Zionism – Features

Millions displaced as Pakistani military extends its offensive
By James Cogan

An internally displaced girl, fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley, waits for food to be distributed at a UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) camp in Mardan, about 120 km (75 miles) north west of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad May 27, 2009.

The Pakistani military is deepening its assault against Islamist militants in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) district of Swat Valley and beginning to extend its operations into other ethnic Pashtun-populated areas. The Obama administration insisted that the Pakistani government launch the offensive as part of US efforts to crush the anti-occupation insurgency over the border in Afghanistan.

The present focus of the fighting is Mingora, once the largest city in Swat with a population over 250,000. It is estimated that all but 10,000 to 20,000 of its inhabitants fled before the military assault. In the east of the valley, troops have reportedly seized the former ski resort town of Maalam Jabba. To the west, operations are continuing against the remaining militants in the Peochar Valley.

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Offering Israel new opportunities for obstruction
Hasan Abu Nimah

Israel has never been short of pretexts for obstructing progress towards a Middle East peace settlement. But recent moves to push Arab and Muslim states to normalize ties with Israel as a reward for agreeing to freeze settlement construction will likely provide Israel with more opportunities for obstruction rather than incentives for cooperation.

The Arab Peace Initiative (API), approved by the 2002 Beirut Arab summit, offered Israel full peace and normal ties with all 22 members of the Arab League, if only Israel ended its occupation of the Arab land it seized in 1967. This offer already implicated Arab states that were never directly linked to the conflict. At a later stage, the API was expanded to include all 56 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Israel could now insist that the 56 OIC members, as well as every Arab state, must first commit to specific normalization steps, and perhaps even recognition, before it makes any substantive moves itself.

Any progress towards a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict may therefore have to wait until Benin, Somalia, the Maldives, Brunei, Afghanistan, Iran, or Suriname, for example, decide if they were willing to meet Israeli conditions.

After concluding peace treaties with Egypt in 1979, and Jordan in 1994, Israel needs to end its remaining conflict with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians. Neither Bangladesh nor Burkina Faso need to be drawn in.

So why should the scope of a conflict, initially confined to few countries, be expanded to involve remote states on several continents? Doesn’t this provide validation to Israel’s false claims that the conflict stems not from Israeli usurpation of specific land and rights, but from the failure of Muslims — due to inherent anti-Semitism — to accept a "Jewish state"?

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