Democracy Now! has In Rare Joint Interview, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn on Iraq, Vietnam, Activism and History. Read, watch or or listen to it. There will be a Part II later in the week.
Add comment April 16th, 2007
Think Progress has a CNN interview with Sy Hersh, who elaborates on a point from his recent New Yorker article. In the administration’s zeal to counter Iran and associated Shia groups, they are covertly funneling money to Al Qaeda-linked jihadist groups in Lebanon:
This administration has made a policy change, a decision that they are going to put all of the pressure they can on the Shiites, that is the Shiite regime in Iran, the Shiite — and they are also doing everything they can to stop Hezbollah — which is Shiite, the Hezbollah organization from getting any control or any more of a political foothold in Lebanon.
So they essentially, I quote the — I saw Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, and he described it this way, as “fitna (ph),” the Arab word for “civil war.” As far as he is concerned, we are interested in recreating what is happening in Iraq in Lebanon, that is Sunni versus Shia. And in looking into that story, and I saw him in December, I found this. That we have been pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia is putting up some of this money, for covert operations in many areas of the Middle East where we think that the — we want to stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence.
They call it the “Shiite Crescent.” And a lot of this money, and I can’t tell you with absolute certainty how — exactly when and how, but this money has gotten into the hands — among other places, in Lebanon, into the hands of three — at least three jihadist groups. There are three Sunni jihadist groups whose main claim to fame inside Lebanon right now is that they are very tough. These are people connected to al Qaeda who want to take on Hezbollah. So this government, at the minimum, we may not directly be funneling money to them, but we certainly know that these groups exist.
My government, which arrests al Qaeda every place it can find them and send — some of them are n Guantanamo and other places, is sitting back while the Lebanese government we support, the government of Prime Minister Siniora, is providing arms and sustenance to three jihadist groups whose sole function, seems to me and to the people that talk to me in our government, to be there in case there is a real shoot-’em-up with Hezbollah and we really get into some sort of serious major conflict between the Sunni government and Hezbollah, which is largely Shia, who are basically — or as you know, there is a coalition headed by Hezbollah that is challenging the government right now, demonstrations, sit-ins.
1 comment February 26th, 2007
The World Health Organization reports shows that Lebanon health facilities have suffered considerable damage.
“In some areas of Lebanon, people simply cannot access a functioning health facility. Either it has been seriously damaged, or doesn’t have the water, fuel or supplies required to provide life-saving services including emergency obstetric care…,” said Dr Ala Alwan, the WHO Director-General’s Representative for Health Action in Crises….
The assessment finds that damage to buildings varies drastically from one place to another. In total, 26% of all health facilities are not functioning due to physical damage, lack of staff or lack of accessibility. A total of 12 buildings were totally destroyed and 38 severely damaged, with the most damage in Bent Jbeil, followed by Marjayoun, Nabatieh and the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Moreover, the assessment shows that serious shortages of fuel, power supply and drinking water continue. In general, only one third of health facilities have potable water, and just one in four remain linked to the general sewerage system or to a power supply. Meanwhile 31% use generators but less than one in five has enough fuel to run them.
A priority for any “reconstruction” is obviously to repair the extensive damage to the health sector. On can, of course, only dream that those responsible for the damage will be punished. After all, international law in the modern world is only for loosers.
Add comment September 11th, 2006
In a fascinating report, an Israeli study had people watch videos of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Israeli leaders. They chose Nasrallah as being more believable and authentic.
During the poll, entitled “the management of Israeli PR during the second Lebanon war,” members of six groups were asked to watch video recordings of Israeli PR in Israel and abroad, and to answer questions…. The result of his latest poll show that Israeli PR was so lacking, that in my cases the public was forced to rely on the reports of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Lebel says a good media leader relies on three points – gripping the audience, being watchable, and giving the feeling of certainty.
The participants of the poll were asked who gave the a sense of certainty regarding the continuance of the war, and who was most authentic. The results were unequivocal: The Israeli public chose Nasrallah’s speeches as giving it both.
“We reached a really crazy situation,” says Lebel. “A psychological situation which seems inconceivable: Instead of the Israeli public watching our national spokesman who tells it what is happening every day, who will minimize the chaos and who will be seen as believable, something unprecedented happened: The public perceived the enemy leader against whom we fought as having those characteristics, and waited impatiently for his speeches. Nasrallah contradicted the Israeli spokespeople more than once, many times contradicting the minister of defense – he was the first to announce the deaths of Israeli soldiers and the sad circumstances which led to them.”
I’m not sure if these results speak more to the quality of Israeli leadership or reflect an ambivalence in the public about the recent war, an ambivalence, perhaps, that wasn’t picked up by simple opinion polling on the war. In any case, in Nasrallah both Lebanese and Israelis, indeed, many Arabs, seem to perceive a true leader. Could this be the basis for future negotiations???
1 comment September 4th, 2006
Who are the fools who claim religion increases morality? If yet another example were needed that religion is associated with evil as often as any other set of beliefs, the Modern Orthodox rabbis have provided an example [Rabbis: Israel Too Worried Over Civilian Deaths ]:
America’s main organization of Modern Orthodox rabbis is calling on the Israeli military to be less concerned with avoiding civilian casualties on the opposing side when carrying out future operations.
Following a solidarity mission to Israel last week, leaders of the Rabbinical Council of America issued a statement prodding the Israeli military to review its policy of taking pains to spare the lives of innocent civilians, in light of Hezbollah’s tactic of hiding its fighters and weaponry among Lebanese civilians. Because Hezbollah “puts Israeli men and women at extraordinary risk of life and limb through unconscionably using their own civilians, hospitals, ambulances, mosques… as human shields, cannon fodder, and weapons of asymmetric warfare,” the rabbinical council said in a statement, “we believe that Judaism would neither require nor permit a Jewish soldier to sacrifice himself in order to save deliberately endangered enemy civilians.”
Don’t tell me all the beneficial effects on morality of religion. In many cases its the opium that dfeadens the moral sense. We all know about those “Islamic terrorists,” but there are plenty of Christian and Jewish killers too. Is there any evidence that religion has a net positive effect in the world? Perhaps the amount of killing would decline if we had more atheists? I can’t see any contrary evidence.
3 comments August 31st, 2006
Tom Lantos, a key member of the so-called “Democratic Party” has put a hold on US aid to Lebanon until Lebanon submits to Israel’s demands.
“The international community must use all our available means to stiffen Lebanon’s spine and to convince the government of Lebanon to have the new UNIFIL troops on the Syrian border in adequate numbers,” said Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee.
Lantos said he was putting a legislative hold on Bush’s proposal to provide $230 million in aid for Lebanon in the aftermath of the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.
As the top Democrat on the International Relations Committee, Lantos has the power to hold up legislation.
“It is very much my hope that I will be able to lift the hold when the reasons will no longer be present,” he said at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, where he met Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni after talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Unfortunately, on the Israel-Arab conflict, the Democrats are even worse than the Bush administration, which takes some doing.
Add comment August 28th, 2006
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