July29, it put Gaza’s sole power station out of action. In fact Israel had hit the station twice in the week before as well but much of the reporting could not even delve that far back. Very few indeed noted that Israel had bombed this same plant in 2006 and in 2009. Moreover, it did the same to a power plant in southern Beirut in 2006. Power plants are civilian infrastructure and their destruction is possibly a war crime.
But what gets under the skin of so many is that whilst the Assad regime is sanctioned and condemned, Israel is lauded, protected and given a multi-billion dollar annual sponsorship deal with the United States.
Chris Doyle
Historical crimes are barely reported in media coverage. Audiences may not be aware at all that 70 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees or about how they got there. Do they know that Sderot, the target of many rocket attacks from Gaza, is built on the lands of the Palestinian village of Najd, whose villagers were expelled in 1948? Some 400,000 civilians are told to move from areas of Gaza, to where Israel does not say, forcing yet another mass displacement of Palestinians.
The obvious question is how come Israel has got away with all this and much more.
A major issue is accountability or more accurately the breath-taking total lack of it. This goes to the heart of the issue as to how Israel is viewed as it is across the Arab and broader Islamic World. The scale of Israeli atrocities pales in comparison with those of many other regimes. Over 1700 Syrians were killed last week alone, the worst week of the entire Syrian uprising but barely rated a media mention.
But what gets under the skin of so many is that whilst the Assad regime is sanctioned and condemned, Israel is lauded, protected and given a multi-billion dollar annual sponsorship deal with the U.S.. Nearly every Arab knows Israel has violated countless United Nations Security Council Resolutions but also that the U.S. has vetoed (42) or threatened to veto countless other resolutions. Why, they ask, is Israel untouchable?
The issue is brought into sharper contrast with the outrage over Russia, Ukraine and Crimea. Western nations demanded Russia end its occupation of Crimea, but do not say the same over Gaza and the West Bank. Putin’s aggression has been confronted immediately with escalating sanctions. Not only is Israel not faced with sanctions but these are specifically ruled out. In contrast western powers sanction Palestine and Palestinians.
Unlike Israel, Hamas is held to account for its crimes of deliberately rocketing civilians. The international community sanctions Hamas and many countries designate it as a terrorist group. Israel metes out its own instant ‘justice’ usually with a one tonne bomb.
What will be the impact on Israel? According to Gerard Horton from Military Court Watch: "The danger is Israel will sleep walk into pariah status if it is seen to remain above the law." Horton tells me that Israel is "operating in a parallel universe, a completely different set of principles seem to apply to this conflict."
Attempts to hold Israel to account have always failed. Notoriously the U.N. investigation into the 2008-2009 Gaza conflict commonly known as the Goldstone report, found both Israel and Hamas guilty of war crimes. Israel and the U.S. orchestrated such a backlash to ensure the commission’s findings were ignored. The U.N. Human Rights Council is mounting another inquiry even though opposed by the U.S. given the saving of Goldstone expectations that it will be respected must be slim. President Abbas may, indeed should, apply for membership of International Criminal Court as the only way to provide protection to his people, but the U.S. has already made clear the torrent of punitive measures such a move would trigger.
If the international community does not hold Israel to account, there is a distinct possibility of increasing private lawsuits and more Boycott Divestment Campaigns. Israel fears delegitimisation but its actions fuel exactly that process. International leaders should demand accountability for Israel’s sake as well as the overriding objective of ensuring that such horror never befalls Gaza again as it has not least in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1987, 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2014.

original here >>>



Sunday, July 20, 2014

Israeli admits 13 elite soldiers killed in Gaza

The latest fatalities bring to 18 the number of Israeli troops killed in Gaza since Thursday. Israel admitted on Sunday that 13 soldiers of its elite Golani Brigade have been killed in battles with Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip.
JERUSALEM 


"Since last night, 13 soldiers from the Golani Brigades were killed while fighting Hamas terrorists in Gaza," the Israeli army said on its official twitter account.
Golani Brigade commander, Colonel Raslan Alian, was seriously wounded during fighting in Gaza on Saturday and evacuated for medical treatment.
The latest fatalities bring to 18 the number of Israeli troops killed since Israel launched its ground incursion into the blockaded Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Since July 7, Israel has been pounding the Gaza Strip, home to some 1.8 million Palestinians, with crippling air and naval bombardments with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire emanating from the strip.
At least 425 Palestinians have been killed and 3008 injured in the unrelenting Israeli attacks.
Israel's military operation, dubbed "Operation Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against Gaza in the last six years.




MH17 - Ukraine Crash: What we know from the Time online. They also say they're turning over the black boxes.

The bodies recovered from the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 will stay in refrigerated train cars in the insurgent-occupied town of Torez until United Nations aviation officials arrive, a top Ukrainian rebel leader said Sunday. The comments from Alexander Borodai, the self-appointed Prime Minister of a pro-Russian “People’s Republic” in eastern Ukraine, come after other European officials said rebels had rounded up victims’ bodies and put them on rail cars bound for an unknown destination.
The rebels also said Sunday they will turn over the black boxesfrom the Boeing 777 to officials from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN body that oversees global aerospace issues. The aircraft’s black boxes were earlierrumored to have been sent to Moscow for examination.
Flight 17 is widely believed to have crashed in eastern Ukraine after being shot down Thursday.
Both Ukraine’s government and the rebel forces have alleged the other was responsible for downing the Boeing 777.
A spokeswoman for Ukraine’s government said rebels forced emergency teams to give up the bodies recovered at the crash site without revealing where they were taking the corpses. Associated Press journalists had previously reported seeing bodies in bags piled together in the heat on Saturday.
Borodai denied that rebel forces were interfering with the crash investigation and said he was disappointed with how long it had taken Malaysian aviation experts to arrive at the scene.
The U.S. embassy in Kiev has concluded “that Flight MH17 was likely downed by a SA-11 surface-to-air missile from separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine.” It said Russia had supplied military equipment to the insurgents, though Russia has denied the claims.

source >>>



A history of the Open Prison & the Killing Field.

Published on 17 Jul 2014 | Gaza a strip of 6 -12km wide by 41km, densely populated by almost 2million was cleared of some 8,000-10,000 Israelis, turned into an open air prison and once Hamas was classified as a terrorist organization the slaughter was carried out numerous times.




Creative Chaos turned into 'the caliphate' Vs 'nation states'.

Published on 6 Jul 2014 | Condoleezza Rice's legacy, will it be, a case of Yankee Jihadists versus their regional sponsors?




ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi Trained by Israeli Mossad, NSA Documents Reveal

abu bakr al baghdadi
The former employee at US National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden, has revealed that the British and American intelligence and the Mossad worked together to create the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Snowden said intelligence services of three countries created a terrorist organisation that is able to attract all extremists of the world to one place, using a strategy called “the hornet’s nest”.
NSA documents refer to recent implementation of the hornet’s nest to protect the Zionist entity by creating religious and Islamic slogans.
According to documents released by Snowden, “The only solution for the protection of the Jewish state “is to create an enemy near its borders”.
Leaks revealed that ISIS leader and cleric Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi took intensive military training for a whole year in the hands of Mossad, besides courses in theology and the art of speech.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Settlements in the West Banks for Israelis.

Published on 17 Jul 2014 | In West Bank land belonging to Palestinians are taken and turned into 'Settlement' or Colonies. Presented by :Anna Baltzer, a Jewish American with the International Women Peace Service (IWPS), who documents the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Israelis.




Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Konflik Syria: Sikap PAS


Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi was speaking at a conference in Istanbul last June. 


PADA persidangan gerakan Islam yang berlangsung di Istanbul awal Jun lepas, Presiden PAS, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang sekali lagi membuat penegasan bahawa PAS  bersama dengan gerakan Islam di seluruh dunia bagi mengutuk segala bentuk kekejaman dan kezaliman yang berlaku di Syria. 

Mengikut laporan pelbagai sumber, ribuan orang awam terbunuh akibat dari konflik yang bermula dengan demonstrasi aman yang bertukar menjadi pertempuran bersenjata.

Dianggarkan purata 40 rakyat awam Syria mati dalam tempoh sehari dan sekiranya konflik berdarah ini berterusan tanpa sebarang penyelesaian, angka kematian dan kecederaan akan terus meningkat.

Konflik yang berlangsung hampir tiga tahun itu telah meragut lebih 200,000 nyawa rakyat awam Syria termasuk wanita dan kanak-kanak yang tidak berdosa. 

Jumlah pelarian rakyat Syria kini melebihi tiga juta yang terpaksa tinggal di khemah-khemah pelarian di Turki, Lubnan, Jordan dan di dalam negara mereka sendiri.

Dalam persidangan tersebut, Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi juga telah membuat penegasan bahawa semua kuasa asing khususnya Amerika Syarikat dan sekutunya serta Rusia dan sekutunya, yang masing-masing mempunyai kepentingan strategik di bumi Syria agar segera keluar dari negara yang terus bergolak itu dan menyerahkan penyelesaiannya kepada rakyat Syria sendiri untuk menentukan masa depan negara tersebut.

Namun terlalu banyak persoalan yang timbul dalam konflik Syria yang tidak menampakkan jalan penyelesaian ini. Antaranya;

i. Apakah Amerika Syarikat dan Kesatuan Eropah (EU) benar-benar mahu membantu rakyat Syria dan mengembalikan keadilan serta menjadikan Syria sebagi sebuah negara yang Demokratik?

ii. Apa pula peranan negara-negara berfahaman Sunni di Teluk seperti Qatar, Kuwait, UAE dan Arab Saudi dalam konflik Syria ini? Apakah mereka juga benar-benar mahu menumbangkan regim Assad dan melihat Syria menjadi sebuah ‘negara Sunni’ yang mengamalkan sistem demokrasi tulen dengan membenarkan parti-parti Islam termasuk Ikhwan Muslimin Syria mendapat kuasa secara demokratik seperti mana yang telah berlaku di Tunisia, Maghribi dan Mesir?

iii. Apakah pula peranan negara Zionis Israel yang bersempadan dengan Syria? Apakah mereka juga mahu rejim Assad jatuh dan akan merestui kelompok seperti ISIS, Al Qaeda atau Ikhwan Muslimin Syria mengambil alih kuasa di Syria?

iv. Bagaimana peranan negara Iran (Syiah) yang berjiran dengan Syria yang dilihat banyak memihak kepada kerajaan Bashar Al Assad dalam konflik berdarah ini? Apakah mereka juga akan turut terjebak di dalam konflik yang lebih parah lagi di Syria?

v. Bagaimana pula peranan kelompok-kelompok baru seperti ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) yang begitu terserlah penglibatan mereka sejak akhir-akhir ini di Syria? Apakah asal usul kelompok ini? Dan dari manakah persenjataan serta bantuan kewangan yang mereka dapat sehingga dapat menguasai sebahagian dari Syria?

vi. Dan apakah kesudahan penyelesaian Syria? Akan adakah kesatuan di kalangan rakyatnya, ataupun akan terus merebak menjadi konflik Mazhab Sunni-Syiah yang lebih parah dengan peranan yang dimaikan oleh kelompok yang keras seperti ISIS dan Al Qaeda?


CAMPUR TANGAN ASING
 
Pengalaman dan sejarah telah mengajar kita dengan melihat campur tangan Amerika dan sekutunya seperti mana yang berlaku di Iraq, Afghanistan dan terkini di Libya.

Kebimbangan Barat terhadap aspek kemanusiaan di Syria dan negara-negara umat Islam sebenarnya hanyalah helah mereka untuk mengembangkan pengaruh 'hegemoni' mereka di situ. Adalah jelas mereka kini 'melindungi cita-cita hegemoni' dan 'pecah dan perintah'untuk menguasai Syria di sebalik sikap anti-Assad serta 'ingin membantu' mereka. 

Tujuan dan matlamat Amerika Syarikat dan sekutunya adalah jelas. Ia bukan untuk menyelamatkan Syria tetapi lebih daripada itu untuk menyelamatkan negara haram Israel dan masuk ke dalam agenda Israel dan sekutunya. 

Amerika yang menjadi rakan strategik Israel akan melindungi negara haram tersebut daripada sebarang gerakan yang dianggap ancaman kepada keselamatan Israel khususnya dalam berdepan dengan Islam. Mereka juga bermatlamat bagi menekan, melemah dan menghapuskan gerakan kebangkitan seperti Hamas, Jihad Islami (daripada Sunni) dan Hizbullah (daripada Syiah). 

Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi di dalam persidangan itu juga telah membuat penegasan bahawa bagi melaksanakan agenda yang nyata dan tersembunyi ini, maka sudah tentu Amerika dan sekutunya menjadi penyumbang besar bagi menjayakan cita-cita keselamatan negara haram Israel. 

Pergerakan Hamas, Jihad dan Hizbullah adalah ancaman paling bahaya terhadap Israel dan bukannya negara-negara Teluk yang kaya seperti seperti Arab Saudi, UAE, Jordan mahupun Kuwait.

"Kepada mereka yang dapat membaca medan politik secara sepak terajangnya, bukan secara akademik sahaja, perlu difahami bahawa politik perlu dibaca dengan dua aspek iaitu akademik yang bersurat dan sepak terajang yang tersirat. 

"Betapa agenda melagakan umat Islam yang pernah menjatuhkan kerajaan Uthmaniyah di awal abad yang lalu sedang diulangi senarionya," ujar beliau memberi peringatan.

Seperti penegasan Presiden PAS, langkah membiarkan kuasa asing yang dijemput menyelesaikan masalah di Syria hanya mengulangi sejarah lama yang wajib dilipat dan dikebumikan. 

"Kalau mahu menghidupkan semula (campur tangan asing) dalam pergolakan di Syria, akan terlaksana sejarah lama yang mengundang singa dan buaya. Natijahnya kalau selamat daripada mulut harimau akan masuk ke dalam mulut buaya,” tegas beliau.


Dan inilah yang sedang dan terus berlaku di Syria.

________________
Oleh : Dr. Syed Azman Syed Ahmad ialah Pengerusi Hal Ehwal Antarabangsa PAS Pusat.



Saturday, June 28, 2014

Peace in Palestine : Craziness by Einstein's definition?

America's Pro-Israel Special Middle East Envoy Resigns

Published on 27 Jun 2014 | Phyllis Bennis: Closely linked with the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, Martin Indyk was a key figure in the so-called peace process.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Both of them are bad guys now!?

Iranian President Rouhani visits Turkey

Published on 9 Jun 2014 | Zeine Khodr reports from Ankara on Rouhani's visit to Turkey





Friday, June 6, 2014

Susan Rice hints at 'lethal' aid to Syrian rebels


National Security Advisor Susan Rice said the United States has ramped up its support for the moderate vetted opposition. (AFP)
President Barack Obama's top foreign policy advisor Susan Rice on Friday said Washington was providing "lethal and non-lethal" support to select members of the Syrian opposition, offering more detail than usual on U.S. assistance.


Top Obama administration officials typically decline to say exactly what equipment, arms or ammunition the United States is providing to moderate Syrian opposition forces.


But President Barack Obama said in a major foreign policy speech last week that the United States would "ramp up" support for rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.


National Security Advisor Susan Rice said in an interview with CNN while she was traveling with Obama to D-Day 70th anniversary celebrations in Normandy that she was heartbroken about the carnage in Syria's civil war.


"That's why the United States has ramped up its support for the moderate vetted opposition, providing lethal and non-lethal support where we can to support both the civilian opposition and the military opposition."


Officials normally publicly refuse to comment on exactly what they are doing to train opposition groups.


National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden declined to say whether Rice was announcing a new US policy by apparently being more open on US assistance.


"We're not in a position to detail all of our assistance, but as we've made clear, we provide both military and non-military assistance to the opposition," Hayden said.


Signs of a deepening commitment to Syrian rebels come three weeks after Obama met the head of the opposition National Coalition, Ahmad Jarba in Washington last month.


Officially, US support for rebel fighters in Syria has been limited to non-lethal aid amounting to $287 million, though the CIA reportedly participates in a secret program to train moderate rebels in Jordan.


Opposition leaders are particularly dismayed that the United States has balked at providing anti-aircraft missiles to rebels, fearing they could fall into the wrong hands. 


The Wall Street Journal has reported that Obama is ready to sign off on training missions for selected rebel groups, to counter the rising power of Al-Qaeda-linked extremists.

Last Update: Friday, 6 June 2014 KSA 20:28 - GMT 17:28 Original here