Want another Bushism? Bush says official intelligence on Iran doesn't reflect his views!

"But in private conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, the president all but disowned the document, said a senior administration official who accompanied Bush on his six-nation trip to the Mideast. "He told the Israelis that he can't control what the intelligence community says, but that [the NIE's] conclusions don't reflect his own views""
I can't resist. I am posting too much Steve Bell cartoons these days but the man has captured the essence of Bush's visit to the ME more than any journalist, columnist, analyst, etc...

Cartoon from Steve Bell, The Guardian

More on the Filipino Monkey

Annapolis blues

For the time being, I am not inclined to post about Annapolis. The whole thing is a farce. Helena Cobban had a very good post yesterday on her blog discussing the Israeli-Palestinian versus the Israeli-Arab conflict, and the near absence of the second from Annapolis. I am only going to contemplate this picture of Abbas (from Reuters) shown escorted and in 'good' hands. The picture alone tells the story of what will happen to the Palestinians at Annapolis.

Uri Avnery delivers a very lucid analysis of the chances for peace resulting from the Annapolis conference.

UPDATE, December 1st, 2007:

From The New York Times: US pulls a UN resolution disliked by Israel.

US withdraws Mideast resolution at UN. Basically because Israel doesn't want to be bound by any UN resolution, and the US is not behaving as a peace broker by acting in compliance with Israel's interests first. Oh, and don't tell me they are concerned by the Palestinians because the Palestinians didn't read the resolution, as the article suggests. That's ridiculous because nobody speaks for the Palestinians at this conference.

Israël relance la construction d'une colonie controversée
LE MONDE | 05.12.07

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Picture found on Angry Arab.

Unpopular and failed governments in Israel and Lebanon and the sacrifice of Palestinian civilians

The last Israeli agression on Lebanon that was supposed to crush Hezbollah was a disaster to both countries, a disaster to peace in the region, and a bigger disaster for Palestinians. Palestinians are so let down by the Arab and international community that killing them isn't a big deal anymore. And that is exactly what is happening in Lebanon under the cover of fighting Muslim extremists.

The defeat of Israel in its last agression on Lebanon has produced, on top of the civilian casualties, and the cluster bombs that continue to kill in Lebanon, and the 800000 refugees, and the destruction of the country and the land and the harvest for a long time to come, two unpopular and rotten governments hanging on power against the odds and against democratic common sense. Olmert for example enjoys a popularity rate under the margin of error. As for Lebanon's PM Sanyura (Siniora in the western press), there was no investigation committee on his role during the war and no opinion polls to test his popularity. But you know that things have gone wrong when this PM, who is hanging on an amputated government contested since November by more than half the population, orders his army, who never lifted a finger against any agression on Lebanon, not even during the Israeli agression, to attack Palestinian refugee camps inside Lebanon.

The Muslim extremists whom Sanyura is fighting were able to infiltrate the camps thanks to Sanyura's all time ally Hariri and his Saudi mentors. One can recognize here the neocon doctrine at work; maintaining muslim extremists at hand in order to justify wars and civilian casualties. These confrontations, which Sanyura and his allies seem to attribute to Syrian interference in Palestinian refugee camps in northern Lebanon, are tailored to pressure an increasingly hesitant national security council towards establishing a special tribunal for Lebanon, officializing the vassalization of Lebanon to US and French interests and consequently tipping the balance of power toward an increasingly unpopular US sponsored Sanyura government and its March 14th ally, against the will of more than half the population, the Shias led by Amal and Hezbollah, and half the Christians led by general Michel Aoun, in addition to support form a sizeable part of other communities (sunnis and druzes).

But thanks to investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the Lebanese government move should not be considered otherwise than a survival manoeuvre. Like Olmert, whose army is continuing to kill palestinians in order to distract his political detractors inside Israel, the political survival manoeuvres launched by the Sanyura government in northern Lebanon are made on the dead bodies of civilians to distract from his government unpopularity and lack of support. More than cluster bombs and more than nuclear weapons, failed politicians in the ME are the most dangerous weapons againt civilian populations and against regional and international peace. Failed Politicians in the ME are Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yet, the US foreign policy has been doing just that, implementing Weapons of Mass destruction in the ME by supporting failed politicians (and sometimes removing them when they become disobediant and replacing them by other failed ones more obediant), feeding wars and conflicts, in total disregard for human life.

Here are some excerpts from Hersh's article 'The redirection' shwowing clearly the link between the US supported Sanyura and Hariri government and the sunni extremists they are pretending to fight now in norhtern Lebanon. I let you draw the conclusions...

''In 2005, according to a report by the U.S.-based International Crisis Group, Saad Hariri, the Sunni majority leader of the Lebanese parliament and the son of the slain former Prime Minister—Saad inherited more than four billion dollars after his father’s assassination—paid forty-eight thousand dollars in bail for four members of an Islamic militant group from Dinniyeh. The men had been arrested while trying to establish an Islamic mini-state in northern Lebanon. The Crisis Group noted that many of the militants “had trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan''.''
''In an interview in Beirut, a senior official in the Siniora government acknowledged that there were Sunni jihadists operating inside Lebanon. “We have a liberal attitude that allows Al Qaeda types to have a presence here,” he said. He related this to concerns that Iran or Syria might decide to turn Lebanon into a “theatre of conflict.”''
''Martin Indyk, of the Saban Center, said, however, that the United States “does not have enough pull to stop the moderates* in Lebanon from dealing with the extremists.” He added, “The President sees the region as divided between moderates and extremists, but our regional friends see it as divided between Sunnis and Shia. The Sunnis that we view as extremists are regarded by our Sunni allies simply as Sunnis.”''
''Alastair Crooke, who spent nearly thirty years in MI6, the British intelligence service, and now works for Conflicts Forum, a think tank in Beirut, told me, “The Lebanese government is opening space for these people to come in. It could be very dangerous.” Crooke said that one Sunni extremist group, Fatah al-Islam, had splintered from its pro-Syrian parent group, Fatah al-Intifada, in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, in northern Lebanon. Its membership at the time was less than two hundred. “I was told that within twenty-four hours they were being offered weapons and money by people presenting themselves as representatives of the Lebanese government’s interests—presumably to take on Hezbollah,” Crooke said.''

*Please note that what the US (and neocon Indyk) call 'moderates' in Lebanon refers only to US allies without regard to their local political or religious allegiances.

Random Thoughts on Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq

I was feeling some blog fatigue and wasn't going to blog for a while. Then I read that Bush wanted more time for his 'new strategy' in Iraq. It reminded me of Israel last summer when it was asking the US, UK and the international community for more time to crush Hezbollah. Instead, it crushed Lebanon's economy, seashore, half of its roads, bridges, houses, buildings, and orchards, killed thousand civilians, made refugees of about 30% of the population and went home leaving Lebanon with postdated cluster bombs, profound divisions, and Hezbollah with a 'divine victory'. Both Bush and Olmert remind me of failing students, you know those ones who, having prepared badly for the exam, sit in front of their white paper the last five minutes when everybody else is done, hoping to deliver !

While Bush, not recognising his defeat, is staying hopeful, Olmert is engaging his countrymen and women in byzantine discussions about the lost war in Lebanon, whose only virtue is to divert Israeli citizens attention from the real issues facing Israel after this war.
What are the issues facing Israel immediately ?
The failure of its leadership in war;
The failure of its leadership in peace (Israel declared it will not discuss with the new Palestinian unity government when most European countries and the US have shown their will to engage).
What are the questions debated in Israel right now ?
Was the attack on Lebanon an operation or a war ?
Giving a name to this war.
Protecting Darfur refugees and pointing out Human rights violations in Darfur.

And as Raptors always hunt in pair, Israel is supported in this Darfur effort by US and French zionists (Nicholas Kristof in the US and BHL in France are leading the efforts). In France, Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL), who has just embarked, courageousely and bare chested, on his latest humanitarian cause, is leading a pack summoning French presidential candidates to sign an engagement for action in the Darfur crisis.

And because we are becoming numb to HUman rights violations, not only in Darfur, but everywhere, the main result of the Darfur media frenzy will be to divert the world's attention from noticing one more effort, in a long list of political compromises and progresses made by the Palestinians to stop the economic embargo from achieving a total isolation, erosion and disintegration of their lands, people and society. The new Palestinian unity government, in addition to being a unity (Fatah-Hamas) government, has given 25% of minsteries to independants from neither parties including four key ministeries, Interior, Information, Finance, and Foreign Affairs. But once again, BHL and other zionists will fail to notice, and once again, Israel won't talk to this government and will be hiding from reprieve behind a good cause; Darfur. Every time the Palestinians show their good will, Israel finds an excuse to look Elsewhere by instigating, through its zionist allies, a media frenzy about where the west should look and what its priorities should be . Israel and zionists are in an active state of denial.

There is a civil war in Darfur and the western media and Israel want us to believe that the Muslims are waging this war against the southern sudanese populations with the implicit blessing of the government for ethnic reasons. But there is another narrative to this story, Sudanese oil. Sudan, like the Middle East, is blessed with oil and cursed with oil.

And as long as I will be reading this kind of news everyday, my indignation at USrael's criminal wars against the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and the entire Middle East, will never fade. There is no room for blog fatigue on this blog.

Watch here a video on the children of Baghdad, Iraq (not of interest to Mr BHL's humanitarian preoccupations because their misery results from Mr. BHL's friends policies in the ME)

Good Night and Good Luck.

George Bush demande "plus de temps" pour sa nouvelle stratégie en Irak
LE MONDE | 20.03.07

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Israël-Hezbollah : la guerre qui ne dit pas son nom
LE MONDE | 20.03.07

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You have to excuse Le Monde, they don't know that Israel's war was on Lebanon and not on Hezbollah ! Another subject for my indignation, the western press's pro-zionist biases.

Les Occidentaux renouent le contact avec le gouvernement palestinien
LEMONDE.FR | 21.03.07

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Le premier ministre palestinien a présenté son gouvernement au président Abbas
LEMONDE.FR | 15.03.07

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Composition du nouveau gouvernement d'union palestinien
LEMONDE.FR | 15.03.07

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Palestine : des indépendants aux ministères-clés
LE MONDE | 15.03.07

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Un meeting à Paris pour interpeller les présidentiables sur le Darfour
LEMONDE.FR | 20.03.07

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