Author: Brian Beyer

Lebanon and Israel are becoming even more hostile to one another in disputes over natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean. The recent hostilities are due to maritime borders that were approved by Israel’s cabinet and sent to the United Nations for approval. This prompted a response from the Lebanese:

‘The new border as proposed by Israel cuts through Lebanon’s economic zone,’ said Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.

‘Israel’s new measures will create more tension in the region and will threaten peace and security,’ Mansour told reporters. He added that Lebanon would also refer the issue to the United Nations.

Lebanon’s president Michel Suleiman warned against any ‘unilateral decisions Israel may take on maritime borders which would be a breach of international law.’

As both countries are still technically at war and diplomatic relations have been severed, there are no legitimate channels through which Israel and Lebanon can directly resolve the dispute. While Lebanon is yet to threaten any military action, Israel has already done so. When the fields were first discovered, National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said, “We will not hesitate to use our force and strength to protect not only the rule of law but the international maritime law.” Almost speaking preemptively, Landau added, “Whatever we find, they will have something to say. That’s because they’re not challenging our findings and so-called occupation of the sea. Our very existence here is a matter of occupation for them. These areas are within the economic waters of Israel.”

As a map of the natural gas shows, the deposits are quite literally on the borders of the two countries were they extended out to sea. The catch, however, is whether or not a Lebanese or Israeli map is used. An Israeli map would extend its northern border from west of Metula out to the Mediterranean, whereas a Lebanese map would would extend the Israeli border from Rosh Hanrika out towards the Mediterranean.

The deposits are significant, estimated to be worth around $40 billion. Israel has started the ball rolling early and is already establishing infrastructure to exploit the deposits while Lebanon has barely done anything. With so much money at stake, as well as hostile relations between the two countries, there runs the risk of a flare up between Israel and Lebanon.

 

Ideally, all members of the France-based Flytilla would have been allowed entry into Israel and Palestine. Because of Israel’s policy of forbidding vocal and prominent opponents of Zionism and the Israeli state, such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finklestein, most of the Flytilla activists were denied entry into Israel. Some, however, arrived in Tel Aviv only to be flagged, held, and eventually deported:

“Over 120 passengers were denied entry and are awaiting deportation for security reasons, they will leave within the next 24-48 hours,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

…

Hundreds more pro-Palestinian activists hoping to join those that arrived in Israel were prevented from boarding flights for Tel Aviv from various European airports after Israel told airlines that certain people on passenger lists would not be allowed into the country.

As the number of Flytilla activists was rumored to be in the hundreds, it appears that the Flytilla was shot down just like the Flotilla was sunk.

The Israeli government’s policy of preventing humanitarian activists from helping the plighted Palestinian people is indicative of the fascist atmosphere permeating throughout Israel. Whether it be pledging loyalty to a “Jewish and democratic state”, forbidding Arab Israelis from living in your community, or denying vital reconstruction materials to the Palestinians, it is becoming clearer and clearer by the day that Israel is far from a democracy, and certainly not one to be looked upon as a model for the rest of the Middle East. The myth of Israel being a bastion of democracy and western values in the world’s most turbulent region is being uncovered for all to see, with much thanks to the free flow of information via the internet. There still remains a lot of debunking, eye opening, and educating to be done. Hopefully in the future, Americans will realize the truth about their supposed unwavering, democratized, western ally.

After the derailment of the commemorative Flotilla, French activists are taking to the skies in order to shed light on the suffering of Palestinians. Some members of the “Welcome to Palestine” movement are already facing difficulties in obtaining entry to the state of Israel:

In Paris, eight activists were blocked from boarding a Malev Airlines flight on Thursday.

Philippe Arnaud, one of those turned away, has led calls to boycott Israeli products in France.

He said Malev, a Hungarian airline, showed him a list provided by Israeli authorities of some 329 people being barred from Israel, which holds complete control over who can enter and exit the West Bank.

Surprisingly, Germany said that it would not bar any activists from flying who had all of the proper identification and passports. Palestinians living in Germany, however, were not that lucky:

In Europe, German federal police said as long as passengers had valid tickets and passports, they had no grounds to stop any activists at airports there.

But German authorities also said that German citizens of Palestinian descent would not be allowed into Israel. The vast majority of Palestinians are barred from using Israel’s airport.

The Israeli Minister of Public Safety decried some of these activists as “hooligans.” A hooligan is defined as “a person that causes trouble or violence.” The only trouble that these “hooligans” will be causing is the exposure of Israel’s oppressive and atrocious policies towards the Palestinians. Additionally, the only “violence” that these “hooligans” will be causing is defending themselves from Israeli police and security agents who will be watching them very closely, especially as they already have half of the participants names.

 

 

In an article on news aggregator “The Drudge Report,” a story titled “Iran Ridicules July 4th: America is Not Independent” from Israel National News spoke of

The left-wing anti-war.com site was sourced as writing that Israel “conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the U.S. of any ally,” with the quote attributed to the U.S. General Accounting Office.

As antiwar.com’s manifesto makes clear, the website was founded by libertarian-oriented folk who are, however, inclusive to all those who oppose war and American imperialism.

This quote was actually from “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy,” a paper by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.

So all misconceptions aside, a big thanks to the Drudge Report and Israel National News for a bump in site traffic.

In a must read piece for Al Jazeera, journalist Paul Rosenberg examines the transition of Obama from a figure of revolutionary hope and change to just another run-of-the-mill politician:

Things did turn out that way in exactly one case: the repeal of the military’s anti-gay “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. But in virtually every other instance, Obama’s influence has been much more reminiscent of the “practical”, if not paranoid side of Kennedy, who spent a good deal of time and energy trying to restrain the Civil Rights Movement, ever mindful of the negative impact that headlines of racial conflict would have around the world. Still, Kennedy clearly wanted progress on civil rights, both because he believed it was right, and because it was vital for gaining Cold War support in the Global South in the long run. He just wished the struggle was not so messy, even as his flamboyant spirit helped fuel that struggle, almost in spite of himself.

In 2008, at least, it could plausibly be hoped that Obama’s election would unleash a similar dynamic across a wide range of issues, encouraging idealistic pressure from below, even while struggling to contain it. But things have not turned out that way, as Obama has repeatedly undercut, sidelined or opposed the more idealistic enthusiasms of his base with a determined seriousness he rarely, if ever, displays against Republicans.

Perhaps Rosenberg’s most prescient statement was one focused on Israel:

Yet, as Bradley Burston, Senior Editor of Haaretz.com, so simply explained: “There is nearly nothing which more effectively delegitimises Israel – and makes Israel look more like an uncaring blockhead state -than does the siege of Gaza. The siege benefits Hamas in a thousand ways and Israel in none. But there is one thing that does the work of delegitimisation even better: attacking civilians in order to protect the siege.”

These should have been the words of Obama as well, if he actually were the “true friend of Israel” he now robotically proclaims himself to be. After all, we have a saying here in America, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk”. Israel has no such friends in America today. Certainly not Obama.

Not only is that last little blurb applicable to Obama, but nearly all of Congress today. Whenever foreign policy is discussed and debated, whether it be in the halls of a think tank or in the Reagan national library, the focus is almost always centered around America’s relationship with Israel. And just as often as Israel enters the conversation is there a neocon or self-proclaimed liberal who announces their unwavering support for the small, Jewish country. It is, in fact, robotic to announce support for Israel, because to do so otherwise is political suicide.

The real friends of Israel are those chastising its leaders for engaging in a modern day Holocaust against the Palestinian people. It is the real friends of Israel that are trying to steer Israel away from attacking Iran, which could result in even more regional instability and insecurity. Neither Obama, nor Bush, nor Romney, nor Pawlenty, nor any mainstream political figure is a friend of Israel. They are the exact opposite: enemies pushing for its demise.

The young and still maturing Iraqi military and intelligence agencies have “launched a military crackdown on smuggling gangs, al Qaeda militants and Shi’ite militias responsible for recent attacks U.S. forces.” June was the deadliest month in Iraq for American soldiers in the past two years, a grim precursor of things to come if America does not meet its year end withdrawal deadline. Moqtada al-Sadr is seen as quite serious in his threat to reengage his Mahdi army against American forces if a full withdrawal does not happen by the end of the year.

One of the most important goals of the military crackdown was to secure Iraq’s borders:

“We are implementing a tight security plan including all outlaw groups. Part of this plan is to control Iraq’s border perfectly,” Moussawi said.

“The entry of illegal arms to Iraq is contributing to undermining security, whether the weapons are used against U.S. or Iraqi troops, in assassination operations or armed robbery.”

…

“The goal of this operation basically is to prevent the infiltration of weapons which are used to attack U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces,” the official said.

The focus is, of course, Iran. The Persian nation has been actively smuggling weapons and bombs into Iraq. Most of this is done using Iranian special forces who deliver these weapons to Shi’a militias.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a Reuters interview last week, said Iran was “absolutely complicit” in the growing U.S. casualties in Iraq.

James Jeffrey, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Qods force special operations unit were supplying “significantly more lethal weapons systems” to some Iraqi militias.

“Of particular concern, at least to me, is the Sadrist movement. The AAH (Asaib al-Haq) and the Kata’ib Hizballah are basically nothing more than thuggish clones of their IRGC Qods force masters,” he told reporters in a briefing on Saturday.

Tensions over the Iranian nuclear (non)issue and now over Iraqi influence are coming to a boil. If aggressive behavior by both the Iranians and the Americans continue, an outright war between the two countries would not be all that surprising.

Update: I would like to apologize to readers of the blog for my error of fact and judgment. After reading some articles by Gareth Porter, I realized the magnitude of the fraudulent history of the United States government’s claims concerning Iranian arms smuggling into Iraq. As is such, I should not have put nearly as much faith in statements by Robert Gates without cold, hard proof.

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