The Sources of Arabs’ Shame: Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia

Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.

— Arthur Miller

It is now over two weeks since Israel started its vicious assault on Gaza resulting, so far, in close to 600 dead and thousands of injuries mostly civilians. Israel true to its nature is once again ignoring all international laws and conventions. With its usual thirst for blood of the civilians, Israel is continuing its bombing of workshops, administrative buildings, roads, bridges, fuel depots, prisons, schools and mosques; killing and injuring large number of civilians in one of the world’s most impoverished and densely populated areas of the world. The Israelis are following their old method of destroying everything that makes a society a society, the infrastructure. The collective punishment of the Palestinians for what Hamas or Islamic Jihad is supposed to be doing or has done, reminds one of the collective punishments that Nazis meted out in the occupied areas in Eastern Europe during the WWII.

International Red Cross just issued a statement condemning Israel for its brutality against civilians. ABC News Norway. “Røde Kors sjokkert over Israel,” (Red Cross Shocked by Israel), 8 January 2009.

There are several things that seem to have shocked the Red Cross. In one episode after several days of heavy pressure from the Red Cross, several ambulances were allowed to enter a neighbourhood to evacuate the injured civilians. In one house they found 12 bodies all civilians and mostly women and children. They also found four very young children still alive next to their dead mothers, too weak to stand. They have been holed-up in the same house for close to 4 days.

Apparently the whole neighbourhood was full of dead and injured civilians with Israeli forces only 80 meters away. According to the Red Cross the Israeli forces knew of the situation and not only didn’t do anything to help the civilians, but also were stopping Red Cross from providing assistance. Representative of the Norwegian Red Cross’ People’s Action calls this a war crime.

But this is only the tip of the ice berg. The Israeli forces have begun to use civilians as human shields. According to Amnesty International Israeli forces occupy civilian houses and keep the civilians as hostages on the first floor, while they position their soldiers on the second floor; ensuring that any fire on the house (especially with anti-tank or RPG missiles) kills the civilians as well.

In yet another report, the United Nations condemned Israel for targeting civilians. The head of the UN agency in Gaza running the school that was attacked by Israel forces categorically rejected the claim by Israel that Hamas fighters were in or even near the school. Israel bombed the UN run school, killing 43 children and injuring 100.Aljazeera.net. “UN: No fighters in targeted school,” 8 January 2009.

Israel also targets ambulances and humanitarian relief convoys in Gaza. According to UN, at least one Palestinian was killed when UN relief convoy came under fire from Israeli forces. “The attack took place on Thursday as the lorries travelled to the Erez crossing to pick up supplies that were to have been allowed in during a three-hour ceasefire.”Aljazeera.net. “Israel fires on UN Gaza convoy,” 8 January 2009.

The atrocities committed by Israel is a genocide of a conquered people. Gaza is a concentration camp, and no amount of PR can reduce the magnitude of this horrible crime against humanity and decency.

But Israel is Israel. She has shown that cruelty is in her nature. Here I am talking about the successive Israeli governments and not Israeli people in general. I am sure there are many in Israel that if became aware of what really is happening would not approve of it. This of course excludes the settlers and the Zionist movement. These groups like the South African white supremacists consider others to be inferior to them; or that they have the god given right to do as they please.

But states seldom are representative of their people. It is the elite and / or the governing class that makes the decisions. The state of Israel is determined to never allow the Palestinians to have a viable state. The maximum that they are willing to allow is some form of Bantustan (South African) or North American reservation (for Native Americans). With carte blanche from US and most of the European powers, Israel has been implementing this policy. Setting-up such a system takes many years. People’s spirit has to be crushed through collective punishment, economic strangulation and above all excessive and continuing violence. This has to continue for many years so the people lose hope of ever achieving anything more than what is on offer.

This of course cannot be done without the approval of other countries. Israel has the approval of the world’s most powerful nation, the United States. In addition, because of her US connections, she has managed to get a nod and a wink from the Europeans as well. So with this carte blanche in hand she has set forth to change the “reality” on the ground in her favour. By systematically settling extremists in the middle of populated Palestinian areas, she has made the creation of a viable Palestinian state almost impossible. A simple look at the map of the Palestinian territories resembles a Swiss cheese, with pockets of densely populated Palestinian areas surrounded by settlements and their protective military garrisons.

The violence both official (state sponsored) and unofficial (settlers) has been incessant. Couple this violence with economic strangulation and you will see the reasons behind the Palestinians’ anger and frustration. Any resistance is automatically branded as an act of terrorism and punished with even more violence, with US and Europeans cheering the Israelis on the side lines.

If you recall, when Georgia invaded the Russian-protected enclave of Abkhazia, and met Russian counter attack, the whole Western world, with the US at its head, condemned Russia. Pushing for UN action and even sending warships with “humanitarian” supplies. Russians did not commit one thousandth of the Israeli atrocities and we had the Georgian president and other politicians talking day and night about the horrible things the Russians were doing. Yet today, we have US and European governments sitting silently watching this genocide taking place without doing anything. US even vetoes resolutions condemning Israeli actions, forgetting that no peace is ever made possible by killing so many innocent women and children.

But whenever a power tries to relocate a group of people by force, the Newton’s Third Law of Motion comes into effect. Newton’s Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if you try to imprison a person that person will try to break out. If you try to subjugate a people they will resist. This is the underlying causes of most liberation movements. The same applies to the Palestinians. They are resisting. We can agree or disagree with their methods, but theirs is a reaction to actions taken against them; we call this self-defence.

Israel is trying to push Palestinians into submission and in the process forcing many to leave the occupied territories. They are trying to show the Palestinians that they are alone and resistance in the face of an overwhelming force is suicide. Israel has tried this tactics before and has failed. The children that had to stay with their dead mothers for four days will not forget. The starved people of Gaza are not going to forget this barbarity; and neither shall the people of honour and conscious, regardless of their nationality, Israelis included.

But as for one of those who have followed the Israel’s actions for the past 30 years, I can say that I didn’t expect anything different from Israel. The lies and deceits are all too familiar to fall for again. The current Israeli action in Gaza was not a reaction to the recent event, but planned a year ago. Just read the New York Times article in which among others they interview a senior Israeli military officer.nytimes.com. “For Israel, 2006 Lessons but Old Pitfalls,” 7 January 2009.

Israel is now trying to portray herself as a nation that is defending itself, while the truth is that Israel is a cruel occupying power trying to force a people out of their land. And this is being done with the help of some Arab nations; the very same nations that constantly talk about Arab and Muslim solidarity. These nations are: Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The Arab Collaborators

The often asked question, when it comes to the Palestinians, is about the role of Arab countries in the Palestinian struggle for freedom. The people not familiar with the political landscape of the area often see the Middle East as two camps, Arab countries on one side and Israel on the other. The reality is totally different. Israel has seldom been alone. Beside its usual American, French, British and other staunch allies, she has had the hidden backing of several Arab countries.

For close to 30 years now, many Arab countries have been collaborating with Israel; some like Egypt (gained independence: 1922) and Jordan (gained independence: 1946) openly, while others like Saudi Arabia (founded: 1932), UAE (founded: 1972) and Kuwait (founded: 1961) from behind the scenes. The reasons for this collaboration vary from country to country but they all have one thing in common: the rulers of these countries are all dictators and need foreign protection from their own people. Some such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and UAE were put in power by the British. The founder of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz bin Saud (the kingdom is name after him) was put in power by the British. The same goes for the others, except Egypt which experienced a coup by the army officers in 1952, resulting in the ousting of the monarchy and the accompanying British influence. But the Western influence returned with Anwar Sadat. All these countries are dictatorships and all are under pressure from their people. What they cannot accept is any democratically elected form of government in their mist. They fear that if an Arab government becomes democratic they may have to become one themselves, hence losing power. One of the things that they love about Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is that he won the election not by popular vote but by popular method of rigging the election; something that these Arab leaders understand and respect.

In contrast, Hamas really represented the aspiration of the people. As soon as Mahmood Abbas’ term as president is over and he had to stand for re-election, he would surely lose. In contrast, Hamas really won the municipal elections in 2005 and the Parliamentary election in 2006. The elections were supervised by international observers, many from Europe, and US.

Palestinians were fed-up with the corrupt regime of Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah. They wanted to clean house. But as soon as Hamas took over, the US and the Europeans put an embargo on Hamas, calling it a terrorist organisation and not a peace partner. Israel closed the borders and refused to let anything into Gaza. Egypt also did the same.

What is not mentioned much in the media is that this was done with the complete approval of the Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. After all, Egypt could have opened its border for transfer of food and fuel. The reasons behind this hostility were and are that Hamas is a truly elected government and worst of all, Hamas is a branch or an off-shoot of Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt.

Muslim Brotherhood has a branch or related organisation in Jordan as well. Egypt and Jordan are worried that should Hamas survive and show its resistance, their people may get the idea that they can also resist the tyrannical rule of these despots. One must not forget that Muslim Brotherhood represents the only serious challenge to the Mubarak’s rule in Egypt.

Egypt

The 81 year old Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has been “president” since 1981 (28 years). He has won every election with a comfortable majority. He is much loved by his secret services. Prior to every election he arrests and imprisons all the opposition, ensuring a “clean” election. Torture is so widely used and accepted in Egypt that US outsources torturing of some its prisoners to Egypt. This alone should tell you volumes about the nature of Mubarak’s rule. He is now trying hard to crown his playboy son as his successor. But the Americans are not so sure if the son is capable of keeping the 80 million Egyptians in line and are therefore looking for alternative candidates. The head of the feared main secret service is one of the prime candidates along with some of the top generals. Challenging him is the Muslim Brotherhood organisation, enjoying grass root support from all sections of the Egyptian society including Lawyers, doctors, judges and student associations. Not surprisingly, US and Israel call Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.

By all accounts, the Muslim Brotherhood be it in Jordan, Egypt or the occupied territories such as Gaza runs a clean operation, running many charity organisations and providing services to the poor and the needy. As such wherever they are, they pose a threat to the corrupt regimes, since they provide an alternative to the people of that area.

Jordan

King Abdullah II of Jordan, born of a British mother, educated in the West, including the Jesuit Center of Georgetown University, was brought to power by the CIA. His Uncle was a long time crown price, yet after his father died in a US hospital, Madeline Albright, Clinton’s Secretary of Estate flew to Jordan to inform the Jordanians that the King on his death bed had changed his will and named his son Abdullah as his successor. The new king Abdullah II is married to the Queen Rania, a Palestinian.

The majority of this Kingdom of 5 million people are Palestinians who are not very friendly to this King. In 1967 there was a Palestinian uprising (led by the PLO) against King Hussein (ruled: 1952-1999, the father of the current king), which resulted in heavy casualties among Palestinians. In addition, the Kingdom is currently full of Iraqi refugees who resent the King’s help to the Americans in invasion of their country. On top of all this, we have the Muslim Brotherhood which tries hard to abolish the monarchy. King Abdullah relies heavily on the US support and backing for staying in power. King Abdullah also sees a natural ally in Israel, a country that can come to its aid in case of another uprising.

Saudi Arabia (House of Saud)

I don’t have to tell you much about Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom is run by the 84 year old, ailing Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. His personal wealth is estimated at $21 billion USD. He rules a clan of 8000 princes who in turn rule the country. Saudi Arabia is the centre of corruption in the Arab world. The Saudi rulers corrupt everything with their money. Lacking the necessary mental power or physical courage, they try to stay in power by subterfuge, lies, and deception. They fund the real extremists on the one hand while portraying themselves as the protectors of the Western interest on the other. They preach intolerance and xenophobia to their people decrying the Western decadence, while spending a lot of time enjoying the life in the West. They pay the West for protection against their own people and they pay the extremists to do their fighting elsewhere. Saudi rulers are indeed the worst of them all.

House of Saud is also the financier of the so called Arab Moderates and the extremism that they cause. House of Saud financed the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. They later financed the Taliban. They also paid Saddam Hussein to fight Iran. Then they paid the Americans and Egyptians to fight Saddam Hussein. They are the financiers of death and misery. They finance anything, anywhere, as long as this reduces the threat to their illegitimate rule. They are currently financing the civil war in Somalia, bandits in Baluchistan (Pakistan and Iran) and god knows what else. They are detested by their own people and neighbours yet loved by Bush, Cheney and the oil companies. As long as they provide the money and oil the US is willing to tolerate them. And guess what? The Muslim Brotherhood hates the House of Saud too. This makes them a threat and hence they have to be dealt with.

The Collaboration

As can be seen, each country has a selfish reason to eliminate Hamas, but each is restrained by its population. Israel has no such a restraint imposed on it. She not only can wage a terrible war, but she also gets assistance from Arab countries. Indeed it is the second time (the first was the invasion of Lebanon in 2006) that Israel is getting open and solid support from these Arab countries. The invasion of Gaza was discussed in Egypt before its implementation. Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are Israel’s active partners.

Egypt is actively involved in stopping all aids from getting to Palestinians in Gaza save a token few trucks. These few trucks are allowed to go through so they can be filmed and shown to Egyptian people. All demonstrations are banned, and all Egyptian volunteers for Gaza are either arrested or sent back.

There are hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the Muslim world that are willing to go to the aid of the Palestinians, but the Egyptian authorities don’t allow them passage. Egyptians even stop medical aid from passing through their territory. This is part of a report from Associated Press:

RAFAH, Egypt: Frustration is mounting at Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip, where many local and foreign doctors are stuck after Egyptian authorities denied them entry into the coastal area now under an Israeli ground invasion.

Anesthesiologist Dimitrios Mognie from Greece idles his time at a cafe near the border, drinking tea and chatting with other doctors, aid workers and curious Egyptians.

“This is a shame,” said Mognie, who decided to use his vacation time to try help Gazans. He thought entering through Egypt, which has a narrow border with the Hamas-ruled strip, was his best bet.

“That in 2009 they have people in need of help from a doctor and we can go to help and they won’t let us. This is crazy,” he added.The Associated Press. “Doctors stuck at bottleneck on Egypt-Gaza border,” 6 January 2009.

In addition there are many Iranian cargo planes full of food and medicine which have been sitting on the tarmacs in Egypt for days waiting for permission to deliver their cargo. Egyptians even denied the medical aid sent by the son of the Libyan President Qaddafi to land in Egypt.google.com: hosted news. “Egypt denies Kadhafi’s son permission to land at airport,” 6 January 2009.

One thing is clear: these three countries do not want the Israelis to fail in their mission of totally destroying Gaza. Hosni Mubarak said so himself. The daily Haaretz reported that Hosni Mubarak had told European ministers on a peace mission that Hamas must not be allowed to win the ongoing war in Gaza.

As Egypt physically aids the Israeli military by denying food, fuel and medicine to the civilians, the House of Saud helps Israel by giving her time and diplomatic cover. When Israel started its invasion there was an immediate call for an Arab summit. Saudi Arabia and Jordan (along with Egypt of course) delayed the summit. The Saudis along with the UAE said that they had another meeting to attend to and therefore Palestinian issue had to wait. After a few days when the summit was eventually held, they issued the same old statements. Yet this time same as the Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 2006, they blamed the victims. In a statement, Saudi Arabia blamed Hamas for Israel’s continuing offensive in the Gaza Strip. Saudi Arabia, after blaming Hamas, declared that it will not even consider an oil embargo on Israel’s supporters. She then again blamed Hamas.

By this time, the three Arab countries along with Kuwait and UAE began singing the old song: international community is not doing anything about the catastrophe that is taking place in Gaza. It seems that these Arab tyrants have no shame at all. This reminds me of a quote from Marquis De Sade (1740-1814): “One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush.”

These Arab leaders (many are indeed too old to blush) are complicit in the murder of so many civilians, especially young children. According to Agence France-Presse, quoting the medics on the ground, fully one third of all people killed have been children.Agence France-Presse. “Children make up third of Gaza dead,” 7 January 2009. How can these Arab leaders justify this to their people?

The answer is that they cannot. Israel knows this and for the second time can show the Arab street that their leaders are nothing but a bunch of old hypocrites. These Arab leaders are now exposed and can do nothing but to cooperate fully with Israel and US. What stand between them and their people’s rage is their army and secret services; which in turn are supported by US.

Israel has cleverly exposed these leaders for what they are: collaborators of the worst kind. These Arab leaders have brought an unimaginable shame to their people. To quote Lucien Bouchard: I have never known a more vulgar expression of betrayal and deceit. Our hope is now with the people of these countries to clean this stain from their honour.

Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar lives in Norway. He is a management consultant and a contributing writer for many online journals. He's a former associate professor of Nordland University, Norway and can be contacted at: Bakhtiarspace-articles@yahoo.no. Read other articles by Abbas.

35 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. bozh said on January 10th, 2009 at 9:59am #

    palestinians do speak arabic but may be of canaanitic-arab ancestry. but even the arabs of iraq are not the same as morrocan, iraqi, yemeni, arabs.
    in any case, arab nations cannot stop a criminal nation like israel. it should be recalled that germans and english were one people as late as 3,000 years ago yet they became enemies. thnx

  2. BrandyMaire said on January 10th, 2009 at 2:24pm #

    Excellent, very clear. Outside of Gaza and Palestine Zionist Terrorist.

  3. DavidG. said on January 10th, 2009 at 3:14pm #

    The atrocities being carried out by the IDF are well known and well documented. They are the acts of pathological killers, men and women without conscience, without morals.

    Israel has forfeited any right to have a nation. It must be broken up, scattered to the four winds lest it, like Germany, rise again.

  4. mebosa ritchie said on January 10th, 2009 at 4:16pm #

    700 palestinians dead in gaza==holocaust,massacre,atrocity

    1200 fatah palestinians killed by hamas palestinians june 2007 is ok muslims killing muslims

    30,000 palestinians killed by jordan 1970 is ok muslims killing muslims

    20,000 killed by assad in syria is ok muslims killing muslims

    400,ooo dead in darfur is ok muslims killing muslims

    2,000,000 dead in iran-iraq war is ok muslims killing muslims

  5. Max Shields said on January 10th, 2009 at 9:41pm #

    mebosa ritchie so this post above is how you justify Israeli butchery?

  6. Hue Longer said on January 10th, 2009 at 10:13pm #

    Notice people defending cops commit the same fallacy as Mebosa does defending Israel?

  7. Shabnam said on January 11th, 2009 at 8:57am #

    Dr. Bakhtiyar thank you for this article attempts to show the Palestinian’s enemy who are inseparable from the Zionists and its supporters. This is a good article and I hope Arab intellectuals make an effort to write more urgently needed articles which expose the complicity of the trio, where has been given a title ‘Arab Moderate State’ – Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan – by the Zionist propagandists to hide the nature of these corrupt regimes who are in bet with the war criminals against Palestinians. Israel is conducting genocide with impunity because Israel has the Arab puppet head of states on its side and survival of these puppets is intertwined with the survival of Zionism, thus it is important to confront Zionism to liberate not only Palestinians but Arab population as well and bring stability to our region.
    Israel and US cannot control the region without complicity of the trio. This symbiotic relationship is the basis of Arab oppression in general and Palestinian genocide in particular. This symbiotic relationship by the Zionist liars, such as Thomas Friedman and people like him is presented in such a way that the only ‘democracy’ in the Middle East, little Israel, is a good example for Arabs to follow, hiding the fact that Arab corrupt regimes are inseparable from existence of Israel as a Zionist entity.
    This symbiotic relationship between Israel and the ‘Arab moderate states’ goes back many decades ago. In the 1940s and the 1950s, these regimes could not show openly their alliance with Israel. It is now recognized that Israel’s 1967 invasion of Egypt aimed successfully to destroy Gamal Abdul-Nasser, the enemy of all US dictatorial allies among the Arab regimes, whom the US and before it Britain and France had tried to topple since the 1950s but failed. The war against Nasser, not only was helpful to Israel but also to its allies, the Arab puppets, whose survival was threatened by Nassar and his popularity among Arabs. Israel did the same thing in Jordan in 1970 to help the Jordanian army to destroy PLO, where benefits both Jordan and Israel and later in 1978 and 1982, invasion of Lebanon, to crush PLO and force it out.
    Israel attack on Hezbollah in 2006 and Gaza genocide have exposed the ‘moderate Arabs’ and their sell out ‘Arab Intellectuals’ who put their ‘journalistic expertise’ at the service of these Arab puppets and their backers US and Israel for PETRO DOLLARS to maintain their parasitic existence. Iran supports of Palestinian struggle is very popular amongst Arab population in Arab countries and apparently has frightened US, Zionists and their Arab puppets, thus, they have targeted Iran as ‘NO. ONE ENEMY’ and have tried to destroy Iran by the fifth columnists in Bush and now in Obama administration by giving Zionists pro Israel a position of influence as advisor, secretary of state, intelligence and security position of the empire to target ‘ Iran the treat’ to fool American people. Since the election, Obama has never lost an opportunity to attack Iran by repeating the Zionist lobby’s slogan such as “nuclear Iran is unacceptable” or “Iran is a threat” giving Israel green light to commit genocide against Gaza refusing to make a comment because the Zionist lobby has no statement ‘to stop the genocide,’ therefore, he MUST BE SILENT.

    Its 2006 invasion of Lebanon, engineered to destroy Hizballah, was supported by ‘Arab moderate states’ and the ‘Arab intellectuals’ where their employments are guaranteed by Saudis’ petro dollar in the media outlets. Majority of media outlet in the Arab world is financed by Saudi Arabia, therefore, we hardly see any critics of the trio but many of these phony ‘intellectuals’ are always ready to attack and criticize Palestinian resistance against apartheid state. Majority of these ‘intellectual’ sell out are stationed outside of the Saudi Arabia either in the Persian Gulf area or they are living in the Western countries and copying each other’s attack on Palestine, Iran, and the Arab population and helping the Israel-US project in the Middle East. Saudis’ outlet also support some of the Iranian ‘journalist’ who are working very closely with the neocons, such as Amir Taheri, fabricating stories such as ‘dress code against Jews’ waiting for a strike against Iran. This gang enjoys the support of Zogby international especially James Zogby, pose as pro Palestinian has close relationship with both Zionists such as Martin inkyk and Rahm Emanuel and corrupt Saudis to obtain petro dollars. Zoby international helps US, Israel and the trio by shaping a ‘poll’ based on bias to form public opinion against Iran:
    {majority of likely voters – 52% – would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53% believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows.}

    People of the region must be united against Zionism and its supporters. Thanks again and I hope we will see more articles on this important issue in the near future especially from Arab writers.
    ISRAEL HAS NO RIGHT TO EXIST.

  8. Shabnam said on January 11th, 2009 at 8:58am #

    Sorry
    Dr. Bakhtiar not Bakhtiyar

  9. ART MARCUS said on January 11th, 2009 at 8:58am #

    JEWS ARE COOL… ISRAELIS ARE NOT.

  10. Shabnam said on January 11th, 2009 at 12:10pm #

    Turkey an ally of both Israel and US also considers Iran popularity amongst population of Arab as ‘threat’ regardless of wide Turkish population’s opposition to Israel war crimes against Palestine.
    To improve Turkey’s position amongst Arabs and the European, since Turkey is interest to join the European Union, the political elite has condemned Israel’s assault on the Gaza, at least in public.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recent Tayyip Erdogan stated that Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip on Saturday December 27, 2008, in which over 320 Palestinians were killed and 800 injured, was a “crime against humanity.” But a week earlier the Israeli media reported that the Turkish Air Force had signed a US$141 million deal with Israeli military companies Elbit Systems Ltd. and Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) for air and space imagery intelligence systems.

    The products and services of Elbit Systems Ltd. and IAI directly and indirectly assisted the Israeli air force on Saturday to drop 100 tons of bombs onto the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding indiscriminately. Especially in the light of Prime Minister Erdogan’s public opposition to Israel’s war crimes against the Gaza Strip, Turkey should stop supporting Israel’s military industry where conducts genocide in occupied land; therefore, we urge Erdogan to show that he is truly against genocide in occupied land, not motivated by Iran’s popularity amongst Arabs in the Arab countries which he may considered against Turkey’s interest. Turkey has been an ally of the US and Israel since Othman empire’s demise protecting the interest of US, Israel and its political elite.
    http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/issa080109.html

  11. bozh said on January 11th, 2009 at 12:24pm #

    shabnam, good piece by you.
    i am not convinced that the weapons you listed are not manufactured by american and european companies.
    especailly in the view that israel has no mines or smelters. or am i mistaken.
    also in view that it takes a well developed industrial land to make such modern weaponry and surveillance systems.
    how about it DV? a piece on this, please! thnx

  12. ronald mcdonald said on January 11th, 2009 at 5:19pm #

    Reports emanating from Shechem (Nablus) and other areas in Palestinian Authority-controlled Samaria indicate that the Arabs there are not showing great solidarity with their war-torn brethren in Gaza. Some attribute it to apathy, and others to the PA government, which may be “waiting in the wings” for its return to power in Gaza.

    PA’s Fatah Gov’t on Preventative Alert
    Fatah security forces belonging to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas have been deployed very intensively throughout Judea and Samaria over the past two weeks, since Israel’s war in Gaza began. Correspondent Ali Waqed of Ynet reports that the forces are stationed in all intersections, near mosques, at potential clash points along the Green Line separating the areas from pre-1967 Israel, and at every place from where a spark can ignite widespread disturbances. Youths who try to approach Jewish-populated areas have been forcibly rebuffed by PA forces, Waqed reports.

    “People here are busy with making a living,” a Fatah leader in Shechem told Waqed, “and they have either forgotten – or been caused to forget – about the issues of nationalism and occupation.”

    PA Kills Attempts to Display Solidarity
    An unnamed city councilman from an unnamed PA-controlled city said, “The means used by the PA made it clear to the people that it would not be worth their while to enlist for a serious protest wave. They have killed every attempt to display solidarity with Gaza and to ease the pressure on our brethren there.”

    “They Are Alive, We are Zeroes”
    He continued: “True, in Gaza there are hundreds of dead and thousands of destroyed building – but despite that, I can tell you for sure that they are the ones who are alive, and we are the dead. All spirit of solidarity and mutual support is dead here; we are zeroes, we are wretched, we are dead. They in Gaza are the living ones, they have the honor, and we are the pitiful ones.”

    Hamas, for its part, has not done very much to arouse sympathy among Fatah members. Over the past two weeks, 35 Fatah members have been summarily executed in Gaza, according to some reports; Cabinet Secretary Oved Yechezkel said on Sunday that there have been testimonies that “tens of Fatah supporters” have been killed in cold blood by Hamas. In addition, more than 70 Fatah members have been shot in the legs or had their hands broken at the hands of Hamas terrorists. “Only scattered and buried mentions of these attacks have appeared in such newspapers as the New York Times and the Washington Post,” writes Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism.

  13. AaronG said on January 11th, 2009 at 9:52pm #

    The Red Cross bit disturbed me. Not surprised, but disturbed.

    “…no amount of PR can reduce the magnitude of this horrible crime against humanity and decency.”

    Unfortunately, the PR is working. These are my observations of (Australian) media coverage of the last few weeks:

    1. Clean-shaven Israeli spokesman Mark Regev, in his immaculately pressed suit and tie, is doing a great job. His rehearsed (he’s had 12 months to practice!) calm, calculated words really relate to us westerners. The ”news” report will then contrast this footage with video of ”unruly” Palestinian teenagers throwing rocks at something (probably helicopter gunships, but this is not normally included in the footage), or people grieving and screaming at a funeral. The western mind automatically or sub-consciously relates to the Mark Regev picture, cos the alternative looks ”foreign” and gives the impression that ”the Palestinians are all fanatics”.

    2. Media reports have been using the phrase “…….fighting will continue until Israel’s objections have been reached”. Then the obvious question of what is their objection – ie genocide – is left out of the report and the viewer/listener can go back to their daily life.

    3. Of course, the mantra all the media spokespeople are parroting is the ”they started it” line. They threw rocks or fired rockets at us first, so we’ll flatten their home with a RPG.

  14. Cyric Renner said on January 11th, 2009 at 11:35pm #

    Eygpt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia. Axis of Cowardice.

  15. Shabnam said on January 12th, 2009 at 12:48am #

    Another zionist from the occupied Palestine has sent a comment to this site, by the name of ronald mcdonald refusing to use the correct name of remainder of the historical Palestine, about 15 percent left, Gaza and the West bank, where the zionists want to steal this part as well, therefore, they have waged a full-blown war against defenseless people of Gaza killing toddlers, massacring children in school, 40 of them the other day, and later the racist zionist announced that ‘It was a mistake.’

    The zionist war criminals occupy civilian houses and hold the residents as hostages using them as HUMAN SHEILD, typical of a coward, thus committing WAR CRIMES AGAINST HUMNANITY to achieve the Zionist’s goal, to erect ‘the greater Israel’ build on Palestinian death bodies, the indigenous population, using all kind of WMD including use of phosphorus shell which is against the International Law where the zionist Jews feel it does not apply to them because they are the ‘chosen people’, a fantasy bought by the fools. ronald mcdonald, instead, is using biblical names which have no scientific truth, especially in the 21st century, where we can prove forgery from original.

    The premise of this article has not been understood by the zionists from Israel, thus, they felt they have found an opportunity to hide the crime of zionism, history of Israel’s existence, by manipulating the premises of Dr. Bakhtiar’s article.
    Dr. Bakhtiar does not wash, or dilute crimes committed by Israel and its enablers; rather he explains how US and Israel expand their sphere of influence creating not only enemies but also puppets as ‘enablers’ to maximize their profits. We would have not seen so many corrupt and dictatorial rulers in the rich region of the Middle East if the colonial and financier of British Empire, the Rothschild family did not attempt to steal Palestine and erect illegally a ‘Jewish State’ in a region rich in resources. The premise of this article is not that little Israel is not at fault, rather Israel and the US have manufactured ‘leaders’ and secular ‘intellectuals’ pro corrupt empire and the zionist entity to achieve their goal and to survive Palestinian resistance. Therefore, corrupt ‘leaders’ and sell out ‘intellectuals’ are necessary for the US and the Zionist entity to SURVIVE their victims.
    The empire and the Zionist racists have used ‘divide and rule,’ an old game, to put one against the other to keep these countries weak and divided, and their ‘leaders’ as puppet, makes it easier to conduct land grab and stealing of the resources including water.
    After assassination of Arafat by the Zionist thugs, Abbas, the Palestinian puppet, has been groomed for his new role like other http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_O5OuU90ru-Y/SWZWsA2fkGI/AAAAAAAAC3s/DWntXsM7viY/s1600-h/17mideast.600.jpg

    puppet to buy more time for Israel to build more settlements and change facts on the ground to be used in the future ‘peace talk’ in the zionist administration of newly elected president.
    Ever since the democratic election that overthrow Fatah puppets out of power and brought in Hamas by popular majority vote, the plan to declare a state of emergency was set in motion at the request of the Zionists for further action.
    The circle of Abbas where are supported by the US and Israel has followed the order of their superiors to fabricate accusations against Hamas. Descriptions such as “forces of darkness,” which fits the Jewish racist state that has oppressed Palestinians according to zionist final world domination based on the ‘protocal of zion’, racial supremacy, and massive indiscriminate bombings of civilians and theft of their property for the last sixty years, but not to the democratically elected Hamas who were faced a coup from Palestinian puppet of Israel turn millionaire over nigh, Mohammad Dahlan, on behalf of Fatah and its Israeli and American sponsors in Gaza.
    Palestinian people who elected Hamas were subjected to all kind of horrors by the Americans, the Israelis, and the EU.
    It has been reported that Abbas gang have committed number of crimes to satisfy their masters, US and Zionist thugs, throwing a Fatah activist (mistaken as a Hamas activist) from a tall building, then blame it on Hamas which this lie was spread around by their puppet
    ‘journalist’ on Saudis media empire to serve the zionist and imperialist’s interest trying to tarnish Hamas image who came to power not by the zionist thugs assistance but by the support of the Palestinian people opposite to manufactured ‘leaders’ of Zionists and Americans who have shown they can bring ‘democracy’ on the back of their cruise missiles and their phosphorus shell in hospital, school, university, wedding parties, religious organization for limited time only, leaving hundreds of death bodies, many children, toddlers, and women behind. The Zionists from Israel must read Dr. Bakhtiar’s article carefully.
    ISRAEL HAS NO RIGHT TO EXIST.

  16. ronald mcdonald said on January 12th, 2009 at 3:13am #

    keep going shabnam the state you’re getting in to,you’ll self explode. your mates in hamas usually try to blow themselves with explosive but you’ll manage it without
    greater israel actually sounds like a good idea from the nile to the euphrates but we’ll let you share in our prosperity as we make the desert bloom as we have done in lesser israel
    what can you offer apart from explosives,death,destruction,death,martyrdom,death
    ISRAEL EXISTS AND WILL FOREVER GET USED TO IT
    AM YISROEL CHAI

  17. MrCynic3 said on January 12th, 2009 at 5:45am #

    ronald mcdonald,

    What a stupid ignorant rant from a true zionist.

  18. MrCynic3 said on January 12th, 2009 at 5:54am #

    Hosni Mobarak is not a collabrator but he is a realist and care about the
    wellbeing and safety of Egypt.
    What can he do if all the power centers of the world with their military
    and economic powers are supporting Israel. Do you want him to
    subject Egypt to an attack or an economic boycott.
    Life is already hard enough for most of the Egyptians where getting bread is a daily struggle and standing in long lines.

  19. MrCynic3 said on January 12th, 2009 at 6:25am #

    The Moslem Brotherhood was created by the British in Egypt in 1928.
    The British created it with the help of the feudal land oweners as counter-balance to a nationalist movement that might go in a leftist direction.
    It was a typical British “divide and rule”.
    Hamas was created and nutured by Israel to counter-balance the PLO
    and Yassir Arafat knowing that there will be conflict between the two
    groups.
    Again it is the classic “divide and rule.”

  20. Shabnam said on January 13th, 2009 at 4:26am #

    To DV editor:

    I am very disturbed that my comments have been removed again.
    Please returned them back immediately.

  21. mary said on January 13th, 2009 at 5:53am #

    I didn’t see it Shabnam and I am sorry but possibly you became riled by the likes of Mebosa Ritchie which is understandable. I was hacked off yesterday when I found he/she had posted the same lie in five different places on this site about Hamas selling aid supplies. He/she will probably hate seeing this You Tube video which illustrates that the Israelis are carrying out their crimes in other parts of the Occupied Territories and not just in Gaza.

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QJaPZLNLBu8&eurl=http://israels60thbirthday.com/

    It was hushed up by the Israeli military for obvious reasons but an Israeli TV channel broke the embargo.

    These Zionists ‘the possessors of the only true democracy in the Middle East’ are banning two Arab political parties from participating in the elections next month. Israeli Arabs form one fifth of the 7m total population.

    http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/2009112165350696500.html

  22. Shabnam said on January 13th, 2009 at 7:46am #

    Mary:
    Thank you very much for your post. I have noticed my posts under Dr. Bakhtiar “the sources of Arab…” have been wiped off the screen on Sunday after I gave a respond to ronald mcdonald. I did complain and they appeared again on my screen. I have 3 comments, 1) On Bakhtiar article, 2) On Turkey related to Recent Tayyip Erdogan statement that Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip is crime against humanity and 3) A respond to ronald mcdonald’s post. Early morning on Monday, I noticed my 2 comments, on Turkey and a respond to mcdonald have been disappeared. In the other word all comments since my Turkey have been wiped off the screen. They came back when I let them know. The same thing happened again, where the first 7 or 8 comments appears but not the rest. It came back again but I know there is a technology that you might see your own comment on your screen but not anyone else. Please let me know if you can see all comments under Bakhtiar’s articles, 21 comments.

  23. AEAZ - A. Myers said on January 14th, 2009 at 4:48am #

    Shabnam – my post has also been taken off – I also spoke about ronald macdonald being paid by macdonalds to take it up the ass 🙂

    Logically you can almost guarantee that all atrocities, war and manipulations come from a power / financial motivation covered in a religious overtone. The big banking dynasties of this millennium are behind all of them it seems. We find the evidence of this in the outcomes of each manipulation; the general populous are lambs to the slaughter in this. We are a blood sacrifice for an ultimate aim of total control. The more hate sown between Jews, Hindus, Muslims and Christians the better. The more one nation rises against another the closer we get to worldwide conflict, the bankers and arms peddlers win again because they supply all sides. The more the worldwide economy collapses the better a single currency will sound. These truths are leaving the arena of theory and entering the realms of fact.

    Using any terms around zionist ideologies, people falsely equate anti-zionism with anti-semitism (more spin). What I mean when I mention zionist ideologies is not Jews (as many Hassidic Jews are abhorrent of these ideologies) but every strata of society, neo-cons, mormons, jehovahs witnesses, christians, muslims, hindus, freemasons – ALL the upper echelons of religions, finance and politics are infested with racist, zionistic idealogies.

    To decide that all Jews are Zionists is to do exactly what they want you to do – they are laughing at you because you are now exactly the same as them, a racists thug! Many Jews are against Zionist ideologies, I am a gentile researcher who has seen much evidence of this.

    anti elitist / anti zionist

  24. Nomi said on January 14th, 2009 at 8:01am #

    Exceptional article!
    Task One: Get rid of the enemies within.
    Task Two: Unite.
    Task Three: Deal with the external enemy.

  25. Cyber_Cohen said on January 14th, 2009 at 8:41am #

    mebosa ritchie, whether you intended to or not, but you have illustrated the point being made by the author – that the tyrants in charge of the so called ‘muslim nations’ are nothing more than agents working against the interests of Muslims.

    The day might not be too fara away when these tyrants and those that they work for are dragged through the streets covered in tar and feather on their way to justice for all of the crimes that they have committed.

    Peace.

  26. m.arshad said on January 14th, 2009 at 11:45am #

    whatever the machinations of the jews,christians and munafiqs it will all amount to nothing in the end as foretold by the prophet of islam. we are seeing this charade of antihuman u.n activity and others and yet no ceasefire for the innocents of gaza.

    i hope to live to see the day when all these war criminals and helpers are hung on the nearest lampposts in swift justice! and when imam mehdi comes to bring justice and peace besides what is present tyranny and oppression.

  27. Ron Abrams said on January 30th, 2009 at 11:57am #

    The Palestinians have had a chance to have a nation in Gaza since 1948.
    The Palestinians would rather keep the refugees as hostages than
    have them help build Gaza into a livable place.
    Hamas would rather have a war with Israel than have a nation in Gaza.
    Long live Israel.
    If you hate Israel, move to the Congo.
    Shalom.

  28. hamasq convert said on February 3rd, 2009 at 6:05pm #

    ever since i can remember at schools in oxford and at home there by our parents and on the bias meadi reporting i and many other muslims in the uk have been made to beleieve shia are the enemy of islam and that we the sunnis are the upholders of the true faith but recently as my eyes open up to the truth i am thankfull to allaha for shia as they seem to be the only ones against the extermination of the palestinians and true muslims alike in this world. it seems to me that if you are a good muslim and stand up against zionism, there muslim collaborators and the crusaders then u are called a terroist but i cant help but feel the wind of change and insha this change will happen in my life time and i pray to allaha i get the the chance to see the evil doers get there punishment not just in the next life but in this world to. my fellow humans dont depair our day will come when humanity will be retored to this world and a good start would be to hang the zionists the crusadrers and specially the muslim collaborators in public on a friday after friday prayers the change is coming specially cant wait to see the sauds punished as they have enough money and influance to change the situations for so many innocent people around the world but they wont for worldly gains allaha curse them

  29. hamasq convert said on February 3rd, 2009 at 6:53pm #

    to the zionist DOG called Ron Abrams U MATE NEED TO TO MOVE YOURSELF AND ALL THE OTHER ZIONISTS TO THE ISLES OF DOG; U R NOTHING BUT A BAD PHASE IN THE PAGES OF HISTORY YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED AND YEAH I HATE ISRAEL AND ALL THE ZIONIST DOGS THAT HAVE TAKEN OUR HOLY LAND AND U WONT HAVE IT FOR LONG MATE ESPECIALLY AS THE USA POWERS WEAKENS BECAUSE LETS FACE IT U ISRAELIS ANT MAN ENOUGH TO SURVIVE WITHOUT THE SUA AND SOME JUDITH ARAB STATES; YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED AND MATE TAKE MY ADVICE AND GET A GOOD SPOT FOR YOUR SELF ON THE ISLE OF DOGS BEFORE THE REST OF YOUR ZIONISTS GET MOVED THERE; U ISRAELIS CANT EVEN BEAT DEFENCLESS PALESTINIANS WITH ALL YOUR USA UK SUPPLIED WEAPONS WHAT POSSIBLY U GONA DO AGAINST 1.5 BILLION MUSLIMS THAT WILL WAKE UP SOON AND THROW U INTO THE MADI SEA SOOON INSHA LONG LIVE PLASTINE AND YEAH ONE MORE THING NO ONE WANTED U IN EUROPE OR ANYWHERE ELSE IN THIS WORLD AS U ARE CURSED BY GOD AND SO U TAKE THE PALESTINIANS LAND BUT WELL U MAY ENJOY THIS LAND FOR NOW REMEMBER LIKE THERE IS NIGHT AFTER DAY THERE WILL BE NO ISRAEL SOOON U DOG

  30. hamasq convert said on February 3rd, 2009 at 7:05pm #

    ISRAEL WILL BE NO MORE A MESSAGE FROM THE MUSLIMS OF ENGLANG; WE ARE COMING TO GET U ISRAELI DOGS SOON AND WHEN I SAY DOG I MEAN MONGRALS AS EVEN PURE BRED DOG HAVE ARE LOYAL UNLIKE U ISRAELI MONGRALS WHO WILL RUN INTO THE SEA YOUR SELF SOON AS THERE IS A FAIR FIGHT AS U ANT MEN; MUSLIM BROTHER AND SISTERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST MIGHT BE TAKEN BACK BY YOUR ARMY BUT IAM TELLING U THE MUSLIMS HERE IN THE UK ARE STRONGER THEN ANY WHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD AS IT SEEMS THE BRITISH FIGHTING SPIRIT HAS RUBBED OFF ONTO US AND COMBINE THAT WITH THE TEACHING OF ALLAHAA U MONGRAL ISRAELIS ARE IN TROUBLE; ENJOY THE TIME U HAVE LEFT KILLING CHILDREN IN PALESTINE YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED U DOGS

  31. grace said on February 12th, 2009 at 8:52am #

    am not an Israeli or european but this writer is very biased.every problem of the arabs….they always blame israel.why dont u write about what arabs are doing in Darfur,and why didnt u guys riot when hamas was killing fellow palestinians.when arabs kill each other its ok but when terrorists provoke Israel shes expected to watch.tell me which country would rockets land into it s territory would not retaliate ?when america was attacked she responded,when russia was provoked she did the same.when turkey is provoked by the kurd in iraq she is responding,BUT when ISRAEL is PROVOKED the world uproars! stop the hypocry.imagine Small Israel being ganged on by so many.many arab people want Israel destroyed and the world is helping them by always condeming her.am so angry yet am not one of the.he who PRtects ISRAEL neither SLUMBERS or SLEEPS.so watch out all who seek to destroy her

  32. Kim Petersen said on February 12th, 2009 at 12:45pm #

    Grace,
    FYI regarding Israel and Darfur:

    Sudan: Israel arming Darfur rebels
    http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=84418&sectionid=351020504

    Israel has supplied a rebel group involved in the Darfur conflict in
    Sudan with a considerable amount of weaponry, a new report says.

    and

    Israeli owner of MV Faina pays $3.2m ransom – Its cargo destined for
    Darfur? JEM has received heavy military logistical support from Israel?

    Pirates receive $3.2 m for Israeli ship
    February 3, 2009
    http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/

    The Israeli-owner of a Ukrainian-flagged arms-loaded ship held by
    Somali pirates pays 3.2 million dollars in return for the vessel’s
    release.

    The MV Faina and its crew– 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and one
    Latvian national-were captured on September 25 in the notorious Somali
    waters.

    The vessel was carrying with a cargo of 33 Soviet-type battle tanks,
    rocket launchers and ammunition, allegedly expected to reach rebels in
    the Sudanese violent Darfur region.

  33. Barry said on February 12th, 2009 at 1:16pm #

    It should be understood by all that when the author refers to ‘countries’ that cooperate with Israel, he means ‘states.’ Using the latter term enables us to differentiate the government from the people, which to varying degrees is quite supportive of Palestinian aspirations throughout the Middle East.

    (note to Bozh: Germans and English have never been quite the same people. Germanic tribes that migrated to England integrated with the previously existing Celtic population. Genetically, it is likely that the English are as much or more Celtic than German.)

  34. Max Shields said on February 12th, 2009 at 1:53pm #

    Kim,

    Can you provide additional confirmation on the Israel arms provisions in Sudan/Darfur?

    While it intuitively makes sense, I’d like to be sure there’s further evidence than this article (that may be the basis for others as a source).

    thanks
    Max

  35. Kim Petersen said on February 27th, 2009 at 3:05pm #

    Gadhafi: Israel responsible for Darfur crisis
    February 24, 2009

    JERUSALEM (JTA) — Libyan President Muammar Gadhafi said Israel is to blame for the crisis in Darfur.

    Gadhafi, president of the African Union, said Tuesday that “foreign forces,” including Israel, are to blame for the genocide in the Sudan region.

    “We discovered that some of the main leaders of the Darfur rebels have opened offices in Tel Aviv and hold meetings with the military there to add fuel to the conflict fire,” the Libyan state news agency
    Jana quoted Gadhafi as saying, Ha’aretz reported…