Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Friday, Feb. 4 NYC Rally and March for the Egyptian People
Egyptian Solidarity March
Friday, February 4, 2011
TIMES SQUARE, NYC ~ 3:30 pm
42nd St. & 7th Ave.
MARCH ~ 5:30 pm to:
Egyptian Mission to the UN
44th St. & 2nd Ave.
In Egypt this is called the
DAY OF DEPARTURE
On Friday, February 4: Come March in Solidarity with millions of Egyptian People in their struggle for democracy and human rights as they demand the immediate DEPARTURE of the repressive U.S. backed Mubarak regime.
DAY OF:
-------
For more information, please contact info@al-awdany.org or call 718-228-8636.
Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition - NY
http://www.al-awdany.org
Support our work! Visit http://www.al-awdany.org/supportawdany.html to make a donation.
Egypt and Democracy?...Nah! says Israel
Egyptian Revolution, Israeli Exceptionalism
Wednesday, 02 February 2011 13:35 Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
When listening to Israeli responses to the uprising of the Egyptian people, the most striking aspect is the huge chasm existing between these responses and those of the remainder of the world. It appears that Israel exists on a totally different planet.
peresmerkel
Whether honestly or hypocritically, there is no leader in the world who didn’t express support for the demands of the Egyptian masses, and criticism (whether gently or harshly) of President Mubarak’s functioning over the past three decades. Not only President Obama, but also the spokespeople of the neo-liberal republicans were forced to express doubts about their Egyptian ally and suggest that he leave and encourage implementation of political and social reforms. The entire world understands, or at least declares, that Mubarak is responsible for the justified rage of his people and that he must go home or, like his Tunisian colleague, to go into exile. Only in Israel are the reactions different, the exact opposite, both on the street and within the establishment.
Concern and fear characterize the reaction of the Israeli street. Israelis suddenly remember that there exists a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, and that this agreement is a “strategic asset”, that President Mubarak was an important ally, and that the Israeli-Egyptian “cold peace” saved millions of dollars for Israel’s Ministry of Defence. Moreover: if an average Israeli citizen can still somehow give credit (limited) to Arab leaders, primarily if they wear suits, ties and speak good English, the Arab masses frighten him. In his racist eyes the Arab masses are forever impassioned, “incited” and overflowing with hatred for everything considered cultured (Western) and of course, these masses are anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish. The Arab masses pose a strategic threat which can therefore inspire only fear, not empathy.
And concerning the Israeli establishment, with its numerous intelligence institutes, it completely forgot that in the Arab world there is something called “the street” which is capable of speaking, shouting, mobilizing and even overthrowing regimes. It is not surprising, therefore, that it is frantically looking for “who is behind the demonstrations” – the Muslim Brotherhood, Bin Laden, Iran… The former head of the General Security Services, Avi Dichter, even explained to us on television that the surprise of the Israeli intelligence authorities should not worry us…because they don’t possess the tools to predict popular uprisings (he even unashamedly reminded us that he and his friends did not predict either the First or Second Intifadas) or regime changes. The admission of the former GSS head is certainly encouraging, but if so why should they be paid salaries, and would it not be preferable to move the huge budgets of the intelligence divisions to the education and public housing sectors?
Apart from its intelligence failure, the response of the Israeli establishment is characterized by an expression of deep sorrow for the fall of the Egyptian dictator, and even anger that he did not take the steps necessary to immediately supress the demonstrations. The former minister Ben Eliezer does not understand why his friend Mubarak did not order the shooting of demonstrations (apparently over 300 dead are not enough for the former military governor); Benjamin Netanyahu is angry at Obama – whom he has long considered a wimpy president who abandoned defence of the free world and flirts with Islam – who immediately cut off from his Egyptian ally and did not extend the assistance necessary to preserve his regime; and Ehud Barak keeps quiet as, again, he doesn’t at all understand what happened, as opposed to President Shimon Peres who knows precisely what didn’t work and what must be done. In Peres’ meeting with the German chancellor this week Merkel spoke, like all her European colleagues, of the need for reform, while Nobel Peace Prize winner Peres said that “the world must learn from what happened in Gaza. Democracy begins with elections – but does not end with elections. Democracy is civilization and if the wrong side is elected it brings democracy to an end…the world saw very well what happened in Gaza when there was pressure for democratic elections and a radical and dangerous movement was elected, which has not permitted even one day of democracy for the Gaza residents.”
The world according to Israeli President Shimon Peres: there is a cultured world, of which Israel is a part, which is worthy of a democratic regime and elections, and there is a failed and ignorant world which must not be allowed to determine its own fate, and which requires dictatorship to stop it from doing nonsense. Fact: the cultured Israeli people democratically elected Liberman and his friends – truly cultured intellectuals. We hope that the Egyptian parliament elected in democratic elections will bring to the Egyptian people more worthy representatives. It is certain that the Egyptians will not find officials more pathetic than those in Israel.
Translated to English by the Alternative Information Center (AIC).
Wednesday, 02 February 2011 13:35 Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
When listening to Israeli responses to the uprising of the Egyptian people, the most striking aspect is the huge chasm existing between these responses and those of the remainder of the world. It appears that Israel exists on a totally different planet.
peresmerkel
Whether honestly or hypocritically, there is no leader in the world who didn’t express support for the demands of the Egyptian masses, and criticism (whether gently or harshly) of President Mubarak’s functioning over the past three decades. Not only President Obama, but also the spokespeople of the neo-liberal republicans were forced to express doubts about their Egyptian ally and suggest that he leave and encourage implementation of political and social reforms. The entire world understands, or at least declares, that Mubarak is responsible for the justified rage of his people and that he must go home or, like his Tunisian colleague, to go into exile. Only in Israel are the reactions different, the exact opposite, both on the street and within the establishment.
Concern and fear characterize the reaction of the Israeli street. Israelis suddenly remember that there exists a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, and that this agreement is a “strategic asset”, that President Mubarak was an important ally, and that the Israeli-Egyptian “cold peace” saved millions of dollars for Israel’s Ministry of Defence. Moreover: if an average Israeli citizen can still somehow give credit (limited) to Arab leaders, primarily if they wear suits, ties and speak good English, the Arab masses frighten him. In his racist eyes the Arab masses are forever impassioned, “incited” and overflowing with hatred for everything considered cultured (Western) and of course, these masses are anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish. The Arab masses pose a strategic threat which can therefore inspire only fear, not empathy.
And concerning the Israeli establishment, with its numerous intelligence institutes, it completely forgot that in the Arab world there is something called “the street” which is capable of speaking, shouting, mobilizing and even overthrowing regimes. It is not surprising, therefore, that it is frantically looking for “who is behind the demonstrations” – the Muslim Brotherhood, Bin Laden, Iran… The former head of the General Security Services, Avi Dichter, even explained to us on television that the surprise of the Israeli intelligence authorities should not worry us…because they don’t possess the tools to predict popular uprisings (he even unashamedly reminded us that he and his friends did not predict either the First or Second Intifadas) or regime changes. The admission of the former GSS head is certainly encouraging, but if so why should they be paid salaries, and would it not be preferable to move the huge budgets of the intelligence divisions to the education and public housing sectors?
Apart from its intelligence failure, the response of the Israeli establishment is characterized by an expression of deep sorrow for the fall of the Egyptian dictator, and even anger that he did not take the steps necessary to immediately supress the demonstrations. The former minister Ben Eliezer does not understand why his friend Mubarak did not order the shooting of demonstrations (apparently over 300 dead are not enough for the former military governor); Benjamin Netanyahu is angry at Obama – whom he has long considered a wimpy president who abandoned defence of the free world and flirts with Islam – who immediately cut off from his Egyptian ally and did not extend the assistance necessary to preserve his regime; and Ehud Barak keeps quiet as, again, he doesn’t at all understand what happened, as opposed to President Shimon Peres who knows precisely what didn’t work and what must be done. In Peres’ meeting with the German chancellor this week Merkel spoke, like all her European colleagues, of the need for reform, while Nobel Peace Prize winner Peres said that “the world must learn from what happened in Gaza. Democracy begins with elections – but does not end with elections. Democracy is civilization and if the wrong side is elected it brings democracy to an end…the world saw very well what happened in Gaza when there was pressure for democratic elections and a radical and dangerous movement was elected, which has not permitted even one day of democracy for the Gaza residents.”
The world according to Israeli President Shimon Peres: there is a cultured world, of which Israel is a part, which is worthy of a democratic regime and elections, and there is a failed and ignorant world which must not be allowed to determine its own fate, and which requires dictatorship to stop it from doing nonsense. Fact: the cultured Israeli people democratically elected Liberman and his friends – truly cultured intellectuals. We hope that the Egyptian parliament elected in democratic elections will bring to the Egyptian people more worthy representatives. It is certain that the Egyptians will not find officials more pathetic than those in Israel.
Translated to English by the Alternative Information Center (AIC).
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
A Response to Bernard Henri-Levi's Dishonest Smear of BDS
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-barghouti/why-is-bds-a-moral-duty-t_b_816990.html
Why Is BDS a Moral Duty Today?
A Response to Bernard-Henri Levy
Omar Barghouti
Founding member, BDS movement
Huffington Post: February 1, 2011
In his angry attack on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, Mr. Bernard-Henri Levy desperately attempts to smear the movement by presenting a number of patently false, regurgitated, and misleading premises and reaching, as a result, unwarranted, even illogical, conclusions. What Mr. Levy peculiarly tries to hide or obscure are the real objectives of the movement, who stands behind it, and the reasons behind its spectacular rate of growth lately, especially in France and other Western countries.
The fact is the BDS Call was launched by a great majority in Palestinian civil society on July 9, 2005, as a qualitatively new phase in the global struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice, and self-determination. More than 170 leading Palestinian political parties, trade union federations, women's unions, refugee rights groups, NGOs, and grassroots organizations called for a boycott against Israel until it fully complies with its obligations under international law. Rooted in a century-old history of civil, nonviolent resistance against settler colonialism, occupation and ethnic cleansing, the effort recalls how people of conscience in the international community have "historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa," calling upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to "impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era."
Since 2008, the BDS movement has been led by the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations inside historic Palestine and in exile, the BDS National Committee (BNC). Anchored in deep respect for international law and universal human rights, the movement has spread across the world, empowering and mobilizing creative energies and emphasizing sensitivity to the particularities of each context. BDS activists anywhere select their own targets and set the tactics that best suit their political and cultural environment. The fact that BDS categorically rejects racism of all sorts, including anti-Semitism, has further increased its appeal among liberal and progressive movements everywhere.
While several leading BDS activists openly endorse the unitary state solution, most of the members of the coalition leading the movement still subscribe to the two-state solution. This is, however, an irrelevant issue, as the BDS movement, being strictly rights-based, has consistently avoided taking any position regarding the one-state/two-states debate, emphasizing instead the three basic rights that need to be realized in any political solution. Ending the Israeli occupation that started in 1967 of all Arab territories, ending Israel's system of legalized and institutionalized discrimination against its own Palestinian citizens, and recognizing the UN-sanctioned rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes of origin are the three basic principles of the movement. Everything else is secondary and tactical.
Mr. Levy completely misrepresents my position on the matter. Citing a 2003 article of mine, he outlandishly claims that I endorse a "two-Palestines" solution. Here are my exact words: "... one must not deny that the right of return of Palestinian refugees does contradict the requirements of a negotiated two-state solution. Israel simply will never accept it, making it the Achilles' heel of any negotiated two-state solution, as the record has amply shown." The point was that a negotiated two-state solution will de facto exclude the right of two-thirds of the Palestinians, the refugees, to return to their homes, as all refugees are entitled to according to international law.
For more than 27 years, I've consistently and openly advocated a secular, democratic state in the entire area of historic Palestine, where everyone enjoys equal rights, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or any identity attribute. This, to my mind, is the most ethically-consistent formula that can accommodate the inalienable Palestinian right to self determination, including the return of refugees, with the rights of all the inhabitants of the land to justice, peace, dignity and democratic rights. Regardless, even if my real position on this issue were presented by Mr. Levy, extrapolating from this alleged position of mine to implicate the entire BDS movement not only lacks intellectual honesty; it is logically equivalent to claiming that the anti-war movement in France, say, is plotting to replace the capitalist system with a socialist order based on having a communist (or one merely claimed to be a communist) among its leaders.
Like any large, democratic coalition of groups that is built on common principles but espouses and dearly respects pluralism, the BDS movement, as anyone can conclude from examining the huge record of official statements and documents issued in the last five years, does not endorse any specific political solution to this colonial conflict. The common denominator of the movement is upholding Palestinian rights in accordance with international law.
Another serious fallacy in Mr. Levy's article is his rhetorical characterization of Israel as a "democracy." South Africa was also the only "democracy" in Africa during apartheid. The U.S. was a "democracy," as well, when in the South millions of African-Americans were thoroughly segregated and racially oppressed. An ethnocentric state, like Israel, that discriminates by law against people who are not Jewish and that occupies, forcibly displaces, colonizes and commits what leading international law experts and human rights organizations describe as war crimes, cannot remotely be called a democracy. If France were to adopt laws discriminating against its Jewish citizens and favoring its Catholic citizens, would we call it a democracy?
Former South African government minister Ronnie Kasrils and British author Victoria Brittain addressed this point quite well. They wrote:
The desire for an ethnic-religious majority of Israeli Jews has seeped across from the occupied territories to permeate the Israeli 'national' agenda... The Palestinian minority in Israel has for decades been denied basic equality in health, education, housing and land possession, solely because it is not Jewish. The fact that this minority is allowed to vote hardly redresses the rampant injustice in all other basic human rights. They are excluded from the very definition of the "Jewish state", and have virtually no influence on the laws, or political, social and economic policies. Hence their similarity to the black South Africans.
Furthermore, at a time when a wave of popular uprisings is sweeping the Arab region, demanding freedoms, social justice and democracy, it is quite telling, if largely expected, to see Israel -- and the US government -- in such a panic and uproar, standing on the wrong side of history, with despots and authoritarian regimes against the people. Unnerved by the storm of criticism, albeit polite, of the Egyptian dictatorship by its hitherto European allies and even some in the US administration, Israel has launched a diplomatic campaign to convince key capitals to support Hosni Mubarak lest stability is lost and Israel's other despotic friends in the region feel abandoned.
In Tunisia, as well, the vaunted electronic surveillance apparatus of the former dictator Ben-Ali was run in close cooperation with Israel, as Tunisian civil society organizations systematically reported. With more of Israel's friends in the region being dethroned, it is becoming abundantly clear how much Israel and its Western partners have invested in safeguarding and buttressing the unelected, autocratic regimes in the Arab world, partially to make a self-fulfilling prophecy of Israel as the "villa in the midst of the jungle" -- the myth often repeated by Israel's lobby groups.
The fact that Israel was for decades apartheid South Africa's best friend, helping it to develop nuclear weapons, to crush popular resistance by the black majority, and to dodge the widespread boycott against it has not helped Israel's case in projecting a deceptive brand of democracy and enlightenment either.
Finally, regarding the patently misleading and unfounded claim that a boycott of Israeli products is tantamount to boycotting "Jewish merchandise," one can only ask whether a boycott of Sudan, or Saudi Arabia, for that matter, would be considered Islamophobic? Was the boycott against South Africa anti-Christian? Why the double standard when it comes to Israel? The BDS movement against Israel could not care less whether it is a Jewish, Muslim, Catholic or Hindu state; all that matters is that it is a colonial oppressor that persistently denies the Palestinian people their basic rights. Is this too difficult to understand? A boycott of Israel today is a moral duty for all those who care about the rule of law and universal rights for all humans, equally.
Omar Barghouti is a founding member of the BDS movement and author of " Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights," (Haymarket, 2011).
Why Is BDS a Moral Duty Today?
A Response to Bernard-Henri Levy
Omar Barghouti
Founding member, BDS movement
Huffington Post: February 1, 2011
In his angry attack on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, Mr. Bernard-Henri Levy desperately attempts to smear the movement by presenting a number of patently false, regurgitated, and misleading premises and reaching, as a result, unwarranted, even illogical, conclusions. What Mr. Levy peculiarly tries to hide or obscure are the real objectives of the movement, who stands behind it, and the reasons behind its spectacular rate of growth lately, especially in France and other Western countries.
The fact is the BDS Call was launched by a great majority in Palestinian civil society on July 9, 2005, as a qualitatively new phase in the global struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice, and self-determination. More than 170 leading Palestinian political parties, trade union federations, women's unions, refugee rights groups, NGOs, and grassroots organizations called for a boycott against Israel until it fully complies with its obligations under international law. Rooted in a century-old history of civil, nonviolent resistance against settler colonialism, occupation and ethnic cleansing, the effort recalls how people of conscience in the international community have "historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa," calling upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to "impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era."
Since 2008, the BDS movement has been led by the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations inside historic Palestine and in exile, the BDS National Committee (BNC). Anchored in deep respect for international law and universal human rights, the movement has spread across the world, empowering and mobilizing creative energies and emphasizing sensitivity to the particularities of each context. BDS activists anywhere select their own targets and set the tactics that best suit their political and cultural environment. The fact that BDS categorically rejects racism of all sorts, including anti-Semitism, has further increased its appeal among liberal and progressive movements everywhere.
While several leading BDS activists openly endorse the unitary state solution, most of the members of the coalition leading the movement still subscribe to the two-state solution. This is, however, an irrelevant issue, as the BDS movement, being strictly rights-based, has consistently avoided taking any position regarding the one-state/two-states debate, emphasizing instead the three basic rights that need to be realized in any political solution. Ending the Israeli occupation that started in 1967 of all Arab territories, ending Israel's system of legalized and institutionalized discrimination against its own Palestinian citizens, and recognizing the UN-sanctioned rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes of origin are the three basic principles of the movement. Everything else is secondary and tactical.
Mr. Levy completely misrepresents my position on the matter. Citing a 2003 article of mine, he outlandishly claims that I endorse a "two-Palestines" solution. Here are my exact words: "... one must not deny that the right of return of Palestinian refugees does contradict the requirements of a negotiated two-state solution. Israel simply will never accept it, making it the Achilles' heel of any negotiated two-state solution, as the record has amply shown." The point was that a negotiated two-state solution will de facto exclude the right of two-thirds of the Palestinians, the refugees, to return to their homes, as all refugees are entitled to according to international law.
For more than 27 years, I've consistently and openly advocated a secular, democratic state in the entire area of historic Palestine, where everyone enjoys equal rights, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or any identity attribute. This, to my mind, is the most ethically-consistent formula that can accommodate the inalienable Palestinian right to self determination, including the return of refugees, with the rights of all the inhabitants of the land to justice, peace, dignity and democratic rights. Regardless, even if my real position on this issue were presented by Mr. Levy, extrapolating from this alleged position of mine to implicate the entire BDS movement not only lacks intellectual honesty; it is logically equivalent to claiming that the anti-war movement in France, say, is plotting to replace the capitalist system with a socialist order based on having a communist (or one merely claimed to be a communist) among its leaders.
Like any large, democratic coalition of groups that is built on common principles but espouses and dearly respects pluralism, the BDS movement, as anyone can conclude from examining the huge record of official statements and documents issued in the last five years, does not endorse any specific political solution to this colonial conflict. The common denominator of the movement is upholding Palestinian rights in accordance with international law.
Another serious fallacy in Mr. Levy's article is his rhetorical characterization of Israel as a "democracy." South Africa was also the only "democracy" in Africa during apartheid. The U.S. was a "democracy," as well, when in the South millions of African-Americans were thoroughly segregated and racially oppressed. An ethnocentric state, like Israel, that discriminates by law against people who are not Jewish and that occupies, forcibly displaces, colonizes and commits what leading international law experts and human rights organizations describe as war crimes, cannot remotely be called a democracy. If France were to adopt laws discriminating against its Jewish citizens and favoring its Catholic citizens, would we call it a democracy?
Former South African government minister Ronnie Kasrils and British author Victoria Brittain addressed this point quite well. They wrote:
The desire for an ethnic-religious majority of Israeli Jews has seeped across from the occupied territories to permeate the Israeli 'national' agenda... The Palestinian minority in Israel has for decades been denied basic equality in health, education, housing and land possession, solely because it is not Jewish. The fact that this minority is allowed to vote hardly redresses the rampant injustice in all other basic human rights. They are excluded from the very definition of the "Jewish state", and have virtually no influence on the laws, or political, social and economic policies. Hence their similarity to the black South Africans.
Furthermore, at a time when a wave of popular uprisings is sweeping the Arab region, demanding freedoms, social justice and democracy, it is quite telling, if largely expected, to see Israel -- and the US government -- in such a panic and uproar, standing on the wrong side of history, with despots and authoritarian regimes against the people. Unnerved by the storm of criticism, albeit polite, of the Egyptian dictatorship by its hitherto European allies and even some in the US administration, Israel has launched a diplomatic campaign to convince key capitals to support Hosni Mubarak lest stability is lost and Israel's other despotic friends in the region feel abandoned.
In Tunisia, as well, the vaunted electronic surveillance apparatus of the former dictator Ben-Ali was run in close cooperation with Israel, as Tunisian civil society organizations systematically reported. With more of Israel's friends in the region being dethroned, it is becoming abundantly clear how much Israel and its Western partners have invested in safeguarding and buttressing the unelected, autocratic regimes in the Arab world, partially to make a self-fulfilling prophecy of Israel as the "villa in the midst of the jungle" -- the myth often repeated by Israel's lobby groups.
The fact that Israel was for decades apartheid South Africa's best friend, helping it to develop nuclear weapons, to crush popular resistance by the black majority, and to dodge the widespread boycott against it has not helped Israel's case in projecting a deceptive brand of democracy and enlightenment either.
Finally, regarding the patently misleading and unfounded claim that a boycott of Israeli products is tantamount to boycotting "Jewish merchandise," one can only ask whether a boycott of Sudan, or Saudi Arabia, for that matter, would be considered Islamophobic? Was the boycott against South Africa anti-Christian? Why the double standard when it comes to Israel? The BDS movement against Israel could not care less whether it is a Jewish, Muslim, Catholic or Hindu state; all that matters is that it is a colonial oppressor that persistently denies the Palestinian people their basic rights. Is this too difficult to understand? A boycott of Israel today is a moral duty for all those who care about the rule of law and universal rights for all humans, equally.
Omar Barghouti is a founding member of the BDS movement and author of " Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights," (Haymarket, 2011).
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Jan. 29 NYC Rally at the UN in support of the Egyptian people in the streets, more to come
Photos of the Jan. 29 rally below the text
A large, spirited rally was held today at the UN plaza in support of the people of Egypt who are in the streets fighting the Mubarak dictatorship. Hundreds of Arabs and Arab-Americans, Egyptians, Palestinians and other supporters participated in the 3 hour long event. I was jammed into the middle and couldn't get a vantage point, but others present agreed that it was many hundreds, perhaps a thousand and a good showing for a last minute event organized to a large degree on Facebook.
There will be another action on Monday Jan. 31 at 44th St. and 1st Avenue at the Egyptian Mission to the UN from 4-6 pm.
There was a good turnout of students including Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine activists. Many people came from Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Long Island.
Everyone should watch the live feed from Cairo on the Al Jazeera English web site. Surprisingly, the coverage on CNN International hasn't been too bad.
The rest of the media, especially the Israeli-saturated New York Times, has been clueless in trying to grasp what is happening in Tunisia and Egypt. It gives the lie to the official line of the 30 year "president" Mubarak of Egypt (and the exiled former "president"--for 23 years! of Tunisia) being the good guys who are moderate and align with the U.S. and Israel against the rest of the hostile backward Arab countries.
The repressive police states of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Jordan--all iron fisted regimes that serve US imperialism and the domestic rich against their impoverished populations, have been dubbed part of America's alliance for democracy, a bulwark against Islamism and not hostile to Israel. Indeed, the motor-mouthed, bungling idiot Joe Biden spilled the beans when he tried to say the Mubarek tyranny was democratic because it was friends with Israel. Even the on air interviewers knew he wasn't making sense.
This is the problem for Obama: he, the Bushes and Clinton all have given their all to prop up the hated, bloody dictatorships of Egypt, Tunisia, et al because they were politically and militarily subservient to the US and helped the Israeli apartheid state as it carried out its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and its attacks and bullying of neighboring countries.
The genie is out of the lamp (or how about the the lid is off of Pandora's box?...well, you the the idea)...It's plain to see that America's and Israel's allies in the region are dictatorships hated by their people.
It's an exciting thing to see truly revolutionary events take you by surprise and open up new possibilities. These rebellions have their unique characteristics: "can't take it anymore" rebellions that unleashed feelings that have been simmering beneath the calm surface for decades. There's no underground organization of professional revolutionaries who call out the people...they call themselves out.
There's a fresh, liberating feeling to see the people take their own destiny in their hands. In spite of the obstacles of the US, Israel, the remaining repressive apparatus of the old regimes, we all hope the people will win. It's enough to challenge my natural cynicism.
I'm reminded of how great it felt to see the 1968 Tet offensive of the National Liberation Front in Vietman, that proved that the US could not win there, or TV images from Nicaragua in 1979 of teenage Sandinista fighters storming the barricades and defeating the 45 year-old Somoza family dictatorship that had been installed by the US Marines.
Revolution is in the air, let's hope it's catching and be victorious.
A large, spirited rally was held today at the UN plaza in support of the people of Egypt who are in the streets fighting the Mubarak dictatorship. Hundreds of Arabs and Arab-Americans, Egyptians, Palestinians and other supporters participated in the 3 hour long event. I was jammed into the middle and couldn't get a vantage point, but others present agreed that it was many hundreds, perhaps a thousand and a good showing for a last minute event organized to a large degree on Facebook.
There will be another action on Monday Jan. 31 at 44th St. and 1st Avenue at the Egyptian Mission to the UN from 4-6 pm.
There was a good turnout of students including Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine activists. Many people came from Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Long Island.
Everyone should watch the live feed from Cairo on the Al Jazeera English web site. Surprisingly, the coverage on CNN International hasn't been too bad.
The rest of the media, especially the Israeli-saturated New York Times, has been clueless in trying to grasp what is happening in Tunisia and Egypt. It gives the lie to the official line of the 30 year "president" Mubarak of Egypt (and the exiled former "president"--for 23 years! of Tunisia) being the good guys who are moderate and align with the U.S. and Israel against the rest of the hostile backward Arab countries.
The repressive police states of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Jordan--all iron fisted regimes that serve US imperialism and the domestic rich against their impoverished populations, have been dubbed part of America's alliance for democracy, a bulwark against Islamism and not hostile to Israel. Indeed, the motor-mouthed, bungling idiot Joe Biden spilled the beans when he tried to say the Mubarek tyranny was democratic because it was friends with Israel. Even the on air interviewers knew he wasn't making sense.
This is the problem for Obama: he, the Bushes and Clinton all have given their all to prop up the hated, bloody dictatorships of Egypt, Tunisia, et al because they were politically and militarily subservient to the US and helped the Israeli apartheid state as it carried out its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and its attacks and bullying of neighboring countries.
The genie is out of the lamp (or how about the the lid is off of Pandora's box?...well, you the the idea)...It's plain to see that America's and Israel's allies in the region are dictatorships hated by their people.
It's an exciting thing to see truly revolutionary events take you by surprise and open up new possibilities. These rebellions have their unique characteristics: "can't take it anymore" rebellions that unleashed feelings that have been simmering beneath the calm surface for decades. There's no underground organization of professional revolutionaries who call out the people...they call themselves out.
There's a fresh, liberating feeling to see the people take their own destiny in their hands. In spite of the obstacles of the US, Israel, the remaining repressive apparatus of the old regimes, we all hope the people will win. It's enough to challenge my natural cynicism.
I'm reminded of how great it felt to see the 1968 Tet offensive of the National Liberation Front in Vietman, that proved that the US could not win there, or TV images from Nicaragua in 1979 of teenage Sandinista fighters storming the barricades and defeating the 45 year-old Somoza family dictatorship that had been installed by the US Marines.
Revolution is in the air, let's hope it's catching and be victorious.
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