O little town of Bethlehem,

How still we see thee lie!

Above your deep and dreamless sleep,

The silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth

The everlasting Light. . . .

The Light isn't as everlasting as we in the United States once imagined to be:

ISRAEL PULSEבעבריתישראל פולס

A Palestinian woman tries to bypass others as they make their way to attend the second Friday prayer of Ramadan in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, at an Israeli checkpoint in the West bank city of Bethlehem, June 26, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma)

How this Israeli checkpoint turns morning commute into 5-hour ordeal

The scene each day at the Bethlehem checkpoint is horrifying. Lucky Palestinians who have managed to obtain authorization to work in Israel — the “ticket to life,” they call it — undergo an exhausting, agonizing wait that can last five hours, even when they arrive early in the morning to beat the crowds.

Author Shlomi EldarPosted March 30, 2016 TranslatorAviva Arad

This is the journey thousands must make to reach jobs that help them survive the economic distress in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. 

The inhumane overcrowding to get through the “lines” at the checkpoint forces many workers to climb the fences just to avoid suffocation. Some workers, many in their 40s and 50s who don’t have it in them to withstand the long hours of crowding, try to arrive at 2 a.m. to avoid the misery that will increase as more laborers arrive.

“The fight for a piece of railing is the hardest of all,” said Ahmed Darajah, a 42-year-old father of eight from Beit Sahour who works in a quarry. “Only the strong can climb the railing and hold tight to the barbwire fence for hours. Not everyone has the strength to keep hanging in the air all night, and only the strong survive [and keep their place in line]. The rest pray to God.” 

The official name of the checkpoint at Bethlehem is the Rachel Checkpoint, but it is also called Checkpoint 300. Its location wasn’t chosen through any planning or forethought, and no one intended for thousands of people to pass through the crossing every day.

On Feb. 25, 1994 — the day settler Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs — Ilan Biran, commander of the Israel Defense Forces Central Command, ordered that a temporary checkpoint be built quickly in the Bethlehem area to prevent angry Palestinians from getting to the nearby Gilo settlement neighborhood. The deputy brigade commander, Shlomo Tzaban, marked off 300 steps from the Tomb of Rachel, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, and set up the first concrete structure that would become the Rachel Checkpoint. Over the years, it has become a central crossing for Palestinian workers entering Israel from the West Bank. 

Palestinians must pass through concrete pathways along the separation barrier. At the crossing itself, military police operate carousels that allow only a small group of workers at a time to pass into the security-check area to verify their authorization to work. 

According to data provided to Al-Monitor by the civil administration, 58,000 workers exit the West Bank to work in Israel each day. An additional 27,000 Palestinians are authorized to work in West Bank settlements. In February, to ease the burden of unemployment in the PA-controlled territories, the security Cabinet authorized 30,000 additional work permits for Palestinians. Since then, the Cabinet has authorized another 7,000 permits to be issued in the coming weeks. 

Workers from the West Bank enter Israel through 15 checkpoints scattered along the Green Line. Checkpoint 300 is the busiest and most crowded. Civil administration data shows 7,000 workers passing through that checkpoint every day, but according to the Palestinians, the actual number is much higher. The West Bank Labor Association reports that 15,000 workers pass through the checkpoint daily, a figure an Israeli security source also believes to be closer to reality. Regardless of the precise number, the checkpoint was not built to handle today's massive flow.

“There’s a demand for workers from the Bethlehem area because it is considered a quieter and more moderate area than other areas in the West Bank,” the Israeli security source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “Israeli employers prefer Bethlehem workers because they have a reputation as workers you can relatively depend on. They don’t present a security threat like workers from Jenin or Nablus. Hebron-area residents also prefer to cross into Israel through Checkpoint 300 because most of them work in the Jerusalem or Tel Aviv area, and not as much in the Beersheba area [in the south].” 

The reason workers are unable to cross Checkpoint 300 in a humane and appropriate fashion lies in the way it is administered. The operation of the other crossings from the Palestinian territories into Israel, including the Erez crossing at the Gaza Strip, has been transferred from the IDF to the Defense Ministry, which hires corporate contractors that use advanced security methods. The crossings surrounding Jerusalem have remained the joint responsibility of the IDF, the military police and the civilian Israeli police. The IDF is not against transferring responsibility for Checkpoint 300 to the Defense Ministry and the Ports Authority, but the Israel Police oppose such a move. Giving up control of the crossing would cost the force millions of shekels in lost manpower and budgeting.

At the Eyal Checkpoint, operated by the Defense Ministry near the Israeli town of Rosh HaAyin, some 12,000 Palestinian workers pass through daily without crowding, thanks to advanced security methods like those used at airports. By contrast, Jamal Abu Warda, a resident of Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem, told Al-Monitor that almost every day Palestinian workers are sent to hospitals with injuries sustained at Checkpoint 300.

“This week I arrived at the checkpoint at 2:30 [a.m.] in order to be one of the first in line,” Abu Warda said. “When I arrived, there was already a long line, but I managed to push in. Suddenly, terrible crowding started. I and a few other workers fell to the ground as others fell on top of us. I felt that I was suffocating. I thought I was dying, but the workers couldn’t be stopped because everyone was pushing.

"I don’t know who thought of it, but then a row of workers formed a human chain and prevented others from falling on top of us. That’s how I was saved. Friends poured water on me and sat me to the side for 15 minutes until I could breathe again. I didn’t go to work that day; I went to the hospital. It’s a shame that [they] do this to us. What do we want, after all? To live with dignity and to provide food for our kids.”

Given Abu Warda’s testimony and that of many other workers, it seems safe to say that if Israel doesn’t improve conditions at Checkpoint 300, it is only a matter of time before disaster strikes there, with Palestinian workers suffocating or being trampled to death.

∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

The Stamped; and

images of Palestinians working

in Israel and the "Settlements"

An editorial comment:

Michagelo visits Gaza

Turkey, the European Union,, Russia, the PKK, and the future of a Kurdish nation

There is another oil issue in Central Asia which is causing as much difficulty for Turkey as Syria is.

Azerbaijan is building a pipeline from its oil fields to Italy,, which would  thwart Russia's position as the dominant supplier of oil to Europe.


For information on Azerbaijan's Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline referred to in the article see Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline - Wikipedia  (TANAP).  From Wikipedia:

Russia is said to have entered the Syrian conflict to stop Qatar from exporting natural gas from the Pars Field to Europe through Syria.

(Iran wants to export natural gas from the Pars field through Pakistan to India and China, so far blacked by the United States' threat of sanctions and its threat of withholding military aid to Pakistan, important to Pakistan because it perceives India as a mortal enemy.)

TheTANAP pipeline is a serious that to Russia, though not as serious as a Qatari pipeline would be, because Azerbaijan doesn't have reserves as large as the Pars field, which is the largest in the World.  

But TANAP would cut into Russia's oil sales to Europe and Russia can ill afford the loss.  

So Russia and he PKK, which is cutting Turkey,s oil lines, become natural allies. The United States is handed an opportunity to resolve the Ukraine dispute with Russia by siding with Russia and the PKK. 

If,  then, Turkey is "left with no friends but Saudi Arabia, Qatar and arguably Israel", as the al Monitor article, below, suggests, will the United State continue to support Syrian Kurds in their valiant war against the Islamic State, or will it yield to Saudi pressure, and side with Turkey?

What is important is the Kurdish determination to have their own nation, with access to the Sea.  That determination will decide  the outcome.  The United States should continue to side with the Kurds, even after the Islamic State is defeated, and Israel should abandon the Turks or be even further isolated from the international community.

For good reporting on Turkey's problems with PKK and the European Union, see The Guardian, A bombing: Kurdish militants claim responsibility, and Erdoğan's Turkey: a disintegrating ally and imaginary friend, both important articles for understanding Turkey, Syria, Russias, and the United States in the Middle East.

Author Ufuk Sanli Posted March 16, 2016

TURKEY PULSETürkçe okuyunTÜRKİYE'NİN NABZI

The Kurdistan Workers Party released a video on its official website Aug. 29, 2015, showing an attack on the Shah Deniz pipeline that transports natural gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey.  (photo by YOUTUBE/GlobalTVz)

How the PKK is entering energy wars

The Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), denounced as a terrorist group by Turkey, last month inaugurated its first representative office abroad — in Moscow. A Kurdish speaker at the ceremony hailed the event as “a historic moment for the Kurdish people” before lauding his hosts: “Russia is a big power and a prominent actor in the Middle East. In fact, it’s not only an actor, but also a scriptwriter.”

The PYD is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which sits even higher on Turkey's blacklist. Portraits of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan adorn the walls of the PYD office in Moscow, suggesting Turkey’s accusations are not baseless. Yet Russia clearly disagrees. Turkey’s Nov. 24 downing of a Russian military jet in Syria caused a dramatic rupture in ties, and the enraged government of Russian President Vladimir Putin had no scruples about embracing “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” strategy.

In the wake of the plane crisis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his aides moved to accelerate projects to reduce Turkey’s dependence on Russian natural gas. Russia supplies 55% of the gas Turkey consumes, and Gazprom lists Turkey as its second-largest buyer after Germany.

For Turkey, the only quick alternative lies in the rich gas fields of neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan. With 5 trillion cubic meters (176 trillion cubic feet) of gas reserves, Iraqi Kurdistan whets the appetite of international investors and is eager to put its gas on the global market. Ankara’s game plan is simple: Begin building a pipeline this year, and get the gas flowing in 2019. Officials say the pipeline will have an initial capacity of 10 billion cubic meters a year, before a twofold increase in a short period of time.

That timing would be perfect, as some of Turkey’s major gas contracts with Russia expire in 2020, including the Blue Stream deal for 16 billion cubic meters, and half of the western route contracts that cover 4 billion cubic meters. In short, if everything goes as planned, Ankara hopes to get rid of Putin’s noose in several years.

Quickly rolling up its sleeves, Turkey collected bids for the Turkish section of the pipeline Feb. 9. In an intriguing coincidence, the PYD office in Moscow opened with fanfare the following day. And a week later, the Kurdistan Communities Union, the PKK's executive council, announced it would not allow the pipeline project to proceed. To show it meant business, the PKK leadership put on a little show of force. On Feb. 17, PKK militants blew up a Turkish section of the oil pipeline that ships Iraqi and Kurdish crude to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The conduit, which carries 600,000 barrels of oil per day, remained closed for 23 days, dealing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) a reported blow of $300 million and further shaking its already struggling economy.

This, however, was not the first attack on what is often described as the Iraqi Kurds’ “economic lifeline.” PKK militants had also bombed the pipeline on July 29, disrupting exports for 21 days — which cost the KRG $250 million.

According to Akin Unver, a scholar of international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University, the PKK’s pipeline bombings are a calculated strategy. “The attacks aim to derail Turkey’s ambition of becoming an international energy hub,” he said. “An increase in these attacks would either discourage investors from projects via Turkey or push financing costs above the estimates.”

Unver’s point is indeed critical. To overcome its financial bottleneck, the KRG needs to put its natural gas on the market as soon as possible, along with its oil. So it now has two options: either make a deal with the PKK or look for other routes to export its gas and oil.

In another twist here, a new player — Iran — has stepped into the game. Last week, Tehran was reported to have offered the KRG a new pipeline via Iran to safely export its oil.

Meanwhile, the PKK is targeting another major energy project — the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), designed to carry Caspian gas to Europe via Turkey in a bid to reduce European reliance on Russia. The conduit is to carry 36 billion cubic meters of gas per year, of which 21 billion cubic meters will go to European countries. Construction began a year ago, and on July 30 the PKK attacked a freight train transporting construction materials for TANAP, killing a railway worker. Intriguingly, reports emerged the same day that Turkish-Russian talks on the Turkish Stream — a rival project to carry Russian gas to Europe — had been suspended.

The PKK also has targeted a pipeline that carries 6 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas to Turkey annually, via Georgia. The conduit was blown up twice in August. The 13-day interruption in the flow meant some $200 million in losses for Azerbaijan.

According to Fatih Ozbay, a scholar at Istanbul Technical University specializing in Russia, Ankara’s crisis with Moscow was a long-sought opportunity for the PKK. “The PKK leadership had long scrambled to enlist Russia’s support. The rupture between Ankara and Moscow handed them this opportunity on a silver plate,” he said.

Commenting also on Russia's thinking, he said, “For the Russians, energy means both money and power. While half of its federal budget revenues come from oil and gas sales, Russia sees energy also as an efficient diplomatic weapon and doesn’t hesitate to use it when necessary.

"The truth of the matter is that the Kremlin was already unhappy with the projects to carry gas from the Caspian and northern Iraq because they are bound to curb its influence over Turkey and the European Union. So the plane crisis came in very handy, providing the PKK with legitimacy and Russia with an opportunity of direct contact with the forces that could disrupt those projects.”

Whether Ankara can break free from Putin’s pincers depends on how the PKK problem in Turkey develops. In 2012, Erdogan managed to bring the PKK to the negotiating table, enlisting the support of the United States, Britain, the EU and Russia. Today, he is left with no friends but Saudi Arabia, Qatar and arguably Israel. He could hardly bring the PKK back to the table at a time when the Kurds — unlike him — enjoy strong Western sympathy for their fight against the Islamic State.

This stalemate has come to threaten not only Turkey’s national security but also its energy supplies. Any delay in the energy projects, meanwhile, means more money flowing to Russia’s coffers.

∼ ∼ ∼ ∼ ∼ ∼ ∼ ∼ ∼ ∼ 

Fatah and Hamas reconsile, displeasing Israel and he US

I am puzzled by the US response to Reconciliation. I don't see how any "peace agreement" that fails to include Hamas can result in peace.  Labeling Ha,as a
"terrorist organization" is useless cant. This quotation from the article below states a position I agree with.  Until we learn the terms of the reconciliation agreement, the US should withhold judgment.

Durell

Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the implications depended on the precise terms of the reconciliation, which have yet to be revealed.

“If, and it is a big ‘if,’ Hamas comes under the P.L.O. umbrella in such a way that it accedes to the P.L.O.’s recognition of Israel and the P.L.O.’s signed agreements with Israel,” she said, “that would be historic.”

“What would make it horrible is if Hamas were to join the P.L.O. without those kinds of commitments,” Ms. Wittes added. “Then it calls into question the P.L.O.’s commitments that it has already made.”

New York Times

MIDDLE EAST

Palestinian Rivals Announce Unity Pact, Drawing U.S. and Israeli Rebuke
By JODI RUDOREN and MICHAEL R. GORDONA
PRIL 23, 2014

JERUSALEM — The faltering Middle East peace process was thrown into further jeopardy on Wednesday, with Israel and the United States harshly condemning a new deal announced by feuding Palestinian factions, including the militant group Hamas, to repair their seven-year rift.

Israel canceled a negotiating session scheduled for Wednesday night shortly after leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization joined hands with their rivals from Hamas at a celebratory ceremony in the Gaza Strip.

“Whoever chooses Hamas does not want peace,” the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement, describing the group as “a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel.”

The unity pact, coming days before the April 29 expiration date for the American-brokered peace talks that have been the mainstay of Secretary of State John Kerry’s tenure, surprised officials in Washington, which, like Israel, deems Hamas a terrorist group and forbids direct dealings with it. After months of intensive shuttle diplomacy in which Mr. Kerry relentlessly pursued the peace processand even dangled the possibility of releasing an American convicted of spying for Israel to salvage the lifeless talks, his spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, called the Palestinian move “disappointing” and the timing “troubling.”

The Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, center, and Azzam al-Ahmad, left, a senior Fatah official who headed the P.L.O. delegation to Gaza, at a news conference on Wednesday in Gaza City. CreditWissam Nassar for The New York Times
“Any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties,” Ms. Psaki said, citing conditions Hamas has repeatedly rejected. “It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist.”

Hamas and Fatah, the faction that dominates the P.L.O., have signed several similar accords before that were not carried out, so it remained unclear whether Wednesday’s deal promised a real resolution or a replay of an old movie.

Some analysts saw the step primarily as a tactic by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority to pressure Israel to make concessions as the clock winds down on extending the fraught negotiations. He said in statement that “there is no contradiction at all” between reconciliation and negotiation, adding, “We are totally committed to establishing a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state principle.”

Other experts noted that Palestinian political conditions have drastically changed since the signing of previous agreements, which could lead both parties to make the compromises necessary to put this one into action. Hamas has been in a deep political and economic crisis since the military-backed government took over Egypt last summer and largely cut ties with Gaza. Mr. Abbas, at 79, is looking for a legacy and an exit strategy.

Reconciliation is deeply resonant among Palestinians and could revive the president’s sagging popularity.

“It’s not bad for both sides — it is bad for the peace process,” said Shimrit Meir, an Israeli analyst of Palestinian politics and editor of The Source, an Arabic news website. “It is simply rude, in diplomatic language, when Kerry is doing his last heroic effort to save the peace process, to reward it with reconciliation with a terrorist group. I think this is a message, and it’s very blunt.”

Something like this is a prerequisite to peace, as a practical matter. Or do negotiations with an entity that effectively represents only a fraction of the people and territories involved make any sense?

Beyond the damage to the peace talks, joining forces with Hamas could cost the Palestinians millions of dollars in financial aid from the United States and Europe, and prompt a host of retaliatory actions by Israel.

Even as the deal was being announced, there were other signs of tension. An Israeli airstrike hit northern Gaza, apparently missing the militant on a motorcycle it was aiming for and wounding 12 Palestinians, including two children, according to Gaza health officials. Later Wednesday evening, two rockets fired from Gaza landed in open areas of southern Israel.  [Inexcusable.  Comment by d]

The schism between Hamas and Fatah began in 2007, with a brief but bloody civil war that followed a failed unity government after Hamas’s victory in 2006 Palestinian elections. It left Palestinian territory divided, with Hamas ruling Gaza, the impoverished and isolated coastal expanse, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority governing the larger and more populous West Bank.

Dreams of reconciliation have been repeatedly dashed, after much-trumpeted agreements signed in Cairo in 2011 and Doha in 2012were never carried out.

“Sorry to say that we are familiar with such celebrations,” said Talal Okal, a Gaza political analyst. “I hope that this time will be more serious, but to be more serious is to go directly and quickly to the first step, to let the people touch and see, not to hear only.”

On Wednesday afternoon, after two days of meetings at the home of the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, in Gaza City’s Beach refugee camp, the Palestinian leaders vowed to form a government of technocrats within five weeks that would prepare for long-overdue elections six months later.

“I announce to our people the news that the years of split are over,” Mr. Haniya said triumphantly.

Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official who headed the P.L.O. delegation to Gaza, said he hoped the deal would be “a true beginning and a true partnership.”

Ziad Abu Amr, deputy prime minister of the Palestinian Authority and a close aide to Mr. Abbas, said the new deal came about because “the situation has become more demanding and the pressures are rising.” He cited Egypt’s frequent closing of the Rafah border crossing, Gaza’s gateway to the world, which he said a technocratic government could reverse, as well as domestic political concerns.

“It’s a psychological and national issue that Palestinians feel they are united,” Mr. Abu Amr said. “This split is hurting them.”

He and other Palestinian leaders dismissed Israel’s threats and said reconciliation was an internal matter, noting that the presence of extreme right-wing members in Israel’s governing coalition had not stopped Palestinians from participating in the peace talks. They also pointed out that some Israeli leaders had questioned Mr. Abbas’s ability to deliver a peace deal with Hamas controlling Gaza.

“Mr. Netanyahu and his government were using Palestinian division as an excuse not to make peace,” said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. “Now they want to use Palestinian reconciliation as an excuse for the same purpose. This is utterly absurd.”

Israel’s cabinet planned to meet Thursday to plan its next steps. Dore Gold, a senior adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, called the Palestinian deal “a real game changer,” and said, “You cannot have a serious peace process with Hamas inside.”

Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator, said the reconciliation was a “very problematic development.”

Some Washington-based Middle East experts, who had long thought Mr. Kerry’s efforts to be an uphill struggle given the yawning gaps between Israeli and Palestinian positions on fundamental issues, said Wednesday’s developments boded ill.

Aaron David Miller, a former State Department peace negotiator, said Mr. Abbas had “bought peace at home in exchange for significant tensions with the Israelis” and called the move “one more nail to a peace-process coffin that is rapidly being closed.”

Dennis B. Ross, another former American peace envoy, said that the move could make Mr. Abbas “less susceptible to a domestic backlash for continuing the process with the Israelis,” but that “the timing is very problematic — when the process is already faltering, this could be a body blow.”

Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the implications depended on the precise terms of the reconciliation, which have yet to be revealed.

“If, and it is a big ‘if,’ Hamas comes under the P.L.O. umbrella in such a way that it accedes to the P.L.O.’s recognition of Israel and the P.L.O.’s signed agreements with Israel,” she said, “that would be historic.”

“What would make it horrible is if Hamas were to join the P.L.O. without those kinds of commitments,” Ms. Wittes added. “Then it calls into question the P.L.O.’s commitments that it has already made.”

Jodi Rudoren reported from Jerusalem, and Michael R. Gordon from Washington. Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza City, and Isabel Kershner and Said Ghazali from Jerusalem.

∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

Timor mortis, conturbat me (The fear of death confounds me.)  The confounding fear of death is the  moving factor in all Israeli and Palestinian dealings.  Until that fear if faced with courage, misery will result.  Durell

Israel in a frenzy; Palestine, just another day

The Israeli newspapers report, with great alarm, that only 53 percent of the Jews have gas masks.  Read Israel's Iran Itch from yesterday's New Your Times..

A question:  are there gas masks for the many Palestinians living in territory controlled by the Jews?  Do the Palestinians have bomb shelters?

DON’T BOMB IRAN!

The blood of Palestinians will be on your hands, unto the seventh generation.

For unintended consequences, consider the Merchant of Venice, Act 3 Scene I.  Read “Arab” for “Jew.”  For “Christian” read “Jew"

I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we notrevenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany youteach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction.

Pictures of some Palestinians living in territory controlled by Israel who may die, burn, be torn limb from limb, smashed to smithereens, split all ends up, if Israel bombs Iran and there is retaliation:

NDER the wide and starry sky, 

Dig the grave and let me lie. 

Glad did I live and gladly die, 

And I laid me down with a will. 

This be the verse you grave for me: 

Here he lies where he longed to be; 

Home is the sailor, home from the sea, 

And the hunter home from the hill.

The Gaza Beach, to be turned 

into another Waikiki,

 when peace break out.

The Israeli soldier and the Palistinian kids

 he os so valiantly guarding:  all dust and ashes

The olive otreees, no atelling how old, 

burned with their human friendss

Just a guy, but a guy no more

A way to while aaway the time.

No, no, another Hussein;

 and one for whom I feel great aaffection

A Palistinian football team.  Football, of course.

Shall we dance? 

On a bright cloud of music shall we fly? 

Shall we dance? 

Shall we then say "Goodnight and mean "Goodbye"? 

Or perchance, 

When the last little star has left the sky, 

Shall we still be together 

With are arms around each other 

And shall you be my new romance? 

Don't Bomb Iran

Read this post from the Guardian.  Send this simple message to our President.

DONT BOMB IRAN!

President Barak Hussein Obama
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Send this message to your Republican nominee for President.

DON'T BOMB IRAN!

Willard Mitt Romney
http://www.mittromney.com/forms/suggestions

[You'll get lots of junk mail in return, but "junk" takes care of that pretty well.  You won't make a difference, but you'll feel as if you and Sheldon Addison were equals.]


The Guardian home

Israel and Iran: Lethal game of bluffThe enthusiasm of Israel's prime minister and defence minister for an air strike on Iran appears to have united their country's defence and security establishment against them
The war drums have been beating – again – in Israel. The latest alarm was started by two usually well-briefed journalists, Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer, who wrote that an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could come in weeks, rather than months, and before the US presidential election in November. Their story contained a caveat: if the decision to attack were up to Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak alone. Because plainly, it is not.
The enthusiasm of Israel's prime minister and defence minister for an air strike on Iran appears to have united their country's defence and security establishment against them, including Israel's new minister for homeland security. The two have yet even to convince their own inner cabinet. But the report was taken so seriously that Barnea amended it on Monday by speculating that Barak, the thinly disguised source, may be trying to cover his own back, in the knowledge that such an attack will never be launched. Barak's reasoning depends only partially on Iran's alleged actions, and the latest US intelligence assessment that Tehran now possesses 170 kilograms of medium-enriched uranium, from which it is relatively easy to produce bomb-grade material. Barak is worried that so many centrifuges are being hidden underground that they will soon be out of Israel's military reach. After that point, Israel will have to rely on a US president it suspects will never order an attack .
Barak's case for an airstrike now is peppered with inconsistencies – not least the calculation that if Israel attacked, Iran would be rational enough not to retaliate against US military targets in the Gulf and hence the regional war everyone feared would not materialise. This confidence is not shared by his military chiefs. But to take Barak's war-gaming at face value, if Iran were rational enough to contain its response, it would prove that deterrence works for a state Netanyahu continues to describe as an irrational actor motivated by messianism. If Barak is right, the deterrence of mutually assured destruction would work all the more if Iran acquired a bomb, particularly as Israel has several hundred of them.
Loud talk of an impending airstrike could be no more than an attempt to twist Washington's arm. If it is, nothing should stiffen Barack Obama's resolve to prevent it happening more than the thought that Netanyahu is not just playing politics in his own country but in America too. Netanyahu foolishly dares Obama not to cast his veto, because if he did, Mitt Romney his Republican challenger would make hay with the idea that the Democat in the White House endangers Israel's security. This lever will no longer work after the election, hence the November deadline. Even as bluff it is dangerous, and eminently combustible in a tinder-dry Middle East.

Is Israel becoming a pariah? Can we make it change course?

Follow the thread.  Write something to someone to stop Netanyahu from turning Israel into a pariah.

While you're at it, tell Iran to allow inspection of all nuclear sites. Tell Iran we want to welcome it back into the Family of Nations.

And tell the Horrible Saudis to stop meddling in Syria.

Durell

The New York Times depicts Netanyahu as a miserable blackmailer, using our elections to force a result he wants that most Americans (and most Israelis, too) don’t want. 

I don’t want Israel to turn into a rogue dictatorship, bad as the Nazis.  I’d love for somebody to prove me wrong. Write something to somebody to stop him.  Try Paul Ran.  Perhaps he has influence over Netanyahu.

On Aug 13, 2012, at 4:29 PM, rikisensee wrote:

nyt's editorial-- hope this can help! August 13, 2012 Israel and Iran Israeli leaders are again talking about possible military action against Iran. This is, at best, mischievous and, at worst, irresponsible, especially when diplomacy has time to run. Iran’s nuclear ambitions are clearly dangerous to the region. Iranian leaders operated a nuclear program in secret for two decades and continued to invest in it even after its discovery in 2002. The government is outspoken in its hatred of Israel. It supports President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and extremist groups like Hezbollah. If Iran gets a weapon, other countries in the region may want one, too. But while Israel’s defense minster, Ehud Barak, suggested on Israel Radio Thursday that Iran had made significant progress toward acquiring weapons capability — citing what he said was a new American intelligence report — there is no proof that Iran is at the point of producing a weapon. Obama administration officials would not confirm the existence of such a report, and, in any case, continue to insist strongly that Iran is not on the verge of achieving a weapon. It is impossible to know what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning or why he has ignored American entreaties to give diplomacy a reasonable chance. There is, however, persistent speculation in Israel that Mr. Netanyahu wants to attack in the coming weeks in the belief that President Obama will be forced to support the decision because of his political needs in his re-election campaign. Such a move would be outrageously cynical. Military action is no quick fix. Even a sustained air campaign would likely set Iran’s nuclear program back only by a few years and would rally tremendous sympathy for Iran both at home and abroad. The current international consensus for sanctions, and the punishments, would evaporate. It would shift international outrage against Mr. Assad’s brutality in Syria to Israel. Many former Israeli intelligence and military officials have spoken out against a military attack. And polls show that many ordinary Israelis oppose unilateral action. Even so, Mr. Netanyahu’s hard-line government has never liked the idea of negotiating with Iran on the nuclear issue, and, at times, seems in a rush to end them altogether. On Sunday, the deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, told Israel Radio that the United States and the other major powers should simply “declare today that the talks have failed.” Of course, it is disappointing that the negotiations have made so little progress. No one can be sure that any mix of diplomacy and sanctions will persuade Iran to give up its ambitions. But the talks have been under way only since April, and the toughest sanctions just took effect in July. There is still time for intensified diplomacy. It will be best served if the major powers stay united and Israeli leaders temper loose talk of war.  --- On Mon, 8/13/12, Durell Douthit <ddouthit@mac.com> wrote: From: Durell Douthit <ddouthit@mac.com> Subject: Re: Netanyahu ready to bomb Iran? Yahoo news reports that Paul Ryan was voted the Chief Brown-Noser in his senior high school class:  Republicans have nominated a brown-noser and a cowardly bully at the top of their ticket.  Our guy just smoked a little pakalolo. And now Netanyahu threatens lots of killing. I don’t mind killing as I used to do:  dead folks have no egrets, feel no loss, don’t miss sunrises or loved ones; and the world has plenty of people; maybe too many; we can afford to lose a few million; we’ll replace them quickly.  I don’t like the manner of  their taking off: bodies burned, ripped limb from limb, smashed to smithereens, split all ends up; but it’s all over in a few hours or days or months or years. And that’s the human way of it. It’s the ones left behind whom I mourn.  It is not good to be left behind.   I’ll stop Israelis from making suffering remainders, at home and in Iran.  I think I can sill do it.  I’m 100% successful to date.    I could use a little help, please.  Write something to someone.  Be indignant or mournful, a suits your temperament.  Play tricks on their minds.  Enjoy the act of writing to someone to prevent the Bombs from falling. REM: This one goes out to the one I love This one goes out to the one 've left behind A simple prop to occupy my time This one goes out to the one I love Fire (she's comin' down on her own, now) Fire (she's comin' down on her own, now) Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7oQEPfe-O8&noredirect=1

 

Eddie_Sez_it__s_a_Cat_a_Lick_by_BaddogLtd

Baddog.Ltd accompanies the pic above with the words to this Iggy Pop song, thanks to capturedguy:

Lost Boys, Wayward Angels and Dead End Kids: Pikture 11

Get into the car

We'll be the passenger

We'll ride through the city tonight

We'll see the city's ripped backsides

We'll see the bright and hollow sky

We'll see the stars that shine so bright

Stars made for us tonight

And everything was made for you and me

All of it was made for you and me

So let's take a ride and see what's mine

Iggy Pop - The Passenger  Youtube:

If you don't know The Passenger, you should. Er, I didn't before this moment.  Velazquez would love it.

On Aug 12, 2012, at 6:22 PM, rikisensee wrote: if he goes ahead, I'm afraid Obama will be drawn into war, lest Romney attack him for abandoning Israel. doesn't anyone have the temerity to confront Netanyahu? you've held them off so far-- quick, you've got to do something before it's too late to save us all-- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/world/middleeast/time-to-call-diplomatic-effort-on-iran-a-failure-israeli-official-says.html?hp

Romney's Plastic Wailing Wall

It's hard to improve on Thomas Friedman's editorial in the New York Times, below, though I do have one question for Mr. Friedman:

Why not focus some of your considerable talent for ironic wit on the misguided

. . . which makes it impossible for American politicians to take reasonable positions on Israel, in a close election, at least before November 4?

Why not come out strongly in favor of



. . . which I hope you all will join.  J Street consistently supports a rational two-sate solution, and abhors the idea of Israel's becoming an apartheid state, which it will become if the settlements in the Wes Bank are not demolished.

July 31, 2012

Why Not in Vegas?

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I’ll make this quick. I have one question and one observation about Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel. The question is this: Since the whole trip was not about learning anything but about how to satisfy the political whims of the right-wing, super pro-Bibi Netanyahu, American Jewish casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, why didn’t they just do the whole thing in Las Vegas? I mean, it was all about money anyway — how much Romney would abase himself by saying whatever the Israeli right wanted to hear and how big a jackpot of donations Adelson would shower on the Romney campaign in return. Really, Vegas would have been so much more appropriate than Jerusalem. They could have constructed a plastic Wailing Wall and saved so much on gas.

The observation is this: Much of what is wrong with the U.S.-Israel relationship today can be found in that Romney trip. In recent years, the Republican Party has decided to make Israel a wedge issue. In order to garner more Jewish (and evangelical) votes and money, the G.O.P. decided to “out-pro-Israel” the Democrats by being even more unquestioning of Israel. This arms race has pulled the Democratic Party to the right on the Middle East and has basically forced the Obama team to shut down the peace process and drop any demands that Israel freeze settlements. This, in turn, has created a culture in Washington where State Department officials, not to mention politicians, are reluctant to even state publicly what is U.S. policy — that settlements are “an obstacle to peace” — for fear of being denounced as anti-Israel.

Add on top of that, the increasing role of money in U.S. politics and the importance of single donors who can write megachecks to “super PACs” — and the fact that the main Israel lobby, Aipac, has made itself the feared arbiter of which lawmakers are “pro” and which are “anti-Israel” and, therefore, who should get donations and who should not — and you have a situation in which there are almost no brakes, no red lights, around Israel coming from America anymore. No wonder settlers now boast on op-ed pages that the game is over, they’ve won, the West Bank will remain with Israel forever — and they don’t care what absorbing all of its Palestinians will mean for Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy.

It is into this environment that Romney wandered to add more pandering and to declare how he will be so much nicer to Israel than big, bad Obama. This is a canard. On what matters to Israel’s survival — advanced weaponry and intelligence — Defense Minister Ehud Barak told CNN on Monday, “I should tell you honestly that this administration under President Obama is doing in regard to our security more than anything that I can remember in the past.”

While Romney had time for a $50,000-a-plate breakfast with American Jewish donors in Jerusalem, with Adelson at his elbow, he did not have two hours to go to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, to meet with its president, Mahmoud Abbas, or to share publicly any ideas on how he would advance the peace process. He did have time, though, to point out to his Jewish hosts that Israelis are clearly more culturally entrepreneurial than Palestinians. Israel today is an amazing beehive of innovation — thanks, in part, to an influx of Russian brainpower, massive U.S. aid and smart policies. It’s something Jews should be proud of. But had Romney gone to Ramallah he would have seen a Palestinian beehive of entrepreneurship, too, albeit small, but not bad for a people living under occupation. Palestinian business talent also built the Persian Gulf states. In short, Romney didn’t know what he was talking about.

On peace, the Palestinians’ diplomacy has been a fractured mess, and I still don’t know if they can be a partner for a secure two-state deal with even the most liberal Israeli government. But I do know this: It is in Israel’s overwhelming interest to test, test and have the U.S. keep testing creative ideas for a two-state solution. That is what a real U.S. friend would promise to do. Otherwise, Israel could be doomed to become a kind of apartheid South Africa.

And here is what I also know: The three U.S. statesmen who have done the most to make Israel more secure and accepted in the region all told blunt truths to every Israeli or Arab leader: Jimmy Carter, who helped forge a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt; Henry Kissinger, who built the post-1973 war disengagement agreements with Syria, Israel and Egypt; and James Baker, who engineered the Madrid peace conference. All of them knew that to make progress in this region you have to get in the face of both sides. They both need the excuse at times that “the Americans made me do it,” because their own politics are too knotted to move on their own.

So how about all you U.S. politicians — Republicans and Democrats — stop feeding off this conflict for political gain. Stop using this conflict as a backdrop for campaign photo-ops and fund-raisers. Stop making things even worse by telling the most hard-line Israelis everything that they want to hear, just to grovel for Jewish votes and money, while blatantly ignoring the other side. There are real lives at stake out there. If you’re not going to do something constructive, stay away. They can make enough trouble for themselves on their own.  [Emphasis added.] 

From Wikipedia, the West Bank

has an estimated population of 2,622,544 (June 2012). More than 80 percent, about 2,000,000, are Palestinian Arabs, approximately 500,000 are Jewish Israelis living in the West Bank,[3] including about 192,000 in East Jerusalem,[5] in Israeli settlements. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.[6][7][8][9]

From Wilipedia:

Legal status [of persons living in the West Bank]

Since 1979 the United Nations Security Council,[74] the United Nations General Assembly,[14] the United States,[75] the EU,[76] the International Court of Justice,[77] and the International Committee of the Red Cross[15] refer to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel. General Assembly resolution 58/292 (17 May 2004) affirmed that the Palestinian people have the right to sovereignty over the area.[78]

The government of Israel has argued that since the area has never in modern times been an independent state, there is no legitimate claimant to the area other than the present occupier, Israel.[16] This argument however is not accepted by the international community and international lawmaking bodies, virtually all of whom regard Israel's activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an occupation that denies the fundamental principle of self-determination found in the Article One of the United Nations Charter, and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Further, UN Security Council Resolution 242 notes the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war" regardless of whether the war in which the territory was acquired was offensive or defensive. Prominent Israeli human rights organizations such as B'tselem also refer to the Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an occupation.[79] John Quigley has noted that "...a state that uses force in self-defense may not retain territory it takes while repelling an attack. If Israel had acted in self-defense, that would not justify its retention of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Under the UN Charter there can lawfully be no territorial gains from war, even by a state acting in self-defense. The response of other states to Israel's occupation shows a virtually unanimous opinion that even if Israel's action were defensive, its retention of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was not."

Palestinians living in the West Bank are not citizens of any State unless there is a Palestinian State; they have no right to vote in Israeli elections; all public procedures and facilities are separateaand unequal; if Israel males the West Bank a part of it's territory, 2,000,000 people will be stateless and without rights; or will become citizens of Israel, and the present government will fall.

Neighboring countries won't accept 2,000,000 new folks:  Syria and Egypt cannot deal with their own people; Jordan is still struggling to care for some 750,000 displaced persons from Iraq  -- there is nowhere for 2,000,00 people to go, never mind that they have homes and businesses sand graves and all he accoutrements of living in the Wes Bank.

The only solutions are

     ∼ for Israel to become monstrous, or

     ∼ for a two-state solution to be implemented.

[Of course Palestinians and Israelis could become friendly neighbors, but that, I fear, is way too radical for any Conservative to consider.]

Images of the West Bank taken from a Palestinian perspective follow.  I did not find comparable images taken from a Settler perspective.: Unforgotten keys: A walk through the West Bank – Sixteen Minutes to Palestine.  Captions to the pictures are by the blog author.

Saeed, 18, with two of his nine siblings. Saeed’s family refused to sell their home to the Israeli military and have since been facing severe consequences.

In 2005, Israeli soldiers set fire to a room in Saeed’s family’s home in which Saeed’s newborn baby brother was sleeping. In 2007, his eight-month-old brother was shot, also by Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli military deploys a flying checkpoint and closes off a street in Al-Khalil to allow settlers to tour through the West Bank city. Besides shutting down streets to Palestinian civilians, Israeli soldiers have also broken into Palestinian-owned cars to “reassure safety on the streets”.

A Palestinian family’s home enclosed by Israel’s apartheid wall.

Khalid, 24, from the Jalazone Refugee Camp wears the key to his family’s home in Beit Nabala. On May 15, he joined the masses commemorating the Nakba, demanding an end to the occupation, and calling for their Right of Return.

Young men barter in the markets of Al-Khalil. Most vendors in Al-Khalil are young men who were forced to abandon their schooling in order to support their families.

More than 16.5% of Palestinians living in the West Bank are unemployed. As a result, selling antiques, metal fragments, and used furniture has become an increasingly popular sources of income for many families. In this picture, a small shop displays small metal trinkets, mostly keys to homes from which Palestinian families were evicted.

Geography for we who need it:

From another blog:

A couple weeks ago, Babylon & Beyond reported on the controversial comparison between the plight of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and that of the Na'vi people featured in the hit movie "Avatar." 

On Friday, Palestinians in the West Bank took the analogy to heart, dressing up as the blue natives of the planet Pandora for their weekly protests against the Israeli occupation and the ongoing construction of a barrier in the town of Bilin.

DO NOT VOTE FOR ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT.

He  doesn't understand what even an old man, living in the middle of  the Pacific Ocean, can understand.

I say, once a bully always a bully, unless events have caused a change.  No such event has been described in Romney's biography.

A bully when in the presence of a superior power (such as multi-billionaire Sheldon Addison) panders.  Romney panders.

 We know from guys who were present that Romney was a high school bully.  My wholly unscientific conclusion is that he remains a pandering bully.  We don't need a pandering bully in the White House.

VOTE OBAMA.  Whatever Obama's weaknesses, he's not a pandering bully, and he is said to be an American.  In Texas, after the primary you just had, pretend you have a choice of for whom to vote.  It's bracing.