Sunday Roundup - December 7, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Eric Garner's death, US deportations, Israeli politics, Senator Harkin on Obamacare, Ukraine, and in brief, South Sudan and Gaza.

Correction to December 3 post, "The Death of Michael Brown": The original post gave the distance from the shooter, Darren Wilson, to Michael Brown as 148 feet as estimated by an independent source.  148 feet was the distance from Darren Wilson's SUV to the point where Michael Brown had run as estimated by the independent source.

Eric Garner

Midtown New York, Dec. 5, Credit: REUTERS/Adrees Latif

A grand jury once again failed to indict after the death of an unarmed African-American at the hands of a white police officer.  The victim this time was Eric Garner and the place was New York City.  The case of New York Police Department officer David Pantaleo wasn’t supposed to be like Ferguson. There was a video showing how a simple stop for selling untaxed cigarettes turned into a chokehold — a move prohibited by the NYPD. The medical examiner ruled the incident a homicide. Eric Garner repeatedly shouted “I can’t breathe” just before he died.  Yet, as in Ferguson, the Staten Island grand jury voted not to indict Pantaleo for anything, leaving the nation — even legal experts – exasperated, frustrated, and grasping to understand why. [Think Progress, Dec. 3]  The White House announced a civil rights investigation as protesters took to the streets.  The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has announced a federal investigation into “potential civil rights violations” around the death of Eric Garner after a grand jury decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the New York police officer who placed the unarmed black man in a chokehold.  Thousands of demonstrators disrupted New York City traffic into the early hours of Thursday after the grand jury verdict. Mostly peaceful protests had sprung up on Wednesday evening at locations throughout Manhattan, including Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and near Rockefeller Center, after the panel returned no indictment. [The Guardian, Dec. 4]  Protests in New York have continued into the weekend.  Protests over U.S. police violence against minorities, sparked by grand-jury decisions not to charge officers in two high-profile cases, were peaceful on their third night in New York although 20 arrests took place, authorities said on Saturday.  Protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and blocking traffic on the city's FDR Drive, a major artery that runs along the eastern side of Manhattan....The wave of angry protests began on Wednesday when a New York grand jury declined to bring charges against white officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a black 43-year-old father of six. [Reuters, Dec. 6]

Related
‘I can’t breathe’: Why Eric Garner protests are gaining momentum [Reuters, Dec. 5]  “Black Lives Matter” has become, like an earlier generation’s use of the terms “Freedom Now” and “We Shall Overcome,” an anthem for contemporary civil and human rights activism. The struggle for black equality historically and now, offers us all a chance to transform and save American democracy.

US Deportations
The American Civil Liberties Union released a report on Dec. 4 that underscores a troublesome pattern that has received far less attention [than Obama's immigration plan]: Of the 438,421 people deported in 2013, 83 percent received a summary removal, meaning that they were sent to their country of origin by US officials without a hearing. And according to the ACLU's research, many of these removals were illegal: Asylum seekers, unaccompanied kids, and others who may have qualified for relief routinely have been turned away.  There has been a backlog in the immigration court for many years and the deportations are being made using a 1996 law that, in theory, prevents immigration courts from being completely inundated while also providing safeguards...But according to the ACLU's findings, these protocols aren't often followed...No one, the ACLU included, seems to be able to provide a realistic solution to the immigration court backlog; it's undeniable that if all those requesting asylum were given a trial, the system would be further clogged.  [Mother Jones, Dec.4]

Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu's government collapsed after the ouster of two cabinet ministers who opposed the so-called "Jewish state" bill.  Three days after the Peace Now demonstration outside the Prime Minister’s home in Jerusalem, which featured a call for toppling and replacing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the government did in fact collapse. The Knesset is in the process of dissolving itself and its members have already agreed on a date for early elections.  Israelis will go to the polls on March 17, almost two full years before the end of the term of this government. [Americans for Peace Now, Dec. 3]  I'd like to share APN's optimism that the elections will bring to power an Israeli government committed to a two-state solution, but Israeli politics and public opinion continue to move to the right.  A new poll published Sunday in the Haaretz newspaper showed that while Netanyahu’s popularity is currently down, Israelis continue to support him over other prime ministerial candidates. Asked which politician is most suited to be prime minister, 35% answered Netanyahu....The same poll showed shrinking support for Lapid’s [the fired  finance minister's] centrist party and for the centrist-left-wing parties Hatnuah and Labor. The only parties to show gains are the right-wing Jewish Home and Israel Beiteinu Parties. [BuzzFeed, Dec. 3]
The UN overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution urging Israel to renounce possession of nuclear weapons and put its nuclear facilities under UN supervision and criticizing the country for not being part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  Israel possesses an estimated 80 nuclear weapons.  The resolution calls on Israel to "accede to that treaty without further delay, not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons, to renounce possession of nuclear weapons," and put its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency...Israel, which is believed to have nuclear arms but has never admitted to it, has long been under fire from Arab countries in the region for not putting its alleged stockpile under international supervision.  The resolution, initiated by Egypt, was approved by 161 nations with only five voting against it and 18 abstentions.  [Russia Times, Dec. 3]

Senator Harkin:  We Should Have Passed Single-Payer
The coauthor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act regrets that the filibuster-proof Senate of 2009 did not pass a single payer healthcare system instead.  Sen. Tom Harkin, one of the co-authors of the Affordable Care Act, now thinks Democrats may have been better off not passing it at all and holding out for a better bill.  The Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, laments the complexity of legislation the Senate passed five years ago.  He wonders in hindsight whether the law was made overly complicated to satisfy the political concerns of a few Democratic centrists who have since left Congress....Harkin, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, says in retrospect the Democratic-controlled Senate and House should have enacted a single-payer healthcare system or a public option to give the uninsured access to government-run health plans that compete with private insurance companies.  “We had the votes in ’09. We had a huge majority in the House, we had 60 votes in the Senate,” he said.  He believes Congress should have enacted “single-payer right from the get-go or at least put a public option would have simplified a lot....  We had the votes to do that and we blew it,” he said....Harkin...believes Obama and Democratic leaders could have enacted better policy had they stood up to three centrists who balked at the public option: Sens. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), a Democrat turned independent, Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). [The Hill, Dec. 3]  

Ukraine
In spite of recent fighting near the Donetsk airport, there is hope for the shaky ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.  Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels said Thursday they had agreed to halt fire on December 9 under the terms of a truce aimed at ending one of Europe's bloodiest conflicts in decades.  The unexpected announcement provides the latest glimmer of hope that fighting across the eastern rustbelt of the ex-Soviet nation was nearing to a close after eight months that saw 4,300 people killed and shattered Moscow's ties with the West....A source in [Ukrainian President] Poroshenko's office said the president's statement meant Ukraine would begin withdrawing heavy weapons from the eastern frontline on December 10 -- as long as the separatists also observed the truce....Several truce deals announced in the course of the war were broken within days by both rebels and Ukrainian soldiers who refused to listen to their political leaders. The head of the neighbouring self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic said a ceasefire that would begin in mid-December was discussed at the [September] Minsk negotiations. [AFP/ via Yahoo News, Dec. 4]

Related
"How can the West solve its Ukraine problem?" [BBC News, Dec. 3] Russia badly overplayed its hand last year ...The European Union is now risking the same thing by trying to bring Ukraine into the West without reference to economic reality or the willingness of European publics to bear the enormous costs involved.  The author lays out the economic and political reality in the Ukraine and the compromises needed by both sides for a lasting peace.

In Brief
South Sudan
The civil war in South Sudan claimed at least 50 000 lives so far [enca.com, Nov. 15]

"South Sudan: the impact of war and the importance of peace"  [The Guardian, Nov. 26] 
While South Sudan peace talks continue in Ethiopia and Tanzania, bitterly divided communities look for solutions closer to home.  The civil war in South Sudan has so far claimed at least 50,000 lives.

Gaza
U.N. begins inquiry into attacks and weapons in Gaza [Reuters, Dec. 3]

Project launched to clear Gaza rubble: UN begins clearing some 2.5 million tons of rubble from Strip, courtesy of $3.2 million donation from Sweden. [YNet/AP, Dec. 3]

Palestinian engineer has developed a replacement for cement to help the Gaza Strip deal with its housing crisis after the Israeli war [World Bulletin, Dec. 5] 
Since the July-August war, in which more than 2,100 Palestinians and 70 Israelis were killed, barely any progress has been made rebuilding the shattered territory, despite donors pledging $5 billion.  Israel tightly monitors the import of construction materials and equipment into Gaza, arguing that otherwise it could be used to rebuild tunnels used by Hamas who control the strip.  Palestinian officials and critics of Israeli policy say that has made it impossible to rebuild, leaving 40,000 of the strip's 1.8 million residents in temporary shelter and thousands more facing winter in barely habitable ruins. 

Where is the outrage?

Gaza devastation from Israeli bombings -
originally reported by ABC as Israelis fleeing to a bomb shelter

We have become accustomed to the one-sided reporting of the American and Western media on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The current outbreak of fighting is getting similar biased coverage and little to no reaction from most of the world's governments.  The disruptive but useless rocket launchings into Israel are being treated similarly to the devastation being wreaked by Israeli bombing raids into Gaza.  As of this morning, 204 Palestinians have been killed and 1450 wounded.  Most of these are civilians and include numerous children.  According to the UN,  1,370 homes have been destroyed, directly displacing 8,200 Palestinians, and 600,000 people were at risk of losing access to water supply.   The Israelis have suffered 1 death and "several" wounded. 


The increase in hostilities started when Israel assassinated seven Hamas members after declaring Hamas responsible for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers.  The fact that Hamas had nothing to do with the incident and that another group took credit for it apparently meant nothing to the self-appointed judge, jury and executioner.  Hamas responded to these murders by launching rockets into Israel - which. of course, gave Israel the excuse to overreact and begin the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.


Why is the world not outraged at the latest Israeli war crimes?  Have we become so used to the tragedy that is Gaza that we no longer care?  Have we become so inured to the collective punishment of these stateless people that additional hundreds of mostly civilian deaths mean nothing? 


Declaring America to be Israel's great friend and asking for peace, as Obama did in an op-ed piece in Haaretz, is fine and good.  Meanwhile, the killing of Palestinians continues.  As long as the United States continues to condone - by its inaction, by its military aid and by its use of the veto in the UN - Israel's illegal actions, nothing will change.  Gaza is deemed to become unlivable by 2020.  The ongoing blockade and the devastation being wreaked by the Israeli attacks may hasten that date.

18 members of the family of a Gaza police chief were killed in an Israeli air strike
.Photo in Al Jazeera is by Mohammed Salem/Reuters

Al Jazeera reported on the promised escalation of attacks by Israel after Hamas rejected the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.  "Hamas said it never received a cease-fire proposal, and added that any deal that did not address its preconditions could not be approved. The group is demanding that Israel end its seven-year blockade on the occupied territory, recommitment by Israel to the terms of the 2012 cease-fire that ended the last offensive and the release of scores of Hamas members arrested across the West Bank in past weeks.  Hamas also wants Egypt to ease its Rafah border closure, which along with Israel's control of Gaza's other borders has economically strangled the strip and restricted the movement of its residents."  The same article reports on the Human Rights Watch's statement.  HRW said that " 'providing warnings does not make an otherwise unlawful attack lawful,' and condemned both Israeli and Gazan attacks on civilians. Israeli airstrikes investigated by HRW have been targeting civilian structures and often unlawfully killing civilians. 'Deliberate or reckless attacks violating the laws of war are war crimes,' the rights group said in a statement.  HRW also condemned Israel's attacks on the family homes of alleged Hamas members. 'The presence of a single, low-level fighter would hardly justify the appalling obliteration of an entire family,' Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of HRW, said in the statement. 'Israel would never accept an argument that any Israeli home of an Israel Defense Force member would be a valid military target.' "


Link to petition requesting Obama to demand that Israelis refrain from bombing Gaza hospital

Sunday Roundup - July 6, 2014

This is the third of four special editions of The Sunday Roundup.  Today we continue to look at the historical roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, covering the period from 1950 to 2000.

1950's

Tensions remained high after the armistice agreements that ended the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.

Conflict along the Jordanian border went through gradual stages, building up from small Israeli raids with Palestinian counter raids through major Israeli incursions.

Summer 1954 - Israeli false-flag operation to plant bombs inside civilian targets within Egypt and blame the resulting damage on radical Arab factions is uncovered and stopped. ("The Lavon Affair")

February 1955 - Israeli raid on an Egyptian military outpost in Gaza kills 37 Egyptian soldiers. The Egyptian government began to actively sponsor, train, and arm the Palestinian volunteers from Gaza as fedayeen units which committed raids into Israel.

July 1956 - Egypt's President Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal. The ensuing "Suez Crisis" was a diplomatic and military confrontation between Egypt on one side, and Britain, France and Israel on the other. The United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations playing major roles in forcing Britain, France and Israel to withdraw.

The Six-Day War

June 1967 - After years of tension because of Egyptian-aided fedayeen attacks, the "Six Day War" began on June 5 with Israel launching surprise strikes against Egyptian airfields in response to the mobilisation of Egyptian forces on the Israeli border.

• Israel took control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt; the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan; and the Golan Heights from Syria.
• An estimated 300,000 Palestinians left the West Bank and Gaza, most of whom settled in Jordan. Minority Jews living across the Arab world faced persecution and expulsion following the war.
• Israel having thus captured the rest of Mandate Palestine from Jordan and Egypt began a policy of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories.

September 1967 - The Khartoum Resolution issued at the Arab League Summit, commits Arab states to ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the land seized in the Six Day War and to insist on the rights of the Palestinian people in their own country.

Fallout from the Six Day War

July 1968 - Armed, non-state actors such as Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine achieved the majority of the Palestinian National Council votes

February 3, 1969 - at the Palestinian National Council in Cairo, the leader of the Fatah, Yasser Arafat was elected as the chairman of the PLO.

1969 - PLO attempts to take control of the West Bank. Israeli Defense Forces force them into Jordan.

September 1970 - July 1971 A military struggle between Jordan and the Palestinian armed organizations results in the expulsion of the PLO to Lebanon.

1971 to 1981 - The center of PLO activity shifted to Lebanon, where they established bases to stage attacks on Israel and launch an international terror campaign, largely aimed at abducting airplanes.

1975 - Start of the Lebanon Civil War. The war continued until 1990.

1977 - The rise of the Likud Party to power in Israel leads to increased settlement-building in the Occupied Territories.

1978-9 - Camp David Accords Sep.17, 1978 lead to 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.

1981 - Israel unilaterally annexes the Golan Hights, taken from Syria in the 1967 war.

1981-2 - One-year ceasefire brings a temporary halt to the fighting along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

1982 - Israel invades Lebanon (1982 Lebanon War). In June 1985, Israel withdrew most of its troops from Lebanon, leaving a residual Israeli force and an Israeli-supported militia in southern Lebanon as a "security zone" and buffer against attacks on its northern territory. The remaining Israeli troops were finally withdrawn in 2000.

1982 - Israel returns Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in accordance with terms of the 1979 peace treaty. The Gaza Strip remains occupied by Israel.

1987 - Start of the First Palestinian Intifada (uprising). Hamas is founded. The Intifada lasts until the Madrid Conference. of 1991.

1990 - 1991 - First Gulf War. PLO leader Arafat's support for Iraq leads to many Arab states cutting off funds to the PLO.

October 30 - Nov. 1, 1991 - Madrid Conference, cosponsored by US and USSR, was an attempt to re-initiate a Middle East peace process. It lead to a series of bilateral and multilateral negotiations between Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinians that lasted until January 1994. The Conference and the ensuing negotiations had few concrete accomplishments but did establish a basis for dialogue.

1993-2000 - The Oslo Peace Process

The Oslo peace process continued throughout the 1990s with both sides obligated to work towards a two-state solution. The Declaration of Principles signed by Yassar Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in September 1993 was a major breakthrough achieved outside of the Madrid framework, which specifically barred foreign-residing PLO leaders from the negotiation process.

January 1993 - Israeli and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) negotiators began secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway.

September 9, 1993- Yasser Arafat sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, stating that the PLO officially recognized Israel's right to exist and officially renouncing terrorism.

September 13, 1993 - Arafat and Rabin signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington, D.C. The stated goals of the Oslo I Accord were a Palestinian interim Self-Government and a permanent settlement of unresolved issues within five years.

1994 - Establishment of the autonomous governmental authority, the Palestinian Authority and its associated governing institutions to administer Palestinian communities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

1994 - Jordan signs peace treaty with Israel. The West Bank and East Jerusalem remain occupied by Israel.

February, 1994 - Israeli extremist, a follower of the Kach Party, murdered 29 Palestinians and wounded 125 in Hebron (Cave of the Patriarchs massacre).

April, 1994 - As an act of revenge to the massacre, Hamas launched suicide attacks targeting the Israeli civilian population in many locations throughout Israel.

September 28, 1995 - Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in Washington.

• The agreement allowed the PLO leadership to relocate to the occupied territories and granted autonomy to the Palestinians with talks to follow regarding final status.
• In return the Palestinians recognized Israel's right to exist and promised to abstain from use of terror. The agreement was opposed by the Hamas and other Palestinian factions, whom at this point were committing suicide bomber attacks throughout Israel.

November 4, 1995 - Right-wing Jewish radical assassinates Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

1996 - The right-wing Likud Party candidate, Benjamin Netanyahu, is elected Prime Minister

November 17, 1998 - With the peace process faltering, Netanyahu and Arafat sign the Wye River Memorandum. The Memorandum detailed the steps to be taken by the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority to implement the earlier Interim Agreement of 1995.

July 2000 - Camp David 2000 Summit was held, aimed at reaching a "final status" agreement. The summit collapsed after Yasser Arafat would not accept a proposal drafted by American and Israeli negotiators. Israeli Prime Minister Barak was prepared to offer the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian capital in a part of East Jerusalem, 73% of the West Bank (excluding eastern Jerusalem) raising to 90–94% after 10–25 years, and financial reparations for Palestinian refugees in return for peace. Arafat turned down the offer without making a counter-offer.

Palestinian Territory 1949 vs. 1993-Present (Oslo 2)

During the civil war and the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948, Israel had captured nearly 60% of the land proposed for the new Palestinian State by UN Resolution 181, leaving Israelis in control of 78% of the former Mandate Palestine.  Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip (map on the left).  In the Six Day War of 1967, Israel captured both areas and began a policy of Jewish settlement building that has continued to the present day.  Shown in green on the map on the right is the area administered by the Palestinian National Authority per "Oslo 2".
                                     

References
Wikipedia articles on the topics related to Israeli-Palestinian conflict are the major source for these posts. The articles on Palestine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were particularly helpful.

Sunday Roundup - June 29, 2014

This is the second of four special editions of the Sunday Roundup.  Today we begin a look at the historical roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  This first part covers the period from World War I through the Lausanne Conference of 1949.

For hundreds of years prior to World War I, Palestine was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The late 19th and early 20th century saw the beginning of Arab nationalist and Zionist (i.e., Jewish nationalist) movements. Both groups were trying to create homelands for their peoples in the region. At the outbreak of WWI, the population of what would later become British-ruled Mandatory Palestine was about 800,000, 92% of whom were Arabs.

World War I - 1915-1918 - Conflicting and Broken Promises

July 1915-January 1916 - McMahon–Hussein Correspondence declared that the Arabs would revolt in alliance with the United Kingdom against the Ottoman Empire. In return the UK would recognize Arab independence in Palestine.

May 1916 - Sykes–Picot Agreement, a secret agreement between the UK and France, defining proposed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East should Ottoman Empire be defeated.

June 1917 to Sep 1918 (Battle of Megiddo) - Arab uprising and British campaign led by General Edmund Allenby, the British Empire's commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, drove the Turks out of the Levant, thereby fulfilling the conditions of the McMahon-Hussein correspondence.

November 1917 - the Balfour Declaration, a memorandum from the Paris Peace Conference in which the other Allies implicitly rejected the Sykes–Picot agreement by adopting a system of mandates for the region wrested from the Ottoman Empire. Balfour also stated that the Allies were committed to Zionism and had no intention of honoring their promises to the Arabs.

The Franco-Syrian War and the British Mandate

July, 1920 - Arab Kingdom of Syria is dissolved following the Franco-Syrian War. Palestinian Arab nationalists return from Damascus to Mandatory Palestine to continue the Arab nationalist struggle for a homeland. Amin al-Husseini, an architect of the Palestinian Arab national movement, declared the Jewish national movement an enemy to his cause.

1922 - British were formally awarded the mandate to govern Palestine.

1920, 1929 and 1936 - Palestinian uprisings

The Aftermath of World War II

1947 - In the aftermath of the Holocaust and the end of World War II, Great Britain announces its intention to end the Mandate for Palestine.

Nov 29, 1947 - UN General Assembly approves Resolution 181, which recommends the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. The recommendations for partition were rejected by Arab representatives but accepted for the most part by Jewish representatives to the talks. Arab rejection was based to a considerable on the ceding to Israel of 55% of Mandate Palestine when the Jewish population was 32% of the total.  Fighting breaks out between Arab and Jewish militias.

April 9, 1948 - Zionist extremists massacre 107 Palestinian villagers in Deir Yassin. News of the killings sparked terror within the Palestinian community, encouraging them to flee from their towns and villages in the face of Jewish troop advances, and it strengthened the resolve of Arab governments to intervene.

Spring 1948 - Jewish forces continued to advance and take Palestinian territory, creating a large scale refugee problem of Palestinian Arabs (the Palestinian Exodus). Between 700,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were forced to leave their homes. Palestinian villages were destroyed and abandoned Palestinian homes were taken by Jewish immigrants.

May 14, 1948 - Israel declares its independence. The ongoing civil war transformed into an inter-state conflict between Israel and the Arab states, becoming the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

September 17, 1948 - The UN mediator for the conflict, Folke Bernadotte, is assassinated by Zionist extremists. Bernadotte had proposed a two-state solution for the region, with boundaries drawn by the UN if the combatants could not agree, and the refugees' right of return.

December 11, 1948 - UN adopts Resolution 194 on the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

January - July 1949 - Armistice agreements are signed between Israel and Arab countries, ending the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. As a result of the war, the State of Israel retained the area that the UN General Assembly Resolution 181 had recommended for the proposed Jewish state and also took control of almost 60% of the area allocated for the proposed Arab state. No Arab Palestinian state was established.

April-September 1949 - Lausanne Conference. Israel rejects UN resolutions 181 (the original partition of 1947) and 194 (which called for the right of return for Palestinian refugees). Israel stated that its admission to UN membership, after it had set forth Israel's views regarding the Resolutions, meant that the UN considered them satisfactory; a contention the US Government rejected.

The Evolution of Palestine and Israel 1922 - 1949 (maps adapted from Wikipedia)

Mandatory Palestine           Jewish settlements            UN Resolution 181             1949 Actual 
         1922                         shown in blue -1947          proposed a Palestinian        After the war  
                                         Jewish population had       Arab state (green), a            Israel (white)
                                         increased from                 Jewish state (white),             Gaza Strip -
                                         83,790 in 1922 to             and an internationally-          occupied by
                                         608,000 in 1946;              administered Jerusalem        Egypt; West
                                         from 10.3% to 32%          (1948)                                Bank by Jordan


The 1949 armistice lines defining Israel's boundaries held until the Six-Day War in 1967.

The second part of this discussion will be posted July 6 and will cover the period from 1950 to the Camp David 2000 Summit Conference.

References
Wikipedia articles on the topics related to Israeli-Palestinian conflict are the major source for these posts. The articles on Palestine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were particularly useful.

Sunday Roundup - May 11

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media. Today we look at Obamacare, Republicans' economic myths, Iran's nuclear program, Pope Francis' comments on inequality to UN officials, Obama's last chance on the environment, and Ukraine.

Obamacare
The first open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act is complete and the numbers are in. Total enrollments came to at least 17.8 million, once you add together numbers from Medicaid [expansion], marketplace enrollments and the lowest estimates of how many people bought new ACA-compliant policies outside the exchanges. [NPR Shots blog, May 2]  That didn't stop Republicans from holding yet another hearing to convince people that the program is a failure.  House Republicans brought in insurance executives on Wednesday and tried to get them to say that only 2/3 of the enrollees had paid their premiums.  The executives were having  none of it.  As Salon.com reported: A slate of health insurance industry executives sat down in front of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee for oversight and gave their estimates for how many people who signed up for health coverage through the Affordable Care Act actually paid their first month’s premium....Across the board, the health insurance executives testified that the payment rate for premiums was somewhere between 80 and 90 percent, while stressing that these data are preliminary and that outstanding payments are still coming in.  After this latest rebuke to their fact-free view of reality, Republicans are apparently now turning to Plan B - using the Benghazi tragedy as something to stir up their base and raise money.

Economic Myths
Health care is just one of the many issues where Republicans refuse to face reality.  Sean McElwee in an April 28 article in Rolling Stone enumerates the extensive studies that show just about everything the Republicans believe about the economy to be wrong.  After quoting economist John Maynard Keynes famous line "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?", McElwee writes: Sadly, in their quest to concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the wealthiest members of society, today's Republicans have held the opposite position – as the evidence has piled up against them, they continue spreading the same myths.  McElwee proceeds to demolish right-wing myths about the minimum wage, the stimulus, taxing the rich, global warming and the Affordable Care Act.  It's a great, quick read and a good antidote to the nonsense that will be spewing in ever greater quantities from Republican mouths and right-wing media as the election season approaches.

Iran's Nuclear Program
John Glaser relates the comments of the former head of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission in a May 8 post at antiwar.org: The former head of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission believes Iran is more than a decade away from a nuclear weapon and that the Islamic Republic may not even want “the bomb,” according to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth (Ynet news)....Brigadier General (res.) Uzi Eilam, who for a decade headed the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, does not believe that Tehran is even close to having a bomb, if that is even what it really aspires to.  Glaser points out that this is consistent with US intelligence estimates and that Eilam is not the first Israeli insider to counter the political rhetoric of the Israeli right and Prime Minister Netanyahu, who have opposed the Iran nuclear negotiations.  Glaser wonders why despite Iran’s cooperation and compliance in unprecedented negotiations with world powers that aim to partially retard and comprehensively limit their civilian nuclear program, Western commentators of all stripes continue to refer to Iran's "nuclear weapons program".


"Legitimate Redistribution of Wealth to the Poor"

The Pope and Un Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
(Vatican Network website)

Pope Francis spoke to UN officials in Rome May 9, urging world leaders to resist the economy of exclusion and serve the poor.  As reported at the Common Dreams website: Pope Francis on Friday issued another indictment of inequality, saying that equitable economic and social progress are only possible through solidarity and generosity, and require the legitimate redistribution of wealth..."A contribution to this equitable development will also be made both by international activity aimed at the integral human development of all the world's peoples and by the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the State, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society," he continued.  HoundDog's May 9 blog at the DailyKos added:  Pope Francis' authentic Christianity comes as such an unfamiliar shock to many, that Pope Francis has had to deny he was a Marxist. He had a similar message to the World Economic Forum in January...Pope Francis' passion to improve the conditions of the world's poor, support for social justice inspires me....What will right-wing conservatives have to say about this? I can not wait to see how Representative Paul Ryan revises his draconian budget proposal which contains harsh cut backs in programs for the poor. Ryan has proclaimed his budgets are consistent with Catholic teachings, a claim I assert is simply impossible to support now.

Obama and the Environment
Calling it Obama's "last shot" to do something on the environment, Jeff Goodell wrote in an April 23 post in Rolling Stone magazine: In the next few months, [Obama] will take one of the biggest gambles of his presidency by testing the radical proposition that even SUV-loving Americans believe that global warming is real and are ready to do something about it....It's a gamble that could have a profound impact on energy politics, our economy and our ability to stabilize the climate. But if the president is wrong, it could not only cost his party control of the Senate this fall but also blow the last opportunity we have to save ourselves from life on a superheated planet.  Obama will take action in three key areas.

• In June, the EPA is expected to announce new rules for power plants, setting limits on carbon pollution.  Obama will be using his presidential powers to effectively hasten the phase-out of dirty coal from America's energy system. Right now, coal-fired power plants generate about 40 percent of the electricity in the U.S. and are by far the largest single source of heat-trapping gases.  
• A decision on the Keystone XL pipeline has been delayed while lawsuits on the pipeline's route go through the courts.  These are not expected to be resolved until after the November elections.  Goodell writes:  Although no final decision has been made, two high-level sources in the Obama administration told me recently that the president has all but decided to deny the permit for the pipeline.
• The next global climate summit will be in Paris in December 2015.  The objective is an international treaty to reduce carbon pollution.  Climate change, of course, is a global problem, and ultimately what matters is the degree to which Obama's actions in the U.S. inspire the world.  Regarding the international summit, Goodell quotes John Podesta, Obama's point man on climate policy: "Are we going to be on track to come to an agreement that will limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius, which is the threshold scientists have set for dangerous climate change?  Our goal is to give leadership and credibility to that effort."

Map is from infoplease.com

Ukraine

Ukraine is moving towards civil war as the government in Kiev cracks down on pro-separatists and as Donetsk, defying both Kiev and Putin, goes ahead with a referendum Sunday to create a quasi-independent statelet there.  [The Guardian, May 10]

Links
Complete text of Pope Francis' comments to UN

A Diplomatic Victory

The G3+3 have reached an interim six-month agreement with Iran on its nuclear program.  This is the best news on foreign relations that we have had for a long time.  Let's hope the war-mongers, neocons, lobby-influenced Congressmen, and Benjamin Netanyahu don't manage to find a way to scuttle it before the next stage.  Even as this past weekend's negotiations were getting underway, Senators, including Democrats, were lining up to impose additional sanctions on Iran.  Pro-Israel groups, mainly AIPAC, contributed no less than $12.5 million to congressional candidates during the period from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2012 - putting them solidly among the top special interest group lobbies in the country.   Nevertheless, the historic agreement, interim though it may be, was made and initial indications from Congress are that they will allow time to see if the agreement will work. 

As Reuters reported on Sunday November 24: "Iran and six world powers clinched a deal on Sunday curbing the Iranian nuclear programme in exchange for initial sanctions relief, signalling the start of a game-changing rapprochement that would reduce the risk of a wider Middle East war.  Aimed at easing a long festering standoff, the interim pact between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia won the critical endorsement of Iranian clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei...The agreement, which halts Iran's most sensitive nuclear activity, its higher-grade enrichment of uranium, was tailored as a package of confidence-building steps towards reducing decades of tension and ultimately creating a more stable, secure Middle East."  The negotiators noted that this was an important first step, that "the accord created time and space for follow-up talks on a comprehensive solution to the dispute".  Iranian Foreign Minister and chief negotiator Mohammed Javed Zarif said "in an interview broadcast on state television that Iran would move quickly to start implementing the agreement and it was ready to begin talks on a final accord."

Some US allies in the Middle East - particularly Saudi Arabia and Israel - are not happy with the détente in US-Iranian relations.  Netanyahu went so far as to call the negotiated agreement a "historic blunder."   To which should be said that Saudi Arabia and Israel should have no fears.  Just because we are lessening the chances of war in the Middle East doesn't mean they are no longer our allies. The amount of military aid and sales to these countries is staggering.  Israel receives direct US military aid - averaging 1.8 billion dollars annually since 1987 and increasing to 2.4 billion/year in 2008.  Saudi Arabia purchases billions of dollars of military equipment from the American arms industry.  With a more peaceful Middle East, perhaps there would not be a need for these expenditures. 

Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  As such, it has the right to develop its nuclear industry for peaceful purposes.  It also has the obligation to allow periodic inspections. As noted in a Washington Post article from August 2012, "IAEA inspectors are regularly in Iran, but the core of the current dispute is that Tehran is not letting them have unfettered access to all of the country’s nuclear installations."  Apparently that has changed with the agreement reached this weekend. 

Israel is not a signatory to the treaty and not subject to inspections of its nuclear facilities.  It is estimated that Israel has at least 80 nuclear weapons, although they have never admitted it publicly.  The last person to disclose the Israeli nuclear program, nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, "was kidnapped by Israeli agents in Italy, taken home to trial, convicted and served 18 years in jail, much of it in solitary confinement." [Washington Post]

Maybe it's too much to hope for but a totally nuclear free Middle East would be a good thing.  And a totally nuclear free world would be even better.  That would give us all something to be truly thankful for. 

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Happy Thanksgiving! The Left Bank Café will be back after the Thanksgiving holidays.

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Sunday Round-Up May 5, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media. Today we look at views and news on income inequality, bees and pesticides, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the Israeli campaign to get the United States to bomb Syria.  Special thanks to Le Monde Diplomatique, Mother Jones, The Guardian, and Haaretz.

In a May 1 article in Le Monde Diplomatique, Serge Halimi writes of the growing worldwide social and economic inequality.  He quotes Francis Fukyama: “Inequality per se has never been a big problem in American political culture, which emphasises equality of opportunity rather than of outcomes...But the system remains legitimate only as long as people believe that by working hard and doing their best, they and their children have a fair shot at getting ahead, and that the wealthy got there playing by the rules”. Halimi's analysis of the current economic situation (for example: "The 63,000 people — 18,000 in Asia, 17,000 in the US and 14,000 in Europe — who have a fortune of over $100m collectively own $39,900bn.") leads him to conclude that "All over the world this age-old faith, whose effect can be calming or anaesthetising, is evaporating." And the impact on democracy is telling.  In the US, Congress often does not enact laws that the majority want because of the influence of and pressure from well-funded lobbyists. "We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” ( Louis Brandeis, US Supreme Court Justice from 1916 to 1939)

In MotherJones, Tom Philpott reports on the European Commission's April 29 vote "to place a two-year moratorium on most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides, which are a widely used class of chemicals suspected of contributing to a severe global decline in honeybee health...In the wake of Europe's decisive action, the US Environmental Protection Agency dithered."

 

 

In Friday's Guardian, Ian Black reports on the attempt by a group of European leaders to break the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Elements of the appeal include recognizing the following: The Madrid and Oslo agreements "are moribund. Solutions based on the West Bank but excluding the Gaza Strip while perpetuating the split between the PLO and Hamas, will not work. The EU...must have a more equal role alongside the US. The Palestinian territories are under occupation. A 'peace process' that maintains and finances the status quo must end." One of the signatories Sir Jeremy Greenstock notes, "Whatever his rhetoric Barack Obama has not done anything significantly different from George Bush on this issue. We wanted to say with emphasis: 'It's time for a fresh start.' "

With Saturday's news that Israel launched an airstrike into Syria [see article in Huffington Post], this item from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz appears timely. Gideon Levy warns that Israel's "fear campaign calling upon Obama to bomb Syria has one real goal in mind. It's not helping Syria's civilians. It's a strike on Iran." Let's hope Obama is smart enough to ignore the Israeli advice and not get tricked into another war in the Middle East.

Stop Stumbling into War Now

Inconceivable as it may be after the recent disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq and in the midst of the ongoing economic problems in this country, the US may find itself in a war with Iran in the near future.  With increasingly belligerent talk and accusations against Iran from Israel's Netanyahu and with Israeli and American drones in the area, there is an increasing sense of a mindless drift towards war. 

Charles Mutede's February 14 post on The Stranger blog summarizes the situation with Israel's right-wing leader:  "Netanyahu apparently feels, however, that he can manipulate right-wing Israeli influence on American politics to make it impossible for Obama to stay out of an Israeli war on Iran. He has defied the Obama administration by refusing to assure Washington that he would consult them before making any decision on war with Iran." 

Frankly who the f**k does Netanyahu think he is?  Even George Bush would not be convinced to tolerate and support an Israeli strike against Iran. 

Hopefully Obama will not be forced into an Iran war by the right-wing lunatics and neocons in Congress and in the Republican Party in this election year.  Hopefully he will take the only path to peace possible and publicly warn Netanyahu that if he institutes any such attack against Washington's wishes, he is totally on his own for the duration. 

And hopefully, Obama was just grand-standing in his State of the Union when he said that he "will take no options off the table to achieve [the] goal [of preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons capability]".  As noted in today's Huffington Post, there is little enthusiasm in the military for any such war.  Quoting Gen. Martin Dempsey's comment to the National Journal last month,  a war with Iran "would be really destabilizing ... I personally believe that we should be in the business of deterring [war] as a first priority."  Dempsey is the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  So at least there is sanity at that spot.

As for the presence of US ships near Iranian waters and US drones near the Iranian border, Rep. Dennis Kucinich asks how would we react if an Iranian aircraft flew near our coast?  Maintaining the peace requires an all-out effort in diplomacy, not provocations against Iran's national sovereignty.  Kucinich suggests if we want to deter Iranians from nuclear energy, we should show them the cost of such energy and that there are better ways to power a nation.  If we want to deter them from developing nuclear weapons capability, the US should take the lead in nuclear disarmament.  As Kucinich says in the linked video , "Don't we have enough wars that we're fighting in the United States? Do we need another war? Did I miss something that we somehow ran out of wars?"

Noam Chomsky in a HuffingtonPost/TomDispatch co-post notes another diplomatic path to solve the nuclear weapons issue.  He sites overwhelming international support for undertaking "meaningful steps towards establishing a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, including Iran and Israel (and applying as well to U.S. forces deployed there), better still extending to South Asia."  This fuller solution (Middle East plus South Asia) would have the advantage of bringing Israel, Pakistan and India under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  These three countries are the only ones to never have signed the NPT and they all have nuclear weapons. (It should be noted that North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003.) 

There is some hope that world peace can be maintained and that we will not stumble into another disastrous war in the Middle East.  It is going to take hard diplomatic work, creative solutions, and the courage and political will to stand up to those who would clamor for that war or try to lure us into it.

The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

The Middle East peace process took a serious blow when George Mitchell resigned on Friday as Obama's special envoy after two frustrating years.  Mitchell played a major role in getting the centuries-old Irish question resolved but hit a wall in the Middle East.  (No pun intended.)  Obama claims that Mitchell had planned to stay in the position for two years.  Considering how little was accomplished due to Israeli intransigence and Palestinian turmoil, Mitchell may be resigning in frustration rather than for a time schedule. 

Obama plans a speech Thursday.  It will be interesting to see where that one goes.  Israel will listen to calls for compromise from no one, apparently not even the United States now.  An atmosphere in which a united Palestinian approach is considered a "complication" does not bode well.  Will Obama cave to the Israel lobby (which does not speak for many American Jews (e.g. Americans for Peace Now) or for the many Israeli peace activists) or will he take a more balanced stance and a personal, but politically risky, role to achieve a just peace for both sides?   The right-wing cabal in control of Israeli politics does not seem to understand that true peace and security will only come when justice is obtained for both sides.  And American politicians are too intent on winning the next election to do anything that can realistically achieve such a peace and so they blind themselves to what is one of the major causes of anti-American feeling in the region.

It will be especially interesting now that Arab demonstrators are calling on Israel to stop its oppression of the Palestinians in the annual protests against the "nakba" or "catastrophe" – the term they use to describe their defeat and displacement (read "ethnic cleansing") in the war that followed Israel's founding on May 15, 1948.  If the United States supported the rights of Arabs in the protests against their own governments, how can they NOT support protests against an occupier that continuously oppresses an entire population?