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Us president gives green light for Isarael to continue its nuclear arms program

US President Gives Green Light for Israel to Continue Its Nuclear Arms Program
Sergio Yahni, Alternative Information Center (AIC)

 Dimona Reactor
The Dimona nuclear reactor in the south of Israel

According to the Israeli press, US President Barak Obama promised Prime Minister Netanyahu that he would maintain the current understandings between the two countries regarding Israel’s nuclear program.

Before the Obama-Netanyahu summit, at an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Rose Gottemoeller, declared that Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. These are the only four recognized sovereign states that are not parties to the treaty.

 

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Forbidden fruit

Forbidden fruit
Khaled Amayreh

Israel is pushing ahead with settlements, defying Obama to punish Adam, prophesies Khaled Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

In brazen defiance of American demands for freezing Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Israeli government has decided to build hundreds of additional settler units. On Monday, the government approved the expansion of the Adam colony, north of Jerusalem, despite repeated American and international calls for a total freeze of settlement expansion.

The approval, which okayed the building of at least 50 settler units, was made in coordination with settler leaders as well as the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. According to Defence Ministry sources, as many as 1,450 settler units were being planned in the Adam settlement alone. The Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot said that at least 3,200 settler units were under construction in the West Bank by the end of 2008.

This means that Israeli settlement expansion is still going at full speed irrespective of the Obama administration’s policy. The audacious decision to defy the Obama administration came hours before Defence Minister Ehud Barak was due to meet in New York with US Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell in an apparent effort to reach a "compromise formula" with the Obama administration. According to Israeli sources, the formula would allow Israel to keep up the building, though at a reduced pace.

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Whither somalia and her refugees?

* By Iqbal Jassat

Somalia’s instability as a result of the Ethiopian invasion has had a devastating effect on Somali refugees victimized by xenophobic violence in South Africa. Boxed in as they are within makeshift tents and other forms of temporary shelters, having been driven out of their war-torn country initially, these refugees have experienced a fresh blow to their meager struggle for survival.

While much is being made about the Somali refugee issue in South Africa alongside the unfortunate evictions suffered by many of the continents other asylum seekers, not enough is relayed through the media regarding the tragedy unfolding in their motherland, in the horn of Africa.

This disconnection adds to further xenophobic and criminal attacks, for Somalis are viewed as having voluntarily chosen to seek refuge away from home. Indeed, calls to have them repatriated are symptomatic of this form of ignorance.

Abdi Samatar, professor of Global Studies at the University of Minnesota summed up the situation in Somalia as follows in a recent interview with Democracy Now:

“The Ethiopian invasion, which was sanctioned by the US government, has destroyed virtually all the life-sustaining economic systems which the population have built without the government for the last fifteen years. And the militia that are supposed to protect the population have been looting shops. For instance, the Bakara market, which is the largest market in Mogadishu, has been looted repeatedly by the militias of the so-called Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, supported by Ethiopian troops. And the new prime minister of Somalia, Mr. Hassan Nur Hussein, has himself announced in the BBC that it was his militias that – who have looted this place. So what you have is a population that’s hit from both sides – on one side, by the militias of the so-called Transitional Federal Government, which is recognized by the United States, and on the other side, by the Ethiopian invaders who seem to be bent on ensuring that they break the will of the people to resist as free people in their own country……………………………..

 

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