8 thoughts on “My IPS analysis on Obama’s Middle East policy so far”
Actually the Good Friday Agreement also had a little something to do with Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and your much despised Bill Clinton.
George Mitchell is going to need all his skills on this one. Unlike the IRA he is not dealing with a hard-line but ultimately rational secular movement aiming for political goals, but with an irrational fundamental religious force which believes its goals are ordained by God: the Hamas military wing.
In his detailed account of the Northern Ireland negotiating saga, Jonathan Powell describes Gerry Adams as telling Tony Blair at their first meeting that he and McGuinness were determined to avoid “the Republican splits that littered Irish history and to keep the movement together.” He “didn’t want to create an Irish Hamas”.
As Helena would know, the IRA mentored and trained the secular, revolutionary, PLO. Adams said the above in 1997 and history shows he sure knew what he was talking about.
Mitchell has a difficult task.
The IRA was largely funded as a ‘terrorist group’ by sources in the US. So Mitchell, when he started, could be accepted as ‘on their side’, and had a lever for persuasion.
I just hope his famed diplomatic skills will bring Hamas and the Likud party into close. uptight, face-to-face discussion – that could avoid either’s intent to destroy the other and all their people.
I have not visited this site for a few weeks and I just read several pieces from this page. This is the most insightful and hopeful presentation that Obama is up to the task of working the hard problems of governance. I have been concerned that he would just “go with the flow” on many issues and not bring about the transformational change that would unlock new ways to solve problems.
The pieces for this site describe the way Obama is approaching one of the Gordian knots of both the international arena and the American character because of the way we have supported and enabled Israel’s policies all these years.
I am going to put together an introductory note like this to my friends and direct them to this site for further information.
Thank you for the work you are doing.
Here is another link noting the changes in the way the Israel issue is approached and covered.
Glenn Greenwald is a constitutional attorney who has a strong following and has had a lot to say about foreign policy. The article in this link generated over 500 comments. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/30/israel/index.html
According to the L.A. Times, Obama is going to retain the unspeakably evil practice of extraordinary rendition – the practice by which the United States government kidnapped Maher Arar, an innocent Canadian citizen, and transported him to Syria where he was kept in a grave-like cell and tortured on a regular basis for about a year. And it gets even worse. According to “intelligence experts”, he “may expand it”. I feel sick to my stomach.
I am SO done with Obama. My expectations were so low that I did not believe he could disappoint me. I was wrong.
Israel bombs Gaza targets Israel has bombed several targets in the Gaza Strip, witnesses say, hours after the Israeli government vowed a “disproportionate response” to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory. Hoda Abdel Hamid, Al Jazeera’s correspondent, reporting from Gaza City, said that the Israeli military had “told us this was the beginning of a new wave of raids over Gaza, but they did not elaborate any further”. “We know from people’s we’ve contacted that jet fighters are being heard overhead in the skies and people are quite nervous at the moment … people are in a state of panic and alert here,” she said. Olmert said at the cabinet meeting: “The situation … in recent days has increased in a manner that does not allow Israel not to retaliate in order to make sure that our position … is understood by those involved in the fire. “We’ve said that if there is rocket fire against the south of the country, there will be a severe and disproportionate Israeli response to the fire on the citizens of Israel and its security forces,” he said on Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting. “The response will come at the time, the place and the manner that we choose.” Livni, who heads Olmert’s Kadima party, said that Israel must respond to rocket attacks “immediately”. “We mustn’t sign arrangements with Hamas, but rather use force against this organisation,” she said. “Israel will respond whether the Qassam [rocket] causes injuries or not, and this is how I will act as prime minister as well. We must use force and a lot of force.”
The One and Only President of the United States had “no comment”, but mumbled under his breath to Joe Biden while the two washed their hands for dinner at the White House, “Don’t worry. We will be found innocent of these people’s blood; you will see.”
And all the new Emperor’s apologists heard no evil, saw no evil, and spoke of no evil.
And did their best to silence those who did.
President Obama said this at the State Department last week: “…standing up to extremism that threatens us all. Jordan’s constructive role in training Palestinian security forces and nurturing its relations with Israel provide a model for these efforts.”
Well, those Palestinian security forces being trained by Jordan routinely torture other Palestinians. I hope someone asks the “anti-torture” President about the routine torture used by both the Jordanian and Palestinian security forces that he holds in such high regard. These are the forces under the control of “moderate” Abbas, that are supposed to fight the “extremists”, meaning Hamas.
This article talks about their work and about British support for these forces. Obviously American taxpayers are funding this too.
“Financed by the British taxpayer, brutal torturers of the West Bank” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1133032/Financed-British-taxpayer-brutal-torturers-West-Bank.html
I have not yet confirmed this, but it is my understanding that according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, groups other than Hamas are the ones currently launching the rockets into southern Israel. That would be consistent with what the Ministry of Defense and the right wing Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reported during the 2008 cease fire. Both reported that the very few rockets that were fired from Gaza prior to Israel breaking the cease fire on Nov. 4 came mostly from the military wing of Fatah (oops!), with a few from Islamic Jihad, neither of which was a party to the cease fire.
So, as usual, Hamas’ restraint results in more bombing from Israel. Can someone please explain to me once more what the reward is for Hamas’ cooperation?
It is also the case, as it historically has been vast majority of the time, that Israel violated its own “unilateral cease fire” almost the moment it declared it, and that the rockets were fired from Gaza in retaliation.
Actually the Good Friday Agreement also had a little something to do with Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and your much despised Bill Clinton.
George Mitchell is going to need all his skills on this one. Unlike the IRA he is not dealing with a hard-line but ultimately rational secular movement aiming for political goals, but with an irrational fundamental religious force which believes its goals are ordained by God: the Hamas military wing.
In his detailed account of the Northern Ireland negotiating saga, Jonathan Powell describes Gerry Adams as telling Tony Blair at their first meeting that he and McGuinness were determined to avoid “the Republican splits that littered Irish history and to keep the movement together.” He “didn’t want to create an Irish Hamas”.
As Helena would know, the IRA mentored and trained the secular, revolutionary, PLO. Adams said the above in 1997 and history shows he sure knew what he was talking about.
Mitchell has a difficult task.
The IRA was largely funded as a ‘terrorist group’ by sources in the US. So Mitchell, when he started, could be accepted as ‘on their side’, and had a lever for persuasion.
I just hope his famed diplomatic skills will bring Hamas and the Likud party into close. uptight, face-to-face discussion – that could avoid either’s intent to destroy the other and all their people.
I have not visited this site for a few weeks and I just read several pieces from this page. This is the most insightful and hopeful presentation that Obama is up to the task of working the hard problems of governance. I have been concerned that he would just “go with the flow” on many issues and not bring about the transformational change that would unlock new ways to solve problems.
The pieces for this site describe the way Obama is approaching one of the Gordian knots of both the international arena and the American character because of the way we have supported and enabled Israel’s policies all these years.
I am going to put together an introductory note like this to my friends and direct them to this site for further information.
Thank you for the work you are doing.
Here is another link noting the changes in the way the Israel issue is approached and covered.
Glenn Greenwald is a constitutional attorney who has a strong following and has had a lot to say about foreign policy. The article in this link generated over 500 comments.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/30/israel/index.html
According to the L.A. Times, Obama is going to retain the unspeakably evil practice of extraordinary rendition – the practice by which the United States government kidnapped Maher Arar, an innocent Canadian citizen, and transported him to Syria where he was kept in a grave-like cell and tortured on a regular basis for about a year. And it gets even worse. According to “intelligence experts”, he “may expand it”. I feel sick to my stomach.
I am SO done with Obama. My expectations were so low that I did not believe he could disappoint me. I was wrong.
Israel bombs Gaza targets
Israel has bombed several targets in the Gaza Strip, witnesses say, hours after the Israeli government vowed a “disproportionate response” to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory.
Hoda Abdel Hamid, Al Jazeera’s correspondent, reporting from Gaza City, said that the Israeli military had “told us this was the beginning of a new wave of raids over Gaza, but they did not elaborate any further”.
“We know from people’s we’ve contacted that jet fighters are being heard overhead in the skies and people are quite nervous at the moment … people are in a state of panic and alert here,” she said.
Olmert said at the cabinet meeting: “The situation … in recent days has increased in a manner that does not allow Israel not to retaliate in order to make sure that our position … is understood by those involved in the fire.
“We’ve said that if there is rocket fire against the south of the country, there will be a severe and disproportionate Israeli response to the fire on the citizens of Israel and its security forces,” he said on Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting.
“The response will come at the time, the place and the manner that we choose.”
Livni, who heads Olmert’s Kadima party, said that Israel must respond to rocket attacks “immediately”.
“We mustn’t sign arrangements with Hamas, but rather use force against this organisation,” she said.
“Israel will respond whether the Qassam [rocket] causes injuries or not, and this is how I will act as prime minister as well. We must use force and a lot of force.”
The One and Only President of the United States had “no comment”, but mumbled under his breath to Joe Biden while the two washed their hands for dinner at the White House, “Don’t worry. We will be found innocent of these people’s blood; you will see.”
And all the new Emperor’s apologists heard no evil, saw no evil, and spoke of no evil.
And did their best to silence those who did.
President Obama said this at the State Department last week: “…standing up to extremism that threatens us all. Jordan’s constructive role in training Palestinian security forces and nurturing its relations with Israel provide a model for these efforts.”
Well, those Palestinian security forces being trained by Jordan routinely torture other Palestinians. I hope someone asks the “anti-torture” President about the routine torture used by both the Jordanian and Palestinian security forces that he holds in such high regard. These are the forces under the control of “moderate” Abbas, that are supposed to fight the “extremists”, meaning Hamas.
This article talks about their work and about British support for these forces. Obviously American taxpayers are funding this too.
“Financed by the British taxpayer, brutal torturers of the West Bank”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1133032/Financed-British-taxpayer-brutal-torturers-West-Bank.html
I have not yet confirmed this, but it is my understanding that according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, groups other than Hamas are the ones currently launching the rockets into southern Israel. That would be consistent with what the Ministry of Defense and the right wing Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reported during the 2008 cease fire. Both reported that the very few rockets that were fired from Gaza prior to Israel breaking the cease fire on Nov. 4 came mostly from the military wing of Fatah (oops!), with a few from Islamic Jihad, neither of which was a party to the cease fire.
So, as usual, Hamas’ restraint results in more bombing from Israel. Can someone please explain to me once more what the reward is for Hamas’ cooperation?
It is also the case, as it historically has been vast majority of the time, that Israel violated its own “unilateral cease fire” almost the moment it declared it, and that the rockets were fired from Gaza in retaliation.