Category Archives: Apartheid

Netanyahu Skips South Africa, Puts ‘Both’ His Eggs in U.S. Congressional Basket…………

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter        
                            Video:
A Kenny G Holiday

“Mandela, in both life and death, symbolized the idea of equality among all human beings and opposition to the apartheid regime, which subjected people to different laws based on race or ethnicity. Israel under Netanyahu’s leadership, in which segregation, racist legislation and discrimination on the basis of nationality are flourishing virtually undisturbed, cannot say it respects Mandela’s heritage, nor can it join the family of nations whose flagship values are the striving for civil equality and the fight against racism. Mandela spoke out in the past in favor of the Palestinian struggle – something that earned him no points with Netanyahu, who sees the Palestinians as demonic enemies with whom there is no possibility of dialogue. It’s also possible to infer that the core of Mandela’s struggle – the war on racism against blacks – doesn’t burn in the Israeli prime minister’s bones, since just this week Netanyahu and his coalition partners were busy passing the so-called Infiltration Law, which allows people to be jailed for up to a year without trial, and is aimed primarily at African migrants………………..”

Also sprach Israel daily Haaretz.
Netanyahu is increasingly depending on two kinds of allies: his own domestic extreme rights wing supporters and the U.S. Congress (both houses, both parties). He probably feels that he needs no one else: he can get elected and he can outmaneuver President Obama with his own houses of Congress, including the Democrat-controlled Senate. It is true: both houses of the U.S. Congress are now more likely to do Netanyahu’s bidding than that of Obama. After all, when Netanyahu spoke to a joint session of Congress, his old tired predictable rhetoric got many more standing ovations than Obama’s State of the Union addresses.

In fact, even as I write this post, Congressmen and senators facing elections next year are pushing through new Iran resolutions that would derail Mr. Obama’s peace attempts. They are doing the bidding of a foreign leader who is no doubt lobbying and campaigning by phone against the policies of the president of the United States. Some Arab media have reported that the White House is allegedly reduced to sending emissaries to Tel Aviv to help moderate a U.S. Congress that is eager for war (both houses, both parties) on behalf of the Israeli right wing.

We can say Mr. Netanyahu is putting both his eggs in the Congressional basket. Congress, of course, has fewer eggs than it used to, or maybe just has smaller ‘eggs’ than before, but that probably has nothing to do with taking any testosterone.
FYI: I was translating literally from Arabic in the last paragraph.
Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


The Pitfalls of Boycotting Apartheid South Africa, Communist Cuba, Theocratic Iran, and Communist China………

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter        
                              Video:
A Kenny G Holiday

“In 1988, the Wyoming Senate candidate said economic engagement would end apartheid faster than boycotts. Conservatives used the same argument with Jim Crow—and they still don’t get it. Liz Cheney doesn’t just share her father’s neoconservative politics. As a young woman, she also shared his support for the apartheid regime in South Africa. In a 1988 editorial for her college newspaper, Cheney—now running a losing primary bid against Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)—condemned anti-apartheid activists at Colorado College. “The real problem with divestment,” wrote Cheney, attacking a prominent strategy of apartheid opponents, “is that it won’t work. Like most moral statements, it accomplishes nothing tangible.”……………..”

The Cheneys have had an unusual mixed almost bi-polar relationship with the Al Saud princes. They loved the princes and their money even as they waged a media war on their religion. Liz Cheney particularly has a website (Keep America Safe) that for years focused on being Islamophobic even as the Cheneys remained close to the Saudis. That silly fear-mongering website, which also encouraged banning mosques, is now reportedly closed.
 
Of course there was and still is much hypocrisy in the right-wing position regarding apartheid South Africa. While they extolled the benefits of “engagement” in reducing Apartheid (not that they cared about it), they have also extolled the virtues of keeping the blockade against Cuba, and tightening the blockade against Iran. Apparently ‘engagement’ works with China and apartheid South Africa but not with Cuba, Iran and a few other places. Of course many Democrats are at the forefront of keeping the blockade on Cuba and tightening the blockade on Iran rather than “engaging” these countries. It all depends on upcoming elections, the Cuban exile lobby, and the potent Israeli lobby (including the Christian Zionists).

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


Breaking Distortion! Mandela Inspired Western Blockades of Third World Countries!……….

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter      
 
                             Video:
A Kenny G Holiday

“Nelson Mandela helped popularize use of sanctions. His greatest impact was as a moral leader, but Nelson Mandela also left a legacy in diplomacy by helping popularize the use of international sanctions to pressure a government to change its policies. Since sanctions were imposed in an effort to end apartheid and bring down South Africa’s white-minority government, they have been used hundreds of times, especially by Western countries. President Clinton, who ordered sanctions against Cuba, Libya, Iran and Pakistan, mused near the end of his second term that the United States had become “sanctions-happy.”…………..”

Cute but poisonous distortion of history in the L.A. Times. It says: “Nelson Mandela helped popularize use of sanctions”, and I haven’t read a pile of dung (caca, if you prefer) that smelled worse than this one today. Mandela inspired starving out the peoples of Cuba and Iran? This piece somehow ties American and Western sanctions against Third World peoples to Mandela. The cruel Western blockades of Cuba and Iran were apparently inspired by Nelson Mandela, according to this twisted logic.

Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher, applied sanctions exclusively to several third world countries, but refused to apply sanctions against the worst offender of the time, the apartheid White supremacist regime of what was called (with a straight face) the “Republic of South Africa”. AS did much of the U.S. Congress. After all, it ain’t kosher (nor halal) to blockade white folks, even in Africa.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


King of Hearts, King of Heartless, King of Apartheid in Bahrain………….

   


    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                          
                                Neck of the woods
Maryam Alkhawaja ‏@MARYAMALKHAWAJA: 
Tomorrow zainab alkhawaja will receive a verdict on the charge of ripping a picture of hamad, cud b sentenced up to 3 yrs #Bahrain

Bahrain Human Rights ‏@BahrainRights:  Activist Zainab Alkhawaja @angryarabiya Sentenced to two months in prison #Bahrain for ripping king’s photo.

Bahrain Human Rights ‏@BahrainRights: 
Tomorrow another hearing session in the appeal of imprisoned human rights defender Nabeel Rajab

Nabeel Rajab, is head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. He was sentenced to three years in prison for a tweet. Imagine: one tweet criticizing someone (I’m not sure it was the lousy king; I think it was his lousy uncle and prime minister of 42 years). The Alkhawaja family has been targeted for special treatment by the Al-Khalifa regime in its attempts to silence the people. Abdulhadi Alkhawaja was beaten, arrested, and reportedly tortured by the regime and its imported mercenaries last year. He is serving a life prison sentence passed by a military court. One of his daughters is facing sentencing tomorrow for ripping a photo of the shaikh king Saddam Hamad of Bahrain. I believe his son in law is also in prison. One of his daughters is wisely in exile campaigning.
Here are some photos of the king.

      
Dancing…….                                  Man in Red                        His Paliamentary speaker: al-Saidi

            
                                                         Sorry, Joe                      King Tight Pants?
           
Sorry, a nobody, just one of the many victims                     Educating the people

His paid fan club calls him King of Heart. Others call him King of Clubs or King of Spade. Yet others, many of his detractors, a majority of his people would call him other epithets: king of Apartheid, King of Heartless, King Saddam,Tr– d- c–?
God only knows what all his imported foreign mercenaries call him, the ones he imports from Jordan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, New York, London, and a few other places.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


Sporty Potentates of the Gulf, Bahrain Horse Apple………..

    


    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                
   
                       Neck of the woods

“Shaikh Khalid hails HM the King’s continued support. First Deputy of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and President of the Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Horseracing Federation Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa today affirmed that he is a graduate of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa‘s school in the sport of horse riding. Shaikh Khalid highlighted the fact that His Majesty the King was primary motivator for him and Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa in the sport of horse riding that is an extension to the forefather’s heritage and tradition……….. Moreover, he also spoke about the importance of the GCC countries as he considers them family and friends………..”

He is
a son of the shaikh king of Bahrain. He is a deputy to his brother Shaikh Nasser who is the Gauleiter of all sports in Bahrain: sort of like Uday Saddam Hussein used to be in Iraq. So these potentates big and small are busy hailing each other. He says he follows in his father’s footsteps as far as horses are concerned.
Speaking of horses: the whole clan has been dishing out horse apples, they are very good at it even if very few believe them. It is the thought that counts. Quite moving, actually, if it weren’t for the many thousands of their victims who are in prison, in hospital, in the grave, or out of jobs. Hail away, your highnesses. The problem with horse apples is that you can’t get rid of the odor (although some may consider that an aroma rather than an odor).

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Musical Chairing in Bahrain, Cool General and Mean Mother………….

 


    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   
                                             Neck of the woods

Lt. General Bin Technocrat


“The Minister of Interior and Chairman of the board of trustees of the Royal Police Academy council Lt. General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa today chaired the ninth meeting. During the meeting the educational and training programmes provided by the academy were reviewed………..”

This Lt. General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Bin Technocrat Al Khalifa is a mean mother, no doubt (just look at his visage up there, and that photo was taken on a good day). He is in charge of police, security, foreign mercenaries, village and home raids, arrests, torture, imprisonment, sexual assaults, killings, and other such traits and values that the Western world (especially David Cameron and William J Hague) cherish so dearly. IN summary: he is in charge of enforcing the policies that would keep Apartheid in Bahrain in place. He ain’t a Field Marshal yet, that honors is still confined to the commander of the Bahrain military, another Al-Khalifa chap, but as nasty as this one.
If there was justice in this world, both these gentlemen ought to be put immediately under arrest by Interpol as soon as they leave their captive island.
I don’t know about you, but I think all this shit is considered really cooooool among certain elements in our neck of the wood
s.
Cheers
mhg



[email protected]

Saudi Regime: Free Speech as a form of Terrorism, a New Fifth Column…..

 

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter    BFF   

      


Rasid website reports that the Saudi regime has accused an outspoken Shi’a cleric of terrorism for speaking against injustice and repression. Shaikh Hassan al-Saffar had openly questioned how a regime that ‘condemns killing protesters in other countries allows the killing of protesters at home’. Saudi regime spokesmen have again accused the protesters and civil rights advocates in Qatif (Eastern Province) of being pawns of foreign powers. (Charging protesters and opponents of the Wahhabi regime of being Iranian pawns is a standard refrain of some Gulf despots and of the pro-Saudi Wahhabi faux-liberal media and regime academics along the Gulf). The Saudi regime media have often spoken of a “fifth column”, referring to Shi’as who are demanding their rights as citizens on their own ancestral land of the Eastern Province.
The Saudis, in fact, have their own strong “fifth column” all along the Persian-American Gulf: it consists of the Salafis who are loyal to the al-Saud clan and their Wahhabi shaikhs more than to any other entity. Most of the Saudi oil is extracted from the Shi’a area but they are the last to benefit from it.

I wonder if the Saudis can convince the Obama administration to add free speech to the list of acts of terrorism. That new definition of terrorism would only include free speech in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE, almost exclusively.
Cheers
mhg



[email protected]

Obama and Clinton and Hypocrisy on Democracy: Weapons of Repression to Bahrain…………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
         BFF   

President Barack Obama’s administration has been delaying its planned $53 million arms sale to Bahrain due to human rights concerns and congressional opposition, but this week administration officials told several congressional offices that they will move forward with a new and different package of arms sales — without any formal notification to the public. The congressional offices that led the charge to oppose the original Bahrain arms sales package are upset that the State Department has decided to move forward with the new package. The opposition to Bahrain arms sales is led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), and also includes Senate Foreign Relations Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee chairman Robert Casey (D-PA), Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), and Marco Rubio (R-FL). Wyden and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) have each introduced a resolution in their respective chambers to prevent the U.S. government from going through with the original sale, which would have included 44 armored, high-mobility Humvees and over 300 advanced missiles. The State Department has not released details of the new sale, and Congress has not been notified through the regular process.……….


The ruling al-Khalifa clan in Bahrain have been masters of deception. For years they managed to cultivate the image of a cosmopolitan liberal monarchy, even as they applied a system of discriminatory apartheid against a majority of their people. They were aided in that by some bought and paid-for European expatriates (especially Brits) as well and slick public relations campaigns. All this was exposed in recent years as the people rose demanding their rights. The whole façade finally fell apart last spring when the regime and its imported mercenaries failed to crush the people’s uprising. It had to invite an invasion by foreign (Saudi) forces to help repress the protests. They are still repressing and killing people, even as they fill Western media with talk of reform.

The Obama administration has also learned to master deception and double standards. While they talk of freedom and democracy in, say, Iran and Libya and Syria, they turned their back on the people of Bahrain. They have been deathly silent about Saudi Arabia, the absolutely most repressive regime in the Middle East, possibly in the world after North Korea. It should not have been surprising that the Obama administration planned to sell weapons to the al-Khalifa clan to help them crush the newly resurgent protests. There was some opposition in Congress, from legislators in both parties. That is how the Obama administration hit upon this trick for selling the same weapons of repression to Bahrain, but in several smaller packages that can bypass congressional approval. A masterful piece of trickery, almost Clintonian, something the al-Khalifa would do, and have done.
Change? As far as the Middle East is concerned, the change Mr. Obama once claimed is nothing new, certainly nothing Arabs and Muslims can believe in. Unless they are repressive absolute tribal dynasties with deep pockets
.
Cheers
mhg



[email protected]

Mullahs, Princes, and Islamist Potentates: Prince Turki and Fitna……….

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
         BFF   
Prince Turki al-Faisal, chairman of the board of the King Faisal Center for Islamic Research Studies called on Iran to stop spreading sectarian divisions (Fitna) among Gulf GCC citizens. He emphasized that these countries are not part of any dispute with the “international community” about its nuclear program. He made his statement in a speech to the Conference on National Security and Regional Security in the GCC, held in Bahrain………..”

I don’t know about this. No doubt the Iranian mullahs have pursued their own goals toward influence through interference in some Arab states: mainly in Iraq and Lebanon. Like all theocrats, the mullahs are no sweethearts in the pursuit of their goals. But the prince is being deliberately unfair and misleading toward the Shi’a citizens of the Gulf states. Prince Turki is hinting here that Iran is responsible for the popular uprisings in Bahrain and in Qatif. He is using the discredited al-Khalifa excuse of painting the peoples of Bahrain and Qatif as Iranian agents simply because they refuse to accept the current apartheid policies of the al-Saud and the al-Khalifa despots.
Yet no regime in the Middle East is as sectarian as the Saudi and Bahraini regimes, no regime has resorted to as much sectarian divisiveness and hatred as the Saudi Arabian. The vast semi-official Saudi media (all owned by princes and their retainers and tribal in-laws) has waged a campaign of several years spreading sectarian hatred wherever they could. No other regime in recent history has spread so much suspicion and hatred. Especially in the Gulf GCC states, but they have also tried well beyond the Gulf from Syria and Lebanon to Egypt and North Africa. All with the help of their local Salafi fifth columns and their Muslim Brotherhood tribal allies. (Most Gulf Muslim Brothers are very close to the Saudi princes, unlike those in Egypt and other places. Some like the demagogue Yusuf al-Qaradawi are close to the Qatari shaikhs, a few others are close to the UAE Abu Dhabi shaikhs).
It is the old divide-and rule policy once attributed to the British imperial power.

Cheers
mhg



[email protected]

Rosa Parks of Jerusalem, Shikses of old Alabama and Free Afghanistan………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF   

It was supposed to be just another regular Friday morning for Tanya Rosenblit. Tanya had to get from her hometown Ashdod to Jerusalem for a meeting there. On the way, Rosenblit experienced one of the most intimidating stories of religious coercion I’ve seen lately: She was told by a Haredi man to get to the back of the bus, or nobody was going to go anywhere. And what do you think Rosenblit did? That’s right – she stayed put. And she took pictures of the whole ordeal and later wrote about it on Facebook……… At the next stop, Orthodox Jews started mounting the bus. At first, they just stared at me, but said nothing and moved on to sit somewhere in the bus behind us. Only one passenger decided that he preferred standing on the stairs near the driver, although there was plenty of space. I didn’t mind that, and focused on the music in my ears. But then, another one entered the bus, but instead of entering, he prevented the driver from closing the door. He looked at me with despise, and when I took off the earphones, I heard him call me “Shikse”, which means “whore” in Yiddish. He demanded I sit in the back of the bus, because Jewish men couldn’t sit behind women ………….”

Not exactly a Rosa Parks story, that of Ms Rosenblit: it probably happens all the time in the new free Afghanistan, been happening since the Taliban came to power after the American-Saudi liberation of that country in 1989. The term “shikse” does not mean a whore in the USA. Among American Jews I knew back East, “shikse” was a not-nice term meaning a non-Jewish girl, often very anglo-looking. But then, among the fucking fundamentalist Haredis in Jerusalem, who are like the fucking Salafis in our neck of the woods, the term probably does mean something like a “whore”.
Cheers
mhg



[email protected]