Obama Mideast Watch: Hopes in George Mitchell

When is Time's Cairo correspondant going to write a blog about Cairo ?????

OK Obama might be a change in cetain areas,but take one look at his little speech at the state department on the ME and how 90% of what he said was essentially an indictment against HAMAS and a clear and unambiguous sucking up to Israel.Am saying it doesn't take a politician to know that he is an extention no a change.The Mideast is not tricky nor is it complicated.It only proved to be so because no administration is truely committed to finding a solution.Until they close their eyes literally in letting the chips fall where they may, this charade will continue.How can any "honest broker" begin by pronouncing and reiterating unflailing support for one side, and expect to be taken seriously.If you listen to him, you would have thought, if you didnt see him sworn in a couple days prior, that he was an AIPAC spokesperson.He perfected their mantra demands and preconditions word for word.Honestly he should not even bother.It is going to be another failed process.Futile exercise.If the United States cannot look Israel in the eye and speak the truth it might as well stop pretending.Some of her "moderate cohorts "may buy it but Hamas will not.And this condemnation for hamas is not going to wash for long.They are THE PEOPLE.It is their issue, no matter what ANYBODY says.

Scott:
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It is being reported in various outlets that Fatah members are being harrased by Hamas, and that Hamas conducted executions of Fatah members during Israel's incursion into Gaza.
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The three of you have not commented on this at all, and I'm curious to hear any of your thoughts about these reports.
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Nearly all of the posts on this blog are criticisms of Israeli policy and Israel's supporters in the United States. Or, they are praises of its critics, with the occasional blurb about Islamic art exhibits thrown in.
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I'm wondering if you, Andrew, and Tim could use your intelligence and combined decades of experience to offer us something more, here. And I mean this sincerely.
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What's the state of democratic reforms in Egypt looking like these days? Why are so many Arab governments keeping quiet about Israel's incursion into Gaza? What's the feeling about Hamas from the rulers in Cairo - the city from where you write criticism of Israel and its supporters? How do people in the Arab world feel about the genocide in Darfur, and what are they doing to stop it?
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Wouldyou offer us some insight into the rifts between Hamas, Fatah, and Hezbollah, or the Sunni/Shia divide, like Jeffrey Goldberg did last week in his fine piece about Hamas in the New York Times?
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And, if you are not willing or are unable to offer insightful, subjective commentary on these matters, such as you do about Israeli policy and the US-Israel relationship, would you kindly tell us why?
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I await an honest, straightforward response.
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Thanks.

[...]  Obama Mideast Watch: Hopes in George Mitchell [...]

There is no considerable rift between any of these groups when it comes to Israel.It might look to the outsiders ,especially the west and Israel that there might be hope of squeezing in to sow seeds of discord. The only plausible thing is the "moderate" despots.It looks like they are in new waters here.Testing ..It will not take them long to shift back to the status quo.I know I would if I were in their position.Why incur the wrath of the whole Islamic world for unrealistic and unlikely concessions from non other than the USA and Israel.

Thanks, Scott. I really appreciate your feedback.

Have a great weekend.

Please Scott, stop the lies. You have never written a blog about the Sudanese refugees who were shot in the back by Egyptian border guards 100 meters from Israel's borders. You never write about the Christians living in Cairo's "City of Garbage" and "if" you have written about Balfor it was probably years ago.

I would just like to add that if anyone should be looking in Time's archives it's you. There you would find that in Black September Jordan killed between 6 and 20 thousand Palestians (depending on who you believe) in 20 days of fighting. You would find that Roman Catholic Arabs killed 3,000 Palestinians in 3 days at Sabra and Shatilla and that not one of them was ever prosecuted. You would find that Syria killed 5,000 Arabs in Hama in a relentless bombing campaign. Finally, as an American, you should know that the number of civilians killed in Vietnam is estimated at over one million. If you look in the Time's archive you will also see that Captain Medina, the commander at Mei Lai massacre, was acquited of 1st degree murder. It seems that, while many people saw him firing his rifle, no one could swear that he actually hit someone. He was never brought up on charges for commanding the troops or attempted murder. It's all in the archives Scott, if you would only take a look....... (By the way: do you know how difficult it is to miss a target at 30 meters with an M16 rifle ? Almost impossible...).

I emailed Irish Nobel peace Prize Laurette, Mairead Maguire for her take on Sen. George Mitchell. She wrote:

.........Senator Mitchell is a good man whom I admire as he helped in the peace process in Northern Ireland.

I remember he travelled well over 100 times from USA to Northern Ireland to help bring the various parties together and was very helpful...

I am glad he has been appointed and know he will bring great compassion, fairness and perseverance to his enormous challenge. Yes, like him I believe every conflict can be solved, where there is political will. The conflict of the Israeli state and Palestinian state (yes I said Palestinian state as even if Israel does not recognize it the world does) can be solved by Israel ending its occupation and apartheid system and this is a problem of political will of Israel and USA to bring freedom and justice to the people of Palestine. I hope the appointment of Senator Mitchell is a sign that the USA Administration is Prepared to treat both parties fairly and equally, and to work for Palestinians Human rights and Freedom....Peace Eileen, Mairead.........

I met Mairead last November in Jerusalem during SABEEL's [Arabic for THE WAY] 7th International Conference THE NAKBA: MEMORY, REALITY AND BEYOND and published her Key Note Speech WAWA Blog November 26, 2008:

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1112&Itemid=212

Eileen Fleming – why do you continue with your incitement? There is no apartheid in Israel. There is only self-defence. Can't you see the difference between Israel and South Africa?
When Palestinians are firing missiles into Israel and becoming into live bombs to kill Israeli civilians how do you suggest we will stop it?
I don't remember that black South Africans threatened to wipe white South African out of the map. Do you?

Did you know that today Saturday 24.1 Hamas broke the cease-fire and fired one mortar shell and throw hand grenade on the border area between Israel and Gaza?

No, probably you didn't know since nobody told you about it exactly as nobody told you for the last 8 years that Hamas fired rockets into southern Israel and you was surprised that Israel launched this last war on Gaza.

So please don't be surprised if you will see a new Israeli attack on Gaza

Some people just choose to bury their heads in the sand while their derrieres are showing.It is rediculous.Why is no one addressing the fact behind the rockets.You expect Gaza and Hamas to accept what the foreign occupation has done up to this point?.And their response should only be what The US and the occupier approve of? ..pppleasssee...Enough with that BS already. Hamas would be foolish to even consider giving up their positions and tunnels and the quest for rearming themselves.It is the only hope they have,for both survival and self-defense against the arbitrary Israeli terrorist state.

Hopes in Mitchell or Holbrooke for that matter depends on how much authority they have from Obama, Mitchell have to be able to negotiate with anyone and particularly Hamas since they're one of the primary player in Palestinian affairs and can not be ignored like past failed Israelis policies, same goes for Holbrooke, he must be able to bring Kashmir conflict in to overall peace process in his Stan's domain, since primary conflict in that area start it with and expanded to Afghanistan by way of Kashmir.
If Obama really want comprehensive peace process in all of Middle-East, he will have to put as much pressure on Israel and India and China rather than pressure on their adversaries only, after all introduction of nuclear weapons in Middle-East started with wars for Kashmir and Palestine lands, you solve these two and theoretically there are no more need for nuclear weapons in that part of world and they can be dismantled as was the case right after demise of apartheid South Africa or former USSR colonies, bottom line is, Obama have to break from past US policies and deal with root causes of nukes and wars in Middle-East and not with their symptoms exclusively!

“Michshol Hafrada” is what the Hebrew Press call "The Separation Wall" and that translates to "Apartheid Wall" in Afrikaner...

The Apartheid Wall has divided Palestinians from Palestinians and has stolen their aquifers, denies them access to their land, jobs, families and holy sites and consumes over $1.25 Million USA Tax dollars every day- a 2006 estimate!

...Looking at a map of the so called Holy Land today it is clear to see that Palestine has been divided into enclaves; Bantustans!...

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out

And to whom I was likely to give offence.

Something there is that does not love a wall,

That wants it down.-Robert Frost

Over a quarter of a million Jewish colonists live in East Jerusalem-and according to international law-all the settlements are illegal as is the Apartheid Wall........

Jewish only colonies have been implanted to divide the indigenous Palestinian neighborhoods throughout occupied territory.

Over 100,000 indigenous Palestinians are trapped by the Apartheid Wall and are tortured at over 600 checkpoints that deny them access to their land, jobs, families and holy sites...

Evictions and home demolitions have become the status quo in the so called Holy Land, for since 1967, over 18,000 dwellings -averaging eleven people per unit- have been bulldozed by Israeli forces because they interfere with settlement expansion...

Israel attempts to justify their immoral actions with three distinct categories:

1. Collective Punishment-homes of suspected terrorists-in reality that is anyone who opposes the occupation- and the families of suicide/homicide bombers. These punitive actions amount to 15% of the over 18,000 homes destroyed since 1967.......

2. Administrative demolitions for lack of building permits- which Israel refuses to issue-account for 25%. In occupied east Jerusalem one out of four Palestinian homes have a demolition order.......

3. “Security” reasons-the blanket response to all of Israel's injustices and illegal actions.

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http://www.wearewideawake.org/

Where's the Love+Peace+VOICE of the Artists Against Apartheid?

Lay down your guns
All your daughters of Zion
All your Abraham sons
I don't know if I can make it
I'm not easy on my knees
Here's my heart and GAZA broke it
We need some release, release, release
We need
Love and peace
Love and peace

....I wonder what is Bono and the rest of the Artists Against [South African] Apartheid thinking about Gaza?

........In 1985 Bono joined forces with a group of artists concerned about Apartheid in South Africa. Inspired by his meetings with several of them, he wrote "Silver and Gold"

"Yep, silver and gold.
This song was written in a hotel room in New York City.
'Round about the time a friend or ours, little Steven,
was putting together a record of artists against apartheid.
This is a song written about a man in a shanty town outside of Johannesburg.
A man who's sick of looking down the barrel of white South Africa.
A man who is at the point where he is ready to take up arms
against his oppressor.
A man who has lost faith in the peacemakers of the west while
they argue and while they fail to support a man like bishop Tutu
and his request for economic sanctions against South Africa.
Am I buggin' you?"

..........Well, I mean to bug you!

THE REST: WAWA Blog:
January 16, 2009:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

Yeah, there's a dearth of coverage about the entire Middle East in the ME blog section. No money or reputations to be made I guess.
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For insight, you need to go elsewhere.
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The NY Times published this article on how young Egyptians are using the internet to develop political forums and protest the policies of Egypt's government:
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Here's the link:
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/magazine/25bloggers-t.html?ref=magazine
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Definately canlive. We can see what clinging to HAMAS' ideology has done for the Palestinians of Gaza.
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Even more so the benefits derived by the average Gazan from HAMAS' strategic decision to employ rocket attacks on Israeli cities over the past eight years.
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Even better, how well the tactical defense decisions of HAMAS, to use the densly populated Gazan cities as kill zones, held up when Israel decided it had enough of the rocket attacks.

This notion of Hamas using civilians is Israel's storyline.Just like their claim that, they need to interfere in Gaza because Hamas terrorizes Gazans and that they don't do anything for their advancement.Who would believe any of that.Like Israel cares about them at all.How sickening that sounds.For an occupier, who massacres indiscriminately at random,to claim the interest of the people it slaughtered since 1947 makes very good sense.Please..Give me a break.
What benefit the average Gazan derived fom the rocket attacks? is making their point loud and clear.Israel slaughers them anyway ,whether they send rockets or not.Atleast they are not selling out and cowering to EVIL,like everybody is demanding of them.

Here's a piece Sen. Mitchell should read before he sets off on his next ME trip: It's about the myths, misconceptions and misapplication of the N. Ireland Peace Process with regards to the Middle East. It's at http://tinyurl.com/5bfnj9

Another good one is Why "Symmetrical" Negotiations May not work in "Asymetrical" situations. That's at http://tinyurl.com/brdc9g