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Showing posts with label Zionism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zionism. Show all posts
20 November 2024
SOJOURNERS VERSE AND VOICE 20NOV24
18 August 2013
UPDATED Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks Highlight Israel's Desperate Need for Legitimacy In Face of Growing International Criticism 17&30AUG13
THE latest round of Israeli - Palestinian peace talks are doomed and a waste of time. Israel has no intention of any progress from these talks, and will find, and be supported by the American government, a way to blame the Palestinians for the failure of these talks. Israel will continue to impose on the West Bank and Gaza many of the same tactics the nazis used against the Jews and the occupied nations of Europe in WW II. Until the American government finds the moral courage to stand up to aipac and the old guard zionist of the Israeli political establishment as well as the Arab world who has used and neglected the Palestinians, the Palestinians will continue to struggle just to survive under the thumb of an apartheid state and the children of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza will grow up knowing only the threat of war and hatred of each other. That should be enough to move their parents to really seek peace, should be enough if the Israelis and Palestinians really do love their children. For an objective view of the Israeli - Palestinian peace process read Brokers of Deceit by Rashid Khalidi. This from TRNN....UPDATED on 30AUG13, at the end of the post I have added the civil exchange between Shel and myself on the TRNN page for this post...
http://youtu.be/RRKNHw8_PJQ
August 17, 13
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.This
week, peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders took
place, but they were shadowed by news of the Israeli government building
settlements in the West Bank. Now joining us to give us a
perspective that you won't hear in the mainstream media is Shir Hever.
Shir is an economist studying the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian
territories for the Alternative Information Center. Thank you for joining us, Shir.SHIR HEVER, ECONOMIST, ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER: Thank you for having me, Jessica.DESVARIEUX:
So, Shir, we've been covering this story at The Real News, and what
we've been hearing is that essentially these talks are doomed to fail.
So why is Israel and Palestine, why are they both deciding to
participate in these talks?HEVER: I think it's at this
point know by practically everyone that these talks cannot succeed,
because Israel is not interested in having a solution or having any kind
of compromise. Israel is interested in maintaining the conversation,
maintaining these talks forever. As long as the talks can take place,
Israel can maintain its international image. And what you
hear from the Israeli government quite a lot is that Israel should not
be pressured by the international community for ending the occupation.
There shouldn't be any boycott against Israel, there shouldn't be any
kind of sanctions against Israeli war crimes and apartheid, because
Israel is engaged in peace negotiations, and those sort of sanctions or
boycott would be harmful to peace process. This is exactly the kind of
strategy that Israel is trying to adopt. And what we hear
now, the breaking news from this week, is that the prime minister,
Benjamin Netanyahu, has signed an agreement with the Israeli student
union, which represents most but not all students in Israel, so that
students will work for the government and be paid public money to work
as paid commentators, and they would work anonymously to promote Israeli
propaganda in the world and social media.And this story
really shows what Israel is trying to get from these peace talks. Israel
is trying to get credibility, Israel is trying to get legitimacy and to
restore its images much as it can. But, of course, they have no real
interest in the substance.Now, you also ask why are the
Palestinians willing to negotiate, and that's maybe not a question that I
am the best person qualified to answer. I think there is a lot of
pressure on the Palestinian government in the West Bank of the
Palestinian--on Mahmoud Abbas to continue the negotiations. Mahmoud
Abbas has had a very clear position that negotiations will not resume
unless Israel freezes construction in the illegal colonies. And it's
very clear that Israel does not freeze that construction.DESVARIEUX:
Okay. Let's talk a little bit more about the construction. How was this
even able to happen? I mean, if Israel knows it's going to be coming to
the table to negotiate, how is this even possible?HEVER: I
think it's very clear when Israel is building these colonies in the
area that it is supposed to negotiate about and that its future is not
clear because this area might become part of the Palestinian state, then
it's obvious that Israel is intentionally and directly sabotaging the
negotiations. But I don't think that it's just because Netanyahu is
doing two things at once and sabotaging the negotiations while trying to
push for negotiations at the same time. Netanyahu honestly wants
negotiations to happen. He doesn't want a Palestinian state. He doesn't
want peace. He doesn't want an end of the occupation. But he wants
negotiations. Negotiations themselves can fail because of the
construction of the colonies. But the thing is that the
Israeli government has built over the years sort of pockets of autonomy
within its own government structure. There is a decent realization of
decision-making processes, especially regarding the occupation and the
colonies. In fact, no one in the Israeli government actually knows how
much money is funneled into the colonies, because of all these pockets
that allow funds to be transferred based on decisions of lower-,
mid-level clerks and officials who are appointed in order to promote
right-wing agendas and to help subsidize the colonies, but to do so in a
clandestine fashion. And this is a policy that is quite
special to Israel. It's not very common in Western countries to have a
sort of decentralized government model like this. And the best example, I
think, was just in the the very first days of the occupation during the
war of 1967, the Six-Day War. Towards the end of that war, Israeli
soldiers have occupied East Jerusalem, and they found the Wailing Wall,
which is a religious site which is holy to the Jewish religion, and they
decided to demolish an entire Palestinian neighborhood that surrounded
the wall. And in their journals, those soldiers wrote, we decided not to
ask the government for permission or for direct--for instructions about
what to do about this Palestinian neighborhood, because we didn't want
the government to have a sort of written record of the decision to
demolish the neighborhood. We understood that we were expected to
demolish it, but it's best that these things are done unofficially. And
that kind of ideology, that kind of method of operation signifies in
many ways the way that Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories
for the past 45 years, 46 years.DESVARIEUX: Okay. Now
let's talk about the United States, who is playing the role of mediator
in all of this. What does the U.S. have to gain from participating and
mediating these negotiations?HEVER: I don't think that the
U.S. has much to gain from this, because I'm pretty sure that Senator
Kerry, Barack Obama, they know--sorry, Secretary of State Kerry and
Barack Obama, they know very well that these negotiations are going to
fail, because they're not willing to put any pressure on Israel and
they're not really mediators between the side. They are just supporting
the Israeli side in a very clear way. They might get a few photo ops.
Obama might be able to claim that during his presidency he did something
for the peace process. But these things are not worth that much. I
think these negotiations are worth a lot to the Israeli government. The
Israeli government is in a state of panic at the moment. There is
social unrest and a lot of social problems in the Israeli government.
Just this week--in the Israeli public. Just this week it was revealed
that there is a pension shortage, and people who are going to retire in
the next ten years are going to have their pension payments reduced by
10 percent. So that's quite a big shock. And the
government is trying to say, yes, we are proceeding on the peace
process, we are maintaining Israel's image to the rest of the world, and
they have to desperately prevent any further sanctions and boycotts
from being announced regarding Israel. That is why Netanyahu uses all of
his cards, all of his influence over the U.S. government to try to get
these negotiations to resume, so to put pressure on the Palestinian
government that will get them to agree to negotiations. And
that's why he has this new plan with recruiting Israeli students. Of
course, he's going to achieve the opposite result, because whenever
people call for a boycott of Israel and call Israel an apartheid state,
then if they learn that the Israeli student union, which actually
doesn't represent the non-Jewish parties within the student group--so
this is a student union that represent almost exclusively Jews. It's the
very image of apartheid. And these universities and these students are
now working for the government in order to justify Israel's actions, to
justify the actions of the Israeli Army. So that actually proves that
Israel is indeed--that is not the proof, but it is yet another
indication that Israel is an apartheid state and Israel is a very
repressive, nondemocratic regime. So we can clearly see what's Israel
interest in this.The thing is that when the Israeli
government is so stressed and so worried about the public reaction in
its own public and the international outcry about the occupation and
other types of repressive policies that it adopts, there is a real risk
that Israel will try to create a diversion by means of escalating
conflict with its neighbors or attacking Iran. And we saw that last
November when Israel bombed Gaza and was ready to invade Gaza. So Israel
already called the reserve soldiers. About 70,000--80,000 soldiers were
called. Only 56,000 actually appeared for duty. And they were getting
ready to invade Gaza on foot when President Morsi in Egypt, who was
still in power in Egypt at the time, said that he could not see how the
peace treaty between Israel and Egypt would hold if Israel invades Gaza
on the ground. And at that moment, the U.S. interest
becomes very clear. The U.S. interest wants the peace treaty between
Israel and Egypt to hold, because this is an interest of the weapon
companies, the weapon industries, the military-industrial complex in the
U.S. Israel is the number-one recipient of military aid from the U.S.
Egypt is number two. But when I say aid, it might give the
impression that the U.S. is given some kind of benefit or gift to the
people in Israel. In Egypt that's certainly not the case. This is in
fact a subsidy to U.S. arms companies, because all of that money
actually ends up in the U.S. arms companies. Israel may get a $3 billion
voucher from the U.S. government, but they have to redeem it from U.S.
companies. So that's something that creates a lot of profits for these
massive corporations with very powerful lobbies in the U.S. government.
And as long as there is a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, the
U.S. can safely provide these military deals to both countries. As soon
as the peace treaty collapses, even if there is no actual war, if it
doesn't actually deteriorate to an open fight, the U.S. can no longer
support both countries with weapons and it will have to choose. I think
it's quite clear it will choose the Israeli side. But it will be a blow
to the profit of the arm companies in the U.S.DESVARIEUX: Okay. Thanks so much for joining us, Shir.HEVER: Thank you, Jessica, for having me.DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
HERE is the exchange between Shel and me
http://youtu.be/RRKNHw8_PJQ
Published on Aug 16, 2013
Shir Hever: Israel wants
negotiations with the Palestinians to continue for the same reason it
recruits students to serve as propaganda agents, it tries to restore its
tainted imageShir Hever: Israel wants negotiations with the Palestinians to continue for the same
reason it recruits students to serve as propaganda agents, it tries to restore its tainted
image - Bio
Shir Hever is an economic researcher in the Alternative Information Center, a Palestinian-Israeli organization active in Jerusalem and Beit-Sahour. Researching the economic aspect of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, some of his research topics include international aid to the Palestinians and Israel, the effects of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories on the Israeli economy, and the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel. He is a frequent speaker on the topic of the economy of the Israeli occupation.Transcript
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.This
week, peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders took
place, but they were shadowed by news of the Israeli government building
settlements in the West Bank. Now joining us to give us a
perspective that you won't hear in the mainstream media is Shir Hever.
Shir is an economist studying the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian
territories for the Alternative Information Center. Thank you for joining us, Shir.SHIR HEVER, ECONOMIST, ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER: Thank you for having me, Jessica.DESVARIEUX:
So, Shir, we've been covering this story at The Real News, and what
we've been hearing is that essentially these talks are doomed to fail.
So why is Israel and Palestine, why are they both deciding to
participate in these talks?HEVER: I think it's at this
point know by practically everyone that these talks cannot succeed,
because Israel is not interested in having a solution or having any kind
of compromise. Israel is interested in maintaining the conversation,
maintaining these talks forever. As long as the talks can take place,
Israel can maintain its international image. And what you
hear from the Israeli government quite a lot is that Israel should not
be pressured by the international community for ending the occupation.
There shouldn't be any boycott against Israel, there shouldn't be any
kind of sanctions against Israeli war crimes and apartheid, because
Israel is engaged in peace negotiations, and those sort of sanctions or
boycott would be harmful to peace process. This is exactly the kind of
strategy that Israel is trying to adopt. And what we hear
now, the breaking news from this week, is that the prime minister,
Benjamin Netanyahu, has signed an agreement with the Israeli student
union, which represents most but not all students in Israel, so that
students will work for the government and be paid public money to work
as paid commentators, and they would work anonymously to promote Israeli
propaganda in the world and social media.And this story
really shows what Israel is trying to get from these peace talks. Israel
is trying to get credibility, Israel is trying to get legitimacy and to
restore its images much as it can. But, of course, they have no real
interest in the substance.Now, you also ask why are the
Palestinians willing to negotiate, and that's maybe not a question that I
am the best person qualified to answer. I think there is a lot of
pressure on the Palestinian government in the West Bank of the
Palestinian--on Mahmoud Abbas to continue the negotiations. Mahmoud
Abbas has had a very clear position that negotiations will not resume
unless Israel freezes construction in the illegal colonies. And it's
very clear that Israel does not freeze that construction.DESVARIEUX:
Okay. Let's talk a little bit more about the construction. How was this
even able to happen? I mean, if Israel knows it's going to be coming to
the table to negotiate, how is this even possible?HEVER: I
think it's very clear when Israel is building these colonies in the
area that it is supposed to negotiate about and that its future is not
clear because this area might become part of the Palestinian state, then
it's obvious that Israel is intentionally and directly sabotaging the
negotiations. But I don't think that it's just because Netanyahu is
doing two things at once and sabotaging the negotiations while trying to
push for negotiations at the same time. Netanyahu honestly wants
negotiations to happen. He doesn't want a Palestinian state. He doesn't
want peace. He doesn't want an end of the occupation. But he wants
negotiations. Negotiations themselves can fail because of the
construction of the colonies. But the thing is that the
Israeli government has built over the years sort of pockets of autonomy
within its own government structure. There is a decent realization of
decision-making processes, especially regarding the occupation and the
colonies. In fact, no one in the Israeli government actually knows how
much money is funneled into the colonies, because of all these pockets
that allow funds to be transferred based on decisions of lower-,
mid-level clerks and officials who are appointed in order to promote
right-wing agendas and to help subsidize the colonies, but to do so in a
clandestine fashion. And this is a policy that is quite
special to Israel. It's not very common in Western countries to have a
sort of decentralized government model like this. And the best example, I
think, was just in the the very first days of the occupation during the
war of 1967, the Six-Day War. Towards the end of that war, Israeli
soldiers have occupied East Jerusalem, and they found the Wailing Wall,
which is a religious site which is holy to the Jewish religion, and they
decided to demolish an entire Palestinian neighborhood that surrounded
the wall. And in their journals, those soldiers wrote, we decided not to
ask the government for permission or for direct--for instructions about
what to do about this Palestinian neighborhood, because we didn't want
the government to have a sort of written record of the decision to
demolish the neighborhood. We understood that we were expected to
demolish it, but it's best that these things are done unofficially. And
that kind of ideology, that kind of method of operation signifies in
many ways the way that Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories
for the past 45 years, 46 years.DESVARIEUX: Okay. Now
let's talk about the United States, who is playing the role of mediator
in all of this. What does the U.S. have to gain from participating and
mediating these negotiations?HEVER: I don't think that the
U.S. has much to gain from this, because I'm pretty sure that Senator
Kerry, Barack Obama, they know--sorry, Secretary of State Kerry and
Barack Obama, they know very well that these negotiations are going to
fail, because they're not willing to put any pressure on Israel and
they're not really mediators between the side. They are just supporting
the Israeli side in a very clear way. They might get a few photo ops.
Obama might be able to claim that during his presidency he did something
for the peace process. But these things are not worth that much. I
think these negotiations are worth a lot to the Israeli government. The
Israeli government is in a state of panic at the moment. There is
social unrest and a lot of social problems in the Israeli government.
Just this week--in the Israeli public. Just this week it was revealed
that there is a pension shortage, and people who are going to retire in
the next ten years are going to have their pension payments reduced by
10 percent. So that's quite a big shock. And the
government is trying to say, yes, we are proceeding on the peace
process, we are maintaining Israel's image to the rest of the world, and
they have to desperately prevent any further sanctions and boycotts
from being announced regarding Israel. That is why Netanyahu uses all of
his cards, all of his influence over the U.S. government to try to get
these negotiations to resume, so to put pressure on the Palestinian
government that will get them to agree to negotiations. And
that's why he has this new plan with recruiting Israeli students. Of
course, he's going to achieve the opposite result, because whenever
people call for a boycott of Israel and call Israel an apartheid state,
then if they learn that the Israeli student union, which actually
doesn't represent the non-Jewish parties within the student group--so
this is a student union that represent almost exclusively Jews. It's the
very image of apartheid. And these universities and these students are
now working for the government in order to justify Israel's actions, to
justify the actions of the Israeli Army. So that actually proves that
Israel is indeed--that is not the proof, but it is yet another
indication that Israel is an apartheid state and Israel is a very
repressive, nondemocratic regime. So we can clearly see what's Israel
interest in this.The thing is that when the Israeli
government is so stressed and so worried about the public reaction in
its own public and the international outcry about the occupation and
other types of repressive policies that it adopts, there is a real risk
that Israel will try to create a diversion by means of escalating
conflict with its neighbors or attacking Iran. And we saw that last
November when Israel bombed Gaza and was ready to invade Gaza. So Israel
already called the reserve soldiers. About 70,000--80,000 soldiers were
called. Only 56,000 actually appeared for duty. And they were getting
ready to invade Gaza on foot when President Morsi in Egypt, who was
still in power in Egypt at the time, said that he could not see how the
peace treaty between Israel and Egypt would hold if Israel invades Gaza
on the ground. And at that moment, the U.S. interest
becomes very clear. The U.S. interest wants the peace treaty between
Israel and Egypt to hold, because this is an interest of the weapon
companies, the weapon industries, the military-industrial complex in the
U.S. Israel is the number-one recipient of military aid from the U.S.
Egypt is number two. But when I say aid, it might give the
impression that the U.S. is given some kind of benefit or gift to the
people in Israel. In Egypt that's certainly not the case. This is in
fact a subsidy to U.S. arms companies, because all of that money
actually ends up in the U.S. arms companies. Israel may get a $3 billion
voucher from the U.S. government, but they have to redeem it from U.S.
companies. So that's something that creates a lot of profits for these
massive corporations with very powerful lobbies in the U.S. government.
And as long as there is a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, the
U.S. can safely provide these military deals to both countries. As soon
as the peace treaty collapses, even if there is no actual war, if it
doesn't actually deteriorate to an open fight, the U.S. can no longer
support both countries with weapons and it will have to choose. I think
it's quite clear it will choose the Israeli side. But it will be a blow
to the profit of the arm companies in the U.S.DESVARIEUX: Okay. Thanks so much for joining us, Shir.HEVER: Thank you, Jessica, for having me.DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.End
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.HERE is the exchange between Shel and me
01 March 2013
UPDATE: Here’s the video of Turkey’s prime minister comparing Zionism to fascism & Kerry scolds Turkish leader for comment about Zionism 28FEB&1MAR13
THE inclusion of Zionism as a crime against humanity reminds me of when, in the 70's, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution equating Zionism as a form of racism. I can still hear Chevy Chase, doing the "news" on Saturday Night Live, reporting on the resolution, saying something like 'This week the UN General Assembly passed a resolution equating Zionism with racism. When asked to comment, Black entertainer Sammy Davis Jr, a convert to Judaism, said What a breakthrough, now I can hate myself!'. The World laughed, nervously, understanding the resolution was nothing more than an expression of the racism it "condemned", and had no purpose other than encouraging ignorance, prejudice and hatred among the peoples of the Middle East. Turkish PM Erdogan is an intelligent man and as a leader of a democratic nation should know he doesn't have to pander to radical extremist to maintain stability and legitimacy, unlike the leaders of Iran and Saudi Arabia. In fact, in his speech he condemns "islamic" terrorism and he states "islamic" terrorist do not follow the teachings of Islam. His misguided comments on Zionism (using the political definition of the word) seem to be an expression of frustration with the stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the Israeli government's refusal to negotiate on their West Bank settlement policy, which many view the same as nazi germany's lebensraum policy. He didn't call for the elimination of Israel, the Jewish people or for support of groups and countries with that goal. PM Erdogan should issue a clarification of his remarks on Zionism to quell this controversy before it becomes justification for violence between Israel and Gaza and the West Bank or attacks on Jewish organizations and people around the world. For more information on Zionism, lebensraum and the origins of Semitic peoples see Wikipedia's pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_people
LIBYA claims the Christians that are being held by the government are being deported for entering the country illegally. Considering they were proselytizing there is reason to suspect that is in fact the reason for their detention and deportation. It is worth noting that in Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's speech to the UN Conference of Civilizations he mentioned islamophobia in western countries but did not mention the persecution of and discrimination against Christians in Muslin nations. That is a sad omission in a speech addressing intolerance. One also has to wonder if Sec of State Kerry will address the plight of the Christian community in any of the countries of the the Middle East he will visit, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, or if the profit margins of corporate America and the US military-industrial complex will trump human rights and freedom of religion as guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Stupid question, eh?
By the by, Israel is also guilty of persecution of and discrimination against Christians in Israel and the occupied territories, see the latest report from the US State Depthttp://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,USDOS,,ISR,,502105b15f,0.html
Will this ever be addressed by any American politician? Doubtful.....
Abigail Hauslohner in Cairo contributed to this report.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/kerry-scolds-turkish-leader-for-disparaging-zionism/2013/03/01/90c2c4fc-8284-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_print.html
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech to a United Nations body in Vienna in which he compared Zionism, the ideology behind the creation of a Jewish state, to fascism. He compared it to Islamophobia as well. “We must consider — just like Zionism or anti-Semitism or fascism — Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.”
Yes, that’s right: he condemned anti-Semitism and Zionism in the same sentence. Does condemning Zionism make you anti-Semitic? Not in Erdogan’s mind, it seems. That’s not a question for me to parse, but it’s worth noting that a lot of people seem to perceive any condemnation of Zionism as a condemnation of, if not all Jews, then certainly the ones living in Israel. And that’s the point. Causing offense to Israelis and concern among Turkey’s Western allies would seem to be an entirely foreseeable consequence of comparing Zionism to fascism. So why say it?
The video of his speech is above (flip ahead to 8:00) and a partial transcript (source: the New York Times’s Robert Mackey) is below. But first, here are the three things I find really puzzling about this.
1) Erdogan’s speech was about, and you can’t top this irony, combatting racism and discrimination based on religion. “We see racist attacks on the rise in the world,” he said, specifically discussing attacks on Muslims. Again, whether or not Erdogan meant to attack Jews or Israelis in general, he had to know that his comments would be taken that way. Is he just not aware of that apparent contradiction? Or was this comment meant as a deliberate rhetorical jab at Israel, with which Erdogan’s Turkey has had a bumpy relationship?
2) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Erdogan’s comments. From here, does the Turkish prime minister find some way to calm things down – presumably by walking back the comment – or is this the start of yet another minor downturn in the relationship?
3) Israel and Turkey have some important shared interests in the region, which are only going to become more important as Syria continues to spiral out of control. Those shared interests are probably why, despite the leaders’ obvious distrust of one another, the two countries have kept things basically civil and occasionally productive. This is a minor test to that relationship, but it will be interesting to see the degree to which Israeli-Turkish ties do or do not break down.
Here’s the relevant section from his speech:
There is an interesting little side story to this controversy in the Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/li...In addition to indifference vis-à-vis the Muslim countries, we also see harsh, offending, insulting behavior towards Muslims who live in countries other than their own, and this continues to be an unconscionable act that has been ongoing around the world.We should be striving to better understand the beliefs of others but instead we see that people act based on prejudice and exclude others and despise them. And that is why it is necessary that we must consider — just like Zionism or anti-Semitism or fascism — Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.
LIBYA claims the Christians that are being held by the government are being deported for entering the country illegally. Considering they were proselytizing there is reason to suspect that is in fact the reason for their detention and deportation. It is worth noting that in Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's speech to the UN Conference of Civilizations he mentioned islamophobia in western countries but did not mention the persecution of and discrimination against Christians in Muslin nations. That is a sad omission in a speech addressing intolerance. One also has to wonder if Sec of State Kerry will address the plight of the Christian community in any of the countries of the the Middle East he will visit, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, or if the profit margins of corporate America and the US military-industrial complex will trump human rights and freedom of religion as guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Stupid question, eh?
By the by, Israel is also guilty of persecution of and discrimination against Christians in Israel and the occupied territories, see the latest report from the US State Depthttp://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,USDOS,,ISR,,502105b15f,0.html
Will this ever be addressed by any American politician? Doubtful.....
Kerry scolds Turkish leader for comment about Zionism
By Anne Gearan,
ANKARA, Turkey —Secretary of State John F. Kerry scolded Turkey’s leader Friday for likening Zionism to a “crime against humanity,” saying such remarks complicate efforts to forge Mideast peace.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comment has widened his country’s rift with Israel, with which the moderate Muslim-majority nation once had cordial relations. It also forced Kerry to publicly chastise an important ally straddling the Middle East and Europe.
“Obviously, we not only disagree,” Kerry told reporters, “we found it objectionable.” He said that efforts to promote tolerance and peace would become “more complicated in the aftermath of a speech such as the one we heard.’’
Erdogan had told the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations meeting in Vienna on Wednesday: “Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become necessary to view Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the reference to Zionism as a “dark and mendacious statement, the likes of which we thought had passed from the world.”
The tensions with Erdogan marked the second sour note in as many days for Kerry, whose first foreign trip has been dominated by the growing crisis in Syria, which borders Turkey. The growing strains between Turkey and Israel have dismayed U.S. officials who had hoped that Turkey might be a democratic example for Arab states and a go-between in disputes with the West.
Zionism is a form of Jewish nationalism that began in the 19th century with support for the creation of a Jewish state. While the movement arose in part as a response to anti-Semitism, some critics have adopted the term to denounce Israel’s policies in the occupied territories.
Erdogan is a vocal Islamist, a departure from Turkey’s history of firmly secular democratic rule. He often appears to play to anti-Israeli sentiment among the
majority-Muslim Turks, and U.S. leaders of both political parties have found him touchy and unpredictable.
majority-Muslim Turks, and U.S. leaders of both political parties have found him touchy and unpredictable.
For his part, Erdogan has found the United States less cooperative than he hoped in ending the two-year-old conflict in Syria.
Turkey is the first Muslim country Kerry has visited as secretary, but the visit played out awkardly. Before meeting with the Turkish leader, Kerry said that the death of a Turkish security guard last month in an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara served as reminder that it is important “to promote a spirit of tolerance.’’
“And that includes all of the public statements made by all leaders,” Kerry said. He said he would raise the matter directly with Erdogan.
The meeting itself began with the sometimes irascible Turkish leader noting coldly that Kerry was late. Kerry apologized, and added that he had just finished a productive meeting with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
“You must have spoken about everything, so there is nothing left for us to talk about,” Erdogan replied through a translator.
He did not smile when Kerry tried to lighten the mood.
Israeli forces killed nine Turks in 2010 during the storming of a Palestinian aid ship that tried to break through an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“We have never been hostile against a nation, against a state, against an individual,” Davutoglu said after his meetings with Kerry. “However, if we need to speak about a very hostile practice, I would refer you to the killing of nine civilians on open waters.”
The United States is one of three NATO nations that have deployed Patriot missile interceptors along Turkey’s 550-mile border with Syria. Erdogan had asked for the support but wanted more — a sentiment not unlike that voiced this week by a U.S.-backed Syrian opposition leader who angrily demanded of Kerry more help than the visiting secretary of state has offered.
Erdogan also has advocated a buffer zone to protect refugees inside Syria, something the United States rejected as unworkable. Turkey has taken in more than 200,000 Syrian refugees during a two-year civil war that has killed some 70,000 people.
Kerry heads next to Egypt, arriving at a time of prolonged political instability that could blunt Egypt’s traditional power as a Mideast peace broker.
Tensions between the Islamist backers of President Mohamed Morsi and a broad but disorganized liberal opposition have periodically spiraled into days of protests and violent street clashes. Popular frustration with rising inflation and joblessness, growing insecurity, and a lack of accountability and justice have also fueled violent clashes between protesters and police in recent weeks and have added to the growing force of Morsi’s opposition.
Two of Egypt’s top opposition leaders turned down invitations to meet with Kerry during his visit, local news media reported. The National Salvation Front, headed by Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, cited “blatant American interference in Egypt’s internal affairs” in rejecting a meeting, the state-run al-Ahram newspaper reported Thursday.
Egyptian liberal and leftist opposition leaders have grown increasingly critical of the United States since Morsi won Egypt’s first democratic presidential election last summer. His rivals have accused Washington of supporting Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, which the opposition says have ignored alternate political voices in a drive to dominate Egypt’s government institutions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/kerry-scolds-turkish-leader-for-disparaging-zionism/2013/03/01/90c2c4fc-8284-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_print.html
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