By: PKKH

When waging war “by way of deception,” the motto of Israel’s Mossad, well-timed crises play a critical agenda-setting role by displacing facts with what a target population can be deceived to believe. Thus the force-multiplier effect, when staged crises are reinforced with pre-staged intelligence. In combination, the two often prove persuasive.

Such agent provocateur operations typically include collateral incidents as pre-staging for the intended main event. Ongoing incidents suggest a follow-on operation is underway. Recent history suggests we’ll see an orgy of evidence that plausibly indicts a pre-staged Evil Doer. Though Iran is an obvious candidate, Pakistan is also a possibility where outside forces have been destabilising this nuclear Islamic nation with a series of violent incidents. Will it be coincidence if the next war—like the last—is consistent with the expansive goals of Jewish nationalists?

December 2007 saw the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Mark Siegel, her Ashkenazem biographer and lobbyist, had assured US diplomats that her return was “the only possible way that we could guarantee stability and keep the presidency of Musharraf intact.” President Pervez Musharraf had announced that resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict was essential to the resolution of conflicts in Iraq and neighbouring Afghanistan. That comment made him a target for Tel Aviv. During Bhutto’s two terms as prime minister, Pakistani support for the Taleban — then celebrated as the Mujahideen — enabled her to wield influence in Afghanistan while also catalysing conflicts in Kashmir. By fuelling tension with India, she also fuelled an Indo-Israel alliance as Tel Aviv provided New Delhi with an emergency shipment of artillery shells during a conflict over the Kirpal region of Kashmir.

In January 2009, Israel delivered to India the first of three Phalcon Airborne Warning & Control Systems (AWACS) shifting the balance of conventional weapons in the region. That sale confirmed what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier announced: “Our ties with India don’t have any limitation….” That became apparent in April when Israel signed a $1.1 billion agreement to provide India an advanced tactical air defense system developed by Raytheon, a US 
defense contractor.

In August 2008, Ashkenazem General David Kezerashvili returned to Georgia from Tel Aviv to lead an assault on separatists in South Ossetia with the support of Israeli arms and training. That crisis ignited Cold War tensions between the US and Russia, key members of the Quartet (along with the EU and the UN) pledged to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict. Little was said about the Israeli interest in a pipeline across Georgia meant to move Caspian oil through Turkey and on

Bhutto’s murder ensured a crisis that replaced Musharraf with Asif Ali Zardari, her corrupt husband. By Washington’s alliance with Zardari, the US could be portrayed as extending its corrupting influence in the region. On August 7, 2008, Zadari-led ruling coalition called for a no-confidence vote in Parliament against Musharraf just as he was departing for the Summer Olympics in Beijing. On August 8, heavy fighting erupted overnight in South Ossetia. As with many of the recent incidents in Pakistan, this violent event involved armed separatists. But for pro-Israeli influence inside the US government, would our State Department have installed in office the corrupt Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, leading to record-level poppy production? Is the heroin epidemic presently eroding Russian society traceable to Israel’s infamous game theory war-planners?

In late November 2008, a terrorist attack in Mumbai, India’s financial centre, renewed fears of nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan. When the attackers struck a hostel managed by Chabad Lubavitch, an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect from New York, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced from Tel Aviv: “Our world is under attack.” By early December, Israeli journalists urged that we “fortify the security of Jewish institutions worldwide.”

Pakistani cooperation with “Islamic extremists” created the impression of enhanced insecurity and vulnerability for the US and its allies. That perceived threat was marketed by mainstream media as proof of the perils of
 “militant Islam.”

With the Taleban and Al-Qaeda portrayed as operating freely in a nuclear-armed Islamic state, Tel Aviv gained traction for its claim that a nuclear Tehran posed an “existential threat” to the Jewish state. Meanwhile Israel’s election of an ultra-nationalist/ultra-orthodox coalition further delayed resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

More delay is destined to evoke more extremism and gain more traction for those marketing the “global war on terrorism.” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni argued after the assault in Mumbai: “Israel, India and the rest of the free world are positioned in the forefront of the battle against terrorists 
and extremism.”

In announcing that list, Islamabad was indicted by its exclusion even though Pakistan is dominantly Sunni and, unlike Iran’s Shia, abhors theocratic rule. The fact patterns suggest that Pakistan, not India, was the target of the murderous terrorism in Mumbai. Not surprisingly, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent mission to Islamabad was a diplomatic disaster. Abrasive and arrogant, America’s top diplomat reinforced Pakistani concerns that it is surrounded by hostile forces and that the nation is being set up to fail by Jewish nationalist advisers to a nation it considered an ally. In a climate of heightened tensions, Clinton undermined US interests, boosted the Israeli case for a global war on “Islamo-fascism” and lent credence to the Clash of Civilisations.

As Afghanistan and Pakistan join other nations being destabilised by outside forces, key questions must be answered:

· Was India’s 9-11 a form of geopolitical misdirection meant to serve both the tactical goals of Muslim extremists and the strategic goals of Jewish nationalists? Who benefits — within Pakistan — from humiliation at the hands of India and the US?

· With Bhutto’s murder and Musharraf’s departure, the crisis in Mumbai drew Pakistani forces to the Indian border and away from the western tribal region. Was that the geostrategic goal of these well-timed crises? What role, if any, did Israel play?

· Is delay in ending the occupation of Palestine part of an agent provocateur strategy? Was the latest assault on Gaza part of this strategy?

Each of these crises incrementally advanced the expansionist agenda of the Zionists. Do these collateral incidents trace their origin to a common source? Is that source again using serial events to pre-stage a main event?

The public has an intuitive grasp of the source of this oft-recurring behaviour. An October 2003 poll of 7,500 respondents in member nations of the European Union found that Israel was considered the greatest threat to world peace. Is terrorism limited to “Islamo-fascists”? Are mass murders also deployed as a strategy of geopolitical manipulation by those who philosopher Hannah Arendt described as 
“Jewish fascists”?

Khaleej Times

Jeff Gates is author of Guilt By Association, Democracy at Risk and The Ownership 
Solution. See www.criminalstate.com

10,000 More North Korean Troops Along Chinese Frontier

The Daily NK quotes sources inside North Korea indicating that the Korean People’s Army will, for the next six months, be building up its forces in Ryanggang province around the large border city of Hyesan.

courtesy Wikipedia

A total of 10,000 new troops are expected.  According to the source, talk in the DPRK has it that the moves are being taken in response to a Chinese buildup in adjacent Jilin province:

The source said, “The rumor doing the rounds is that they are increasing the size of the army unit in Yangkang Province in response to a missile base the Chinese have constructed at Antu near Mt. Baekdu and their posting of mechanized forces near Changbai,” hinting that the expansion of the Army Corps members is partly out of concern for China.

However, in response to a Chinese demand in August of last year, North Korea relocated both its 2nd 14.5mm Anti-Aircraft Gun Company (a.k.a Jedang Ridge Company) and an independent platoon known as the “Gotdongji Platoon” to Masan Ridge, which is approximately five kilometers from the Yalu River border. Before the move, the Jedang Ridge Squadron’s 12 guns were aimed directly at the Chinese city of Changbai in Jilin Province, directly across the border from Hyesan.

[But]the Chinese missile base indicated by the source is actually located in the vicinity of Dunhua, which is in the interior of the Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture, far from the North Korea-China border, so it seems that the true reason behind the expansion may be different from the official explanation.

The buildup, if accurate, could also be described as stemming from the domestic need to keep would-be refugees contained inside the North.  But it is also very possible that the news of this buildup is a means of the DPRK trying to use somewhat conventional negotiating tactics against the PRC.  Heretofore, the main threat NK posed to China was the “gun to my head” argument or, put another way, North Korea’s potential to open the border and release hundreds of thousands of refugees into China.  Along with recent nuclear tests along the border, this type of news could be interpreted as a conventional means of making the PLA sit up straighter, heightening Chinese respect for North Korean arms.  I could of course be very wrong about this, but it may signal a significant type of change, particularly if the regime grows in militarist confidence.

This increase in troop numbers on the northern frontier can come back also to this idea of encirclement of the DPRK.  As Russia increases its missile defenses in the area, we can see how the Northern frontier could also be seen by Pyongyang as a major new focus for their defensive paradigm.  After all, the Chinese have their own secret talks with the Americans, get closer every day in spite of empty propaganda cannonades to the American military, and American analysts fantasize openly about getting to a “permissive defense environment” along the PRC-DPRK frontier in order to infiltrate American commandos (as opposed to journalists) into the North.   Not to mention new allegations of China preparing a special “occupation force” / DPRK government-in-exile, allegations which I think are overblown, but nevertheless are out there.

One quick correction to the Daily NK translation from the Chinese: NK Anti-Aircraft weapons were “directly across” from Changbai, not “pointed directly at.”

More Troops=Civilians Bear the Burden

And the civilians are definitely complaining about the troops.  In my travels there, it was pretty obvious merely in terms of body language that the villagers were living in what felt like a kind of occupation.  The troops come to town: as a North Korean peasant, you don’t cheer, you don’t offer your daughter’s hand in marriage.  Instead, you pony up what little grain you have.  Isn’t this reminscent of Chiang Kai-shek’s national army in 1947, anyone?  And isn’t it a major violation of the Kimist/Maoist edict for the army to remain “like a fish in water” with the people?  North Korea needs to find a receipe for sustainable army-civilian coexistence if it is going survive.  Because we seem to have fallen back into the ethos of the Japanese occupation of Korea, with the KPA reprising as the Kanto army and North Hamgyong’s sweating provincial head following Kim Jong Il nervously around shrines and masquerading as Col. Terasuki.

The Daily NK elaborates:

Regardless of the reason, the news of the fresh troops has not gone down well with the local people, according to the source. He explained, “With the news of 10,000 additional soldiers coming into Hyesan, many citizens have become concerned. It is already difficult for them to deal with the existing number of soldiers.”

Besides forces affiliated to the 10th Army Corps, the Raider Unit in Baekam, the Raider and Anti-Aircraft Missile Unit, the Huchang County Medium-Range Missile Unit, the 43rd Gapsan County Sniper Brigade, the Samjiyeon County Escort Bureau Unit, Hyesan City Bureau No. 8 (the Bureau in charge of supplying armaments and ammunition) and the Yangkang Province Border Patrol Brigade are all stationed in Yangkang Province, causing civilians to complain that the number of soldiers already exceeds the number of civilians.

And this is another way to assure they get more labor out of these people.  Army units are less likely to shirk labor tasks than, say, the Democratic Youth League.  There is no end in the Good Friends reports about problems with people simply not showing up for their corvée responsbilities.

Perhaps the ideal text one should be reading in order to understand how such a regime ultimately crumbles is not Lenin’s Tomb, but rather Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian on the end of the Qin dyansty. The monument-building, the harsh legalist punishments, the outrageous demands for corvée labor, the courtly intrigues, the belligerent foreign policy: it resembles the Kim dynasty’s late years as much as the Qin dynasty’s late years.   Here, choices all lead to death, making resistance and rebellion the only act of free will in such a system.

A Chinese in Pyongyang [cue "An American in Paris," but with a guzheng or pan'sori warble in pentatonic mode]

In other DPRK-PRC news, huggable Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will be making a state visit to North Korea from October 4 to October 6.  This news comes via the (Chinese) Global Times, which promotes the visit as a banner right next to the announcement of the October 1 parade.  Apparently Chinese leaders are capable of, as Ai Weiwei says, “reveling in their own glory” while making new mechanations to hold it down in the northeast.   According to Global Times, Wen will have a series of meetings with North Korean leaders “on issues of common concern” (no explicit mention in this short release of nuclear problem) and participate in activities to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Chinese-North Korean diplomatic relations.   Whether or not Wen asks his colleagues about Hwang Jang-yop’s latest jeremiad, or how things are going with the anti-aircraft weapons and the prostitutes in Hyesan, is anyone’s guess.

Fortunately, there are some knowledgeable white men from the State Department shuttling around Asia gently helping to remind the Chinese not to spend too much time talking about such sundry details:

KUALA LUMPUR – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to North Korea next week is sending Pyongyang “a clear message” on the need to return to nuclear talks, a top US envoy said on Monday.

US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, who is visiting Malaysia as part of a five-nation Asian tour, welcomed the trip announced by North Korean state media as an emphatic push towards the “six-nation” talks.

“We are quite appreciative of the fact that China, like other countries involved, has sent a very clear message to North Korea that there is unanimity among all countries in the region about the need for them to return to the six-party talks and to resume the path of denuclearisation,” he said.

“The fact that they are hearing this message from China as well as the countries in the region helps to reinforce a strong message,” he told a news conference.

“I feel optimistic that in all of the interactions that North Korea has had now that they are getting an unmistakable message that… there are no divisions and differences among the countries that are involved.” [AFP, via Khaleej Times in Dubai, one of my new favorite newspapers].

I wish someone would have learned this from the way that Zhou Enlai handled negotiations with George Marshall in Nanking in 1946: Never, ever broadcast that the CCP is going to do precisely what you have told them to do, even when you are convinced they bring your talking points into their closed-door meetings.  Even when Zhou Enlai is so charming and sends your journalists beautiful handwritten letters on gorgeous stationary that your daughter loves!  Somehow we seem have have forgotten that even the sturdiest-looking of “united fronts” can be toppled when the balance of power turns.

Hyesan, Ryanggang Province -- photo by Adam Cathcart

By: Aijaz Zaka Syed

Why do I have this feeling that we have been here and done all this before?

I know, I know.  This US President is different, as different from his predecessors as a sunny day is distinguishable from a dark, oppressive night.

But watching Barack Obama shake hands with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York this week and smile for the waiting cameras, I had this weird feeling I have seen it all before.

But haven’t we indeed all seen this before? This is what we have repeatedly witnessed since Bill Clinton proudly presented Yasser Arafat and Isaac Rabin before the world on the White House lawns in 1993.

And every time the US leaders did so, they have generated tremendous hopes and hype everywhere, including in the Middle East.  And every time those hopes have come crashing down with progressive ferocity, giving way to greater frustration, anger and bitterness that have consumed generations in the Arab world and beyond

As Obama posed for the cameras with Abbas and Netanyahu flanking him, hundreds of millions of people across the world — and not just Arabs and Muslims — asked themselves: Is this US President going to create more pointless photo opportunities and say all the right things without actually meaning and believing in them like his predecessors? Or is he going to be different as he has often promised and walk the talk for a change?

The answer to this question can be answered by no one but Obama himself.  And he can do so not by more rhetoric but action on the ground.  We are long past the time for rhetoric and sweet sounding speeches, thank you very much! I have been following Obama since long before he formally unveiled his impossible dream of a different America and a better world, at a low-key rally one wintry morning near Illinois nearly three years ago.

As regular readers would know, I have been an incorrigible admirer of this extraordinary product of extraordinary circumstances.

Some find it odd that even as I have remained critical of the US policies and its double standards in the Middle East, I haven’t stopped singing Obama’s praises.

But I am not alone in this hopeless admiration of the man. He has wowed just about everyone and conquered hearts and minds across the world including those of Muslims with his bold vision and ‘audacity of hope’.

After decades of deceit, double standards and injustice in Washington, his words and his uplifting promise of ‘Change We Can’ came as a refreshing burst of fresh air.  His message of hope touched just about everyone.

Even though he is yet to deliver on most of his promises, he has already turned his country and its policies around. While under his predecessor, the US abdicated its responsibilities and walked out of its global commitments, under this President it is offering leadership to the rest of the world, from fighting climate change to pushing for total disarmament to dealing with the global economic crisis.

Just look at the way Obama has in one bold stroke put an end to America’s ridiculous fantasy of the missile defense shield, a relic of the Cold War era, making the NATO irrelevant and our world a more secure place to live in.  No wonder the Russian bear is falling over itself in gratitude.

He has boldly ventured where none of his predecessors have dared to tread in their first year in office.

He is the first US leader who has had the audacity to identify the source of America’s troubles with the Islamic world and is trying to address it.

George Mitchell was dispatched to the Middle East during Obama’s first week in the White House. The former senator has spent most of his time in the region over the past several months meeting Palestinians and Israelis but clearly he has made no headway.

The Palestinians and Israelis, and with them the rest of the world, remain where they had been six months ago—or six decades ago.  But why blame the Palestinians?  How can we even put the Palestinians and Israelis in the same bracket?

The poor Palestinians have always been ready to talk with anyone and anywhere, even though they have perpetually been at the receiving end.

The world continues to urge them to offer more concessions and make compromises, even though they have nothing left to offer any more.  No land, no home, no country! In case we forgot, they are the victim here. They have nothing to offer any more.   They can do little to help further the so-called peace process.  The ball lies in Israel’s court. It has been there forever.

The real challenge to Obama, America and the entire civilized world remains Israel and its increasingly intransigent and irresponsible leadership.  Netanyahu is even more unreasonable and stubborn than his predecessors.

Unlike his predecessors, Bibi doesn’t even pretend to be interested in inane terms like dialogue, peace process, and just peace.

He wants to talk alright—but not about Israel’s stealing of Palestinian land or its persecution of Palestinians. The only issue he is interested in is the “clear and present danger” from Iran’s non-existent nukes.

According to Israel, the only way to promote the Middle East peace is by bombing Iran back to the Stone Age.  And it wants the US to do this noble service to mankind, just as it did in the case of Iraq, or before that, in Afghanistan.  Forget Palestine. Forget the Middle East and forget the peace process! All that matters is the safety and security of the great state of Israel.

Now it is up to Obama if he wants to make history, as we all once believed he would, or end up as a footnote just as many of his predecessors have.  He has a choice to let the status quo in the Middle East continue and stand and stare as Israel’s cat-and-mouse games inflame the Middle East making America a rather inviting target.

This is a more tempting and easier option and this is what his predecessors and rest of the West have done all these years. Or he could do the right thing and save the world – and save his legacy and vision of a better and just world.  There’s no time to lose anymore, Mr Obama!  The world is getting impatient for the change you promised us all.  And you mustn’t and can’t afford to fail us!

Aijaz Zaka Syed

Aijaz Zaka Syed is Opinion Editor at Khaleej Times, Dubai. An award-winning journalist,  widely published and read commentator; Aijaz received the European Union’s prestigious Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize in 2007 for his writings on the Darfur conflict. He can be reached at aijaz@khaleejtimes.com.

What better way to return to the blogosphere than on the back of this classic piece of pomp rock from Whitesnake (and by the way a special nod to the friend who suggested ‘Hello, Hello I’m back again’ (by convicted paedophile Gary Glitter)…I make my living advising people not to fall into precisely that kind of beartrap thank you very much).

I’ve spent much of the last six months working in Abu Dhabi and it’s been a fascinating experience – although also sufficiently full-on to curb my blog output.  With an extended spell back in the UK beckoning I thought I would muse a little on my experience of the communications landscape here, as a means of breaking myself back in…

First things first – some context.  This is a land in the midst of the most incredible social, economic and financial development; a nation with an incredibly short history, but making its mark on the more established world in an increasingly visible way.  There is much to admire about the way the region is using its new found wealth to diversify its economy for the greater good of its people; while the Gulf is not immune from the effects of the credit crunch, rulers and policy makers have continued to invest as a means of building out the local infrastructure.  There has been an element of schadenfreude in recent reporting by the western media of the impact of the downturn on Dubai, but the train has left the station and it’s not turning back.   In my humble opinion, therefore, it makes sense to be on the train, rather than throwing spears at it from afar.

There are tremendous challenges for communicators working in an environment where the media has traditionally been relatively closely controlled.  So far as the media landscape is concerned things do seem to be evolving.  The National, launched last year, caters for its diverse readership with distinction.  The Financial Times has an excellent local bureau in Abu Dhabi and has been at the forefront of breaking news as the Emirate’s Sheikhs have flexed their financial muscle, buying stakes in iconic businesses such as Barclays, Daimler, Ferrari and GE.  Most of the main international newswires now have operations in Abu Dhabi.  And there is of course a strong contingent of local media including Gulf News and Khaleej Times for the English speaking contingent and the Arabic Al Ittihad, Al-Bayan and WAM, the Emirates News Agency.

For the communicator there is a tremendous opportunity to be in on (or at least relatively near to) the ground floor, helping to shape the UAE’s approach to media and stakeholder engagement.  Mubadala Development Company’s recent annual report - the first such document to be published by any of the UAE’s different Government-owned investment bodies – is genuinely ground-breaking in its depth, detail and disclosure.  Other investment arms such as IPIC and even the Abu Dhabi government itself have tapped the debt markets through bond issuance, opening themselves up to a level of scrutiny by Credit Ratings Agencies, investors and potential investors that was hitherto unknown.  As the UAE engages more openly with the established economies of the world, expect to see this driving demand for an ever-more proactive approach to communications.

All of which augurs well for the development of the communications discipline in the UAE.  In these still-difficult economic times, for those of us in the financial communications space this is in many ways the hottest game in town with the relative financial strength of the region driving corporate activity.  I see no slackening in the pace of development in the future – and, therefore, no decrease in the demand for communications expertise locally.

So that’s it; I’ve broken the drought at last.  Henceforth I will return to my more usual fare of musings on financial issues of the day.  And, in a nod to my wife (or numberonerobbiefan as her Ebay nickname would have it), I hope to be Back for Good.

Benjamin Netanyahu

Roadmap to Nowhere

By Aijaz Zaka Syed -Opinon

18 June 2009

Former US president Jimmy Carter is one of those rare birds who have retained their humanity even after four years in the world’s most powerful job. The architect of the first Arab-Israel peace accord was moved to tears when he visited the ruins of Gaza this week, comparing the condition of the Palestinians to “worse 
than animals.”

Granted, most Americans are not familiar with the Palestinian way of life, I often wonder what the Israelis themselves think of the people living next door in a permanent hell?

Are the Israelis ever moved by the Palestinian suffering, as Carter has been and rest of the world often is? If they are, it is yet to be seen. No matter what happens to the Palestinians and what the rest of the world thinks of their suffering, Israel and its leaders remain as indifferent and as unreasonable as ever.

When Benjamin Netanyahu promised his own roadmap, after President Barack Obama gave him those stony looks in the Oval Office with the world media watching, even the most hardened cynics like me began nursing hopes of peace.

We thought, maybe, Israel, prodded by its faithful ally and biggest backer, finally has had a change of heart. Maybe, we hoped, it’s finally time for the doves of peace to descend on the Holy Land. Perhaps, the time has come for Palestinians to find themselves a home — even if moth eaten — of their own on this big and wide planet.

But Israel is nothing if not consistent. Netanyahu did unveil a ‘roadmap’ in his much-hyped speech but you do not know what to make of it.

Having refused to acknowledge the existence of Palestinians all these years, Netanyahu has finally agreed for ‘peace’ and a Palestinian state, if it can be called one. However, his one hand takes back what the other proffers.

The ‘sovereign and independent’ Palestine envisaged by Israel will have no military or security forces of its own. It is not permitted to possess or import any weapons. It cannot control its own airspace. And, yes, the borders of this Bantustan will be controlled by the able and efficient forces of the great state of Israel. His Imperial Majesty Netanyahu is kind enough though to grant the future Palestinian state the right to have its own flag and currency.

In return, all Israel asks from the Palestinians is the surrender of their rights over their lands and homes in what was once Palestine. They must recognise Israel as the Jewish state and the divine right of Jewish people to the Holy Land. So what if this means the Palestinians can never dream of returning to their homes and lands from which they were driven out or even hope for recompense? In any case, where’s the land and where are the homes that the Palestinians dream of returning to?

It’s all Israel now – greater Israel, from the river to the sea! When will Palestinians grow out of their dreams? How long will they continue to cling to idle hope, year after wasted year, generation after lost generation? After all, it’s been nearly seven decades since the Nakhba? And yes, Jerusalem shall remain the capital of Israel, no matter what the Palestinians claim or Muslims and Christians believe. As for the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and around Jerusalem, they will continue to grow and multiply by the day like all good neighbourhoods should do.

After all, they’ve been growing over the past half-a-century or so. No one has been able to stop them, no matter who is in power in Tel Aviv or Washington. This is why Netanyahu thinks it is not in the “interest of peace and stability” to put a freeze on them now.

Like Israel’s good ol’ friend Bush would argue, they are, after all, ground realities. No one can change them, not even Obama. How dare Barry, hardly four months in the White House, demand a freeze on the settlements when all his predecessors failed to do so! Does he know what he is up against? No one has taken on Israel and survived to tell the tale. No US president has ever managed to push the Israelis in a direction they do not want to go. Israeli politicians have repeatedly played cat-and-mouse not just with the Palestinians and Arabs but also with successive US presidents, forever buying time even as more and more Palestinian land is eaten away by settlements.

No wonder Netanyahu believes he can play the same games with Obama. This is why he came up with that roadmap to nowhere.

While the White House praised the Netanyahu juggernaut as an ‘important step forward,’ it is seen by the Palestinians, Arabs and rest of the world as a huge setback to Obama’s groundbreaking initiative. This is not an important step forward, Mr President, but a clever move to sabotage your peace efforts. This is not a two-state solution but a massacre of the aspirations and hopes of a long persecuted people. In Palestinian leader Mustafa Barghouti’s words, Netanyahu hasn’t endorsed a Palestinian state but a ghetto.

If you call this ‘embracing peace,’ I must be Alexander the Great. For God’s sake, Netanyahu doesn’t even call it a Palestinian state but ‘territory’—whatever that means! As Palestinian spokesperson Saeb Erekat puts it, Netanyahu’s proposal is a ‘slap in the face’ for Obama. So much so even the Israeli commentators are shocked by the in-your-face belligerence of their leader.

A blogger on the Israeli daily, Haaretz, has to say this on Netanyahu’s offer: “It seemed to be ‘no’ to dividing Jerusalem, no to the return of refugees and no to an independent state and no to a real 
settlement freeze.”

This is not a roadmap to peace but a call for another Intifada. This will not put an end to Palestinian suffering but perpetuate it. The question is, what does Obama do now? Does he have the courage to call Israel’s bluff? Is he prepared to beat Bibi at his own game?

His courageous and sincere efforts to end the world’s longest running conflict have awakened hope across the Middle East and beyond. He has not only gone against America’s own hallowed traditions of blind support to Israel, but is also prepared to challenge the powerful vested interests and lobbies in Washington to bring peace to the Holy Land.

If people around the world are, for the first time in decades, optimistic about the Middle East peace today, the credit goes to this extraordinary individual with an equally extraordinary history.  Would Obama squander all this euphoria and goodwill because of Israel’s continuing obstinacy? Would he allow Netanyahu to undermine this historic opportunity? As Carter has pointed out, the US is in this together with Israel. It shares the equal responsibility for the Palestinians’ exploitation and the mess in the region.

The US has to choose between peace and justice for both Palestinians and Israelis — and the Middle East — or take Israel’s side and perpetuate the cycle of violence and chaos across the region.

Source Khaleej Times

Aijaz Zaka Syed is Opinion Editor of Khaleej Times and can be reached at aijaz@khaleejtimes.com. Views expressed here are his own

The attached are releases from Gulf News & Khaleej Times.  If any one out there has one of the myriad advertisements that the developer – Sweethomes – ran, appreciate a copy.

These releases are dated Nov 2007.  From August when we signed up for the property, we just sat around and waited…and waited.  No ground breaking whatsover, no Sale Purchase agreement, nothing other than another payment being due.

Lesson Learnt for other buyers in the UAE - stay away from offplan, but if you are buying, first ask for a copy of the Sale Purchase Agreement & Reservation agreement.  The developers there claim that the buyer has to pay close to 20% before they will release the Sale Purchase agreement.  Nonsense.  One of the reasons for the delayed release is that these rogue developers keep re-writing the Sale Purchase agreement to protect their interests.  Early buyers may have one version, subsequent buyers yet another and so on.

Here are releases from Gulf News & Khaleej Times.

Gulf News ad

KT-release

Had my first mention in a Dubai newspaper today. You might spot another familiar name quoted as well. Some factual errors and glaring ommissions in the article though – not least of which was the failure to mention the Democratic Alliance, who are probably going to be the official opposition again, despite Shennie Pie and my hopes the contrary. Hey, I merely proffered my opinion, I didn´t write or, more pertinently, sub the copy…

Rumour has it that younger brother Nim has also been making headlines – in the Grocitt.  Actually, the article is apparently about The Kingfisher, the bar in his digs, rather than about him personally, but it still counts. Unfortunately, it´s not up on line… Any Grahamstonians out there who can scan and send me a copy?

Khaleej Times – Dubai

27th March 2009

‘MADE-IT-MYSELF’

Marketplace

“…For sure everyone’s darling – the mobile phone with a bling – is Sarah Asfur’s specially made Swarovksi crystal-encrusted art collection. “The best design I created with crystals was called ‘Brown Sugar’ for an Indian bride. It had black pearls, chains and even a key to it because I heard that a key holds lots of prestige in Indian tradition,” adds Sarah, a German living here for two years and also the featured vendor at Souk Al Bastakiya in February. Cute little gifts for tourists would be the diamond camels. The favorite among the diamond camel collection would be Dotty. Dotty loves to go to the beach with her sandals and crystal-encrusted sun-hat. …”

Diamond Camel Collection by Sarah Asfur

left to right:Emaraldi, Dotty, Curly

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