Conspicuous Failure

From rich sounding promises, Obama's Israel-Palestine policy appears reduced to simply managing, not resolving, the conflict, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank

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The conspicuous failure of the latest visit to the region by US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell raises questions as to the Obama administration's ability -- or even willingness -- to pressure Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian lands. Prior to his arrival, Mitchell was widely thought to be carrying "serious ideas" that would help resume stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

However, after meetings with both Palestinian and Israeli leaders, it became clear that the American envoy was near completely empty handed, and that he was succumbing to Israeli intransigence. Seeking to obscure his surrender to Israeli whims, Mitchell tried to cajole the increasingly vulnerable Palestinian leadership to resume the moribund peace process without receiving any guarantees that renewed talks would go anywhere.

Mitchell pressed the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel to start "low level talks" which he suggested might help leaders tackle the hard issues. However, in making such suggestions, Mitchell seemed to have forgotten that his proposal had been tried numerous times before but to no avail, mainly due to Israel's refusal to give up the spoils of the 1967 war.

Mitchell also offered the PA leadership what one Palestinian official termed "secondary inducements" to return to the negotiating table with Israel, including enhancing Palestinian mobility in the West Bank and allowing PA police to operate in additional localities. But Mitchell refused to commit himself to pressure Israel to freeze settlement expansion and reportedly tried to circumvent the issue, saying that the sides would discuss the issue in bilateral negotiations.

Mitchell also suggested that the sides initiate "indirect talks". The Israelis described the proposal as "interesting" while the PA called it "totally pointless".

As Mitchell arrived in Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a plethora of provocative and uncompromising -- even pugnacious -- statements, suggesting that Israel will never agree to the establishment of a truly viable Palestinian state. Marking a Jewish holiday at the settlement of Gush Etzion north of Hebron, Netanyahu declared that, "we are here to stay" and "this [settlement] is Jerusalem's southern gate while Maali Adumim is Jerusalem's eastern gate."

Earlier, he stated that, "in the context of any peace arrangement, Israel would completely surround any Palestinian entity from all sides," adding that Israel would have to maintain a "presence" in "Judea and Samaria" (the biblical names of the West Bank).

Maintaining a broad smile throughout his visit, Mitchell didn't try to challenge Netanyahu and instead kept repeating old platitudes about the continued commitment of the Obama administration to Palestinian-Israeli peace. However, it was obvious that at least some of Mitchell's Arab interlocutors were exasperated, having seen the Obama administration waste precious time while Israel steals more Arab land.

One Palestinian official in Ramallah remarked: "Every new visit by Mitchell makes the prospect of resolving the conflict more elusive." The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, complained bitterly that all that Mitchell wanted was to force the PA to absorb Israeli provocations.

The growing defiance displayed by Netanyahu finds encouragement in what is widely seen here as Netanyahu's "victory" over Obama in the apparent tug-of-war between them over a settlement expansion freeze. Obama had been demanding that Israel freeze all settlement expansion in the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem. However, Netanyahu refused to budge. Eventually, it was Obama who really budged, allowing Netanyahu to emerge victorious.

To be sure, Netanyahu made a half-hearted decision to freeze some settlement building for 10 months. However, that freeze was disingenuous to a large extent, given continued building in numerous locations, as revealed by Israeli peace groups such as the Peace Now movement. On Tuesday, 26 January, the veteran Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar argued that, "only an idiot would say Israel has frozen settlements."

Recently, Netanyahu has also been encouraged by Obama's lost Democratic majority in Congress, which the Israeli premier hopes will make it impossible for the US administration to take decisions Israel doesn't like. Moreover, Obama's own admission that he had underestimated the hardship of making peace in the Middle East seems to militate in Netanyahu's favour, as he is interpreting this as a vindication of his policy of "playing it tough", not only with the Palestinians but also with the Americans.

In a recent interview with Time magazine, Obama admitted that his attempts to break the deadlock in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations by pressuring the Israeli government to end the construction of Jewish colonies have failed. The US president said he raised expectations of a breakthrough too high because he underestimated the obstacles involved.

"This is just really hard. This is as intractable a problem as you get. If we had anticipated some of these political problems on both sides earlier, we might not have raised expectations as high."

Upset by the belated realisation that Mitchell's main goal is to "keep the process going", the Palestinian leadership of PA President Mahmoud Abbas is finding itself at a loss as to what to do in light of Obama's failure. Reacting to Netanyahu's remarks about Israel's intention to annex large chunks of the West Bank, Palestinian officials countered: "This is an unacceptable act that destroys all the efforts being exerted by Senator Mitchell in order to bring the parties back to the negotiating table."

Nabil Abu Rudeina, an aide to Abbas, added that the PA was still insistent that the resumption of the peace process would have to be preceded by a comprehensive settlement freeze. However, in order to avoid being accused of stonewalling and impeding peace, the PA is demanding that the US steps in and declare the endgame of the process, in which case the suspension of settlement expansion would no longer be a Palestinian pre-condition.

Regardless, only political novices think that a US declaration of the "endgame" would overcome the huge conceptual gap between the two sides, and Israel's dominant influence over US politics and policies. Hence, most observers believe the Obama administration will merely continue to "manage" the conflict, not resolve it. The Obama administration might also seek a more "malleable" Palestinian leadership -- one not answerable to the Palestinian masses, or even Fatah.

Such a scenario would undoubtedly generate a lot of frustration, anger and tension in occupied Palestine and throughout much of the Middle East, and might trigger a new wave of violence against US interests here and beyond. Moreover, the collapse of the peace process, even if kept alive by artificial means, would seriously undermine the credibility and survival of pro-US regimes in the region while bolstering the appeal of resistance groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah.

RELATED Ease the siege on Gaza / Evaluation of US Congress Letter to President Barack Obama

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Did Hamas Carry Out a Coup in Gaza 2007?

By Khalid Amayreh

Ellen Rosser, Professor of English and a veteran peace activist, maintained an office in downtown Gaza from September 2006 to June 2007. During that period she was an eyewitness to the events which eventually culminated in the violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas in the summer of 2007, ending with Hamas routing Fatah's American- armed militias and ousting them from the Gaza Strip.

In a recent testimony on her experience in Gaza, Rosser asked herself the following question: Did Hamas stage a coup, a planned overthrow of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Gaza Strip? She gave a straightforward answer: "Definitely no."

Sister Ellen, as she is known, is neither pro-Hamas nor anti-Fatah so her "third party" testimony sheds light on the highly-contentious claims of guilt and innocence made by both groups, claims that continue to have a detrimental effect across Palestinian politics.

When I spoke to her, she didn't dwell much on the special relationship between Fatah's former Gaza strongman Muhammed Dahlan and the Bush administration, mainly via US General Keith Dayton. (A thorough expose of Dahlan's American connection was published in the American magazine Vanity Fair in April, 2008. However, she did point out that it was Dahlan's men who tried to assassinate Prime Minister Ismael Haniya on 14th December, 2006, as he was returning to the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing. Sister Ellen spoke of bullets flying and people fleeing for their lives. Moreover, her testimony does suggest that certain elements resumed the shooting every time a truce was reached between the two factions. She also shed light on the killing of a PA soldier which Fatah blamed on Hamas.

Here are some excerpts from Sister Ellen's remarkable testimony:

"Some months later, the next events that I personally was aware of in the tragic series occurred when the Hamas Minister of the Interior, Said Siyam, wanted a video tape showing who had killed a Palestinian Authority soldier and wounded two others. It (the video tape) had been in the possession of Jad, who was killed, and then in the possession of Major Baha Balousha of Fatah, who refused to give it up.

"Subsequently, Major Balousha was threatened, and a few days later his two [actually three] young sons were killed when gunmen opened fire on the car with dark windows in which the children were being driven to school."

Rosser doesn't say who threatened Balousha and killed his children. However, it was obvious that whoever did it had an interest in silencing him and preventing him from disclosing the contents of the video. Other sources spoke of Balousha possessing information on CIA money transfer to Fatah leaders in Gaza.

Continuing her testimony, Rosser writes, "I went with a Fatah friend to offer condolences to Major Baha Balousha, and while we were there a man came from Prime Minister Haniyeh, who was waiting at the Rafah border to return from Egypt, and said that the Prime Minister wanted to come to offer his condolences and wanted to know if that would be alright. Major Baha said, 'Yes.'Hellen Rosser

"In other words, Prime Minister Haniyeh knew nothing about who killed the little boys and wished to express his sorrow at the tragedy. A few days later, however, he may have heard indications that Hamas members were involved, for on television he said that if 'we [i.e. Hamas] have done anything wrong, we will pay diyya' (blood money, a traditional Palestinian way of resolving such an issue).

"However, that night when Haniyeh was entering Gaza after being held at the border for eight hours while Egypt decided what to do about the millions of dollars he was bringing with him, there was an assassination attempt on his life by some men who guarded the border, Mohammed Dahlan's men.

"Haniya was not hit by the bullets shot from the roof of the border crossing terminal, but his son and Ahmed Yusuf , who were next to him, were wounded. Haniyeh did not dwell extensively on the attempt, saying merely on television that he was willing to be a martyr."

Rosser said she is sure that President Mahmoud Abbas was not aware of the attempted assassination of Haniyeh any more than Haniyeh was aware of who killed Major Balousha's boys.

Recollecting the nightmarish moments, Rosser said: "I had to wait in my office/apartment until the shooting moved away from my area, then hurry down to the street to go to the nearby bakery and vegetable stores to stock up on food for a few days. Usually an armed man on the corner I never knew whether he would be Hamas or Fatah would look up and down the street for me and then wave me across. Both sides were courteous and helpful to the old, American woman."

The Dayton connection

Rosser goes on to describe the role played by Gen. Dayton in the mini-civil war in Gaza and how he was pushing constantly for escalation, both by bullying the PA to attack Hamas and also by supplying Muhammed Dahlan's militia with truckloads of weapons.

"At one point, while the bullets were volleying back and forth down the main streets in Gaza City and elsewhere, the US or more precisely, I'm sure, Gen. Keith Dayton, tried to intervene on behalf of Fatah, by sending in a truckload or more of weapons. Hamas learned of the shipment, however, seized it and used it.

"One night I heard from my office window someone reciting through a very loud speaker what sounded like a poem. But in the middle of it I heard Mohammed Dahlan, Israelian, Americaniya. In other words, Dahlan because of his previous actions was considered to be an Israeli and an American (agent) not a Palestinian nationalist. One wonders what would have happened if Dahlan had not been the Head of Security for the P.A.; would the conflict in Gaza have happened?"

I asked Rosser if she thought Dayton consciously and deliberately pushed for the civil war in Gaza.

"Yes, Gen. Keith Dayton is still getting Fatah police to arrest Hamas affiliates in the West Bank because Hamas is wrongfully called 'terrorist' and the roadmap says the PA must root out the 'terrorist infrastructure'. Obviously Dayton wanted Fatah to eliminate the Hamas influence in Gaza since Hamas is a 'terrorist organization' according the lily-white United States."

Rosser argued that she didn't think that Hamas planned to overthrow the PA. "I think it was fighting Dahlan and then preventing his men from overthrowing Hamas with the help of Dayton."

Finally, I asked Rosser why she thought the western media continued to call Hamas's defensive action "a coup", thus ignoring the fact that the movement was democratically elected by a majority of Palestinians.

She said that the western media have been very biased against Hamas as they once were against the PLO before 1991.They presented Hamas negatively and unjustly as a "terrorist"organization instead of as the elected government of Palestine.

"If they had known the truth that Hamas has offered a two-state solution since 2004 and is excellent at observing ceasefires they probably would have protested against the bloodshed. The media have a great responsibility to tell the truth so that the people can act on correct information."

RELATED: Evaluation of US congress letter to President Barack Obama

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" Ease the Siege of Gaza " - Evaluation of US Congress Letter to President Barack Obama

On the way back home to Beit Lahia - destruction
Photo Islam Kb/PalestineFreeVoiceImages

Hiyam Noir

Wednesday, January 26 2010 - 15:48 PM

Thank's to you all for signing a letter urging President Barack Obama,to ease Gaza siege.Never theless, the statements make your objectives questionable. You urge Obama to make improvement in Gaza, NOT to cease the siege. And you all have undersigned an open letter in which you accuse Hamas movement of terrorism. While others are sleeping, to the world outside America, whom will read your open letter, it is to no surprise, we knew beforehand that US policy is biased, based upon rock-solid support for Israel.

Yes, we know of the political elites that exist inside the US Congress, entailing an unquestioning support for whatever the Israelis have in their planes for the Palestinians and ever so often what the Israelis irrational mind-set choose to do, even when it conflicts with U.N. resolutions, International Law and Humanitarian Laws.

Instead of acquire knowledge from the people upon whom the bombs are falling,empathy and an understanding of the plight of those who are displaced, oppressed or brutalized by Zionist conquest and occupation, you are ignoring the evidence of a state-sponsored terrorism, the oppression and subjugation of the Palestinian people.

You the undersigned of this letter, members of the US Congress, must recognize both Palestinians and Israelis as equals in a land of great historical significance to both. US Congress must treat the Palestinians and the Israelis equally, recognize and increase security for both the Palestinians and the Jews.

About a year after the Israelis officially left Gaza and abandoned it's illegal settlements,the people of Gaza elected a Hamas government.Ever since the democratic election of Hamas in Gaza, the Israelis with the support of US, have used its military might to force the Palestinians,in an already impoverished territory,under a state of siege,resulting in dire humanitarian conditions.

What human rights defenders on our planet are aware of:- "The Americans don’t want to know ... what is going on inside Palestine. It’s a terrible human rights persecution that far transcends what any outsider would imagine. And there are powerful political forces in America that prevent any objective analysis of the problem ... I think it’s accurate to say that not a single member of Congress with whom I’m familiar would possibly speak out and call for Israel to withdraw to their legal boundaries, or to publicize the plight of the Palestinians or even to call publicly and repeatedly for good faith peace talks ... So this is a taboo subject. And I would say that if any member of Congress did speak out, as I’ve just described, they would probably not be back in the Congress the next term."Jimmy Carter 39th US president.

The West bank including Jerusalem is under Israeli occupation, so is still Gaza.The Israelis never ended the occupation of Gaza, it continued trespassing the skies over Gaza,sending warplanes to ignite sonic booms over small towns and cities, harassing the local population day and night. Continued it's killing and wounding of Gaza residents, these brutal assaults lasting days and nights, sometimes weeks.

The Israelis by force, continue its control of the northern and eastern Gaza border crossings, controls access to Gaza territorial border of the sea, and Gaza airspace.The Israelis shut down Gaza sea port, and it destroyed the Arafat airport, destroyed its fishing industry,its civilian economic infrastructure.The Israelis continues to control the flow of electricity, oil, food and medical supply and medicine, even the money-currency into the territory.In a joint action with Egypt, the Israelis continues to control who and what can enter and exit Gaza.

Since the democratic elections of Hamas the Israelis have with US support used it's military might, to force the Gazan's under a state of siege ,resulting in dire humanitarian conditions in an already impoverished territory that has struggled for decades. And the purpose of the US- Israeli led brutal siege, was to inflict such a terrible misery among the people in Gaza so that the Gazan's would revolt in hostility against their Hamas government. But the treacherous plan never worked,the Palestinians in Gaza will never back down from resisting the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian resistance in Gaza, including the armed wing of Hamas movement are not terrorists,they defend their own people, their families and their land from trespassers, land-thieves and assailants.The brutal perverted 22-day war on Gaza one year ago,is classified a war crime and the Israelis almost 4 year blockade of Gaza is a war crime - and a crime against humanity.

"Israeli acts that deprive Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own country, that limit their rights to access a court of law and an effective remedy, could lead a competent court to find that the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, has been committed". (The Gaza fact finding report - South African Judge Richard Goldstone).

Israel has today, the advantage in military power, but Israel will never be able to defeat the Palestinian nation and it's resistance. Until justice prevail, a fierce Palestinian battle will continue and in the event of another war against the Gaza Strip the Israelis will be defeated in some way or another."Hamas will never abandon the rights of the Palestinian people and would not back down from it's principles in the face of the enemy's efforts to isolate the movement." - Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshaal.

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The Haitian Earthquake in Pictures

Haitians search through destroyed shops
while a fire burns dead corpses on the street

A woman shrouded in the smoke of burning garbage in a large
make-shift refugee camp in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Zoriah Miller

Monday at 11:56pm

The earthquake in Port au Prince, Haiti has left devastation and immense pain in its wake. What was always a difficult situation in an impoverished country has become a true nightmare for the Haitian people.

The streets of Port au Prince, Haiti are filled with rubble, smoke, human remains and the smell of the dead. Downtown Port au Prince is what one might picture as the end of days. Bodies decompose on the streets and the hands of the dead and trapped reach out from the rubble.

Hundreds of Haitians are fighting for survival, looting the destroyed stores and fighting for what they have pillaged. I witnessed countless beatings and was twenty feet away from a young woman when she was shot in the face and killed by police (I will post these images in my next post on the earthquake in Haiti.) A photos of her husband crying over her body is in this post.

Refugee camps are literally on every block and public parks have become make-shift homes to thousands. Families construct shelters out of flimsy fabric sheets and sleep in the squalor of waste, refuse and dirt, cooking simple meals in the same gutters that must be used as toilets and bathing areas.

In the several dozen refugee camps I visited, I never once saw an aid worker, food supplies, shelter supplies or any form of assistance or education as to how to avoid disease and survive in this difficult situation. While it is necessary to search for survivors, it is also necessary to take car of those who have survived.

Although the situation after the earthquake in Haiti is horrible, the spirit of the Haitian people is truly strong and beautiful. Although there is violence in the streets, the vast majority of people are just struggling to survive and helping their friends, family and neighbors to do so also. Much, much more needs to be done to help the people of Haiti recover and live in dignity and this need will continue for a very long time.

This disaster will take years to recover from, not just months. We must continue to pay attention to the situation there and remember that while there is dire and immediate need there, this will not go away after a few weeks of media attention and fund raising. I urge all of you to get involved in any way you can in the effort to help the Haitian people.

http://www.zoriah.net/blog/

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Qaradawi SLAMS Abbas

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Accused of treason by one of Islam's greatest living scholars, Palestinian President Abbas is rocked and on the defensive, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah

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A heated exchange of recriminations, name-calling and blame casting has been raging in occupied Palestine between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood following scathing criticisms of President Mahmoud Abbas by Qatar-based Sheikh Youssef El-Qaradawi.

Qaradawi, one of the world's most highly respected living Sunni Islam scholars, reportedly urged both the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to form a special committee that would look into charges that Abbas had colluded with Israel against Hamas during the three-week onslaught on Gaza last year.

Moreover, Qaradawi lambasted the manner in which Abbas initially dealt with the Goldstone Report as constituting treason and betrayal. He argued, possibly rhetorically, that Abbas and his aides should be stoned to death in the centre of Mecca if it was proved that they colluded and connived with Israel against their own people.

The highly charged statements infuriated the increasingly beleaguered Palestinian leader who retorted by saying that he was more religious than 90 per cent of Hamas's supporters. Abbas charged that Qaradawi's outburst was based on Israeli misinformation. He also accused the Egyptian-born scholar of displaying ingratitude, claiming that he had done a favour for Qaradawi by convincing Qatari authorities to allow him to stay in the country.

In fact, Qaradawi didn't say that Abbas colluded with Israel; he only called on pan- Arab and Muslim bodies to look into the possibility that PA-Israeli collusion may have occurred. Indeed, numerous reports based on Israeli, Palestinian and foreign sources had affirmed the collusion accusations, though the PA vehemently denies them.

However, the mere allusion that Abbas and his aides may have collaborated with Israel against Hamas -- though not voiced for the first time -- is being seen by the Palestinian leadership as an unacceptable insult warranting a strong reaction. Abbas instructed his media outlets to launch a vitriolic attack on Qaradawi. The PA's media called the prominent scholar, widely considered one of the most knowledgeable in the disciplines of Sharia, or Islamic law, an "ignoramus" and "puppet of the government of Qatar".

More obscene epithets were also used against Qaradawi, persona non grata in several Western countries for his outspoken support of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation.

On Friday 15 January, the Fatah- controlled Ministry of Religious Affairs circulated a special anti-Qaradawi sermon to be read at mosques all over the West Bank during the congregational prayer. Most imams refused to read the sermon, with many substituting it for sermons praising the ulema (religious scholars) and castigating those "ignoramuses" and "hoodlums" who assault and insult the scholars.

However, in some places like Ramallah, some newly-appointed imams, who also support the PA, lashed out at Qaradawi, accusing him of "dividing the ranks of Muslims" and of "spreading rumours and disinformation in manners not befitting a great scholar". PA Waqf (religious endowments) Minister Mahmoud Al-Habbash urged Qaradawi to "apologise to his Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas as well as to the Palestinian people".

Al-Habbash is a vehement opponent of Hamas who fled Gaza two and half years ago following Hamas's defeat of Fatah's militias who had sought to unseat Hamas, aided by American General Keith Dayton.

In truth, the real issue has more to do with the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas than between Qaradawi and Abbas. Qaradawi has always been a strong supporter of Hamas, although he never adopted a manifestly hostile position to Fatah or other Palestinian groups. Indeed, Qaradawi, who appears regularly on Al-Jazeera TV's flagship show "Sharia and Life", has consistently called for Palestinian unity, arguing that Palestinian disunity will only benefit Israel and the enemies of the Palestinian cause.

But Qaradawi also took an uncompromising stand against the blockade of Gaza and lately issued a religious edict forbidding the building by Egypt of a steel-and-concrete wall along Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip. His edict contradicted another by Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the mufti of Egypt, which supported the construction of the steel wall. This prompted one Palestinian writer to lament that the Palestinian cause was getting lost between "Tantawi and Qaradawi".

There is no doubt that the vast majority of ordinary Palestinians, and probably other Muslim peoples as well, are more sympathetic to Qaradawi who has long stood against the US invasion and occupation of Muslim countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and who remained a consistent supporter of the Palestinian cause during the first and second Intifadas. This is why the ranting and ravings of Fatah spokesmen and leaders against Qaradawi have not been received well in the West Bank, especially in East Jerusalem and Gaza where people can generally voice their views without fear of PA reprisals.

Abdel-Sattar Qassem, professor of political science at An-Najah University in Nablus and a prominent intellectual and commentator, lambasted Qaradawi's critics, saying, "Sheikh Qaradawi is loftier and more sublime than paying attention to these midgets. Qaradawi is a fluttering banner of the Islamic umma [nation]; he is a shining symbol for all Muslims. He is a great scholar, a polymath; he is always at the forefront defending Arab and Muslim causes in general and the Palestinian cause in particular."

"Qaradawi is a giant in his knowledge, a giant in his morality, a giant in his humanity. We may differ with him on this or that issue, but this should never make us question his status and stature as one of the greatest living scholars of the Muslim umma," wrote Qassem this week. He added: "A nation that doesn't show respect to its best sons is a nation ruled by ignoramuses who would sell out their countries for the lowest price."

Concluding the article, Qassem wrote: "I apologise to Sheikh Qaradawi for what these ignoramuses are saying."

It is not clear when this fresh acrimony will die down. What is clear is that as long as the Hamas-Fatah showdown continues, polarisation, not only in the Palestinian arena but also in the wider Arab arena, will persist.

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Israeli Hand in Iraq's Abu Ghraib Exposed

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:25:53 GMT

File photo: Abu Ghraib prison when under US control

The former American military chief of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq reiterates the Israeli involvement in the US-run facility, where hundreds of Iraqi suspects were tortured and sexually abused by US soldiers and interrogators.

Shedding further light on the scandal that has served as a controversy-magnet for Washington ever since its emergence in 2004, the retired US army colonel Janis Karpinski says that Israeli agents were recruited by the US military at Abu Ghraib to interrogate the prisoners suspected of attacking US forces in Iraq.

The report by the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar is set to fuel more debate on the matter as Karpinski had, until recently, refused to expound on the Israeli connection at Abu Ghraib despite admitting earlier to the presence of Israeli interrogators in the US-run compound.

The former high-ranking US military officer in Iraq told the British state broadcaster, the BBC, in 2004 that she had met an Israeli interrogator who was working at a secret facility in Baghdad.

The prominent American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh brought the issue out in the open on May 10, 2004, when he published the article, "Torture at Abu Ghraib," in The New Yorker Magazine. The article served to ignite the outpouring of reports and evidences on the alleged "abuse, torture, sodomy and homicide" conducted at the facility by US military and intelligence officers.

In May of last year, more pictures of such abuses leaked out and hit the media networks showing the indiscriminate sexual orientation of American soldiers and operatives, who were shown carnally violating male and female Iraqis alike and assaulting them with nightsticks, wires and phosphorescent tubes.

Following his explosive account on the Abu Ghraib abuses, Hersh asserted that one of the Israel pursuits in the US-run prison was to gain access to the detained members of the Iraqi secret intelligence unit that specialized in Israeli affairs.

Israel has been widely criticized by international human rights organizations for the torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, during interrogations and in prison cells.

US President Barak Obama has 'strongly' opposed the release of more photos and imagery of the Abu Ghraib abuses by American soldiers, despite promises to the contrary when he was first elected. Obama later argued that releasing the scandalous photos, labeled classified by the Bush Administration, would inflame "the theaters of war," jeopardize US forces, and make the life of troops based in Iraq and Afghanistan "more difficult."

HN/MB

Source:PRESSTV

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Beyond Chutzpah

19.10.2010 - 09:56PM

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

The brutal ugliness of the collective Israeli mentality seems to know no limits. Indeed, one wouldn’t go too far by arguing that the patterns of Israeli behaviors, nearly at all levels, reflect a real mental sickness.

In recent days, three observations of Israeli behaviors attracted my attention.

First, the Ayalon affair. Last week, Israeli Deputy-Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called in the Turkish ambassador to reprimand him over a TV program that showed Israeli agents abducting children and shooting old men, an indisputably routine practice by the Israeli occupation army in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A Jewish supremacist, Ayalon seated the Turkish ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol on a chair lower than his own chair, ostensibly to humiliate him and show him “who the master is.”

He actually instructed a host of cameramen he had invited to “cover” the event to focus on the “inferiority” of the Turk vis-à-vis himself and the contemptible treatment meted out to the Turkish diplomat.

Ayalon is not an amateur diplomat. He has more than 20 years of experience of diplomatic service. He is also a former ambassador to the United States. Hence, the sickening conduct on his part can’t be explained away by citing inexperience.

The only explanation for Ayalon’s behavior is that he is suffering from a combination of mental disorder including superiority complex, megalomania, self-inflated ego and self-absorbedness. These are serious morbid psychotic behavior. If untreated, there is a serious risk that next time, Ayalon would physically assault a foreign diplomat. Even a more scandalous feat can be expected. We are talking about insolent people who are mentally sick to the bones.

Ayalon is also an irredeemable, pathological liar. He claimed he didn’t really mean it and that he hadn’t preplanned the entire episode. “It would have worked perfectly had it not been for the media which blew it out of proportion,” said the sick thug who was eventually forced to formally apologize to Turkey for his idiotic misdeed.

Now, he says that the next time a foreign government criticizes Israel’s genocidal terror against the Palestinian people, Israel would expel the ambassador of that country. In other words, Ayalon believes that Israel, unlike any other country on earth, should be beyond criticism. So, the message is clear. “The next time Israel carries out a genocidal campaign and murders thousands of Palestinian or Lebanese children, no country should dare criticize the Jewish state.”

Well, the problem with Ayalon is that he epitomizes the brutal ugliness and cruelty of the overall Israeli mindset. What is more awful is that this morbid mentality is taking over Israel, its army, politicians and general discourse.

With this in mind, an Israeli journalist noted a few weeks ago that Israel in its entirety needs to seek treatment at a mental asylum. That asylum must be very huge, indeed, and would have to work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 30 days per month and 365 days per year.

My second observation has to do with Israel’s highlighted efforts to help the quake-stricken Haiti overcome the post-quake disaster. The Israeli and pro-Israeli media has been celebrating the Israeli decision to dispatch rescuers and relief materials to help the people of Haiti cope with the mega disaster.

Well, helping people is always a good and commendable act of charity. And it doesn’t matter where that help comes from as long it is motivated by good will, selflessness and a sincere desire to help.

However, when the real aim is to divert attention away from a huge crime, and when the supposedly charitable act is motivated more by public relations consideration and less by genuine human concerns, the first thing that comes to ones mind is the word “hypocrisy.”

Well, what Israel did to the people of Gaza is very much still fresh in everyone’s memory. Israel last year and for 21 consecutive days rained death on hundreds of thousands of innocent children and other civilians, murdering more than 1400 human beings, including more than 330 children. Several thousand civilians were injured, maimed and incinerated by the deadly clouds of white phosphorus. Moreover, as many as 40 thousand homes were completely or partially destroyed. This is in addition to the wanton pornographic bombing of mosques, schools, and public buildings.

The Israeli army used its all its weapons of death, including the American state-of-the-art technology of death, against a helpless people who lacked the ability to protect themselves and their children. Israel did what it did knowingly and deliberately. In short, Israel committed genocidal crimes against humanity against a helpless, unprotected people.

And until this moment, Israel is still refusing to allow building materials to reach these tormented human beings and enable them to rebuild their homes. The reason is none other than the fact that Israelis and many Jews draw satisfaction from seeing Gazans suffer.

So, it is really difficult to believe that the Israeli relief efforts in Haiti are motivated by genuine human considerations. If they were, Israel would lift the suffocating siege now imposed on the people of Gaza for the third consecutive year, all because Gaza had dared elect a government that Israel and the US didn’t like.

In the final analysis, it is an expression of hypocrisy and moral duplicity to brag about rescuing efforts in Port-O-Prance when you have just buried hundreds of children under the rubble of their own homes in Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah.

The third and final observation is really disgusting in a special way. The Israeli electronic and print media has been using photos of Palestinian orphans whose parents and relatives have been murdered by the Israeli army in advertisements designed to raise money for “poor and Jewish children.”

One photo of a crying, bedraggled and distraught-looking girl is used widely to appeal to potential donors to donate money in order to feed hungry Jewish children.What is strange about this is that the very same picture happens to be of a Palestinian child whose father was killed in Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip during the genocidal Israeli onslaught last year.

This is more than disgusting. It is comparable to Nazis using photos or images of their victims to raise money for legitimate German causes. This act, coming from a state that continues to impose a hermetic, suffocating siege on the people and relatives of the child in question is just beyond Chutzpah.

This is why, the brutal ugliness of the Israeli mentality knows no limits.
_________________________________________
The photo above published in Hareetz, of a crying Palestinian girl from Biet Lahia is a photo PalestineFreeVoice/Hiyam Noir and her photographer published in the 10th " Letter from Gaza" one year ago. "The Israeli electronic and print media has been using photos of Palestinian orphans whose parents and relatives have been murdered by the Israeli army in advertisements designed to raise money for “poor and Jewish children" - and violated copyright laws, the prohibited use of our work ( the photo) covered by copyright.

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"Aid" To Gaza & Westbank a Substitut for Honest Politics

Gaza "Tsunami" - After a cesspit collapsed flooding villages with sewage water
March 27 2007 /PalestineFreeVoice Images/ Photo Fady Adwan

Hiyam Noir

Tuesday January 19 2010 11:48

GAZA - On Monday, Gaza civil defense forces evacuated and rescued tens of families from their homes in Juhor-Ad-Dik,a small town south of Gaza city.From nearby hills water flooded the streets, the residents trapped in the area called the Gaza city emergency and medical services. The director of Gaza civil defense,colonel Yousef Az-Zahhar, said that the situation is urgent, vehicle traffic are prohibited in the streets where water from the valley is gushing down from nearby hills.

According to claims from the Gaza authorities, the Israelis have opened a dam between the city of Gaza and the central Gaza strip, which caused flooding of the streets,homes and property in the area.No injuries is yet reported,rescue teams are working to clean up the water,but many residents are still on Tuesday,unable to return to their homes.

The area flooded with water has cut of Gaza city from the southern parts of the West Bank.The Westbank bordering Gaza,is also declared a state of emergency, high risk of landslides and flooding is reported in various places and it is expected to get worse.

In the southern parts of the West Bank villages are facing one of their worst of years ever.After a long drought during the summer months and extremely low rainfall,the region only got 55% of its average rainfall, which has lead to landslides and a total destruction of crops,and reduced drinking water to a critical level.

Surrounded by Jewish settlements and checkpoints, according to local farmers,impoverished Palestinian families have lost more than 50 percent of their crops and herds, because of severe drought.Israeli checkpoints and the closures, are creating many problems for the Palestinians. The problems of transporting water on the Westbank has become both time consuming and very expensive, so most of the villages depend on the rainwater to gather in cisterns, a tank that catch and store rainwater.

And the Israeli occupation of the Westbank make the living conditions even worse, Jewish settlers, poison the water in the cisterns, uproot olive trees and destroy the crops , the Israeli policy of checkpoints impede herds from moving around.The director general of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department, Peter Zangle, visited the area on Tuesday, announcing that an extra EUR 4 million will be aided to provide water and fodder for affected villages..

The funds of 4 million,EUR.from EU will be distributed through United Nations organisations, working on the ground together with relief agencies and local NGOs working on water, food and seed distribution

In a statement regarding the situation on the Westbank, Zangle said that -" In my job I see the reality of people who are living in desperate conditions which cannot easily bring into life dignity, as a part of my job is to notify my organisation about these difficult situations worldwide".

The European Commission’s aid to the Palestinians has added up to 500 million EUR,since year 2000.EU is the largest single donor to the Westbank based Fatah ruled Palestinian Authority (PA), and is particularly active in supporting Palestinian NGOs. Despite all the aid money - today,the Palestinians are more impoverished than they ever have been before.

Supported by the United States and the United Kingdom,back in 1948,fanatical Israeli extremists,began in brutal force it's usurping of the Palestinian peoples homeland.Since then the Palestinians have been denied all their inalienable human rights,as expressed in the UN universal declarations, and as prescribed in the UN resolutions, particularly their political rights, as expressed in the resolution 181, 194, and 242.

Ever since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, Zionist Israel have been denying Palestinian their right to freedom.The Palestinians have been denied any political rights, inside their own homeland.Official Palestinian political representatives and ten thousands members of the Palestinian resistance are languishing in Israeli jails and prisons.Forced under military rule, the Palestinians have been killed, injured,abducted and tortured. The Zionist Israel have destroyed Palestinian possessions, stolen property and built illegal settlements on Palestinian lands.

Conclusion

"Aid" in the Palestinian case, has not functioned as a causal agent, but as a substitute for honest politics.To the Palestinians in it's dependency of sovereignty and state-building, the foreign aid has to a large extent, as a result become the means for Western colonisers to re wrap it's military occupation , another example of Western military occupation, is the " aiding " given to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the prospects of achieving a political settlement between the Palestinians and the occupying power Israel, EU and other large donors of aid to the Palestinians, including the United States (aid-giver to PA in Ramallah) ,must denounce the Israeli occupation.Put serious demands on the Israelis to renounce its violence, and with all means necessarily, force the Israelis to recognize the Palestinian rights to sovereignty. To the Palestinians, who are facing many obstacles, nothing meaningful or substantial have come out of foreign "aid", but a very temporary relieve from their reality of extreme hardship, constant hunger and pain.

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Dennis Halliday: ..UN Security Council Continued to Impose Genocidal Sanctions on the Innocent of Iraq.... "

900 IRAQI PRISONERS FACE SUMMARY EXECUTION: STOP THE DEATH PENALTY IN IRAQ!

A message from Denis Halliday Former UN Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq 1997-98


Accepting the Gandhi International Peace Award in 2003, I explained my resignation from the United Nations as head of the UN Humanitarian Programme in Iraq at end 1998. I indicated that resignation was necessary because of my refusal to accept Security Council orders that continued to impose genocidal sanctions on the innocent of Iraq. My continuation would have implied my complicity in human catastrophe. And, in addition, my innate sense of justice was outraged — as yours would have been in my position — by the violence that UN sanctions had brought upon the lives and wellbeing of children, families, and the many loved ones of Iraq. There can be no justification for killing the young, the aged, the sick, the rich, the poor anywhere, under any circumstances, least of all by the United Nations.

Some will tell you that the Iraqi leadership was punishing the Iraqi people. That was not my perception or experience when living in Baghdad in 1997-98 and traveling throughout the country. And were that to be the case, how could that possibly justify collective punishment — that is sanctions, by the United Nations? The UN Charter and international law have no provision for the murderous consequences of a UN embargo, over 12 long years in the case of the people of Iraq.

After leaving, sometimes I explained the impact of sanctions to the media, and to university and public meetings by describing Iraqi children as being on death row without hope of reprieve. By the end of 1998, we — the UN — had killed hundreds of thousands without any apparent hesitation on the part of the permanent member states of the Security Council.

The illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 has only worsened the overall situation for Iraqi children, women and men. Contrary to what the mainstream media has been and is reporting, a whole nation is being terrorized, killed, driven into exile. The humanitarian situation in Iraq is catastrophic according to the ICRC (The Red Cross) and other international organizations. American imposition of “democracy and freedom” has failed as law, order and economic and social wellbeing is increasingly elusive. Health and educational systems are about to collapse; the human rights situation is disastrous; human security and opportunities have vanished; the fearful, the refugees and the displaced outnumber those enjoying normal lives.

Since the Iraqi government reintroduced capital punishment in 2004, an unknown number of people have been hanged. None of the condemned appears to have had a fair trial. Sadly, the Iraqi judicial system has been deemed by responsible international agencies and human rights organizations to be corrupt, dysfunctional and plagued by sectarianism.

And now the Presidential Council of Iraq has reportedly ratified the death sentences of some 900 detainees languishing on death row. Some 17 of them are confirmed to be women. The apparent collapse of justice in Iraq today needs to be seen in the context of an almost total breakdown of law and order since the US/UK invasion, including the war crimes, atrocities, killing of civilians by invading and occupying US mercenaries and military forces.

I oppose the use of the death penalty wherever it occurs on the grounds that it is contrary to fundamental human rights. The international community that has already totally failed the Iraqi people has a compelling obligation to condemn the appalling human consequences of illegal invasion and occupation, and condemn — surely the Iraqis have suffered enough — one of the highest rates of execution in the world.

Without your voice the deadly increasing spiral of killing will continue.That’s why I join the BRussells Tribunal in denouncing executions.I would very much appreciate it if you would read the following statement against the imminent hanging of 900 detainees: http://brusselstribunal. org/ DeathPenalty121209.htm and sign the call to stop these executions and request that the Iraqi government impose a moratorium on the death penalty.

Thank you on behalf of the BRussells Tribunal and all of us who care about justice and human life.

Denis J. Halliday

Former UN assistant secretary general and UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, 1997-98

Recipient of the 2003 Gandhi International Peace Award — Ireland.

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Why not Somalia? Why not Darfur? Why not Mars?

Gaza Rafah 24th of January 2008 .In the darkness after midnight the Palestinian home land defense in Gaza, blasted holes in the Israeli built border wall.More than 750,000 people were crossing through to Egypt, in a taste of freedom climbing over the downed Iron Wall, a wall which surrounding and contains the Gaza Strip. Starving, humiliated and assaulted, in a force of outcry and desperation people were breaking out of their open air prison into Egypt to stock up on basic foods, daily goods and medical supplies. Hiyam Noir/ Fady Adwan Photo (PalestineFreeVoice Images).Copyright

By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Jerusalem
13 January, 2009

Zionist spin doctors are visibly upset by growing world awareness about the manifestly cruel Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip.

These malicious propagandists, hell-bent as they are on diverting attention from the slow-motion genocide being meted out to the helpless people of Gaza, are asking “why not Somalia? Why not Darfur? They think that Israeli-made Gaza tragedy shouldn’t deserve all this attention and that the thoroughly tormented Gazans should suffer, starve and die as silently and as quietly as possible.

Well, to begin with, it is highly unlikely that such questions are motivated by good will or any real desire to see real problems in Somalia and Darfur and other parts of the world rectified.

What is nearly certain, given consistent Israeli and Zionist behavior, is that such questions are meant first and foremost to distract attention from the shameless genocidal crimes against humanity which the children, grand-children and great grandchildren of the holocaust have been committing against the people of Palestine.

It is rather a repulsive, diversionary red-herring tactic used by the murderous thugs of Zionism to distract attention from the real Israeli Jewish holocaust against the Palestinian people.

Hence, there is not even an iota of doubt that would make people, especially those who value their conscience, think that the Israelis are really concerned about the suffering of people else where.

It is actually inconceivable that the hearts of Israeli child-killers are bleeding over the civil wars in Africa. Their real aim is to isolate the Palestinians, weaken world sympathy with them, and force them to die or get killed as quietly as possible. This is how the SS behaved at Ghetto Warsaw 67 years ago. This is what the Judeo-Nazis of today are doing. It is the same, just like tweedeldee and tweedeldum.

Having said that, it is increasingly obvious that the enduring plight of the Palestinian people is the most volatile and destabilizing issue in the world today since it has the potentials of disrupting world order. It is the root-cause of instability and violence in much of the world. Its symptoms and side effects have global and instant repercussions.

Indeed, events that occurred thousands of miles away from occupied Palestine, such as 9/11 events in the US, the Bali bombing in Indonesia, the terror bombings in both London and Madrid a few years ago and the American invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan had their roots in the American and western embrace of Jewish Nazism in Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their ancestral homeland.

Similarly, one exaggerates very little by saying that most of the chronic political problems in the Arab world, e.g. the American and western embrace of Arab dictatorships, and the unrelenting suppression of the forces of freedom and democracy, are directly or indirectly linked to the situation in Palestine.

The current standoff over the issue of Iran’s nuclear program is very much related to the Palestinian problem. Iranian leader Ahmadinejad wouldn’t have called for the dismantlement of the Zionist infrastructure of Israel had it not been for the outrageous persecution and brutal savagery meted out to the indigenous Palestinian people by foreign Jewish invaders.

Moreover, the US, which itself is in the grip of Jewish lobbies such as AIPAC and whose Congress is widely considered an Israeli-occupied territory, has always opted to keep tyrannical, even criminal, Arab regimes in order to serve and promote Israeli interests.

Needless to say, both Israel and the US realize that it is much easier to blackmail and bully dictatorial regimes that are not answerable to their masses. Such bankrupt regimes would even act against their own nations’ interests when coming under a little pressure or bullying from Washington.

To be sure, all peoples in the world have the right to survive and prosper, including the people of Somalia and Darfur as well as any other people under the sun. This has never been a contentious issue and never will.

However, the Palestinian cause is unique because Palestine was until recently the exclusive homeland of the Palestinian people which a European power thousands of miles away decided to give on a silver platter to another European people.

The White Ashkenazi Jews originated in the Khazar region and had nothing to do with Palestine as Professor Shlomo Sand elucidated in his recent book, Matai ve'ech humtza ha'am hayehudi? (The Invention of the Jewish People).

Today, the Palestinian people is the only people in the world whose very survival and future as a people are under threat. We, the Palestinians, are now relying more than ever before on the good- will of the international community for our very survival. This is why the international community must move decisively to prevent Israel from carrying out genocide against our people.

The Israelis have not embarked on a full-fledged genocide against us for lack of trying. The real reason has more to do with non-moral and non-ethical issues, such as would-be international reactions.

The Israeli genocidal onslaught against Gaza last year should be viewed as a mere rehearsal for a much larger war of extermination against a helpless people with little or no means to protect themselves and their children.

In the latest blitzkrieg, Israel killed thousands and maimed thousands and incinerated many with the infernal white phosphorus firestorms over Gaza. In the next blitz, Israel could reenact Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen in Gaza and the West Bank. In the final analysis, there is no real difference between gassing people in closed places, e.g. concentration camps, and incinerating them en mass in open air.

As far as I know, no other people under the sun is being targeted for annihilation. True, there are civil wars in several spots in the world. However, neither the Somalis nor the Darfurians are being threatened with a holocaust. I don’t know of religious leaders in any country other than Israel routinely issuing edicts permitting the mass extermination of men, women and children “and not leaving a breathing thing alive” as many Jewish rabbis have been doing.

In short, the prospect of a Jewish-Zionist holocaust or at least partial holocaust against the helpless Palestinians is not really unthinkable as Israel continues to await the opportune time to carry out its monstrous designs against the Palestinian people.

This is why international, including non-governmental, efforts to protect the Palestinian people from Israel’s genocidal urges must continue.

A few years ago, Spanish intellectual Santiago Alba-Rico eloquently argued that the Palestinian plight continued to be humanity’s bleeding wound.

He wrote: “Perhaps Palestinians are not the most punished people on earth, but they are indeed the most openly punished people on earth; perhaps they are not the people who have suffered the most but they are the people whose sufferings are the most uninterruptedly visible.

Paradoxically, this visibility (beyond the lies) makes the victims even more vulnerable; it confers a kind of biblical dimension to the aggression: the boisterous authority of a divine intervention, and in front of it, the objects of God’s anger, are demeaned both morally and ontologically.”

In recent months, a plethora of rabbis, with hundreds of thousands of followers, issued Nazi-like edicts justify the physical annihilation of the Palestinian people.

Needless to say, the effect of these insidious edicts goes beyond the confines of the theoretical sphere as the Israeli army (now being taken over by genocidal-minded religious thugs) and paramilitary terrorists, also known as settlers, are making sure to act on these satanic edicts by murdering Peaceable Palestinian civilians without patting an eyelash.

Let us not forget that the holocaust of the mid-1900s didn’t start with genocidal mass killings; it rather started with the type of things that Israel is now doing to the Palestinians, such as a violently-racist discourse, venomous and vitriolic media attacks, the ubermenschen vs. untermenschen mentality and eventually a Kristallnacht.

Well, the Israelis themselves say openly that the Gaza campaign was a mere “prova” for things to come.

We all know the rest of the story. (end)

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"Thank's Khalid for giving the readers what they ought to read, that is the illumination of the truth. May we, the fighters for justice, join the Palestinian people in the days of the sweetest victory."

Hiyam Noir
January 14 2010

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The' Arab Anthony Quinn ' Speaks to FW

Words sound futile when describing a brilliant and enchanting man, who has strong charisma, rare eloquence, patience, and a commanding presence on screen. He has performed in timeless classics in both cinema and television, all of which have become turning points in the Syrian drama. Among his unforgettable works are Ukhwat al-Turab (Soil Brothers), a historical epic about Otto-man Syria during World War I, Asi al-Dame (Tearless), a contemporary social drama, Yawmiyat Mudir Am (Dailies of a Director General), a satirical comedy, al-Taghriba al-Filastiniyya (The Palestinian Epic), a grand historical production about Palestine, Muluk al-Tawaef (Feudal Kings) and Rabi Kurtuba (The Spring of Cordoba), about Muslim Arab rule in Spain, and Saladin. Mahmud Darwish, one of the greatest Palestinian poets of the 20th century, described him as “The Arab Anthony Quinn.”

His name is Khaled Taja.

Tell us about the beginnings, the early years.

I am a Kurd but I feel nothing but Arab nationalism. I grew up in an Arabic speaking home, lived within Arab society, and became committed to Arab causes. I do not believe in separatist movements but rather in large blocs and coalitions. We had enough separation with (the) Sykes-Picot (Accords of 1916, which divided the Arab World among Great Britain and France). This separation plan of dividing us into city states—small bites—is still ongoing until today. Large blocs are a source of power and the basis for development and prosperity of the region as a whole. Oil should be for all the Arabs, I believe, with no exceptions. And so should wealth. It should be for every Arab as well, and not be restricted to families and individuals.

What does Damascus mean to you?

Damascus is history and deep-rooted civilization. I like its Oriental homes and frequent them often. I like its citrus trees and its jasmine. I hope to die in this city. I would prefer living in relative isolation, away from all the noise pollution.

What are the things you like most in life?

I like high rocks, mountains, and valleys.

They remind me of myself. I climbed high mountains during my life, and fell from their heights—I’ve been through life’s highs and lows. I also like to travel a lot.

If you were to chose one country to live in (other than Syria) where would it be, and why?

Holland. I would chose Holland due to its enchanting natural beauty, and the high manners of its people. They are there for each other and they like each other. The people of Holland do not have devastating economic and political worries that occupy them. They have their dignity, rights and self-respect as human beings. It is a country that exports nutrition products, not missiles or bombs.

Who is your favorite poet?

Mahmud Darwish, he reflects best what is inside Khaled Taja.

What was the most cherished period of your life?

When I was 20. I was strong and filled with dreams. I was living a poetic period of my life, which was unblemished, both intellectually and emotionally. I was like a pure river before it got polluted by mankind. I had many dreams of course, but 99% of them were not realized. My biggest ambition at this stage of life is to maintain my health.

Who is the most inspiring figure in your life?

Khaled Taja. Myself. Ever since I came to this world, I only believed in what I felt and interacted with nothing but my emotions. I paid a high price for that, but I do not regret it.

What do you people do not know about you?

I love poetry and observe nature. I like to delve within people’s innermost thoughts and emotions. I came early to this world. I should have arrived 100 years later. Everything around us is so uncivilized despite all the progress that mankind has made. Men are still vicious. I think that 100 years from now things will be better because scientific development will produce an urban civilization that matches our humanitarian one.

The curse of this era is oil. If it were not for oil, separation would not have divided us and Israel would not have been created in our midst to defend Western interests and US influence in the region. Ehud Olmert’s talk about re-starting negotiations on the Golan Heights are nothing but lies. The Golan is fertile and rich with water that is badly needed for the Israeli economy.

I do not believe in talks over the Golan. ‘What was taken by force can only be retrieved by force.’ That is an old saying but it still holds. It is the one truth that we should remain committed to and embrace. The resistance has proven its effectiveness after all and was able to defeat the strongest of powers (Israel). The resistance has overcome in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon. The Golan is an inseparable part of Syria, and with no doubt, a day will come when it will be returned to us.

Source Forward

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Khaled Taja, is going to play the leading role in a movie about the tunnels of Gaza.

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EXCLUSIVE: Iranian President Calls Holocaust An 'Excuse'

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In a lenghtly interview February 2009, with ABC News' Diane Sawyer, the Iranian President Mahmoud said regarding the issue of the so called Holocaust and his distrust of the Jews and his uncompromising condemnation of Israel that; "I'm asking why, for the excuse of Holocaust, we have an imposed regime here in the region, with 60 years of invasion, making people refugees."

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Israel and the Holocaust

Sawyer: Let's turn to Israel for a moment. I do not want to debate again the whole question of the Holocaust -- whether the Holocaust is a myth, which you have said. Would you be willing to go to Auschwitz and see their documentation? You're a scientist. Would you be willing to look at the room with documentation?

Ahmadinejad: Do you think it would solve any problem?

Sawyer: It would be information for you if you genuinely believe it's a myth.

Ahmadinejad: Well, one of the methods used for concealing the truth is diverting a topic. Question is if Holocaust is true. 1/2 To the Palestinian issue, why for the excuse of the Holocaust we have an illegitimate government in Palestine? Why in the name of Holocaust we allow people to occupy the land and make refugees and kill children? There are the questions that must be answered by American politicians, not to divert the attention.

If something has happened in the past of historical nature, then why are people sensitive to it now, and if it's not related to the Palestinian issue & they should tell us where it is relevant. If it is unimportant and if it is true, then open the way to research. & These are serious questions. I have nothing to do with these questions of course.

I'm asking why, for the excuse of Holocaust, we have an imposed regime here in the region with 60 years of invasion, making people refugees. We say that Palestinian children and women they are people & and love their homeland and if someone comes to the U.S. and with some pretense and some phony excuse, establishes a government and kills children, it's a serious question. You cannot let this question to go unanswered. This is a very serious question. The relationship, Holocaust and the & massacre of Palestinians. This is the question.

Sawyer: You have said Israel should be wiped off the face of the Earth. You have said that anyone who recognizes Israel will burn in fire of Islam's fury. Do you still say those things? Do you still want to say those things today? And & if the Palestinian issue, from those talks, if they agree there should be two states, would you accept Israel into the United Nations?

Ahmadinejad: It seems that you are to broadcast everything. Is that true?

Sawyer: Yes.

Ahmadinejad: You know some people cut the interview. They do not broadcast in full. And what we have said about Palestine, it's quite clear, based on the charter of the U.N., based on international regulations, we say let Palestinians decide. & Please allow the Palestinians to decide. Please respect their decision. But please give them the opportunity for decision making.

If what happened to the former Soviet Union, it disappeared, it disappeared from the face of the Earth, was it because of war? No, it was through the decision of the people and what we say is quite clear.

Sawyer: But burn in the fire?

Ahmadinejad: I will tell you, just wait a little. Just be patient and listen. We believe that in Palestine, there should be a referendum and Palestinians, Muslims, Jews, any Palestinians, and this is based on international regulations and I think it's their right to determine their future. Any decision made by Palestinians must be respected, and I think this is a very clear proposition.

Why are people opposed, what we say is clear. If you continue massacring innocent people, if you continue to make them refugees, and if you continue attacking neighboring countries, then the countries and the people of those countries, regions & get angry, because the Zionist regime was imposed upon them.

You know many families, they don't function & where their members are either incarcerated or killed. & Many mothers are now mourning the death of their children.

Even the Palestinian government, which was elected by democratic vote, is attacked by the Zionist regime. Members of the Parliament are arrested. The ministers are arrested. Israel is not following regulations. & Some American politicians support oppression. There is no other solution.

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