A couple of years ago the Arab Spring was all over the media…..and there have been many situations that have arisen from those protests and revolts….Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia to mention only a few….but the one region that has been left behind during these situations….the Palestinians
How the Arab Spring Left the Palestinians Behind | Informed Comment.
One more and then I will let you guys have the rest of the day off……
Hawks have been screaming this for a decade or more…..first it was Iran and their pursuit of nukes and more recently it has been Syria mainly because of the use of CWs on the population…….and most of this rallying around the bomb came from the Right wing….you know the fools like McCain, Graham, et al……but thank God cooler heads prevailed and diplomacy was used in getting Iran to come to the negotiation table and Syria to turn over their stores of CWs…….
But the “Bomb The Bastards” attitude has hung on even with some limited success in diplomacy…..but it is NEVER too far from the conversation…..NEVER! But there are a couple of reports coming from people and organizations that you would least expect……
Sec. Kerry in a recent interview with an Arabic news channel said when asked about the Iranian deal…..
Like most US diplomats, Secretary of State John Kerry is surely familiar with the formula of angrily condemning Iran and threatening war for perceived or future slights. One might even call it second nature.
But even with Kerry trying to talk up the merits of a nuclear deal with Iran in an al-Arabiya interview, he couldn’t get through the whole thing without threatening “the military option” against Iran.
Kerry said the US military is poised to attack Iran at any moment if they try to continue enrichment of uranium beyond permitted levels, a threat which would’ve made a lot more sense if the IAEA hadn’t already confirmed days ago that Iran has halted that enrichment and is complying with the deal.
Kerry went on to demand Iran stop all support for Hezbollah, saying they were prepared to “engage with Iran on other issues,” but that attacking Iran will always remain a possibility. (thanx to antiwar.com)
This from our head of diplomacy…..what was he thinking…..this could scuttle the talks and the deal….maybe that is his intention….after all he gets money from the Israeli PACs….
Iran is not the only threat out there….this one from the WaPo….you know that bastion of liberal reporting (at least that is the line the whack-a-dooles want to pass on)…….
An editorial in yesterday’s Washington Post urges President Obama to use the threat of a U.S. bombing campaign to achieve political ends on a transition deal in the Syria talks.
Obama “could force” a diplomatic agreement for a transition government in Syria “by presenting Mr. Assad with the choice of accepting them or enduring U.S. airstrikes.” With what must be Martian logic, the Post argues that Obama’s refusal to use the threat of violence is why atrocities continue to be committed in Syria.
The United Nations Charter, to which the United States is a high contracting party, prohibits “all members” from “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” The 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, to which the U.S. is also a signatory, establishes the principle that if a country threatens to use force during diplomatic negotiations, then all resulting treaties are invalid. “A treaty is void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations,” it states.
Back in August, the New York Times was even more blatant in its advocacy of criminal government when it published an Op-Ed titled, “Bomb Syria, Even If It Is Illegal.”
Just consider for a moment how corrupted the political dialogue in this country has to be for mainstream voices to openly and proudly call for their own government to commit war crimes.
This scares me! Just when you thought that US was thinking with a calmer head….we get these douche bags fanning the flames of military intervention……
I found this ‘toon on the site, Tale Of The Bitter Truth…….I like it!
So true…we hear all about the rockets that fall on Israe….but the media seems to neglect all the devastation caused by Israeli airstrikes……
Do not know if anyone actually notices but I try to have a theme for the day…..sometimes it is willy nilly but my mind works on a problem, one at a time, I have tried to avoid responding to every utterance that I feel is moronic and not very well thought out……but I succumb from time to time……..
And now on to the question……..Is peace for Israel possible?
Not if the morons keep saying crap that infuriates Palestinians……I have said in the past that a peace, at this time in history, not possible…..and you want to know why……easy peasey….water, religion and morons!
Let me start with the water issue. It wrote awhile back that most of the aquifers in the region are located on the West Bank….Israel needs that water and will whatever possible to keep possession of it……but that is becoming a moot point…at least for now…..
The report finds that deep water drillings by Mekorot and the Israeli agri-industrial firm Mehadrin in the occupied Jordan Valley have caused the drying up of Palestinian wells and springs. About 80 percent of all water drilled in this area is consumed by Israel and its illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Mekorot took over responsibility for the West Bank’s water resources from the Israeli military in 1982. The new report documents a clear pattern of discrimination against Palestinians. Whereas Palestinians living in most of the West Bank face “chronic shortages,” Israeli settlements enjoy a constant supply of water. Palestinians are prevented from using wastewater provided to Israeli settlements for irrigation and instead have to rely on more expensive water for that purpose. Furthermore, valves supplying Palestinians tend to be cut off when water shortages occur, yet no such restrictions are applied to the use of water by Israeli settlers.
This will be a point of contention for years…..or until the idiots run the aquifer dry…….
Then there is the problem of religion…….two religions hold the Temple Mount sacred……but if one Israeli gets his wish that could become a major point of contention…….
Israel Minister of Housing and Construction Uri Ariel issued a statement on Friday indicating that he is in favour of constructing what he calls the “Third Temple” in place of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.
In a statement reported by the Alray Palestinian Media Agency , Ariel claimed that: “The first Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE, the second Temple in 70 CE, and ever since the Jews have been mourning its loss.” He added that: “Al-Aqsa Mosque is currently in place of the temple, despite the temple being much holier than it. Al-Aqsa Mosque is only the third most holy mosque in Islam.”
Ariel then asserted that: “Now that Israel has once again become a Jewish sovereign state, there have been occasional calls to rebuild the Temple.”
This screaming douche bag could do more harm to any peace process than any amount of rockets fired…..someone needs to shut this ‘person’ up……his silence will go far to show that peace is a priority….so far does not appear as such to the rest of the world…….
Now we turn to the last category….the MORONS!
I wish I could say that all the morons are on the Jewish side but I will not disingenuous….it seems Palestinians have their big mouths as well……
Fathi Hamad, Hamas’s Interior Minister, claimed in a speech honoring the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead that “Palestine” would replace the Jewish State by 2022.
“We’ll destroy the enemy,” Hamad assured his audience, noting that achieving that goal would take “eight years.” Hamad also claimed that the Palestinians are at the stage of readiness
Yeah, that will win a ton of brownie points for peace…..think propaganda 2.0
And then this is one of my fave quotes on the Palestinian question…….
“For one moment,” he said, “consider how the Israeli economy would look if, God forbid, a Palestinian state arises. Every day, ‘only’ one missile falls on Shenkar Street in [high-tech industrial area] Herzliya Pituach. Ask yourselves how the Israeli economy would look if ‘only’ one plane a year is downed when preparing to land in Ben-Gurion Airport. It would shatter the Israeli economy.”
That from Israel’s Minister of Economy and Trade……he is selling fear…we know how that works….right?
Beyond that I think that it would be more accurate to say that a Palestinian state and peace would see a diminish in the cash flowing in for defensive hardware….and let’s not forget that state would rob Israel of a cheap labor force……he is a moron!
The war of words will continue….it does not serve the pursuit of peace….it does however feed the beast of discontent……
So, is peace for Israel possible? Answer the question with a question…….Are the parties involved really committed to peace?
Not now….not as long as there is a wealth of morons allowed to speak on both sides….the only outcome for peace is if both sides are ‘made’ to make peace….and there is a problem….how do you ‘make’ them want peace?
Without a viable peace the is NO hope for a stable Middle East in our lifetime……PERIOD!
Say this ‘toon on the blog…The Tale Of The Bitter Truth……I felt it was very good at describing what is most likely gonna happen to Syria….that is if the bang-bags ever cease……
While everyone is still reeling from the State of the Union and its detractors……I will go in a different direction…..I will write about real news and leave the crap to the amateurs…..
Now on to important stuff…….
I have heard many pros and cons on climate change…..and if you bring it up the whole blogoshere explodes in finger pointing, recriminations, insults and damn right ugliness….but I read tht there is one more thing that we can blame on the issue of climate change…….SYRIA!
Say what?
(Newser) – Before the uprising against Bashar al-Assad, Syria was stuck in a four-year drought the UN reportedly called the country’s worst in decades. In 2008, a US embassy cable revealed by WikiLeaks predicted potential mass migration due to the weather—and the cable was right. “By 2010, roughly 1 million Syrian farmers, herders, and their families were forced off the land into already overpopulated and underserved cities,” writes Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. They received little help from Assad’s government, which, according to a UN rep, said economic and social issues following the drought were “beyond our capacity as a country to deal with.”
Many of those refugees became “willing recruits” for the movement against Assad, Friedman explains. Indeed, “today, you can’t understand the Arab awakenings—or their solutions—without considering climate, environment, and population stresses,” Friedman notes. The drought ended in 2010, but with the country torn by civil war, a future drought could be even more disastrous. And Syria can’t expect help from other countries facing disasters of Superstorm Sandy proportions. Friedman’s warning to Saudi Arabia and Iran, who, he notes, are “funding the proxy war”: “You’re fighting for control of a potential human/ecological disaster zone.” It’s not the first time climate change has been blamed in Syria; click for Friedman’s full column.
Then there is Israel……..
There has been a lot of back and forth with this situation……and now the world is started boycotting Israel and its goods…..
The international pressure on Israel to cease settlement-building and reach an agreement with the Palestinians is beginning to directly affect its economic prospects as European investment funds start to rethink their connections to the Jewish state.
PGGM, the second-largest pension fund in Holland, recently said it would divest its holdings in Israeli banks, citing concerns over their work in the settlements.
According to a report in the Financial Times this week, the largest Dutch pension fund, ABP, and two Scandinavian investment firms, are now considering similar steps and have asked the Israeli banks for clarifications
Business leaders at the Breaking the Impasse forum in Davos said in a statement: “We know that if Israel wants a stable economy, a good future and continued growth, we must reach an agreement. The world is beginning to lose its patience and the threat of sanctions is becoming more imminent.”
I question how serious are those about the boycott……..can economic pressure be the catalyst for a lasting peace? Again….just how far will they go? Or is this just another in a long line of con jobs?
Israel gets involved in the Syrian civil war……..
Explosions rocked the Syrian port of Latakia late Saturday night, and by Sunday morning local media was confirming that the target had been advanced Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.
Israel is widely believed to have attacked Latakia in October of last year to take out advanced anti-aircraft batteries installed shortly prior to that, so the Jewish state was naturally the prime suspect in Saturday night’s air strike.
Not the first time and most likely not the last…….
My small news round-up for the Middle East……stay tuned…I will return……