Change of Pattern in Political Assassinations in Lebanon related to Brammertz's Progress on the Initial Ones

Brian Whitaker from The Guardian is to my knowledge the only one who pointed out in his article 'The Smoking Gun' the relevance of the recent change in the method of political assassinations in Lebanon to the 'Who Did It' question:

''Spot the odd one out. Gemayel's killing was the only one that involved a gun. All the other attacks used explosives. In a report to the UN on June 10, Brammertz explained why, in his view, the first 15 cases were connected: there was linkage by motive and linkage by modus operandi.''
...''The modus operandi is much more problematic. Gemayel was followed, his car was rammed, then he and his bodyguard were shot at close range, apparently with silenced guns. The killer, or killers, then vanished. In most countries we would assume it was a professional hit job."

Then Whitaker examines under this perspective the links between the change of method and the progress UN commissioner Serge Brammertz has been making in the Hariri investigation recently" See Brammertz June and September reports.

The reports were not much publicised, contrary to the previous commissioner Mehlis reports, because they are based mostly on technical progress in the investigation rather than on empty accusations as Mehlis used to do when releasing his reports. Brammertz has been conducting his investigation like a maestro, in an real independant manner, unhampered by paid for lies, pressures, passions, attempts of blockades and acquaintances with high profile people from the March 14th movement. Is it because Brammertz comes from the country of Hercule Poirot ? Reading the reports one senses immediately that the man is into something.

''On reading the report, anyone involved in the earlier attacks might easily have concluded they were too complex for safety, giving far too many clues away in the planning stages. A straightforward shooting (almost impossible in the case of a highly protected figure like Hariri but practicable in the case of Gemayel) might therefore be a wiser option.''

And Whitaker concludes...nothing, merely that even if we should not exclude Syria we should also look at other possibilities.

I conclude that self protection might not have been the sole motive for a change of strategy. The other motive for a change of strategy might have been to confuse in two main ways, one internal, and the other external. Indeed by including in the mandate of the UN commission an additional assassination different in its planning and execution from the others , and the March 14th movement was quick in asking to inlcude the latest one, one can produce two or more intended or non intended effects on the Lebanese and international political scenes:

1- The change in the pattern of the killings, from planned bombings involving a group to what appears to be a hit job, signals a desire to continue to kill without giving further evidence to the continuing UN investigation by ending the initial trail followed by Brammertz , at least for this new assassination. Also, as Brammertz was pursuing two hypothseses, the group hypothesis and the isolated individuals hypothesis, the killers this time appear as if trying to avoid consolidating the group hypothesis. The group hypothesis means ramifications not only horizontal but also vertical in the planning of the assassinations.

2-Another effect of the new method used to assassinate Pierre Gemmayel is to point the accusation this time to parties inside Lebanon within the Christian camp. Indeed, this time the assassination took place in the heart of the Christian area. The fact that all the pressure was this time on Aoun confirms some shift of focus inside the March 14th movement from the outside, us against them, to the inside, 'Are you with them or with us ?'. People from March 14th are angry about Aoun because they feel that without him Hezbollah would be weaker.

3- By adding other paths of investigation to the initial one in which all assassinations were connected and the connections producing valuable informations like in a serial killer case, the other effect is not only to stop the trail of the initial investigation but also to weaken it by distributing its internal resources on a wider and less coherent network. Brammertz's team was not sufficient for the job he was asked to do even after the UN consented to add personnel to the team recently. There was and still acute shortage of personnel to conduct the UN investigation. Another close objective would be to slow the investigation on the initial assassinations in order to gain time.

From the above and within this context of analysis, it is easy to draw conclusions on who the perpetrators of Pierre Gemmayel might be:

-They are probably the same as those who started the recent (since Rafiq Hariri) political assassinations in lebanon;
-They have extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the UN investigation and are close to the evidence Brammertz has been gathering and know probably where it will be leading.

I will let you draw the conclusions but I really fear where this ugly political game might lead.

Israel is a shame !

The first justification for the state of Israel, holocaust survivors, are being mistreated by the state of Israel who is Keeping compensation money, destined initially to these survivors, and property they initially owned, from them.

''As for the precise figures, there is a registry: Dovi Arbel, the executive director of the Holocaust Survivors Welfare Fund, estimates that of the 200,000 or so Holocaust survivors living in Israel, 20-30 percent are need of financial assistance, mainly for medical expenses. Other estimates refer to 20,000 Holocaust survivors living below the poverty line. Others, sometimes almost exactly the same sources at different times, refer to 280,000 Holocaust survivors, of whom some 80,000 live below the poverty line. ''

''However, assistance for the needy among them is not the only area in which Israel is treating Holocaust survivors disgracefully. The mistreatment started with the 273 Tehran Children, who were forced to appeal to the courts because they did not receive the few thousand dollars the Finance Ministry allotted them from the German reparations. The mistreatment continued with the millions of dollars the banks did not return to heirs of Holocaust victims - victims who before the war deposited some of their money in financial institutions in Palestine. ''

Within this context, pr. Finkelstein 's use of the term 'The holocaust industry' is plainly justified because usually an industry thrives on the exploited labour of its employees and Israel thrives on the exploitation, not only virtual but real, of the suffering of Holocaust survivors.

Mordre la main qui la nourrit. This country is a Shame !

Harper and the Québécois Nation: Where does this fit with his unconditional support for Israel ?

The conservative Stephen Harper leads a minority government in Canada since January 2006. The fate of his government is hanging on a thread. Torn between on one side his ideological allegiances to Christian social conservatism, oil interests and corporate military interventionism à la Bush and on the other side Canada's tradition as a social liberalist society, environmentally concerned and neutral when it comes to international affairs, Harper chooses divisive issues to consolidate his electoral basis for the next elections which can happen any time, given his slight majority.

One of the most divisive issues in Canada is Québec's separatism. Québec had constantly around 50% of the population in favour of separation from Canada but not enough to win a referendum on the matter. Quebec also elects a separatist party to represent its interests at the federal level of Government. Recently, Harper proposed that Québécois, who are already recognised as a distinct society, be recognised as a Nation within a united Canada. All parties voted for the motion yesterday from fear of losing votes in Québec. There was some dissent, 16 MPs voted against the motion, but it was marginal.

It is only after the vote that questions are arising about what it means to recognise a group of people with a common language and a common history as a nation ? First Nations, which are about 600 in Canada, are upset; they think this motion, by adding early colonisers to the group of Nations, is diminishing their role in the foundation of Canada and their claims to the land. Québec immigrants are wondering where do they fit in this equation. Francophones living in the rest of Canada like Acadians and franco-Ontarians feel betrayed. The rest of Canada feel abandoned and betrayed at the same time.

In the context of Quebec separatism, recognising Québécois, only the people, as a nation based on common hsitory, language and culture within Canada, implies automatically that the land, the province and its geographic and political contours are not included in this concept of Nation.

As symbolic and politically motivated as this motion may be, if generalised, it may set a precedent in my opinion against land claims and geopolitical independance by a group of people charing common language, history and culture, not only for the Québécois but also for other groups within Canada. In fact, while appearing as someone who is making a gift to Québec separatism Harpers is actually undermining it. Some have argued that by recognising Québécois as a nation Harpers is giving ammunitions to the separatist movement but this argument does not hold because Québec's separatism is old, even older than Harper himself and its existence is a testimony to the feeling that Québécois have as being a group bound by common features different from the rest of Canada. In fact, Quebec's separatist citizens do not need Harper to tell them they are a nation. What this move implies then for Canada ? It is just a political maneuvre and its symbolism is poor since only the Québécois, and only a portion of them, are actually the only ones who are claiming they want separation from Canada. However, the motion may have far reaching implications if we leave the Canadian and Québécois contexts.

Indeed, this concept of nation, if generalised, may invalidate for example the claim of Jews on the land of Israel as much as it reinforces the administrative and political definition of the State Nation away from ethnic belonging and common hsitory. Where does this fit with Harpers unconditional support for the state of Israel ? I am wondering. However, Harper is not at his first logical fallacy trying to implement unpopular policies while pleasing voters at the same time. We will be seeing more of this from him every now and then.

Brain storming for Lebanon's future: anything but civil war and martyrdom

Anybody with a creative and peaceful idea to stop the martyrdom of the March 14th politicians which is damaging irreversibly Lebanon's future and reputation ?

Please drop your suggestions in the comment section.

Also, some ethymological reflections on the term 'martyr' adored by middle eastern politicians, remember, Bashar's brother who is thought to have been killed by his uncle is also called a 'martyr' in Syria. The March 14th movement seems to like the term. Lets look at its ethymology form 'Le trésor informatisé de la langue française'.

a) 1050 «celui qui a souffert la torture et la mort pour attester la vérité de la religion chrétienne» 1690 (Martyr, se dit abusivement des Hérétiques et des Païens qui souffrent pour la deffense de leur fausse Religion)

b) 1690 «celui qui souffre beaucoup moralement ou physiquement» On dit qu'une personne est le martyr d'une autre pour dire qu'il souffre persecution à cause de luy.
Au Moy. Âge, on trouve également la forme martre, forme conservée dans Montmartre «mont des martyrs».

The use of this term by the March 14th is then borrowing a religious metaphor in order to describe a political situation in a region sensitive to these metaphors. It is inflating the meaning of the death. Moreover, except death and to my knowledge, the March 14th politicians didn't suffer persecutions and moral or physical torture. That does not lessen the tragedy but the term in itself is made to appeal to popular sympathy and to rally people to whatever cause the dead was defending. Moreover, martyrdom is a deliberate choice and a deliberate act, it is done willingly.

I am still wondering which cause worth a martyr Pierre Gemmayel was defending ? And did Pierre Gemmayel know that he was on the martyr path and why did he ask that specific day for a lessening in his personal security ? Martyrdom supposes also that one knows who will be his killer. Did the March 14th movement know all this ?

It is either a martyrdom or an assassination. It is difficult to talk of both at the same time.

So either the March 14th movement chooses the term 'martyrdom' with all what is attached to this notion and Pierre Gemmayel's death must have seemed inevitable. In this case, the march 14th movement is adopting tactics similar to the Palestinians or religious extremist organisations who believe in heaven and martyrdom. I mean aren't we critical of Palestinian suicide bombers martyrs ? You might tell me that suicide bombers kill others while killing themselves but the March 14th movement martyrdom have already killed countless poor syrian workers, national dialogue and conciliation and provoked a war of agression on Lebanon. I know that everybody believes it is Hezbollah that started the war and there may be some truth to this but Israel and the US acted in the beginning of the Israeli agression as if they had the blessings of the Sanyura government to inflict a definitve defeat on hezbollah and dismantle it and some members of the March 14th were openly drinking to Israel's victory before this victory turned to defeat both for Israel and for the March 14th. Judging from the funeral's speeches, March 14th is capitalising from Gemmayel's death just like in any other martyrdom defending a cause and wishing to rally around it. The March 14th movement who claim to be part of the civilised western world still defend martyrdom while the civilised western world condemns martyrdom. Is the March 14th movement then a backward movement ? Or is March 14th capitalising on a crime ?

Or Gemmayel's death is an assassination and not a martyrdom, in this case the March 14th movement should stop pointing fingers, doing political agitation and wait for an investigation. By the way the coverage of the assassination and especially the funeral by some Lebanese bloggers is unbridled and full of impatient expectations regarding the potential political fallouts for March 14th from this assassination/martyrdom, take a look at this one and scroll the site down to see the entire coverage, he is litteraly jubilating.

Political assassinations in Lebanon and the role of Israel

I was at the hospital today doing different medical examinations. One of the specialists I saw, a doctor in his late sixties, started the medical interview by asking me if I was Lebanese. When I said yes he asked me what I thought of the latest political assassination, I said that I was sad for the people who are killed, their families and for my country. Then the medical exam proper went on. There was a medical student in the room. After the exam, it was my turn to ask the doctor if he was Lebanese, he said that he was Iranian and has been living in Canada for the last 45 years. At this point, the student said she was Lebanese, a small conversation followed on ME politics and the latest assassination in Lebanon. The three of us agreed that the tensions in this region can be attrubuted greatly to the desire of Israel to have free hands in the region and to the unconditional support of the US.

Both the doctor and the student were great profesionnals. I really felt that I was taken care of in a very smart and knowledgeable way. After I left the hospital, it occured to me that all the hype that is made of the political assassinations in Lebanon by some Lebanese factions and their foreign counterparts is not credible. My personal feeling is that the politcal assassinations in lebanon now are a struggle between foreign powers who have interest in the region in a wider regional game meant to ensure more submission and more USrael friendly governments and countries, a struggle served sadly by Lebanese factions. There are two axes in this struggle: US-Israel-Saudi Arabia against Iran-Syria-Hezbollah. If Syria and the US start talking, the axes are likely to collapse or at least to weaken. So what is happening in my opinion is that Israel is pushing hard to maintain this dichotomy. Otherwise, it will have to engage in talks with Syria and this means changing radically its present political orientation and may be entering forced peace talks with the Palestinians as well. There are also tensions within the US administration as to whether start talks with Syria with the recent departure of Rumsfeld and the pressure on the Bush administration to come up with some positive foreign policy gains for the republicans before 2008. In this scheme, Syria has everything to gain from staying calm. The main charcateristic of the Syrian regime, as other authoritarian regimes, is its ability toward self preservation against all odds and far from any ideological committment. This regime prevented a victory of the progressive forces in Lebanon over Christian factions and helped de facto christians escape a defeat during the civil war because it had interests in doing so. This regime fought savagely the sunni majority in Syria, imprisoned opponents, opposed Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf war, and even fought the Palestinians inside its territory and imposed upon them a strict obediance and a strict control. All this in the name of self preservation. The Syrian regime is ready for peace, is ready for talks and has been screaming this even before the death of Assad father. There is actually a small window of opportunity for the Syrian regime to end its present political status as an outcast on the international and regional scenes, which become even more marginalised and neutralised after it evacuted its army from lebanon in 2005. This window of opportunity was apparent in the recent statements of Blair and some leaders in the EU and there is a hesitation in the US as to whether start talks with Syria. The assassination of Pierre Gemmayel should be analysed within this context which is the maintaining and the reinforcement of the two opposing axes in the ME in order to keep the tensions increasing in this region and prevent the international community from asking Israel to be accountable while forcing it into peace talks.

Questions:
After all didn't Israel invent political assassinations and don't they bragg about it whenever given the occasion and didn't their supreme court approved the process ? And didn't Israel capitalised in the past on the anger of the Gemmayel's folllowers to exterminate Palestinians in Sabra and Chatila ? And why is it only Syria who is accused by the March 14th movement and the Sanyura government who has been weak surviving merely on a IV since Israel's latest agression on Lebanon and has been ever since its formation " primarily fuelled by the assassination of its leaders," said Amal Saad Ghorayeb of Beirut's Carnegie Middle East Centre ?

'' James Steinberg, who was a deputy national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, said that Syria was only one possible suspect in a region where politics amounts to "wheels within wheels within wheels."

Charles Harb goes a step further:in 'Whoever pulled the trigger, Syria's allies are the losers'

I also spoke with members of my family in Lebanon. They are tired, they are distrustful of their politicians and they feel let down. I can assure Zionists, Lebanese are not going to fight each other, so Israel and its Lebanese allies will have to keep killing Lebanese politicians in order to maintain the tensions in the region. And I hope that some day we wil be able to document this criminal behaviour and the serial killers responsible for it.

Pierre Gemmayyel is the child of the Lebanese civil war. He was three when it started and died while some are guessing if it is not going to restart all over again. Lebanon deserves better than dubious political alliances serving foreign appetite, it deserves peace, it deserves love and it deserves the joie de vivre I knew there when I was a child.
This is not the Lebanon that should have emerged from the civil war. This is not the Lebanon that longed for peace and stability after a 15 year civil war. This is not the Lebanon of ordinary people and real citizens. This is the Lebanon of a corrupt and criminal political elite. It is time to end this criminal farce !

Prominent Lebanese blogger Moussa Bashir has two questions about the assassination of Pierre Gemmayel

Then we have the great predictors for these assassinations (why the hell if they predict don't they protect ?) :

Ms Rice: Note that she was not even able to predict 9/11 from a Memo titled 'Bin Laden determined to attack inside the US' but she was able to predict this one.

Geagea predicts assassinations of Lebanon ministers. Can he predict his own ? That would be helpful at least...

Also I keep bumping on this posthumous site of the Late Elie Hobeika (remember, he was scheduled to testify to a Belgian court about Sharon's direct role in the Sabra and Chatila massacres). Enjoy !

Other analyses:

Johnathan Cook

Dilip Hiro on Who did it ? To which the Zionist answers: ''thezionist Comment No. 305726 November 22 19:42GBR
Lebanon deserve freedom. Lebanese prime minister owe it to his people to sign peace with Israel. The people of Israel and the Jewish people get along very well with the Lebanese people. Hizbollah is their cancer. Making Lebanon stable and free from foreign paid mercenary is the key to peace more solving the problem between Israel and the Palestinian. One funny thing with zionists is that they want to be aknowledged for their intelligence and merit and so most of the time they make half confessions.

Angry Arab, a precious source on lebanon and the ME, on the Gemmayel family.

Restraint in mourning Lebanese style: his son not yet in the grave, Amin Gemmayel is already calling for the toppling of the actual president.

And I would like to cite here the excellent article in French from blogger Nidal in Loubnan Ya Loubnan 'Au Liban, une mafiocratie contre son peuple'

Looking for a strategy in Iraq and the ME after all those years !

Middle East Memo has an interesting post on the recent mullings and musings of the Bush administration about a strategy in Iraq, after all those years !

Blog author Victor de la Vega mulls on his part on the 'rationale' behind all the brain storming for finding a strategy. As neo-cons and Bushies are fond of metaphors, Victor bets on the pseudo-scientific metaphor of the pseudo-scientific, pseudo rationalist game theory brought in the official discourse about finding a strategy in Iraq that we are used to by now.

I bet on the pseudo-people, pseudo-brains, pseudo-minds, pseudo-intellects, pseudo-hearts and pseudo-human beings having brought us the War in Iraq and the project for a New Middle East !

Not only Iraq but the Middle East is faltering from everywhere. Israel is claiming by the voice of its prime minister self hailed war expert, who was not able to conduct a war in Lebanon against a guerilla, that the war in Iraq was actually successful, while occupying more land in Palestine, killing and harrassing more Palestinians in front of a silent and subjugated world and with the help of the US veto !

The leaders of the March 14th movement in Lebanon have been warning of an assassination, the only way political dialogues can actually be conducted in Lebanon, since they felt let down recently by Bush and the Neo-Cons and it seems that the assassination has happened. They have already found the assassins ! The US should hire these people to solve some unsolved high profile assassinations marring its recent history.

All this mayhem reminds me of a good novel I read a while ago where the central character, a field researcher in primates ethology, confronts her boss's theory that Chimps are good by proving that they are actually cannibalists and warmongerers. Being so committed and trapped in his own theory, the boss sees his universe faltering and instead of admitting the evidence tries to get rid of it and of the researcher alltogether.

What we are witnessing in the ME is the demise of the projects and ideologies America's neo-cons set out to implement in order to hide the malaise of a country and an empire trapped in their constant need for wars, ennemies and fear generating beliefs and to show that Humanity should be distrusted, that only laws, force, wars and warmongering leaders can protect the citizens and the state. Pretty much like the chimps of the novel...Except that Chimps act according to their instincts and we can act according to our beliefs. The more we implement these neo-cons made beliefs in people's minds via our CNNs and Fox News and the more our world will look like a Chimp society. This is funny because anthropomorphism in behavioural science got it wrong on Chimps by portraying them first as peaceful and loving, human-like. How come we used to think of ourselves as peace lovers and why we don't anymore ?

My bet is that, deceived by not being able to make Chimps at our image, we are making ourselves at their image by behaving as groups and not as human beings...

The Road to Guantanamo

This is my movie week. I can watch the movies I want after having consented to see Casino Royale twice, the first time with my son who couldn't wait when the movie premiered this week (actually we watch it last Saturday), and the second time will be with my husband who wasn't able to join the first time because he is on call 24 hrs for a week until next Friday.

Having made this sacrifice, I asked the men in the house, who always conspire against me to rent action movies or comedies, to let me rent two videos, that they were reluctant to watch, only for myself.

Yesterday, I watched 'The Road to Guantanamo'. I knew that the movie was about the three Muslim Britons who were released from Guantanamo, the Tipton three, as they are called. Being familiar with the director's filmography, I knew that I was probably going to be subjected to some harsh scenes. Winterbottom is the director of an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure where you can see Kate Winslet giving birth as if you were the midwife. He also directed the 'Butterfly Kiss', the story of a psychotic woman serial killer, as well as the controversial movie, 'Nine Songs', a love story where actors perform actually real sex scenes for the camera, and the well known 'Welcome to Sarajevo'. From Winterbottom comes also the smart 'Tristram Shandy', a real cinematographic tour de force, and 'In this world', the story of the journey of two men from Afghanistan to London as clandestine.

Winterbottom's movies have a great effect on me, they never leave me indifferent. Actually, at the end of 'In this world' I bursted into tears and I still feel a sting of sadness inside even now, two years later, when I think about the movie. I was prepared to all this when I turned the CD player on to watch 'The Road to Guantanamo'. My son joined and we had a little discussion before and I told him that it is O.K. to close his eyes if some scenes may be unbearable to watch.

The movie follows the Tipton three as they - initially they were four, one of them, Amir, will disappear- set to travel to Pakistan to assist their friend's marriage, from the moment they leave England to the moment of their return, describing their capture, the three prisons in which they transit before landing at Guantanamo, their interrogations and their release two years later. The story, played by actors, is interrupted by narrations from the real persons themselves. The movie is well constructed. And because it is a documentary style, even if it is acted, it is colder and less emotionally charged than other Winterbottom's movies. But the subject, being what it is, makes you tense as the story evolves and unfurls. At some point, my son bursted into a hsyterical laughter and I suspect this was to relieve some of the tension he flet inside. It was during interrogations. We knew that the most savage forms of physical and moral torture were to come during interrogations. However, the feigned or intended stupidity of the interrogators, unprepared as they are with false informations and assumptions about the 'Muslim and Arab mind', their stubborness, close to a certain from of despair, to extract something from the detainees, make a good basis for a comedy, if it weren't a tragedy that was the ordeal of these men. The interrogators looked out of touch with reality, lost, or worse, plain stupid. I remember that my husband's grand'mother who was in Ravensbruck during WWII for four years before being released, in a prisoner exchange process, used to tell us that laughter was helpful in the camps and that if you were capable of laughter at the absurdity of human cruelty you had more chance than others to live and even to overcome the trauma. At some point, a female interrogator asks the detainee if he is a member of Al-Qaida and he answers no and she repeats the question, all interrogators repeat over and over the same question as if they were trying by a magical formula or incantation to get what they want from the prisoner. And when faced with a definitve NO the interrogator, at some point, shows the prisoner a video of a meeting in Afghanistan featuring Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri and she tells him 'Look at the image on this video, it is you there'. The prisoner looks at the video and says 'No way, the date is 2000 and in 2000 I was doing community work in the UK, being on probation'.

I got the impression that what helped the Tipton three is their youthfulness and a history of youth conduct disorders, at least for two of them, that had them on a police file for minor offenses but which acted both psychologically, as an inside rebellion that helped them sustain the pressure, and operationally as a proof of the fabrication and lies the interrogators had made up in the case the US had to bring against most of the detainees of Guantanamo. But not all people will have this chance. I cannot help but think about the remaining detainees in Guantanamo who, under the new law for military tribunals, will have no access to a lawyer to challenge their detention and their treatement, no access to the charges brought upon them, sealed forever away from the rest of the world, and from Humanity, and at the mercy of their torturers.

Winterbottom had admirably succeeded in intertwining both the drama and the absurd bringing us a good documentary film about the number one shame of our modern time: Guantanamo.

Sweden, Tolerance, and the Dialogue between Cultures

I am personally against veil wearing for Muslim women who live in the West. But I am also against the degradation of the dress code in western society. Little girls dressed like their moms and mothers dressed like their teenage daughters. I am also against an official ban on the veil except in places where all religious signs are forbidden by law.

I contemplate some European countries' recent moves to ban the veil in the name of integration as being as much a provocation as the wearing of the veil is a sign of defiance of western culture from some Muslim women who live in the west.

I contemplate also the recent swedish stamp with two women wearing a veil and one other unveiled women with her child and the accompanying text :

''The pictures in the issue do not show the traditional view of a person’s interaction with pristine nature. Irina Gebuhr has instead chosen to highlight the relationships between the people depicted on the stamps. For example, a group of immigrant women who are talking with one another and looking out over a lake are shown on the picnic motif. At the stamp’s top corner an elk appears, which for many is the very symbol of Swedish nature. It depicts a meeting in nature, but also a dialogue between cultures.
Summer by the Lake are Irina Gebuhr’s first stamps. "I could never have imagined being given such an assignment, but as a person who works with images I have studied many stamps, looking at their colors and designs and wondering about the small format," says Irina. She adds, "There is a great difference between working on a well-defined stamp assignment and having artistic freedom in the studio. In the studio I have more freedom to let indistinct, irrational and mysterious emotions shine through and affect the creative process. Having said that, I cannot deny that some of this natural flow has also spilled over into the motifs for Summer by the Lake."

I can't imagine any other western country taking this courageous initiative. Yes, Tolerance requires courage, courage to let artists speak and positive emotions flow to connect us with others, courage to not delve into prejudice, confrontation and the demonisation of the other.

Document on recent Swedish stamps, the veil stamp is featured page 8.

Hat tip: Blogger Shaykhspeara Sha'ira at Al-Baal Café

UPDATE: Read what Ken Livingstone, London's Mayor, has to say and what he will do in regard to the recent veil controversy in the UK.

Paradise Now or Apocalypse Now ? American Christian Zionism, Israel and the current state of the ME

To some people it may look as a fantasy but the commitment of what is now known as Christian Zionism to a total hegemony of Israel over large territories in the ME, extending from the river of Egypt to the river of Euphrates and including modern day Iraq and Lebanon (Palestinians having to find some another place to live), is real.

Money is being raised by Christian Zionists on the basis of this belief and channeled to Israel to support its present hegemony and criminal wars in the ME. This belief also entails that the realisation of this hegemony is achieved through an apocalypse, precondition for the return of the Christ and the believers' access to paradise.

Michelle Goldberg cites from one of her Salon articles:

"Put baldly, millions of evangelical Christians see forewarnings of Armageddon in the crisis in the Middle East. Followers of dispensationalism, a major strain within American evangelical Christianity, they believe that the return of Jews to Israel and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount is a precondition for the rapture, the apocalypse and the return of Christ... For them, there can be no negotiation over what they call 'Judea and Samaria' despite the fact that many Israelis, and Jews worldwide, hope Israel eventually pulls out of the territories. Randall Price, jet-setting founder of World of the Bible Ministries, says, 'In the book of Genesis, there are territorial dimensions for the land that is given to Abraham and his descendents. It's from the river of Egypt to the river of the Euphrates.' In his view, Israel's right to that land, which extends into modern-day Iraq, is absolute. As for the Palestinians, Price says, 'Ishmael has said that his descendants would live to the East of their brother. There's a much larger geographical territory alloted to them.''

This unholy alliance of the Christian right and Zionism may make Osama Bin Laden look a small player on the international terror scene. After all, didn't USrael achieve more destruction and more mayhem than OBL during the last six years ? And this is why Osama has been off the Bush administration agenda, even since the beginning, serving only as a symbol for Islamist terror, a powerful symbol nonetheless amplified by CNN and Fox news and the images of September 11th.
There is however one problem, the rising regional influence of nuclear Mullah's Iran and its allies, thanks to the ill conceived Iraq and Lebanon wars. A rational mind with no apocalyptic religious beliefs might think, at that point, that caution and diplomacy might replace the last six years political folly that has taken hold of the world and the ME. But if you were a Christian Zionist or a Zionist tout court you might think otherwise. This is a unique occasion to realise the prophecy: the hegemony of Israel in the ME, the Apocalypse and the return of the Christ ! Paradise Now !

Never before in our modern democracies the line was so blurred between politics and religion and the fate of many people's lives jeopardised by a bunch of extremist ideologists and religious fools, thanks to Bush, American christian Zionists, Israel and of course OBL.

It Is Official: Zionists Declare a Global War on 'Islamic' Extremism

Despite a UN report reasearched and written by a group of experts stating that there is no clash of civilisation between the West and Islam and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the main cause of Muslim discontent and Islamist extremism, the head of the ADL, Abraham Foxman would like you to think otherwise.

Contrary to the UN report, Abraham Foxman states that the cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is 'Islamic' extremism !

''The point is that the unending Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far less a cause of Islamic extremism's rise, and far more a product of its ideology and its power. Reduce the impact of this ideology, and not only will relations between the Islamic world and the West improve, but the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians can be resolved.''

Zionism is always arguing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to blame on Arabs and Palestinians. To that effect, zionist narrative is always struggling with memory when it comes to pin the blame of the ongoing conflict in a precise fashion and not only on Arabs and Palestinians in general; in this case 'Islamic' extremism as Foxman words it. This is ironic because memory, but only Holocaust memory, is the bread and butter of zionism. It is also ironic that when Israel conquered land in palestine, it was mainly thanks to Jewish extremism at a time 'Islamic' extremism did not exist in Palestine and the Arab world ! Of course, for history and news illiterates and media sheeps, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict starts on September 11th !
Zionism is then culpable of the most blatant revisionnism of our modern history. Now, Mr. Foxman, when would you like me to start your Holocaust in order to shift the blame from Nazis to someone else, and why not Zionists ? History has never been an exact science and the media have never been History luminaries. So why not take advantage ?

This will be of course viewed as a 'clash of civilisations and religions'. Many of us, anti-zionists, believe however that Zionism is an ideology competing agressively, not only with the religions of Arab and Iranian ennemies in the ME but even with Judaism. Behemoth has an abrasive and forcefully argued post on this subject.

Choose your kind of fundamentalism

Stem Cell research allowed in Iran but not in the US

From Neo-Resistance: You won't find this news item everywhere in the mainstream news in the West.

I think the main problem with the actual debate on Islamist fundamentalism is that the premices are false. It is not that we are invited to choose between democracy and freedom on one side and Islamist fundamentalism on the other side. We are actually invited to choose our kind of fundamentalism.

Niqab and Stem Cell Reasearch... OR... No niqab and no Stem cell research ?
Niqab and Darwinian Theory...OR...No niqab and Intelligent Design Theory ?
Niqab and theocracy...OR...No niqab and hate filled, consent manufactured ballot box democracy ?
Niqab and dominant theocracy with religious coexistence...OR...No niqab and falsely secular disguised theocracies based on the exclusiveness of one religion over others, one suffering over others, and the privileges they confer ?

The list is long and I will be updating...

Beit Hanoun: Another Palestinian Tragedy

Beit Hanoun means 'The house of the loving'. But because this is Gaza, because this is Palestine and because this is Israel, the house of the loving couldn't repel hate, stupidity, greed, cruelty, moral failure and crime. Children die in this 'house of the loving'.

Complete BBC report on Beit Hanoun

Detailed account from Le Monde (in French)

''The promise to the Israeli voters, attached to the withdrawal from Gaza, was always that after withdrawal we could "hit them hard" without jeopardising the settlers or our soldiers. So here we go. Just like southern Lebanon, which for years was the place for Israel to take vengeance for its frustration, Gaza is now seen by Israel as fair game.''

Jamila Al-Shanti:''Why should we Palestinians have to accept the theft of our land, the ethnic cleansing of our people, incarcerated in forsaken refugee camps, and the denial of our most basic human rights, without protesting and resisting?''

Gideon Levy's latest:

''The contempt for human life starts with the lives of Arabs and ends with the lives of Jews. ''

''The current stage of the moral decline began with the targeted assassinations in the territories. When they began, there was still an argument over their legality and justness. Who remembers that the assassinations were once limited, declaratively at least, to "ticking bombs"? The High Court of Justice, in its cowardice, has evaded taking a stance on this issue for years, despite the petitions on its doorstep. And the assassination project grew and expanded until it reached monstrous proportions. ''

''These futile operations will not stop the Qassams, which are aimed at giving us and the rest of the world a painful reminder of the imprisoned and boycotted Gaza residents' distress, which no one would notice if it were not for the Qassams. The way to fight the Qassams is to stop the boycott, sit down at the negotiating table and reach an accord. Otherwise, we will continue to slide and become immune to their loss of life, and soon to our loss of life as well.''

Arthur Nelsen: ''The lesson Israel is imparting in Gaza is unequivocal: War crimes are fine, so long as you remember to say sorry afterwards.''

Guardian Leader Opinion:''Experience suggests that even if the Beit Hanoun slaughter turns out to have been accidental, and Palestinians were to accept that, it will still be remembered as an Israeli atrocity. Israel's critics acknowledge that it has the right to defend itself - and it can only be by chance that rockets launched from Gaza since the August 2005 withdrawal have caused only damage and injuries and no Israeli fatalities. But Israel's actions, as in Lebanon this summer, have ignored the obligation to act in proportion to the threat, to avoid civilian casualties, and comply with international humanitarian law, which includes the personal responsibility of commanders for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Louise Arbour, the UN human rights commissioner, should formally remind the Israeli government of those principles when she visits Gaza and Jerusalem shortly.''

International reactions.

Confronting Israel's and the West's narratives on the 'Human shield' argument

Alain Gresh writes for Le Monde Diplomatique. I am translating here from one of his latest posts about the killing of Palestinian children by the Israeli army, confronting brilliantly different narratives on the subject.

‘’History is repeating itself in Gaza. While the Israeli army is continuing its killing offensive amid the indifference of European countries and the open consent of Washington, a debate, opened in the first months after the second Intifada about the use of children and women as ‘Human shields’ by Palestinian combatants, is reemerging There is however a difference between 2000 and 2006; Western media are more inclined today to accept the term of ‘Human shield’ used by Israeli authorities. Little by little, the Israeli version of the conflict is gaining momentum in western media.’’

Alain Gresh reminds the reader here of something he wrote back in 2001 in his book 'Israël-Palestine, vérités sur un conflit (Hachette, 2001) about the subject of ‘Human shields’.

Alain Gresh starts by citing a passage from a text written by notorious French Zionist Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL) in October 2000 in Le Point. By this passage Lévy tries to justify the use of force by the Israeli army on Palestinian children by adopting the ‘Human shield’ narrative. Gresh replaces the reference to Palestinian children in BHL’s text by the reference to a similar event that took place in Soweto in 1976 and judiciously asks the question whether the author of the text would not have been discredited if he would have written his text in the wake of the Soweto uprising in the following form ?

‘’Is it quibbling to ask from where these children come ? Who posted them in the line of fire ? Which sinister strategy of the martyr is at work here ? Is it mistaken to suggest that the senseless brutality of the South-African army, the debauchery and the disproportionate force, were a response to what can be considered as a declaration of war made by the Black people ? ‘’

Gresh asks then: At the start of the second Intifada and only during the first weeks, tens of children less than 18 years old died. BHL asks what they were doing in the line of fire ? Would he have asked the same question if the victims were Bosnians or Tchetchens ?

However, writes Gresh, few weeks later, BHL seemed to correct his ‘Human shield’ perception of Palestinian children death, after a trip to Palestine. BHL writes emotively: ‘’This is an argument (the human shield argument) I will not use anymore, after having heard Palestinian mothers tell me the angst they felt at the end of the day when they expected a little bit longer their children at home, as would every other mother in the world.

Note here that BHL had to make the travel to Palestine to realise that Palestinian mothers were like other mothers he knows and were not actually your kind of monster jihadi mother who sacrify their children to defend the cause, gather sympathy or whatever other dark intention that may lie behind the 'mysterious' death of children at the hands of israeli soldiers.

At that time, there was another controversy in France about Muhammad el-Durra, the first Palestinian child to die in the second Intifada and whose death was filmed by France 2 TV Cameraman and commented by France 2 Charles Enderlin as resulting from intentional Israeli army fire. Media-ratings and its president disputed the video as staged and Enderlin’s report as false. Enderlin sued in a Parisian court for diffamation and won. What BHL had to say about the incident in Nov. 2000 (Le Point) was however partial since he claimed that Al-Durra was killed incidently and not on intent and mocked Enderlin’s version in the most pernicious way stating that Al-Durra was not killed by a ‘child killer Jewish soldier’ (BHL’s words). BHL was ready to recognise that Palestinian mothers were like other mothers but not ready to accept that Israeli soldiers were killing children. Gresh will however prove at the end that indeed Israeli soldiers have orders to kill from 12 year old and up.

Gresh goes back in history around the ‘Human shield’ argument. It is November 1945 in Tel Aviv. There is a protest going on, riots and violent confrontations. At the end of the day, nine people are dead and 44 are seriously wounded. Among the wounded, there are 18 children with an age range between 8 and 16, 14 others are between 16 and 20 years old. The press accuse the parents in the protest of using their children as ‘Human shield’. The protesters were Jews asking for an ease in British immigration policy. The news journal of the central Jewish union Histadrout publishes the day after a cartoon that will prompt English authorities to close it for one week. The cartoon shows a doctor attending to wounded children, The caption says: ‘’Good shooters these English, they can even spot small targets like these ones.’’

Gresh writes that this episode was mentioned by Charles Enderlin in his reporting on Al-Durra. What would have BHL said about the children wounded in the 1945 Jewish protest ? What BHL means by stating that Al-Durra was killed by a stray bullet ? And what BHL means by using the expression ‘child killer Jewish soldier’ to mock those who accuse the Israeli Defense Forces of killing children ? Does he mean to attribute to anyone who disagrees on this, charges of anti-semitisme and old anti-semitic beliefs like the one that had currency in Europe at a time when anti-semitism was rampant that ‘Jews drink children’s blood’ ? If ‘our philosopher’ have simply read the Israeli news, he could have realised that indeed Israeli soldiers kill deliberately and intentionally Palestinians including children writes Gresh.

Gresh reminds us that Israeli journalist Amira Hass has published a senseless dialogue with an Israeli army elite shooter in which the soldier states: ‘’ We are ordered not to kill children under 12, above 12 it is O.K. to kill’’. Israeli Human rights organisation Betselem showed, by studying documents provided by the Israeli army, that three times out of four, Palestinian civilian deaths and serious injuries during incidents with the Israeli army between September and November 15, 2000, took place in the absence of Palestinian combatants (International Herald Tribune, 14 décembre 2000).

The press also mentioned numerous cases where Palestinian children were intentionally killed while the Israeli soldiers' lives were not in danger. The refusal of the army to open inquiries into these deaths did actually encourage the practice of gratuitous killings during the second Intifada.

According to Amira Hass, in June 2002, 116 Palestinian children have already been killed in Gaza and 253 in the West Bank. Another Israeli journalist, Joseph Algazy, working for Haaretz, revealed the nightmares of many Palestinian children beaten and tortured in Israeli prisons.

Read here my article on the Israeli allegations of Palestinian use of children in the conflict with Israel.

Read here an ironic post by Behemoth on how Israel is blurring the line netween civil life and soldiering in its own way.

Also, 9 children among the 19 casualties of yet another israeli 'incursion' in Beit Hanoun made after israel announced its withdrawal from there. 13 members of these 19 belonged to a same family..

Sinister Mathematics

From the excellent Loubnan Ya Loubnan (In French), the explaining of Patrick O'Connor's ''Israel's Large scale killing of palestinians goes unreported' (EI in English) and the mathematics of it.
At the beginning of the second Intifada the ratio is between 2.5 and 7.6 Palestinians killed for each Israeli. At the third trimester in 2006, the Ratio jumps to 71 Palestinians killed for one Israeli.
Palestinians stopped their suicide bombings, elected democratically a government and what did they get in exchange ? More killing. This is definitely a war of extermination. I used to advocate peaceful resistance for palestinians but I am wondering whether peaceful resistance is not one of the many ways to get killed when you are resisting a power like Israel.

Israel, the neighbour's Cooking-Pot and other illogical categories

The story goes like this:
One day a woman lended her neighbour a cooking-pot. Months passed and the pot was not returned. The woman went inquiring for the cooking pot. The neighbour first started by denying that he had ever borrowed a cooking pot from her. Then he declared that the cooking pot had a hole in its bottom and was not convenient for cooking. Finally he said that he had never seen such a cooking-pot and didn't know what his neighbour was talking about.

Every time Israel commits violations to the rules of war and violations of human rights it follows this illogic.
Yesterday, the Israeli Occupation Forces shot at women who came to the village of Beit Hanoun to protect Palestinain men (sons, brothers and husbands) who were besieged in a mosque. The women carried a white flag. According to their account:

''Elham Hamad, 48, said she left her house in Beit Hanoun at 5am yesterday with two of her daughters-in-law to join the march into the centre of the town. Her son Mazen, 30, like hundreds of other men from the town had been held by Israeli troops for questioning.
"There were about 30 women in our group, all in the main street. We were moving into the town and passing by the Israeli tanks. We carried two white flags. They didn't ask us to stop and then suddenly we saw them shooting at us," she said. "I was hit but there were no ambulances. We were calling for them but there was nothing." Her husband found a donkey cart and put the injured women on the back and led them out of the town to waiting ambulances. Mrs Hamad was hit on the forehead and in the left shoulder and was yesterday being treated at the al-Ouda hospital in Gaza.''

What the IOF and israeli authorities had to say about the killing ?

Follow the cooking-pot story:

First: Israel's military denied shooting at women.
''The Israeli military said its operation was against militants who have been launching crude Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel. The military said it was investigating reports that women had been shot....''

Second: Israeli military said gunmen were hiding between the women and that the women intended to free the besieged gunmen.
''...but said its snipers identified hitting eight gunmen who were hiding among the crowd of women.''
''A spokesman for the Israel Defence Force said the women had marched towards the mosque intending to free the gunmen holed up inside.''

Third: My bet is that an investigation by Israel will conclude to the non existence of women at that moment around the mosque of Beit Hanoun when shots were fired by its soldiers. Israel will be able to produce a video showing no women around the mosque (remember the shooting of a Palestinian family on a beach few months back ?), accuse the press of doctoring the pictures and ultimately proclaim its right to defend itself while accusing its critics of anti-semitism and holocaust denial. Hence, the very careful declaration of UK foreign secretary Margaret Beckett who knows very well the story of the cooking pot:
"Israel has a right to defend itself but any action should be proportionate and in accordance with international humanitarian law"

UPDATE:
The human cost of the six day Israeli incursion of Beith Hanoun. Total Hubris !

Lebanon: Where Living Dangerously Has No End

From Loubnan Ya Loubnan (in French), an exstensive analysis of the present political situation in Lebanon where Washington, pressed by Jumblatt who was recently visiting, is trying to block a demand by Hezbollah and the Party of Michel Aoun for a reshuffle of the present government by including ministers from Aoun's party. The author of the article, who is French, declared at some point that he is worried for the security of his Lebanese friends. I heard also the same son-de-cloche from Rami Khoury, editor at large of the Lebanese Daily Star, speaking this evening on Radio Canada's 'As It Happens'. Khoury added that one has to be honest when speaking of foreign interference in Lebanon. While Washington is accusing Syria and Iran of plotting to destabilise the Sanyura government, it is at the same time backing actively Hezbollah's and Aoun's opponents. He said that Hezbollah's demands for a reshuffle of the Sanyura government have legitimacy within a democratic process. Hezbollah, who is trying to transform its military victory into a political one, along with Aoun's movement, the most popular among Christians, should have their say in the composition of the government which does not actually represent exactly and accurately the people of Lebanon and the political forces in presence and that it is up to Lebanese to resolve their conflicts on that matter without foreign intervention. Khoury was pointing fingers as much at the US intervention as at that alleged by the US and attributed to Syria and Iran.

Mr. Khoury pointed out also that the demand for a government reshuffle from Aoun and Hezbollah has aspects related to internal Lebanese politics and governance and that it is unfortunate that external countries like the US block such a process in Lebanon. Most of the actual members of the Sanyura government form a Kleptocracy, according to Aoun, or worse, a Mafiocracy, according to Loubnan Ya Loubnan.

Nabih Berri, president of the parliament, who is siding with Hezbollah and Aoun, has convened a meeting for the members of the government to discuss the actual situation. This meeting is felt on the internal political scene as a deadline before tensions translate into real hostility. It was adjourned recently for a lack of Quorum but will convene anytime from now. In the meantime, a Bras-de-fer has started between the government and Hezbollah about the popular mobilisation which Hezbollah is counting on to put pressure on the government and which seem set to be criminalised by the government as illegal uprising. The Lebanese army will be probably mobilised against its own citizens. Loubnan Ya Loubnan notes that this army who didn't fire one shot on Israeli soldiers will probably have to fire at Lebanese citizens. Jumblatt's visit to the US is also thought to have included a demand for an extension of the UNIFIL role in Lebanon as to be able to intervene in consolidating the actual government.

I am worried for Lebanon once again.

Actualité de tous les jours: Zionist bullying

Does anybody know why Israel is shelling Gaza ?

Does anybody know why Zionist settlers are disrupting Palestinian's olive harvest in the West Bank ?

Please see Tsahal's courageous soldiers in action against the imprisoned and starved civilian population in Gaza.