Category Archives: Israel

Arab Politics, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Sectarian, Wahhabi

How All Arabs Elected Celebrity Prince Al-Waleed as their Media Spokesman………

      

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“If the negotiations don’t succeed — and clearly, Alwaleed sees no chance of success — then what? Anti-proliferation by force? I asked him if he thought the Arab states would actually back an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, if this terrible option should come to pass. “Publicly, they would be against it,” he said. “Privately, they would love it.” What about at the level of the so-called Arab street? “The Sunnis will love it,” he said, referring to the dominant branch of Islam, to which most Arab Muslims adhere. “The Sunni Muslim is very much anti-Shiite, and very much anti-, anti-, anti-Iran,” he said. You’re sure they loathe Iran more than they loathe Israel?……………..”

That other celebrity, that Kardashian celebrity chick could not have put it better than this celebrity prince. Or maybe she could. The Mufti Shaikh Al Al Shaikh himself could not have put it any better.
That is the problem with Western media: they like answers that they ‘like’ to hear. That is why they assume Wahhabi tribal Saudi princes speak for all Arabs, especially for all Sunni Arabs. That fits nicely with what they believe Arabs are, which most Arabs are not. Ask any Arab on the street (outside Riyadh and Abu Dhabi and their suburbs), ask from Baghdad to Cairo to Casablanca where the threat comes from, ask them what they think of Netanyahu (plus the Saudi princes) on one side and Rouhani on the other and the answer would shock any card-carrying AIPAC groupie member of the U.S. Congress (both chambers, both parties).
Saudi Arabia does not represent the Arabs, not even the Sunni Arabs, maybe just Wahhabi Arabs: it has only about 19 million citizens plus 9 million temporary foreign laborer and housemaids.
Al-Waleed is the prince who famously claimed that US support for Israel was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks and prompted Mayor Rudi Giuliani (NYC) to return his check. That was in 2011, and I suspect if the check was made out to Giuliani personally he would not have returned it).

Prince Al-Waleed is always listed on the Forbes Magazine list of the richest people in the world. Forbes lists the source of his wealth as “self-made”. That is exactly what the enemies of Ali Baba, the forty men of the famous cave, thought of the source of their wealth and they were actually right. A few months ago Al-Waleed was reportedly suing Forbes Magazine for publicly underestimating his wealth by a couple of billions (and thus insulting all Arabs by downgrading the wealth of their betters and looters).

Cheers
mhg

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AIPAC, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, United Nations International Organizations, US Foreign Policy

International Tantrums: From UN to UNESCO, When Governments Don’t Get Their Way……..

          

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“UNESCO has suspended the voting rights of the United States and Israel, two years after both countries stopped paying dues to the U.N.’s cultural arm in protest over its granting full membership to the Palestinians. The U.S. decision to cancel its funding in October 2011 was blamed on U.S. laws that prohibit funding to any U.N. agency that implies recognition of the Palestinians’ demands for their own state. Israel also pulled its funding, objecting to what it called unilateral attempts by the Palestinians to gain recognition of statehood…………….”

Ref. my Saturday posting on Saudi Arabia.
I pointed to my Saudi source that her government is not unique in that respect, in getting upset and walking out screaming when it doesn’t get its way. I suggested the Al Saud may have learned this from Western governments in recent years. I reminded her of past threats to stop funding the UN and the decision to stop funding UNESCO if it upsets Israel and hence AIPAC, which it apparently did when it granted the Palestinians member status. I especially reminded her of the UNESCO episode and how the Obama administration now regrets losing its vote and influence in that organization after withdrawing funding (which they now realize means Israel losing its influence as Susan Rice hinted).

I also reminded her of Western media and thinkers and pundits complaining that sometime the international organizations seem to take into account the rest of the world, all 5-6 billion of it, more than the Western governments that represent about 600 million. I reminded her of the famous French pop-philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy who said earlier this year that a “bunch of gangsters control the UN Security Council”, that was when China and Russia and others refused to vote for military action in Syria. She agreed with me that it is likely the princes have learned a lesson from that on how to have an international tantrum when they don’t get their way.

I forgot to tell her that the Obama administration withdrew its funding of UNESCO in 2011, only about one year before the 2012 general elections (elections in the USA not in Israel). At that time, it seemed like a good idea, electorally if not from a principled point of view.

Cheers
mhg

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France, Israel

Pictorial Hollande and Netanyahu: the Socialist and the Right-Winger, the Red and the Black……

      

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                                                     Don’t they look sincere?

Here are some likely possible captions:

  • Is that a gun in your pocket or are you so glad to see me?
  • WTF? True Love? 
  • Hahaha, your gray roots are showing………
  • Ugh, snails and garlic again! Ugh, Gefilte fish again! 
  • Sarkozy and Obama both said you were an incurable serial liar. But then so was he. 
  • Here we are, all civilized surrounded by “them”.
  • And to think that if you fire in any direction you would drop a savage barbarian.
  • Worse, if you fire a missile in any direction…….. But then you know all about that, don’t you? Well, so do you, Algiers and all that……
  • Tell me. How much are the Saudis buying from you for blocking the nuclear deal?
  • How much are they paying you? We’re not French, we do it for Lebanon……
  • Fuck, get off my toe, you Right-Wing/Left-Wing oaf!

Cheers
mhg

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Iran, Israel, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Israeli Polls Favor a War of Aggression if Victory is Guaranteed………

      

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“Nearly two thirds of Israeli Jews oppose a deal being reached between world powers and Iran on Tehran’s controversial nuclear program, the results of a survey published on Friday said. The survey also showed 52.4 percent supported an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in the event of a “bad deal” and if Tehran pursued its nuclear ambitions, while 26.8 percent said they would oppose such an attack. A strong majority of 68.8 percent said they believed the Israeli military was capable of going it alone in a strike on Iran. When asked: “Should Israel support or oppose the nuclear agreement being discussed with Iran?” 65.5 percent said they were against it………………..”

Israelis are supposed to be allegedly apparently the most educated people in the Middle East. Yet they are overwhelmingly against a potential nuclear deal that they know nothing about, yet. Except what their right-wing ‘leader’ tells them, and he doesn’t know much about it either. Which is not necessarily a sign of superior intelligence (self-claimed or otherwise), not necessarily.
 
Obviously a majority would support a war of aggression because they believe they can win it (which is also not necessarily a sign of superior intelligence either). On the other hand, why shouldn’t they? They have won every one of their wars against the Arabs, except the two against Lebanon and Hezbollah. Those two defeats (2000 and 2006) still rankle but, hey, it is not fun winning all the time. An occasional defeat can make things interesting.
Or maybe they know that Uncle Sam will intervene to help them once Ben Netanyahu starts his war of aggression and gets bogged down, big time. They know there are many in Washington who seem to have a strange proclivity for intervention and warring in Muslim lands. It is almost certain that many in the US Congress, possibly both Likud-nik houses, will assume these polls reflect their own American constituencies and vote for war. They almost have already.

Cheers
mhg

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Israel, Racism

Israel’s Bedouin: Lebensraum and Resettlement in the Negev……..

      

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“Jewish and Arab MKs exchanged fiery words during a special Knesset hearing on Wednesday to discuss the resettling of Bedouin communities, accusing each other of deliberately thwarting plans to solve the ongoing land ownership crises in Israel’s south. The hearing, led by Likud MK Miri Regev, was interrupted several times by MKs on both sides of the debate, leading to the removal of some participates from the Knesset hall. The “Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev,” on which debate was held during the hearing, is based on a plan drawn up by former Likud minister Benny Begin………… MK Dov Khenin of Hadash also expressed his concern about the law and said that it sets the stage for the evictions of entire communities on a nationalist basis.………..”

This sounds vaguely but eerily familiar. It evokes a terrible part of history, with words like Lebensraum, Resettlement, etc. Of course I am exaggerating here to make a point: the scale is tiny, the fate of the victims is not as dire, and the issue is being debated openly. But the victims are “selected”, and you see what I mean, or do you?

Cheers
mhg

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Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, US Foreign Policy

They are Back at the White House! Ben Netanyahu’s UN Nuclear Cartoons………

      

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“Thursday, Nov. 14, Israel sent the White House in Washington a confidential document outlining blow by blow how and when Iran will attain a nuclear weapon if the Obama-Kerry strategy for dealing with the issue goes through. The document was addressed to the National Security Council headed by Susan Rice, debkafile reports. Communications between the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem and the State Department have almost petered out since exchanges between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State John Kerry sharpened in tone. Our Washington sources report that Rice and the NSC have taken a critical stand against the State Department’s policies – not just on the Iranian nuclear question……… It confines itself to a dry account, step by step, of how the Iranian nuclear bomb program will continue to unfold if the administration’s secret proposition is accepted…………….”

If we are to believe this Israeli media story, Ben Netanyahu’s Looney Tunes nuclear cartoons that traced Iran’s nuclear path at the UN General Assembly last year are back in circulation. They are now at the White House, in the hands of Susan Rice, allegedly known as more strongly pro-Israel than others. She is apparently a true believer in their veracity, possibly adding her own embellishments, possibly in colorful crayons. Possibly shoving the carrot into Bugs Bunny’s hand. No doubt the reception of this Looney Tunes document in Washington is much warmer than the hilarity of world-wide reaction last year after their UN debut.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Espionage, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon

Faces of Hezbollah: Syria and the Nuclear Briefcase……

      

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“Hezbollah forces will remain in Syria fighting alongside the troops of Syrian President Bashar Assad for the foreseeable future, the leader of the Lebanese group said Thursday. “As long as the reasons are present, we are staying” in Syria, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s general secretary, said in a speech to supporters here marking the Shiite Muslim holiday of Ashura…………”

See the photo up there? I bet every Western and Arab, and maybe some Asian and other intelligence services are poring over these guys standing around Hassan Nasrallah. I bet even NGOs, AIPAC, the NRA, and the Tea Party are poring over the photo, trying to identify the persons. Especially the man with the gun, but maybe more so the man with the ominous-looking brief case.
Actually there is no need: the fact that they showed the photo means that Hezbollah knows that these guys are already known to diligent foreign intelligence services. Or maybe they are just in a playful mood, teasing the foreign spooks. About the brief case: could it be Nasrallah’s laptop and iPad? His own Lebanese version of the “nuclear” briefcase (oh, oh: now Ben Netanyahu will start screaming wolf and that Lebanon has also gone nuclear).

That photo was taken during Nasrallah’s recent speech this week. It was inevitable that he would decide to stay in Syria, given all the new proxy ‘rebel’ armies being formed and financed to the north (Turkey), south (Jordan) and east (Iraq). All financed by the rebellious and revolutionary democratic regimes of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, humorless Jordan, and assorted Western mercenary groups. Hezbollah has already taken a big hit in its popularity among Arabs for being involved in Syria. Only another victory against another foolish Israeli attack, like the invasion of 2006, could change that.

Cheers
mhg

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Anti-Semitism, Humor, Israel, Jesus, Jews, Religion

Sinning Zealots: American Zionist Hayseeds Awaiting the ‘Final’ Final Solution…….

      

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“Despite an uproar in the Jewish community, former president George W. Bush is still slated to deliver the keynote address to a fundraiser for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute in Irving, Texas, tonight. The MJBI trains people to persuade Jews to recognize Jesus as their messiah. Followers of the group believe that if enough Jews are converted, Christ will return to Earth. After Mother Jones broke the news about Bush’s appearance last week, “a small shitstorm…kicked up over the President’s decision,” writes Rob Eshman, editor of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. “I have yet to meet a Jewish person who hasn’t heard about this,” Tevi Troy, Bush’s White House liaison to the Jewish community from 2003 to 2004, told CNN Wednesday. Troy had high praise for Bush’s support of Israel and the Jewish community, but, he added, “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.” A spokesman for the Republican Jewish Coalition did not respond…………..”

There is something hypocritical about these objections. After all, it is known most those right-wing (and a few left-wing) politicians who are more Zionist than Ben Netanyahu are doing it for the same reason. All these Bible-thumpers and occasional secret sinners (and I mean serious focused sinners: nobody sins like a zealot) are seeking to convert the Jewish people, eventually. Accent on “eventually”.
In fact they are certain that they will convert all the Jews, eventually. They anticipate that once all the Jews are gathered in the Holy Land (do they mean ALL of them?) and the Rapture dawns, they will all finally convert to the eccentric ancient Jewish sect inadvertently started by Jesus of Nazareth. Yep, that same sect the Europeans took to Rome and Constantinople so many centuries ago and made into a huge bureaucracy. Before the Americans took it over and converted it into a huge show-biz-style money machine.
And voila! No more Jews! With friends like these……….
I am not a suspicious and rude and crude person. If I were, I would opine that all these right-wing wannabe Zionists, all these Ben Netanyahu fans and groupies, have a sinister goal. They are seeking their own “final solution” for the Jewish people, only they are more genteel about it than the Europeans have been for the past six centuries. The favorite European methods of conversion have been gruesome and often unconvincing: the rack, the burning pyre, pogroms, indiscriminate massacres, and the gas chambers. Not the right way to win hearts (forget about minds). The American extreme right is smarter: it “knows”, it just “knows”, that someday there will be no more Jews. All they need is await the Rapture.

This is not antisemitism. After all, these good well-meaning folks would like the same fate for Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus and Environmentalists and Marxists and even for Northeast and West Coast Democrats.
Meanwhile the Israelis, knowing what is planned for them by these hayseeds, are laughing as their agenda becomes Washington’s agenda.

Cheers
mhg

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GCC, Iran, Israel

Peacenik Tom Friedman vs. Warmongering Arab Princes………

      

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“But there is something else that goes without saying, but still needs to be said loudly: We, America, are not just hired lawyers negotiating a deal for Israel and the Sunni Gulf Arabs, which they alone get the final say on. We, America, have our own interests in not only seeing Iran’s nuclear weapons capability curtailed, but in ending the 34-year-old Iran-U.S. cold war, which has harmed our interests and those of our Israeli and Arab friends. Hence, we must not be reluctant about articulating and asserting our interests in the face of Israeli and Arab efforts to block a deal that we think would be good for us and them………. . Some of our allies don’t share those “other” interests and believe the only acceptable outcome is bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities and keeping Iran an isolated, weak, pariah state…………”

Friedman is going peacenik about Iran. He says: “Some of our allies don’t share those “other” interests and believe the only acceptable outcome is bombing……”
No wonder some Iranians have come to believe that some of their neighbors are almost serial back-stabbers. They did it in the 1980s, when they threw their money and media and weapons behind Saddam Hussein’s invasion of southwestern Iran. When that one failed, Saddam did his own backstabbing: he turned his guns south against the Gulf. The Americans deployed and saved the day in 1990/91.
The potentates tried again to push for war a few years ago (remember the Wikileaks revelations?). They have been trying since then. A version of history is being repeated here, perhaps with Ben Netanyahu replacing Saddam as the instrument. They have come a long way from the Saddam Fan Club to the Ben Netanyahu Fan Club.

Cheers
mhg

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Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, Terrorism

Hezbollah Closer to Taking over Middle East, Threaten the Western World………

      

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“U.S.-designated terror group Hezbollah is expanding networks and deployment of fighters from Lebanon to the entire Middle East as part of its deepening alliance with Iran, say analysts. The latest sign comes in Syria, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has justified intervention as a battle he says is part of a region-wide war of Sunni Muslims against Shiite Muslims……………”

Holy Guacamole! Hezbollah deploying fighters, the Wehrmacht of God, all over the Middle East? All exposed in USA Today! Interesting part citing unnamed “analysts” who gave their insight about Hezbollah. Here is my take, the final word on the Party of Allah:

  • It is true that Hezbollah is an exclusively Shi’a party (with many Christian, Sunni and other political allies) and that its men are fighting on Bashar al-Assad’s side in Syria. It is a sectarian party, but so are almost all other Arab political parties these days, even those that claim to be secular.
  • It is also true that Hezbollah closely follows the Iranian line in regional politics. I am beginning to suspect that Hassan Nasrallah is an admirer of both Ali Khamenei and the theocracy.
  • Hezbollah is not involved in murdering professors and scientists inside Iran, those are almost certainly Israeli acts. They are considered acts of terrorism by everyone and everywhere except by American media and in Washington. This sets a bad example for us wild Muslims to see our more civilized neighbors get away with terrorism and murder.
  • Hezbollah operations are usually restricted to the area around Lebanon. Syria is part of the area around Lebanon: weapons and fighters and shells cross the Lebanese border at will. Nevertheless, there are still the accusations about the terrorist act at the Jewish Center in Buenos Aires some years ago.
  • It is probably an exaggeration what some Gulf potentates and the Salafis claim that Hezbollah is planning to take over Fujairah and Qatif and the rest of the Middle East. Just as it was not true a few years ago that Hezbollah was fighting in Iraq. There are no local Hezbollah militias outside Lebanon, not even in Riyadh. As far as I know.
  • Hezbollah did, however fight the Israeli occupation forces in South Lebanon and defeated them, forcing them out, twice. The only Arab force to ever do that. Unforgivable.
  • It is also not true that Hezbollah has plans to colonize Latin America as a prelude to invading NAFTA countries through Mexico. A nightmare of otherwise nearly almost somewhat sane Texas Congressmen.
  • There have been allegations, mainly by Israeli officials and anonymous Western “officials” that Hezbollah was involved in terrorist attacks in Europe, especially the attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. Bulgarians are not so sure.
  • It is also true, however, that a Lebanese man was arrested at a Shawarma (or was it Falafel) joint in New York a couple of years ago while trying to ship used pistols to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
  • Speaking of used pistols: Lebanon is known to bristle with automatic weapons, missiles, and drones, many of them in the arsenals of Hezbollah. A pistol in Lebanon is considered a wuss’s weapon. Pistols are girlie weapons in Lebanon. They prefer car bombs over there, if the recent murderous history, before and after the Hariri assassination, is any guide.

Cheers
mhg

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