Middle East Thread

[dennis tooth]

As the P5+1 nuclear negotiations - ostensibly seeking to ensure a peaceful future for the Middle East - conclude, they were prefaced by a surprising announcement. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that even if a deal was reached, the US reserves the right to bomb Iran.

A framework deal has been agreed upon by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and the other participating nations. But on Tuesday, when the outcome was far less certain, Defense Secretary Carter assured the public that no agreement would entirely eliminate a more aggressive alternative.

 

“The military option certainly will remain on the table,” Carter said on NBC’s Today program. “One of my jobs is to make sure all options are on the table.”

 

Military intervention would be necessary if Iran decided to break the deal, which sought to limit the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges Tehran would be allowed to operate. If it was discovered that the Islamic Republic was operating more centrifuges than agreed upon, and using that excess uranium to develop nuclear weapons, then an attack on those enrichment facilities could, theoretically, be an option.

 

He also stated that any agreement “can’t be based on trust, it has to be based on verification,” and that it must be “one that keeps us and the region safe. If it’s a good agreement to have, obviously it’s one worth waiting for.”

 

The new framework deal agreed upon by negotiators states that Tehran will be allowed to operate a single enrichment facility in Natanz, and in exchange, all nuclear-related sanctions against the nation will be lifted.

 

During his appearance, the Defense Secretary also took time to address other parts of what he called the “confusing, crazy-quilt region” of the Middle East. In reference to the chaos in Yemen, Carter said the United States would continue its counterterrorism operations, no matter the outcome of the Iranian negotiations.

 

Carters comments came just after Arizona Senator John McCain suggested that Israel “go rogue” and resist any deal that the negotiations might come to.

 

“The Israelis will need to chart their own path of resistance. On the Iranian nuclear deal, they may have to go rogue” McCain said on the Senate floor. “Let’s hope their warnings have not been mere bluffs.”

 

McCain’s words may encourage a nation already bitterly opposed to the negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been very vocal about his distrust of Iran’s intentions.

 

“This dangerous deal, as it appears to be emerging, bears out all of our fears, and even more than that,” Netanyahu said during a speech on Sunday, as the original March 31 deadline for a framework deal approached.

 

After meeting with Netanyahu on Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner announced they would put forth a bill which would require President Obama to get the approval of Congress before any deal is officiated.

 

 

 

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20150402/1020395567.html#ixzz3WFKNx3a2

Usa reserves to bomb anyone, whats new. Might makes right and the dead cant argue with that.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Some interesting thoughts on the failure of both Hamas and Fatah, the wrongness of the "two-state solution" and the need for the Boycott, Divestments, Sanctions campaign.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/we-cannot-liberate-palestine-colonized-minds/14443

 

The inability — or unwillingness — of both the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and the Hamas-led administration in Gaza to provide a relatively acceptable example of good governance based on giving ordinary people a say in decisions that affect them means that serious soul-searching is required among those holding leadership positions in Palestine.

The alternative to the Fatah-Hamas rift is not, as both parties argue, new elections for the PA’s presidency and the Palestinian Legislative Council, within the framework of the disastrous Oslo accords.

Rather, it is a form of mass democracy, in which all Palestinian refugees (living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, inside present-day Israel and in the diaspora) can participate by taking common action for broader goals.

Israel must be clearly told that the single demand of Palestinians is for a true, multi-party democracy throughout historic Palestine based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Proposals made by the main Palestinian parties until now have not, unfortunately, been convincing to those living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip — one third of the Palestinian people.

Racist solution

The crisis in Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, has exposed the PLO and other organizations that claim to speak on behalf of Palestinians as inefficient, incompetent and powerless and — most importantly — unable to come up with a unifying political vision around which the entire Palestinian people can rally.

Such a vision would not coexist with Oslo and its logic of the so-called “two-state solution.” That logic has led to a Jewish state on 78 percent of historic Palestine, Jewish-only settlements on more than 60 per cent of the West Bank and a concentration camp in the Gaza Strip.

This racist solution — camouflaged as the minimum that “both parties” could agree to, regardless of the rights of more than six million refugees living in the diaspora and 1.7 million Palestinians living as third class citizens in Israel — has posed a serious challenge to the so-called Palestinian national program.

This solution has created a bantustan in Palestine — one that the chiefs of the infamous South African “independent homelands” with their Pretoria-based white apartheidmasters would have found “reasonable and fair” since it guarantees the ethnonational identities of the parties involved.

What has been totally overlooked is the nature of Israel as a settler-colonial entity that has, like apartheid South Africa, colonized the land and obliterated the basic rights of the indigenous population. But in addition to its institutionalized apartheid policies, Israel has gone on to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, with the complicity of hypocritical Western governments and the UN.

Have Palestinians been abandoned?

Have Palestinians lost hope? Has their leadership abandoned them since 1993, with the signing of the Oslo accords?

Do Yarmouk refugees still think that the PLO is their “sole, legitimate representative?”

Are Palestinians in Gaza, after three massive Israeli attacks in six years, and an ongoing medieval siege, being called on to succumb to Israel and kiss the hands of the so-called international community and its aid organizations which have failed to rebuild a single home of the thousands that were destroyed by Israel seven months ago?

Are Palestinians supposed to go on negotiating with the incoming fascist government of Israel headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, knowing very well that the next Israeli massacre is going to be far worse than the previous ones?

It is time for the Palestinian liberation struggle to adopt tactics that have been successful against racist, settler-colonial ideologies in the American South and South Africa. Without serious intervention from freedom-loving nations, civil society, conscientious people, and internal mass mobilization in South Africa, Nelson Mandela would have died in jail and South Africa would probably still be an apartheid state.

Making Israel helpless

Hence, the only route we, in Palestine, can see to end Zionist atrocities committed against unarmed civilians is in the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Israel may have one of the world’s strongest armies and be the largest recipient of US military aid, yet it will find itself helpless against the will of ordinary people who have decided to boycott its products and its racist institutions.

No government can force its citizens to buy Israeli goods or its artists to perform in Tel Aviv, the Middle East’s equivalent to Sun City during South Africa’s apartheid era. The Palestinian-led BDS movement, launched in 2005, has continued to grow and has gained unstoppable momentum around the world.

Ordinary Palestinians have realized that a colonized mind cannot and will not liberate Palestine; a decolonization of the Palestinian mind must precede the decolonization of the land.

And that is precisely why the Oslo accords have failed Palestinians. They have kept Palestinian leaders in both the Fatah and Hamas camps trapped behind the façade of false “independence,” “dialogue,” and “coexistence” based on Palestinian subordination to the white, Ashkenazi master.

It is time for the current Fatah and Hamas leaderships to catch up with the people of Palestine who have roundly rejected the Oslo accords and remained steadfast in their determination to regain their lost land. Those who wish to lead Palestinians need to embody this determination and to represent it as the inspiring vision that it is.

It is not a vision of weakness or submission at the negotiating table, but rather an expression of the will of a people who will not rest until they get back what is rightfully theirs.

It is an expression of true democracy.

Haidar Eid is an independent political commentator from the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

[cloggypop]

I am switching brands of hummus and cancelling my soda stream and uzi orders.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

I am switching brands of hummus and cancelling my soda stream and uzi orders.

That's the worst thing about BDS - the shit that Israel produces, nobody in their right mind would buy anyway.

[Jairzinho]

Less easy to boycott Intel, though.

 

Everyone boycotting Starbucks, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Nestle would be nice.

[stringvest]

it is easy to boycott Israeli goods. Every right-minded person should do it.   

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

it is easy to boycott Israeli goods. Every right-minded person should do it.

I boycott them, and even if I didn't I still wouldn't be buying anything from them.

[Oh Buoy]

Interesting watch if you've got the time. 

 

[KopOut]

It's 50 years since Churchill was buried. Love him or hate him, his influence in geo-politics was massive. Particularly in the Middle East. We are still dealing with the fall out of his interference.

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/28/winston-churchill-the-imperial-monster/

[Strontium]

Saudi bombing of Yemen has killed around 1,000 people in the past month. Did anyone notice?

[stringvest]

We've all noticed. Saudis are vermin as well.

[Rico1304]

Saudi bombing of Yemen has killed around 1,000 people in the past month. Did anyone notice?

No marches though...

[Jairzinho]

No marches though...

 

There was one in London yesterday.

[Rico1304]

Was there? Saw the one in Brixton, nothing else in the news. How many turned up?

[VladimirIlyich]

Saudi bombing of Yemen has killed around 1,000 people in the past month. Did anyone notice?

They are our Allies so it doesnt matter!

 

In all honesty I didnt know of this and I'm sure they did the bombing in their shiny,new,French,German,UK,American et al,made aeroplanes.

[Jairzinho]

Yes, how surprising it wasn't on the news.

 

Don't know, I wasn't there.

[Rico1304]

Yes, how surprising it wasn't on the news.

 

Don't know, I wasn't there.

I've googled it but nothing...am I being thick?

[Jairzinho]

I saw it mentioned on the Stop the War website about a week ago. I'd be surprised if there were enormous numbers on the march. Mind you, main stream media in this country has managed to bury protests with tens of thousands on them if they're promoting a message they don't agree with.

 

Do you really care though, Rico? Let's be honest, you just wanted to make a snide comment about people's support for the plight of Palestinians.

[Rico1304]

I saw it mentioned on the Stop the War website about a week ago. I'd be surprised if there were enormous numbers on the march. Mind you, main stream media in this country has managed to bury protests with tens of thousands on them if they're promoting a message they don't agree with.

 

Do you really care though, Rico? Let's be honest, you just wanted to make a snide comment about people's support for the plight of Palestinians.

Oh it was a pointed comment all right. It's consistency I crave.

[Jairzinho]

Sure, just like Stronts.

[Section_31]

Saudi bombing of Yemen has killed around 1,000 people in the past month. Did anyone notice?

"Saudi Bombing in the Yemen'. That's a film title if ever I heard it. Kira Knightly and some Asian bloke from EastEnders. Kermode would call it predictable but entertaining fare.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Consistency? I doubt you'll get anybody here defending Saudi. As I've mentioned on here several times, I think they're fucking appalling. There's undertones of being called an antisemite about this claim, really. Just because Israel gets - quite rightfully in my view - flak over their actions, it doesn't mean people approve about Saudi. Internally Israel is a far better country than Saudi. Externally, it's worse and more prominent in the media and gets spoken about more often.

[Stu Monty]

Saudi bombing of Yemen has killed around 1,000 people in the past month. Did anyone notice?

Did anyone hold Saudi Arabia up as a beacon of good in the region?

 

No.

 

So it's taken as a fucking given people think they are appaling twats and that people won't perform moral gymnastics to defend them.

[Funkasy]

Bring in Jan Egeland

[Strontium]

Did anyone hold Saudi Arabia up as a beacon of good in the region?

 

No.

 

So it's taken as a fucking given people think they are appaling twats and that people won't perform moral gymnastics to defend them.

 

Can I assume then that you will be boycotting Saudi goods too?