To settlements in East Jerusalem, Obama says NO!

It’s long overdue, but this small shift in US policy towards Israel could have a big impact in the Middle East:

New York Times: “PARIS — President Barack Obama, who vowed to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process at the start of his term, has begun with a direct and public challenge to Israel’s latest plan to build new settlements in East Jerusalem.


It’s a risky move that has already provoked a sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But it is hard to see how the peace process could move forward if Washington had remained silent.


Mr. Obama picked a small but symbolic issue, a 20-unit housing project on the site of the former Shepherd Hotel, sparking a full-blown diplomatic standoff. Just days after the United States objected to the project, the European Union, Russia and France did the same.


This gambit puts the settlement issue at the center of the table, even before the next round of Arab-Israeli negotiations starts — if it ever does. The downside is that it might only serve to harden Israel’s stance, without softening Arab positions.”

Strange that a dramatic increase in opium production has taken place in Afghanistan since the US invaded in 2001. Strange? Maybe convenient is the right word.

Antony Loewenstein; Author, Journalist, Blogger and good friend -  currently in Palestine, writes the following  piece regarding life in the region:

Mondoweiss:

Loewenstein: Looking for God in a West Bank colony, Jews shoot me death stares

Antony Loewenstein writes from East Jerusalem:

The occupation hits you from the very beginning. Arriving at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, I caught a shared shuttle to East Jerusalem. I noticed an advertisement mentioning service to a number of settlements. It’s simply a normal part of life. No shame, no hiding, not even brazen.

Welcome to Israel.

The growing and visible religiosity of the city is apparent. I rode in the car with mostly religious American Jews, their conversation shifting from clipped English to Hebrew. Garbed in traditional black hat, black suit, black shoes and white shirt, they spoke mainly about everything other than Judaism. They were dropped off in various neighbourhoods, but everybody walking the streets there was ultra-Orthodox, from young boys and girls to women all seemingly pushing prams. They’re giving the Palestinians a run for their money over the birth-rate.

More significantly, however, like any other religious society, diversity of views aren’t welcomed; conformity is. Anti-Arab racism is on the rise, including the defacing of Arabic street signs (). Orthodox Jews attacked a female Australian journalist here last week for simply observing a protest. As a journalist friend of mine asked me today, where are the news stories in the Western media of incendiary comments by Rabbis and Jewish figures during Friday night Sabbath services? We both agreed that it was far easier to attack loopy Muslim clerics.

Despite Israel’s claims, it’s clear that East Jerusalem is part of the West Bank itself. Few Jews are sighted, and the ones I’ve seen look lost. The Muslim call to prayer echoes across the roof-tops. The beating sun ricochets off the Damascus Gate as aimless men stand and stare. Women hurry. Children play. Jews and Muslims rarely interact, except between Palestinian and IDF officer.

I met an English man in my hotel this morning who told me about his years working as a water consultant. He asked if I’d read the recent World Bank report on the issue. I’d skimmed it, but the message was clear: Palestinians only get a quarter of the water Israelis have access to. “Fuck the Israelis”, was his succinct response. He lost me, though, when he said that, “Jews historically have made two great mistakes. One, to be money-lenders in ancient times and two, allowing themselves to be used as pawns in the region by both the Brits and Americans.” I replied that the Israelis and many Jews didn’t see it that way, as Israel was a relatively thriving state supported by the major powers.

I spent the afternoon with a foreign correspondent colleague traveling through the West Bank. We visited an illegal outpost near Jerusalem, a motley collection of caravans, shipping containers, barbed-wire fence, green scrubs and electricity. It was hard to tell how many people lived there, but probably no more than 100. I received death stares from the Jews who saw me.

It all seemed peaceful enough, just Jews making a home in God’s land. But, of course, the tranquility is deeply deceiving. Such outposts would have to be removed if the Palestinians were ever to establish a viable state. Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit asked a few days ago whether President Obama would accept existing settlements if the outposts were evacuated. We have to hope not, though this is probably the most likely short-term reality.

Jerusalem Post editor David Horovitz wrote this week that the settler movement was just like any other, expanding the vision of Zionism, but clearly the world didn’t like this vision. He couldn’t really understand why.

I last visited the West Bank in 2005 and remember then being struck by the desolate beauty of the landscape. Much of the land remained unoccupied then, and still today, but the strategic hilltops are largely captured by colonies. It’s a harsh beauty, desert-like and unforgiving. The sun is punishing.

During a lunch in Ramallah over various plates of cooked meat, the foreign correspondent and I discussed reporting of the conflict. He was pessimistic about any prospects for peace, not least because the settlement movement was so pervasive. He said that the Gaza war was a defining moment for him, an “indiscriminate” battle that achieved nothing other than destruction. He was critical of Zionism and Israeli security policies.

Visiting Arafat’s grave, something I had done in 2005 when rubble surrounded the Muqata compound, was surreal. The Palestinian Authority has clearly received international funding to erect a shrine to their dead former leader. A calming water feature surrounds his grave, as PA soldiers guard the area. Peace and security may not have fully broken out in the West Bank, but Ramallah is Ground Zero for the Israeli and American plan for the territories: “charity, checkpoints and client rulers” ). Updated colonialism for the modern age.

After lunch we drove to the Ofra settlement, described by Wikipedia as the “flagship of the Israeli settlement project”, containing around 3000 residents. It’s a quasi-legal entity under Israeli law, even if some of the buildings allegedly never received governmental permission. We both commented that it felt and looked like a beach town, something akin to Anaheim in California. Children played in the swimming pool. Palm trees swayed in the light, warm breeze. Streets were clean. Houses looked established. Fruit trees and vineyards were clearly visible; I wondered on whose tables such products ended up.

The landscape is mountainous and arid, but perfectly green grass sits outside many homes. The idea that such mini-cities would be removed in any peace settlement seems fanciful when you see how rooted the people appear to the town. Their existence is illegal and the Palestinians are paying an awfully high price for a handful of Jews to find God, but drawing a line between a Jewish and Palestinian state is next to impossible with these facts on the ground. Colonies such as Ma’ale Adumin tower on the horizon.

Perhaps the strangest sight of the day was watching a handful of IDF soldiers helping a Palestinian women change a tyre on a West Bank road. I wonder how much more she must respect the occupation after that kind deed.

Michael Swartz’s latest article “Colonizing Iraq - The Obama Doctrine?” is a must read:

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“Unfortunately, not just for the Iraqis, but for the American public, it’s what’s happening in “the dark” — beyond the glare of lights and TV cameras — that counts. While many critics of the Iraq War have been willing to cut the Obama administration some slack as its foreign policy team and the U.S. military gear up for that definitive withdrawal, something else — something more unsettling — appears to be going on.”

My previous article “Pakistan’s dirty laundry” made an appearance at a lovely little place called Window Dresser’s Arms, Pig & Whistle

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“All good cyber pubs need a foreign correspondent to keep the patrons well-informed and up to date. Our man in the Middle East is Reuben Brand.”

In an article about Babak Rahimi, assistant professor of Iranian and Islamic Studies at UCSD, journalist Matthew T. Hall from the Union Tribune in San Diego gave me a lovely little plug. Thanks Matthew:

 

Reuben Brand, a freelance journalist based in Pakistan earlier this year, called Rahimi “a very brave individual” and posted this on the PBS site: “There should be more writers of this ilk who tell the stories others won’t.”

My following article, “Pakistan’s dirty laundry” was published in Online Opinion - Australia’s leading journal for social and political debate:

 

The ongoing war with the Taliban has nothing to do with freedom and democracy: it is a distraction. Look beyond the curtain and you will find a lot of dirty laundry.

 

The war for civilisation, the war on terror, the war for oil, natural resources, control, freedom, whatever you want to call it, it is here and it has made itself quite comfortable in the minds, media and lounge rooms of the world.

 

Pakistan is now public enemy number one and the US are making no attempts at hiding the fact that they want to bring this nuclear armed Islamic Republic to its knees. The war with the belligerent Taliban has become a joke, a proxy, and a distraction. And of course, as always, it is the innocent civilians caught, quite literally, in the crossfire who suffer most.

 

Thanks to US pressure, and the basic ultimatum of “either you fix the problem, or we’ll do it for you - Iraq style,” more than two million people are now refugees, baking in the oppressive summer heat in makeshift camps. With no proper amenities, little to no medical services and living in appalling conditions, it won’t take long before serious disease and sickness sets in. Not such happy campers.

 

So what exactly is this indigenous Pakistani Taliban that we are so obsessed about? The reality is they are nothing more than an excuse, used by both East and West to justify more violence. Sure they have committed some heinous and barbaric crimes, but at this point in “the war” they are now seen as means to an end. Nothing more than pawns in a larger chess match for control.

 

“We are not fanatics! We want what everyone wants. We want to be able to live our lives in peace!” said Omar, a local Pathan businessman, as we sit in his office in the heart of Peshawar.

 

“The Americans continuously terrorise us with their constant drone attacks in the tribal agencies, the Taliban don’t make it any easier for us to live in peace and the media portray us all as terrorists! We are not terrorists!” he said with frustrated passion.

 

Another man then spoke up, telling me in broken English that most of what the West see are the actions of common criminals: “most of these men are not even Taliban,” he said, “they are criminals and miscreants who are bought by external agencies like the CIA and India’s RAW agents to further destabilise Pakistan”.

 

Later that evening Omar kindly offered to take me into the centre of the Swat Valley, a Taliban stronghold. I assured him that my fair Aussie complexion and somewhat pathetic excuse for a beard was no match for the trained eyes of Taliban spies.

 

“I like my head firmly attached to my body” I said jokingly. He laughed, “You will be perfectly safe when you’re with me. You don’t have to worry about security, this is our insurance plan” he said, handing me his Kalashnikov. “I drive into some very remote parts of the tribal belt and sometimes into Afghanistan as part of my job, so I need this (weapon) for my protection,” he explained.

 

Later we heard a huge explosion as we sat drinking sweet buffalo milk tea - a music shop had been blown up, it was just up the road from his office - the media reported it the next day as an act of terrorism and, of course, the Taliban were responsible. But Omar believed it was nothing more than the jealousy of a competitor who wanted to generate more business for himself. Who needs an expensive media campaign when all you need to do is blow up the competition and blame it on the Taliban?

 

So the Taliban have become scapegoats. One such incident came as no surprise as only a few days ago a friend told me about a mulvi (religious leader) from his village, who had been discovered as a Hindu agent working for India. The man had been posing as a religious leader; he taught Islamic scripture and led the prayers in the local mosque; but it wasn’t until the inquisitive minds of the local children began to probe that his elaborate ruse became undone.

 

They saw him dancing and listening to pop music in the mosque. On telling their parents they were quickly scolded and called liars, but as time passed and the so called mulvi began asking for food enough for 20-plus men each night, the villagers became suspicious.

 

When asked who the food was for he would reply “guests” but no one was seen entering or leaving the mosque, until one morning the villagers found a group of Taliban fighters’ asleep inside. So again, it begs the question: who are the indigenous Taliban if some of them are not even Pakistani? These faux Taliban fighters’ are an excuse; they are the perfect playing field for the political motives of external agencies bent on further destabilising an already unstable country.

 

(Cultural note to self: When posing as a religious leader in a village in Pakistan do not be so stupid as to have a Bollywood dance-off in the mosque!)

 

So why destabilise this third world country? What does it have that the rest of the world so desperately craves? It sure isn’t its open sewers and copious piles of garbage. You don’t think it has something to do with Pakistan being the geographic doorway to Asia and the Middle East do you? Unlike Iraq, Pakistan has nukes. Unlike Afghanistan it has Osama bin Laden. And of course, it has an oil and gas route that the US wants for its Trans-Afghan pipeline. Did I mention the nukes? Lucky Pakistan.

 

If left to its own devices Pakistan has the potential to become a very powerful and prosperous country. Agriculture would blossom in its extremely fertile soil; it has its own oil reserves, nuclear capabilities, strategic trade routes, and natural resources galore. But who are we kidding? The first world lives on the back of the third world. They carry us. Perish the thought of living in a world without sweatshops and soccer balls, fake Reeboks, child labour and bootleg DVDs. Without the third world we would have no first world.

 

To make matters worse, there are also whispers for the need to break Pakistan up into smaller nation states. If you take away the sovereignty of a country and it makes it a lot easier to control.

 

A good friend of mine recently had a gun held to his head and was robbed of all his personal possessions in Lahore, one of Pakistan’s major cities. A senior government official later told me that “when the crime rate dramatically increases in certain areas, it is usually a sign that the Taliban are on the move … They send out gangs of thieves to steal what they can as a means of funding their operations.”

 

Just like my friend in Lahore, Pakistan also regularly falls victim to the rule of the gun. But you have to ask yourself; what is the difference between a military dictatorship which oppresses its citizens and rapes the country via greed, power and fear, to that of another militant force that comes under the guise of religion? Both regimes share fundamentally flawed objectives. Pakistan cannot afford either if it wants to survive.

 

The sad reality now is that democracy has become a beggar in Pakistan: it lives, starving, in the minds of many while greed and corruption remain fat and opulent. The fanatical religious factions and corrupt politicians, who routinely bend to the will of external influence, are dividing the country and tearing shreds off any hope of Pakistan moving forwards.

 

Keep an entire country occupied with an internal threat and you’re well on your way to imposing pseudo democracy. Or maybe with President Zardari’s track record he has better credentials as a dictator. Either way, fear is a great medium for control.