Tag Archives: Israel

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❊ Is the Region on a War Footing? The Context for Sayyed Nasrallah’s Speech

Today, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made a rare public appearance. One of the things he said was:

I address our enemies when I say that the Resistance is here to stay; day after day our troops are growing, our arms are developing and they are being constantly renewed

This can of course be dismissed as regular jaw jaw designed for local political consumption, but is it? As I look at the region, I see many signs that things aren’t quite right. A war between Iran and the west could very well be looming.

Consider the following points:

  1. November 8: The IAEA releases a damning report on Iranian nuclear weapons that surprises and alarms western powers and pushes the British foreign minister to issue threats
  2. November 14: A Big blast targets a missile depot in Tehran and is seen as a major setback to Iran’s Missile program.
  3. November 16: Israeli leaks news of a secret plan for attacking Iran, as the war drums in Israel get louder and louder.
  4. November 29: Iranian demonstrators storm British embassy in Tehran with the apparent support of the state.
  5. December 3: Israeli Prime Minister announces that sometimes leader have to make big, unpopular decisions. While he spoke, Syria tested a SCUD B missile.
  6. December 5: Iran captured an American surveillance drone with top American secrets in it.
  7. December 6: The Telegraph reports that Iran is now on high military alert and is expecting and preparing for an attack.

And I haven’t even started with the implications of the Syrian revolution, the success of which could be a major strategic setback for Iran and Hezbollah. It is against this backdrop that we have to read Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech.

Am I worried? Yes. Should you cancel your Christmas vacations in Lebanon? Not yet, but some caution can go a long way.

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Israeli Women Shed Their Clothes In Support of Aliaa Mahdy

Oh boy..

Dozens of Israeli women stripped off their clothes Saturday in a show of solidarity with the 20-year-old Egyptian blogger who caused a stir in the Arab world last week when she posted a naked photo of herself in protest against the limits on free expression in her country.

Now watch how this will be used as proof that this is all a western-Israeli conspiracy to losen our morals and break our societies..

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Bad Excuse

The Economist blasts the main reason pro-Israelis countries are giving for opposing the creation of a Palestinian state in the UN:

The argument that the Palestinians must resume negotiations before getting statehood is specious. Why on earth should a change in status at the UN stop people talking?

Why on earth? Simple: They don’t live on earth, they live in Bizarro world.

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“Wrong Side of History”

Australia’s former foreign minister Gareth Evans:

It is difficult to imagine Israel’s leadership changing course at this stage, and it is probably too late for the Obama administration to escape from the domestic political vice in which it seems pinned on this issue. But being on the wrong side of history is never a comfortable position. And that is exactly where the US, Israel, and its closest friends – including my own country, Australia – will be if they resist the tide of international sentiment in favor of moving now to recognize Palestinian statehood.

History will indeed be the best judge..

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What Does the US Get in Return for 2.5 $Billion Dollar Aid to Israel?

Arthur Herman argues that in fact the US is getting a pretty good deal for “sticking its neck out to help Israel”. In short, here is what America gets according to Herman:

  • A Country that espouses liberal democracy in a region full of dictators (Exibit A: Israel’s strong support for the Arab Spring and people power)
  • A resource of top-notch spies and and anti-terrorism experts (Why is this America’s business in the first place? The only reason the US got in the sight of “terrorists” is because of its unconditional support for Israel)
  • Someone that does America’s dirty work in the region, like bombing nuclear plants. (Does that mean that America has to create an Israel in each troubled corner of the world?)

Here’s the most sophisticated response I can come up with: Bullshit!

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What Will a US Veto Against Palestinian Statehood Tell Us About Present-day America

Robert Fisk:

So locked into Israel has US foreign policy become, so fearful of Israel have almost all its Congressmen and Congresswomen become […] that America will this week stand out not as the nation that produced Woodrow Wilson and his 14 principles of self-determination, not as the country which fought Nazism and Fascism and Japanese militarism, not as the beacon of freedom which, we are told, its Founding Fathers represented – but as a curmudgeonly, selfish, frightened state whose President, after promising a new affection for the Muslim world, is forced to support an occupying power against a people who only ask for statehood.

This article is so full of nuggets that I struggled to decide which paragraph to quote. You should read the whole thing.

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On Palestine, the American People is not Stupid

Yesterday I read Thomas Friedman’s New York Times article which was critical of “the most diplomatically inept and strategically incompetent government in Israel’s history”. Then I decided to read the comments on that article. As usual, I sorted the comments by “most recommended by the readers”. I often do that to get the general pulse of the readers’ reception of an article.

The thing that struck me most is that not one -not one!- of the top twenty comments was supportive of Israel. The comments thread had the intensity of an online consumer forum where everyone is agreeing with everyone that the product they all bought is a ripoff. The product, in this case, being America’s policy of unconditional support for Israel.

Here’s the comment that got the most votes. It was written by Tom in Chicago:

Israel is no friend to the United States. It is our unqualified support of them that has garnered nothing but justifiable hatred and disgust from a very large chunk of the world’s population. It exposes our double-standards toward freedom and justice and makes hypocrites of us all. I’m sick of having my hard-earned tax dollars be sent to Israel so they can slaughter children and steal land that everyone, including the US government, agrees isn’t theirs. Enough is enough!

It is simply wrong to say –as many do– that the American population is clueless vis a vis the injustice done in their name. Of course, we’re talking here of an informed minority of the general voting population of the U.S., but this doesn’t make the “revolt” any less interesting..

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The Palestinian Issue is at the Center of the Arab Spring

Matthew Duss of the Center for American Progress writes that the more representative Arab governments become, the more pro-Palestinian (and Anti-Israeli) their rhetoric will be:

Just as many American politicians are expected to pay at least lip service to Israel to demonstrate their national security bona fides, so we should expect politicians in the Arab world to continue to declare support for the Palestinian cause in order to demonstrate theirs.

We Arabs take his points for granted, but in the US it is still not accepted and goes against the grain of the effective propaganda of Israel and its supporters.

Let’s face it, Israel has a big “Arab Democracy” problem.