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By Dr Binoy Kampmark

There are no official policing authorities as such when it comes to international relations. Realists imagine a jungle of states, the preyed upon and the predators, a grim state of affairs moderated by alliances, agreements and understandings. But there is one body whose resolutions are recognised as having binding force: the Security Council, that most powerful of creatures in that jumble known as the United Nations.

To convince the permanent five on the Security Council to reach agreement is no easy feat. There are the occasional humiliations in the failure to get resolutions passed, but whether it be the US, Russia, China, France or the UK, wise heads tend to prevail. Best put forth resolutions with at least some chance of garnering support. Rejection will be hard to take.

On August 14, a degree of humiliation was heaped upon the US delegation. Washington seemed to have read the situation through fogged goggles, assuming that it would get the nine votes needed to extend arms restrictions on Iran due to expire in October under Resolution 2231. Of the 15 members, only two – the United States and Dominican Republic – felt the need to vote for it. Russia and China strongly opposed it; the rest were abstentions. Previous warnings that any such quixotic effort was bound to fail had been ignored.

The body most shown up in all of this was the US State Department and, it followed, its indignant chief Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “The UN Security Council failed today to hold Iran accountable,” he raged on Twitter. “It enabled the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell deadly weapons and ignored the demands of countries in the Middle East. America will continue to work to correct this mistake.” He also called the position taken by Britain and France “unfortunate”, as it had only been the US view to “keep the same rules that have been in place since 2007.”

US ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, took it personally, giving the impression that she saw it coming in the diplomatic tangle. “The United States is sickened but not surprised by the outcome of today’s UNSC vote. The Council’s failure to extend the Iran’s arm embargo is a devastating blow to the Council’s credibility.” She also promised that the US would “not abandon the region to Iranian terror and intimidation, and when we look for partners in that effort, we will look beyond the UN Security Council.”

The humiliation gave Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi much room to gloat. “In the 75 years of United Nations history, America has never been so isolated,” he confidently asserted. “Despite all the trips, pressure, and the hawking, the United States could only mobilize a small country [to vote] with them.”

There was much that sat oddly in this enterprise. It showed a US effort strongly driven by the anti-Iranian Middle East coven of Arab Gulf states, along with Israel. That said, the position amongst those states is not uniform either. In the words of Mutlaq bin Majid Al-Qahtani, special envoy of the Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs for Combating Terrorism and Mediation in Settlement of Disputes, “Iran is a neighbouring country with which we have good neighbourly relations, and it has a position that we value in the State of Qatar, the government and the people, especially during the unjust blockade on Qatar.”

Absurdly, Pompeo has promised to see how the US might rely on a provision in the nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action it unilaterally left in 2018, which permits a “snapback”. Triggering it would entail a return to the full complement of UN sanctions against Iran. This novel take was also given an airing by Craft. “Under Resolution 2231, the United States has every right to initiate snapback of provisions of previous Security Council resolutions.”

In April, Reuters noted the view of a European diplomat that it was “very difficult to present yourself as a compliance watcher of a resolution you decided to pull out of. Either you’re in or either you’re out.” Samuel M. Hickey from the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation also warned in May that invoking the snapback provision, especially by a non-party, “would not only underscore US isolation on the global stage, it might also undermine the effectiveness of the UNSC by creating a dispute over the validity of a UNSC resolution.” Russia and China expressed similar readings: it was a bit rich to trigger provisions in an agreement so publicly repudiated.

Iran, in turn, huffed at the very idea of a snapback through its UN ambassador Majid Takht-Ravanchi. “Imposition of any sanctions or restrictions on Iran by the Security Council will be met severely by Iran and our options are not limited.”

This entire act of gross miscalculation did its fair share of harm, though not in the sense understood by Pompeo and his officials. It spoke to a clumsy unilateralism masquerading as credible support; to great power obstinacy misguided in attaining a goal. It was not the UN Security Council that had failed, but the US that had failed it, an effort that many at the UN are reading as directed at torching the remnants of the Iran nuclear deal. The assessment of the US effort by former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter was sharp and relevant. “You got the Dominican Republic on board (how much did that cost the US taxpayer?) Not a single other nation voted with you! The shining city on the hill has been reduced to a glow, like the embers of a dying fire.”

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

17 August 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

By Richard Falk

To ask whether the United States, the world’s dominant military power, is ‘a failing state’ should cause worldwide anxiety. Such a state, analogous to a wounded animal, is a global menace of unprecedented proportions in the nuclear age. Its political leadership is exhibiting a reckless tendency of combining incompetence with extremism. It is also crucial to ascertain at what point a failing state should be written off as ‘a failed state’ for which there is no longer a clear path to redemption. The November elections in the United States will send a strong signal as to whether the United States is failing or has failed.

Even raising these issues suggests how far the United States has fallen during the Trump years, despite already being in sharp decline internationally ever since the Vietnam War, and continuing, despite a few redemptive moves (now renounced), during the Obama presidency. The responses of the Trump presidency to the two great crises of 2020 were helpful in solidifying the image of the world’s #1 state as truly failing, and not just sour grapes taking the form of an expression of partisan frustration with an appalling leadership. It was appalling because it was affirming the most regressive features of the American past while unconvincingly claiming credit for the stock market rise and low unemployment. The COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter campaign against systemic racism gave Trump the opportunity to exhibit his lethally systemic incompetence as a crisis manager producing thousands of deaths among his own countrymen. He also seized the occasion to show the world his seemingly genuine racist solidarity with the Confederate spirit of the American South that tried to split the country and preserve its barbaric slave economy and supportive culture in the American Civil War 150 years ago, and has been a sore loser ever since.

With these clarifying developments, it no longer captures the full reality of this downward trend to be with content by calling attention to America’s ‘imperial decline.’ In the present setting, it seems more relevant to insist on describing America as ‘a failing state,’ and try to understand what that means for the country and the world. To make the contention more precise, it is instructive to realize that the United States is not only a failing state, but the first instance ever of a failing global state, which takes due account of its multi-dimensional hegemonic status as concretized by the planetary projection of its military might to air, land, and sea, to space and cyber space, as well as by its influence on the operation of the world economy and the character of popular culture whether expressed by music or cuisine.

There are several measures of a failing state that cast light on the American reality:

– functional failures: inability to respond adequately to challenges threatening the security of the society and its population against threats posed by internal and external hostile political actors, as well as by ecological instabilities, by widespread extreme poverty and hunger, and by a deficient health and disaster response system;

– normative failures: refusal to abide by systemic rules internationally as embedded in international law and the UN Charter, claiming impunity and acting on the basis of double standards to carry out its geopolitical encroachments on the wellbeing of others and its disregard of ecological dangers; patterns of normative failures include endorsements of policies and practices giving rise to genocide and ecocide, constituting the most basic violations of international criminal law and the sovereign rights of foreign countries; the wrongs are too numerous to delimit, including severe and systemic denials of human rights in domestic governance; economic and social structures that inevitably generate acute socio-economic inequalities on the basis of class, race, and gender.

Some additional considerations accentuate the failing state reality of the U.S. due to the extensive extraterritorial dimensions that accompany the process of becoming ‘a failing global state.’ This new type of transnational political creature should be categorized as the first historical example of a ‘geopolitical superpower.’ Such a political actor is neither separate from nor entirely subject to the state-centric system of world order that evolved from the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, and became universalized in the decades following World War II. Although lacking a true antecedent, the role of European ‘great powers’ or ‘colonial empires’ give clues as to the evaluation of the U.S. as a global state or geopolitical superpower;

– effectiveness: the loss of effectiveness by a failing state is disclosed by its inability to maintain and exert control over challenges to its supremacy. Such an assessment if vindicated by failed military operations (regime-changing interventions) and the inability to learn from and overcome past mistakes, disclosures of vulnerability to homeland security (9/11 attacks) and overly costly and destructive responses (9/12 launching of ‘war on terror’; declining respect and trust by secondary political actors, including close allies, in the context of global policy forming arenas, including the United Nations; as a further reflection of this failing dynamic of lost control is the pattern of withdrawal from arenas that can no longer be controlled (Human Rights Council, WHO) and the rejection of agreements that appear beneficial to the world as a whole (Paris Climate Change Agreement and Iran Nuclear Program Agreement-JCPOA;

– legitimacy: the legitimacy of a global state, which by its nature potentially compromises the political sovereignty and independence of all other states, reflects above all else, on its usefulness as a source of problem-solving authority, especially in war/peace and global economic recession settings; the degree of legitimacy also depends on perceptions by political elites and public opinion that the assertions of global leadership are in general beneficial for the system as a whole, and as particularly helpful to states that are vulnerable due to acute security and development challenges; in this regard, the U.S. enjoyed a high degree of legitimacy after the end of World War II, as a source of security, and even guidance, for many governments in most regions of the world throughout the Cold War, and was also appreciated as the architect of a rule-governed liberal economic order operating with the framework of the Bretton Woods institutions charged with avoiding recurrences of the Great Depression that undermined stability and economic wellbeing during the 1930s, developments that then contributed to the rise of fascism and the outbreak of a systemic war costing upwards of 50 million lives. The American leadership role was also prominent in achieving global public order in such settings as the management of the oceans, avoiding conflict in Antarctica and Outer Space, establishing international human rights standards, and promoting liberal internationalism as a way to enhance global cooperative approaches to shared problems.

As suggested, the United States as a failing state has been graphically revealed as such by its response to the COVID-19 pandemic: refusal to heed early warnings; unacceptable shortages of equipment for health personnel and insufficient hospital capacity; premature economic openings of restaurants, bars, stores; contradictory standards of guidance from health experts and from political leaders, including falsehoods and fake news embraced by the American president in the midst of the health emergency. Beyond this, Trump adopted an inappropriate nationalist and commodifying approach to the search for a vaccine capable of conferring immunity from the disease, while at the same time immobilizing the UN, and especially the WHO, as an indispensable venue for dealing with epidemics of global scope, including its role in dispensing vital assistance to the most disadvantaged countries. These failings have shockingly resulted in the United States recording more infected persons than any country in the world, as well as having the highest incidence of fatalities attributable to the disease.

In contrast, has been the responses of several far less developed and affluent countries that effectively contained the disease without incurring much loss of life or severe economic damage by way of lost jobs and diminished economic performance. Judged from the perspective of health such societies are success stories, and instructively, their ideological identity spans the political spectrum, including state socialist Vietnam to market-driven countries such as Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Such results parallel the finding of Deepak Nayyar who reports in his breakthrough book, The Asian Resurgence (2019), that the remarkable growth experience of the 14 Asian societies that he empirically assesses, supports the conclusion that ideological orientation is not an economistic indicator of success or failure. Such findings are relevant in refuting the triumphalist claims of the West that the Soviet collapse demonstrated the superiority of capitalism as compared to socialism. The crucial factor when it comes to economistic success is the skilled management of state/society relations whether in relation to investment of savings in prioritizing development projects or seeking to impose a lockdown to curtail the spread of a deadly infectious disease.

Yet, there is a normative side of response patterns as suggested above. China treats the desperate search for a workable vaccine as a sharable public good, while the United States under Trump maintains its standard transactional approach despite issues of affordability for many countries in the South, as well as the poor in the North. From a 21stcentury perspective, the ethos of being all in this together is the only foundation for grappling with the increasingly challenging dilemmas of world order. It is a sign of a failing state, whatever its capabilities and status, to use its leverage to gain national and geopolitical advantages. Along this line, as well, is the normative disgrace of refusing to suspend unilateral sanctions imposed on countries such as Iran and Venezuala, already stressed, for at least the duration of the pandemic in response to widespread humanitarian appeals from civil society actors and international institutions.

A final observation as to whether the U.S. vector points toward a failed or redemptive future. If Trump loses the election and gives up the White House to his opponent the prospects for reversing the failing trend improve, while if Trump is reelected in November or succeeds in cancelling the electoral outcome then the U.S, will have moved closer to being a failed state as the citizenry would have endorsed failure or the constitutional order shown to be enfeebled, insufficiently resilient to reject failure. Even if Trump is replaced and Trumpism subsides, the momentum behind predatory capitalism and global militarism will be difficult to curtail without a revolutionary push that rejects the bipartisan consensus on such matters and challenges the sufficiency of procedural democracy centered upon the role of political parties and elections. Only a progressive movement from below will shatter that consensus, ending laments about the U.S. being in transition from failing to failed. Whether the BLM leadership of a movement alternative is robust and comprehensive enough to end American freefall will become clearer in coming months.

Professor Richard Falk is one of the world’s leading scholars in International Relations He is also a member of JUST’s International Advisory Panel

22 July 2020.

By Dr Gideon Polya

On 14 August 2020 the Australian ABC radio and TV news announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had agreed to recognize Israel and exchange ambassadors with what the ABC described as “the Jewish State”. Not only was this descriptive  false and anti-Arab anti-Semitic (Arabs are 50.3% of the Subjects of Apartheid Israel) it was also grossly anti-Jewish anti-Semitic (all anti-racist Jews totally condemn the crimes of a nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, serial war criminal, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel).

One can readily identify 4 particularly notorious and brutal Apartheid states in the world today, namely (1) Apartheid Israel (it prosecutes a century-long and ongoing  Palestinian Genocide,  and 72% of its now  50.3% majority of Indigenous Palestinian Subjects have been violently deprived of all human rights for 53 years and cannot vote for the government ruling them); (2) Apartheid Myanmar (through rape, murder and destruction it has killed thousands of Muslim Rohingyas and driven 1 million from their homes in Rakhine State in an ongoing Rohingyan Genocide); (3) Apartheid UAE (50% of its Arab population are women and girls who are subject to gross human rights abuse, as are its foreign worker underclass); and (4)  Apartheid Saudi Arabia (that grossly abuses the 50% of its population who are female and also grossly abuses foreign workers as does Apartheid UAE [1-4].

Apartheid is regarded as a vile and punishable  crime against Humanity by the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid [5]. Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) should be applied to all of these degenerate Apartheid rogue states and to all their supporters and collaborators as were successfully applied to Apartheid South Africa and its racist supporters [6].

(1). Apartheid Israel and the ongoing Palestinian Genocide.

Sari Nusseibeh (a professor of philosophy at Al-Quds University, Palestine) on why Israel can’t be a “Jewish State” (2011): “Third,  recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state” implies that Israel is, or should be, either a theocracy (if we take the word “Jewish” to apply to the religion of Judaism) or an apartheid state (if we take the word “Jewish” to apply to the ethnicity of Jews), or both, and in all of these cases, Israel is then no longer a democracy – something which has rightly been the pride of most Israelis since the country’s founding in 1948. Fourth, at least one in five Israelis – 20 per cent of the population, according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics – is ethnically Arab (and are mostly either Muslim, Christian, Druze or Bahai), and recognising Israel as a “Jewish State” as such makes one-fifth of the population of Israel automatically strangers in their own native land and opens the door to legally reducing them, most undemocratically, to second-class citizens (or perhaps even stripping them of their citizenship and other rights) – something that no-one, much less a Palestinian leader, has a right to do” [7].

Professor Sari Nusseibeh was prescient. The race-based Apartheid Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed the racist Jewish Nation-State Law on 18 July 2018, with a vote of 62 to 55 with two abstentions. This racist law offensively and intolerably ignores the Indigenous Palestinians who are 50% of Israeli subjects and enshrines a special, dominant, race-based position for the Jewish Israelis who constitute a 47% minority of the subjects of Apartheid Israel. The racist Israel law states that Hebrew is the official language but concedes that “The Arabic language has a special status in the state” – however Arabic is not an official language despite being presently spoken by over 50% of Israeli subjects, having been spoken by 95% of the Palestinian people before commencement of Zionist colonization a century ago , and having been the overwhelmingly dominant language in Palestine for about 1,400 years. It further states that “The regulation of the Arab language in state institutions or when facing them will be regulated by law” but the law has been passed by a bare majority in a racist Apartheid  state that excludes 72% of its now 50% Indigenous  Palestinian  population from voting for the government ruling it [8, 9].

The racist, Apartheid Israeli “Jewish Nation-State Law” makes it abundantly clear that the racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel are resolutely committed to a neo-Nazi Apartheid State and endless, deadly subjugation of the Indigenous Palestinians with the ever-present threat of 100% ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The world must act over Apartheid Israel as it did over Apartheid South Africa. A clear, humane solution  to the continuing human rights catastrophe in Palestine is a unitary state (a “one state solution”) as in post-Apartheid South Africa that would involve return of all refugees, zero tolerance for racism, equal rights for all, all human rights for all, one-person-one-vote, justice, goodwill, reconciliation, airport-level security, nuclear weapons removal, internationally-guaranteed national security initially based on the present armed forces, and untrammelled access for all citizens to all of Palestine. It can and should happen tomorrow [10, 11].

America, the UK, and US- and Zionist-subverted Mainstream Australia routinely and falsely  describe Apartheid Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East” when (a) there are other democracies in the Middle East (Cyprus, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon) and (b) Apartheid Israel is only  a democracy-by-genocide – of 14 million Palestinians, 7 million are Exiled and cannot step foot in what has been the land of their forebears for millennia, 5 million Occupied Palestinians have zero human rights and cannot vote for the government governing them (Apartheid) [12], and about 2 million “lucky” Israeli Palestinians  can vote but exist as Third Class citizens under over 60 race-based, neo-Nazi,  discriminatory laws that invite them to leave  if they don’t like it [13, 14].

In the territory ruled by Apartheid Israel for 53 years (formerly Mandated Palestine plus ethnically cleansed and illegally annexed parts of Lebanon and Syria) the total population in 2020 is 8.7 million (100%) comprising 6.9 million Indigenous Palestinians (50.3%), 6.4 million Jews (46.7%), and 0.4 million non-Arab non-Jews (2.9%). The  sorely oppressed   Occupied Palestinians represent 72% of the  majority 6.9 million Palestinians, have zero human rights, and cannot vote for the government ruling them i.e. Apartheid that is regarded as a crime against Humanity [12].

In the sense of “democracy as satisfaction of fundamental popular wishes”, Apartheid Israel also fails because of the horrendous and deadly deprivation imposed on  millions of Exiled Palestinians in Middle East refugee camps, 5 million Occupied Palestinians and indeed many  of the 2  million “lucky” Palestinian Israelis. Thus the GDP per capita is $42,000 for Israelis as compared to a deadly $3,200 for Occupied Palestinians  [15, 16] whose life expectancy is 10 years less than for Israelis. In the 21st century on average each year about 5,000 Occupied Palestinians have died from Israeli violence (550) or from Israeli-imposed deprivation (4,200). In the century-long Palestinian Genocide since the British invasion of the Middle East in 2014 about 2.2 million Palestinians have died from  violence (0.1 million) or from imposed deprivation (2.1 million). Numbers of expelled Palestinians  totalled 800,000 in the 1948 Naqba (Catastrophe) and a further 400,000 Arabs were expelled in the 1967 Naksa (Setback)[17-20]. 120 mosques were destroyed by the Zionists after 1948 and over 500 Palestinian villages and towns  were demolished  [21, 22].

Pro-Apartheid Australia is second only to Trump America as a supporter of Apartheid Israel,  but for all that US lackey Australia slavishly supports Apartheid Israel, this genocidal rogue state does not repay the favour and variously violates, perverts and subverts Australians and Australian institutions in some 50 ways [23]. Apartheid Israel has not confined its genocidal criminality to the Palestinian Genocide – it has been complicit in genocidal atrocities around the world, notably in Myanmar, Guatemala, Sudan and Sri Lanka [24].  Apartheid Israeli forces have violently and murderously attacked  the territory and/or assets of 13 countries (Tunisia, Sudan, Uganda, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the US). Apartheid Israel war criminality has generated a huge tally of avoidable mortality (excess mortality) from deprivation in Israeli-occupied countries. The summary data provided here is of 1950-2005 excess mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) for each country occupied and as a total for all the countries subject to Occupation by Apartheid Israel: Apartheid Israel [0.095m/6.685m =1.4%] – Egypt [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], Jordan [0.630m/5.750m = 11.0%], Lebanon [0.535m/3.761m = 14.2%], Occupied Palestinian Territories [0.677m/3.815m = 17.7%], Syria [2.198m/18.650m = 11.8%], total = 23.858m/106.854 = 22.3% [25].

One notes that war is the penultimate in racism and genocide the ultimate in racism. Article 2 of the post-WW2 UN Genocide Convention states: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” [26].  Eminent International Law expert Professor Francis Boyle (University of Illinois) re the Palestinian Genocide (2013): “The Palestinians have been the victims of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, under which a government can be guilty of genocide even if it intends to destroy a mere “part” of the group” [27].

(2). Apartheid Myanmar and the ongoing Rohingyan Genocide.

Silence over genocide is complicity in genocide. Even worse is whitewashing of genocidal Myanmar military  action that has killed thousands of Rohingyas and generated 1 million Rohingyan refugees [13, 28-30]. Once lauded but now globally condemned, Myanmar politician Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly denied the Rohingyan Genocide, for example: “It is not the intention of the Myanmar government to apportion blame or to abnegate responsibility. We condemn all human rights violations and unlawful violence … Since 5 September, there have been no armed clashes and there have been no clearance operations” [31]. Half the Rohingyan refugees are children and three quarters are women and children. There is something utterly awful about women excusing atrocities against women and children. One is reminded of US Ambassador to the UN (and later US Secretary of State) , Madeleine Albright,  who on 12 May  1996  defended UN sanctions against Iraq on a “60 Minutes” segment in which anti-racist Jewish American journalist Lesley Stahl asked her “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” and to which Albright replied “We think the price is worth it.”  [32, 33]. Apartheid Israel is intimately involved in Aung San Suu Kyi-led Myanmar’s Rohingya Genocide through supply of advanced gunboats and armaments as well as military training to genocidal Burmese forces in Rakhine state [34-36].

(3). Apartheid UAE, gross suppression of females, maltreatment of  foreign workers,  Yemeni Genocide and Muslim Genocide.

The wealthy United Arab Emirates (UAE) grossly suppresses the rights of females who represent about 50% of the population, an egregious suppression that must  be described as Apartheid. Human Rights Watch: “Discrimination on the basis of sex and gender is not included in the definition of discrimination in the UAE’s 2015 anti-discrimination law. Federal Law No. 28 of 2005 regulates personal status matters. Some of its provisions discriminate against women. For a woman to marry, her male guardian must conclude her marriage contract; men have the right to unilaterally divorce their wives, whereas a woman must apply for a court order to obtain a divorce; a woman can lose her right to maintenance if, for example, she refuses to have sexual relations with her husband without a lawful excuse; and women are required to “obey” their husbands. A woman may be considered disobedient, with few exceptions, if she decides to work without her husband’s consent. UAE law permits domestic violence. Article 53 of the penal code allows the imposition of “chastisement by a husband to his wife and the chastisement of minor children” so long as the assault does not exceed the limits of Islamic law. Marital rape is not a crime. In 2010, the Federal Supreme Court issued a ruling, citing the penal code, that sanctions husbands’ beating and infliction of other forms of punishment or coercion on their wives, provided they do not leave physical marks” [37].

The UAE Islamo-fascoid dictatorship has an appalling record of human rights abuse in relation to dissenters and migrant workers as well as being involved in the ongoing Yemeni Genocide and continuing devastation of starving Yemen in gross  violation of the Natural Law, Islamic Law and International Law. Thus Human Rights Watch: “The government continues to arbitrarily detain and forcibly disappear individuals who criticize authorities. The UAE maintains their leading role in the Saudi-led military coalition, which has conducted scores of unlawful attacks in Yemen. The UAE was implicated in detainee abuse at home and abroad. Labor abuses persist. Migrant construction workers face serious exploitation. The UAE introduced a domestic workers law providing them labor rights for the first time in September 2017, but some provisions are weaker than those provided to other workers under the labor law” [37].

There is something utterly awful about a rich, Arab and Muslim  country like the UAE being involved in the Western-imposed mass murder of fellow Arabs  and fellow Muslims. Thus the US- and hence Apartheid Israel-aligned UAE has played a key role  in the  following atrocities in the Muslim world (deaths from violence or imposed deprivation in brackets): (1) the 2011 onwards Libyan Genocide (0.2 million deaths, 2 million refugees; the UAE backs the French- and Egyptian- supported,  Benghazi-based Libyan National Army under General Khalifa Haftar in the ongoing civil war) [38, 39]; (2) the 2011 onwards Syrian Genocide (1.0 million deaths, 11 million refugees; the UAE initially opposed the Assad Government during the US-backed Syrian Civil War and had Kurdish and US involvements but in 2019  resumed diplomatic relations with the Syrian Government that were broken in 2011;  it is now actively assisting the Assad Government, much to US displeasure [41, 42]; (3) the 1990 onwards Iraqi Genocide (4.6 million deaths and 6 million refugees; UAE hosts US military bases involved in the ongoing Iraqi Genocide [43, 44]; the 1978 onwards Iranian Genocide (3 million deaths from the Iraq-Iran War and US sanctions; the UAE aligns with the US and Saudi Arabia against Iran) [43, 45]; and the 2015 onwards Yemeni Genocide (0.1 million deaths; the rich UAE continues to make illegal and genocidal war on impoverished starving Yemen) [43, 46]. The rich and Machiavellian UAE makes a significant contribution to the ongoing Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide involving 32 million Muslim deaths from violence (5 million) or from imposed deprivation (27 million) in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9/11 false flag atrocity that killed 3,000 people [47, 48].  UAE betrayal of the Palestinians is just a further  anti-Arab anti-Semitic crime of Apartheid UAE.

(4). Apartheid Saudi Arabia, gross suppression of females, maltreatment of  foreign workers,  Yemeni Genocide and Muslim Genocide.

Like the Apartheid UAE, the Apartheid Saudi Arabian Islamo-fascoid dictatorship grossly suppresses the rights of females who represent about 50% of the population, an egregious suppression that must be described as Apartheid. Human Rights Watch sets out the medieval conditions in Saudi Arabia in 2019: “Saudi Arabia faced unprecedented international criticism in 2019 for its human rights record, including the failure to provide full accountability for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in October 2018, as well as the country’s dismal treatment of Saudi dissidents and human rights activists. Amid the criticism, Saudi authorities announced landmark reforms for Saudi women that, if fully implemented, represent a significant step forward including allowing Saudi women to obtain passports and travel abroad without the approval of a male relative for the first time. However, discrimination remains in other areas, and women’s rights activists remain detained, on trial, or silenced for their activism. Through 2019, the Saudi-led coalition continued a military campaign against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen that has included scores of unlawful airstrikes that have killed and wounded thousands of civilians… As the leader of the coalition that began military operations against Houthi forces in Yemen on March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia has committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law… Saudi authorities in 2019 continued to repress dissidents, human rights activists, and independent clerics… Saudi Arabia applies Sharia (Islamic law) as its national law… [despite some changes] Saudi women still must obtain a male guardian’s approval to get married, leave prison, or obtain certain healthcare. Women also continue to face discrimination in relation to marriage, family, divorce, and decisions relating to children (e.g. child custody). Men can still file cases against daughters, wives, or female relatives under their guardianship for “disobedience,” which can lead to forcible return to their male guardian’s home or imprisonment. Women’s rights activists who fought for these important changes remain in jail or on trial for their peaceful advocacy…. Some migrant workers suffer abuses and exploitation, sometimes amounting to conditions of forced labor. The kafala (visa sponsorship) system ties migrant workers’ residency permits to “sponsoring” employers, whose written consent is required for workers to change employers or leave the country under normal circumstances. Some employers confiscate passports, withhold wages, and force migrants to work against their will” [49].

Like the UAE, a paradoxically anti-Arab anti-Semitic Saudi Arabia makes a significant contribution to the ongoing, US-imposed, post-9/11  Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide (deaths from violence or imposed deprivation in brackets) : (1) the 2011 onwards Libyan Genocide (0.2 million deaths, 2 million refugees; Saudi Arabia backs the eastern-based  Libyan National Army (LNA) forces led by Khalifa Haftar and supported by Russia, Egypt and the UAE in the ongoing civil war) [39, 43, 50]; (2) the 2011 onwards Syrian Genocide (1.0 million deaths, 11 million refugees; the Saudis were part of a coalition of US-linked nations (US, UK, France, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Apartheid Israel) variously backing jihadis and others seeking to overthrow the Syrian Government; arms used by ISIS were supplied by the US and Saudi Arabia to Syrian opposition fighters and exceed those captured in battle [51]); the 1990 onwards Iraqi Genocide (4.6 million deaths and 6 million refugees; Saudi Arabia  US military bases are involved in the ongoing Iraqi Genocide [43, 44]; the 1978 onwards Iranian Genocide (3 million deaths from the Iraq-Iran War and US sanctions; Saudi Arabia  aligns with the US against Iran) [43, 45]; and the  2015 onwards Yemeni Genocide (0.1 million deaths; the Saudi-led coalition  continues to make illegal and genocidal war on impoverished and starving Yemen) [43, 46]. Saudi Arabia makes a major contribution to the ongoing Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide involving 32 million Muslim deaths from violence (5 million) or from imposed deprivation (27 million) in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9/11 false flag atrocity that killed 3,000 people [47, 48].  Will Saudi Arabia  also betray the Palestinians by following the example of the  UAE in officially recognizing Apartheid Israel in addition to its covert alliance with the anti-Arab anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rogue state?

Saudi Arabia has been the primary source for spreading Islamic fundamentalism throughout the world and for supporting violent jihadism, most notably its support for US-backed jihadism in Afghanistan post-1978 and thence elsewhere. Such variously state-backed jihadi non-state terrorism  has been of major  benefit to US imperialism (US state terrorism)  because every jihadi atrocity (especially against  European targets) provides  an “excuse” for disproportionately huge US Alliance attacks on Muslim countries. Thus the atrocities by the barbarous ISIS provided  the excuse  for US destruction of Mosul (40,000 killed, 600,000 displaced) and Fallujah (up to 6,000 killed, 370,000 displaced) with scores of  thousands ultimately dying from imposed deprivation [52-55]. The US  removed secular governments in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, and only Russian intervention prevented removal of the secular government in Syria [41].

Final comments.

Apartheid implies excluding a large section of a population from basic human rights on the basis of attributes such as race, religion or gender, and is exampled by the horrendous persecution of the Indigenous Palestinians who are over 50% of the Subjects of Apartheid Israel, the violent persecution of the Rohingyas in Apartheid Myanmar, and the outrageous, medieval and barbaric  treatment of women and girls in Apartheid UAE and Apartheid Saudi Arabia. When that exclusion means that a large part of  a persecuted population  are forced out of a country (as in Libya, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan) then the Apartheid transmutes to genocide.   Such barbarities are utterly  unacceptable in the 21st century. What can decent people do? Decent people around the world must urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel, Apartheid Myanmar, Apartheid  UAE and Apartheid Saudi Arabia, and against all people, politicians, parties, collectives, corporations and countries supporting these utterly detestable Apartheid states that are a foul blot on Humanity.

References.

[1]. Gideon Polya , “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” , Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 4 June 2020: https://www.amazon.com/US-Imposed-Post-9-Muslim-Holocaust-Genocide/dp/8793987056 .

 

[2]. Gideon Polya, “Racist Mainstream ignores “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide””, Countercurrents, 17 July 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/racist-mainstream-ignores-us-imposed-post-9-11-muslim-holocaust-muslim-genocide/ .

 

[3].  Gideon Polya, “Scores Of Huge Realities Resolutely Ignored By Mendacious, US Lackey Mainstream Australia”, Countercurrents, 11 August 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/08/scores-of-huge-realities-resolutely-ignored-by-mendacious-us-lackey-mainstream-australia/  .

 

[4]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .

 

[5]. John Dugard, “International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid”, Audiovisual Library of International Law: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html .

[6]. “Boycott Apartheid  Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/.

[7]. Sari Nusseibeh, “Why Israel can’t be a “Jewish State””, Al Jazeera, 1 October 2011: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/09/201192614417586774.html .

[8]. “Read the full Jewish Nation-State Law”, The Jerusalem Post, 19 July 2018: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Read-the-full-Jewish-Nation-State-Law-562923 .

[9]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli Jewish Nation-State Law Enshrines Apartheid And Genocidal Racism”, Countercurrents, 24 July 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/07/israeli-jewish-nation-state-law-enshrines-apartheid-and-genocidal-racism/ .

[10]. Gideon Polya, “Democratic One-State Solution (Unitary State, Bi-National State) For Post-Apartheid Palestine”, Countercurrents, 22 December 2018: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution .

[11]. “One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution .

[12]. Gideon Polya, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Palestinians. Apartheid Israel violates ALL Palestinian Human Rights”, Palestine Genocide Essays, 24 January 2009: https://sites.google.com/site/palestinegenocideessays/universal-declaration-of-human-rights-palestinians .

[13]. Susan Abulhawa, “Israel’s “nation-state law” parallels the Nazi Nuremburg Laws”, Al Jazeera, 27 July 2018: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/israel-nation-state-law-parallels-nazi-nuremberg-laws-180725084739536.html .

[14]. “Discriminatory laws in Israel”, Adalah, https://www.adalah.org/en/law/index?page=4 .

[15]. “List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita .

 

[16]. World Bank, “GDP per capita (current US$) – West Bank and Gaza”: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=PS .

[17]. Gideon Polya, “70th anniversary of Apartheid Israel & commencement of large-scale Palestinian Genocide”, Countercurrents, 11 May 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/05/11/70th-anniversary-of-apartheid-israel-commencement-of-large-scale-palestinian-genocide/ .

[18]. Gideon Polya, “Democratic One-State Solution (Unitary State, Bi-National State) for post-Apartheid Palestine”, Countercurrents, 22 December 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/22/democratic-one-state-solution-unitary-state-bi-national-state-for-post-apartheid-palestine/ .

[19]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli-Palestinian & Middle East conflict – from oil to climate genocide”, Countercurrents, 21 August 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/08/21/israeli-palestinian-middle-east-conflict-from-oil-to-climate-genocide/ .

[20]. Gideon Polya, “End 50 Years Of Genocidal Occupation & Human Rights Abuse By US-Backed Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents,  9 June  2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/06/09/end-50-years-of-genocidal-occupation-human-rights-abuse-by-us-backed-apartheid-israel/ .

[21]. Gideon Polya, “Notre Dame, Christchurch & Sri Lanka Tragedies Spotlight Historical Destructions & Violations Of Places Of Worship”, Countercurrents, 22 April 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/04/notre-dame-christchurch-sri-lanka-tragedies-spotlight-historical-destructions-violations-of-places-of-worship/ .

[22]. Ramzy Baroud, “Nakba forever internalised among exiled Palestinians”, Al Jazeera, 16 May 2017: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/nakba-internalised-exiled-palestinians-170514104942696.html .

[23]. Gideon Polya, “50 Ways Australian Intelligence Spies On Australia And The World For UK , Israeli And US State Terrorism”,  Countercurrents, 11 December, 2013: https://countercurrents.org/polya111213.htm .

[24]. “Apartheid Israeli state terrorism: (A) Individuals  exposing Apartheid Israeli state terrorism & (B) Countries subject to Apartheid Israeli state terrorism”, Palestinian Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/apartheid-israeli-state-terrorism .

 

[25].  Gideon Polya,  “Body Count. Global Avoidable Mortality  Since 1950” that includes an avoidable mortality-related history of every country since  Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/chapter-3-correlates-and-causes-of-post.html .  

 

[26]. UN Genocide Convention : http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html .

 

[27]. Francis Boyle, “The Palestinian Genocide by Israel”, 21 August 2013:  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2339254 .

[28]. Gideon Polya , “Hitler, Churchill, Trump, Aung San Suu Kyi & Genocidal Intent To Destroy”, Countercurrents, 29 September 2017:  https://countercurrents.org/2017/09/hitler-churchill-trump-aung-san-suu-kyi-genocidal-intent-to-destroy/ .

[29]. “Rohingya persecution in Myanmar (2016-present)”,Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_persecution_in_Myanmar_(2016%E2%80%93present) .

[30]. “Rohingya people”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people .

[31]. Oliver Holmes, “Fact check: Aung San Suu Kyi’s speech on the Ronhingya crisis”, Guardian, 30 September 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/fact-check-aung-san-suu-kyi-rohingya-crisis-speech-myanmar .

 

[32]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”:  https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .

 

[33]. Lesley Stahl and Madeleine Albright quoted in “Madeleine Albright”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright .

[34]. Gideon Polya, “Palestinian Genocide–imposing Apartheid Israel Complicit In Rohingya Genocide, Other Genocides & US, UK & Australian State Terrorism”, Countercurrents, 30 November 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/11/palestinian-genocide-imposing-apartheid-israel-complicit-in-rohingya-genocide-other-genocides-us-uk-australian-state-terrorism/ .

[35]. Gili Cohen, “Israel sold advanced weapons to Myanmar during anti-Rohingya ethnic cleansing campaign”, Haaretz, 24 October 2017: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.818550 .

[36]. Areeb Ullah, “Israel sold military gear to Myanmar at height of Rohingya crackdown”, Middle East Eye, 23 October 2017: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/more-proof-israel-had-sold-weapons-myanmar-during-rohingya-crackdown-613292003 .

[37]. Human Right Watch, “United Arab Emirates”, 2019: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/united-arab-emirates .

[38]. Giorgio Caferio, “The UAE “runs” France’s Libya policy”, TRT World,  21 July 2020: https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-uae-runs-france-s-libya-policy-38285 .43 .

[39]. Gideon Polya , “Review: “The Return” By Hisham Matar – Libyan Genocide & Seeking The Disappeared”, Countercurrents, 5 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/review-the-return-by-hisham-matar-libyan-genocide-seeking-the-disappeared/ .

[40]. “UAE training Syria regime intelligence agents, providing aid to Damascus”, Middle East Monitor,  24 June 2020: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200624-uae-training-syria-regime-intelligence-agents-providing-aid-to-damascus/ .

[41]. Gideon Polya, “Syrian Holocaust and Syrian Genocide by US Alliance state terrorism”, Countercurrents,  23 January 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/01/syrian-holocaust-and-syrian-genocide-by-us-alliance-state-terrorism/ .

[42]. “Syria- United Arab Emirates relations”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria%E2%80%93United_Arab_Emirates_relations .

[43]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .

 

[44]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .

 

[45]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel bombing Syria & Iraq –hotting up deadly 4-decade US war on Iran”, Countercurrents, 14 August 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/08/apartheid-israel-bombing-syria-iraq-hotting-up-deadly-4-decade-us-war-on-iran/ .

 

[46]. Gideon Polya, “Saudi crimes: Khashhoggi murder, Yemeni Genocide & complicity in US-imposed Muslim Holocaust & Muslin Genocide”, Countercurrents, 14 August 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/08/apartheid-israel-bombing-syria-iraq-hotting-up-deadly-4-decade-us-war-on-iran/ .

 

[47]. Gideon Polya, “Paris atrocity context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable  Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm .

 

[48]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .

[49]. Human Rights Watch, “Saudi Arabia”, 2019: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/saudi-arabia .

[50]. Mohamed Al-Shamaa, “Saudi Arabia, UAE support El-Sisi’s “right to self-defense” in Libya war”, Arab News, 21 June 2020: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1693381/middle-east .

[51]. “ISIL weapons traced to US and Saudi Arabia”, Al Jazeera, 15 December 2017: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/isil-weapons-traced-saudi-arabia-171214164431586.html .

[52]. Gideon Polya, “Mosul Massacre Latest In Iraqi Genocide –  US Alliance War Crimes Demand ICC & BDS”, Countercurrents,  24 July 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/07/mosul-massacre-latest-in-iraqi-genocide-us-alliance-war-crimes-demand-icc-bds/ .

[53]. Gideon Polya, “” Review: “The Sacking Of Fallujah. A People’s History” – Ongoing Iraqi Genocide”, Countercurrents, 30 January 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/review-the-sacking-of-fallujah-a-peoples-history-ongoing-iraqi-genocide/ .

[54]. Ross Caputi, Richard Hil, and Donna Mulhearn, “The Sacking Of Fallujah. A People’s History”, University of Massachusetts Press, 2019.

[55]. “Fallujah”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah .

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, including  a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003).

15 August 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold

“HUGE breakthrough today,” crowed Donald Trump on twitter as he announced the new peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The deal makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state and the third Arab nation, after Egypt and Jordan, to have diplomatic ties with Israel. But the new Israel-UAE partnership should fool no one. Though it will supposedly stave off Israeli annexation of the West Bank and encourage tourism and trade between both countries, in reality, it is nothing more than a scheme to give an Arab stamp of approval to Israel’s status quo of land theft, home demolitions, arbitrary extrajudicial killings, apartheid laws, and other abuses of Palestinian rights.

The deal should be seen in the context of over three years of Trump administration policies that have tightened Israel’s grip on the Palestinians: moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and creating a so-called peace plan with no Palestinian participation or input. While no U.S. administration has successfully brokered a resolution to Israel’s now 53-year-long occupation, the Trump years have been especially detrimental to the Palestinian cause. Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi wrote on Twitter that with this deal, “Israel got rewarded for not declaring openly what it’s been doing to Palestine illegally & persistently since the beginning of the occupation.” Indeed, with Donald Trump at the helm and son-in-law Jared Kushner as the primary strategist, even concessions for Palestinians have been done away with. To add insult to injury, while the deal had been couched in terms of a commitment by Israel to suspend annexation of Palestinian territories, in his Israeli press conference announcing the deal, Netanyahu said annexation was “still on the table” and that it was something he is “committed to.”

Among the most brutal aspects of this period for Palestinians have been the loss of support for their cause in neighboring Arab states. The Arab political party in Israel, Balad, said that by signing this pact, “the UAE has officially joined Israel against Palestine, and placed itself in the camp of the enemies of the Palestinian people.”

The UAE has previously held a position consistent with public opinion in Gulf and Middle East countries that the acceptance of formal diplomatic relations with Israel should only take place in exchange for a just peace and in accordance with international law. Back in June, Emirati ambassador to the U.S. Yousef al-Otaiba penned an an op-ed in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, the Israeli equivalent to U.S.A Today, appealing directly in Hebrew for Israel not to annex the West Bank. However, by working out an agreement with Trump and Netanyahu to normalize relations, the country has now made itself Israel’s partner in cementing de facto annexation and ongoing apartheid.

The UAE’s change from supporting Palestinian dignity and freedom to supporting Israel’s never-ending occupation is a calculated move by UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, a shrewd Middle East dictator who uses his country’s military and financial resources to thwart moves towards democracy and respect for human rights under the guise of fighting Islamic terrorism. His support for Israel cements his relationship with the Trump administration. Trump has already gone out of his way to push billions of dollars in arms sales to the UAE, despite opposition from Congress because of high number of civilian casualties associated with the use of those weapons in Yemen.

Secretary Pompeo has also defended the UAE from credible reports that U.S. weapons sold to the UAE have been transferred in Yemen to groups linked to Al Qaeda, hardline Salafi militias and Yemeni separatists. The UAE was also stung by revelations of secret prisons it had been operating in Yemen where prisoners were subjected to horrific forms of torture, including “the grill,” where victims were “tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire.” In Libya, the UAE has been criticized for violating a 2011 UN Security Council arms embargo by supplying combat equipment to the LAAF, the armed group commanded by General Khalifa Haftar with a well-established record of human right abuses. So this deal with Israel gives the UAE a much-needed veneer of respectability.

But it is impossible to understand the impetus for this deal without putting it in the context of the ongoing hostilities between all three countries and Iran. Following the old adage that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” in recent years Israel has been negotiating with various Gulf states, including the UAE, to push back against Iran’s growing influence in the region. As the communique announcing the Israeli-UAE deal asserted, the U.S., Israel and the UAE “share a similar outlook regarding threats in the region.” This dovetails with Trump’s anti-Iran obsession, which includes withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and his “maximum pressure” campaign designed to force Iran back to the negotiating table to make a “better deal.” In announcing the UAE-Israeli pact, Trump declared with ridiculous bravado that if he wins the elections, he’ll have a new deal with Iran within 30 days. Anyone who believes this must be almost as delusional as Trump.

The fact that this agreement between two Middle East countries was first announced thousands of miles away in Washington DC shows how it is more about shoring up Trump’s slumping electoral campaign and improving Netanyahu’s battered image in Israel than bringing peace to the Middle East. It also shows that Netanyahu and bin Zayed have a stake in seeing Trump win a second term in the White House. Instead of pointing out the hollowness of the pact, Joe Biden’s response was unfortunately to congratulate Israel and the UAE and try to take credit for the deal. “I personally spent time with leaders of both Israel and the U.A.E. during our administration, building the case for cooperation and broader engagement,” he said. “I am gratified by today’s announcement.”

The normalization of relations between the UAE and Israel, facilitated by the U.S., serves to prop up three repressive leaders — Trump, Netanyahu, and bin Zayed — and will cause further harm to Palestinians. It is both a shame and a sham.

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Ariel Gold is the national co-director and Senior Middle East Policy Analyst with CODEPINK for Peace.

14 August 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

By Oliver Wainwright

As Notre-Dame cathedral was engulfed by flames last year, thousands bewailed the loss of this great beacon of western civilisation. The ultimate symbol of French cultural identity, the very heart of the nation, was going up in smoke. But Middle East expert Diana Darke was having different thoughts. She knew that the origins of this majestic gothic pile lay not in the pure annals of European Christian history, as many have always assumed, but in the mountainous deserts of Syria, in a village just west of Aleppo to be precise.

“Notre-Dame’s architectural design, like all gothic cathedrals in Europe, comes directly from Syria’s Qalb Lozeh fifth-century church,” Darke tweeted on the morning of 16 April, as the dust was still settling in Paris. “Crusaders brought the ‘twin tower flanking the rose window’ concept back to Europe in the 12th century.”

It is not only the twin towers and rose window that have their origins in the Middle East, she pointed out, but also the ribbed vaults, pointed arches and even the recipe for stained glass windows. Gothic architecture as we know it owes much more to Arab and Islamic heritage than it does to the rampaging Goths. “I was astonished at the reaction,” says Darke. “I thought more people knew, but there seems to be this great gulf of ignorance about the history of cultural appropriation. Against a backdrop of rising Islamophobia, I thought it was about time someone straightened out the narrative.”

And so she has, with Stealing from the Saracens, an exhilarating, meticulously researched book that sheds light on centuries of borrowing, tracing the roots of Europe’s major buildings – from the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey to Chartres cathedral and St Mark’s basilica in Venice – back to their Middle Eastern precedents. It is as much a story of political power, wealth and fashion as it is of religious belief, with tales of looting Crusaders, fashion-conscious bishops and globe-trotting merchants discovering new styles and techniques and bringing them home.

“Now we have this notion of east and west,” says Darke. “But back then, it wasn’t like that. There were huge cultural exchanges – and most came from the east to the west. Very little went the other way.”

Given their prevalence in the great cathedrals of Europe, it is easy to imagine that pointed stone arches and soaring ribbed vaults are Christian in origin. But the former dates back to a seventh-century Islamic shrine in Jerusalem, while the latter began in a 10th-century mosque in Andalucia, Spain. In fact, that first known example of ribbed vaulting is still standing. Visitors to the Cordoba Mezquita can marvel at its multiple arches intersecting in a masterpiece of practical geometry and decorative structure, never needing a repair in its thousand-year existence. The vaulted maqsura – the part of the mosque reserved for the ruling caliph – was designed to cast a sacred glow across the leader. However, the official leaflet will tell you little of the building’s Islamic origin, perhaps because it has been a Catholic church since 1236.

The pointed arch, meanwhile, was a pragmatic solution to a problem encountered by masons working on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. One of the holiest sites in the Muslim world, it was built in 691 by the ruler of Islam’s first empire. The challenge was how to line up an outer arcade of rounded arches with a smaller inner arcade, while maintaining a horizontal ceiling between them. For the openings to align, the masons had to give the inner arcade tighter arches, forcing them to become pointed. Another world first can be spotted higher up in the shrine, where encircling the dome is an arcade of trefoil arches, the three-lobed style of arch that went on to encrust practically every European cathedral, voraciously adopted as a symbol of the Holy Trinity.

“Again and again,” says Darke, “I am so struck by how much of this stuff that we think of as essentially Christian and European was based on ignorance and misinterpretation of much earlier Islamic forms.” She points out that the enormous influence of the Dome of the Rock was down to the Crusaders of the Middle Ages mistakenly thinking the building was the Temple of Solomon.

They used the domed, circular layout of this supposedly Christian shrine as the model for their Templar churches (like the City of London’s round Temple church), even copying the decorative Arabic inscription, which openly chastises Christians for believing in the Trinity rather than in the oneness of God. Their pseudo-Kufic calligraphic patterns went on to adorn French cathedral stonework and the borders of richly woven textiles, with no one aware of what they actually meant.

The confusion was spread further by the first printed map of Jerusalem, published in Mainz, Germany, in 1486. It not only mislabels the Dome of the Rock as the Temple of Solomon, but depicts the building with a fine onion dome – a pure orientalist fantasy from the mind of a Dutch woodcut artist named Erhard Reeuwich. The book containing the map became a bestseller, reprinted 13 times and translated into multiple languages, influencing the spread of onion-domed churches across Europe in the 16th century. It is a tale of mistaken identity and unintended consequence worthy of a Monty Python sketch.

The transfer of Islamic motifs to the west wasn’t always so simple, though. The pointed arch took a more circuitous route. Darke traces how the arches first spread to Cairo, becoming sharper and more pointed under the Abbasid empire, and were in turn admired by visiting merchants from the wealthy Italian port of Amalfi, who channelled discoveries from their travels into their eclectic 10th-century basilica. This exotic building caught the eye of Abbot Desiderius, who visited Amalfi in 1065 on a shopping trip for rare luxury merchandise, and decided to take the pointed window design for his monastery at Monte Cassino.

Those windows were then copied for the Benedictine abbey at Cluny in France, the largest church in the world at the time. Abbot Suger, an adviser to kings Louis VI and VII, liked how the windows let in more light, and immediately applied the same design to his Saint-Denis basilica in Paris. Regarded as the earliest fully gothic structure, the basilica was completed in 1144 and its architect went on to work at Notre-Dame. “They all just copied it,” says Darke. “These were the most powerful churches in Europe, so the style completely took off, as all fashions do. When powerful people adopt something, everyone wants one.”
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The list goes on. There are the early square minarets, found on such buildings as the Great Mosque of Damascus, that taper thinner and are crowned with a bulbous finial dome. These inspired such great Italian towers as those of Florence’s town hall and St Mark’s Campanile in Venice, prefiguring centuries of church bell-towers.

Drawing on architectural historian Deborah Howard’s research, Darke shows Venice to be more Arab than European, from its narrow winding passageways and courtyard homes with rooftop terraces, to the Islamic ornamentation of the Doge’s Palace (modelled on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem) and the onion domes of St Mark’s. All are the fruit of trips made by Venetian merchants to Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Persia, fostering a level of influence that extended even to fashion: women in Venice were veiled in public and dressed in black from head to toe. “One cannot see their faces for all the world,” a 15th-century source commented. “They go about so completely covered up, that I do not know how they can see to go along the street.”

The book comes at a charged time, when supposedly western architecture is being mobilised by right-wing nationalist groups to bolster their idealised vision of a “pure” European identity. There are now countless social media accounts promoting messages of white supremacy disguised as heritage appreciation, while recent government edicts about tradition and beauty carry similar overtones. Darke’s work takes an eloquent sledgehammer to such ignorant, dog-whistle propaganda, revealing how the monuments idealised by the alt-right have their roots in the very culture of which they are so suspicious.

The ignorance is widespread, and perhaps the most surprising thing in Stealing from the Saracens is how much of this should not come as a surprise to the modern reader. After all, throughout the book, Darke summons the words of Christopher Wren, who was well aware of the Middle Eastern origins of gothic architecture, and of the structural techniques he was using for St Paul’s Cathedral.

“Modern gothic,” he wrote in the 1700s, “is distinguished by the lightness of its work, by the excessive boldness of its elevations … by the delicacy, profusion and extravagant fancy of its ornaments … Such productions, so airy, cannot admit the heavy Goths for their author.” Instead, he concluded, “from all the marks of the new architecture, it can only be attributed to the Moors; or what is the same thing, to the Arabians or Saracens”.

The irony is in the name itself: in Wren’s day, Saracen was a pejorative term for the Arab Muslims, against whom the Crusaders had fought their “holy war”. It originated from the Arabic word “saraqa”, meaning “to steal”, as Saracens were seen as looters and thieves. Never mind the fact that the Crusaders plundered their way across Europe, Jerusalem and Constantinople – pilfering the wonders of Islamic architecture as they went, and airbrushing the origins of their booty in the process.

Oliver Wainwright is the Guardian’s architecture and design critic.

13 August 2020

Source: theguardian.com

By Michael Welch, Prof Michel Chossudovsky, and Greg Mitchell

“Not a particular country, not a particular city, and not a particular people.

The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose. Does it not have material and spiritual evil as its consequences which far exceed whatever good might result? When will our moralists give us an answer to this question?”

John Hersey, Hiroshima [1]

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The two state of the art weapons released over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki constituted the most devastating blasts of all time.

According to the best estimates of anti-nuclear weapons scientists, anywhere from 110,000 to 210,000 people died in the twin holocausts. Two thirds of the city of Hiroshima were wiped out in a single attack, the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT. [2]

These massive mushroom clouds would go on to become a symbol of the fate of humanity encapsulated in the threat of atomic horror. For all my life, I have contemplated the prospects of nuclear incineration and the aftermath that would follow if our leaders get caught up in a tragic misstep.

What has been the careful course of a wizened populace after 75 years of careful planning?

On January 23 of this year, the doomsday clock, created by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist, announced the clock had revved up to 100 seconds before midnight. That is an all time record in the history of the time piece! Do the memories of the devastating attacks of Aug 6 and Aug 9, 1945 have some process of ever re-igniting the imaginations of a new generation of civilians and reversing the tide of Nuclear Armageddon? This is a subject we will explore on this special anniversary episode of the Global Research News Hour.

Our first guest is renowned academic and writer Professor Michel Chossudovsky. In the first half hour, he brings us up to date on how the U.S. has re-ignited interest in once again turning bombs like the ones dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki into “ready for use” weapons in the arsenal of conventional warfare.

Our second guest, Greg Mitchell, comes along in our second half hour. He elaborates on how early information about the nuclear warfare in Japan was concealed, and how a new blockbuster release from Hollywood served to falsify the news from the battlefields.

Professor Michel Chossudovsky is a professor of economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, and the Founder and Editor of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

Greg Mitchell is an author and journalist. He was editor of the magazine Nuclear Times and has become an outspoken expert and the role and build up of nuclear arms in Japan.

7 August 2020

Source: www.globalresearch.ca

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak

The pandemic driven lockdowns have triggered worldwide growth of unemployment, hunger, homelessness and poverty. The speed of economic descent in world economy is extraordinary. The world is sleep walking into greater economic depression of the century and its impacts will reverberate for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic led economic crisis has been used by ruling and non-ruling classes to reconfigured the world economy to consolidate their wealth and punish the masses by spreading economic risks, insecurities and crises. The credit and consumerism led economic booms are no longer relevant strategies even for the short-term economic recovery due to inherent decline of trust of the masses on the existing economic and political institutions within capitalist system. The economic and political institutions within capitalism have lost their legitimacy in public eyes during this pandemic. The foundation of production, distribution, exchange and consumption are four pillars of any economic system irrespective of their ideological orientations. These four economic pillars survive on the foundation of trust. All economic activities run on the basis of trust. The level of trustworthiness determines economic revival and sustainability in all economic systems.

The deepening of capitalism and its deceptive culture of propaganda for last three centuries has eroded trust in the society, politics and economy. Trust in society is a product of interdependence whereas trust in an economic system is a production of free and open interaction between consumers and producers. The growth of capitalism led to the separation of producers from consumers, which led to the declining of the culture of trust in economy. The fourth industrial revolution led by digital capitalism has further eroded trust in economy by structurally delinking producers from the consumers. The consumerism as a project of capitalism has completely transformed economic trust into brand trust. The trust in system is transformed into trust in commodities (brands) based on its advertisement, brand value, peer acceptance and social visibility and respect. The culture of consumerism and advertisement has personalised trust. But leverage of trust in businesses and economic systems has declined over time due to the fact that trust is mutual and collective. It cannot be personalised. The corporatisation, individualisation and personalisation of trust is diminished trust.

The culture of forgery is rampant with the growth of digital business, which further accelerated the decline of trust even on the bands (personalised trust based on class). The banks used to be the only economic institution within capitalist economic system, which was trusted by public. But the scandals of the Wall Streets and continuous failure to protect the consumer interests in different economic crises led to fall of trust on banking systems within capitalism. The devaluation and demise of trust led to the declining of abilities of various public and private institutions dealing with economic crises. The consumers and producers feel vulnerable due to lack of trustworthiness and transparency with the growth of digital revolution in economy. So, the short term and long-term economic recovery depends on revival of trust in economic and political institutions. It demands total systemic change and disengagement with capitalism as a system and its distrustful culture of plunder in which every producer and consumer experienced deception.

Is there any way to revive public trust in economic and political institutions? Can trust be rejuvenated and re-established? Is trust building possible in the post pandemic world? The answer to these questions is emphatically positive. There is no other answer. Trust each other to survive in peace and prosperity or perish together with the culture of distrust spread by capitalism.

The digitalisation of world economy for last three decades has entered into every aspect of economic systems. The reversal or dismantling of digital economy is neither possible nor a progressive alternative. It is important to democratise and develop cooperative models of digital economy, where the producers and consumers can participate with egalitarian openness. The direct interaction between producers and consumers can create a socially embedded market and economic system based on trust, which can ensure a sharing and caring economy free from institutional exploitation. The experience of the Mondragon Corporation as an alliance of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain offers an alternative. The core of the Mondragon success story is based on trust; the trust between producers and consumers. The sustainable trust within the Mondragon corporation is established by its workers, who are the shareholders. The corporation is owned by the workers and managed by the workers. Therefore, trust was an organic development based on direct interaction of workers both as producers and consumers.

Such alternative experiments are completely ignored and concealed by the mainstream media; the voice of capitalism. The data driven digital economy within contemporary capitalism promotes devaluation of trust by controlling individual data on every aspects of individual lives. There is no dignity and privacy when individual data is controlled by corporations without any form of inhibition. The capitalist systems have also formed alliance with reactionary religious and politically authoritarian forces to further control individual freedom. It intends to use reactionary aspects of religions, cultures, nationalisms and communities to enforce trust in economic and political system. Such attempts create superficial and short-term trust. It is the material conditions of people that determines the level of trust in long term. The development and enforcement of trust cannot be outsourced to reactionary religious and political forces. Trust grows organically, it cannot be reproduced by propaganda and enforced for a long time by these forces. The growth of fake news and false propaganda about products in the market and policies of the government has further eroded the culture of trust in economy and politics.

The centralisation of data driven and data dependent digital capitalism is accelerating treacherous world economy free from trust. The loss of citizen’s trust on state and governments, loss of consumer’s trust on products, and loss of producer’s trust on markets create a state of anarchy, which helps for the growth and consolidation of security state and authoritarian governments concomitant with the requirements of the capitalism. Such an economic and political project has failed in history. Its failure is immanent but its social and humanitarian cost is incalculable. Therefore, it is imperative for all thinking beings to work collaboratively towards trustworthy social and economic transformations based on mutual and collective trust. It is collective trust that helps in the mobility of both labour and capital without creating barrier for each other. It is mutual trust which can aid the economy to revive its global momentum without capitalism. Trust is the non-transactional new currency with both use and exchange value. The revival of trust in economy and politics is the answer to the multiple forms of capitalism crises. Trust is important for long term peace and prosperity.

Bhabani Shankar Nayak, Coventry University, UK

10 August 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Ramzy Baroud

Protests against Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have raged on for weeks, turning violent sometimes. Israelis are furious at their government’s mediocre response to the coronavirus pandemic, especially as COVID-19 disease is experiencing a massive surge throughout the country.

Netanyahu warned protesters, thousands of whom have been rallying outside his residence in Jerusalem, against “anarchy (and) violence”. Scenes of utter chaos and violent arrests have been a daily occurrence in a country that is already in the throes of a political crisis, largely, if not exclusively, linked to the Prime Minister himself.

Desperate to create any distractions from his many woes at home, Netanyahu has been pushing for a confrontation with the Lebanese resistance group, Hezbollah. But that, too, has failed, as Israeli media has denied earlier claims that a violent confrontation was reported at the Israel/Lebanon border.

Hezbollah insists that it would be the group, not Netanyahu, that will determine the time and place for its response to Israel’s recent killing of Hezbollah’s influential member, Ali Kamel Mohsen.

Mohsen was killed in an Israeli aerial raid targeting the vicinity of the Damascus International Airport, likely another desperate attempt by Netanyahu to deflect attention from his troubled coalition government and his corruption trial to an issue that often unifies most Israelis.

The turmoil in Israel is not just about an obstinate, divisive leader who is manipulating public opinion, the media and the various political groups to remain in power and to avoid legal accountability for his corruption.

The Disunited Coalition

Israel is suffering a crisis of political legitimacy, one that goes beyond the embattled Netanyahu, and his coalition with the head of the Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) centrist party, Benny Gantz.

The political marriage between Netanyahu’s Likud and Gantz’s Kahol Lavan last April was fundamentally odd and unexpected. The announcement that Gantz – who endured three general elections in less than a year to finally oust Netanyahu – was uniting with his archenemy has devastated the anti-Netanyahu political camp, forcing Gantz’s partners, Yair Lapid and Moshe Ya’alon, to abandon him.

But the new coalition government between the right and center became dysfunctional immediately after it was formed. Israel’s political marriage of convenience is likely to end in an ugly divorce.

The war between Netanyahu and his main coalition partner is now manifest in every aspect of Israel’s political life: in the Knesset (parliament), in media headlines and on the streets.

When the new government assumed its duties after one of the most tumultuous years in Israel’s political history, the mood, at least immediately, was somewhat calm; both Netanyahu and Gantz seemed united in their desire to illegally annex nearly a third of the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Israel’s rightwing camp was delighted; the center tagged along.

However, the international response to the annexation scheme forced Netanyahu to rethink his July 1 deadline. Now that annexation has been postponed indefinitely, Netanyahu is being denied a major political card that could have helped him replenish his fading popularity among Israelis, at a time when he desperately needs it.

On July 19, Netanyahu’s corruption trial resumed. Although the Prime Minister did not attend the opening session personally, his image – that of a strong commanding figure – was tarnished, nonetheless.

Gantz, who already agreed to the annexation plan, was too clever to fully associate himself with the risky political endeavor. That task was left to Netanyahu who knew the risks affiliated with a failed political scheme, but with no option except to follow through with it.

Awaiting the right opportunity to pounce on his beleaguered ‘partner’, Gantz found his chance in a report published by the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz.

The Budget Conspiracy

On July 22, Haaretz reported that, “Netanyahu decided to not pass the budget for 2020 and to call a general election to take place on November 18,” to avoid the possibility of being forced to “handing over the keys to Defense Minister and Kahol Lavan Chairman, Benny Gantz” so that he, Netanyahu, may “attend legal proceedings” related to his corruption trial.

According to this claim, Netanyahu only agreed to swap the Prime Minister seat with Gantz come November 2021 just to buy time and to avoid a fourth election that would leave him vulnerable to an electoral defeat and to a corruption trial without a political safety net.

Despite the risk of yet another election, Netanyahu is keen to wrestle the Justice Ministry from Kahol Lavan’s hands, because whoever controls the Justice Ministry controls Netanyahu’s fate in Israeli courts. Leaving Gantz with such a powerful card is neither an option for the Likud nor for Netanyahu.

Hence, the Likud is insisting that the budget agreement can only last for one year, while Kahol Lavan is adamant that it must cover a period of two years. The Likud conspiracy, as revealed in Israeli media, suggests that the Likud Finance Minister, Israel Katz, plans to use the next budget negotiations as the reason to dismantle the right-center coalition and demand another election, thus denying Gantz his chance to serve his term as a prime minister, per the unity government agreement.

Crisis of a Fake Democracy

However, the crisis is larger than the dispute between Netanyahu and Gantz. While Israel has long prided itself on being “the only democracy in the Middle East”, the truth is that Israeli ‘democracy’ was, from the start, fraudulent, in that it catered to Israeli Jews and discriminated against everyone else.

In recent years, however, institutionalized racism and apartheid in Israel were no longer masked by clever political discourses. Netanyahu, in particular, has led the charge of making Israel the right-wing, chauvinistic, racist haven that it is today.

The fact that Netanyahu recently became Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister, elected repeatedly by Israel’s Jewish citizens, indicates that the Israeli leader is but a reflection of the larger ailments that have afflicted Israeli society as a whole.

Reducing the discussion to Netanyahu’s many failures might be convenient, but the demonstrable truth is that corrupt leaders can only exist in corrupt and unhealthy political systems. Israel is now the perfect example of that truism.

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.

8 August 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

By Countercurrents Collective

Citing the Israeli military media reports from Jerusalem said:

Israeli fighter jets and attack helicopters struck military targets in southern Syria belonging to the Syrian army Monday night, hours after thwarting an infiltration attempt from Syria by suspected militants trying to plant explosives.

In a rare statement acknowledging strikes in neighboring Syria, the Israeli army said the targets included “observation posts and intelligence collection systems, anti-aircraft artillery facilities and command and control systems” in Syrian army bases.

Syria acknowledged the strikes, saying that Israeli helicopters fired missiles at Syrian army outposts and reported unspecified “material damage.”

Syrian state media said Israeli helicopters fired at Syrian checkpoints in al-Qunaitra, on the Golan Heights. There was no immediate word of any casualties.

The incident comes amid heightened tension on Israel’s northern frontier following a recent Israeli airstrike that killed a Hezbollah fighter in Syria and amid anticipation that the militant Lebanese group would retaliate.

Earlier Monday, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesperson, said Israeli troops spotted “irregular” activity in the Golan Heights. Israeli troops opened fire on the suspected militants, some of whom were armed, after observing them placing the explosives on the ground, Conricus said.

There was no official confirmation that the four suspected attackers were killed but a grainy video released by the army shows four figures walking away from barbed wire marking the frontier. The four then disappear in a large explosion that engulfed the area.

The Israeli military has not said if the four are suspected of ties to Iran or Hezbollah, two Syrian allies. However, Conricus said Israel held the Syrian government responsible for the incident.

Hezbollah denied being part of the operation.

Addressing Likud party lawmakers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel “thwarted an attempted sabotage on the Syrian front” and would continue to “harm all those who try to harm us and all those who harm us.”

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed the territory. The U.S. is the only country to have recognized Israel’s annexation.

Tensions have been high on Israel’s northern frontier following the Israeli airstrike that killed the Hezbollah fighter in Syria last month. Following the airstrike, the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was hit by explosives fired from Syria and Israel responded by attacking Syrian military positions and beefing up its forces in the area.

Israel has been bracing for further retaliation and last week it said it thwarted an infiltration attempt from Lebanon by Hezbollah militants, setting off one of the heaviest exchanges of fire along the volatile Israel-Lebanon frontier since a 2006 war between the bitter enemies.

Israel considers Hezbollah to be its toughest and most immediate threat. Since battling Israel to a stalemate during a month long war in 2006, Hezbollah has gained more battlefield experience fighting alongside the Syrian government in that country’s bloody civil war.

After 40 years of calm, the Israel-Syrian frontier has heated up in recent years as Iran has tried to establish a military foothold on Israel’s doorstep while helping Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country’s years long war. Hezbollah also has aided Assad.

The military targets Israeli jets struck included intelligence-collection systems, observation posts, antiaircraft artillery facilities, and command and control centers, the Israeli army announced in a statement.

There was no comment from Syria on the fence incident.

The overnight encounter occurred at the same spot where until two years ago, Israel had operated a field hospital to treat Syrians who had been wounded in the Syrian civil war, Conricus told reporters.

4 August 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

By Jonathan Cook

Demonstrations have yet to draw a connection between Netanyahu’s personal abuses of office and the systemic corruption of Israeli politics, with the occupation its beating heart

Nazareth: Israel is roiling with angry street protests that local observers have warned could erupt into open civil strife – a development Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be encouraging.

For weeks, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been the scene of large, noisy demonstrations outside the official residences of Mr Netanyahu and his public security minister, Amir Ohana.

On Saturday night around 13,000 marched through Jerusalem shouting “Anyone but Bibi”, Netanyahu’s nickname. Their calls were echoed by tens of thousands more at locations across the country.

Turnout has been steadily growing, despite attacks on demonstrators from both the police and Netanyahu’s loyalists. The first protests abroad by Israeli expats have also been reported.

The protests, in defiance of physical distancing rules, are unprecedented by Israeli standards. They have bridged the gaping political divide between a small constituency of anti-occupation activists – disparagingly called “leftists” in Israel – and the much larger Israeli Jewish public that identifies politically as on the centre and the right.

For the first time, a section of Netanyahu’s natural supporters is out on the streets against him.

In contrast to earlier protests, such as a large social justice movement that occupied the streets in 2011 to oppose rising living costs, these demonstrations have not entirely eschewed political issues.

The target of the anger and frustration is decidedly personal at this stage – focused on the figure of Netanyahu, who is now Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. Protesters have renamed him Israel’s “crime minister”.

But also fuelling the protests is a larger mood of disenchantment as doubts grow about the state’s competence to deal with multiple crises unfolding in Israel. The virus has caused untold social and economic misery for many, with as much as one fifth of the labour force out of work. Netanyahu’s supporters in the lower middle-classes have been hit hardest.

Now well into a second wave, Israel has a per capita rate of infection that outstrips even the US. The shadow of a renewed lockdown amid government mishandling of the virus has undermined Netanyahu’s claim to be “Mr Security”.

There are concerns too about police brutality – starkly highlighted by the killing in May of an autistic Palestinian, Eyad Hallaq, in Jerusalem.

Police crackdowns on the protests, using riot squads, undercover agents, mounted police and water cannon, have underlined not just Netanyahu’s growing authoritarianism. There is a sense too that the police may be ready to use violence on dissenting Israelis that was once reserved for Palestinians.

After manipulating his right-wing rival, the former military general Benny Gantz, into joining him in a unity government in April, Netanyahu has effectively crushed any meaningful political opposition.

The agreement shattered Gantz’s Blue and White party, with many of his legislators refusing to enter the government, and has widely discredited the ex-general.

Netanyahu is reportedly preparing for a winter election – the fourth in two years – both to cash in on his opponents’ disarray and to avoid honouring a rotation agreement in which Gantz is due to replace him late next year.

According to the Israeli media, Netanyahu may find a pretext for forcing new elections by further delaying approval of the national budget, despite Israel facing its worst financial crisis in decades.

And, of course, overshadowing all this is the matter of the corruption charges against Netanyahu. Not only is he the first sitting prime minister in Israel to stand trial, but he has been using his role and the pandemic to his advantage, including by delaying court hearings.

In a time of profound crisis and uncertainty, many Israelis are wondering which policies are being pursued for the national good and which for Netanyahu’s personal benefit.

The government’s months-long focus on the annexation of swaths of Palestinian territory in the West Bank has looked like pandering to his settler constituency, creating a dangerous distraction from dealing with the pandemic.

Similarly, a one-off handout this week to every Israeli – over the strenuous objections of finance officials – looks suspiciously like an electoral bribe. As a result, Netanyahu is facing a rapid decline in support. A recent survey shows trust in him has fallen by half – from 57 per cent in March and April, when the Covid-19 pandemic began, to 29 per cent today.

Many Israelis increasingly see Netanyahu less as a father figure and more as a parasite draining resources from the body politic. Capturing the popular mood is a new art work called the “Last Supper” that was covertly installed in central Tel Aviv. It shows Netanyahu alone, gorging on a vast banquet by stuffing his hand into an enormous cake decorated with the Israeli flag.

In another move designed to highlight Netanyahu’s corrupt politics, better-off Israelis have been publicly organising to donate this week’s state handout to those in need.

Netanyahu’s repeated incitement against the protesters – disparaging them as “leftists” and “anarchists”, and suggesting they are spreading disease – appears to have backfired. It has only rallied more people to the street.

But the incitement and Netanyahu’s claims that he is the true victim – and that in the current climate he faces assassination – have been interpreted as a call to arms by some on the right. Last week five protesters were injured when his loyalists used clubs and broken bottles on them, with police appearing to turn a blind eye. Further attacks were reported at the weekend. Protest organisers said they had begun arranging defence units to protect demonstrators.

Ohana, the public security minister, has called for a ban on the protests and urged a heavy hand from the police. He has delayed appointing a new police chief – a move seen as incentivising local commanders to crack down on the protests to win favour. Large numbers of protesters have been forcefully arrested, with reports that police have questioned some on their political views.

Observers have wondered whether the protests can transcend party political tribalism and develop into a grassroots movement demanding real change. That might widen their appeal to even more disadvantaged groups, not least the one fifth of Israel’s citizens who belong to its Palestinian minority.

But it would also require more of the protesters to start drawing a direct connection between Netanyahu’s personal abuses of office and the wider, systemic corruption of Israeli politics, with the occupation its beating heart.

That may yet prove a tall order, especially when Israel faces no significant external pressure for change, either from the US or from Europe.

A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.

Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism.

3 August 2020

Source: countercurrents.org