Hi. Here are a series of sad, but critical analyses and developments.
I added the report on Portugal as a leavening. All but Avnery's are short.
Ed
"This week, the Muslim leader Rafiq al-Hariri, who lately joined the
opposition, was assassinated in Beirut. It is not yet known who did it. The
huge American propaganda machine, which includes the Israeli media, has
pointed at Syrians. If they are indeed guilty, it was an act of supreme
folly,
since it was obvious that it would help the Americans build up the Lebanese
opposition and arouse a storm of anti-Syrian sentiment. It happened at
exactly the right moment for anyone interested in starting a campaign
against Syria, under the slogan "End the Syrian Occupation!"
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 www.gush-shalom.org/
Beware of the Dog!
(Uri Avnery)
Hebrew http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article344_heb.html �����
Feb.19
It is not very flattering to be paraded like a Rottweiler on a
leash, whose master threatens to let him loose on his enemies. But this
is our situation now.
Vice President Dick Cheney threatened a few weeks ago that if Iran
continues to develop its nuclear capabilities, Israel might attack her.
This week, President George Bush repeated this threat. If he were the
leader of Israel, he declared, he would have been feeling threatened by
Iran. He reminded those who are a little slow that the United States has
undertaken to defend Israel if there is a threat to its security.
All this adds up to a clear warning: if Iran does not submit to orders of
the US (and, perhaps, even if it does) Israel will attack it with American
help, much as it attacked the Iraqi nuclear reactor some 24 years ago.
The same week, something quite unexpected happened: Ariel Sharon sent
the Chief-of-Staff, Moshe Ya'alon, packing. His successor will probably be
General Dan Halutz.
Halutz is, of course, a pilot, and one who played his part in the 1981
attack on the Iraqi reactor. If he succeeds Ya'alon, it will be the first
time
in the annals of the Israel Defense Forces that an airman is appointed
Chief-of-Staff.
That is rather curious. In the coming year, the army will be called upon to
carry out a very difficult operation on land: the evacuation of the Gaza
Strip settlements. The appointment of an Air Force general as Chief-of-Staff
may hint that the IDF is planning something even more important in the air.
(Entr'act: Nobody will shed a tear at the removal of Ya'alon. As Chief-of-
Staff, he bears responsibility for all the terrible things that happened in
the
army during the last three years, from the "killing verification" of a
13-year
old girl to the "neighbor practice" - compelling a Palestinian civilian to
walk
in front of soldiers on their way to kill a militant. But if Ya'alon is
succeeded by Halutz, it will confirm the pessimistic dictum that for every
bad man removed there is an even worse one to succeed him.
For those who have forgotten: Halutz ("pioneer", in Hebrew) aroused a public
storm after the Air Force dropped a one-ton bomb on the house of a Hamas
leader and killed him together with 15 civilians, including nine children.
Asked what he feels when dropping such a bomb, he answered "a slight
bump", adding he sleeps well afterwards. On the same opportunity he vilified
Gush Shalom for its actions against war crimes and demanded that we be
put on trial for treason.
Back to Bush-Cheney and the Rottweiler.
When Bush came to power for the first time, the Neo-Cons laid before him a
coherent plan for the extension of the American Empire in the Middle East.
It contained three chapters:
One, to conquer Iraq in order to take control of its immense oil reserves
and place an American garrison at the critical junction between the Caspian
Sea oil and the Saudi resources.
Two, to break the Iranian regime and return Iran to the American bloc.
Three, to do the same to Syria and Lebanon. It was not yet decided whether
Iran would come before Syria, or the other way round.
It might have been assumed that the experience of the American adventure in
Iraq would cancel the next chapters. The Iraqi people did not receive the
occupying army with flowers. The pretext for the invasion - Saddam's weapons
of mass destruction - was exposed as a blatant lie. The armed insurrection
continues. The future of the Iraqi state hangs in the balance, even after
the recent elections. The country may well break up into three parts,
creating
shock waves all around the Middle East.
Naive people believe that after all this, Bush would not risk more
adventures of this kind. They are wrong.
First, because a primitive and vain person like him never admits to failure.
When one of his adventures fails, this just drives him on to even more
ambitious ones.
Second, the failure does indeed cost a lot of lives and destroys the
infrastructure of life in Iraq, but that doesn't matter for the planners of
the operation. The main aim - establishing a permanent garrison in the
country - has been achieved. Outside of Iraq, nobody is demanding that the
American soldiers leave. And, whatever the acts of sabotage, the Iraqi oil
is
controlled by the US. The oil barons, who are the patrons of the Bush
family,
can be well satisfied.
The Europeans and Russian are trying to block Bush's path. He is now
going to pay a state visit to the EU and NATO, trying to convince them by
sweet talk and threats to cooperate in his adventures.
Therefore, one must take seriously Bush's and Cheney's threats to unleash
the Rottweiler. The moment they feel that the way is clear, they will give
the sign to Sharon. Sharon will do his duty, in return for an American
agreement to allow him to gobble up some more pieces of the Palestinian
territories.
Will military action cause the regime of the Ayatollahs to collapse? I doubt
it. It is, indeed, a detestable regime, but faced with an attack from the
outside, especially from "Crusaders and Zionists", the Iranian people will
unite behind it. A proud people, with a glorious history like the Iranians,
will not break easily.
Syria is a different target. Unlike Iraq and Iran, it has no oil resources.
But without it the American Empire will not be contiguous and it is an
obstacle to Israel.
In the 1967 war, Israel conquered the Golan heights, which until then were
known in Israel as "the Syrian heights". In place of many dozens of Syrian
villages, which were wiped from the face of the earth, Israel settlements
sprang up. The Syrians have never given up their resolve to recover their
territory. In 1973, they tried to do this by war but were routed, in spite
of a
remarkable initial victory. Since then, the balance of military power has
tilted even more in favor of Israel. Therefore, Syria is using another
method:
harassing Israel by proxy, by giving support to Hizbollah and radical
Palestinian organizations, whose leaders reside in Damascus.
To make permanent its rule over the Golan heights, the Israeli government
must break Syria. The neo-cons in Washington - surprise, surprise - have
the same aim. The pretext: the fact that Syrian soldiers are stationed in
Lebanon.
Historically, Lebanon is a part of Syria. Damascus has never resigned itself
to establishment of a separate Lebanese state by the French colonialists in
the first half of the 20th century. At the most, it accepts Lebanon as a
client
state.
The Syrian army entered Lebanon in 1976, at the height of the terrible civil
war there. The Muslims and Druze, with help of the PLO, were poised to
conquer Christian areas. It was the Christians (please remember!) who
called upon the Syrians to come and save them. Since then, the Syrians
have remained there. Many Lebanese believe that their departure would
cause the civil war to break out again.
In 1982 Israel tried to dislodge them. That was the main objective of the
army general staff (as distinct from Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon, whose
main objective was to drive the Palestinians out). But the invasion did not
achieve its aim: in the end, the Israelis were driven out and the Syrians
remained.
This week, the Muslim leader Rafiq al-Hariri, who lately joined the
opposition, was assassinated in Beirut. It is not yet known who did it. The
huge American propaganda machine, which includes the Israeli media, has
pointed at Syrians. If they are indeed guilty, it was an act of supreme
folly,
since it was obvious that it would help the Americans build up the Lebanese
opposition and arouse a storm of anti-Syrian sentiment. It happened at
exactly the right moment for anyone interested in starting a campaign
against
Syria, under the slogan "End the Syrian Occupation!"
There is something laughable about this demand, coming as it does from two
occupying powers: the Americans in Iraq and the Israelis in Palestine.
But Rottweilers are not renowned for their sense of humor, any more than
those who parade them around on a leash.
This article will remain accessible on the Gush Shalom web-archive:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article344.html
#
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/540223.html
Ha'aretz 15/02/2005
Cabinet set to approve settlement evacuation, fence route
By Aluf Benn, Amos Harel and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents
The cabinet is slated to approve two historic decisions on Sunday: the
evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank
under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, and the route of
the separation fence around Gush Etzion and the South Hebron Hills.
The two decisions are being brought at the same time in an effort to
neutralize international criticism of the fence route by coupling it with
the decision to evacuate settlements.
***
Negroponte : a Resume of Death Squads, Deceptions and Bribery
Right Man for the Job, For the Wrong Reasons
By LARRY BIRNS
CounterPunch February 18, 2005
Yesterday President Bush named John Negroponte to be the new director of
national intelligence. As the man responsible for managing 15 intelligence
agencies, we find this appointment extremely alarming due to major unsavory
aspects of his professional history centering on the massive misuse of his
authority as U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85. In fact, given his
calm manner and his proven Machiavellian philosophy, he may be the right man
for this new James Bond-slot even if it means the diminishment of democratic
principles, which has been the hallmark of his career wherever he has been
assigned.
Negroponte's stint in Honduras was filled with chicanery and deception. As a
result of the immensely compromised record he compiled there, rather than
being rewarded with this new and elevated position, he should be facing
proceedings concerning the role he played in the numerous human rights
violations that occurred during his Honduran watch nearly 300 dissidents
"disappeared." Affidavits and testimony by Honduran survivors have reported
on his involvement in sanctioning, protecting or covering up these death
squads. Also, during the time Negroponte spent at the Tegucigalpa embassy,
millions of dollars in bribes were paid to corrupt Honduran officials to
allow room for the U.S.-backed contras to stage attacks on the Sandinistas
in neighboring Nicaragua.
Negroponte has claimed that he did not recall any human rights violations
ever having taken place in the country during his time there, even though
his immediate predecessor as ambassador, Jack Binns, had reported a number
of them to the State Department and told Negroponte about them before the
latter took up his post. Is it really possible that the man now nominated to
be the czar of U.S. intelligence had no idea of the death squads and abuses
taking place in Honduras even though he was specifically briefed on the
subject? Or does he truly suffer from the selective amnesia that he
displayed at his hearings to be U.S. ambassador to the UN, when he
repeatedly said that he had no memory of and heavily denied that there were
any human rights abuses at the time? He would have been much more vigorously
questioned by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if September 11 had
occurred shortly before and the Senate was anxious to fill the vacancy that
existed there at the time. Negroponte also should be reprimanded for the
role he played in influencing former Secretary of State Colin Powell to
strong-arm Chile and Mexico to recall their UN ambassadors because of their
anti-U.S. stance leading up to the Iraq war.
Throughout Negroponte's entire professional career he has subscribed to the
thesis that the ends justify the means. As a result, Bush had made a
brilliant if demonic appointment �Negroponte will likely get the job done,
but at a insupportable cost to this and other countries' democratic
institutions as he brings his well-tested authoritarian personality to the
job.
Larry Birns is director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
***
Main opposition Socialists win landslide victory in
Portugal's general election
Canadian Press
February 20, 2005
LISBON, Portugal (AP) - The Socialist party returned to
power after three years in opposition with a landslide
election victory on Sunday, as voters appeared to
punish the conservative government for failing to pull
Portugal out of an economic slump.
In its biggest win ever, the Socialist party collected
120 seats to secure an overall majority in the 230-seat
legislature for the first time.
The result allows Socialist leader Jose Socrates, who
will be the fourth prime minister in three months, to
push through potentially painful economic reforms.
Socrates, a former environment minister, has said he
wants this country of 10.3 million to "change
direction" and modernize the economy.
Socrates also said he is committed to closer foreign
policy co-ordination between European Union countries.
He opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which the
outgoing government supported, although he said he
values warm relations with the United States.
The Social Democratic party, which has governed in a
coalition with the smaller Popular party since 2002,
recorded its worst result since 1983. It elected 72
members of Parliament.
Turnout was 65 per cent of the country's 8.8 million
registered voters, slightly up from the last election
in 2002.
Portugal, one of western Europe's poorest countries,
has endured a period of political instability which
damaged prospects for an economic revival.
Portugal's unemployment rate reached a six-year high of
7.1 per cent at the end of 2004 and economic statistics
show the country is falling behind the rest of the
European Union.
Portugal has long based its growth on low-skill, low-
pay sectors such as textiles and footwear, which
together employ around 300,000 people. Those sectors
are now up against higher-skilled, lower-paid
competition from new EU members and from outside the
25-country bloc.
The National Statistics Institute says the average
monthly wage is around the equivalent of about $1,030
Cdn.
(c) The Canadian Press 2005
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=7ea26af4-04b4-4dca-b46e-06cb56e3ef5c
To subscribe: http://lists.portside.org/mailman/listinfo/portside
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for
anyone who cares about public education!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/O.5XsA/8WnJAA/E2hLAA/7gSolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
