Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has demanded an apology from President Obama over his recent comments on the protests in Iran. (ie. his condemnation of the unjust killings instigated by the Iranian government, as well as his support of the Iranian people and their “universal right to free speech.”
Ahmadinejad’s response: Apologize, meanie!
Well, his exact words were: “I hope you avoid interfering in Iran’s affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it.”
I also tend to wonder about this point: Why doesn’t the US actively support democratic movements in countries like Egypt instead of continuing to give Mubarak the second largest amount of US foreign aid every year, thereby bolstering these dictatorships? Or does seeing people suffer under brutal political repression only move us to tears and require our interference when it is perceived to be in our own national interest, as in Iran?
“Here, in the last presidential election, the police used live ammunition,” Sharkawy said. “Why didn’t the West speak out against what was happening to us, when we had much smaller numbers? You become skeptical. We understand the United States and the West will pursue their own interests. They don’t want a strong Egyptian government that will have separate opinions from the West.”
“I think Mr Wolfowitz and many people in the press..they want to break the Iranian regime..that’s all they are interested in..its a matter of power. For westerners to flicker into youtube and to urge these kids to go out in the street, and as Gary said, fall on the bayonets of the revolutionary guards to me is, its just almost criminal. The US should stay the devil out of this business. Obama managed to keep his big mouth shut while the Israelis killed 1500 people in Gaza ..he just [] with the greatest jail master in the middle east in Cairo, stay out of this business. America doesn’t need another war.”- Michael Sheuer, former CIA operative.
Sheuer reminds us that the position the neocons and republicans are advocating for, a stronger US involvement in the Iran crisis, will only worsen things and turn the situation into an Iran-US showdown while the Iranian people will pay the price with their blood. Moreover, he reminds us that these same critics couldn’t give two shits about the people in the Middle East and their quest for democracy, justice, and freedom.
Although I value Gary Berntsen’s solidarity with the Iranian people, I do think that what he is aiming for, a complete overthrow of the current regime in Iran, is an example of what problematic expectations certain U.S. officials have of the recent turmoil in Iran– exactly what Sheuer was referring to. The Iranian people are protesting what they perceive to be a rigged election, and for their voices to be heard. They are rallying for Mousavi, not for an overthrow of the Islamic regime. As Sheuer and many others like him have pointed out, Mousavi is not that different from Ahmadenijad. If by some miracle he is declared to be the next president of Iran by the Guardian Council, it will not necessarily mean the end of the Islamic Republic nor the dissolution of the “problems” the US has with Iran.
The legitimate protests of the Iranian people have been met with tear gas, live ammunition and severe brutality from their own government and Basij militia. The Iranian people are fighting for their rights, for their right to be heard and for their right to nonviolent protests as enshrined in the Iranian constitution. They are not a means by which the U.S. government will use to reach its foreign policy goals– these protests are about them, not us, and it’d be great if certain US officials would see it that way.
Although I don’t think the more favorable rating has much to do with Obama’s Muslim background but rather the fact that the Arab world perceives Obama to be a million times better than Bush in terms of his foreign policy. (of course, this is all comparative, I don’t think Obama’s foreign policy decisions have differed tremendously from President Bush’s- we are waging less war in Iraq and more in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and our policy towards Israel remains the same with the exception of harsher rhetoric criticizing Israeli settlement expansion).
But I thought that this was the most interesting part of the poll results and can serve as a statement to those who believe that every Middle Easterner is an avid supporter of Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah:
After surging, respectively, to ratings of 27% and 17% in the 2008 poll, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian Preisdent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fell to 11% and 10%–behind even current French President Nicolas Sarkozy. And no leader of Hamas figured in the top 12.
Moral of the story: If President Obama wants to reach out to the Muslim world, just as Scott Mcleod put it, he must take actions that prove to the residents of the Middle East that the U.S. is ready to pursue a more fair and just policy in the region. As made clear by the poll, Middle Easterners are not looking for meaningless rhetoric and promises of change, but concrete actions.
So I haven’t really had time to blog what with my thesis due in like less than two weeks. And I’m properly late on this bit of news, but our worst fears have been realized – Avigdor Lieberman is now Foreign Minister of Israel.
While Lieberman is a fan of the two-state solution, he envisions a purely Jewish state, and, at one point, advocated for the expulsion of the Palestinian citizens of Israel. In the last election, his party advocated for the banning of two Arab parties from running in the election on the pretext that they were critical of Israel’s Dec. 2008 war in Gaza. Shortly before the election took place, the ban was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.
However, now as Foreign Minister, he will be in charge of internal security, among other things, and I fear that his racist views will be projected into Israeli policy.
A female psychotherapist in Gaza, Insherrah Zakout, helps women try to free themselves of the trauma they suffer from as a result of the wars in Gaza.
I think that this an aspect of war that a lot of people don’t think about–the fact that the brave men, women, and children in Gaza are going to be living with the memory of the massacres, the trauma of losing their loved ones, for the rest of their lives. There is nothing that can make up for what these people have lost.
I remember from the summer I spent in the refugee camps in Jordan that many of the women in the camp wished they had psychotherapists in the camp. They needed someone to relay their problems to, to help them deal with the poverty, sickness, and alienation that came along with their dispossession.
If there was such a high demand for therapy in Jordan, where the Palestinian people have led mostly stable lives, one can only imagine how much psychotherapy is needed in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Insherra Zakout is one of a few psychotherapists in Gaza. God bless her.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced his resignation and his plans to step down from his post, to allow for the formation of a unity government between Hamas and Fatah. Fayyad will remain as Prime Minister until the unity government is actually formed.
Palestinian sources claim that the resignation of Fayyad is just a tactical move aimed at pressuring Hamas to soften its stance and allow Fayyad to resume his post as Prime Minister. Hamas is demanding that Fayyad be replaced by an independent candidate.
The United States has let the PA and Hamas know that it will not recognize the Palestinian unity government unless Salam Fayyad is re-appointed as Prime Minister.
Antony Lerman, former director of Institute for Jewish Policy Research, writes in The Independent about how Jews should not use their memory of the horrors of the Holocaust and their sense of victimization to allow the dehumanization of the Palestinians and the demonisation of anyone who criticizes Israel….
According to Haaretz, the “EU document accuses Israel of using settlement expansion, the security barrier in the West Bank, Palestinian house demolitions and discriminatory housing policies to gain control over East Jerusalem.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Israeli order for the eviction of 1500 Palestinians in East Jerusalem “unhelpful,” and that is as far as criticism from the United States for Israel’s recent policies in Jerusalem has gone and probably will go.
So I’m glad that the EU pointed out the obvious fact that these evictions, home demolitions, and settlement projects have a larger goal; to continue Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and to complete its Judaization of all of Jerusalem.
Oh and he wants to appoint the even crazier Dov Weiglass, Sharon’s aide, as the Foreign Ministry special envoy. Remember that guy? The one who talked about how the Gaza disengagement was the ‘formaledehyde’ which was “necessary so there” would “not be a political process with the Palestinians,” and no chance of there ever being a Palestinian state?
I know this is very different from the general news you get from my blog, but I had to address this– it’s very important, and it aggravated me so much.
This film was made by Yoni Goodman, the director of animation for the Oscar nominated and Golden Globe Winner,”Waltz with Bashir” — a documentary about Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
This is a dialogue that went on between a reporter and Robert Wood, the spokesman for the State Department, regarding Israel’s restriction on the entry of pasta to the Gaza Strip. (Go here if you haven’t heard the story about Senator John Kerry’s encounter with Israeli officials at the border.)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is currently in Ramallah meeting with Mahmoud Abbas. She’s talking to him about how Israeli settlement expansion and Israel’s approved expulsion of 1500 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem is “unhelpful” to the peace process.
As the years pass the words the U.S. uses to describe Israel’s settlement project get less and less severe:
After much controversy surrounding the matter, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Omar Al-Bashir, the President of Sudan today.
The ICC did not accuse him of genocide but of five accounts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
According to AP, the three judges found that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him of genocide because genocide requires a clear intent to destroy and kill a specific ethnic or cultural group.
Miftah reports. Israel’s Jerusalem municipality approved the eviction of 1500 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. According to the eviction order, the homes lacked ‘proper licensing.’
Because Palestinians need permission from the state that is illegally occupying them to build homes for themselves and their families on their own land. Makes perfect sense.
It should read, U.S. shuns Gaza in Palestinian aid pledge.
According Robert Wood, the spokesman for the U.S. State Department, only $300 million out of the $900 million the U.S. has pledged to the Palestinians will go to the Gaza Strip, and the rest will go to the ‘moderate’ Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, and his Palestinian Authority. Also, the majority of the money for the PA will be used for”economic reforms, security and private sector projects run by the PA.”
Donors in the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting today will be asked by the PA to fund a 2.8 billion dollar reconstruction project for Gaza.
Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy of the Quartet, is pressing for a change in the Western strategy towards Gaza that will be more conducive to reconstruction.
Nathan Brown, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believes that we have tired our efforts to implement the two state solution at the present moment, and that the U.S. would serve a greater purpose in the Middle East if it would push for an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire.
Clinton and Mitchell will both meet in Sharm tomorrow to discuss prospects for moving forward in the Israel-Palestine tract with Egyptian, Syrian, and Palestinian officials.
Glen Kessler of the WPost writes that, “Clinton will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah, in the West Bank, on Tuesday and Wednesday before flying to Europe for meetings — and every word that she utters in the region will be closely monitored for clues to the administration’s approach. Israelis, for instance, will be listening for how hard she presses for Palestinian governmental reform and an end to corruption, while Palestinians are eager to hear a tougher U.S. stance on Israeli settlement construction in Palestinian territories.”
Clinton has commended Egypt on its efforts in brokering a Hamas-Israeli ceasefire, but expressed that the U.S. attitude on Hamas will not change until Hamas has ‘met international requirements.’
Really really good article. On the victory of Lieberman and how the issue of the Palestinian citizens of Israel has taken center stage in Israeli society.
In a surprise visit (well, it was a surprise to me), Stephen Walt, one of the authors of the famous yet controversial book, The Israel Lobby, lectured today in Cabell Hall.
He talked about the book and the nasty reviews it received in the United States, and he compared them to the rather positive reviews him and Mersheimer received in Europe , and in Israel. He brought up the fact that none of his speaking engagements in Europe or in Israel were cancelled but most of the ones in the U.S. were. (it’s interesting, I think that if the Israel lobby really wanted to protest the message relayed in the Israel Lobby book, then they wouldn’t lobby against Walt and Mersheimers’ speaking engagements and force universities to cancel them– Israel’s lobbyists should be trying to show us how unpowerful they are. With their incessant lobbying they are only making the argument stronger.)
