Year: 2011

March 24, 2011December 11, 2020

Don’t Play Apartheid Israel, Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan has donated to the World Food Programme which says ‘Palestinians are experiencing a dramatic decline in their living standards and a regression of the economy due to internal and external movement restrictions, limited control over natural resources, restricted access to local and international markets, low rates of economic production and limited access of Palestinian labourers to their former work in Israel’ yet he’s still planning to play Israel on June 20th. Please, Bob, boycott Israel, which deliberately creates the problems for Palestinians identified by the WFP, whilst practising the three pillars of apartheid.

Dylan last played in Israel in 1993.

Bob Dylan played on the ‘Sun City’ song . “These artists also vowed never to perform at Sun City, because to do so would in their minds seem to be an acceptance of apartheid.” To break the boycott called for by Palestinian civil society and play Israel is to give a regime which has been identified by noted South African anti-apartheid activists as practising even worse apartheid than white South Africa, a propaganda gift.

True, the last time you famously did something about it, the man for whom you went to bat (and whom you got a retrial and an eventual acquittal by reminding the world of how he was railroaded) threatened to sue you for using his life story without permission. But in this case you don’t have to write a song. You don’t even have to sing a song. What you have to do is simply NOT sing – at least not in Israel.

Make a Difference and Join

BOB DYLAN BOYCOTT ISRAEL
Bob Dylan – Please Don’t Play for Apartheid Israel
Bob Dylan’s 70th Birthday: A Virtual Party with a Difference

Palestine / Israel Links

You’ll be sorry, Israeli university tells UJ
JCCs Are a New Front in the Culture War on Israel

The debate, said Stephen Hazan Arnoff, executive director of New York’s 14th Street Y, a community center not targeted by protesters, reflects similar trends in Israel, where tolerance of dissenting views is in decline. Attacks on JCCs and Jewish cultural institutions, he said, “are a sign of weakness” of the community. “If the community cannot accommodate diversity, the community is not healthy.”

Don’t Dress Up Israeli Apartheid: BDS LOreal
UJ cuts ties with Israeli university
Sacramento Co-Op Board Abandons Democratic Principles Won’t Let Members Vote On Proposed Israel Products Boycott
Nutanyahoo and the Neoziocons : out of touch, out of favour, Israel and zionism heading closer to the plughole – The Poisoned Chalice
Israel’s drift ever rightwards – a guide to the laws discriminating against Palestinian citizens
Gaza gets bombed by air at night?
Israel’s Military Escalation in Gaza

In addition to tightening the siege on the Palestinians in Gaza,the Israeli army commenced a new military offensive against the population in mid-March.

On 16 March the Israeli air force attacked a Hamas training base near the former settlement of Netzarim. Two Hamas militants, Adana Eshtaiwi, 27 years old, and Ghassan Abu Amro, 25 years old, were killed in the attack, while a third person was injured.

The Israeli military claimed the strike was in response to a single mortar projectile launched from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel. No Palestinian faction claimed responsibility for the firing, and the Israeli press reported that the projectile was launched by a small, unknown organization.

Since Operation Cast Lead, Hamas has generally abstained from firing into Israeli territory while Israel has refrained from targeting manned Hamas facilities.

Two days later the Israeli military reported that its soldiers were attacked by Gaza fighters while “performing a routine activity”. Again, no Palestinian faction took responsibility for the attack.

Normally Palestinian factions take responsibility and credit for their attacks on Israeli targets. There have also been cases in which Palestinian military factions claimed attacks that never actually occurred.

The next day, on 19 March, Israeli tanks shot at targets in the Gaza Strip. Five people were injured in this attack, while additional shelling destroyed power lines.

In response to Israeli attacks, Hamas fired mortars into Israel on Saturday 20 March. According to the Israeli police, at least 49 mortars exploded within the regional councils bordering Gaza, including Sdot Negev and Eshkol. Two Israelis were lightly hurt by shrapnel.

Israel retaliates for deadly blast, rocket attacks
UJ Israel boycott a ‘landmark moment’
Airport security and Arab citizens: change in sight?
Israel passes laws forbidding remembrance of 1948 takeover of Palestine
IPSC Open Letter to Bob Geldof: Don’t Choose Side of Israeli Oppressor!
“We Are Not Like Them”: Itamar Massacre Activates A Dangerous Israeli-Jewish Ethnocentrism
Interview: Omar Barghouti on the boycott campaign for Palestine
Vilnai: Israel has strategic reason not to use Iron Dome – instead of being used to protect civilians, according to @Didi Remez they are needed for IDF bases #
Palestine and the Egyptian revolution: a view from Gaza
Forum: Israel, a Racist Apartheid State. Uni of Melbourne, Australia 30 March
Stop Israel’s Blood Diamond Trade!
The schism between the jewish diaspora and the zionist illusion of the jewish state of Israel outlined at the Committee for Un-Israeli Activities: Raucous Knesset committee debates J Street
Call for action: Protest against H&M Opening a New Store in Israel
Interview: Omar Barghouti on the boycott campaign for Palestine
The Palestinian narrative has won

What gives us room for optimism is that this running amok has awakened Israeli public opinion against the murky fascistic wave. Perhaps this absurd law will provoke a dialogue about the events that took place in 1948, as a way to reconcile the two peoples.

Israel’s dissidents are saving the country

The government’s ambassadors and its propagandists can barely persuade anyone in the world, except themselves. The destroyers of Israeli democracy can only stoke the fire higher and higher against it. The critical voices still being heard, in commendable freedom, arouse the world’s esteem. The dissidents are now the best explainers of Israel, whose regime is still to its credit.

Israeli-Palestinian tensions: a timeline

Libya Links

More bombs bursting in Libya. What for?
‘Post-Qaddafi Libya’: on the Globalist Road
Libya: Allied air strikes secure Misrata for rebels – rebels show disrespect for the Geneva Conventions :

‘The revolutionary leadership has said that even if there are civilian casualties, they will be a necessary price to prevent even greater loss of life if Gaddafi’s forces had continued their assault on Misrata and exacted revenge against the residents for their support of the uprising.’

There’s nothing moral about Nato’s intervention in Libya
Intervening in Libya : Why Nothing Good Will Come of This

Egypt Links

Egypt govt passes law criminalizing protests and strikes

Syria Links

More than 100 killed in Syrian protest: activists

March 23, 2011December 11, 2020

World Water Day – Justice and Rights for Palestinians Now!

While Bob Geldof reprehensibly plans to accept an honorary degree from Ben Gurion University which collaborates with the Jewish National Fund to thieve land and water resources from Palestinians, the University of Johannesburg is taking a close look at ending its relationship with BGU partly in response to efforts by “the University of Johannesburg’s Student Representative Council, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and more than 300 South African academics”. (NB Update – in a magnificent victory for global BDS, The University of Johannesburg has now severed ties with Ben Gurion University!). Further,

The fact is that access to water and sanitation in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is based upon a discriminatory system, which privileges Israeli institutions while denying Palestinians their basic human rights to water and sanitation. Palestinians are not suffering human rights violations due to a lack of technology or scientific advancement. Palestinians are suffering because of the Israeli occupation that will not allow them to enjoy their full rights to their groundwater and surface water, and will not even allow them to construct facilities for treating wastewater. We are committed to taking nonviolent action to bring these and other human rights violations to an end.

Water resources in Palestine and Israel are shared on a vastly inequitable basis – “Israelis consume on average more than 3.5 times as much water per capita than Palestinians”.

The Bedouin village of Al Araqib in the Negev has been demolished 18 times by the Israeli Army, to make way for Jewish National Fund plantations which serve to obliterate visually the indigenous presence on the land as deliberately as the new racist Knesset law to cover up and outlaw acknowledgment of the history of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians – the Nakba . The JNF partners blatantly with Ben Gurion University – if Bob accepts an award from them, he will be complicit directly with ethnic cleansing.

Jordan Valley Blues from Life Source on Vimeo.

Filling Point (by LifeSource and Pietro Bellorini) from Life Source on Vimeo.

Palestine/ Israel Links

Knesset passes ‘Nakba bill’

The “Nakba bill”, proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu, requires the state to fine local authorities and other state-funded bodies for holding events marking the Palestinian Nakba Day by supporting armed resistance or racism against Israel, or desecrating the state flag or national symbols.

On Nakba Day Palestinians mark the “catastrophe” of Israel’s inception in 1948.

The bill, which was reworked before its final passing, states that the finance minister will be charged with deciding when to withdraw funds from various groups after considering the opinions of the attorney general and a professional team comprised of members of the ministries of finance and justice.

Thirty-seven MKs supported the bill in its final form, while 25 opposed it.

..

MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) was also outraged. “You are creating a monstrous state that will enter the thoughts and emotions of citizens. Is accepting my history considered incitement?” she asked. “The Nakba is a historic truth, not a position or freedom of expression.”

…

The second bill, which passed by a majority of 35 to 20, formalizes the establishment of admission committees to review potential residents of Negev and Galilee communities that have fewer than 400 families. It was passed after 2 am.

After the passing of the bill the Knesset erupted in riots as MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al), refusing to limit himself to the comparison of the bill to South Africa’s apartheid,mentioned the Wannsee Conference in which the Nazis decided on the Holocaust’s “final solution” – or the gassing of Jews.

Arab and left-wing MKs claim the bill, which was proposed by MKs from Yisrael Beiteinu and Kadima, is aimed at preventing Arabs from residing in the communities that choose to adopt admission committees.

But its initiators claim in their explanation of the bill that it is “a balanced bill and not racist, and does not intend to harm the Arabs or the weaker members of society”.

MK Taleb El-Sana (United Arab List-Ta’al) said the bill’s initiators should be ashamed. “How can a country determine for its citizens where to live and die?” he asked.

…

MK Hanna Swaid (Hadash) announced “the clinical death of the State of Israel.” He added that although the law prohibits denying anyone residence based on his race, it was still possible to do so on cultural grounds. “We will make sure the towns, local authorities, and communities that adopt the law are boycotted in the world,” he said.

Tibi: Read Jewish history

But the Knesset truly erupted in violence when MK Tibi took the stand. “You must read Jewish history well and learn which laws you suffered from. Do you remember anything about the prohibition of interracial marriage? Do you need an Arab on the stand to remind you of your history?” he asked.

“When 14 representatives gathered in Berlin, they discussed which policy to use against the Jews. It was then they discussed pushing them aside and limiting their living space…”

At this point MKs from other parties interrupted Tibi, yelling at him to leave the podium. MK Uri Ariel (National Union) refused to let him continue, yelling out, “Go back to Ramallah.”

Tibi was eventually allowed to continue, and said Arabs felt as though they were being pushed aside. He said he was not comparing the law to the final solution, but that he had brought it up in order to stress the level of hatred.

Two Grad rockets fired by Gaza militants strike Be’er Sheva
#Israel is well revealed as insincere about peace & gung ho about land theft – any new massacre of #Gaza civilians likely to be even worse PR for it than Cast Lead #
Israel may have to launch fresh operation against Gaza, says Vice Premier
Israel’s killings that ignited the present violence: PCHR condemns killing of Gaza teens :

The death of two Gaza teens on Saturday, killed by Israeli fire 300 meters from the border area was an act of “excessive and lethal force,” a condemnation from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said.

The two, both 17, were killed east of Johur Ad-Dik in the central Gaza Strip. Medics were only permitted to retrieve their bodies more than 12 hours after they had been killed

Hamas calls day of mourning; Abbas demands end to fire
Gene Simmons fails to notice that Palestinians are in revolt against Israeli oppression
Just what is keeping the Peace Process alive? And what will it take to bury it?
Abbas: Jerusalem-Gaza road shortest path to unity

Addressing comments from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said earlier in the week that Abbas could choose between “peace with Israel or Hamas,” the president said “Israel has no right to object to Palestinian conciliation, it has no stake in Palestinian national unity. Netanyahi has always wept in front of the Americans, saying the Palestinians are divided and he can’t negotiate with them like this,” adding that unity would make the prospect of a Palestinian state stronger.

Israel to Charge Abusisi ‘Within Days,’ Ukraine Denies Involvement in Kidnapping, Summons Israeli Ambassador
Likud MK launches Knesset lobby to fight delegitimization
Israel is blind to the Arab revolution
Gaza: Hamas calls for truce
25 injured, 4 seriously in J’lem bus explosion
A small war is starting along Gaza border
Israeli warplanes launch fresh air strikes on Gaza
Inside the minds of Itamar colonists
Australia’s Zionist lobby worried #BDS may be catching
A small war is starting along Gaza border

The current tensions began exactly a week ago when Israel launched an air attack on a Hamas base in the ruins of the settlement of Netzarim, killing two Hamas men. That attack came in response to a Qassam fired from Gaza that landed in an open area. Hamas then responded with a barrage of 50 mortars on communities south of the Gaza Strip. Israel delayed its response so as not to disrupt the Purim festivities in the Sderot area.

But on Monday evening Israel launched a series of air attacks in which a number of Hamas militants were wounded. Things worsened yesterday afternoon. After a round of mortar fire on kibbutzim east of Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces fired its own mortars right back at the source of the firing – at the Sajaiyeh neighborhood east of Gaza City, killing four members of a family, including two children.

Southern Command’s initial investigation indicates that the mortars’ launching point, an olive grove on the edge of a residential quarter, had been clearly identified. It seems that a number of the IDF’s mortars went off course and hit a house in Sajaiyeh, a few dozen meters from the grove.

Israel seeks aid of diplomats to prevent flotilla going to Gaza

Libya Links

Six Libyan villagers shot by US team rescuing pilot
Obama: NATO to join Libya war
Senator McCain is probably regretting this 2009 tweet, about #Gaddafi

Morocco Links

Morocco: The Winds of Change

Bahrain Links

UAE Said To Have Changed View On Libya Deployment Due To Bahrain

Other Links

The Stoner Arms Dealers
EXCLUSIVE: CIA Psychologist’s Notes Reveal True Purpose Behind Bush’s Torture Program
Tomgram: Chris Hellman, $1.2 Trillion for National Security

March 23, 2011December 11, 2020

Crafty Gaddafi and the Mountain of Gold

With Gaddafi perched on a massive stockpile of gold, enough to pay his troops and buy more for years, the prospect of a quick end to the west’s assault on Gaza seems remote despite Gate’s intonations that the campaign will slow in the next few days.

The gold reserves are believed to have been moved from the central bank in the capital, Tripoli, to another city such as Sebha in the south, which is near Libya’s African neighbours Chad and Niger, after fighting broke out, the Times reported.

While bankers told the Times that international banks or trading houses were unlikely to buy any gold believed to be from Libya, Colonel Gaddafi may find buyers in Chad or Niger.

The British military are squabbling with bloodthirsty imperialist Government Ministers over the legitimacy of targetting Gaddafi directly.

Senior figures in Washington have also emphasised that the coalition is barred by the UN from attempting to hit Gaddafi; the issue is sensitive because of fears that talk of toppling the regime could alienate Arab supporters of the action.

…

The controversy was sparked when Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, signalled that Gaddafi could be a “legitimate target”. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, also left open the possibility in a BBC interview yesterday.

But Gen Richards, speaking after a meeting of ministers and military chiefs on Libya, was adamant that Gaddafi could not be targeted. Asked if it could happen, he replied: “Absolutely not. It is not allowed under the UN resolution and it is not something I want to discuss any further.”

In an emergency Commons debate, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said any military action had to be consistent with the UN mandate, but stopped short of ruling out an attack on Gaddafi under any circumstances.

He said: “Targets must be fully consistent with the UN Security Council resolution. We choose our targets to stop attacks on civilians and to implement the no-fly zone. But we should not give a running commentary on targeting.”

Sir Menzies Campbell, former Liberal Democrat leader, said: “Neither the resolution nor international law would justify the specific targeting or, in truth, assassination of Colonel Gaddafi. But if he were engaged in direct control of military occupations contrary to the resolution, and the command and control centre in which he was to be found were the subject of attack, then he would be a legitimate target.”

..

Last night, the Government won clear backing for the military action, with 557 supporting the involvement of UK forces, and 13 MPs voting against.

A ComRes poll last night for ITV found that public support for the action in Libya is lukewarm, with only 35 per cent believing it was right for the UK to take action against Gaddafi forces and 53 per cent saying it would be unacceptable for British personnel to risk death or injury.

Libya Links

HOW THE UK HELPED ARM LIBYA

In 2005, the UK licensed the sale of £29.5m worth of “military transport aircraft” to the colonel; and in 2009 and 2010 licensed the sale of “bombing computers” and “military aircraft ground equipment” too.

In addition, between 2005 and 2007, sales of armoured all-wheel drive vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, night vision goggles and water cannon got the go-ahead.

The biggest shipments (and most alarming ones, given how Gaddafi’s forces are repressing the population) suggest that the exports didn’t even help boost British manufacturing. In 2007, for example, a job lot of “anti-riot shields, body armour, anti-riot guns, crowd control ammunition, smoke ammunition, tear gas/irritant ammunition, smoke hand grenades & CS hand grenades” were licensed for export to Libya by British businessmen. The materials, however, were from Serbia.

In 2005, a £41m package of battlefield weapons, including heavy machine guns, armour for tanks, day and night sights for weapons and military image intensifier equipment, originally from the Ukraine, was also licensed.

The oddest export, however, was licensed between July and September last year when the Foreign Office approved the sale of what it describes as “spacecraft”. Perhaps this offers a possible way out for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s Mad Dog chum.

Libya and the State of Humanity
What intervention in Libya tells us about the neocon-liberal alliance
The War for Libya’s West: More Qaddafi Massacres
Kicking the intervention habit : Should talks of intervention in Libya turn into action, it would be illegal, immoral and hypocritical. by Richard Falk
Background from July 2010 – BP to start drilling off Libyan coast : Oil giant’s shock revelation is the latest twist in a tale of politics, pollution, terrorism – and violent death
Libya: A conflict of self-interest
No to intervention in Libya! Victory to Arab revolutions! – 12 reasons to oppose airstrikes

Palestine / Israel Links

Civil Society and Palestine: Growing Power of the Ordinary : Ramzy Baroud
Israeli NGO Wins Partial Lifting of Abusisi Gag
Aroma Tel Aviv tells employees to speak Hebrew
Ex-minister and judge support boycott of Israel –

WESTERN Cape high court judge Siraj Desai and former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils have come out in support of a Holocaust survivors’ South African campaign for a boycott of Israel.

Speaking at a dinner in Cape Town on Sunday night, Hajo Meyer, an 86-year-old Jewish scientist and a survivor of Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz concentration camp, called for a concentrated cultural and academic boycott against Israel.

Knesset to pass “separate but equal” communities bill
Musician-activist Bob Geldof to Receive Award from Israeli University
Johannesburg U mulls cutting ties with BGU
Bob Geldof
Is Bob Geldof Obnoxiously Shameless?
“Ninety percent of water in Gaza is not fit for human consumption. UNICEF and partners are working together to install water pumps and desalination units with safe drinking water. Tuesday 22 March is World Water Day -‘Water for Cities: responding to the urban challenge.’ UNICEF ”
The Maia Project: Bringing Clean Water to the Children of Palestine
The largest segment of Gaza factories is the garment industry, with between 700 and 800 production plants. It is also the hardest hit by the siege, since it was the most dependent on exports — still banned by Israel.
Water and sanitation: A Human Right for all, even slum-dwellers and the homeless
Radicalization: It’s Not A Muslim Thing
Israeli jets strike Gaza after Hamas offers truce
After Libya, Obama will have hard time thwarting Palestinian state
More ethnic cleansing by the zioscumbag entity Jerusalem’s bookseller to the stars facing deportation : Munther Fahmi, a Palestinian, was born in Jerusalem and lived there until he was 21, when he left for the United States for 20 years.
Turkey group plans new Gaza flotilla with at least 15 ships
Ban on Israel-Palestine debate ignites free speech row at French university : International petition calls on Ecole Normale Supérieure to restore ‘long history of political expression’
Revealing Gaza: In The Eyes Of The Beholder: Israel bombs Gaza in an over-night air raid (as usual)
Bad romance: Poland and Israel’s “love story”
Mothers of Palestinian prisoners demonstrate on Mother’s Day – Gaza
One of the 7 children that were injured during Israel’s heavy bombing on Gaza!
Israeli air strikes wound 19 in Gaza : Seven Palestinian children among those hurt in raids retaliating against Hamas rocket attacks
Settlers Attack Residents in Northern West Bank
Palestinians wounded in Israeli air strikes : At least 17 people, including children, injured in military attacks on Gaza Strip, witnesses say.
Rethinking Itamar: Eliminating the ‘Palestinian threat’ won’t legitimize Israeli settlements
Letter to President Obama from Congressman Davis expressing concern about FBI repression of the Anti-War and Solidarity Movements.
UN official: Israel engaging in ethnic cleansing :

Investigator Richard Falk says settlement expansion, consequent evicting of Palestinians ‘intolerable’ : The “continued pattern of settlement expansion in East Jerusalem combined with the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians are creating an intolerable situation” in the part of the city previously controlled by Jordan, he said.

This situation “can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing,” Falk declared.

…

Israel declines to deal with Falk or even allow him into the country, accusing him of bias against the Jewish state.

…

In his speech, Falk said he would like the Human Rights Council to ask the International Court of Justice to look at Israeli behaviour in the occupied territories.

This should focus on whether the prolonged occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem had elements of “colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing inconsistent with international humanitarian law,” the investigator declared.

New Israeli Military Unit to Monitor BDS,“Delegitimization” Groups in OPT & Abroad
Israel bombs Gaza in an over-night air raid (as usual)
Imagining an ‘alternative spatial future’ in Israel/Palestine
What Israeli bombs did to a child today
Settlers attack Aqraba farmland
5 dead, others injured as Israel shells Gaza : IDF Haaretz release says four people killed.
Aid industry doing no harm in Palestine?
Public Support for Israel

Wikileaks Links

Colombia carried out covert military operations in Venezuela: WikiLeaks

Egypt Links

Guardian called to account on Mubarak wealth figures

Bahrain Links

WikiLeaks cables show no evidence of Iran’s hand in Bahrain unrest

Australia Links

Prison union boss demands G4S be sacked
Jerome Small on supporting refugees fighting back

Other Links

March 21, 2011December 11, 2020

Revolution Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Maintaining a revolutionary position in the present Libyan scenario is like walking in a minefield. One cannot applaud imperialists with their undeniable record of ruthless manipulation in pursuit of control of the world’s energy resources nor the violent tyranny of Gaddafi and bevy of Western puppet dictators which infest nations which often hold treasures coveted by mercantilists. In the Financial Times, Roula Khalaf reminds us of the recent history of the Libyan revolution and warns of the impact of Gaddafi’s manipulations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA):

But as the international coalition steps up its attacks on Libyan forces, Muammer Gaddafi is single-handedly, and tragically, transforming the image of the Arab spring, taking the region back to what we have long been used to, a combination of bloody conflict and foreign intervention.
…

It is important to remember that Libyans began their protests peacefully, marching across the country to demand Col Gaddafi’s departure. They were forced to take up arms to confront a crackdown using every military tool in Col Gaddafi’s arsenal. As army officers broke away and sided with the rebels, and ammunition depots were raided, the stand-off veered towards civil war.

It was also the rebels themselves who were the first to call upon the world community for assistance, specifically asking for a no-fly zone to protect the cities and towns that were under their control. And it is only grudgingly that a coalition has been formed, with the US a late-comer to the game, and everyone insisting that any military operation required Arab backing.

While there are reports that Gaddafi’s compound has been bombed, contrary to previous reports, the Pentagon is denying regime change is the goal:

Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney underlined that strikes are not specifically targeting the Libyan leader or his residence in Tripoli. He said that any of Gadhafi’s ground forces advancing on the rebels were open targets.

Yet the nature of the international coalition is exposed – it is indeed US-led and executed, despite protestations from Obama.

But NBC Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski today knocked down the talk that what is going on militarily is a “huge coalition effort.” Here’s what he said in a remarkable segment this morning:

“Despite the White House attempts to make this look like it’s a huge coalition effort — obviously it required coalition political support — but for now the U.S. military is not only in the lead but conducting almost all military operations, with only minor participation from the French, as you mentioned, even British fighters over night. There’s a U.S. commander. And even this morning I talked to senior military officials, when I asked them how soon will the U.S. turn over the command to the coalition — and the indication is the U.S. military is in no hurry to do that.”

A refugee crisis – another cruel human toll consequent of war – is mounting:

As of 19 March, IOM and UNHCR estimated that at least 320,423 people have fled Libya, and approximately 8,578 remain stranded at the Libyan borders with Tunisia and Egypt.

Meanwhile in Bahrain, Saudi-backed forces menace hospitals and civilians. In Syria, protests continue with more reports of violence.

And in Palestine, Israel’s foul oppression and collective punishment continues with a green light from the West, with opposition leader Livni calling for a repetition of the vile Cast Lead operation against the people of Gaza. Israel has cut a main power line in Gaza. The apartheid state has also admitted holding Gazan electrical engineer Abu Sisi.

Abu Sisi, 42, and a father of six, disappeared from a train while travelling between Kiev and the eastern city of Kharkiv on the night of February 18-19.

The engineer’s wife Veronika said she had been told by train attendants that her husband had been taken away by two men posing as officers of the Ukrainian secret service,

He is being held at Shikma prison in Ashkelon, according to a Ukrainian delegate at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees cited by Israeli media.

Hamas condemned the abduction and demanded the engineer’s release.

“This kidnapping violates international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty. It is further proof of the contempt of the (Israeli) occupation for the international community,” spokesman Sami Abu Zohi told AFP.

UPDATES

RT @avinunu: Iraq was devasted by weeks of intensive bombing in 1991 and Saddam held on for 12 more years, despite crippling sanctions. #

Libya Links

Libya: The perils of intervention
Prison massacre helped to spark Libyan revolution
Operation Odyssey Dawn – US DoD site
Drawn-out campaign risks damping down Arab spring
Ancient Poison Bears New Fruit: Western Frenzy Grows in Libya
Timeline of the 2011 Libyan uprising
The “coalition” has no clothes : The administration has insisted that the attack on Libya is a broad international effort — but, so far, it’s not
Gaddafi supporters claim airstrikes hit compound
Robert Fisk: Remember the civilian victims of past ‘Allied’ bombing campaigns
Libyans offer new graves as proof of civilian dead
No Intervention in Libya: John Rees on The Moral Maze 9.3.11 – shows banners asking for no foreign intervention in Libya.
Twitter v the MSM: covering Gaddafi’s war against reality
Arab League condemns broad Western bombing campaign in Libya
The Marxist-Leninist line : Hands off Libya: victory to Gaddafi

Afghanistan Links

US Army ‘kill team’ in Afghanistan posed with photos of murdered civilians : Commanders brace for backlash of anti-US sentiment that could be more damaging than after the Abu Ghraib scandal

Bahrain Links

Letter From Bahrain: Will They Stop Killing Us?
Mullen: US must treat Bahrain differently from Libya

Syria Links

Syria: Protests Continue to Gain Momentum

Palestine / Israel Links

Palestinians eye U.N. recognition of state as Israel hits Gaza by air
Israel has Palestinian who vanished in Ukraine: report
IDF officers confirm special department created to monitor left-wing organizations around the world – how fascist of them :

The new MI unit will monitor Western groups involved in boycotting Israel, divesting from it or imposing sanctions on it. The unit will also collect information about groups that attempt to bring war crime or other charges against high-ranking Israeli officials, and examine possible links between such organizations and terror groups.

. @JuliaGillard Please protect us citzens & tell #Israel to stop spying on ‘leftist’ groups in Australia, thank you http://is.gd/cixCbS #
. @GreensMPs can we please get a denial from @JuliaGillard that Israel is spying on Australians & does she condone this? http://is.gd/cixCbS #
Israeli forces attack prayers near Bethlehem
What some young Jews do in their spare time; defend occupying Israel
This is what grassroots Jewish violence looks like
Worldwide sanctions can erode Israel’s fanaticism
Israeli Army Cooperates with Settlers in Attacks on Palestinians
Australian Greens candidate faces abuse and lies over backing Israel sanction

Australia Links

Are you in favour or against Australia becoming a republic? ‘39% of respondents are in favour of Australia becoming a republic, 34% are against and 27% hold no opinion.’
35% think that the Australian troops in Afghanistan should be increased or maintained and 56% think Australia should withdraw its troops. This is a significant shift (+9%) in favour of withdrawal since this question was last asked in October 2010.

Other Links

Drones over Mexico: Surveillance is needed to contain drug problem

March 20, 2011December 11, 2020

Game On in Libya – Regime Change?

Libya intervention While Kevin Rudd “would not be drawn on whether the intervention would ultimately end Gaddafi’s 40-year rule”, the Los Angeles Times reports “U.S. officials acknowledged that they were seeking to oust Kadafi, but also that they did not have a clear path to do so.”

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Washington and its allies also were committed to using nonmilitary means to force Kadafi out, including steps intended to cripple the Libyan economy and isolate him diplomatically.

As expected, Gaddafi is casting the assault as ‘Western colonialism and a Christian “crusader” mentality toward the predominantly Muslim countries of the Middle East’, which may play better in Libya than the rest of the region.

The LA Times also reports that

“Libyan officials accused international forces of hitting a hospital and other civilian targets. The armed forces said in a statement that 48 people had been killed in the strikes and 150 injured. Kadafi declared he was willing to die defending Libya, and in a statement broadcast hours after the attacks began, condemned what he called “flagrant military aggression.” He vowed to strike civilian and military targets in the Mediterranean.”

However, ABC Australia chronicles the observations of a resident of Tripoli who saw missiles hitting a Libyan army base near his home.

“We could hear this whistle coming from above the car,” he said.

“The car has moved and they dropped another two into this army base.

“It’s not far from the heart hospital really, but they missed it. That’s a very good shot.”

There are also unconfirmed reports that 3 French jets have been downed.

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales note that the western intervention is an oil grab, while Fidel Castro sees ‘the Security Council ignored problems in countries that were friendly to the US’.

Has the West really calculated sufficiently the strength of Gaddafi’s support amongst the populace and the interpolation of historic internecine tribal rivalries?

Mark Quarterman, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington:

The risk in Libya is that the military operation will not end quickly or decisively. He said it is easy to imagine Gaddafi’s well-armed government remaining strong, despite the no-fly zone.

“After the first few days, this could settle into a protracted fight between Gaddafi and the rebels, essentially a stalemate with neither side able to retake ground or negotiate an end to the fighting,” he said. “Then what do you do?”

…

International military forces are operating under the command of Gen. Carter F. Ham, head of the U.S. African Command. The Pentagon says command will be turned over to the coalition in coming days, although which country will lead it remains unclear.

Here we have another open-ended intervention initiated without an exit strategy or clear plan, predestining yet another occupation by the West which may lurch on for years, crippling Libya and bringing its people little real freedom, as with the ill-fated US-led adventurism in Iraq and Afghanistan. Will the Western intervention be used by Obama as his very own proving ground, his blooding, playing to the near-campaign US electorate much of which is tired of being the bad guys?

How do the people resisting Gaddafi feel about western intervention? According to Gilbert Achcar, who thinks ‘from an anti-imperialist perspective one cannot and should not oppose the no-fly zone, given that there is no plausible alternative for protecting the endangered population’:

‘In watching on TV the crowds in Benghazi cheering the passage of the resolution, I saw a big billboard in their middle that said in Arabic “No to foreign intervention.” People there make a distinction between “foreign intervention” by which they mean troops on the ground, and a protective no-fly zone. They oppose foreign troops. They are aware of the dangers and wisely don’t trust Western powers.’

What does the Arab League really want?

The leader of the Arab League says that Arabs did not want military strikes by western powers when they had called for a no-fly zone over Libya. Secretary-General Amr Moussa said he was calling for an emergency meeting to discuss the situation.

“What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians,” he said.

What we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians. Amr Moussa, Arab League

14.00 Admiral Mike Mullen, the top US military commander, concedes the end-game of military action in Libya is “very uncertain”. He acknowledged it could end in a stalemate with Colonel Gaddafi.

What effect will the assault by the West have on the rest of the MENA revolutions? the hypocrisy of establishing a no fly zone over Libya whilst neglecting the protection of protesters in Bahrain, Palestine, Syria, Morocco and Yemen is staggering.

Between imperialism and tyranny, there is no real choice – consider another path – to stand against both alongside the people who resist them.

UPDATES

Arab League condemns broad Western bombing campaign in Libya
Infantile Leftism
RT @SultanAlQassemi: Al Arabiya: Medical sources: More than 90 people were killed during the Gaddafi forces attack on Benghazi. #Libya #
Gaddafi denounces foreign intervention
RT @SultanAlQassemi: France 24 Arabic: #Libya calls for urgent UN Security Council meeting following coalition strikes. #
RT @SultanAlQassemi: France24Arabic: #Libya says it will no longer stem flow of illegal immigrants to Europe; considers UN res 1973 void. #
@SultanAlQassemi: Libyan State TV shows pictures of injured patients. Says 48 civilians killed & 150 injured following coalition airstrikes (via BBC World) #
UPDATE 1-Turkey to play appropriate role over Libya
Remains of Gaddafi’s force smolders near Benghazi
LIVE BLOG: Libya – Operation Odyssey Dawn

Remembering Sun Tzu in the Art of War:

1. Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best
thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact;
to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is
better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it,
to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire
than to destroy them.

2. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles
is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists
in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

3. Thus the highest form of generalship is to
balk the enemy’s plans; the next best is to prevent
the junction of the enemy’s forces; the next in
order is to attack the enemy’s army in the field;
and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.

4. The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it
can possibly be avoided. The preparation of mantlets,
movable shelters, and various implements of war, will take
up three whole months; and the piling up of mounds over
against the walls will take three months more.

5. The general, unable to control his irritation,
will launch his men to the assault like swarming ants,
with the result that one-third of his men are slain,
while the town still remains untaken. Such are the disastrous
effects of a siege.

6. Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy’s
troops without any fighting; he captures their cities
without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom
without lengthy operations in the field.

7. With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery
of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph
will be complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem.

8. It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten
to the enemy’s one, to surround him; if five to one,
to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army
into two.