Is it legal for us to supply arms to Libyan rebels?
contribution by Sim-O
Hilary Clinton and William Hague have expressed the view that UN Resolution 1973, the one that makes the bombing of Libya legal, rolls back the arms embargo.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are open for business!
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International concern for Libya must be regarded with scepticism
contribution by David Wearing
Now that Britain is engaged in military action over Libya, a particular responsibility falls upon us to understand what is happening there, to make sense of it as best we can, and to use the political freedoms we enjoy to place appropriate pressures on the British government where necessary.
This is not a responsibility that we can begin to discharge with any degree of seriousness if we simply assume the states engaged in this action to be agents of liberation and humanitarianism. continue reading… »
Unrest in the Middle East and our double-standards in intervention
contribution by David Malone
Events in Bahrain are getting less notice than they deserve. Bahrain is like Saudi, it far larger neighbour an absolute monarchy and one divided from many of its people not only by accumulated wealth and jealously hoarded power, but by religious conviction.
Like Saudi Bahrain has a deep Sunni/Shiite divide. For the last few weeks there have been pro-democracy protests in Bahrain. As there have been on and off for the last thirty years or more.
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Libya and its oil: reason enough not to interfere?
One thing supporters of liberal intervention in 2003 did, as part of their campaign to convince the left they were right, was try and forget that it was a US neo-con Christian with a history in oil deals taking forces into Iraq.
For them, it didn’t matter who was going to take out Saddam Hussein, just as long as somebody did; their left wing credentials, they supposed, were still intact. Unfortunately for them they were wrong. So should there be similar concerns about Libya?
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Why a western-backed No Fly Zone in Libya is likely to fail
contribution by Naadir Jeewa
That rebel forces are asking for a no-fly-zone (NFZ) to be established does not further the case for NATO to actually establish one.
They’re untrained, relatively disorganised, and are relying on the misguided belief, perpetuated by pundits and social media that an NFZ would significantly alter the balance of power. It won’t.
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If Libyan rebels want it, why aren’t we calling for a no-fly-zone too?
Why are progressives not getting solidly behind the broadening call for a no-fly-zone to give the free Libyan forces the air-cover they need in order to defeat Gaddafi’s regime?
The most crucial argument in favour is that the free Libyans, at least as manifested in the Transitional National Council in Benghazi (the fledgling caretaker-government-in-waiting), have themselves called for.
I have just been talking with a Libyan friend of mine who is fresh back from Benghazi. He tells me that the people of eastern Libya are strongly united on two points:
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Is the second Gaza Flotilla really worth all the money being raised?
contribution by Danny Williams
As the anniversary of last year’s Freedom Flotilla debacle quickly nears, flotilla promoters have announced that a second flotilla will attempt to break Israel’s siege of Gaza this May.
Organizers are hoping to send at least 20 ships toward the Gaza coast. But isn’t it time to question the logic of throwing more money into this PR abyss – the organizers themselves concede this is about raising awareness and not humanitarian aid – when Gaza cries out for medicine and food?
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There’s a reason why we keep selling weapons to dictators…
“That’s not an excuse, as some would argue, to claim that Arabs or Muslims can’t do democracy – the so-called Arab exception… For me, that’s a prejudice that borders on racism. It’s offensive and wrong and it’s simply not true,” said David Cameron yesterday, in answer to a question that nobody asked.
There’s been plenty of fun at Cameron’s expense, as yer internet critters gleefully pointed to Britain’s record of flogging weapons of mayhem and destruction to numerous enemies of the people, and why not do so?
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Israel’s friends reach out to the liberal-left
Over the last year, Tel Aviv-based think tank The Reut Institute has offered a lot of advice to supporters of Israel in the West on how to respond to “the erosion in Israel’s diplomatic status” (aka ‘delegitimization‘), including a focus “on engaging the hearts and minds of liberal progressive elites”.
A recent report looked specifically at London, saying “liberal and progressive left” voices are the ones “most effective” in shielding Israel. Reut urged Israel’s defenders to “substantively engage liberal and progressive circles” by “responding to their concerns and building personal relationships”.
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Cameron is in the Middle East to promote the arms trade, not democracy
contribution by Sohail Jannesari
David Cameron’s decision to fly to Egypt for talks with leading government and opposition figures is not, as he states, to ensure “a genuine transition from military rule to civilian rule”. It is to safeguard the geo-political balance which was present under Hosni Mubarak.
It is no surprise that Cameron is reportedly accompanied by personnel from no less than eight different defence firms.
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The Middle East protests expose Blair’s hollow doctrine
Imagine if you had a quid each time you hear the dwindling band of blind supporters of the Iraq war reciting that sorry little line as the best justification for Britain’s biggest foreign policy atrocity of the last forty years.
“At least we removed a sanguinary dictator” is a sentence that oozes hypocrisy from each and every pore, a phrase rendered even more vomitous and hollow when you look at the hateful game of “this dictator good, that dictator bad” that Tony Blair played so well during his reign.
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How will Israel and Saudi Arabia respond to Egypt’s revolution?
contribution by Matt Hill
On Friday, the UK followed the lead of Mubarak’s former ally the US, in withdrawing its support only when it became clear it was backing the wrong camel. Leaders and opinion-makers in Israel were even less enthusiastic about the protests: freedom and democracy are all well and good, they seemed to say, so long as they don’t expect to move in next door.
Israelis fear that a new, populist Egyptian government will threaten the two countries’ 1978 peace agreement, the soundest plank in Israel’s fragile neighbourly relations. That is not an ureasonable concern: four wars since 1948 exacted a terrible price on both sides, and thanks to $25 billion of US military aid, Egypt boasts a powerful army.
Its next rulers are unlikely to risk provoking the superpower to the east into full-scale conflict. But free elections would surely produce a government less cordial to Israel’s interests than Mubarak’s, whose collusion in the blockade of Gaza most Egyptians reviled.
If Israel concludes that its long-term security is best assured by nurturing its ‘cold peace’ with Arab regimes who pay lip service to Palestinian rights while suppressing dissent, it will have learnt precisely the wrong lesson from the ‘Arab spring’.
That’s why the revival of the peace process is more urgent than ever in the wake of Mubarak’s departure. Israel has never had a more willing partner on the Palestinian side, as leaked documents detailing peace negotiations show.
When Menachem Begin and Anwar El Sadat signed the Camp David Accords in 1978, leading to peace between the two nations, Israel promised withdrawal from the occupied territories and full independence for the Palestinians within five years. 33 years and many failed negotiations later, numbers of Israeli settlers in the West Bank have swelled from 10,000 to over 300,000. But the scale of the challenge makes it no less crucial.
80 million Egyptians have just roared onto the world stage, and the Middle East will never be the same. It’s about time Israel started making some real friends.
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contribution by Ranjit Sidhu
Wikileaks confirmed what was an open secret: individuals from Saudi Arabia are responsible for the majority of funding for the Sunni terrorist organisations in the region, including Al Qaeda.
However, there was an insight into the Saudi government’s approach when it is alleged on the 29th of January that the Saudi King Abdullah told President Obama that they would bankroll Mubarak’s Egypt if the US withdrew its aid program despite the public uprising.
What must be recognised is that the Saudi Arabian government is fanatical in spreading it’s branch of Islam at the expense of all others; Wahhabism, which is considered extremist by most Sunni and Shia muslims.
It is not afraid to throw money to those governments who follow its lead donating, $49 billion by 2006. We can be sure that when the financial problems appear in Egypt, Saudi Arabia will be there ready to use its cheque book to spread it brand of religious extremism.
Unfortunately, it would be highly unlikely that the democratic movement in the middle east could effect the totalitarianism of the Saudi government itself (we can hope!). That we have been supportive of such a regime is a shame that we in the west have to carry and history will judge us on.
But, we are duty bound to try to prevent this most corrosive of countries interfering with the likes of Tunisia and Egypt.
Like the oil that has made us kowtow to this monarchy, it will try to seep its influence through any cracks appearing in these fledgling democracies- we need to stand guard to mop it up before it poisons the burgeoning flower democracy that is arising in the middle east.
Our cultural prejudices have held back democracy in the Middle East
contribution by George W Potter
It’s obvious from the events of last night that the spirit of democracy is alive and kicking in Egypt.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for the US and Europe where governments were hesitant in the first place when it came to the protests.
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Mubarak may be gone, but democracy is unlikely to come to Egypt
Watching Al Jazeera and MSNBC last night online was harrowing. People were still engaged in gun-battles in Tahrir square.
It looked like the pro-Mubarak supporters had been beaten back for now. But I fear the momentum is lost.
The game was up when the new Vice-President and defacto head of the army said there would be “no dialogue” until “the protests stopped”. The army generals are no longer going to act as saviours of the people as they have been portrayed in the media.
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Egyptian revolution: watch this space
Just as Vietnam was widely characterised as history’s first ‘television war’, so Egypt will surely be remembered as the first television revolution.
Yes, there were cameras recording what happened in eastern Europe in 1989, but that was in the long gone days before rolling news.
The scenes from Midan Tahrir are live on CNN and Al Jazeera and BBC World, and watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world.
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Obama calls for a ‘peaceful transition’ in Egypt, starting… now
The Hill reported last night that President Obama has called for a transition of power in Egypt following Mubarak’s decision to step down.
The whole episode has always been problematic for the US administration from the start.
But it’s interesting that they did actually push him from behind the scenes.
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Isn’t it time to ditch our uneasy alliances for Palestinian rights?
contribution by Danny Williams
Would you stay friends with someone who was racist, homophobic and blatantly disparaged women’s rights simply because he bought you gifts? My friend is a ‘movement’ I’ve knowingly associated myself with, despite these faults, because our friendship might get me what I want.
What I want is an end to the enduring, pitiable Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I’ve believe it is possible get Palestinians the justice and recompense they’ve sought since 1948, but I’m beginning to have some doubts about the process.
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Palestinian Papers show Israel never was a partner in peace
contribution by Matt Hill
The X-ray photos are in, but the patient is already dead. Last night The Guardian and Al Jazeera released the ‘Palestinian Papers’ – the first slab of 1600 secret documents detailing ten years of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
The documents will be of chief assistance to those drawing up the post mortems of what was once called the ‘peace process’, namely that it never was anything of the sort.
The purpose of these ‘negotiations’ – as is now painfully clear – was for Israel to obtain Palestinian blessing for the theft of their land.
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Will Israel’s public snub of William Hague force another Libdem u-turn?
contribution by Seph Brown
William Hague arrived in Israel late yesterday evening only to find the door shut, in what appears to be a growing trend of humiliating foreign dignitaries to force a political point.
The Foreign Secretary landed in Tel Aviv only to be told that the ‘special strategic dialogue’ between the two countries would be suspended.
The snub is suspiciously similar to Israel’s announcement of the construction of 1,600 new settlement homes the day before US Vice President Joe Biden landed in Israel to discuss the country’s security. Israel later apologised to Biden and claimed the timing was an accident.
Hague’s slap in the face however was unabashedly intentional.
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To push the peace process, Israel must stop building new settlements
contribution by Samer Makhlouf
Every day, for three weeks now, the media junkie in me flips through news channels, scours online media, and reads top local dailies expecting to see rapid developments to get Israeli-Palestinian direct peace talks back on track.
But, if anything, the two-state solution is fading away fast as Palestinian lands continue to disappear under further Israeli settlement construction and expansion.
International pressure to extend the building moratorium is not enough; definitive measures are necessary if these direct peace talks are to survive beyond the October deadline to solve the deadlock.
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