Zionism – Breaking News

By Robert Bloom

(source: NYTimes)

“The reports about the demise of the special relationship aren’t just premature, they’re just flat wrong,” the [Israeli] prime minister said. He publicly invited Mr. Obama to visit Israel, and the president said, “I’m ready.”

Dear Mr. Obama,

When you travel to Israel (formerly known as Palestine), be sure to visit some of the great tourist sites in Israel (formerly Palestine):

*The countless checkpoints, where Palestinians are humiliated and mistreated every hour of every day (and don’t forget to ask to see the several locations where Palestinian women have lost their children and/or died in childbirth at these places because the Israelis wouldn’t process them through);

*The handsome and loving wall that keeps families apart and prevents Palestinians from getting to work. As an added benefit, this could be the model for the ever-expanding wall that many americans would like to see at the Mexican border;

Read More »A presidential tour guide to Isarael

By Patrick Martin

(source: World Socialist Website)

Saturday’s parliamentary election in Afghanistan was a predictable debacle, characterized by widespread fraud and violence, and largely boycotted by the Afghan population. Officials of the US-dominated government of President Hamid Karzai said 3.6 million people cast ballots, far below the 6 million ballots claimed for last year’s presidential election, which was rigged to ensure Karzai’s reelection.

The 3.6 million ballots represents barely 31 percent of the 11.4 million registered voters, but the Karzai government tried to boost that figure to 40 percent, arguing that the 2.2 million people registered in areas where voting could not be conducted because of security concerns should be excluded from the total of registered voters.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has previously said that 16.7 million people have been registered to vote since 2003, which would make the turnout only 21 percent. Whatever number is chosen, however, there is no dispute that the turnout was low, except in certain neighborhoods in Kabul, the capital city, under tight control by US and NATO forces.

Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak effectively conceded that the political influence of the Taliban was growing, telling the press, in explanation of the low turnout, “One possibility is that the propaganda of the enemy affected the psyche of the people.”

Read More »Fraud violence mass abstention election debacle in Afghanistan

By Ali Abunimah

(source: Electronic Intifada)

We are in the middle of a political earthquake in the Arab world and the ground has still not stopped shaking. To make predictions when36are so fluid is risky, but there is no doubt that the uprising in Egypt — however it ends — will have a dramatic impact across the region and within Palestine. If the Mubarak regime falls, and is replaced by one less tied to Israel and the United States, Israel will be a big loser.

As Aluf Benn commented in the Israeli daily Haaretz, “The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse” (Without Egypt, Israel will be left with no friends in Mideast). Indeed, Benn observes, “Israel is left with two strategic allies in the region: Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.” But what Benn does not say is that these two “allies” will not be immune either.

Over the past few weeks I was in Doha examining the Palestine Papers leaked to Al Jazeera. These documents underscore the extent to which the split between the US-backed Palestinian Authority in Ramallah headed by Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction, on the one hand, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, on the other — was a policy decision of regional powers: the United States, Egypt and Israel  This policy included Egypt’s strict enforcement of the siege of Gaza. If the Mubarak regime goes, the United States will lose enormous leverage over the situation in Palestine, and Abbas’ PA will lose one of its main allies against Hamas.

Already discredited by the extent of its collaboration and capitulation exposed in the Palestine Papers, the PA will be weakened even further. With no credible “peace process” to justify its continued “security co-ordination” with Israel, or even its very existence, the countdown may well begin for the PA’s implosion. Even the US and EU support for the repressive PA police-state-in-the-making may no longer be politically tenable. Hamas may be the immediate beneficiary, but not necessarily in the long term. For the first time in years we are seeing broad mass movements that, while they include Islamists, are not necessarily dominated or controlled by them.

Read More »Egypts uprising its implications for Palestine

Algeria’s president seeks to extend his term in power beyond that allowed in the constitution, raising eyebrows, writes Nosreddine Qassem

Algerian President Abdul-Aziz Bouteflika formally announced his intention to amend the Algerian constitution to allow him to be president for a third term. According to Article 74 of the constitution endorsed in 1996, the presidential term is renewable only once. President Bouteflika submitted his amendments to parliament in anticipation of introducing more substantial amendments during a third term in office. It is expected that parliament will consider the amendment over the next two weeks.

It was after a speech delivered before judges at the inaugural session of the judiciary year that Bouteflika began addressing the nation. He formally announced the constitutional amendment that would be submitted to parliament instead of to a public poll, contrary to what he has repeatedly promised. According to Bouteflika, the shortcut was "due to the urgent and current challenges". The president did not exclude a public poll on more extensive amendments.

To the raised eyebrows of some, Bouteflika stressed that his amendments are aimed to "empower the people to practise their legal right in selecting whoever determines their fate and renew trust with full sovereignty". It is not anyone’s right, he added, "to restrict people’s freedom of expression. The relation between the elected ruler and the voter is a relation of mutual deep trust that has to be based on free and full conviction."

Proponents of the current constitution see Article 74 as a democratic gain in that it protects the homeland against tyranny and the lifetime rule of effective dictators. Bouteflika responded by saying that, "real rotation of power is the fruit of free choice as determined by the people themselves. In this regard, the people must be consulted using democratic and transparent free multi-candidate elections. Decision-making authority lies solely in the people’s hand."

The president’s announcement came as a surprise, but not to all. Since first elected, Bouteflika has appeared at times keen to extend the authorities of the presidency. Conflicts erupted, however, with groups that had cause to oppose the centralisation of power in Bouteflika’s hands. Repeatedly taken off the agenda, the long delay of the announcement created an assumption that the president might have changed his mind about the amendment. Recently he referred to "intensive commitments and accumulated priorities" as well as "multiple due rights" that prevented him pushing forward with his original plans to amend the constitution. He added: "major attention was focussed on anti-terrorism efforts, civil harmony and national reconciliation policy. Thus, the priority was fully given to public concerns and problems."

Parties supportive of the president, known as the Presidential Coalition comprising the Liberation Front Party, the National Democratic Gathering and the Peace Society Movement all welcomed the president’s decision, regarding it as strengthening democracy and allowing the people to choose whoever they want to be their leader. Opposition parties, topped by the Socialist Power Front (SPF), retorted that, "the president is amending the constitution to enable himself to run for presidential election, nothing more." The secretary-general of the SPF went as far as addressing the president directly, saying: "What you are doing is a serious threat. Law should dominate over all, and you are tailoring your own constitution according to your own ambition."

Activists and human rights organisations also have reservations on the president’s proposal, noting "the absence of an open serious discussion around [such] a crucial issue as amending the country’s basic law". Some stressed that multiple constitutional amendments diminish "state institutions and strip their legality", opening the way to "continuous violations of rights, freedoms and gained democracy". At the international level, Washington was the only capital that responded publicly. US State Department Spokesperson Sean McCormack deemed the issue an internal affair for Algeria and its people. Nonetheless, he called for complying with the principles of democracy, transparency and respecting the will of the people.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online

Read More »Another Lebanon?