Israeli Apartheid

By Phyllis Bennis

(source: Just News)

A growing grassroots movement is using the techniques of the anti-apartheid movement to challenge U.S. support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

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When Israeli commandos launched their assault on the unarmed flotilla of ships carrying hundreds of humanitarian aid workers and 10,000 tons of supplies for the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least nine activists and injuring scores more, part of the operation was “Made in the USA.”

Decades of uncritical U.S. financial, military, and diplomatic support has ensured that Israel’s military power—nuclear and conventional—remains unchallengeable. A U.S. pattern of using UN Security Council vetoes to protect Israel from accountability has ensured that Israel can essentially do whatever it likes with those U.S.-provided weapons, regardless of what U.S. or international laws may be broken.

Israel has long relied on the numerous U.S.-made and U.S.-financed Apache and Blackhawk war helicopters in its arsenal—it’s a good bet those were in use in the May 31st assault in international waters. Use of U.S.-provided weapons is severely limited by our own laws: The Arms Export Control Act (AECA) prohibits any recipient from using U.S. weapons except for security within its own borders, or for direct self-defense. And no amount of Israeli spin can make us believe that an attack by heavily-armed commandos jumping onto the decks of an unarmed civilian ship in international waters has anything to do with self-defense.

So yes—our tax dollars and our politicians’ decisions play a huge part in enabling not only the flotilla attack but Israel’s violations of human rights overall. But increasingly, across the country, people and organizations are standing up to say no to U.S. support for those policies of occupation and apartheid.

Read More »Waging peace from afar divestment and Isaraeli occupation

By Robert Fisk

(source: Robert Fisk’s ZSpace Page)

The latest cables released by Wikileaks show that the emirate’s growing power is seen as a threat elsewhere. Despite the leaked US diplomatic reports on Qatar and their claim that it is a major source of “terrorist” funding, Washington would do well not to mess with the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

He is the only world leader to march out of an American vice-president’s office in fury after just seven seconds. And his Al-Jazeera television station – for truly it does belong to him – has revolutionised reporting in the Middle East. Qatar may be tiny but in the region, it is very, very big indeed.

The Emir is a sharp man with an equally sharp sense of humour. He is known to have told a visitor that if he threw the Americans off their vast airbase at Doha – the largest US installation of its kind in the Middle East – “my Arab brothers would invade Qatar.” Asked what he would do if this was ever reported, he burst into laughter and said he would deny ever having said it. I imagine that’s what he’ll say about the latest trove of US diplomat-speak from WikiLeaks, which suggest that his television station has “proved itself a useful tool for [its] political masters”, providing “a substantial source of leverage for Qatar, one which it is unlikely to relinquish”. I doubt if the Emir could care less.

Al-Jazeera, of course, has been enjoying Washington’s embarrassment, sharing the disclosures with viewers on both its news channels, Arabic and English, while squeezing American government spokesmen and women dry. When the Iraq cables came out, proving that the US had turned a blind eye to torture by the Maliki government, Al-Jazeera put the former US commander in Iraq on screen; his attempts to wriggle out of the questions were deeply embarrassing.

Read More »Qatars the star “ and washington is worried