gotta love this gal

Got invited to see Libya’s Moammar Qaddafi speak at the Ritz tomorrow.

Update: My bad:
1) Qaddafi was supposed to appear on video, I believe from the Arab summit in Damascus.
2) After a few hours of waiting, he did not show up.
3) US presence was downgraded from Assistant Secretary to Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in advance.

Posted by Laura at 10:11 PM

curiously useless avnery article

from Gush Shalom

It starts OK:

This is the 32nd anniversary of the first “Day of the Land” — one of the defining events in the history of Israel. I remember the day well. I was at Ben Gurion airport, on the way to a secret meeting in London with Said Hamami, Yasser Arafat’s emissary, when someone told me: “They have killed a lot of Arab protestors!” That was not entirely unexpected. A few days before, we — members of the newly formed Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace — had handed the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, an urgent memorandum warning him that the government’s intention of expropriating huge chunks of land from Arab villages would cause an explosion. We included a proposal for an alternative solution, worked out by Lova Eliav, a veteran expert on settlements. When I returned from abroad, the poet Yevi suggested that we make a symbolic gesture of sorrow and regret for the killings. Three of us — Yevi himself, the painter Dan Kedar and I — laid wreaths on the graves of the victims. This aroused a wave of hatred against us. I felt that something profoundly significant had happened, that the relationship between Jews and Arabs within the state had changed fundamentally. And indeed, the impact of the Day of the Land — as the event was called — was stronger than even the Kafr Kassem massacre of 1956 or the October Events killings of 2000…

but ends with a whimper:

In recent years, intellectuals of the third Arab generation in Israel have published several proposals for the normalization of the relations between the majority and the minority. There exist, in principle, two main alternatives. The first way says: Israel is a Jewish state, but a second people also live here. If Jewish Israelis have defined national rights, Arab Israelis must also have defined national rights. For example, educational, cultural and religious autonomy (as the young Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky demanded a hundred years ago for the Jews in Czarist Russia). They must be allowed to have free and open connections with the Arab world and the Palestinian people, like the connections Jewish citizens have with the Jewish Diaspora. All this must be spelled out in the future constitution of the state. The second way says: Israel belongs to all its citizens, and only to them. Every citizen is an Israeli, much as every US citizen is an American. As far as the state is concerned, there is no difference between one citizen and another, whether Jewish, Muslim or Christian, Arab or Russian, much as, from the point of view of the American state, there is no difference between white, brown or black citizens, whether of European, African or Asian descent, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish or Muslim. In Israeli parlance, this is called “a state of all its citizens.” It goes without saying that I favor the second alternative, but I am ready to accept the first. Either of them is preferable to the existing situation, where the state pretends that there is no problem except some traces of discrimination that have to be overcome (without doing anything about it).

and the reason is, it ignores the occupied territories totally.

two interesting recent interviews

On AntiWar Radio on Mar. 28th, Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discussed the Iraqi Army’s targeting of the Mahdi Army, his suspicion that Cheney arranged this with Maliki on his recent trip, the doom this could spell for the occupation, Iran’s relative influence with the Mahdi Army and the Badr Corps of the Hakim faction, and the neoconservative propaganda that Iran backs al Qaeda.

MP3 here. (40:57)

Charles Goyette, recently honored as “Best Phoenix Talk Show Host”, talked on Feb. 15th to David Ray Griffin about his new book, 9/11 Contradictions : An Open Letter to Congress and the Press.

MP3 here. (43:00)

nick turse on the future military

la vice anglaise!

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has defended his friend and F1 boss Max Mosley over allegations he participated in a Nazi-style sex orgy. The claims were made by the Sunday newspaper, the News of the World, which published a video apparently showing Mr Mosley giving orders in German as he lashes girls wearing mock death camp uniforms and is himself whipped until he bleeds … Mr Mosley’s father was British World War II fascist Sir Oswald Mosley. News of the Screws, as it is fondly known here, has the photos:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/3003_nazi_orgy.shtml

nifty video review of griffin’s new book

rowan pesters hard working pressmen

Hi, [x]!

Hope you are well. I see your stuff in [y] from time to time, and it is nice to know you are getting published.

I probably never told you this, but I have spent the last ten years collecting incapacity pension from HM Govt., which has given me the leisure to get about half way through learning modern hebrew.

Unfortunately HMG has chosen this moment to cancel my invalidity status, which means that unless i take suitable measures to become employed, i shall be required to flip hamburgers or something.

Therefore, I am writing to ask you to mention to anyone you think might be interested that I am stuck half way through learning hebrew and am much in need of an employer who will see the usefulness of work such as mine. What I plan, when i feel competent to do it, is a pop sociology of jewish israeli youth, largely in their own words.

best regards,
Rowan
London

a snippet from brion gysin’s “the process” (1967)

“You can’t have two Richest Girls in the World, after all, even though some of the old title-holders have refused to turn in their crowns when their fortunes faded or were spent. Princess Mya holds her title as long as she holds the Strangleblood oil wells, pitchblende pits, uranium outcroppings and platinum lodes found on the tribal grounds of the Barefoot Indians in Northwest Canada. P.P. Strangleblood, her first husband, is still missing in Tibet. Her current consort, Thay Himmer VII, lost the family outpost in the Farouts and is not very well fixed, but, as Mya’s seventh husband, he was somewhat of a catch. Thay is fey, but Mya is a Canadian Red Indian with both feet on the ground ; said to be equally inscrutable at poker or in business, she has used her first good fortune as a springboard to much greater wealth. Mya is said to have got out from under the dollar, and does all her business in Basel.”

perelman camp

[...] Pro-Israel advocates have for years criticized the human rights apparatus of the U.N. for its perceived anti-Israel bias, and the latest nominations are likely to fuel their disenchantment with the U.N.’s recent vows to become more even-handed. That effort appeared to take a step forward with the creation in 2006 of the Human Rights Council to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission, but the new appointments are seen as a step in the other direction. Quoth Sybil Kessler, director of U.N. affairs for B’nai B’rith International :

Unfortunately it seems that right now, the council is not missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Change on the margins feels ever more challenging when member states select and promote experts with obviously biased views toward Israel. The struggle for change has just gotten that much harder, I am sad to say.

- Marc Perelman, Forward

useful document from 6 march

Gaza: Humanitarian situation worst since 1967

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is worse now than it’s been at any time since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967, according to a new report published 6 March by a coalition of leading humanitarian and human rights organisations. The weekend’s upsurge in violence and human misery underlines the urgency of this report. In their new joint report, the coalition – comprising Amnesty International, CARE International UK, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Médecins du Monde UK, Oxfam, Save The Children UK and Trócaire – warns that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a collective punishment of the entire Gazan civilian population of 1.5 million. The report concludes that the Israeli government’s policy of blockade is unacceptable, illegal and fails to deliver security for Palestinians and Israelis alike. Geoffrey Dennis, Chief Executive of CARE International UK said:

The recent escalation in violence, both from rocket attacks and military strikes, will make life even more unbearable in Gaza. Unemployment has soared and 80% of people in Gaza are now dependent on food aid compared to 63% in 2006. Water and sewage infrastructure is on the point of total collapse. Unless the blockade ends now, it will be impossible to pull Gaza back from the brink of this disaster and any hopes for peace in the region will be dashed

According to the report, the blockade of Gaza has dramatically worsened levels of poverty and unemployment and has led to deterioration in education and health services. Over 1.1 million people are now dependent on food aid and of 110,000 workers previously employed in the private sector, 75,000 workers have now lost their jobs. Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

Israel has the right and obligation to protect its citizens, but as the occupying power in Gaza it also has a legal duty to ensure that Gazans have access to food, clean water, electricity and medical care. Punishing the entire Gazan population by denying them these basic human rights is utterly indefensible. The current situation is man-made and must be reversed.

The coalition’s 16 page report, The Gaza Strip : A humanitarian implosion, urges the UK government and EU to press for a new strategy for Gaza. In particular, the report calls on the UK government to:

Exert greater pressure on the Israeli government to open the crossings into Gaza and stop fuel and electricity cuts in order to stem the worsening humanitarian crisis,

Help facilitate a process of Palestinian reconciliation that can lead to a credible and effective peace process with Israel,

Abandon the failed policy of non-engagement and begin negotiations with all Palestinian parties, including Hamas.

The report calls on the Israeli Government and Palestinian armed groups to immediately cease all attacks against civilians. All unlawful attacks must stop, the Government of Israel should put an immediate end to disproportionate attacks in Gaza, and Palestinian armed groups should immediately stop indiscriminate rocket attacks into southern Israel. Christian Aid’s Director, Daleep Mukarji, said :

The UK government should acknowledge that a new strategy is needed for Gaza. The current policy does not secure vital security for Israeli citizens, and even if it did the blockade policy would still be unacceptable and illegal. Humanitarian aid can help stave off total collapse but it will not provide a long-term solution. Gaza cannot become a partner for peace unless Israel, Fatah and the Quartet engage with Hamas and give the people of Gaza a future.

Full Report (pdf)