Picture: REUTERS/Matthews Baloyi (SOUTH AFRICA)- Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) marched through the streets of… Read More »Update workers gather for Klerksdorp COSATU march
CHARGE THE LOBBY
By Ramzy Baroud
One cannot emphasize enough the stranglehold Israel’s lobbying infrastructure has on US foreign policy. The36of recent weeks undoubtedly attest to this. "The special relationship" that has been historically fostered between the US and Israel in fact, is often a relationship of leverage, manipulation and intimidation, and often leads to the US supporting actions or resolutions that stand at complete odds with the interests of the American people.
The promise of change echoed the world over as people from all corners anticipated the magic moment Obama could actually change the devastating reality in which we live today. But just weeks before his inauguration, Israel unleashed the most barbaric attacks on defenseless Palestinian civilians since 1948. Civil societies expressed outrage and called for Israeli leaders to be tried for war crimes and genocide. Other nations cut diplomatic ties completely with the Jewish state. But the man of change did absolutely nothing. For weeks he was completely silent. Even in his first days in office, Obama made no mention of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. So, what of this change that he promised? What kind of hold does Israel have to silence the President of the United States?
Did Sri Lanka Secure Peace?
Whilst the Sri Lankan government celebrates a military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers), the prospects for permanent peace seem remote given that the underlying causes for the rebellion have not been addressed.
The Sinhalese, comprising of over 70% of the population, have been accused of oppressing and impoverishing the minority Tamils, who populate the North-Eastern parts of Sri Lanka. After independence from the British, the Sri Lankan government made Sinhalese the official language, effectively excluding the Tamils from government posts.
Numerous pogroms against the Tamils have been reported, forcing them to flee to the north. Demands by the LTTE for independence or autonomy have been met with brutal military force, causing deep resentment and spawning a guerrilla movement.
The Mahavali Scheme diverting the largest river for irrigation and power-generation were given to 80,000 Sinhalese in the east, where Tamils were some 40% of the population (they are 86% of the population in the north), was viewed as colonizing Tamil lands, sparking horrific communal riots.
Tens of thousands of innocent lives were lost in atrocities and massacres perpetrated by both sides, but the Sri Lankan government succeeded in persuading the USA to classify the LTTE as a “terrorist organization”. As a result, the Tamil Tigers sources of finance and military supplies dwindled, the resistance weakened and they were defeated.
The reaction of the Tamil Tigers to their oppression have, at times, been barbaric, the causes of their immense suffering still remain. The ruthlessness and savagery of the Sri Lankan government could further radicalise the Tamils, initiating prolonged civil strife. Until and unless their justified grievances are resolved, another guerilla uprising is likely to emerge.
Yours faithfully
Firoz Osman
MEDIA REVIEW NETWORK
Give Me Liberty … or Day Shopping
Jenin’s Model of "Economic Peace"
By JONATHAN COOK
Jenin.
The reality of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises of "economic peace" for the Palestinians is nowhere under greater scrutiny than in Jenin, the northern West Bank city being aggressively promoted as a potential model of co-operation with Israel.
Once known as the City of Martyrs for the high number of suicide bombers it despatched into Israel, Jenin was the site of a savage fight in 2002 as the Israeli army reoccupied much of the West Bank.
Israelis find it hard to forget that this was where they suffered the biggest loss of life in a single battle — 23 soldiers killed retaking the city. Palestinians find it hard to forgive the bulldozing of Jenin’s large refugee camp, and the killing of 56 inhabitants in a few days.
But today Jenin, the first Palestinian city to be sealed behind Israel’s separation wall, is being feted — at least by Israel — as a successful experiment in peacemaking.
The Palestinian gunmen who once roamed the streets are gone, replaced, by day, by lightly armed Palestinian security forces trained in Jordan by a US general, Keith Dayton.
Israeli soldiers, meanwhile, have unfettered access to the city between midnight and dawn, though nowadays, say local people, the army rarely makes incursions.
For Mr Netanyahu, Jenin represents his best hope of persuading Washington that an "economic and diplomatic peace", as he referred to it at the cabinet meeting on Sunday, rather than full statehood, will satisfy the Palestinians.
The process of easing restrictions began before Mr Netanyahu’s tenure in March. Last year, Ehud Barak, then as now the defense minister, called Jenin a "great success" in what was widely interpreted as a test of Palestinian readiness for limited statehood on Israeli terms.
Palestinian security forces were allowed into the city in May last year. Since then Israel has removed several of the checkpoints that cut Jenin off from the rest of the West Bank in a bid to boost trade.
Last week, Israel extended that policy by announcing that the King Hussein Bridge, the Palestinians’ only connection to Jordan and the Arab world, would be open 24 hours a day.
Read More »Give me liberty or day shopping jenins model of economic peace