http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/opinion/l18brooks.html
To the Editor:
Re “The Tel Aviv Cluster” (column, Jan. 12):
David Brooks correctly points out that the unique religion, culture and history of the Jewish people have contributed to Israel’s economic success. By underscoring Israel’s financial dominance in the Middle East, Mr. Brooks raises an interesting possibility.
While Israel’s political and military leaders have been unable to end the violent conflicts with the Arabs that have plagued their nation since its birth, perhaps Israel’s private sector can bridge this longstanding divide.
Israel’s increasing number of entrepreneurs and technological innovators should seek partnership opportunities to engage the Palestinians and the surrounding Arab countries economically (instead of militarily), with the goal of establishing a shared purpose that could lead to stability and peace.
Ivan R. Novich
Summit, N.J., Jan. 13, 2010
Every once in a while, some left-wing Jewish writer will take a deep breath, open up his (or her) great big heart, and tell us that criticism of Israel or Zionism is not antisemitism. Silently they congratulate themselves on their courage. With a little sigh, they suppress any twinge of concern that maybe the goyim–let alone the Arabs–can’t be trusted with this dangerous knowledge…[counterpunch.org]
On September 4, 1972, the novelist and futurist Fereidoun M. Esfandiary published an editorial on the op-ed page of The New York Times concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. Titled “A Plague on Both Your Tribes,” it announced that the situation had become a “monumental bore”: that the leadership had failed, and the antagonists, “acting like adolescents, refuse to resolve their wasteful 25-year-old brawl,” even as other nations of the world were “rapidly patching up their differences.” Esfandiary decried the violent stalemate over territory, especially since the world was, in any case, “irreversibly evolving beyond the concept of national homeland.” Citing a recent United Nations study on global youth, he extolled a “new kind of population, more resilient and adaptable than their elders,” with a “feeling of world solidarity and a sense of common responsibility to achieve peace.” In a future that was just around the corner, today’s youth would take care of the Arab-Israeli problem—in part by realizing that it was already obsolete. He concluded the piece with an exasperated injunction: “Let us get on with it.”
Fin avril, à Luxembourg, le conseil des affaires générales et relations extérieures de l’Union européenne (UE) a préféré attendre avant de renforcer les relations de l’Europe avec Israël. Décidée durant la présidence française de l’Union européenne le 8 décembre 2008, la mise en chantier de ce « rehaussement » a été de facto interrompue à l’issue de l’offensive meurtrière israélienne contre la bande de Gaza de décembre et janvier derniers. De nouveau, le 15 juin 2009, le conseil – en marge duquel se tenait la neuvième session du conseil d’association entre l’UE et Israël- a réaffirmé cette orientation. Ce choix marque-t-il seulement une pause conjoncturelle dans l’approfondissement des relations entre Bruxelles et Tel-Aviv, ou esquisse-t-il un réel tournant de la politique européenne au Proche-Orient ? (…)
La valise diplomatique
par Isabelle Avran
Calls for investigation into Gaza attacks
Israel blamed its earlier wars on the threat to its security, even that against Lebanon in 1982. However, its assault on Gaza was not justified and there are international calls for an investigation. But is there the political will to make Israel account for its war crimes?
by Richard Falk [mondediplo.com]
Philippe Rekacewicz — janvier 2009
[monde-diplomatique.fr]
By 14 January Israeli troops had killed more than a thousand Palestinians confined to a narrow strip of land and subjected to land, sea and air bombardment by one of the most formidable armies in the world. A Palestinian school converted into a United Nations refuge had been bombed (1), a resolution – issued by the only organisation that really represents the “international community” people are so fond of talking about – had called in vain for a halt to the military operations in Gaza. So, on 14 January, the European Union showed just how firmly it was prepared to react to this mixed display of violence and arrogance. It decided to suspend the process of rapprochement with Israel! But to lessen the impact of what might, even so, have been seen as gentle reproach to Tel Aviv, it explained that this was a “technical”measure, not a “political”one. And that the decision was taken by “both parties”. [continue...]
by Serge Halimi [mondediplo.com]
Translated by Barbara Wilson
An Opec for gas?
Russia and Ukraine fell out over the price of gas, and people in eastern Europe suffered the consequences. But the dispute affects countries further down the pipeline – particularly in Europe, which seems unable to formulate its gas consumption policy
By Rafael Kandiyoti
[mondediplo.com]
The strange tale of Iran and Israel
The early Zionists never believed they would be accepted in the Arab world and pinned their hopes on the non-Arab periphery instead, particularly Iran. Israel reversed that policy by opening talks with a weakened Arafat in the early 1990s. But peace with the Palestinians did not happen and the ‘radicals’ grew more radical
By Alastair Crooke
[mondediplo.com]
Comment le virus Conflicker a paralysé les armées
Depuis deux semaines, les réseaux informatiques du ministère de la défense sont infectés par un virus qui a immobilisé certains systèmes d’armes, à l’instar des Rafale de l’Aéronavale – L’origine et les caractéristiques exactes de ce virus restent encore inconnues, mais la crise – dont Intelligence Online révèle l’ampleur – pose de sérieuses questions sur la sécurité des réseaux militaires français et leur capacité à faire face à une cyber-attaque d’envergure.
[intelligenceonline.fr]
- L’entrée en fonction de M. Barack Obama confirmera une triple rupture. Serge Halimi
– Les Etats-Unis humiliés par leur allié israélien
[monde-diplomatique.fr]
Already able to count on active backing in the U.S. Congress, the opposition Iranian movement People’s Mujahedin has its friends in the European Parliament, too. [intelligenceonline.com]
What Nato failed to understand
Afghanistan: the neo-Taliban campaign
The attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on 20 September, killing some 60 people, was compared to 9/11 in Pakistan and could be a turning point in the conflict in this region. President Bush has authorised ground operations against Taliban bases in Pakistan, which has now become the main theatre in the ‘war on terror’. Meanwhile, the neo-Taliban, operating an al-Qaida franchise there and in Afghanistan, have controlled the escalation of guerrilla resistance in a sophisticated military strategy based on the conduct of the Vietnam war. [mondediplo.com]
Pakistan: Hello al-Qaeda, goodbye America
MIRANSHAH, North Waziristan – With a truce between the Pakistani Taliban and Islamabad now in place, the Pakistani government is in effect reverting to its pre-September 11, 2001, position in which it closed its eyes to militant groups allied with al-Qaeda and clearly sided with the Taliban in Afghanistan. [atimes.com]
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Cast your vote now in the American presidential election with The Economist’s Global Electoral College
[economist.com]
FINANCE houses set out to be monuments of stone and steel. In the widening gyre the greatest of them have splintered into matchwood. Ten short days saw the nationalisation, failure or rescue of what was once the world’s biggest insurer, with assets of $1 trillion, two of the world’s biggest investment banks, with combined assets of another $1.5 trillion, and two giants of America’s mortgage markets, with assets of $1.8 trillion. The government of the world’s leading capitalist nation has been sucked deep into the maelstrom of its most capitalist industry. And it looks overwhelmed. [economist.com]
“Les Etats-Unis sont contre la colonisation, L’Europe est contre, tout le monde est contre mais (les Israéliens) se foutent du monde.” Le présidents égyptien, Mohamed Hosni MUBARAK, à propos de la poursuite de la colonisation dans les territoires arabes occupés.
http://www.presidency.gov.eg/html/the_president.html
Energy self-sufficiency not military escorts for oil – The US gas garrison
The Carter Doctrine, established 28 years ago, put the US military in service of assuring the nation’s regular supplies of imported oil. This has near-bankrupted the US and corrupted the military, yet left the US insecure in energy sources and globally loathed. The time has come to demote petroleum and stand down the troops.
Energy reform in Mexico – Crude and oily
A controversial referendum and the future of the state oil company…
Competitive gas
The Iran-Pakistan-India and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline projects will help in optimising gas supply in the country and bring down prices to an affordable level…
Oil rises above $125, Nigeria supports
* Oil above $125, Nigeria pipeline attack supports
* U.S. highway driving drops, May oil demand revised down
* Reuters EIA poll sees crude and gasoline stocks down
(Previous TOKYO, updates prices)
Since September Iraqi Airways operate flights to Amman and Damascus with a Boeing 737 (manufactured in 1983) from its “own fleet” and a leased Boeing 727. Officials from Boeing traveled to Baghdad to meet with Fadel Abbas Alkaram and Louay al Eris, respectively Iraqi Airways chairman and transport minister. The American company promotes sales in Iraq !
On September Louay al Eris said “the airliner is negotiating to lease additional aircraft so it can expand its routes”, here comes Boeing.
Airbus Industrie is also interested in selling aircraft to Iraq – a really interested client in the past – but the new A380 will be hard to lease to Iraqi Airways for many reasons.
At this time the airline is virtually bankrupt and not advertising its return to the skies. Has only two pilots technically employees of Teebah Airlines, and even with a leased 737 and its crew – and offering a not risk free round-trip ticket $300 cheaper than Royal Jordanian – how the airline could resume an international service if the same Royal Jordanian have monopoly on commercial passenger flights between Amman and Baghdad. Damascus the remaining destination yet will maybe not be enough to get good cash flow and lease a brand new A380, but an ex-US Airways Boeing from the year 1983…
What will be the next Iraqi Airways aircraft..?
