~ Gesticht àls Gesticht ter Voorkoming v/d Maatschappelijke Randdebiliteit ~
~ HÉT "progressief" Orgaan Der "Hangmatsocialisten" ~ Gesticht àls Gesticht ter Voorkoming v/d Maatschappelijke & Politieke Randdebiliteit
12-01-2009
Gaza 2009 - Over het Nieuwjaarsvuurwerk van Israël - Chronologie van een aangekondigde ramp - PART I (5)
Begin deel (5) ...Het vervolg...!!
Jonathan Steele geeft een duidelijk overzicht van enkele kanttekeningen die worden geplaatst bij de toch wel slordige vertaling van de woorden van Ahmadinejad. Maar ook het volgende artikel stelt een aantal flinke vragen bij de wijze waarop de bevolkingen van de zogenaamde "Vrije Westersche Wereld" nog maar eens worden geïnformeerd over de toestand in het Midden Oosten.
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Does Iran's President Want Israel Wiped Off The Map - Does He Deny The Holocaust?
An analysis of media rhetoric on its way to war against Iran - Commenting on the alleged statements of Iran's President Ahmadinejad .
By Anneliese Fikentscher and Andreas Neumann
Translation to English: Erik Appleby
04/19/06 "Kein Krieg!" -- -- - "But now that I'm on Iran, the threat to Iran, of course -- (applause) -- the threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel. That's a threat, a serious threat. It's a threat to world peace; it's a threat, in essence, to a strong alliance. I made it clear, I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally, Israel, and -- (applause.)" George W. Bush, US-President, 2006-03-20 in Cleveland (Ohio) in an off-the-cuff speech (source: www.whitehouse.gov) But why does Bush speak of Iran's objective to destroy Israel?
Does Iran's President wants Israel wiped off the map?
To raze Israel to the ground, to batter down, to destroy, to annihilate, to liquidate, to erase Israel, to wipe it off the map - this is what Iran's President demanded - at least this is what we read about or heard of at the end of October 2005. Spreading the news was very effective. This is a declaration of war they said. Obviously government and media were at one with their indignation. It goes around the world.
But let's take a closer look at what Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. It is a merit of the 'New York Times' that they placed the complete speech at our disposal. Here's an excerpt from the publication dated 2005-10-30:
"They say it is not possible to have a world without the United States and Zionism. But you know that this is a possible goal and slogan. Let's take a step back. [[[We had a hostile regime in this country which was undemocratic, armed to the teeth and, with SAVAK, its security apparatus of SAVAK [the intelligence bureau of the Shah of Iran's government] watched everyone. An environment of terror existed.]]] When our dear Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Iranian revolution] said that the regime must be removed, many of those who claimed to be politically well-informed said it was not possible. All the corrupt governments were in support of the regime when Imam Khomeini started his movement. [[[All the Western and Eastern countries supported the regime even after the massacre of September 7 [1978] ]]] and said the removal of the regime was not possible. But our people resisted and it is 27 years now that we have survived without a regime dependent on the United States. The tyranny of the East and the West over the world should have to end, but weak people who can see only what lies in front of them cannot believe this. Who would believe that one day we could witness the collapse of the Eastern Empire? But we could watch its fall in our lifetime. And it collapsed in a way that we have to refer to libraries because no trace of it is left. Imam [Khomeini] said Saddam must go and he said he would grow weaker than anyone could imagine. Now you see the man who spoke with such arrogance ten years ago that one would have thought he was immortal, is being tried in his own country in handcuffs and shackles [[[by those who he believed supported him and with whose backing he committed his crimes]]]. Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime [Israel] has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world. Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world."
(source: www.nytimes.com, based on a publication of 'Iranian Students News Agency' (ISNA) -- insertions by the New York Times in squared brackets -- passages in triple squared brackets will be left blank in the MEMRI version printed below)
It's becoming clear. The statements of the Iranian President have been reflected by the media in a manipulated way. Iran's President betokens the removal of the regimes, that are in power in Israel and in the USA, to be possible aim for the future. This is correct. But he never demands the elimination or annihilation of Israel. He reveals that changes are potential. The Shah-Regime being supported by the USA in its own country has been vanquished. The eastern governance of the Soviet Union collapsed. Saddam Hussein's dominion drew to a close. Referring to this he voices his aspiration that changes will also be feasible in Israel respectively in Palestine. He adduces Ayatollah Khomeini referring to the Shah-Regime who in this context said that the regime (meaning the Shah-Regime) should be removed.
Certainly, Ahmadinejad translates this quotation about a change of regime into the occupied Palestine. This has to be legitimate. To long for modified political conditions in a country is a world-wide day-to-day business by all means. But to commute a demand for removal of a 'regime' into a demand for removal of a state is serious deception and dangerous demagogy.
This is one chapter of the war against Iran that has already begun with the words of Georg Meggle, professor of philosophy at the university of Leipzig - namely with the probably most important phase, the phase of propaganda.
Marginally we want to mention that it was the former US Vice-Minister of Defence and current President of the World Bank, Paul D. Wolfowitz, who in Sept. 2001 talked about ending states in public and without any kind of awe. And it was the father of George W. Bush who started the discussion about a winnable nuclear war if only the survival of an elite is assured.
Let's pick an example: the German online-news-magazine tagesschau.de writes the following about Iran's president on 2005-10-27: "There is no doubt: the new wave of assaults in Palestine will erase the stigma in countenance of the Islamic world." Instead of using the original word 'wave' they write 'wave of assaults'. This replacement of the original text is what we call disinformation. E.g. it would be correct to say: "The new movement in Palestine will erase the stain of disgrace from the Islamic world." Additionally this statement refers to the occupation regime mentioned in the previous sentence.
As a precaution we will examine a different translation of the speech - a version prepared by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), located in Washington:
"They [ask]: 'Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?' But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved. [[[...]]] "'When the dear Imam [Khomeini] said that [the Shah's] regime must go, and that we demand a world without dependent governments, many people who claimed to have political and other knowledge [asked], 'Is it possible [that the Shah's regime can be toppled]?' That day, when Imam [Khomeini] began his movement, all the powers supported [the Shah's] corrupt regime [[[...]]] and said it was not possible. However, our nation stood firm, and by now we have, for 27 years, been living without a government dependent on America. Imam [Khomeni] said: 'The rule of the East [U.S.S.R.] and of the West [U.S.] should be ended.' But the weak people who saw only the tiny world near them did not believe it. Nobody believed that we would one day witness the collapse of the Eastern Imperialism [i.e. the U.S.S.R], and said it was an iron regime. But in our short lifetime we have witnessed how this regime collapsed in such a way that we must look for it in libraries, and we can find no literature about it. Imam [Khomeini] said that Saddam [Hussein] must go, and that he would be humiliated in a way that was unprecedented. And what do you see today? A man who, 10 years ago, spoke as proudly as if he would live for eternity is today chained by the feet, and is now being tried in his own country [[[...]]] Imam [Khomeini] said: 'This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history.' This sentence is very wise. The issue of Palestine is not an issue on which we can compromise. Is it possible that an [Islamic] front allows another front [i.e. country] to arise in its [own] heart? This means defeat, and he who accepts the existence of this regime [i.e. Israel] in fact signs the defeat of the Islamic world. In his battle against the World of Arrogance, our dear Imam [Khomeini] set the regime occupying Qods [Jerusalem] as the target of his fight. I do not doubt that the new wave which has begun in our dear Palestine and which today we are also witnessing in the Islamic world is a wave of morality which has spread all over the Islamic world. Very soon, this stain of disgrace [i.e. Israel] will vanish from the center of the Islamic world - and this is attainable."
(source: http://memri.org, based on the publication of 'Iranian Students News Agency' (ISNA) -- insertions by MEMRI in squared brackets -- missing passages compared to the 'New York Times' in triple squared brackets)
The term 'map' to which the media refer at length does not even appear. Whereas the 'New York Times' said: "Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map" the version by MEMRI is: "Imam [Khomeini] said: This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history."
MEMRI added the following prefixed formulation to their translation as a kind of title: "Very Soon, This Stain of Disgrace [i.e. Israel] Will Be Purged From the Center of the Islamic World - and This is Attainable". Thereby they take it out of context by using the insertion 'i.e. Israel' they distort the meaning on purpose. The temporal tapering 'very soon' does not appear in the NY-Times-translation either. Besides it is striking that MEMRI deleted all passages in their translation which characterize the US-supported Shah-Regime as a regime of terror and at the same time show the true character of US-American policy.
An independent translation of the original (like the version published by ISNA) yields that Ahmadinejad does not use the term 'map'. He quotes Ayatollah Khomeini's assertion that the occupation regime must vanish from this world - literally translated: from the arena of times. Correspondingly: there is no space for an occupation regime in this world respectively in this time. The formulation 'wipe off the map' used by the 'New York Times' is a very free and aggravating interpretation which is equivalent to 'razing something to the ground' or 'annihilating something'. The downwelling translation, first into English ('wipe off the map'), then from English to German - and all literally ('von der Landkarte löschen') - makes us stride away from the original more and more. The perfidious thing about this translation is that the expression 'map' can only be used in one (intentional) way: a state can be removed from a map but not a regime, about which Ahmadinejad is actually speaking.
Again following the independent translation: "I have no doubt that the new movement taking place in our dear Palestine is a spiritual movement which is spanning the entire Islamic world and which will soon remove this stain of disgrace from the Islamic world".
It must be allowed to ask how it is possible that 'spirtual movement' resp. 'wave of morality' (as translated by MEMRI) and 'wave of assaults' can be equated and translated (like e.g tagesschau.de published it).
Does Iran's President deny the Holocaust?
"The German government condemned the repetitive offending anti-Israel statements by Ahmadinejad to be shocking. Such behaviour is not tolerable, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated. [...] Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel proclaimed Ahmadinejad's statements to be 'inconceivable'" (published by tagesschau.de 2005-12-14.
But not only the German Foreign Minister Steinmeier and the Federal Chancellor Merkel allege this, but the Bild-Zeitung, tagesschau.de, parts of the peace movement, US-President George W. Bush, the 'Papers for German and international politics', CNN, the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, almost the entire world does so, too: Iran's President Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust.
What is this assertion based on? In substance it is based on dispatches of 2 days - 2005-12-14 and 2006-02-11.
"The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up his verbal attacks against Israel and the Western states and has denied the Holocaust. Instead of making Israel's attacks against Palestine a subject of discussion 'the Western states devote their energy to the fairy-tale of the massacre against the Jews', Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday in a speech at Zahedan in the south-east of Iran which was broadcasted directly by the news-channel Khabar. That day he stated that if the Western states really believe in the assassination of six million Jews in W.W. II they should put a piece of land in Europe, in the USA, Canada or Alaska at Israel's disposal." - dispatch of the German press agency DPA, 2005-12-14.
The German TV-station n24 spreads the following on 2006-12-14 using the title 'Iran's President calls the Holocaust a myth': "The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up his verbal attacks against Israel and called the Holocaust a 'myth' used as a pretext by the Europeans to found a Jewish state in the center of the Islamic world . 'In the name of the Holocaust they have created a myth and regard it to be worthier than God, religion and the prophets' the Iranian head of state said."
The Iranian press agency IRNA renders Ahmadinejad on 2005-12-14 as follows: "'If the Europeans are telling the truth in their claim that they have killed six million Jews in the Holocaust during the World War II - which seems they are right in their claim because they insist on it and arrest and imprison those who oppose it, why the Palestinian nation should pay for the crime. Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear Palestine using their bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions.' [...] 'If you have committed the crimes so give a piece of your land somewhere in Europe or America and Canada or Alaska to them to set up their own state there.' [...] Ahmadinejad said some have created a myth on holocaust and hold it even higher than the very belief in religion and prophets [...] The president further said, 'If your civilization consists of aggression, displacing the oppressed nations, suppressing justice-seeking voices and spreading injustice and poverty for the majority of people on the earth, then we say it out loud that we despise your hollow civilization.'"
There again we find the quotation already rendered by n24: "In the name of the Holocaust they created a myth." We can see that this is completely different from what is published by e.g. the DPA - the massacre against the Jews is a fairy-tale. What Ahmadinejad does is not denying the Holocaust. No! It is dealing out criticism against the mendacity of the imperialistic powers who use the Holocaust to muzzle critical voices and to achieve advantages concerning the legitimization of a planned war. This is criticism against the exploitation of the Holocaust.
CNN (2005-12-15) renders as follows: "If you have burned the Jews why don't you give a piece of Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to Israel. Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime?"
The Washingtonian ''Middle East Media Research Institute' (MEMRI) renders Ahmadinejad's statements from 2005-12-14 as follows: "...we ask you: if you indeed committed this great crime, why should the oppressed people of Palestine be punished for it? * [...] If you committed a crime, you yourselves should pay for it. Our offer was and remains as follows: If you committed a crime, it is only appropriate that you place a piece of your land at their disposal - a piece of Europe, of America, of Canada, or of Alaska - so they can establish their own state. Rest assured that if you do so, the Iranian people will voice no objection."
The MEMRI-rendering uses the relieving translation 'great crime' and misappropriates the following sentence at the * marked passage: "Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear Palestine using their bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions." This sentence has obviously been left out deliberately because it would intimate why the Israeli state could have forfeited the right to establish itself in Palestine - videlicet because of its aggressive expansionist policy against the people of Palestine, ignoring any law of nations and disobeying all UN-resolutions.
In spite of the variability referring to the rendering of the statements of Iran's President we should nevertheless note down: the reproach of denying the Holocaust cannot be sustained if Ahmadinejad speaks of a great and huge crime that has been done to the Jews.
In another IRNA-dispatch (2005-12-14) the Arabian author Ghazi Abu Daqa writes about Ahmadinejad: "The Iranian president has nothing against the followers of Judaism [...] Ahmadinejad is against Zionism as well as its expansionist and occupying policy. That is why he managed to declare to the world with courage that there is no place for the Zionist regime in the world civilized community."
It's no wonder that such opinions do not go down particularly well with the ideas of the centers of power in the Western world. But for this reason they are not wrong right away. Dealing out criticism against the aggressive policy of the Western world, to which Israel belongs as well, is not yet anti-Semitism. We should at least to give audience to this kind of criticism - even if it is a problematic field for us.
2006-02-11 Ahmadinejad said according to IRNA: "[...] the real holocaust should be sought in Palestine, where the blood of the oppressed nation is shed every day and Iraq, where the defenceless Muslim people are killed daily. [...] 'Some western governments, in particular the US, approve of the sacrilege on the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), while denial of the "Myth of Holocaust", based on which the Zionists have been exerting pressure upon other countries for the past 60 years and kill the innocent Palestinians, is considered as a crime' [...]"
The assertion that Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust thus is wrong in more than one aspect. He does not deny the Holocaust, but speaks of denial itself. And he does not speak of denial of the Holocaust, but of denial of the Myth of Holocaust. This is something totally different. All in all he speaks of the exploitation of the Holocaust. The Myth of Holocaust, like it is made a subject of discussion by Ahmadinejad, is a myth that has been built up in conjunction with the Holocaust to - as he says - put pressure onto somebody. We might follow this train of thoughts or we might not. But we cannot equalize his thoughts with denial of the Holocaust.
If Ahmadinejad according to this 2006-02-11 condemns the fact that it is forbidden and treated as a crime to do research into the Myth of Holocaust, as we find it quoted in the MEMRI translation, this acquires a meaning much different from the common and wide-spread one. If the myth related to the Holocaust is commuted to a 'Fairy Tale of the Massacre' - like the DPA did - this can only be understood as a malicious misinterpretation.
By the use of misrepresentation and adulteration it apparently succeeded to constitute the statements of the Iranian President to be part and parcel of the currently fought propaganda battle. It is our responsibility to counter this.
Concluding:
A dispatch by Reuters confirms 2006-02-21: "The Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has [...] repudiated that his state would want the Jewish state Israel 'wiped off the map'. [...] Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been misunderstood. 'Nobody can erase a country from the map.' Ahmadinejad was not thinking of the state of Israel but of their regime [...]. 'We do not accredit this regime to be legitimate.' [...] Mottaki also accepted that the Holocaust really took place in a way that six million Jews were murdered during the era of National Socialism."
The next step is to connect the Iranian President with Hitler. 2006-02-20 the Chairman of the Counsil of Jews in France (Crif) says in Paris: "The Iranian President's assertions do not rank behind Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'". Paul Spiegel, President of the Central Counsil of Jews in Germany, 2005-12-10 in the 'Welt' qualifies the statements of Ahmadinejad to be "the worst comment on this subject that he has ever heard of a statesman since A. Hitler". At the White House the Iranian President is even named Hitler. And the German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel as well moves over Iran's President towards Hitler and National Socialism by saying 2006-02-04 in Munich: "Already in the early 1930's many people said that it is only rhetoric. One could have prevented a lot in time if one had acted... Germany is in the debt to resist the incipiencies and to do anything to make clear where the limit of tolerance is. Iran remains in control of the situation, it is still in their hands."
All this indicates war. Slobodan Milosevic became Hitler. The result was the war of the Nato against Yugoslavia. Saddam Hussein became Hitler. What followed was the war the USA and their coalition of compliant partners waged against Iraq. Now the Iranian President becomes Hitler.
And someone who is Hitler-like can assure a hundred times that he only wants to use nuclear energy in a peaceful way. Nobody will believe him. Somebody like Hitler can act within the scope of all contracts. Acting contrary to contract will nevertheless be imputed to him. "Virtually none of the Western states recognize that uranium enrichment is absolutely legal. There is no restriction by contract or by the law of nations. Quite the contrary: Actually the Western countries would have the duty to assist Iran with these activities, according to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. As long as a state renounces the bomb it is eligible for technical support by the nuclear powers." (Jörg Pfuhl, ARD radio studio Istanbul 2006-01-11) But - all this does not count if the Head of a state is stigmatized as Hitler.
Ook onze eigen Minister van Buitenlandse zaken (als er intussen al weer geen andere is) Karel De Gucht blijft in interviews herhalden dat Iran Israel "van de kaart wil vegen", terwijl hij toch wel beter geïnformeerd zou mogen zijn? Of doet hij 't met opzet zodat België binnenkort makkelijker mee kan opstappen in de Amerikaanse oorlogsretoriek ?!...
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De Gucht veroordeelt uitspraken Iraanse president
Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Karel De Gucht veroordeelt met klem de uitspraken van de Iraanse president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad die stelt dat "Israël van de kaart moet geveegd worden".
Deze uitspraken zijn volstrekt onaanvaardbaar, zegt Karel De Gucht. "België zal dit soort haatdragend taalgebruik nooit tolereren en ik zal me ook persoonlijk steeds blijven inzetten om dit te bekampen."
De Gucht herinnert tevens aan het bestaansrecht van Israël, dat door menige resoluties van de Verenigde Naties bevestigd wordt. Minister De Gucht heeft beslist om de Iraanse ambassadeur te laten ontbieden op Buitenlandse Zaken om uitleg te verschaffen over de uitlatingen van de president van zijn land. "Dit voorval berokkent ernstige schade aan de internationale positie van Iran", besluit De Gucht. In andere Europese landen worden eveneens de Iraanse ambassadeurs ontboden om tekst en uitleg te verschaffen over de uitlatingen van hun president.
Ook VLD-volksvertegenwoordiger en Claude Marinower is verontwaardigd en geschokt door de uitspraken van de Iraanse president. "Dergelijke onaanvaardbare fundamentalistische uitspraken kunnen niet getolereerd worden", aldus de volksvertegenwoordiger.
Wereld geschokt over nieuwe dreigementen van Iraanse president
Israël laat zich niet straffeloos intimideren
De Iraanse president Ahmadinejad wordt bedolven onder de kritiek voor zijn nieuwe bedreiging aan het adres van Israël. ,,Een gevaarlijk man'', reageren de Israëli's. Maar de joodse staat wacht niet af, en bereidt zich volop voor om de dreiging van het Iraanse atoomprogramma te pareren.
In oktober zei Ahmadinejad al dat Israël van de kaart moest worden geveegd. Eergisteren zei hij in Mekka dat Duitsland, Oostenrijk of een ander Europees land maar een paar provincies moesten vrijmaken voor een joodse staat.
Retoriek of gemeend? Feit is dat Israël niet lijdzaam afwacht. Het land heeft al ongeveer de helft van de 102 F-16I's ontvangen die het bestelde in de VS. Met hun extra grote brandstoftanks kunnen deze oorlogsvliegtuigen Iran bereiken. In Duitsland heeft Israël voorts twee onderzeeërs besteld die atoomwapens op Iran zouden kunnen afvuren.
Vorige week heeft Israël met succes zijn Arrow-raketdefensie getest tegen een raket die veel gelijkt op de Iraanse Shahab-3, die kan worden uitgerust met een kernkop om Israël te raken of Amerikaanse doelen in het Midden-Oosten.
Militaire oplossing?
Vooraanstaande Israëlische politici bespreken openlijk de mogelijkheid voor een ,,militaire optie'', ofwel alleen, ofwel samen met andere landen. Deze week zei premier Sharon dat Israël ,,natuurlijk'' de capaciteit heeft om het Iraanse atoomprogramma uit te schakelen. Zijn rivaal Netanyahu zei zelfs dat hij akkoord kon gaan met een ,,preventieve aanval''. Legerchef Dan Halutz vond dat diplomatie druk ontoereikend is om te voorkomen dat Teheran een atoombom maakt, en dat een militaire oplossing wellicht noodzakelijk zou zijn.
Eenvoudig zal dat niet zijn. In 1981 kon de Israëlische luchtmacht nog vernietigend uithalen naar een Iraakse kernreactor in aanbouw. De Iraniërs hebben die les goed geleerd. Ze hebben hun atoomfaciliteiten verspreid over het (uitgestrekte) land en sommige bevinden zich ondergronds of in de bergen. Het Iraanse afweergeschut wordt bovendien steeds moderner.
Of rekent Israël op de VS? President George Bush heeft Europa de tijd gegeven om via diplomatie Teheran op betere gedachten te brengen, maar hij heet ook gezegd dat hij niet zal toestaan dat Iran over kernwapens zal beschikken.
"Onverzettelijke vijand"
Zoals kon worden verwacht lokte de nieuwe aanval van president Ahmadinejad felle reacties uit. Zeker in Duitsland, waar het ontkennen van de Holocaust een misdaad is. Duitsland zal de Iraanse ambassadeur op het matje roepen. Ook Oostenrijk besloot tot deze maatregel.
Israël veroordeelde Ahmadinejdads opmerkingen als ,,ongehoord en zelfs racistisch''. de VS bestempelde ze als ,,ontstellend en laakbaar''.
In de ogen van onze minister van Buitenlandse Zaken De Gucht bevestigt Ahmadinejad ,,dat hij een onverzettelijke vijand is van de staat Israël'', en brengt hij met zijn nieuwe uitlating ,,de positie van zijn land ernstig schade toe''.
Reactie Minister De Gucht op de uitspraken over Israël van de Iraanse President
Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Karel De Gucht veroordeelt met klem de uitspraken van de Iraanse President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad die stelt dat "Israel van de kaart moet geveegd worden". Deze zijn "volstrekt onaanvaardbaar", aldus de Minister.
Helsinki 27.10.2005.
Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Karel De Gucht veroordeelt met klem de uitspraken van de Iraanse President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad die stelt dat "Israel van de kaart moet geveegd worden". Deze zijn "volstrekt onaanvaardbaar", aldus de Minister.
Minister De Gucht: "België zal dit soort van haatdragend taalgebruik nooit tolereren en ik zal me ook persoonlijk steeds blijven inzetten om dit te bekampen". Hij herinnert tevens aan het bestaansrecht van Israël, dat door menige resoluties van de Verenigde Naties bevestigd wordt.
De Minister heeft beslist om de Iraanse Ambassadeur vandaag nog te laten ontbieden op Buitenlandse Zaken om uitleg te verschaffen over de uitlatingen van de President van zijn land.
"Dit voorval berokkent ernstige schade aan de internationale positie van Iran." aldus tot slot Minister De Gucht
Dit is eigenlijk allemaal niet eens zo erg belangrijk, alleszins niet op dit moment. ...& Voor de mensen in Israël & de Bezette Gebieden zelf maakt 't op dit moment ook geen bàl uit.
Overigens.. euhh.. nu we eraan terugdenken... in onze tweede paragraaf hebben wij zelf ook eigenlijk melding gemaakt dat we staten en naties het liefst van al zouden zien verdwijnen, en teneinde te vermijden dat er vanaf heden elke dag een R4'ke voor onze deur postvat met daarin twee mannen met lange pardessus willen we graag even verduidelijken dat we dus helemaal niet bedoelden dat Staten of Naties van de kaart dienen te worden geveegd, maar wél dat wij geloven dat het voor de mensen een goede zaak zou kunnen zijn indien staatsgrenzen zouden kunnen verdampen, niét door nucleaire inslagen, maar wel door de overtolligheid ervan, zoals bijvoorbeeld de Belgische Senaat, die hier eigenlijk toch ook alleen maar overbodig is geworden (hoewel ze er nog steeds staat).
Om nu terug te keren naar het Midden Oosten conflict zelf, er zijn een aantal scenario's die op tafel liggen, en waarschijnlijk zal het nog het meest van Israël zélf afhangen of er ooit vrede kan komen en of Israël ooit zal blijven bestaan of dat het Israëlische staatsmodel zal verdampen of van de kaart zal worden geveegd, 't is maar hoe u 't wil lezen.
1) Israël kan op militair gebied gemakkelijk elke militaire confrontatie aan. Het is na de VS zowat het best uitgeruste militaire apparaat ter wereld, ontvangt vanwege de USA jaarlijks voor een goeie 4 miljard euro aan militaire middelen en materiaal, besteedt zelf een goeie 20 - 25 % van z'n totale BNP aan defensie, zo tussen de 8 à 10 miljard euro per jaar, waarmee ze wereldwijd zo ongeveer de 17e positie innemen. Niet slecht voor een landje met een goeie 7.1 miljoen inwoners (waarvan een goeie 20 % "Israelische Arabieren")
Noot: Iran heeft een militair budget van +/- 4 miljard euro / jaar, ofte ongeveer 2.5% van het BNP op een bevolking van 72 miljoen mensen. Peanuts dus, in vergelijking met wat andere staten aan hun militaire apparaat besteden.
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Last update - 02:04 28/12/2007
Another record year for defense spending in 2008
By Zvi Zrahiya, Haaretz Correspondent
The defense budget for 2008 will be NIS 51.3 billion, thereby setting yet another new record for defense spending.
This figure represents over 16% of the entire NIS 314 billion state budget for next year, which the Knesset approved yesterday after passing the accompanying Economic Arrangements Law the day before. It also represents about 7% of gross domestic product.
Of this sum, NIS 4.3 billion will go for pensions for those who have retired from the military, up from NIS 3.9 billion in 2007. Another NIS 1.2 billion is earmarked for the separation fence, and NIS 1.2 billion for bereaved families, widows and memorials for the fallen.
In total, 40.7% of the defense budget goes for personnel, 23.5% for equipment and 35.8% for operations and miscellaneous costs.
But compared to other militaries around the world, Israel's spending on manpower is low. The Italians spend 85.1% of their defense budget on personnel, Germany 58.5%, France 56.3% and Britain 42.1%.
The base defense budget for 2008 is only NIS 49.35 billion, as recommended by the Brodet Committee on defense spending. However, in the last quarter of 2008, the Defense Ministry will also be able to use $150 million of the U.S. military aid for 2009.
Gaza 2009 - Over het Nieuwjaarsvuurwerk van Israël - Chronologie van een aangekondigde ramp - PART I (6)
Begin deel (6) ...Het vervolg...!!
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World Military Spending
by Anup Shah - This Page Last Updated Saturday, March 01, 2008
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
James Madison, Political Observations, 1795
World Military Spending
Global military expenditure and arms trade form the largest spending in the world at over one trillion dollars in annual expenditure and has been rising in recent years.
# World military expenditure in 2006 is estimated to have reached $1204 billion in current dollars;
# This represents a 3.5 per cent increase in real terms since 2005 and a 37 per cent increase over the 10-year period since 1997;
# The USA, responsible for about 80 per cent of the increase in 2005, is the principal determinant of the current world trend, and its military expenditure now accounts for almost half of the world total;
SIPRI also comments on the increasing concentration of military expenditure, i.e. that a small number of countries spend the largest sums:
# The 15 countries with the highest spending account for 83 per cent of the total;
# The USA is responsible for 46 per cent of the world total, distantly followed by the UK, France, Japan and China with 4-5 per cent each.
Using SIPRI data:
High and rising world market prices of minerals and fossil fuels has also been a contributing factor in the upward trend in military expenditure, said SIPRI in their earlier 2006 report. For example, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Russia and Saudi Arabia have been able to increase spending because of increased oil and gas revenues, while Chile and Perus increases are resource-driven, because their military spending is linked by law to profits from the exploitation of key natural resources.
Also, China and India, the worlds two emerging economic powers, are demonstrating a sustained increase in their military expenditure and contribute to the growth in world military spending. In absolute terms their current spending is only a fraction of the USAs. Their increases are largely commensurate with their economic growth.
SIPRIs 2005 data also shows that while in raw dollar amounts some nations are increasing spending at large amounts, their percentage increases may vary:
US spending has increased the most in dollars, while Chinas has increased the most in percentage terms
In a similar report from 2004, the authors also noted that, There is a large gap between what countries are prepared to allocate for military means to provide security and maintain their global and regional power status, on the one hand, and to alleviate poverty and promote economic development, on the other.
Indeed, compare the military spending with the entire budget of the United Nations :
"The United Nations and all its agencies and funds spend about $20 billion each year, or about $3 for each of the world's inhabitants. This is a very small sum compared to most government budgets and it is just a tiny fraction of the worlds military spending. Yet for nearly two decades, the UN has faced a financial difficulties and it has been forced to cut back on important programs in all areas. Many member states have not paid their full dues and have cut their donations to the UNs voluntary funds. As of November 30, 2007, members arrears to the Regular Budget topped $735 million, of which the United States alone owed $688 million (94% of the regular budget arrears)."
# Yet, the UNs entire budget is just a tiny fraction of the worlds military expenditure, approximately 2%
# While the UN is not perfect and has many internal issues that need addressing, it is revealing that the world can spend so much on their military but contribute so little to the goals of global security, international cooperation and peace.
The United States has unquestionably been the most formidable military power in recent years. Its spending levels, as noted earlier, is the principle determinant of world military spending and is therefore worth looking at further.
Generally, US military spending has been on the rise. Recent increases are attributed to the so-called War on Terror and the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, but it had also been rising before that.
For example, Christopher Hellman, an expert on military budget analysis notes in The Runaway Military Budget: An Analysis PDF formatted document, (Friends Committee on National Legislation, March 2006, no. 705, p. 3) that military spending had been rising since at least 1998, if not earlier.
Another expert on this topic, Travis Sharp, provides spending figures from 2001 to the requested figures for 2009 shown here:
As a chart
Raw data and sources (N.V.D.R. : Hiervoor verwijzen wij u graag door naar de desbetreffende pagina zelf.)
Compared to the rest of the world, these numbers have been described as staggering.
In Context: US Military Spending Versus Rest of the World
When the US Fiscal Year 2009 budget request for military spending came out in early 2008, Travis Sharp and Christopher Hellman (mentioned earlier) projected the spending of other nations planned for 2008 thus allowing comparison between US military spending and the rest of the world:
Pie chart :
Comparing US with others
# US military spending accounts for 48 percent, or almost half, of the worlds total military spending
# US military spending is more than the next 46 highest spending countries in the world combined
# US military spending is 5.8 times more than China, 10.2 times more than Russia, and 98.6 times more than Iran.
# US military spending is almost 55 times the spending on the six rogue states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) whose spending amounts to around $13 billion, maximum. (Tabulated data does not include four of the six, as the data only lists nations that have spent over 1 billion in the year, so their budget is assumed to be $1 billion each)
# US spending is more than the combined spending of the next 45 countries.
# The United States and its strongest allies (the NATO countries, Japan, South Korea and Australia) spend $1.1 trillion on their militaries combined, representing 72 percent of the worlds total.
# The six potential enemies, Russia, and China together account for about $205 billion or 29% of the US military budget.
Top spenders ranked (and sources) (N.V.D.R. : Hiervoor verwijzen wij u graag door naar de desbetreffende pagina zelf.)
Why does the US number seem so high when the budget announced $517.9 for the Department of Defense?
Unfortunately, the budget numbers can be a bit confusing. For example, the Fiscal Year budget requests for US military spending do not include combat figures (which are supplemental requests that Congress approves separately). The budget for nuclear weapons falls under the Department of Energy, and for the 2009 request, was about $29 billion.
The cost of war (Iraq and Afghanistan) is estimated to be about $170 billion for the 2009 spending alone. Christopher Hellman and Travis Sharp also discuss the US fiscal year 2009 Pentagon spending request and note that Congress has already approved nearly $700 billion in supplemental funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and an additional $126 billion in FY'08 war funding is still pending before the House and Senate.
Furthermore, other costs such as care for vetarans, healthcare, military training/aid, secret operations, may fall under other departments or be counted separately.
The frustration of confusing numbers seemed to hit a raw nerve for the Center for Defense Information, concluding
"The articles that newspapers all over the country publish today will be filled with [military spending] numbers to the first decimal point; they will seem precise. Few of them will be accurate; many will be incomplete, some will be both. Worse, few of us will be able to tell what numbers are too high, which are too low, and which are so riddled with gimmicks to make them lose real meaning."
Generally, compared to Cold War levels, the amount of military spending and expenditure in most nations has been reduced. For example, global military spending declined from $1.2 trillion in 1985 to $809 billion in 1998, though in 2005 has risen to almost one trillion. The United States spending, up to 2009 requests may have be reduced compared to the Cold War era but is still close to Cold War levels.
Supporters of Americas high military expenditure often argue that using raw dollars is not a fair measure, but that instead it should be per capita or as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and even then the spending numbers miss out the fact that US provides global stability with its high spending and allows other nations to avoid such high spending. However, as researcher Chris Hellman notes,
Linking military spending to the GDP is an argument frequently made by supporters of higher military budgets. Comparing military spending (or any other spending for that matter) to the GDP tells you how large a burden such spending puts on the US economy, but it tells you nothing about the burden a $440 billion military budget puts on U.S. taxpayers. Our economy may be able to bear higher military spending, but the question today is whether current military spending levels are necessary and whether these funds are going towards the proper priorities. Further, such comparisons are only made when the economy is healthy. It is unlikely that those arguing that military spending should be a certain portion of GDP would continue to make this case if the economy suddenly weakened, thus requiring dramatic cuts in the military.
In regards to the high spending allowing other nations to spend less, that is often part of a supportive theory of the global hegemon being good for the world. Granted, other nations in such a position would likely want to be able to dominate as much of the world as possible, as past empires have throughout history.
However, whether this global hegemony and stability actually means positive stability, peace and prosperity for the entire world (or most of it) is subjective. That is, certainly the hegemony at the time, and its allies would benefit from the stability, relative peace and prosperity for themselves, but often ignored in this is whether the policies pursued for their advantages breeds contempt elsewhere (in the modern era that may equate to anti-Americanism, resorting to terrorism and other forms of hatred.)
As noted in other parts of this site, unfortunately more powerful countries have also pursued policies that have contributed to more poverty, and at times even overthrown fledgling democracies in favor of dictatorships or more malleable democracies. (Osama Bin Laden, for example, was part of an enormous Islamic militancy encouraged and trained by the US to help fight the Soviet Union. Of course, these extremists are all too happy to take credit for fighting off the Soviets in Afghanistan, never acknowledging how it could not have been done without their so-called great satan friend-turned-enemy!)
So the global good hegemon theory may help justify high spending and even stability for a number of other countries, but it does not necessarily apply to the whole world. To be fair, this criticism can also be a bit simplistic especially if an empire finds itself against a competitor with similar ambitions, that risks polarizing the world, and answers are likely difficult to find.
But even for the large US economy, the high military spending may not be sustainable in the long term. Noting trends in military spending, SIPRI added that the massive increase in US military spending has been one of the factors contributing to the deterioration of the US economy since 2001. SIPRI continues that, In addition to its direct impact of high military expenditure, there are also indirect and more long-term effects. According to one study taking these factors into account, the overall past and future costs until year 2016 to the USA for the war in Iraq have been estimated to $2267 billion.
In Context: US military budget vs. other US priorities
The peace lobby, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, calculates for Fiscal Year 2007 that the majority of US tax payers money goes towards war:
As a pie chart
Raw data and sources (N.V.D.R. : Hiervoor verwijzen wij u graag door naar de desbetreffende pagina zelf.)
Furthermore, national defense category of federal spending is typically just over half of the United States discretionary budget (the money the President/Administration and Congress have direct control over, and must decide and act to spend each year. This is different to mandatory spending, the money that is spent in compliance with existing laws, such as social secuity benefits, medicare, paying the interest on the national debt and so on). For recent years here is how military, education and health budgets (the top 3) have fared:
Discretionary budgets in $ (billions) and percentages (N.V.D.R. : Hiervoor verwijzen wij u graag door naar de desbetreffende pagina zelf.)
In this new era, traditional military threats to the USA are fairly remote. All of their enemies, former enemies and even allies do not pose a military threat to the United States. For a while now, critics of large military spending have pointed out that most likely forms of threat to the United States would be through terrorist actions, rather than conventional warfare, and that the spending is still geared towards Cold War-type scenarios and other such conventional confrontations.
"[T]he lions share of this money is not spent by the Pentagon on protecting American citizens. It goes to supporting U.S. military activities, including interventions, throughout the world. Were this budget and the organization it finances called the Military Department, then attitudes might be quite different. Americans are willing to pay for defense, but they would probably be much less willing to spend billions of dollars if the money were labeled Foreign Military Operations."
But it is not just the U.S. military spending. In fact, as Jan Oberg argues, western militarism often overlaps with civilian functions affecting attitudes to militarism in general. As a result, when revelations come out that some Western militaries may have trained dictators and human rights violators, the justification given may be surprising, which we look at in the next page.
Defense News ranked Israel 17th in a list of the worlds top 25 defense spenders based on absolute numbers, not as a percentage of GDP. The list is based on updated information from the CIAs World Fact Book and from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Most of the figures in the list, including those for Israel, refer to the 2005 fiscal year. The numbers are mostly consistent with official data from the relevant countries. Only one Arab country, Saudi Arabia, made the list, although Iran, with $4.3 billion in military spending in 2005, just lost the 25th place to Argentina.
ANALYSIS / Budget will decide whether Israel attacks Iran
By Aluf Benn
The most important decision the next government of Israel will have to make is how to distribute resources intended for use against the Iranian nuclear threat, senior defense officials involved in decision-making have told Haaretz. The new government will have to decide whether to invest in developing measures to attack Iran's nuclear facilities or developing means of defense and deterrance if Iran does attain nuclear power.
The budget will decide whether Israel will seriously consider a military option against Iran. A decision focusing on defense and deterrance will mean that Israel has given up on attacking Iran. The dilemma becomes more serious in the context of economic recession, which limits the government's ability to expand the defense budget.
Those who support deterrance believe there is no substitute for the military option, and costly resources should not be wasted on a plan that will never be implemented. They also say that, at most, Israel could bring about a delay of a few years in the Iranian nuclear project, which does not justify the risk of complications in the action or a wider regional conflict. They prefer investing in a number of long-term projects that will increase Israel's ability to defend itself against the nuclear threat. Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert objected to this approach. His position was that if Israel can thwart the Iranian threat, its present deterrent capability and resources should not be wasted on redundant deterrent capabilities. As far as is known, Olmert has yet to approve the continued development of a number of projects.
Those who are for the "attack option" say there is great value in delaying the development of Iranian nuclear capabilities by two to four years by means of an Israeli attack. Optimally, they say such an action could also undermine the regime in Tehran, or at least lead to international support against Iranian nuclearization.
"In choosing a strategy vis a vis a non-conventional Iranian threat, we must consider the limited resources at our disposal, which requires sophisticated risk-management," the chairman of the National Economic Council, Professor Manuel Trachtenberg, told the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies last Thursday.
There is no consensus in the defense community about this approach. Experts say the price of the attack option is lower than its detractors say. They also say the IDF needs about NIS 1 billion a year to strengthen its "long arm," with funding going mainly for intelligence, refueling planes and the munitions-carrying capacity of Israel Air Force planes, and of course for training, and that the budget can bear the expense.
Military Intelligence says that over the past year Iran has crossed the "technological threshold" and now has the ability to enrich uranium. Attaining nuclear weapons is now a matter only of a decision by the Iranian leadership, time and circumstances. But intelligence experts say Iran prefers stockpiling a large amount of fissionable material before moving on to military nuclear technology, which presents a window of opportunity for a final diplomatic effort to stop development of an Iranian bomb.
Gaza 2009 - Over het Nieuwjaarsvuurwerk van Israël - Chronologie van een aangekondigde ramp - PART I (7)
Begin deel (7) ...Het vervolg...!!
Bovendien beschikt Israël naar verluidt over 200 kernkoppen... & heeft al herhaaldelijk gedreigd dat ze deze ook zullen gebruiken. Het is ook in dit licht dat de uitspraken dienen te worden gezien vanwege Matan Vilnai, Israël's vice-minister van Defensie, dat de Palestijnen een nieuwe "Shoah" over zichzelf zullen afroepen als de toestand blijft escaleren.
Noot : over dit soort uitspraken valt blijkbaar geen mens, althans toch niet in West Europa. Stel u voor dat 't van Ahmadinejad was gekomen ?!...
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guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 February 2008 13.33 GMT
Israeli minister warns of Palestinian 'holocaust'
A Sderot chicken factory damaged by a Hamas rocket. Photograph: AP/Almog Sugavker
An Israeli minister today warned of increasingly bitter conflict in the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinians could bring on themselves what he called a "holocaust".
"The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, told army radio.
Shoah is the Hebrew word normally reserved to refer to the Jewish Holocaust. It is rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi extermination of Jews during the second world war, and many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other events.
The minister's statement came after two days of tit-for-tat missile raids between Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli army. At least 32 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed since the surge in violence on Wednesday.
Today Israel activated a rocket warning system to protect Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people, from Palestinian attacks.
Ashkelon was hit by several Grad rockets fired from Gaza yesterday. One hit an apartment building, slicing through the roof and three floors below, and another landed near a school, wounding a 17-year-old girl.
Located 11 miles from Gaza, Ashkelon has been sporadically targeted before but not suffered direct hits or significant damage.
"It will be sad, and difficult, but we have no other choice," Vilnai said, referring to the large-scale military operation he said Israel was preparing to bring a halt to the rocket fire.
"We're getting close to using our full strength. Until now, we've used a small percentage of the army's power because of the nature of the territory."
Israel would not launch a ground offensive in the next week or two, partly because the military would prefer to wait for better weather, defence sources said. But the army had completed its preparations and was awaiting the government's order to move, officials said.
Until now, the Palestinian rocket squads have largely targeted Sderot, a small town near Gaza. Ashkelon, a big population centre only 25 miles from Tel Aviv, was caught unprepared, its mayor said on Friday.
"It's a city of 120,000 people, with large facilities a huge soccer stadium, a basketball stadium and a beach. No one is ready for this," Roni Mehatzri told Israel Radio.
Dozens of soldiers in orange berets from the Israeli military's home front command arrived in Ashkelon and hung posters around the city telling residents what to do in case of rocket attack.
The barrage of Iranian-made Grads directed at Ashkelon yesterday came after an escalation of violence in Gaza. Israel killed five Hamas militants on Wednesday morning, apparently including two planners of the rocket attacks, in an air strike on a minivan.
Later in the day, a Palestinian rocket killed an Israeli civilian, a 47-year-old father of four, in Sderot.
Hamas, an Islamist group with close ties to Iran, has ruled Gaza since its violent takeover there in June 2006.
Since Wednesday, 32 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli missile strikes, including 14 civilians, among them eight children, according to Palestinian officials. The youngest was a six-month-old boy, Mohammed al-Borai, whose funeral was held yesterday.
There were further indications that Israel was preparing for an offensive by sending confidential messages to world leaders, including the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who plans to visit the region next week.
"Israel is not keen on, and rushing for, an offensive, but Hamas is leaving us no choice," the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, told the senior figures, according to Israel's mass circulation daily, Yedioth Ahronoth.
Security sources were quoted by both Israel Radio and army radio as saying a big operation was being prepared but was not imminent.
Toch lijkt dit vrij onwaarschijnlijk omdat Israël zich dit niet kan permitteren vanuit PR oogpunt. De etnische zuivering op korte termijn is dus eigenlijk geen optie meer, & een "trage" zuivering zit er voorlopig althans ook niet meer aan te komen, tenzij het de bedoeling is om het leven van de Palestijnen nog miserabeler te maken dan het nù al is, zodat ze uiteindelijk "uit eigen beweging" vertrekken.
2) De Tweestatenoplossing.
Deze wordt nu reeds geruime tijd verdedigd door een groot gedeelte Israëli's én Palestijnen... & sinds enige tijd zijn ook de Amerikanen & Europeanen een voorstander van dit scenario. Echter, de politiek van Israël om steeds meer land (...& dan vooral water & vruchtbare gronden) van Palestijnen af te pakken, evenals de aanhoudende uitbreiding van zowel bestaande als nieuwe nederzettingen op Palestijns gebied vormen een serieuze hinderpaal.
De belangrijkste kritiek op de Tweestatenoplossing is dat de Palestijnse Staat in feite een soort Apartheidsstaat zal zijn, bestaande uit een aantal bantoestans, enclaves of eilandjes, die volkomen omringd of omsingeld zullen zijn door Israël, zoals dit ook al tot uiting kwam in de eerder getoonde presentatie vanwege Gush Shalom. (punt 1 - Iran's generous offer). Met andere woorden, indien Israël de koloniseringspolitiek blijft verderzetten zal het deze oplossing zélf ondergraven & komen we automatisch terecht bij de derde oplossing, de One State Solution.
3) De One State solution - één Staat voor twéé volkeren.
Kijk - kijk... dit zou nog eens een interessant experiment kunnen zijn.
Dit lijkt op het éérste gezicht een waanzinnig idee, maar in Israël zelf zijn er nu al een aantal voorstanders van of bewegingen die dit idee voorstaan.
Eén staat.. seculier, voor álle mensen met gelijke rechten voor iederéén.
Wie kan dáár nu tegen zijn?
Wel, om te beginnen de Israëli's, want die wilden een exclusief Joodse Staat waarin ze dan wel doen alsof de "Arabische Israëli's" gelijke rechten hebben wat natuurlijk niet zo is.
Op dit ogenblik zijn er ongeveer 20% "Israëlische Arabieren", dus Palestijnen die Israëlisch staatsburgerschap hebben, en inderdaad zelfs een -minimale- vertegenwoordiging in de Israëlische Knesset.
Nochtans is het zo dat het geboortecijfer bij de Arabische Israëli's véél hoger ligt dan bij de Joodse Israëli's, en Israël is dus dringend op zoek naar nieuwe immigranten (uiteraard van joodse "afkomst") teneinde het Joodse karakter van Israël in stand te kunnen houden.
Demografie is dan ook een zéér grote bezorgdheid van de Israëli's, want hoe verdedigbaar zou het zijn, internationaal maar ook in eigen land, indien een minderheid van Israëli's de plak zou zwaaien over een meerderheid langs Arabische - Palestijnse zijde ?!...
Maar U voelt 'm al komen, de kans bestaat natuurlijk ook dat de Palestijnen zich niet aan de regels zullen houden & dat Israël op die manier alsnog "zal verdwijnen van het aanschijn van de geschiedenis", precies zoals voorspeld door Ahmadinejad.
De kaarten zijn dan ook volledig in de handen van Israël zelf. Zij kunnen ze schudden, delen, geven & nemen, zij kunnen het spel sturen zoals zij dat willen, maar de uitkomst van het spel zal waarschijnlijk niet de uitkomst zijn die ze zelf willen.
Voor de Palestijnen ziet het er op dit ogenblik nog niet erg goed uit, maar hoe langer het kaartspel nog zal duren, des te beter zullen de kaarten voor hun gaan vallen.
Ook de Amerikanen spelen hierin een belangrijke rol. Jaarlijks geeft Amerika meer dan 2 miljard dollar aan Egypte, of beter, aan het regime van Moebarak, & bijna evenveel aan Saudi-Arabië. Zonder deze "steun" die we gerust omkoopgeld kunnen noemen zou het, zeker voor Moebarak, een pak moeilijker zijn om de bevolking onder de knoet te blijven houden.
Het logische gevolg van échte democratie in bijvoorbeeld Egypte zou dan ook zijn dat de mensen massaal zouden kiezen (stemmen dus) voor islamitisch getinte partijen zoals de moslimbroederschap in Egypte, die nu buiten de wet is gesteld door het regime van Moebarak.
Enerzijds verwijt men de moslimlanden graag dat ze niet democratisch zijn, maar anderzijds ~& laat ons daar geen doekjes om winden~ steekt de Westerse Wereld maar al te graag een handje toe om te beletten dat die landen democratisch worden of blijven (bijv. Algerije, Tunesië of Iran).
Echter, zodra de Amerikaanse steun voor Egypte, Saudi Arabië (...& ook Israël) om één of andere reden zal opdrogen, wat voorlopig zeker nog niet het geval zal zijn, zullen deze regimes (...& waarschijnlijk ook Israël) zodanig verzwakken dat zij uiteindelijk vanzelf zullen verschrompelen & verdwijnen.
Maar voorlopig ziet het er nog niet naar uit dat er van échte vrede in het Midden Oosten in de nabije toekomst sprake zal zijn.
...& Binnenkort : Gaza 2009 - "Are we all antisemites now ?!..." - Chronologie van een aangekondigde ramp - PART II
Vooraleer we hier uitgemaakt gaan worden voor rabiate antisemieten... wat we voor de duidelijkheid dus NIET zijn... & laat dit dan ook bij deze bij iedere lezer in z'n grijze hersenmassa doordringen (!!), wij hebben dus wel degelijk een ~onderbouwde~ mening !!
...& Al beseffen we zeer goed dat we naar aanleiding van sommige van onze boute uitspraken & stellingen hiervoor wel eens versleten zouden kunnen voor worden, houdt dit ons niet tegen om hier onze onvrede ~noem 't maar regelrechte verontwaardiging~ te ventileren over wat er zich op dit moment in Gaza afspeelt...
Wat niet wegneemt dat we dus wel degelijk tégen de huidige politiek van de Israëlische machthebbers zijn, die ~onder andere omwille van wat we in onze voorgaande beschouwing gepubliceerd hebben over de gasvelden in Gaza & voor de kust van Gaza~ hun eigen bevolking zo gek krijgen dat ze hun buren ~die weliswaar inderdaad niet altijd de braafste jongens zijn~ gewoon willen uitroeien... & sorry, maar een ander woord hebben we ~& zeker gezien de gebruikte middelen & methodes~ daar niet echt voor gevonden...
Hoe men het ook draait of keert, het is op dit eigenste moment dus ook nog eens een regelrechte oorlog tegen de Palestijnse kinderen aan het worden... Je moet zo maar eventjes het aantal slachtoffers bekijken & het aandeel dat kinderen hierin uitmaken.
We hebben het hier al al een aantal malen gezegd & we zullen dat ook blijven herhalen : het is ontoelaatbaar op zulke schaal lucht- & artilleriebombardementen uit te voeren in zulk een dichtbevolkt gebied, waarbij dan nog eens de onmenselijke, zeg maar pure smeerlapperij van witte fosfor wordt gebruikt !! ...& het gebied is daar niet alleen dicht bevolkt, maar bovendien bestaat het overgrote deel van die bevolking daar uit meer dan 50% kinderen...
Zo eventjes terzijde...
...
January 10, 2009
Q & A on Israels Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza
Since the beginning of Israels ground offensive in Gaza on January 3, 2009, there have been numerous media reports about the possible use by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of white phosphorus (WP), a chemical substance used in military ordnance that has several tactical uses. The IDF has told Human Rights Watch and reporters that it is not using WP in Gaza. On January 7, an IDF spokesman told CNN, I can tell you with certainty that white phosphorus is absolutely not being used.
Human Rights Watch believes the IDF is using WP in Gaza. On January 9, Human Rights Watch researchers on a ridge overlooking Gaza from the northwest observed multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired WP that appeared to be over the Gaza City/Jabaliya area. In addition, Human Rights Watch has analyzed photographs taken by the media on the Israel-Gaza border showing Israeli artillery units handling fused WP artillery shells, as well as video of air bursts over Gaza followed by tendrils of smoke and flame that are highly indicative of WP use.
Israel appears to be using WP as an obscurant (a chemical used to hide military operations), a permissible use in principle under international humanitarian law (the laws of war). However, WP also has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire. The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gazas high population density, among the highest in the world.
Human Rights Watch believes that the use of WP in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life. This concern is amplified given the technique evidenced in media photographs and viewed by Human Rights Watch researchers on January 9 of air-bursting WP projectiles, which spreads the burning wafers over a wider area, thereby increasing the likelihood of civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects.
What is White Phosphorous?
White phosphorous (WP) is a chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells, bombs, and rockets, used primarily to obscure military operations on the ground. It is not considered a chemical weapon and is not banned per se. WP ignites and burns on contact with oxygen and creates a smokescreen at night or during the day to mask the visual movement of troops. It also interferes with infra-red optics and weapon-tracking systems, thus protecting military forces from guided weapons such as anti-tank missiles. When WP comes into contact with people or objects, though, it creates an intense and persistent burn. It can also be used as a weapon against military targets (see below).
How is WP used?
WP can be air-burst or ground-burst. It emits a distinct garlic smell. When air-burst, it covers a larger area than ground-burst and is useful to mask large troop movements. However, this spreads the incendiary effect over a wider area and in densely populated areas, as in much of Gaza, increases the exposure of civilians. When the weapon is ground-burst, the endangered area is more concentrated and the smokescreen remains for longer. The cloud from WP is dependent on atmospheric conditions, so it is impossible to generalize how long it will remain in the air.
WP can also be used as a weapon. US forces used WP during the second battle of Fallujah in Iraq in 2004 to smoke out concealed combatants, who were then attacked.
Why is WP controversial?
WP burns anything it touches. When air-burst as an obscurant, it can fall over an area about the size of a football field, about the same area affected by a cluster bomb. Those below may receive horrific skin burns, and it can set structures, fields, and other objects on fire. Using WP against military targets in densely populated areas would also raise concerns where the weapon could not be directed at a specific military target and thus would be indiscriminate in its impact, in violation of the laws of war. Humanitarian law also places restrictions on the use of incendiary weapons like WP against military personnel when other weapons are available.
What is the status of WP under international law?
WP used as weapons are considered incendiaries. Incendiary weapons are not prohibited under the laws of war. However, the use of WP against military targets is regulated under Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). Although Israel is not party to this treaty, customary laws of war prohibit the anti-personnel use of incendiary weapons so long as weapons less likely to cause unnecessary suffering are available.
A 1998 Israeli military manual states: Incendiary arms are not banned. Nevertheless, because of their wide range of cover, this protocol of the CCW is meant to protect civilians and forbids making a population center a target for an incendiary weapon attack. Furthermore, it is forbidden to attack a military objective situated within a population center employing incendiary weapons. The protocol does not ban the use of these arms during combat (for instance, in flushing out bunkers).
Is Israels use of WP compliant with international law?
WP is not an illegal obscurant or weapon. However, Israels use of WP as an obscurant in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the obligation to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to the civilian population during military operations. Human Rights Watch urges Israel immediately to stop using WP in densely populated areas. Human Rights Watch will seek to investigate this matter further.
Israel: Stop Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza
Chemical Obscurant Poses Serious Risk to Civilians
White phosphorous can burn down houses and cause horrific burns when it touches the skin. Israel should not use it in Gazas densely populated areas.
Marc Garlasco,
senior military analyst
(Jerusalem) Israel should stop using white phosphorus in military operations in densely populated areas of Gaza, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 9 and 10, 2009, Human Rights Watch researchers in Israel observed multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over what appeared to be the Gaza City/Jabaliya area.
Israel appeared to be using white phosphorus as an obscurant (a chemical used to hide military operations), a permissible use in principle under international humanitarian law (the laws of war). However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire. The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gazas high population density, among the highest in the world.
White phosphorous can burn down houses and cause horrific burns when it touches the skin, said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. Israel should not use it in Gazas densely populated areas.
Human Rights Watch believes that the use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life. This concern is amplified given the technique evidenced in media photographs of air-bursting white phosphorus projectiles. Air bursting of white phosphorus artillery spreads 116 burning wafers over an area between 125 and 250 meters in diameter, depending on the altitude of the burst, thereby exposing more civilians and civilian infrastructure to potential harm than a localized ground burst.
Since the beginning of Israels ground offensive in Gaza on January 3, 2009, there have been numerous media reports about the possible use of white phosphorous by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF told both Human Rights Watch and news reporters that it is not using white phosphorus in Gaza. On January 7, an IDF spokesman told CNN, I can tell you with certainty that white phosphorus is absolutely not being used.
Wat ons ook zwaar ergert is het feit dat er géén journalisten worden toegelaten & dit nog eens tegen een uitspraak van hun eigen Israêlisch hooggerechtshof in !! ...& Het is zelfs nog erger, want de journalisten die ter plaatse waren werden vermoord of gebombardeerd ondanks het doorgeven van de coördinaten aan het Israëlisch leger van het gebouw waarin ze werkten... (net zoals gebeurde bij de VN-school trouwens).
De Israëlische regering waarschuwt tegen de Palestijnse "burgerjournalisten" en bloggers omdat ze geen objectief verslag zouden geven van de gebeurtenissen. Tja, het zal ook erg moeilijk zijn in dergelijke omstandigheden om iets of wat objectiviteit aan de dag te leggen nietwaar ?!...
Trouwens Israël moet dan maar journalisten binnenlaten zoals overal gebeurde bij gewapende conflicten. We zouden hier dus heel gemakkelijk een aantal Palestijnse bloggers aan het woord kunnen laten over de drama's die zich daar aan het afspelen zijn onder het weliswaar blinde oog van de wereld, maar dat doen we dus niet. Dàt moeten jullie maar zelf opzoeken... Er zijn er genoeg & blijkbaar zijn ze allemaal even subjectief, want ze vertellen quasi allemaal de zelfde horrorverhalen... & eerlijk gezegd, wij geloven dat die niet zo erg ver naast de toch wel héél lugubere realiteit zitten.
We hebben hier trouwens ook reeds eerder onze visie over burgerjounalisten gegeven & we blijven die hier dus ook tot in den treure herhalen. Er zijn alleen de erkende journalisten - PUNT. Burgerjournalisten is een fenomeen dat wij nooit zullen erkennen. Zulke personen zijn getuigen & kunnen zéér waardevolle dingen zeggen... Verder zijn er bloggers & ook dat kan interessant zijn, anders zouden wij ~KITOKOJUNGLE~ hier trouwens niet zijn... Maar journalisten zijn we tot nader order dus niet !!
Maar ook in Gaza werken erkende jounalisten die erkend zijn door het IFJ (International Federation of Jounalists). Wij laten daarom het IFJ zelf aan het woord over de gebeurtenissen in Gaza. Het wordt nu eens hoog tijd dat Israël & haar vurige supporters eens een zinnig antwoord geeft op de verschillende oproepen van het IFJ !! ...Intussen rangschikken we de staat Israël bij de echte schurkenstaten zoals Myanmar, Noord-Korea enz...
...& We beginnen met :
...
January 05, 2009
Media Ban in Gaza a Recipe for Censorship, Ignorance and Fear, Says IFJ
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) says the Israeli ban on foreign journalists from entering Gaza to cover the conflict is a dangerous violation of press freedom that adds to "ignorance, uncertainty and fear" in the region.
The IFJ says that the presence of independent reporters on the ground is needed to ensure that there are no flagrant abuses of human rights by combatants.
The IFJ's protest comes as the global humanitarian agency Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for rights monitors as well as journalists to be allowed into Gaza, a move that could help save lives.
"The Israeli ban on foreign news media from Gaza since December 27 raises concerns that there is a systematic attempt to prevent scrutiny of actions by the Israeli military," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "The eyes of the world are on Gaza, but Israel is trying to censor the news by keeping the media at bay."
The IFJ says that Israeli claims the ban was imposed because it cannot guarantee the safety of journalists is untenable.
"Few news people take this seriously given that Israel has already shown its contempt for international law by its targeted military strike on an unarmed television station at the outset of the conflict," said White.
For the past two months, when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas broke down, Israel has restricted access to Gaza for foreign journalists. None has been allowed entry since the current military campaign began. The world's media are largely dependent upon coverage provided by local Palestinian freelance staff, many of whom are denied formal press accreditation by Israel and have no freedom to move in the region. Israeli journalists themselves are denied access to Gaza, say human rights groups, because of the government's policy of prohibiting citizens from entering Gaza.
The IFJ is concerned that restriction of access and movement may contribute to unbalanced reporting as journalists are unable to report from all conflict-hit areas.
The IFJ is supporting efforts by the Jerusalem-based Foreign Correspondents Association to get journalists access to Gaza, but is insisting that there should be no controlled access organised and supervised by the Israeli authorities.
"It is not for one side to dictate who goes into the area and in what circumstances," said White. "Journalists should be allowed to travel and work freely without monitoring by the military."
For more information contact the IFJ at +32 2 235 2207
The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 123 countries worldwide
IFJ Condemns Killings of Journalists and Backs Media Protests over Israeli Actions
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned the killing of a cameraman in Gaza as a result of an air strike carried out by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Basel Faraj, who worked as a cameraman for the Algerian TV network ENTV and the Palestine Broadcast Production Company, was wounded as a result of an Israeli air strike on 27 December. He died yesterday evening. He was filming in Gaza with reporters Mohamed Madi and Mohamed Al Tanany and Morocco Channel 2 cameraman, Khaled Abu Shammala all of whom were injured in the attack.
Basel is the second journalist to die from injuries in the recent Gaza conflict. Hamza Shahin, a photographer with Shehab News Agency, died on 26 December from wounds sustained in an earlier Israeli air attack on 7 December.
Journalists have been in the firing line since the beginning of the Israeli military operation. The Palestine Journalists Syndicate (PJS) says that Israeli forces have targeted vehicles and journalists who were clearly identified as such, with "Press" or "TV" markings.
The PJS has organised demonstrations in the West Bank town of Ramallah today to protest over the attacks on media and to show solidarity with journalists and media inside Gaza.
The IFJ has protested at the destruction of the offices of Al Aqsa Television on December 28 by Israeli fighter planes and called for Israel to open up Gaza to foreign correspondents in line with an order from Israeli judges.
"We strongly support our colleagues in Palestine as they speak out against Israeli attacks on journalists and media outlets,' said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "Israel is making a mockery of its status as a democratic country by violating international law, ignoring its own Supreme Court and showing contempt for the United Nations by defying its obligations under Resolution 1738 to protect journalists in conflict zones."
Another Gaza Journalist Killed, IFJ Calls for Global Protest Over Media Blockade
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the world of journalism to raise its voice in protest over Israeli government pressure on media trying to cover the Gaza conflict. The Government has imposed a blockade on the world's media trying to report on the crisis inside Gaza.
The IFJ call comes as another Palestinian journalist was reported killed - the fourth victim of recent Israeli military action in Gaza. Eyhab Al Wahidi , who worked as a cameraman for the Palestinian Broadcast Corporation in Gaza, was killed with his wife and mother in law yesterday when Israeli troops shelled their home in Gaza city. The family children were injured.
"The media crisis in Gaza has become intolerable," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "The systematic manipulation and control of media trying to report on Gaza and the casualties being sustained inside the territory require a concerted response from the world's media."
Despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling ordering the government to allow a limited pool of journalists to enter Gaza, the army continues to block entry. Yesterday, two Israeli channels and the BBC were permitted to briefly accompany Israeli ground forces, but there is no hint that the government will permit journalists unfettered access to Gaza.
According to media reports, journalists for most television networks are broadcasting from a hill outside Sderot, and relying on Gazan journalists to serve as their eyes and ears. Meanwhile, Israel's sophisticated communications operation provides beleagured media staff with contacts, fact books full of charts and statistics, tours of the south of Israel and interviews with the Israeli victims of rocket attacks from Gaza.
"There is a cynical attempt to ensure that media tell the story from the Israeli side only," said White. "The truth cannot be told unless journalists are free to move, to talk with everyone involved and to see with their own eyes what is happening on the ground."
The IFJ says that legitimate security concerns are being raised, particularly related to the safety of media staff. "But this should not be used as an excuse to keep journalists from doing their work," said White. "Media must be free to judge the risks for themselves and not be constrained. When one side takes control of the message, truth-telling becomes overwhelmed by propaganda."
IFJ Demands End to Targeting as Israelis Strike Media Tower
The International Federation of Journalists has called for the protection of media and journalists to be guaranteed in any talks taking place to end the violence in the Gaza Strip following the bombing on Friday of a building housing news organisations.
The Al-Johara Tower, an eight-storey building in Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, was hit twice by Israeli aircraft, even though the building was clearly marked as housing media staff. Up to 20 news organisations work inside the building including Iran's English-language Press TV and Arabic-language network of al-Alam. Satellite transmission equipment on the roof of the building was destroyed and at least one journalist was reported injured.
The IFJ is particularly concerned because the coordinates for the building were provided to the Israeli military and lighting on the roof clearly identifies the building.
This latest attack confirms the fear that media inside Gaza are becoming the targets of Israeli forces, said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. It is time for the international community to condemn this targeting and to ensure that any agreement to end hostilities will also take media and journalists out of the firing line.
The IFJ is supporting its local affiliate the Palestine Journalists Syndicate, which has also protested over this attack, which came at the end of a week when another Palestinian journalist was reported killed - the fourth media victim of recent Israeli military action in Gaza.
Despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling ordering the government to allow a limited pool of journalists to enter Gaza, the army continues to block entry of foreign reporters. The IFJ says this is an attempt to manipulate media reporting of the conflict.
The media have become part of the battleground and journalists are ever more at risk, said White. The targeting of journalists is a scandalous violation of human rights and must be stopped.
...& In onze eigenste Belgische pers vinden we hierover :
...
10/01/09 07u31
GAZA
Ondanks een zogoed als unanieme resolutie van de VN-Veiligheidsraad met een oproep voor een onmiddellijk staakt-het-vuren en het aanvatten van besprekingen gaat op het terrein zelf de oorlog onverminderd voort. Israël denkt zelfs aan een uitbreiding van het grondoffensief, terwijl Hamas ook al geen enkele noodzaak ziet om het offensief te laten stoppen en probeert de raketaanvallen op het zuiden van Israël voort te zetten. De Israëlische luchtaanvallen rond Gaza-stad gaan ook onverminderd door. Het grondoffensief zou eerstdaags naar de meer dichtbevolkte wijken uitgebreid worden.
"Het leger zal voortgaan Israëlische burgers te beschermen en zijn opdrachten uit te voeren", zei premier Ehud Olmert. Niemand betwist het recht op zelfverdediging van Israël, maar of dat recht ingevuld moet worden met het overproportionele geweld van de afgelopen week, waar bijzonder veel burgers, vrouwen en vooral kinderen het slachtoffer van werden, is zeer de vraag. Het beschieten van ambulances, van VN-hulpkonvooien, het gebruik van cluster- en brandbommen zijn methodes die niets meer met die wettige zelfverdediging te maken hebben, maar duiden op een bruut offensief dat zonder enige maat een vijand probeert te vernietigen.
Daarbij worden iedere dag nieuwe gruwelverhalen de wereld ingestuurd: volgens een VN-organisatie heeft het Israëlische leger 110 Palestijnen bevel gegeven zich te verzamelen in een gebouw in het oosten van Gaza-stad. Nog geen dag later werd dat in puin geschoten. Daarbij vielen tientallen doden en wie het bloedbad overleefde, moest twee kilometer lopen voor ze naar het ziekenhuis konden worden gebracht. Bij aankomst daar stierven nog eens drie kinderen.
Net om dit soort gruwel niet aan de wereldpers kenbaar te maken, wordt die zorgvuldig de toegang tot het slagveld ontzegd. "Uit veiligheidsredenen", heet het. Misschien is het meer uit schaamte voor wat men aan het aanrichten is.
Twee partijen die zich koppig vastklampen aan de logica van de haat en de destructie, die al zo lang iedere oplossing voor het conflict in de weg staat, en integendeel de kiemen legt voor een nieuwe escalatie in de toekomst. Zodra de overlevende kinderen groot genoeg zullen zijn om hun haat te vertalen in nieuw terrorisme.
...& De Standaard laat zich in deze ook niet onbetuigd...
...
08/01/2009
Pottenkijker
Over Gaza-stad rezen rookwolken vandaag - ondanks een nieuw bestand dat voortaan drie uur per dag zou moeten duren. De rookwolken waren duidelijk zichtbaar, en de verschrikkelijke bumbum-geluiden van artillerie- en andere beschietingen klonken angstaanjagend dichtbij. Explosies wennen nooit echt.
Maar Gaza en zijn geluiden waren voor buitenlandse journalisten alleen zichtbaar vanop heuvels rondom Gaza. Nauwelijks enkele kilometers verwijderd van de stad, maar de echte tragedie van de oorlog mocht niet dichtbij zijn. Op bevel van de Israëlische overheid. Met als argument dat de situatie "niet veilig" is. De verantwoordelijkheid voor de veiligheid van buitenlandse journalisten valt nochtans niet onder de bevoegdheid van de Israëlische overheid - volgens het internationale recht valt daaronder wel de veiligheid van burgers in gebieden die de Israëlische overheid bezet.
En dus bleven we kijken, vanop afstand. Dichterbij werden we telkens gestopt door jonge rekruten en politieagenten met flashy zonnebrillen en nonchalante M-16's.
Niet getreurd, in de stad Sderot - die in de voorbije jaren zwaar geteisterd door de domme raketten van Hamas - liep een leger van olijfkleurige militaire perswoordvoerders, die alles vertellen wat een journalist wilde weten. In elke taal die maar gewenst is: wie wil een Franstalige woordvoerder? Russisch? Bez problem. Als er een journalist uit Congo was geweest, was er ongetwijfeld een Swahili- of Kikongo-talige Israëlische militaire woordvoerder opgedoken.
Enig probleem: ze vertellen allemaal hetzelfde, in welke taal ook. Iedereen die wordt gedood is een terrorist, en anders liep hij of zij wel te dicht bij een terrorist. Eigen schuld. De Franstalige militaire woordvoerder, tot zijn twintigste opgegroeid in Frankrijk, werd agressief toen hem werd gevraagd waarom een op de zes doden in Gaza, in een doelgerichte operatie die totnogtoe slechts twaalf dagen heeft geduurd, nog kind was. En altijd zal blijven. De kolonel werd boos. Hoe kan een journalist nu niet begrijpen dat Israël terroristen aan het uitschakelen is? L' enfer, c'est l'autre. Een journalist uit Quebec probeerde de Belgische vraagtekens te verzachten door te verklaren dat de man geen echte Israëli is, maar een Fransman, "en die zijn nu eenmaal zo".
Als het Israëlische leger effectief zo efficiënt optreedt in de chaos van Gaza, zullen we daar nochtans graag over schrijven. Maar niet op basis van een leger van perswoordvoerders dat iedereen behandelt als een idioot van het zevende knoopsgat. Geen van die woordvoerders heeft overigens zelf ooit de huidige situatie in Gaza van binnenuit gezien.
En dus laat de enige democratie van het Midden-Oosten al die instrumenten van de democratie - een leger van journalisten, met al onze rampzalige beperkingen die we graag toegeven - alleen toezien vanop een heuvel vanop vijf kilometer afstand, te midden van lieflijke groene velden, naast Israëlische ramptoeristen die met een sterrenkijker komen kijken hoe Gaza brandt.
Een moedige Franse journaliste, Anne Nivat, schreef over haar ervaringen in de Tweede Tsjetsjeense oorlog het kille boek "La guerre qui n'aurait pas eu lieu", de oorlog die nooit zal hebben plaatsgevonden - omdat Poetins Rusland zorgvuldig alle pottenkijkers buitenhield, of koudbloedig liet afmaken.
Als een staat die zich een democratie noemt, zich begint te gedragen als Poetins Rusland, heeft de democratie in kwestie een probleem. Als die staat denkt dat zonnegebrilde militaire woordvoerders op hun woord worden geloofd, houdt die staat zichzelf voor de gek. Als die staat denkt dat de aanwezigheid van journalisten in Gaza onvermijdelijk sympathiebetuigingen voor Hamas zou opleveren, heeft ze geen idee van de ballorigheid van de vrije pers, wat haar eigen geloofwaardigheid als veronderstelde democratie aan het wankelen brengt. Het gevolg is dat de vrije pers in Gaza op dit moment wordt overgelaten aan moedige lokale, journalistieke Palestijnen, en aan zenders als Al-Jazeera - bij ons zo gedemoniseerd. Blijkt dat we zelf daar niets beter tegenover mogen stellen.
Israël heeft zelf enkele uitstekende media, een hele hoop hoogopgeleide en uitermate intelligente mensen, en een uitermate gesofisticeerd legerkorps. En geen journalistieke hond die al die woordvoerders op dit moment nog gelooft. Het Midden-Oosten is uitermate complex, alleen wil niemand van de betrokkenen dat echt toegeven. Het gevoelen hier is dat op dit moment de vijand moet worden ontmenselijkt, zodat hij of zij (of het kind) zonder veel gewetensproblemen uit de annalen van de geschiedenis kan worden geschrapt.
Alleen: het werkt niet. Wie zo hardnekkig iets probeert te verbergen, maakt zichzelf verdacht. Daar helpt geen zonnebril aan, zelfs niet van een duur merk.
Hoe zat nu eigenlijk met de Israëlische beschieting van het VN-schooltje vorige dinsdag, waarbij een veertigtal doden vielen - vluchtelingen volgens de VN? Volgens VN-bronnen heeft het Israëlische leger intussen toegegeven dat er hoegenaamd geen twee Hamas-terroristen in het schooltje zaten, laat staan dat ze van daaruit het Israëlische leger onder vuur zouden hebben genomen. Heel erg openlijk wil Israël in zijn bekentenis niet maken, volgens die VN-bronnen, want het verhaal is nogal, euh, pijnlijk.
Dit soort van verhalen geeft altijd een nare smaak in de mond. Toen ik woensdag in Sderot was, zowat het dichtsbijzijnde Israëlische stadje bij de Gaza-strook en als dusdanig doelwit van Qassam-raketten van Hamas, wist iedereen daar wel zeker dat Hamas in het schooltje zat en de vluchtelingen daar als 'menselijk schild' gebruikten. "We hebben bewijzen", zei Izik, een jonge twintiger. "Video's."
"Wil je de namen van de twee Hamas-terroristen?" vroeg luitenant-kolonel Olivier Rafowicz, de bullebak met de zonnebril uit een vorige blog. Hij gaf ze meteen, en ook hij verwees naar videobewijs. Kunnen we dat dan even zien, vroegen we. "Nee, dat is voorlopig 'classified'", zei de kolonel met de zonnebril. Maar hij wist wel heel erg zeker dat de video's bestonden, en de kolonel met de zonnebril is een officiële woordvoerder van het Israëlische leger.
Iedereen maakt fouten, en een vorige inwoner van deze regio heeft ooit iets gezegd over het werpen van de eerste steen. Niet de verspreiding van de foute versie van de feiten op zich is daarom zo verontrustend - al is ze waarschijnlijk niet per ongeluk gebeurd. Wel de gretigheid waarmee zowat iedereen die we hier ontmoeten, de propaganda van het leger napraat - letterlijk, zin voor zin. Allemaal weten ze over video's - die ze zelf nooit hebben gezien - en iedereen spreekt over "burgers die worden gebruikt als menselijke schilden" - op basis van wat? Als twijfel het begin is van wijsheid, scoort de Israëlische samenleving op dit moment niet erg hoog op de wijsheidsindex.
Hetzelfde geldt misschien voor de tegenpartij. Bij ons bezoek naar Hebron vonden we geen enkele Palestijn die veel kritiek wou uiten op Hamas. Een politicoloog gaf alleen toe "dat er in de Palestijnse samenleving wel een debat was geweest over de wijsheid van het lanceren van raketten op Israël". De dame in Gaza die we aan de telefoon kregen, zei dat heel Gaza voor honderd procent achter Hamas stond. Er zijn nochtans geruchten dat er ook burgers in Gaza zijn die het hele gedoe beu zijn, en er zijn enkele Palestijnse stemmen die zich afvragen waarom Hamas de confrontatiekoers opging. Maar hoe de stemming in Gaza precies is, weten we niet.
Boven het hele conflict hangt de "fog of war", de oorlogsmist. De enige manier om die mist tenminste een beetje op te lichten, is door onafhankelijke waarnemers en journalisten toe te laten. Wat de Israëlische regering, zoals de lezers van deze blog intussen weten, blijft weigeren. Tear down that wall, Mr. Olmert.
...Met verder wat tekst & uitleg over het gehanteerde censuurbeleid van Israël...
We vonden onderstaande tekst in de alomgekende wikipedia, evenwel met de volgende mededelingen, die we om misverstanden te vermijden hier onmiddellijk bij plaatsen...
# This article or section has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (February 2008)
# This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008)
# This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. WikiProject Israel or the Israel Portal may be able to help recruit one. (November 2008)
...
Censorship in Israel
Israel has media censorship laws based on British emergency regulations from 1945 that apply to domestic media, foreign newspapers and wire service transmissions from or through Israel.
The Israeli Film Ratings board rates, limits or bans films deemed obscene, racist, or containing incitement to violence(1). Only a handful of films or plays have been banned outright (plays are no longer censored as of 1989). News censorship is the responsibility of the Israeli Military Censor. Regulations do not require all articles to be submitted for censorship prior to publication, but only those on a known list of sensitive subjects, such as nuclear weapons in Israel (for example, articles on the subjects of politics or economics may be published un-submitted). Failing to do so may cause the reporter to be cut off(2) or, in the case of foreign reporters, be barred from the country.(3)
The list of sensitive subjects, articles on which have to be submitted to censorship prior to publication, is determined within the framework of a censorship agreement between Israeli authorities and the 'Editor's Committee', which is a body of representatives from the Israeli media. "There will be no censorship on political issues, on expressions of opinion or assessments, unless they hint on classified information." (4)
Reporters Without Borders 2007 report on Israel states: "The country's journalists enjoy a freedom not found elsewhere in the region, but though 2006 was one of the safest years for them since the start of the second Intifada in 2000, many problems remain", mainly referring to the physical risks endured by reporters covering the conflict areas between Israel, the Palestinians and the Hizbullah in Lebanon.(5)
The Israeli Military Censor has the power to prevent publication of certain news items. The censorship rules largely concern military issues such as not reporting if a missile hit or missed its target, troop movements, etc. but it is also empowered to control information about the oil industry and water supply.(6)(7) Journalists who bypass the military censor or publish items that were censored may be subject to criminal prosecution and jail time; the censor also has the authority to close newspapers. However, these extreme measures have been rarely used.(8) One notable instance where a newspaper was closed temporarily was in the case of the Kav 300 affair where it was eventually discovered that the censor was used by the Shin Bet to cover up internal wrongdoings in the agency and led to one of the biggest public scandals in Israel during the 1980s and to a reassesment of the role and application of censorship in Israel.
Israeli laws also outlaw hate speech and "expressing support for illegal or terrorist organizations".(7)
Mordechai Vanunu who served 18 years in prison for treason and espionage was released in 2004, but is still under restrictions on speech and movement.(7) A BBC reporter was barred from the country after publishing an interview with him without handing it over to the censors first.(3)
Every journalist working within Israel is required to be accredited by the Israeli Government Press Office. Most applications are just formal, but the office is allowed to deny applications based on political or security considerations.(7)
One very commonly used way for Israeli media to circumvent censorship rules is to quote foreign news sources, which by virtue of being located outside of Israel are not subject to Israeli censorship.
The IsraeliMilitaryCensor is a unit in the IDF Directorate of Military Intelligence which watches over the publication of information regarding the military network, and generally, the security of Israel. The Military Censor, as part of its duty, has authority to suppress information it deems compromising from being made public in the media. In practice however, the ability of the censor to suppress publication of news stories in the Israeli media is rather limited as Israeli news outlets often circumvent the censor by reporting stories "as quoted from foreign news sources," which, since they were originally published outside of Israel, are not subject to the restrictions of the Israeli military censor.
The Censorship Agreement
In 1966, the Censorship Agreement was signed between media representatives and the IDF. The media agreed to abide by the orders of the Military Censor, while the IDF agreed not to misuse its role. Three main points of the arrangement are:
# The purpose of the censorship is to prevent the publication of security information which could benefit the enemy or harm the State.
# There will be no censorship on political issues, on expressions of opinion or assessments, unless they hint on classified information.
# The Military Censor will inform the media which issues demand its approval. The list is subject to change, but always includes two overarching issues: the security of the State, and the immigration of Jews from nations hostile to Israel. (1)
Parliamentary and judicial oversight
During the 1990s, the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee appointed a subcommittee, chaired by Yossi Sarid, to examine the existence and role of the Military Censor. The subcommittee recommended to keep the Censorship Agreement in place, but amend it by:
# Extending the terms of the Agreement to all media outlets in Israel, not only media outlets with representatives in the Editorial Committee.
# A simple appeal of a decision rendered by the "Censorship Committee" will not be heard by the Chief of Staff but by a Supreme Court Judge, or retired Judge with an Arbitrator status in the Arbitration Law.
# The terms of the Censorship Agreement will also be extended to foreign journalists working in Israel
# A newspapers will be allowed to cite anything published in another newspaper, unless the Military Censor decides the material poses "imminent and immediate danger" in the spirit of the terms established by the Supreme Court.
# The Military Censor or the Interior Minister are to be prohibited from shutting down a newspaper that is not part of the Agreement without giving it the opportunity to appeal the decision in the courts. (2)
The former president of the Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, ruled that, when in direct conflict, the right to live supersedes the right to expression:
"Precisely because of the existential nature of the security issues, it is important that the public be aware of the host of problems, in a manner where it is able to arrive at wise decisions on the fundamental problems which trouble it. Precisely because the repercussions that decisions of a security nature have on the life of nation, it is suitable to open the door to openly exchanging of views on security issues." (3)
In March 2005, it became public that the Ministry of Defense-appointed Winograd Commission for reviewing the authority of the Military Censor (chaired by former judge, Eliyahu Winograd), whose members were selected by the then-Chief Censor Colonel Miri Regev, would recommend expanding the authority of the Military Censor, by proposing legislation to repeal the 1989 Supreme Court ruling which limited the scope its authority on legitimate news reporting. But since then, opposition for the move (initiated by commission member, professor Asa Kasher) was expressed by professor Gabriela Shalev, another commission member. (4) The Winograd Probe has yet to publish its report.
The Chief Censor
The unit is commanded by the Chief Censor, an officer directly appointed by the Defense Minister. It is an entirely independent position in the IDF, which is neither subordinate to the Defense Minister, nor the Chief of Staff, Aman Director, or any one else on the chain of command or from the political echelon, and is only subject to parliamentary and judicial oversight. As of August 2005, the Chief Censor is Colonel Sima Vaknin. (5)
...& Diegenen die ondanks dit alles tóch blijven beweren dat Israël de enige "èchte" democratie in dat gebied is, moet dat hier toch maar eens proberen komen uit teleggen... want wij hebben daar toch behoorlijk zware twijfels over ...A.U.B. !! Hier niet komen lullen over oorlog die bepaalde vrijheden opschort. Het recht op vrije informatie & onafhankelijke nieuwsgaring kan niet, zegge & schrijve NIET worden opgeschort !! PUNT.
Trouwens, een staat die dit tolereert is een totalitaire staat !! PUNT !!
...
...& ja, last but not the least wat cijfertjes... Cijfertjes die we ~voor de duidelijkheid~ gaan halen zijn bij "Israeli human rights groups"...
Casualties
Update for 11 January '09, morning (GMT+2)
Gaza : at least 870 killed, of them at least 230 children and 93 women. More than half those killed since the ground incursion began (400) are women and children. Over 3,600 injured, of them over 400 severely so.
Israel : 10 killed, of them 1 woman and 7 soldiers. Over 78 civilians injured, of them 4 severely injured, not including those treated for shock , and 60 soldiers injured, of them one in critical condition
(N.V.D.R. : ...waaronder 4 journalisten
1. Ala'a Murtaja working for a local radio station.
2. Sameer Khaleefeh reporter at the national Palestinian TV and Sudanese TV .
3. Hamzeh Shaheen journalist photographer working for Shihab News Agency.
4. Ehab Alwahedi Cameraman at Palestine TV.
Gaza 2009 How to cast lead into gold ?!... ofte "De Gaaaz van Gaza !!" - Deel 1
Laat ons eventjes wat puntjes op wat i's zetten... Want dat mag zo stilaan ook eens gebeuren...
Gaza... de terroristen van Hamas & de disproportionele reactie van Israël... Wij begrepen niet zo meteen de juiste reden van de gebeurtenissen van de laatste dagen & dus gingen wij daar maar achter op zoek... Sommige flipo's hier op onze eigenste bloggensites begonnen al te raaskallen over "Heilige Oorlogen". Maar als er nu iets is waarvan onze haren gaan recht staan, is het wel de term/het begrip "Heilige Oorlog"...
Laat ons daarbij duidelijk zijn & dus onomwonden stellen waar 't 'm om gaat : oorlogen draaiden ~& dat gold zowel in het verleden als nù~ nog A-L-T-IJ-D om geld - PUNT !!
...& In dat opzicht vroegen wij ons dus af waarover dit conflict nu juist ook weer over ging. Die zandbak vol vluchtelingen leek ons niet meteen een èchte vetpot. Dat gelul van die qassamraketten hebben we ook al uitgelegd Kortom ...er is dus iets loos met dit conflict ...de nakende Israëlische verkiezingen misschien ?!... Neen !! Er moet nog iets anders zijn & kijk... leest u eventjes met grote oogjes met ons mee & let u daarbij vooral op de data van de publicaties die dateren van lang voor de aanval... Het gaat hier dus wel degelijk om het alchemistische principe van lood in goud te veranderen... In dit geval via gas & olie !! ...Het is misschien daarom juist dat deze ganse militaire operatie van Israël de codenaam "cast lead" meekreeg ?!...
...
Published October 2007
Vol. 7, No. 17 - 19 October 2007
Does the Prospective Purchase of British Gas from Gaza's Coastal Waters Threaten Israel's National Security?
Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon(*)
---------- (*) Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Moshe Yaalon is a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center's Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies. Capping a distinguished career as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), he served as Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, during which time he led the army's successful effort to quell the Palestinian terror war launched in September 2000.
----------
# British Gas is supposed to be the crown jewel of the Palestinian economy, and provide part of the solution to Israel's pressing energy needs. The British energy giant, now called the "BG Group," and its local partners - the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas and the private, Palestinian-owned Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) - are currently involved in advanced negotiations to sell to Israel massive amounts of natural gas - reserves of nearly 1.4 trillion cubic feet - that BG first discovered in 2000 off the Gaza coast. The market value of the gas has been estimated at $4 billion. Therefore, sale of the gas to Israel would mean a billion-dollar windfall for the PA and, potentially, for the Palestinian people.
# Unfortunately, British assessments, including those of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, that Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state, are misguided. Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel would likely not trickle down to help an impoverished Palestinian public. Rather, based on Israel's past experience, the proceeds will likely serve to fund further terror attacks against Israel. No less threatening is the fact that terror organizations associated with the global Jihad, like al-Qaeda, will be highly motivated to attack any British Gas installation off Gaza's shores that provided fuel to Israel.
# For Israel, the need for BG's gas may have already taken a toll. It is possible that the prospect of an Israeli gas purchase may have played a role in influencing the Olmert cabinet to avoid ordering a major IDF ground operation in Gaza, despite at least 1,000 rocket and mortar attacks against southern Israel since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007.
# Clearly, Israel needs additional natural gas sources, while the Palestinian people sorely need new sources of revenue. However, with Gaza currently a radical Islamic stronghold, and the West Bank in danger of becoming the next one, Israel's funneling a billion dollars into local or international bank accounts on behalf of the Palestinian Authority would be tantamount to Israel's bankrolling terror against itself. Therefore, an urgent review is required of the far-reaching security implications of an Israeli decision to purchase Gaza gas.
Selling British Gas to Israel: A Key British Foreign Policy Goal Since 2000
The British government seems to have pinned much of its Middle East policy on the successful outcome of British Gas negotiations with Israel. A September 18, 2007, report in the Arabic al-Quds newspaper noted that the British government views Gaza's natural gas reserves as central to 10 Downing Street's "economic road map" for the Middle East region."(1) Tony Blair's position, first as prime minister and now as the very active Quartet Envoy for Palestinian Economic Development, has been that the Palestinian Authority's share of the gas sale proceeds, which could reach well over a billion dollars, could serve as the economic fuel to jump-start the Palestinian economy and advance the peace process.
The Blair government's admirable goal of helping the Palestinian economy wean itself from about a billion dollars a year in international handouts may have driven BG in November 1999 to make former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his tightly-controlled Palestinian Authority a local partner in the gas project, together with the Athens-based Palestinian concern, the Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC). Arafat clearly understood the financial potential of a billion dollars in royalties. Soon after the gas discovery, BG and its local Palestinian licensees approached the State of Israel to buy the gas. Then Prime Minister Tony Blair personally urged former Prime Ministers Barak and Sharon to finalize a deal.
Despite Blair's enthusiasm for the deal, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan opposed the transaction on security grounds, that the proceeds would fund terror.(2) Israeli fears were justified. Arafat and Fatah leaders stole billions from the public till to finance terror against Israel, as documents recovered by the Israel Defense Forces from Arafat's compound revealed.(3) Israel also faced virtually non-stop Palestinian terror attacks from 2000 to 2005, resulting in more than 1,000 Israelis killed.(4)
There had been no comprehensive interagency security assessment between 2002 and 2005 regarding a potential BG deal with Israel. However, Dagan's opposition to it (as noted by Member of Knesset Gilad Erdan in a 2006 speech to the Knesset Plenum) was also shared by former Prime Minister Sharon. Today, Prime Minister Olmert has revived the relationship with BG and has exerted much energy to reach a definitive agreement for the purchase of the offshore natural gas.
---------- (1) The Economic Road Map for the Middle East," Al Quds, September 18, 2007.
(2) Member of Knesset Gilad Erdan, Address to the Knesset on "The Intention of Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Purchase Gas from the Palestinians When Payment Will Serve Hamas," March 1, 2
(3) Dan Diker and Khaled Abu Toameh, "What Happened to Reform of the Palestinian Authority?" Jerusalem Issue Brief, vol. 3, no. 20, March 3, 2004, http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief3-20.htm. See also Lesley Stahl, "Arafat's Billions," CBSNews.com, November 9, 2003.
Since Sharon's opposition to the BG deal, and its subsequent collapse in 2005, strategic security threats to Israel have worsened considerably. Iran has fully penetrated Palestinian areas, particularly Gaza, from which its proxies Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fired some 2,000 rockets at Israel since its 2005 withdrawal. Iran is today the major funder, trainer and provider of advanced weaponry to its various Shiite and Sunni proxies including Hizbullah in southern Lebanon, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and the Fatah-associated Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank. Iran funneled more than $250 million to Hamas in 2006 alone. Other Sunni Jihadi groups associated with al-Qaeda and the global Jihad also operate in Gaza.
Iran is also interested in controlling energy assets in the region and would likely target off-shore gas reserves either as a "carrot" to induce Hamas cooperation or as a "stick" against Hamas in the event of diverging interests with Teheran.
Hamas' "Partnership" in the BG Transaction
British officials have expressed confidence that the gas proceeds can bypass Hamas and benefit the Palestinian public by being deposited and monitored in international bank accounts.(5) Israel has also proposed paying for the gas in goods and services.(6) However, these assessments are mistaken. A gas transaction with the Palestinian Authority will, by definition, involve Hamas. Hamas will either benefit from the royalties or it will sabotage the project and launch attacks against Fatah, the gas installations, Israel - or all three.
Soon after Hamas' takeover of Gaza in June 2007, Hamas' economic minister in the PA government, Ziad Zaza, blasted BG as "an embarrassment to the Palestinian people," while labeling the transaction an "act of theft" against Palestinian lands.(7) However, Hamas soon reversed its position and now insists on renegotiating the agreed percentages in the deal to reflect its participation.(8) Dr. Mohammed Mustafa, head of the PA's Palestinian Investment Fund, a local BG partner, has indicated on more than one occasion that at least 10 percent of the gas proceeds will be directed to Gaza and that arrangements could be made to satisfy "the organizations" - meaning Hamas - in negotiations.(9) This means, in simple terms, that the current terms of the deal are still unsatisfactory to Hamas, although it stands to receive a minimum direct payout of $100 million, while the PA's Fatah leadership will likely pocket close to $900 million.
Hamas, in anticipation of its participation in BG negotiations, has confirmed its capability to bomb Israel's strategic gas and electricity installations in Ashkelon.(10) This type of threat is a pressure tactic against Israel that will most likely increase if the BG deal moves closer to completion. It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement.
---------- (5) Mathew Krieger, "British Gas, Israel to Freeze Hamas Out of $4B Gas Deal," Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2007. Senior British diplomats also indicated in July 2007 that gas proceeds would be placed in international bank accounts.
(6) Uri Yablonka, "Israel Close to BG Deal," Ha'aretz, July 2007.
(7) Sonia Verma and Steve Hawkes, "Hamas Says BG Plan to Pump Gas to Israel an Act of Theft," Times (UK), May 24, 2007.
(8) Interview in Arabic with Hamas official Mahmoud Al Zahar by a senior foreign journalist based in Israel, July 2007.
(9) Pazit Ravina, "One Hundred Million Dollars for the Hamas Command," Makor Rishon, August, 18, 2007 (Hebrew).
(10) Wa'ri Suleiman, "Was Gaza Gas One Reason for the Coup?" AMIN website, June 23, 2007, http://www.amin.org/look/amin/press.htm. Wa'ri claimed that Hamas timed the coup in Gaza according to the reports of progress in negotiations on the BG deal in order to be party to it. He also noted that if Hamas' participation was rejected, Hamas would launch a "rocket intifada" covering all the areas in reach around
----------
Israel's Past Experience: Money Flowing into PA Also Funds Fatah Terror Groups
Israel's experience during the Oslo years indicates Palestinian gas profits would likely end up funding terrorism against Israel. The threat is not limited to Hamas. Since the establishment of the PA in 1993, monies that flowed into the Palestinian Authority from international donations, tax revenues, or profits from business with Israelis and other international investors - such as the Jericho Casino and other transactions - have ended up funding terror groups such as the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah Tanzim, and others. Simply put, once the funds reached the PA in the past, they could not be controlled by any outside authority.
For example, in the Oslo era, it has already been disclosed that monies that flowed through the PA's PCSC - a division of the PA's Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF), one of the partners in the current British Gas negotiations - ended up funding terror actions against Israel by the Fatah-associated Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.(11) Another good example is the money raised by Hamas charities in the United States that U.S. government prosecutors now charge is funding Hamas terror activities in Gaza.(12) True, part of these monies raised by charity ended up funding the Hamas' "Dawa" social programs in Gaza. However, a good portion of these financial resources also ended up funding terror against Israel. While senior British officials have continued to call Hamas "a problem that can be solved," their confidence is misplaced if they believe that they can find international financial mechanisms to bypass Hamas and other terror groups. Simply put, Israel's longstanding experience shows empirically that it is impossible to prevent at least some of the gas proceeds from reaching Palestinian terror groups.
---------- (11) Uzrad Lev, In the Pocket of the Chairman (Tel Aviv, 2005), pp. 162-63, 239 (Hebrew).
(12) Associated Press, "HLF Found Guilty of Funding Hamas," Jerusalem Post, September 18, 2007.
----------
BG Gas Deal Frees Hamas from Isolation
BG's negotiations with Israel, that have the full backing of the British government, have already helped unshackle Hamas from political and diplomatic isolation. While British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official position is that Britain will not talk to Hamas as long as its goal is to destroy Israel, a number of prominent voices in Britain including the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee are calling for reengaging with "moderate" Hamas elements.(13)
Former MI6 official Alistair Crooke, who was also a former advisor to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, has "opened up unofficial channels of communications between Hamas and Western governments."(14) Quartet envoy Tony Blair has also advocated speaking to Hamas to replicate the Northern Ireland model.(15) Crooke's formal plan, entitled "Politicizing Hamas," was backed by Blair during his tenure as prime minister. Crooke's ideas today are clearly illustrated in the recent Labor conference speech by Foreign Minister David Miliband, who praised Hamas for the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston and called for "listening" to Islamists.(16) Senior Hamas official Ahmad Yusuf has indicated that many behind-the-scenes meetings between Hamas and European officials have been keys to a Hamas reengagement in the diplomatic process.(17)
Furthermore, current British Gas negotiations have already helped fuel Fatah and Hamas discussions of a possible reengagement. Hamas' Yusuf has also indicated that despite U.S. and Israeli isolation of Hamas, Fatah and Hamas have been conducting back-channel negotiations to resolve their differences and reenergize a national unity government.(18) Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayad has also continued to pay the salaries of the Hamas Executive Force in Gaza.
---------- (13) Melanie Phillips, "Engaged to Hamas," Jerusalem Post, September 15, 2007.
(17) Ahmad Yusuf, "Hamas Is the Key," Ha'aertz, September 21, 2007.
(18) "Ahmad Yusuf Reveals: Secret Draft Negotiations between Hamas and Fatah," Maan Palestinian News Agency September 20, 2007 (Arabic), and Khaled Abu Toameh, "Hamas Ready to Settle Tough Issues," Jerusalem Post, September 21, 2007.
----------
A Prospective Gaza Off-Shore Gas Installation: A Magnet for Global Jihad
The Israeli government reportedly intends to deploy IDF naval combat vessels to protect a future British-Palestinian gas installation about 800 feet below sea level. According to this strategy, the BG installation would be guarded against above sea terror attacks while diver terrorists would not be able to execute attacks so far below sea level.(19)
However, even with IDF protection, the sea-based British gas installation will be a very attractive target for both local and international terror groups. Al-Qaeda's deadly "rubber dingy" attack in 2000 against the USS Cole is just one illustration. Hamas has announced the formation of a 150-man light naval force that will be deployed to protect "Palestinian interests" in Gaza's territorial waters.(20) Hamas has also smuggled high-quality weaponry into Gaza via underground tunnels from Egyptian Sinai, including medium-range Katyusha rockets, much of it supplied and financed by Iran. Some of the weaponry captured on the Karine A weapons ship in 2002 by the IDF included 22-km.-range Katyusha rockets and amphibious equipment that could be effective in attacks against an off-shore gas installation. Moreover, the tens of tons of heavy weaponry that have been smuggled into Gaza since 2006 alone via the Rafah tunnels include Katyusha rockets.
Al-Qaeda would also clearly be interested in sabotaging gas flow to Israel. Global Jihad groups, particularly al-Qaeda, would also be interested in attacking British targets, as was illustrated in the London attacks of July 7, 2005, and the ongoing al-Qaeda operations against British forces in Iraq. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, and other local terror groups will be highly motivated to attack BG gas drilling installations, particularly to sabotage a multi-billion dollar deal that excludes them.
---------- (19) Yablonka "Israel Close to BG Deal."
(20) Ali Waked, "Hamas Establishes Naval Force," Ynet News, August 9, 2007 (Hebrew).
----------
BG and Israeli Security Decisions Regarding Gaza
Israel must consider whether it can afford to be dependant on the Palestinians for such a critical energy asset as natural gas. If Israel becomes the Palestinians' main gas customer in a multi-year agreement, the PA or Palestinian terror groups could use the continued supply of gas as a lever to pressure Israel to make additional concessions and "gestures" as part of political negotiations. More significantly, the Palestinians could threaten to cut off the natural gas supply to Israel to prevent the IDF from responding to terror attacks and other threats emanating from Gaza or the West Bank.
It is possible that the prospect of a major natural gas transaction with the Palestinians has been a factor in the Israeli cabinet's refusal to launch a Defensive Shield II operation in Gaza. This concern is a result of the high price Israel has already paid for its relatively muted responses to Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza. The September 11, 2007, rocket attack by the Iranian-commanded and financed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that wounded 61 IDF soldiers asleep in their Negev base, is a recent example. Despite hundreds of rockets and mortars, and various terrorist infiltration attempts against Israel from Gaza, there still has been no comprehensive military response by Israel.21
(22) Yablonka, "Israel Close to BG Deal."
----------
Have British Gas Negotiations Prejudiced Israel from Exploring Other Supply Options?
Another national security issue that must be considered is whether Israel's preference to advance the British Gas purchase has prevented or delayed government consideration of other natural gas options. For example, BG's original license was for drilling and exploration of natural gas off of Haifa Bay with the Israeli-owned drilling company Yam Thetis. While the license was granted in 1998, the nearly single focus on pursuing the Gaza gas option resulted in major delays in exploration and drilling off the coast of Haifa. It is possible that Yam Thetis will eventually be able to provide sufficient amounts of natural gas found in Israel's coastal waters, thus obviating the need to take unnecessary risks at this juncture in the Palestinian transaction. In fact, Yam Thetis is currently arguing this case in a petition to Israel's Supreme Court.
Conduct a Thorough Security Assessment Before Approving the British Gas Deal
The multiple dangers lurking behind Israel's potential natural gas purchase from BG have not deterred another attempt at finalizing a deal, due in large part to the redoubled efforts of Quartet envoy Tony Blair. The latest indications are that the BG Group, with the full backing of the British government, intends to finalize a multi-year agreement with Israel before the end of 2007.22
The dangers inherent in Israel's potential purchase of British Gas from the marine reserves off Gaza require an immediate, comprehensive, interagency security assessment by the IDF, Israeli Security Agency, Mossad, and other organs. This type of interagency assessment did not take place when I was IDF Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005. Since then, to the best of my understanding, no comprehensive security assessment has occurred, despite the intention of the parties to sign an agreement in the coming weeks.
Regional and local security conditions have worsened since 2005, and Israel must be prepared to face a possible two-front war against Hamas in Gaza, and Syria and Hizbullah in the north. Therefore, Israel will pay a painful price in its security if the British Gas transaction were to take place in the foreseeable future.
Israel needs additional sources of energy, including natural gas, and the Palestinians clearly need to create a peaceful civil society and a self-sustaining economy. However, with Gaza currently a radical Islamic stronghold, and the West Bank in danger of becoming the next one, Israel's funneling a billion dollars into local or international bank accounts on behalf of the Palestinian Authority would be tantamount to Israel's bankrolling terror against itself. Therefore, an urgent review is required of the far-reaching security implications of an Israeli decision to purchase Gaza gas by the State Comptroller's office or another external review panel.
Gaza 2009 How to cast lead into gold ?!... ofte "De Gaaaz van Gaza !!" - Deel 2
Begin deel (2) ...Het vervolg...!!
Gesnopen beste ?!... Wij zijn dus héél erg gerust gesteld want blijkbaar is dit dus weer eens bekend terrein... Namelijk één van die terreinen waarop een menselijk leven niks waard is & géén enkel ander principe standhoudt dan dat van pùùr economisch eigenbelang... lees dus : big money !!...
We vonden een zeer degelijke samenvatting van de situatie waarvan we jullie natuurlijk laten meegenieten...
...
Global Research, January 8, 2009
War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields
by Michel Chossudovsky
The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves.
This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.
British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon's Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.
The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21, 2007).
The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline.(Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001).
The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine.
The BG Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2. Reserves are estimated by British Gas to be of the order of 1.4 trillion cubic feet, valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by British Gas. The size of Palestine's gas reserves could be much larger.
map 1
map 2
Who Owns the Gas Fields
The issue of sovereignty over Gaza's gas fields is crucial. From a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine.
The death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza's offshore gas reserves.
British Gas (BG Group) has been dealing with the Tel Aviv government. In turn, the Hamas government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields.
The election of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001 was a major turning point. Palestine's sovereignty over the offshore gas fields was challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. Sharon stated unequivocally that "Israel would never buy gas from Palestine" intimating that Gaza's offshore gas reserves belong to Israel.
In 2003, Ariel Sharon, vetoed an initial deal, which would allow British Gas to supply Israel with natural gas from Gaza's offshore wells. (The Independent, August 19, 2003)
The election victory of Hamas in 2006 was conducive to the demise of the Palestinian Authority, which became confined to the West Bank, under the proxy regime of Mahmoud Abbas.
In 2006, British Gas "was close to signing a deal to pump the gas to Egypt." (Times, May, 23, 2007). According to reports, British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened on behalf of Israel with a view to shunting the agreement with Egypt.
The following year, in May 2007, the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "to buy gas from the Palestinian Authority." The proposed contract was for $4 billion, with profits of the order of $2 billion of which one billion was to go the Palestinians.
Tel Aviv, however, had no intention on sharing the revenues with Palestine. An Israeli team of negotiators was set up by the Israeli Cabinet to thrash out a deal with the BG Group, bypassing both the Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority:
"Israeli defence authorities want the Palestinians to be paid in goods and services and insist that no money go to the Hamas-controlled Government." (Ibid, emphasis added)
The objective was essentially to nullify the contract signed in 1999 between the BG Group and the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat.
Under the proposed 2007 agreement with BG, Palestinian gas from Gaza's offshore wells was to be channeled by an undersea pipeline to the Israeli seaport of Ashkelon, thereby transferring control over the sale of the natural gas to Israel.
The deal fell through. The negotiations were suspended:
"Mossad Chief Meir Dagan opposed the transaction on security grounds, that the proceeds would fund terror". (Member of Knesset Gilad Erdan, Address to the Knesset on "The Intention of Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Purchase Gas from the Palestinians When Payment Will Serve Hamas," March 1, 2006, quoted in Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon, Does the Prospective Purchase of British Gas from Gaza's Coastal Waters Threaten Israel's National Security? Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, October 2007)
Israel's intent was to foreclose the possibility that royalties be paid to the Palestinians. In December 2007, The BG Group withdrew from the negotiations with Israel and in January 2008 they closed their office in Israel.BG website().
Invasion Plan on The Drawing Board
The invasion plan of the Gaza Strip under "Operation Cast Lead" was set in motion in June 2008, according to Israeli military sources:
"Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago [June or before June] , even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas."(Barak Ravid, Operation "Cast Lead": Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)
That very same month, the Israeli authorities contacted British Gas, with a view to resuming crucial negotiations pertaining to the purchase of Gaza's natural gas:
"Both Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Hezi Kugler agreed to inform BG of Israel's wish to renew the talks.
The sources added that BG has not yet officially responded to Israel's request, but that company executives would probably come to Israel in a few weeks to hold talks with government officials." (Globes online- Israel's Business Arena, June 23, 2008)
The decision to speed up negotiations with British Gas (BG Group) coincided, chronologically, with the planning of the invasion of Gaza initiated in June. It would appear that Israel was anxious to reach an agreement with the BG Group prior to the invasion, which was already in an advanced planning stage.
Moreover, these negotiations with British Gas were conducted by the Ehud Olmert government with the knowledge that a military invasion was on the drawing board. In all likelihood, a new "post war" political-territorial arrangement for the Gaza strip was also being contemplated by the Israeli government.
In fact, negotiations between British Gas and Israeli officials were ongoing in October 2008, 2-3 months prior to the commencement of the bombings on December 27th.
In November 2008, the Israeli Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Infrastructures instructed Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) to enter into negotiations with British Gas, on the purchase of natural gas from the BG's offshore concession in Gaza. (Globes, November 13, 2008)
"Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Hezi Kugler wrote to IEC CEO Amos Lasker recently, informing him of the government's decision to allow negotiations to go forward, in line with the framework proposal it approved earlier this year.
The IEC board, headed by chairman Moti Friedman, approved the principles of the framework proposal a few weeks ago. The talks with BG Group will begin once the board approves the exemption from a tender." (Globes Nov. 13, 2008)
Gaza and Energy Geopolitics
The military occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas fields to Israel in violation of international law.
What can we expect in the wake of the invasion?
What is the intent of Israel with regard to Palestine's Natural Gas reserves?
A new territorial arrangement, with the stationing of Israeli and/or "peacekeeping" troops?
The militarization of the entire Gaza coastline, which is strategic for Israel?
The outright confiscation of Palestinian gas fields and the unilateral declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Gaza's maritime areas?
If this were to occur, the Gaza gas fields would be integrated into Israel's offshore installations, which are contiguous to those of the Gaza Strip. (See Map 1 above).
These various offshore installations are also linked up to Israel's energy transport corridor, extending from the port of Eilat, which is an oil pipeline terminal, on the Red Sea to the seaport - pipeline terminal at Ashkelon, and northwards to Haifa, and eventually linking up through a proposed Israeli-Turkish pipeline with the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Ceyhan is the terminal of the Baku, Tblisi Ceyhan Trans Caspian pipeline. "What is envisaged is to link the BTC pipeline to the Trans-Israel Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, also known as Israel's Tipline." (See Michel Chossudovsky, The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil, Global Research, July 23, 2006)
...& Voor de laatste twijfelaars zetten we nog dit laatste artikel erbij, zodat het zelfs voor een totaal gelobotomisserde chimpansee moet beginnen duidelijk te worden dat er nooit voldoende doden zullen kunnen vallen langs Palestijnse kant. Het is een heruitgave van het verhaal van de Noord en Zuid- Amerikaanse indianen die telkens weer op een verkeerde plaats een reservaat gekregen hadden... maar dus deze keer wonen de indianen in kwestie... in Gaza !!
...
From The Times - May 23, 2007
BG Group at centre of $4bn deal to supply Gaza gas to Israel
The British energy firm is set to agree terms of a $4bn, 15-year deal over gas discovered off the Gaza coast
Steve Hawkes and Sonia Verma in Jerusalem
BG Group is poised to agree the terms of an historic $4 billion (£2 billion) deal to supply Palestinian gas to Israel from a discovery off the Gaza coastline, The Times has learnt.
Representatives from the British energy company are scheduled next week to meet a team of negotiators chosen by the Israeli Cabinet to thrash out a 15-year contract. Despite the violence in Gaza, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has insisted that it wants to conclude a deal as soon as possible.
It would enable BG Group, the former owner of British Gas, to begin to develop an offshore field that is the Palestine Authoritys only natural resource. The move would mark an unprecedented milestone in Middle East relations. There would be enough gas to provide 10 per cent of Israels annual energy requirement, and the Palestinians would receive total royalties of $1 billion. Sources in the Middle East note that the sensitive talks could be derailed at any time by the acute political tension that surrounds the deal.
However, Nigel Shaw, the BG Group vice-president in the region, said: We are making progress. There are commercial issues to be completed and we also require bilateral agreement between the two governments to get this project across the line. But this is a chance for greater economic prosperity in Palestine and that is only good for peace.
The signing of heads of terms would mark an amazing turnaround, given the political and legal disputes that have dogged the project since BG Group discovered the Gaza Marine field in 2000. It holds one trillion cubic feet of gas, the equivalent of 150 million barrels of oil, equivalent to a large North Sea field.
Six years ago Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister at the time, vowed that Israel would never buy gas from its neighbour. The project also was held up by a legal challenge in the Israeli Supreme Court to establish whether the Palestinians had any right to the discovery. Last year BG Group was close to signing a deal to pump the gas to Egypt before Tony Blair intervened and asked the company to give Israel a second chance. Three weeks ago the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, to buy gas from the Palestinian Authority. The Cabinet recognised the need for new energy sources to feed Israels rapidly growing economy.
Under BG Groups plans, gas from the field would be transported by an undersea pipeline to the seaport of Ashkelon. Although Israeli insiders are confident of a deal,significant questions remain, not least how payments to the Palestinian Authority will be made. Israeli defence authorities want the Palestinians to be paid in goods and services and insist that no money go to the Hamas-controlled Government.
Gaza 2009 De zoveelste doodgewone oorlog of een nieuwe genocide ?!...
Is dit de zoveelste doodgewone oorlog of wordt dit dan toch de zoveelste genocide... Iets wat we van Israël zo 'n beetje mogen verwachten na al het vorige wat Israël al in haar ~"burger"~ (-)Oorlogen heeft uitgestoken... 't Is zo precies weer één van die oorlogen waar we met z'n allen lijdzaam gaan op toezien, zonder ook maar even een protesterende stem te laten horen of een concrete poot naar uit te steken ?!... Het wordt dus waarschijnlijk de zoveelste beschamende vuile oorlog waarbij we ons ~zoals de zoveel andere keren~ schokschouderend omdraaien & er ons weer eens weinig of niets van gaan aantrekken, want het is toch maar de zoveelste "ver-van-onze-bed-show" ?!... Kortom, wordt dit dan toch de zoveelste schandvlek op gebied van politieke moed ~& dan zeggen we zowel op nationaal als internationaal gebied~ omdat er teveel "andere grote belangen" op het spel staan ?!...
Wij vreesden er al voor & deze vrees wordt precies ook alleen maar bewaarheidt als we zo wat het nieuws volgen...
Als de internationaal erkende pers al niet ter plekke wordt toegelaten, dan zijn daar meestal ook goede redenen voor... Bijvoorbeeld omdat er zaken gebeuren, die maar beter het licht niet zien... lees : de wereldpers niet halen...
Laten we dus zo eens hier & daar ons oor te luisteren leggen & u konde doen van hoe 't er ginder ter plaatse in Gaza aan toe gaat...
...
donderdag 08 januari 2009
'Inwoners Gaza zijn kapot'
JERUZALEM - INTERVIEW EVELYN LERNOUT, HULPVERLEENSTER OXFAM Het Israëlische leger heeft gisteren drie uur lang een grenspost van Gaza opengesteld voor een hulpkonvooi. 'Natuurlijk verwelkomen we elke vooruitgang, maar in de praktijk is het resultaat beperkt', zegt Evelyn Lernout van Oxfam, in Jeruzalem. 'Er vallen nog altijd doden en gewonden, de hulp bereikt alleen mensen dichtbij de grensovergang, en de hele situatie in Gaza blijft een catastrofe. De mensen zijn kapot.'
Van onze redacteur
in Israel
foto hiernaast : Palestijnen in het vluchtelingenkamp van Jabaliya bidden voor enkele van de 43 doden die dinsdagavond vielen bij de Israëlische beschieting van een VN-school. epa
In het kantoor van de hulporganisatie Oxfam, in een buitenwijk van Jeruzalem, heerst frustratie na twaalf dagen oorlog in Gaza en achttien maanden van Israëlische blokkade die het offensief van vorige week voorafgingen. 'De situatie in Gaza was voordien al verschrikkelijk en nu is het breekpunt voor de bevolking ver gepasseerd', zegt Evelyn Lernout (30).
'De mensen zijn kapot. Er mogen nauwelijks hulpgoederen binnen, de inwoners hebben geen gas om te koken, geen zuiver water, en door de bombardementen vaak geen dak boven het hoofd. Geen enkele van onze drie lokale medewerkers woont nog in zijn eigen huis. En als er gewonden vallen, worden vaak ook de ambulances beschoten.'
Dinsdagavond bestookten Israëlische mortieren een school onder bestuur van de Verenigde Naties - volgens Israël waren er twee Hamasstrijders in de buurt, die samen met een veertigtal burgers werden gedood. Na de internationale verontwaardiging bleek de Israëlische regering bereid tot het instellen van een 'humanitaire corridor': drie uur per dag, van 13 tot 16 uur lokale tijd, moeten de wapens zwijgen en mogen hulpgoederen het omsingelde Gaza weer binnen.
'Natuurlijk verwelkomt Oxfam elke poging om de toegang van humanitaire hulp tot Gaza te verbeteren', zegt Lernout. 'Maar een bestand van drie uur per dag is onvoldoende. Wij vragen een onmiddellijk en volledig staakt-het-vuren, waarbij de Israëlische regering de toegang voor hulpgoederen moet faciliteren, niet beperken of controleren. De reële impact van zulke kortstondige maatregelen is beperkt, omdat het onveilig blijft om de burgers in Gaza echt te bevoorraden.'
'Gaza is bovendien doormidden gesneden door het Israëlische leger. Alleen zij die in de directe omgeving van de doorvoer- en distributiepunten wonen, geraken aan goederen. De meerderheid van de bevolking heeft geen directe toegang tot voedsel, medicijnen en andere essentiële goederen. Zij worden aan hun lot overgelaten. Er zitten mensen vast in het puin van hun huis, zonder enige hulp. Zolang de grensovergangen niet onmiddellijk en volledig worden geopend voor humanitaire hulp én hulpverleners, neemt de humanitaire crisis alleen verder toe.'
De noden van Gaza zijn volgens Lernout immens, en het feit dat de internationale hulporganisaties - net zoals buitenlandse journalisten - worden buiten gehouden door het Israëlische leger, bemoeilijkt de zaken verder. 'Wij werken met lokale medewerkers en partnerorganisaties, terwijl we zelf een uurtje verder in Jeruzalem zitten', zegt Lernout. 'Met onze lokale medewerkers hebben we alleen nog telefonisch contact. Het enige wat je kan vragen, is telkens weer: is iedereen OK? Is je familie veilig? En intussen hoor je op de achtergrond de schoten en de explosies.'
Voor de bombardementen bijna twee weken geleden begonnen, werden de noden van de bevolking van Gaza geschat op een aanvoer van 400 trucks met hulpgoederen per dag. 'Eergisteren heeft het Israëlische leger er veertig van de Verenigde Naties doorgelaten', zegt Lernout. 'In de maanden tevoren zelden meer dan honderd per dag.'
'Zelfs de trucks die worden binnengelaten, geraken nauwelijks verder dan de grensposten. De enige grenspost waar hulp door mag, is Kerem Shalom, helemaal in het zuiden. De aanvoerband voor graan via de grenspost Karni is gesloten, en de pijpleiding voor brandstof via Natal Oz is ook afgesloten. Stel dat de ziekenhuizen zonder elektriciteit en brandstof voor hun generatoren vallen, wat gebeurt er dan met couveuses en beademingstoestellen voor patiënten in intensive care? Intussen houden de gevechten niet op en blijven de gewonden toestromen. Zonder een onmiddellijk staakt-het-vuren en een complete toegang voor humanitaire hulp zijn de gevolgen niet te overzien.'
...& De al evenmin te verdenken Gazet van Antwerpen die sympathieën zou hebben voor...
...
08/01
Druk op Israël verhoogt nu dodentol snel groeit
Ondanks de korte periodes van staakt-het-vuren heeft Israël ook donderdag delen van de Gazastrook zwaar onder vuur genomen. Daardoor liep de dodentol al op boven 750. Ondertussen lijkt het er ook op dat Libanon zich in het conflict wil mengen. Enkele organisaties willen Israël aanklagen voor het plegen van oorlogsmisdaden. Ook het Rode Kruis uit zware kritiek op Israël.
De stad Rafah, vlak bij de Egyptische grens, werd het slachtoffer van tientallen luchtaanvallen. Het was vooral Israëls bedoeling om de lokale smokkeltunnels te vernietigen, die dienen om Hamas te bevoorraden.
Zuiden zwaar onder vuur
Aan de grensovergang Kisufim, richting de stad Khan Younis, zijn verschillende Israëlische tanks het zuiden van de Gazastrook binnengetrokken.
Volgens de laatste cijfers zouden bij de heropflakkering van het geweld nu al 763 Palestijnen en 11 Israeli's om het leven gekomen zijn. Meer dan 3000 mensen raakten gewond.
Rode Kruis kwaad
Opnieuw stierven tientallen burgers, waaronder vrouwen en kinderen. Volgens de hulpverleners wordt hun werk enorm bemoeilijkt door het optreden van de grondtroepen in het gebied. Onder meer het Internationale Rode Kruis schreeuwt moord en brand en wil ook dat de hulpverlening vlot kan verlopen los van de drie uur waarop er een staakt-het-vuren is.
Ook de VN voelt zich bedreigd door de Israëlische aanvallen nadat een VN-hulpkonvooi werd aangevallen. Daarbij kwamen twee mensen om het leven. Daarop besliste de VN om alle transporten van hulpgoederen voorlopig op te schorten.
Libanon
Ondertussen wordt Israël opnieuw zelf bestookt. Donderdagochtend zouden verschillende raketten afgevuurd zijn. Daarbij zouden geen doden gevallen zijn. Het radicale Hezbollah ontkent elke betrokkenheid. De wereld houdt nu zijn hart vast dat de oorlog zal uitbreiden naar Libanon. De Libanese regering heeft de beschieting vanop haar grondgebied alvast veroordeeld.
Oorlogsmisdaden
Volgens Raji Sourani, hoofd van het Palestijnse Centrum voor Mensenrechten (PCHR) in Gaza, heeft Israël oorlogsmisdaden gepleegd en zou het voor een internationaal rechtshof moeten vervolgd worden.
"De herhaalde bombardementen op duidelijk gemarkeerde civiele doelwitten waar burgers schuilden, overtreedt verschillende regels van het internationale recht", zegt Sourani. De gezant van de Palestijnse Autoriteit (PA) in Groot-Brittannië, Manuel Hassassian, heeft al laten weten dat de PA gerechtelijke stappen wil ondernemen tegen de Israëlische leiders die volgens haar verantwoordelijk zijn voor de oorlogsmisdaden in Gaza.
Hassassian had het met name over het Israëlische bombardement op een school van de Verenigde Naties in het vluchtelingenkamp Jabaliya, waarbij veertig Palestijnse burgers het leven lieten. De voorbije dagen werden nog verschillende andere scholen van de VN geraakt. Bij bombardementen woensdagmorgen vielen vier slachtoffers op een speelplaats nabij een moskee in Gaza-stad.
...& Ook de buitenlandse pers laat hetzelfde alarmbelletje horen... We beginnen bij de Washington Post...
...
At Gaza Hospital, Chaos and Desperation
Israel's Strategy Of Dividing the Strip Hinders Relief Efforts
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Reyham Abdel Kareem
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
foto hiernaast :A Palestinian girl injured in the Israeli assault is carried to Shifa Hospital, which as been overwhelmed by the number of dead and injured. (By Abid Katib -- Getty Images)
JERUSALEM, Jan. 5 -- Mohammed Alwan applied pressure to the wounds of the young man in a corridor of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital on Monday. Blood flowing from his body turned the surgeon's gloved hands crimson.
"Khalas," a voice said, Arabic for "It's over."
The doctor refused to give up. He pumped the man's chest, hoping to resuscitate him. A few minutes later, the man died.
"What can I say?" he said in a fatigued voice. "I have seen this scene many times. I've been here four days straight and I've yet to go home."
As Israeli tanks and infantry push deeper into Gaza, an already dire humanitarian situation has worsened. The Israeli government has imposed what Palestinians call a siege on the coastal strip -- restricting deliveries of food, medicine and other staples -- since Hamas took Gaza by force from the rival Fatah party in June 2007. On Monday, Israel's military strategy of dividing the strip in two further hampered Gazans ability to reach hospitals and relief efforts.
The air assaults and ground clashes have paralyzed much of what makes the strip of 1.5 million people work -- hospitals, water and power systems, markets and roads.
About 550 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,500 have been reported wounded in the 10-day offensive; Palestinian health officials estimate that many of them -- between 24 and 30 percent -- are women and children. Most are at Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital.
Doctors there are working day and night on floors soaked with blood to help the rapidly mounting numbers of wounded. In the halls and corridors, screams and uncontrolled sobbing, along with the sounds of bombs and mortars, punctuate conversations.
"The numbers of killed and wounded are rising. Every minute we have a bombardment," said Hassan Khalaf, the director of Shifa Hospital. "The number of cases is overwhelming us. No hospital in the world can handle this."
It's become too dangerous for his staff to retrieve victims. Eleven members of his medical staff have been killed since the offensive began. "They were in ambulances," Khalaf said.
For the past three days, there has been no electricity. The hospital's emergency generators have been working around the clock. Even before then, when electricity was sporadic, the generators were working 16-hour-days. The hospital, he said, has only two days of fuel left.
"Electricity and communications are down over much of the strip both on account of lack of fuel and damage to critical infrastructure," said Maxwell Gaylard, the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. "Over a million people are currently without power, and over a quarter million without running water, some for up to six days."
Khalaf said there are also shortages of medicines, medical tools, nitrogen for anesthesia, monitors -- nearly every item imaginable. Many essential staff members, especially nurses, have been unable to come to work, cut off by the fighting, Israeli tank positions and fear.
"Those in the middle of Gaza Strip could not come to work because the Israeli tanks have cut the strip into two pieces," Khalaf said.
Fawzi Nabulsia, the head of the hospital's intensive care unit, said he hasn't worked since the ground invasion began Saturday. He lives south of Gaza City near the former Israeli settlement of Nitzarim. Israeli forces are now in the area, blocking the road between his house and Gaza City, Nabulsia said.
"Maybe you can speak with the Israelis and ask them to allow me to go to hospital," he said over the telephone, his voice tinged with desperation. "We are in crisis."
Khalaf said hospital staffers who live north of the city, where some of the heaviest fighting and attacks have unfolded, are too fearful to leave their homes. "Moving along Gaza's streets is dangerous," he said.
Inside Shifa Hospital on Monday, its doctors struggled to cope. Imad Majdalawi had handled 20 operations in 24 hours. In virtually every case, he had to fix broken bones, treat burns and cuts, and stop bleeding. "The worse thing I saw was the burns," he said.
In one case, he wanted to send a patient who lost one of his eyes in an Israeli bombing to an eye hospital. But his request was turned down: the generator for the surgical theater in the hospital was needed to fuel the emergency room.
On Monday, he was treating Ghadeer, a 14-year-old girl whose hands were covered in gauze. Blood seeped through it. She was crying and shaking. Her mother and four brothers had been killed an airstrike. She didn't know this.
"I am cold. I can't move," Ghadeer moaned.
Majdalawi soothed her. "Don't worry Ghadeer. Everything will be fine."
But there was no anesthesia or even the appropriate scissors and thread to help Ghadeer. "We are leaving patients in pain," Majdalawi said.
A neurosurgeon, Rami al-Sousi, was engaged in a delicate operation to pull shrapnel from 5-year-old Salim al-Ar's head. The boy would survive. Sousi has two small children but he hasn't seen much of them in the past three days. Ninety percent of the patients he treated were civilians, he said.
"Yes, I'm tired. But I forget everything when I save lives," Sousi said.
A paramedic working for an Oxfam-funded organisation was killed today after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli-fired shell, the charity said.
The Palestinian, working for the Union of Health Work Committees, was killed in Gaza.
Another paramedic lost his foot and the ambulance driver was injured in the same incident.
The paramedic was trying to help evacuate an injured person in the Beit Lahiya area, when the shell struck the ambulance, Oxfam said.
The UN estimates over 100 civilians have been killed in Gaza over the past week although some other organisations believe the civilian death toll is significantly higher.
John Prideaux-Brune, Oxfam's Country Director for Israel and Palestine, speaking from Jerusalem said: "The incident shows yet again that trying to fight a military campaign in the densely populated streets and alleys of the Gaza Strip will inevitably lead to civilian casualties.
"There are no safe areas and Gazans who want to flee the fighting have been prevented from leaving the Strip."
The charity said that the Israeli ground offensive into Gaza is preventing urgently needed supplies of medicine, food, water, and fuel from reaching one and a half million Palestinian women, men and children.
Prideaux-Brune added: "Hospitals in Gaza are overflowing with dead and wounded while facing severe shortages of essential medical supplies and spare parts.
"Oxfam and local partners have had to suspend all our work, apart from emergency medical aid. Many of our colleagues in Gaza are trapped in their homes, and in fear of their and their families' lives. Others, such as the paramedic have lost their lives trying to save others.
"The trickle of humanitarian aid that Israel has sometimes allowed in through one border crossing at Kerem Shalom has been completely inadequate to meet the needs of 1.5 million people - 80% of whom are reliant on this aid.
"Since the start of the Israeli ground offensive, even that trickle has dried up. An immediate ceasefire is urgently needed to allow essential aid to reach those families who need it."
'Een tijdelijk bestand? Wij van Artsen Zonder Grenzen hebben er weinig van gemerkt. Voor ons maakte het geen verschil uit', zegt Jessica Pourraz aan de telefoon vanuit Gaza. Het Israëlische leger had aangekondigd dat het om de twee dagen gedurende enkele uren de wapens zou doen zwijgen om de humanitaire organisaties de kans te geven hun werk te doen. Gisteren om dertien uur (twaalf uur Belgische tijd) stopten de Israëli's met schieten en borgen ook de Palestijnse strijders even hun wapens op.
Volgens Jessica Pourraz van de internationale hulporganisatie Artsen Zonder Grenzen werd alleen in Gaza-Stad niet geschoten. 'Onder meer in het noorden zijn de Israëli's blijven bombarderen. De meeste gewonden die medische hulp nodig hebben, bevinden zich in de periferie. En uitgerekend daar werd nog geschoten.' Artsen Zonder Grenzen is er dan ook niet in geslaagd om de gewonden te bezoeken, laat staan hen naar het ziekenhuis in Gaza-Stad te brengen. 'Een bestand van drie uur heeft geen zin', zegt Pourraz. 'Het is veel belangrijker dat dokters de garantie krijgen dat ze gewonden kunnen bezoeken.'
Artsen Zonder Grenzen kon geen extra materiaal in Gaza krijgen. 'Er staan honderden vrachtwagens met hulpgoederen aan de grensovergangen te wachten. Maar de weg die in Gaza naar de grensovergangen leidt, werd gebombardeerd. Wij geraakten gewoonweg niet tot bij de vrachtwagens. Het was te gevaarlijk.'
De VN-organisatie die de Palestijnse vluchtelingen helpt (UNWRA), heeft 36 vrachtwagens over de grens gekregen. 'Ruim onvoldoende', zegt woordvoerder Chris Gunness aan de telefoon. Normaal passeren dagelijks 475 VN-trucks met hulpgoederen. 'Dit heeft geen zin. Israël bombardeert de mensen 21 uren per dag en dan laat het gedurende drie uur enkele hulpgoederen binnen.'
Een hooggeplaatste bron in Gaza is van mening dat het bestand niet meer is dan een manier om het gedeukte imago van Israël op te krikken. Israël kreeg veel kritiek nadat zijn leger dinsdag minstens dertig burgers had gedood bij een aanval op een school van de VN.
De inwoners van Gaza-Stad hebben tijdens het bestand hun gewonden in de ziekenhuizen bezocht en geprobeerd levensmiddelen in te slaan.
De woordvoerder van het Israëlische leger zei gisteren dat de 'humanitaire corridor' misschien wel elke dag open kan gaan. 'Alles hangt af van de veiligheid.'
...& Wat vinden we bij Artsen Zonder Grenzen hierover terug ?!...
...
08/01/2009
Tijdelijk staakt-het-vuren ontoereikend om hulp te bieden
Het militaire offensief in de Gazastrook treft burgers zonder onderscheid en medische teams blijven ernstige hinder ondervinden bij hun hulpverlening, zegt Artsen Zonder Grenzen. De organisatie stuurt een extra chirurgisch team.
De internationale gemeenschap mag niet tevreden zijn met een beperkt staakt-het-vuren, dat volgens Artsen Zonder Grenzen absoluut ontoereikend is om levensreddende hulp te bieden. Het Israëlische militaire offensief gaat door en het aantal slachtoffers naar schatting 600 doden en 2.950 gewonden in slechts 11 dagen neemt alarmerende proporties aan. Het toont aan hoe het extreme geweld burgers raakt.
Vandaag zijn anderhalf miljoen Palestijnen in de Gazastrook, waarvan de helft kinderen zijn, het slachtoffer van onophoudelijke beschietingen en bombardementen, zei Franck Joncret, landenverantwoordelijke van Artsen Zonder Grenzen. Hoe kan je nu geloven dat zon allesverpletterende aanval burgers zou sparen, die verhinderd worden te vluchten en die in zon dichtbevolkt gebied leven?
Het militaire offensief heeft terreur gezaaid bij de bevolking. Bewoners durven hun huizen niet meer uit om zich te laten verzorgen. Ook hulporganisaties lijden onder de onveiligheid. Palestijnse hulpverleners werden gedood en ziekenhuizen en ambulances zijn gebombardeerd.
De spoedafdelingen worden overrompeld door gewonde patiënten. De laatste tien dagen voerde het personeel van het Al Shifa ziekenhuis meer dan 300 operaties uit. De zes operatiekwartieren werken op volle capaciteit, met twee operaties tegelijk in elk kwartier, zegt dr. Cécile Barbou, medisch coördinator van Artsen Zonder Grenzen in Gaza. De Palestijnse chirurgen en het personeel zijn uitgeput. Ze kunnen het aantal patiënten amper aan. De meeste noodgevallen zijn patiënten met ernstige wonden en meerdere traumas, meestal aan de borstkas, de buik en het gezicht.
De teams van Artsen Zonder Grenzen in Gaza bestaan uit drie internationale en bijna 70 Palestijnse medewerkers. Zij proberen al sinds het begin van het offensief de Palestijnse medische structuren te ondersteunen en de gewonden te behandelen. Ze verdeelden medische noodvoorraden en medicijnen in verschillende ziekenhuizen die zonder materiaal dreigden te vallen. Momenteel behandelen 20 medewerkers van Artsen Zonder Grenzen mensen thuis en bezoeken ze dagelijks 40 mensen.
De onveiligheid is zo groot, dat onze bewegingsvrijheid en de mogelijkheid om medische hulp te bieden, extreem beperkt is, zegt Jessica Pourraz, terreinverantwoordelijke voor Artsen Zonder Grenzen in Gaza. We hebben onbeperkte toegang nodig om de gewonden de klok rond te verzorgen, en de burgerbevolking moet de ziekenhuizen kunnen bereiken.
Op vraag van artsen in het Al Shifa Ziekenhuis stuurt Artsen Zonder Grenzen een chirurgisch team (een chirurg, een anesthesist en een verpleegster), en een mobiel ziekenhuis met een operatiekwartier en een unit voor intensieve zorgen. Dat zal de capaciteit van het ziekenhuis vergroten. Artsen Zonder Grenzen hoopt de nodige toelatingen te verkrijgen om het team en het materiaal in de Gazastrook binnen te laten.
Het tijdelijke staakt-het-vuren zou misschien de toegang van gewonde patiënten tot de gezondheidsstructuren kunnen verbeteren, hulpverleners de kans geven zich te verplaatsen en transport van levensreddende voorraden toelaten (benzine, voedsel, medische voorraden en medicatie). Maar deze halve maatregelen zijn bedoeld om de internationale gemeenschap te sussen, en hebben geen impact op het geweld dat de bevolking ervaart, zegt dr. Marie-Pierre Allié, voorzitter van de Franse sectie van Artsen Zonder Grenzen.
Zaterdagavond zette het Israëlische leger in de Gazastrook een grondoffensief in dat tot vandaag in alle hevigheid doorgaat. De reeds uiterst kwetsbare burgerbevolking in de Gazastrook wordt hierbij het zwaarst getroffen. Zij kregen vorige week hevige luchtaanvallen te verduren waarbij reeds enkele honderden doden en gewonden vielen, waaronder ook vrouwen en kinderen. Tezelfdertijd blijven raketten vanuit Gaza ook de Israëlische burgerbevolking treffen in het zuiden van Israël.
Aanwezigheid van het Rode Kruis
Een chirurgenteam van het Internationale Comité van het Rode Kruis (ICRC) heeft groen licht gekregen van de Israëlische autoriteiten om de Gazastrook binnen te komen en zal de chirurgische staf van het Shifa hospitaal ondersteunen bij het behandelen van gecompliceerde kwetsuren. Tevens zijn Rode Kruis- en Rode Halve Maanvrijwilligers aan beide kanten van de grens dag en nacht in de weer met het evacueren van burgers, het opvangen van gewonden en het transporteren van de doden. Door de gevechten duurt het soms echter uren vooraleer de ziekenwagens van de PRHM de gewonden kunnen bereiken. Sommige gewonden sterven door het lange wachten op de ziekenwagens zegt Antoine Grand, hoofd van het ICRC in Gaza, dit is vanzelfsprekend ontoelaatbaar, de ziekenwagens moeten de gewonden onder alle omstandigheden snel kunnen bereiken.
Dankzij de voorafgaandelijke aanleg van noodstocks door het ICRC konden de meeste ziekenhuizen ook voorzien worden van generatoren, zuiver water, essentiële geneesmiddelen en medisch materiaal, maar de ziekenhuizen liggen overvol en de medische staf is uitgeput.
Watervoorziening in gevaar
Intussen komt ook de watervoorziening in het noorden van de Gazastrook in gevaar : door onderbreking van de stroomvoorziening vallen meerdere waterbevoorradingspunten in Gaza stad uit, en dreigt de bevolking van een half miljoen mensen op korte termijn van zuiver water verstoken te blijven indien de stroomvoorziening niet snel hersteld kan worden.
Bescherming van burgers
Het ICRC wijst alle betrokken partijen bij het conflict in Gaza op de regels vastgelegd in het internationaal humanitair recht die bescherming van burgers in een gewapend conflict voorschrijven. Ook blijft het ICRC de strijdende partijen aansporen om de hulpdiensten te ontzien en humanitaire hulp toegang te verlenen tot de getroffen gebieden.
...& Als extra ~om u toch enigszins inzicht te geven in de toestand van voor, tijdens & na...~ nog een korte reportage, gemaakt omstreeks de jaarwisseling over de humanitaire hulp aan Gaza die volgens Israël toch zo "probleemloos" verliep...
"Gaza Humanitarian Crisis That Israel Denies is Happening" duur : 7:21 minuten ...
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Kortom... we mogen zo stilaan daarbij duidelijk spreken van "ONAANVAARDBARE RISICO'S VOOR BURGERS"... Weerloze vrouwen & kinderen waar Israël als 't er op aankomt weinig of géén rekening mee houdt...
"Rudi Vranckx in Sderot" duur : 3:05 minuten VRT-Journaal
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...& Een getuigenverslag door Dr Mads Gilbert vanuit Gaza...
...& We vertalen hier eventjes een klein fragment voor onze Oost-Indische Doven & onze Selectieve Leesblinden !!
45 procent van de slachtoffers zijn volgens de arts uit Noorwegen vrouwen en kinderen. Veel mensen hebben zware brandwonden. Mensen gaan dood door gebrek aan medische faciliteiten !!
Volgens Mads Gilbert mogen er geen buitenlandse medische teams Gaza binnen omdat Israël deze tragedie ontkent !!
...& Een interview eerder met Dr Mads Gilbert vanuit Gaza...
"The Reality In Gaza" duur : 4:33 minuten ...
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Hoe lang nog ?!... & Hoeveel onschuldige slachtoffers zijn er nog nodig ?!...
Wij maken er anders wel geen punt van, om het allemaal bij deze nog eens uitdrukkelijk te herhalen !!
Gaza 2009 De "Digital Wargames" van Israël op YouTube...
Wij hadden zo intussen reeds enige tijd het donkerbruine vermoeden dat er nogal behoorlijk wat gemanipuleerd werd & wordt op het grote world wide internet... & jammer genoeg ook, eens temeer wat betreft Gaza. ...& Bij dit alles in het bijzonder spreken we dan hier over het u welbekende youtube !!
Israël is... & niet meer dan terecht, woedend dat Hamas tuigen afvuurt op de burgerbevolking, maar dat wil niet zeggen dat wat er nu ginds gebeurt, dit ook allemaal zo verantwoord. Wij noemen het "tuigen" omdat we die ~toch wel zeer primitieve~ dingen moeilijk kunnen beschouwen als raketten voor zover het gaat over die fameuse "qassamrockets". Dit neemt natuurlijk niet weg dat ook die knutseltuigen moordwapens zijn. In onze eerdere bijdrage(s) hebben we al uitgelegd hoe die dingen werken, maar sinds enige tijd wordt er ook beweerd dat Hamas Gradraketten zou afvuren. Wij durven natuurlijk niet twijfelen aan wat er door al die ernstige lieden wordt verteld... al willen we toch jullie een aantal dingen laten zien zodat jullie een eigen mening kunnen vormen... & aan dat laatste, daar houden wij nogal sterk aan.
Eerst & vooral.. wat is nu het verschil tussen een qassam & een grad ?!... De qassam moeten we niet meer uitleggen dachten we zo... & de gradraket is niet meer dan professioneel spul dat eigenlijk hier beter bekend staat onder de naam "stalinorgel". Het gaat natuurlijk over één zulke raket als we over een gradraket spreken. Hieronder kunnen jullie die in al hun glorie bewonderen:
Het hoeft dus geen al te grote &/of omslachtige uitleg, maar na de zoveelste "bewering" vroegen wij ons dus quasi onmiddellijk af hoe Hamas aan dit soort spul zou zijn geraakt... met lanceercamion &/of lanceerplatvorm, kortom tutti quanti ?!... Onmogelijk natuurlijk... Maar na wat speurwerk kwamen we er achter dat er toch een mogelijkheid bestaat om dat spul op een veel eenvoudiger manier af te vuren. Het gaat dan over een iets gewijzigde versie van dat stalinorgeltype.
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Weapons: The 9K132 Grad-P Rocket
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This latest conflict in Israel has highlighted an interesting weapon. Enter the 122 mm Grad Missile, or the 9K132 Grad-P rocket. Why is this different from the Kassam rockets and other homemade stuff? The range and lethality. It can go 20 plus kilometers and it is a factory made rocket. That means more Israeli deaths, and someone outside of the country is getting these things in. It could be Hezbollah, Syria, Iran (their Arash rocket-see article below), Egypt, Russia Who knows? But they have them, and they are using them. The most recent attacks were Grad rockets, and these longer range rockets were probably the tipping point(as well as just launching a massive amount of homemade missiles) for the recent activity. Just check out how many attacks have increased over the years.-Matt
Edit : According to news sources, these are Chinese made Grad rockets.
9K132 Grad-P(Wikipedia)
Single-round man-portable launcher, which can be reloaded and used again. The rocket itself is a 122mm fin-stabilized rocket, armed with any of the warheads used on BM-21 rockets. The weapon is not often used by the Russian military, but is popular with paramilitary and guerrilla force.
Egypt(Wikipedia)
The Egyptians domestically manufacture the rockets Sakr-36″ and Sakr-18″ with a respective range of 36 and 18 km. Rather than a standard HE-Frag round, the Egyptian military prefers a 23 kilogram cluster munition, which can be extremely effective against lightly armored equipment and troop concentrations. Both rockets, as well as the original Soviet models of course, are fired by locally manufactured rocket launchers like the RL-21 (copy of BM-11) and RC-21 (copy of BM-21, similar to the Hadid HM20). The Helwan Machine Tools Company also produces portable systems with one, three, four and eight launch tubes.
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The discovery of BM-21 components indicates that the Palestinians can now buy, or build, more accurate, and longer ranged, rockets. The 150 pound, 122mm Russian designed BM-21 rocket is nine feet long and has a range of 20 kilometers and a 45 pound warhead. Developed in the late 1930s, the 122mm rocket is normally fired in large numbers from many launchers at spread-out targets.Thats because the rockets are unguided. Aim lots of them at a target and youll hit something. Aim a few of them at something, and you usually wont, But the rockets are made by many countries, are relatively easy to get, and favored by terrorists for attacks that terrorize, rather than actually do any damage.
Well thats a matter of conjecture that rather than actually do any damage. If you believe that shit you havent been pounded by them.
An Egyptian company manufactures the BM-21, including a longer range version of the 122mm rocket. This one has a range of 45 kilometers. The additional range is achieved by reducing the size of the warhead. Another terrorist favorite is the is the 42 pound, 107mm, 33 inch long, Russian BM-12. This rocket has a range of about six kilometers and three pounds of explosives in its warhead. Normally fired, from a launcher, in salvoes of dozens at a time, when used individually, they can only be aimed at a large target, like a large village, or small town, with any expectation of hitting anything.
Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian terrorist group that is firing the rockets, says the BM-21s are Russian made, and of the 30 kilometer range variety.
9K132 Grad-P missile. Has a range of about 25 kilometers, payload of about 30 kilograms and the accuracy of /- a few kilometers. Pretty useless against modern military formations, but can kill a whole lot of random civilians if fired at, say, Tiberias. Or any of the kibbutzim, moshavim, villages and small towns around the Kinneret.
The timer-operated 9K132 Grad-P can be easily hidden in a loft, a garden, or just some bushes. It can be set to fire an hour or a month after it has been activated. The Syrian military has been stocking up on these lately (Russians were happy to provide them, even canceling Syrias tremendous debt to do so. Iran has their own variant, basically a mountless Arash missile with a modified launching mechanism) and training their slave-soldiers to operate these.
Notre: The article was originally written shortly after the capture of the ship Karin-A, however it is still very relevant, since it provides considerable information about the weapons the Palestinian terrorists could have accumulated in the Gaza strip.
On 6 May 2001 an IAF aircraft on routine patrol over the Mediterranean, spotted a suspicious vessel, named Santorini. Two Dabur patrol craft were sent to intercept the small (length 25 m, displacement 40 tonnes) ship, followed by two missile boats.
The missile boats intercepted the vessel in international waters, some tens of miles from the Israeli coast. Their crews noticed on the Santorinis deck a large number of plastic barrels of different sizes. A marine commando contingent of the IDF Navys Flotilla-13 (Shayetet-13′, Israels naval special forces unit) proceeded to board the vessel. The four crewmen aboard the Santorini did not attempt to resist the takeover. Upon inspection, the boarding party found the barrels filled with weaponry. The vessel was escorted to port at Haifa.
The investigation that followed revealed that the shipment had been purchased by Ahmed Jibrils Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC). Its value, including the price of the contraband delivery, was estimated at $10 million. The smugglers, who departed with the cargo from Tripoli, Lybia, were tasked with unloading the barrels-carefully sealed and waterproofed along with their contents-at a prearranged location off the Gaza coast, where they would be picked up by Palestinian Authority (PA) representatives.
The next day, 7 May 01, at 8:00 pm local time, a press conference was held on the matter in Haifa, with the participation of the Minister of Defense, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and commander-in-chief of the IDF Navy, Maj-Gen.Yedidia Yaari. The latter denied any knowledge of recent attempts at smuggling contraband by sea. By the next day, however, the interrogation of the suspects revealed that they had made three such attempts in the past, two of which were successful.
Eight months later, on the morning of 2 Jan 02 a squadron of Dvora patrol craft (and possibly Dabur boats) and fast attack boats of Flotilla-13 departed Eilat. This time the operation-code-named Noahs Ark-was planned well in advance. The task was the takeover of the weapons-laden Karine A. The actual interception was preceded by months of intelligence activity, code-named Operation Milk and Honey (khalav u-dvash).
The patrol vessels are too small to carry the commando boats on board, so the latter traveled the entire distance covered in the operation on their own power, refueling several times from the patrol craft. The takeover of the Karine-A, which Flotilla-13 personnel executed in 8 minutes without firing a shot, occurred on the night of 3-4 Jan in international waters on the Red Sea, between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, about 500 km from Eilat. Part of the contingent was fast-roped onto the vessel from helicopters, while the rest boarded from the speedboats. The takeover and escort of the Karine-A back to Eilat was supported by IAF attack helicopters. The operation was 0commanded from an aerial platform by Brig-Gen (tat-aluf) Eli Merom, chief of naval operations (mispen yam), with IDF chief-of-staff Lt-Gen (rav-aluf) Shaul Mofaz also on board. Karine-A arrived in Eilat the evening of 4 Jan 02, the entire operation completed in less than 60 hours.
The same day, at 14:00, the IDF held a press conference (Shaul Mofaz, Yedidia Yaari, IAF commander-in-chief Maj-Gen (Aluf) Dan Halutz, and IDF spokesman Brig-Gen (Tat-Aluf) Ron Kitrey participating) making public the Karine-As takeover. The first photos (taken while the ship was still at sea) of the deadly cargo were released. Two days later, on 6 Jan 02 at 17:00, another press conference, this time with the Prime Minister and Defence Minister attending, was held at Eilat naval base. The captured armaments were made available for the inspection of foreign military attaches, diplomatic officials and reporters.
This time the catch was more substantial: over 50 tonnes (up to 70-80 T) of arms and ammunition. It was to have been delivered by Karine-A (length 97.4m, disp.4000 T, constructed 1979) through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean off the Egyptian port of Alexandria, where it would be picked up and reloaded onto smaller craft. These were to deliver the payload, packed in 80 (83 according to certain sources) watertight containers, to the Gaza coast. A typical fishing vessel is capable of towing several such containers, with the added advantage that the containers in the rear would remain underwater. If the fishing boat were spotted by an Israeli patrol, the containers could be released and relocated later (with floating markers). The weaponry was hidden under a layer of civilian cargo (clothing, mattresses, suitcases, electronics, etc.)
The captain of the Karine-A was Omar Ashawi, a FATAH activist since 1976, Lt-Col in the PAs Naval Police, and its adviser on maritime affairs. Several other members of the Karine-As crew were Naval Police officers; the rest were Egyptian sailors, who may or may not have not known of the contraband aboard. Ashawis interrogation revealed that the vessel had been purchased by Adal Mugrabi, a representative of the PA. According to Ashawi, the deputy commander of the Naval Police, Fatkhi Gazem, and the PAs finance Fuad Shubaki, also participated in the operation, the latter charged with making payment for the cargo. The ships last run took it from the Jordanian port of Aqaba (neighboring Eilat) on 24 Sep 01, to an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf, where its cargo was loaded.
Further investigation revealed that the arms were purchased through Irans so-called Export Committee of the Islamic Revolution for $15 million. Payment was delivered via Lebanon through Hizballah middlemen. The civilian cargo used to smuggle the contraband was worth about $3 million, the ship itself about $400,000.
It has been reported that the IDF will make use of part of the confiscated materials (including sniper weapons and explosives) and destroy the rest. The vessel may be used by the IDF Navy for training purposes (but its mechanical condition was deemed questionable).
Armaments and Ammunition :
Santorini
Additional notes on Karine-A cargo:
* The shipment was so large that various items, such as RPG-7 rocket motors and AK magazines were not counted.
* A large part of the weaponry (mortars, anti-tank rockets, RPG-7 and motors) is of Iranian manufacture
* In addition to the Zodiac boats, a substantial quantity of diving equipment was present (diving suits, aqualungs, underwater illuminators).
* All mortar rounds and unguided rockets have impact fuse*
* All mortars and unguided rocket launchers were complete with aiming sights.
* In addition to the fuses in the mines, grenades, and rockets, the cargo included a large quantity of electric and mechanical fuse mechanisms of various types.
Rockets:
Arash. Analog to BM-21 Grad, Iranian manufacture.
Caliber: 122mm
Range: 20.75 km
Weight of rocket: 66.4kg
Warhead (WH): 19.18kg, high-explosive (HE)/fragmentation. Includes 6.4kg HE
Copy of Grad MLRS produced in China, Egypt, Rumania, South Africa, Iraq and Iran (?rash). Iranian variant is truck-mounted, with up to 30 launch tubes depending on model. Hizballah makes use of lighter trucks with 10 launch tubes, and of single launch tubes analogous to the Soviet 9K132 Grad-P (Partisan) system. Launchers intended for delivery to the PA were of the latter type.
Range depends on variant and warhead; data above is for BM-21OF (most common variant). Rocket is stabilized in flight by rotation and stabilizer fins, which open after launch.
Dit modelleke grad kan dus inderdaad afgevuurd worden op een eenvoudige manier & waarschijnlijk ook door 1 of 2 personen... Màààrrr... bekijk dat type dus eens heel goed & onthou ongeveer de grootte van de eigenlijke raket...
We gaan dan snel eventjes over naar de andere kant, namelijk naar het Israëlische leger die ons zéér boeiende beelden bezorgt van de slechterikken die Gradraketten aan het laden zijn. Jullie hebben dat ding nog steeds in jullie geheugen ?!...
Kijk maar :
"Israeli Air Force Strikes Rockets in Transit 28 Dec. 2008" duur : 2:42 minuten ...
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...& kijk... Goed als we zijn gunden we ze hier nog het voordeel van enige twijfel... Tót we het volgende filmpje onder ogen kregen... 't Is maar dat u enig idee heeft hoe deze oorlog in werkelijkheid uitgevochten wordt...
"B'Tselem questions Israeli account of attack - 1 Jan 09" duur : 2:37 minuten ...
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...& Al even veel last hebben we met het volgende filmpje ...
"Israel Air Force Pinpoint Strike on Grad Missile Launchers 30 Dec. 2008" duur : 0:40 minuten ...
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Volgens onze bescheiden mening gaat het hier toch wel duidelijk over veel grotere types raketten & wij hebben daarbij niet meteen het gevoel dat je zulke dingen door een onderaardse tunnel vanuit Egypte in Gaza kunt naar binnen wurmen... zeg nu zelf...
...& Nog het meest tot de verbeelding sprekende voorbeeld vonden we hier & we vragen daarbij uitdrukkelijk om beide fimpjes goed te bekijken. Wees gerust. Het is dus niet het spel van de 7 fouten. Alleeen de titeltjes & de commentaren werden "aangepast"
"Direct hit of qassam in Ashkelon" duur : 0:17 minuten ...
Op het eerste zicht lijken zulke dingen natuurlijk erg banaal. Ach, het is tenslotte een raket. Maar in werkelijkheid is het verschil tussen de in mekaar geknutselde qassamraketten & de pofessionele grad hemelsbreed, laat staan het resultaat van de impact van die dingen... & als je daarbij beseft dat Israël dit als excuus heeft gebruikt om te doen wat ze nu doen ?!...
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Tot slot & toch ook een beetje van kwestie van jullie enigszins met de neus op de feiten te drukken, over waar dit artikel over ging...
Ga zo ook maar eens een kijkje gaan nemen op "IDF Spokesperson's Unit", Israëls eigenste propagandakanaal op YouTube, of zeggen we misschien intussen op cynische wijze : MyTube ?!...
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IDF Spokesperson's Unit
idfnadesk
Lid geworden: 29 december 2008
Laatste aanmelding: 50 minuten geleden
Bekeken video's: 37
Abonnees: 13793
Kanaal aantal keren bekeken: 1036684
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit is the Israel Defense Forces' professional body responsible for media and public relations in Israel and around the world. This is our new site that will help us do so.
We thank you for visiting us and will continue to update this site with documentation of the IDF's humane action and operational success in Operation Cast Lead.
Sta ons toe dat we daar zo onze vragen bij hebben...
...& Nog zo'n voorbeeld hiervan. We zijn trouwens ook niet de enigen die dat zeggen &/of beweren...
"Oorlogsbloggers op het internet" duur : 1:52 minuten VRT-Journaal
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Zo vonden we ook bij De Standaard ONLINE het vrij verhelderende filmpje : Digitale media zijn de nieuwste wapens met volgende comment, dat daar misschien enig antwoord op kan geven...
05/01/2009 Israëlis en Palestijnen bestoken elkaar niet alleen met bommen. Ze gebruiken ook steeds meer het internet en telefonie om elkaar te treffen. De digitale media zijn de nieuwste wapens met het internet als ultieme oorlogsfront, zegt KU Leuven-professor communicatietechnologie Dirk De Grooff.
Wij blijven ons zo de vraag stellen of het geweld dat er op dit moment ginder gebruikt wordt, verhoudingsgewijs staat tot waar het in dit geval allemaal over begon ?!...
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...& Wat denken jullie nu zèlf hiervan ?!... In plaats van zonder enige twijfel aan te nemen, van wat men her en der in de kranten zoal vertelt ?!...
Gaza 2009 White Phosphorus - 's mens grootste smeerlapperij !!
Heeft u enig idee hoe een slachtoffer van witte fosfor ~White Phosphorus~ er uit ziet ?!...
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A Vietnam War Remnants Museum photo of a victim of a white phosphorus bomb
Volgens ons behoeft deze foto géén enkele commentaar... buiten misschien "verbijsterend barbaars" !! Wat u hier net kwam te zien was een slachtoffer van de Vietnam-Oorlog die in de jaren 60-tig & 70-tig werden uitgevochten... Intussen enkele decenia verder & 'n ietsje verder "gespecialiseerd" ziet het er niet veel anders uit...
...een eerste toelichting...
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White Posphorus used in Operation Silence
Posted by Teeth Maestro
July 14, 2007
On 12th July, AAJ Tv boradcasted a program of Live with Talat in which Talat Hussain visited Jamia Hafsa. While touring the bullet ridden compound a number of military personal hovered around, at a certain point Talat Hussain asked an accompanying Army personal about all the evidence of smoke around the area asking, Why is there so much smoke?, the solider replied WP, Talat put another question Please explain WP?, the solider answered White Phosphorus.
White Phosphorus is a flare / smoke producing incendiary weapon which is also used as an offensive Anti-Personnel flame compound capable of causing serious burns or death. White phosphorus weapons are controversial today because of its potential use against humans, for whom one-tenth of a gram is a deadly dose and according to the Geneva Convention which was later amended by the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons signed into effect in 1997, expressively prohibits the use against civilians. White Phosphorus weapons have been used in the recent past by Israel in Lebanon and US and UK in Iraq, but probably the first time ever by a an army against its own people
Article 1 of Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
defines an incendiary weapon as any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat, or combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target. The same protocol also prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilians or in civilian areas. However, the use against military targets outside civilian areas is not explicitly banned by any treaty.
There continues to be a strong debate on how Musharraf should have handled this situation, but what surprises me is the inhumanity of this attack, dexterity of the assault should have meant targeted exchange of fire maybe an occasional rubber bullet to pacify the milder militants, but the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons, by the National Army against its own people. Is jaw dropping serious, its akin to the mass murder which happened in Karachi on May 12th when the Army headed off to the barracks leaving the city at the hands of ruthless killers for six hours..
To understand the gravity of the situation one has only to look at these two images of burnt bodies the sight is excruciatingly painful, when the Americans used White Phosphorous on the victims in Fallujah back in April 2004.
If you look at the top most image which appeared in Dawn on 13th July (link) one sees the classic signs of a high intensity flame, which reached astounding temperatures to melt the steel framework of ceiling fans, one must also noted that the public was not shown the remains of numerous people killed in the disaster and quickly buried them in concealed wooden coffins the next day.
I am shocked and stunned at what has just happened, it should be enough for the world to wake up and ask for an unconditional removal of the dictator
Voelt u zich nog goed bij dit alles ?!... Wij dus niet !!...
Als we onze eigenste Belgistaanse pers mogen geloven, gebruikt Israël op dit eigenste moment fosformunitie & clusterbommen in Gaza tegen Hamas... & het staat dachten we daarbij buiten kijf dat de complete civiele bevolking van Gaza daar ook slachtoffer van is... Mannen, vrouwen... kinderen... ongeacht !!
"Nachtelijke beschietingen in Gaza" duur : 0:30 minuten VRT-journaal
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De feeërieke vuurregen die u zonet in het korte beeldfragment uit de lucht zag vallen is géén kerst- of nieuwjaarsvuurwerk... maar is wel degelijk witte fosfor !!
"White Phosphorus 0001" duur : 0:49 minuten ...
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Owwww... u betwijfelt dit alles ?!...
Test van een fosforbom tot ontploffing gebracht boven de USS Alabama BB-8, September 1921.
An alleged White phosphorous shell fired by the Israeli military explodes in the northern Gaza Strip -
Saturday 3 January 2009 -
...& wat het goedje veroorzaakt :
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'Special Weapons' Have a Fallout on Babies in Fallujah
17 june,2008
The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing campaigns in Fallujah in 2004.
After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used a year earlier in Fallujah.
In addition, depleted uranium (DU) munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste, were used heavily in Fallujah. The Pentagon admits to having used 1,200 tons of DU in Iraq thus far.
Many doctors believe DU to be the cause of a severe increase in the incidence of cancer in Iraq, as well as among US veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War and through the current occupation.
"We saw all the colors of the rainbow coming out of the exploding American shells and missiles," Ali Sarhan, a 50-year-old teacher who lived through the two US sieges of 2004 told IPS. "I saw bodies that turned into bones and coal right after they were exposed to bombs that we learned later to be phosphorus.
"The most worrying is that many of our women have suffered loss of their babies, and some had babies born with deformations."
"I had two children who had brain damage from birth," 28-year-old Hayfa` Shukur told IPS. "My husband has been detained by the Americans since November 2004 and so I had to take the children around by myself to hospitals and private clinics. They died. I spent all our savings and borrowed a considerable amount of money."
Shukur said doctors told her that it was use of the restricted weapons that caused her children`s brain damage and subsequent deaths, "but none of them had the courage to give me a written report."
"Many babies were born with major congenital malformations," a pediatric doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "These infants include many with heart defects, cleft lip or palate, Down`s syndrome, and limb defects."
The doctor added, "I can say all kinds of problems related to toxic pollution took place in Fallujah after the November 2004 massacre."
Many doctors speak of similar cases and a similar pattern. The indications remain anecdotal, in the absence of either a study, or any available official records.
The Fallujah General Hospital administration was unwilling to give any statistics on deformed babies, but one doctor volunteered to speak on condition of anonymity -- for fear of reprisals if seen to be critical of the administration.
"Maternal exposure to toxins and radioactive material can lead to miscarriage and frequent abortions, still birth, and congenital malformation," the doctor told IPS. There have been many such cases, and the government "did not move to contain the damage, or present any assistance to the hospital whatsoever.
"These cases need intensive international efforts that provide the highest and most recent technologies that we will not have here in a hundred years," he added.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed concern Mar. 31 about the lack of medical supplies in hospitals in Baghdad and Basra.
"Hospitals have used up stocks of vital medical items, and require further supplies to cope with the influx of wounded patients. Access to water remains a matter of concern in certain areas," the ICRC said in a statement.
A senior Iraqi health ministry official was quoted as saying Feb. 26 that the health sector is under "great pressure", with scores of doctors killed, an exodus of medical personnel, poor medical infrastructure, and shortage of medicines.
"We are experiencing a big shortage of everything," said the official, "We don`t have enough specialist doctors and medicines, and most of the medical equipment is outdated.
"We used to get many spinal and head injures, but were unable to do anything as we didn`t have enough specialists and medicines," he added. "Intravenous fluid, which is a simple thing, is not available all the time." He said no new hospitals had been built since 1986.
Iraqi Health Minister Salih al-Hassnawi highlighted the shortage of medicines at a press conference in Arbil in the Kurdistan region in the north Feb. 22. "The Iraqi Health Ministry is suffering from an acute shortage of medicines...We have decided to import medicines immediately to meet the needs."
He said the 2008 health budget meant that total expenditure on medicines, medical equipment and ambulances would amount to an average of 22 dollars per citizen.
But this is too late for the unknown number of babies and their families who bore the consequences of the earlier devastation. And it is too little to cover the special needs of babies who survived with deformations.
...& Als u dacht het allemaal gezien te hebben, als u nog twijfelt over wat de effecten van deze onmenselijke smeerlapperij zijn, dan kunnen we u alsnog aanraden om naar volgende documentaire te kijken. Daar krijgt u het naaldje voor draadje uitgelegd... & voor eenmaal vinden wij het ontzettend jammer dat we u de geur ervan niet kunnen bijleveren, kwestie dat het even in uw geheugen zou doorbranden zodat u zulks nooit vergeet !!
The hidden massacre
by Sigfrido Ranucci
Produced by Italian state broadcaster RAI TV, the documentary charges U.S. warplanes illegally dropped white phosphorus incendiary bombs on civilian populations, burning the skin off Iraqi victims. One U.S. soldier charges this amounts to the U.S. using chemical weapons against the Iraqi people.
Gaza 2009 "ongehoorde meningen" - Wim Van Rooy versus Etienne Vermeersch
Onderstaand delen wij met u nog een stukje dat we hebben "ontleend" van het programma "ongehoorde meningen" op radio 1, waarin Lieven De Maeyer het zal hebben over de gebeurtenissen in de Gaza strook met twee gasten.
De éne is de minder bekende Wim van Rooy, Directeur van de Vrije Israëlitische School Yavne & ook hoofdredacteur van Tijdingen, het blad van de P.E.N. club)
De andere is Etienne Vermeersch, u allen welbekend als ~mits enige overdrijving van onzentwege~ het morele geweten van onze Belgische natie...
De Heer Vermeersch mept hier spijkers met koppen, zodat wij hier dus zelf niet veel meer aan toe te voegen hebben, behalve misschien het volgende :
De Heer Van Rooy vindt het in zijn argumentatie geoorloofd om de Palestijnen uit Gaza plat te bombarderen...
In het kort stelt hij dus dat de vrede gefaald heeft door de schuld van de islamo-fascistische ideologie & dat alleen de taal van de wapens troost kan brengen (noot: de Palestijnen hébben géén wapens.. enkel stenen, slingers & enkele zelf ineen geflanste fusees !!) & hij vindt dat Israël voor eens & voor altijd moet afrekenen met Hamas, "hoeveel slachtoffers dat ook zal vergen" (sic).
Door & door slecht zoals we steeds zijn, rijst in ons verdorven geweten natuurlijk meteen de vraag op : "Aan hoeveel slachtoffers had Meneer Van Rooy dan zo gedacht ?!..."
De teller staat intussen al bijna op 500... & Gaza begint dus nu al stilletjes aan de proporties van Deir Yassin, My Lai, Sabra & Chatila of Lidice aan te nemen... & de tanks zijn nog altijd maar aan 't warm draaien daar in 't grensgebied, als ze tenminste op dit eigenste moment niet de boel aan 't platwalsen zijn...
Is 5000 aanvaardbaar voor dhr. Van Rooy ?!... Of 50 000 ?!... Of 500 000 misschien ?!...
...& Is een Arabier z'n leven dan evenveel of minder waard als dat van iemand anders voor de Heer Van Rooy ?!... Zou de Meneer Van Rooy zulke cijfers even aanvaardbaar vinden moesten er 500 Vlamingen, Zweden of Canadezen worden afgeslacht ?!...
Als in een reflex haalt Mijnheer Van Rooy er natuurlijk ook meteen Hitler weer bij & hij verwijst ook naar het "islamo-fascisme". Wij gaan daar nu niet verder op in, maar we hopen dat zeer binnenkort eens wat grondiger aan te pakken...
Wanneer hij in zijn betoog, om het zo te parafraseren, beweert dat de vrede gefaald heeft & dat de Palestijnen enkel de taal van de wapens begrijpen, vergeet hij echter één ding... & nu komen wij tot de kern van ons argument... & dat is dat er gewoon nog nooit een vredevolle oplossing op tafel is gekomen !!
Het is namelijk zo dat het Palestijnse Volk nù al meer dan 60 jaar door Israël onder de knoet gehouden wordt.
Heeft Meneer Van Rooy misschien zichzelf al eens de vraag gesteld hoe ie 't zou vinden om z'n ganse leven lang ~want Meneer Van Rooy is er nog géén 60~ in zo'n onderdrukt oorlogsgebied te leven ?!... Gebied dat in dàt geval dan van zijn voorouders is ontstolen & dat te pas & te onpas om welke futiele reden dan ook "uitgezuiverd" wordt, waarbij vrienden & familie voor 't minste zomaar door de onderdrukker gevangen gezet worden bvb...
Wie in een plas modder op de grond ligt met een legerbottin in zijn nek gedrukt kan in de meeste van die gevallen nogal moeilijk de hand reiken aan de eigenaar van die bottin... als dat al niet als vijandelijk wordt beschouwd tenminste... want in tijden van oorlog weet men immers nooit... & daarom is dit argument van de Heer Van Rooy voor ons dus waardeloos.
De vredelievende oplossing kón gewoon niet falen, omdat ze er nog nooit gewéést is !! ...& misschien is het eens een keer de moeite waard om eens te proberen om Vrede te bereiken door de Bezetting te beëindigen ?!...
"Vrede" houdt echter wel in dat beide partijen pijnlijke toegevingen zullen moeten doen... & we kunnen bezwaarlijk gaan ontkennen dat de Palestijnen de laatste 60 jaar nog geen pijnlijke toegevingen hebben gedaan.
Deze bezetting van de Palestijnen door Israël was er overigens reeds vóór Hamas (1987) er was.
Dezélfde bezetting was er ook al vóór Arafat er was... & nu Arafat verdwenen is, is die bezetting er nog steeds. De énige constante in het conflict is dus niét de aanwezigheid van Hamas, of die van Arafat, maar wél die ellendige 6 decennia durende bezetting van de Palestijnse gebieden door Israël !!
Er is dus geen sprake van een "fascistische (Islam)ideologie", maar wel van een 60-jarige bezetting... & de Heer Van Rooy verwart dus duidelijk het begrip "Vrede" met een soort status-quo of "gezellige rust", terwijl de Palestijnen verder verdreven & weggepest worden...
Het verleden zou ons één ding moeten geleerd hebben... & dat is dat, waar er bezetting is, er nooit vrede kan heersen. Waar er bezetting is zal er dus automatisch ook verzet zijn, zoals dat in "Den Oorlog" ook al het geval was met "Den Weerstand"...
Zodra de bezetting van onze streken door den Duits ophield had ook de Weerstand hier geen reden van bestaan meer & is deze korte tijd nadien dus ook gewoon opgedroogd.
Dus, Mijnheer Van Rooy... we gaan het nog één keer zeggen teneinde dat u het goed in uw oren zou kunnen knopen !!
Het is de
bezetting die de oorzaak is van alle ellende... & dat geldt zowel voor de Israëli's als voor de Palestijnen !!
...& al de rest is daar slechts het logische gevolg van !! Niet meer & niet minder !!
is er geld om de honger uit de wereld te helpen? Wat denken jullie ???
Beste lezertjes, vermits een nieuw jaar begint met goede voornemens zullen ook wij ons best doen om deze voornemens te verwezenlijken. Wij willen namelijk iets dat zeer gemakkelijk te verwezenlijken valt. En dat is?.........wel doodgewoon dat -en laten we voor één keer erg regionalistisch egoïstisch zijn- er niempand meer honger moet lijden in ons eigenste vaderland Belgistan. Ok, we dromen weer. In elk geval durven wij nog dromen wat waarschijnlijk van velen onder jullie niet meer kan gezegd worden. Onrealistisch? Absoluut niet. Want we publiceren hieronder graag een artikel dat dateert van bij het begin van de financiële crisis en dat werd gepubliceerd in "Le Nouvel Observateur". Als dat allemaal kan in onze wereld wat daar zonder enige schroom wordt verteld, dan kan men veel makkelijker onze bescheiden doelstelling verwezenlijken. Lijkt ons veel minder surrealistisch....Neem dus eventjes jullie Frans-Nederlandse woordenboek bij de hand en laat ons samen de wonderlijke wereld der financiën betreden. Zet de kotsemmer toch niet te ver uit de buurt...jullie zijn verwittigd!Het geeft een mooi contrast met onze voorgaande bijdrage. Kwestie van evenwichten te bewaren natuurlijk. Het laat ons ook een mooi beeld zien van de beperkte invloed die nationale staten via wet- en regelgeving nog kunnen uitoefenen op het financieel systeem dat zich al lang geen bal meer aantrekt van grenzen. Behalve dan om er misbruik van te kunnen maken. Jan met de pet en Piet met de snot betalen de gebroken potten wel....en Jan en Piet dat zijn wij dus....
Bron : http://hebdo.nouvelobs.com/hebdo/parution/p2295/articles/a386854-.html
SEMAINE DU JEUDI 30 Octobre 2008
Enquête chez les seigneurs de la finance Les naufrageurs Ni
remords ni excuses. Banquiers, gérants de fonds d'investissement,
spéculateurs, ils portent une responsabilité écrasante dans la crise
qui balaie l'économie mondiale. Certains y ont laissé des plumes.
D'autres, à la faveur du krach, continuent de s'enrichir de plus belle.
Tant pis pour le petit épargnant. Tant pis pour le contribuable qui
devra boucher les trous. A Wall Street, Londres ou Genève, nos
reporters ont rencontré ceux qui n'ont d'autre credo que celui du
profit. Et ne sont pas près d'abjurer
Au
désespoir ! A la ruine ! A ces marchés stupides qui me permettent de
m'enrichir ! Simon Cawkwell nous reçoit dans son grand appartement dans
le quartier chic de South Kensington, à Londres, et, en hôte
attentionné, insiste pour sabrer le champagne et lever un toast en
l'honneur du krach. Ce n'est pas tous les jours qu'on trinque avec le
diable ! Avec ses 150 kilos débordant de sa chaise, ses chaussettes
rouge vif, ses quatre écrans d'ordinateur où défilent non-stop les
cours de la Bourse, le personnage rayonne d'une aura falstaffienne.
D'ailleurs, son surnom à la city, c'est «Evil Knievil», alias «le
chevalier du mal» ou quelque chose d'approchant. «Les krachs, j'adore, il n'y a pas de périodes plus
excitantes. J'ai connu celui de 1987, mais j'étais moins riche à l'époque, je ne
pouvais pas miser de grosses sommes. Cette crise-là est bonne, très bonne, pour
mes affaires. Evidemment, il va y avoir beaucoup de chômage, des années de
récession. Mais moi, je vais gagner beaucoup d'argent.» Cawkwell fait partie du club sulfureux des short sellers,
ces spé-culateurs qui ont joué à la baisse les valeurs bancaires. Lui,
il s'est attaqué à la banque anglaise Northern Rock. Et se rappelle
encore avec délice ce jour d'août où il a entendu que la Banque
d'Angleterre allait la renflouer. «J'ai compris que cela sentait mauvais et qu'il y aurait
beaucoup à se faire.» Northern Rock a ensuite plongé, n'échappant à la faillite que par une nationalisation in extremis. Se sent-il coupable ? «Mais pourquoi, ma chère ? Je serais bien stupide de ne pas
en profiter.» Au total, Evil Knievil pense que la crise lui rapportera 4,5 millions d'euros. «Une broutille... Si vous saviez
combien certains ont raflé !»
C'est peut-être le refrain le plus entonné dans le monde de la finance.
Il y a toujours un plus coupable que vous. Les patrons des grandes
banques comme Dick Fuld, de feu Lehman Brothers, ou John Mack, de
Morgan Stanley ? Ils accusent les short sel- lers, type David Einhorn
ou Philip Falcone (épinglé en une par le tabloïd «Daily Mirror» sous
l'étiquette «porc milliardaire cupide»), d'avoir conspiré leur chute.
Lesquels spéculateurs prétendent eux avoir fait oeuvre d'utilité
publique en alertant l'opinion sur les dérives des banques. «On apprend aux enfants à dire
pardon. Mais visiblement, dans le secteur financier, personne n'a appris les
vertus du mot magique», ironisait une éditorialiste de «l'Evening Standard».
David Freud, petit-fils de Sigmund et exbanquier d'affaires, a l'explication de ce déni collectif : «Il n'y a pas de sens de la responsabilité. C'est un secteur
très individualiste, perverti par la culture du bonus. Et le bonus, c'est
gagnant-gagnant. Quand vous êtes performant, vous gagnez. Quand vous perdez,
vous gagnez toujours, mais moins...»
David Freud a lui aussi joué au jeu des bonus, ces mégaprimes qui font
passer les salaires des footballeurs pour de vulgaires pourboires : «Si les gens savaient ce qu'on
gagne, on rétablirait la guillotine et des têtes valseraient sur des piques.»
1,
2, 15, 20 millions... Pour le commun des mortels, les sommes ne veulent
plus dire grand-chose. Pensez ! En plein krach des subprimes, Goldman
Sachs, la star du milieu (voir article p. 22), versait 18 milliards de
dollars de bonus, soit 600 000 dollars par employé en moyenne... Mais
ces dernières années, les mercenaires de la City savaient pouvoir
trouver encore mieux ailleurs. Les banques plus «pépères»,
traditionnellement peu enclines à jouer les acrobates sur les marchés,
ont voulu, elles aussi, monter en Ligue 1, celle des Goldman Sachs et
autres. Et, pour s'acheter les bons joueurs, ont aligné toujours plus
de cash. Et tant pis si les patrons en question furent bien vite
dépassés par les tours de passe-passe de leurs nouvelles stars. C'est
exactement ce qui s'est passé dans nos Caisses d'Epargne. Ou chez
Citigroup, où le PDG, Chuck Prince, ancien avocat, débarqué l'an
dernier pour avoir plombé sa banque de subprimes, confessait ingénument
son manque total de compréhension des mécanismes financiers en vigueur
dans sa boutique : «Aussi longtemps
qu'il y a de la musique, vous devez vous lever et danser. Nous dansons
toujours.» Les banquiers ont dansé. Les milliards ont valsé. Les chiffres donnent le vertige : les fameux Credit
Default
Swaps, ces instruments techniques pour se couvrir contre le risque de
faillite d'une entreprise, qui sont en train de faire tomber les
banques, ont été inventés fin 1997 : ils représentent désormais 55
trilliards de dollars, soit plus que le PNB de la Terre... «Personne n'avait intérêt à tuer la poule
aux oeufs d'or,
soupire David Freud. Ni les politiques, ni les banques centrales, ni
surtout les banquiers, qui s'enrichissaient tellement. Alors on s'est
tous allongé et on a écouté la musique.» Et la musique, qui la dictait
? Tout en haut de la pyramide, voilà les demi-dieux de la finance. La
caste mystérieuse des hedge funds, ces fonds spéculatifs qui
font désormais la pluie et le beau temps. L'écrivain Tom Wolfe explique
ainsi que ces «maîtres de l'univers» qu'il a immortalisés dans «le
Bûcher des Vanités» ne sont plus à Wall Street, mais à Greenwich,
petite ville près de New York où s'agglutinent les hedgies ou à
Londres. Là où l'unité était la dizaine de millions de dollars, les
hedgies brassaient des milliards, et comme ils se servaient à la
source, ils ont fait exploser les bonus. «Ils n'avaient aucune régulation, et gagnaient tellement
plus d'argent. Le rêve de tout trader, c'était évidemment de devenir un
hedgie»,
dit un trader. Et de déménager, à Londres, des bureaux impersonnels de
Canary Wharf ou de la City vers l'antre des superriches, le quartier de
Mayfair, ses immeubles victoriens, ses milliardaires russes, ses
restaurants huppés comme le Gavroche et ses repas à 1 500 euros... Même
les conférences busi ness étaient moins ennuyeuses : au rassemblement
Hedge Stock, en 2006, sorte de Woodstock de la finance, les rendez-vous
se faisaient sous des tentes à fleurs, le tout bercé d'un concert des
Who. Autre événement incontournable, le gala de charité annuel du
financier Arpad Busson, fiancé d'Uma Thurman, où l'on pouvait l'an
dernier enchérir pour gagner une séance de yoga avec Sting, ou une
leçon de guitare avec le chanteur de Coldplay suivi d'un dîner avec sa
femme, Gwineth Paltrow... Cette année, en juin, il n'y avait «que» Tony
Blair, désormais conseiller à mi-temps à la banque JPMorgan, et un
concert de Stevie Wonder. 30 millions d'euros furent néammoins levés,
malgré les subprimes... Aujourd'hui, à Mayfair, les hedge funds
commencent à fermer : on estime que plus de la moitié risquent de
passer à la trappe. Les panneaux «Bureaux à vendre» fleurissent. Peter
Wetherell, agent immobilier dans le très haut de gamme, constate un
ralentissement de 40% des transactions. «Après la fête, la gueule de bois... Mais pas pour tout le
monde. La semaine dernière, il y avait un petit raout chez George, le club privé
de Mayfair le plus coté. Il y avait ceux qui pleuraient. Et ceux qui riaient.
Personnellement, je ne suis pas inquiet pour mon business. Les riches ont perdu
un peu de leur patri moine, mais ils restent toujours riches...» Pauvres riches ? «C'est le paradoxe de la City. Vous êtes riche,
mais vous n'en avez jamais assez. Car il y a toujours un plus riche que
vous.»
Geraint Anderson, un analyste réputé, a décidé de larguer les amarres
après avoir amassé «seulement» 3 millions d'euros. Trop de cocaïne,
trop de stress, trop de cupidité. «Je devenais un vrai connard.
Et puis, au fond de moi, je savais bien que je ne valais pas mon superbonus
annuel» Dans la City, le sujet de conversation préféré est le fuck-off money, le montant avec lequel vous pouvez tout plaquer. «On avait fait un pacte il y a trois ans avec des copains
en se fixant un seuil de 3 millions d'euros. Eux, ils n'ont pas décroché. Ils
doivent être entre 5 et 10 maintenant.» Geraint dit que personne ne décroche dans la City : «C'est comme dans ces films avec ces
braqueurs qui disent «encore un dernier hold-up» et c'est fini. En général, ça
se termine dans un bain de sang.» Aujourd'hui,
alors que 3 000 milliards seront injectés dans les banques, on pourrait
penser que le système fou des bonus a vécu. Pauvres naïfs ! Selon les
estimations du «Guardian», les 10 plus gros établissements financiers
de Wall Street projettent de distribuer 70 milliards de dollars en
primes cette année, soit 10% du plan Paulson ! Ironie du sort, certains
des ex-Lehman, la banque qui a largement participé au cataclysme,
pourraient même en profiter : Nomura, qui a repris une partie des
équipes, a promis de ? maintenir les bonus que s'était engagé à distribuer leur ancien employeur. «Je ne
vois pas pourquoi je paierais les pots cassés ! Si je n'ai pas mon bonus cette
année, j'irais voir ailleurs, se justifie un trader. Les banques sont obligées de continuer le jeu pour ne pas
perdre ceux qui leur rapportent encore de l'argent. C'est la loi du
marché.» Impunité totale, donc ? Philippe, un des hedge funders les plus connus de la place, nous reçoit à Genève. Off. «Nous, les hedgies, nous sommes les boucs émissaires idéaux.
Même l'archevêque de Canterbury nous tape dessus ! Nous sommes comme les joueurs
de foot et les chanteurs de rock : les personnes qu'on aime haïr.»
Pourquoi Genève ? L'homme qui pèse aujourd'hui 200 millions d'euros a
été en bisbille avec la Financial Services Authority, le gendarme de la
City. Et a donc quitté Londres pour la cité de Calvin. «On me croyait fini, et
puis me revoilà. J'ai survécu à bien des choses, et ce krach-là n'est pas le
pire que j'ai connu.» En deux ans, il a créé son propre fonds et levé 5 milliards de dollars. Une
partie de ses fonds sont domiciliés aux îles Caïmans, l'une des
destinations favorites des hedge funds. Alors évidemment, la
régulation, ça le fait rire. «Ils
sont mignons... Si Brown ou les autres veulent se mêler de la politique des
bonus et durcir la politique fiscale, pas de problème ! Tout le monde fera comme
moi et on ira tous en Suisse.» Et si la Suisse se fait taper sur les doigts ? «Il y aura toujours un autre endroit...» Doan Bui Le Nouvel Observateur
Naar het gedoe van De Morgen... Lezers tippen lezers : Naar Nieverance, de zelfkant waar de zwarte sneeuw valt...
"Vuurwerk 2009" duur : 8:30 minuten ...
...
1 januari - 14.13 - Onze keuze om de kerst- & nieuwjaarstijd van 2008 tot in 2009 door te brengen had eigenlijk weinig of niets om het lijf... Net als de zovele roemloze & naamloze onbekende anderen, hadden wij weinig of géén andere keuze dan... of deze kersttijd op een zinnige manier trachten door te brengen in Nieverance... Het u aller welbekende gat aan de uitkant van de wereld, "In 't Hol van Pluto"... Of ten onder te gaan aan een zekere existentiele eenzaamheid & de daarbij horende quasi ondraaglijke dofheid van dit aardse bestaan... Wij kozen alvast voor het eerste & kregen er het tweede "GRATIS" & voor 't zelfde geld bij...
Ons algehele budget voor deze toch wel obligatoir te noemen schoolreis bij de aanvang van de schoolse kerstvakantie beperkte zich tot op de centiem na, tot het geweldige & te vermorsen bedrag van zegge & schrijven drieëntwintig uro & achtenzeventig urocent... & dat was dan voor àlle te maken kosten & alle uitspattingen die men zich daarmee kan veroorloven van het ganse aan ons toegewezen pretpakket... Het verblijf in onze kartonnen doos was al betaald, in dit geval was dit dus ook "GRATIS" te noemen... Onze 23,78 kon dus losbandig worden opgesoupeerd aan vreten & zuipen voor onze 10-daagse ~zeg maar~ "nood-gedwongen" retraite aan de zelfkant van de maatschappij... Een maatschappij waar wij tot nader order tenslotte ook nog deel van dachten uit te maken, al had deze maatschappij dan misschien wel liever van niet...
Màààrrr dit àlles had ook zo zijn goede kanten, want daar waar anderen bijna overstresst de stad in moesten om nu eenmaal naar goede gewoonte te voldoen aan hun financiële eindejaarsverplichtingen, werden wij van deze waanzin bespaard... Wij konden & mochten dit alles overschouwen van op ons door ons telkenmale zorgvuldig uitgekozen centraal gelegen stadsbankje... Meestal een exemplaar waar we net niet aan vast vrozen, maar waar de koude wel ondergeschikt was aan 't plezier van het u aller bekende mensjes kijken... Ook al zijn wij reeds sedert geruime tijd uitgesloten van deelname aan zulke sociale spektakels wegens een chronisch financieel tekort aan harde cash, toch kunnen we nog wel iet of wat geamuseerd kijken naar dit op zich toch wel jaarlijks herhaald waanzinnige circus met alle sociale verplichtingen vandien die er blijkbaar nog eens aan vast hangen. ook.. Daarbij hoort meestal ook nog eens de telkenmale daar aan verbonden terugkerende schier onoverzichtelijke massa van wurmendende & veel te haastige mensen... een menselijk kluwen dat meestal bepakt & gezakt is, soms zelfs als sjokkende muilezels beladen, waarbij dan de één al wat meer dan de andere mee sjouwt aan vooral dan duur & gegeerd materialisme, in vele gevallen meestal ook nog eens onpersoonlijke consumenten-troep waarvan na nieuwjaar het één al nuttelozer zou blijken te zijn als het andere...
De als nijvere mieren wriemelende menselijke stroom, bijna allemaal zich quasi onophoudelijk haastig spoedend, sommigen een droeve blik op oneindig gericht met in het zog van hun naarstig geloop, anderen die het alfabeest dan maar gedwee of juist heel nors volgden om de meestal volgepropte kerstboodschappenlijst toch maar op tijd afgestreept te krijgen... De hoeveelheid beschamende taferelen die wij van dichtbij of veraf ~als toeschouwer wel te verstaan~ mochten aanschouwen, vooral dan van ruzie makende ~zo gezegde~ geliefden, "vol-van-goede-wil" over de te geven kado's waren soms zo grotesk dat wij ze u omwille van enige beschaafdheid bij deze zullen besparen... In de meeste der gevallen ging het dan ook aan ons voorbij als ware het slechte film met een slecht geschreven scenario, met nog niet te na gesproken meestal ook nog eens de verkeerd gecaste vertolkers van een vooral leeg & oppervlakkig geleefd leven... De menselijke nachtmerrie volgens Sartre... l'enfer c'est les autres...
De walmen van verse wafels vermengd met de weeë geur van veel te lang gebakken hamburgers & slechte gluhwijn hing overal in de lucht wat er voor zorgde dat er her & der enkele fanatieke entoesiastelingen waren die zich hieraan reeds al lang aan te buiten waren gegaan &/of dat duidelijk van plan waren te gaan doen... Groepjes debiele volwassenen met al dan niet flikkerende kerstmutsen of rendiergeweien op het hoofd... Horden van brallende zatte kerstmannen gevolgd door een troep van luidgibberende kerstmanwijfjes, losgeslagen door de kunstmatig opgepepte euforie van feeëriek verlichte kerstmarkten... Ons liet het ons slechts af & toe het water in de bek krijgen van de honger & voor de rest zorgde het alleen maar voor spontane krampen van onze opspelende lege maag, meestal dan nog eens gevolgd door een opvallend leeg gerommel van opspelende spasmisme darmen...
Af & toe herkenden we een lotgenoot, waarvan dan de ene al wat meer getekend was dan de andere door de aftakeling van de armoede... Want zulks wordt na een tijdje zichtbaar & voor wie hier bedreven in kijken & zien is... is één blik al dikwijls voldoende om de onderhuids tragiek te zien die zich bij de andere innerlijk afspeelt...
De zwarte sneeuw van Nieverance wordt dan ook vooral gekenmerkt door zij die deze winter-lente-zomer-&-herfststormen kennen & die ook reeds ettelijke malen hebben ~moeten~ doorstaan als waren zij dan geharde & ervaren poolreizigers & zij die er hebben horen over praten, als was het een zeldzaam fenomeen in Belgistan dat quasi ook onbestaande is & zeker als je het niet wilt zien of wilt weten... Niets is immers zou koud & kil als menselijke koudheid & menselijke onverschilligheid, niets is in zulke gevallen ook beschamender als onbegrip of domheid & blindheid voor elk ander menselijk lijden dan dat van henzelf...
Terwijl 8 miljoen Belgen zich nog quasi te goed konden doen aan ~dure~ kerstfestijnen met enigzins exubertante kerstmenu's & de bijhorende dure kado's, waren 2 miljoen anderen verplicht het met aanzienlijk veel minder te doen of gewoon zelfs met niks... Het feestmaal van ondergetekende beperkte zich tot 2 gebakken zwarte pensen met confituur & een broodje... & wij menen dat we het in vergelijking met sommige anderen dan nog goed hadden, want er zijn anderen die het bij ons weten met nog veel minder moesten doen...
Maar in tegenstelling tot ons, ligt u daar waarschijnlijk ook niet echt wakker van... Zo hebben wij toch mogen merken...
Kijk, we willen een kleine technische toelichting, vanuit onverdachte bron, geven over het geweldige gevaar van de qassamraketten die Hamas op Israël afvuurt. Voor ons zijn het inderdaad terreurwapens omdat ze totaal ongeleid zijn en neerstorten als de brandstof opgebruikt is. Maar deze krengen zijn niet te vergelijken met wat Hezbollah ooit afvuurde vanuit Libanon. We plaatsen deze bijkomende info eenvoudigweg om jullie te laten nadenken over een bepaald soort berichtgeving dat F16-bombardementen op het dichtstbevolkte gebied in de wereld een "gepaste represaille" vindt voor de dagelijkse "raketaanvallen" vanuit Gaza. En nogmaals wij zijn geen bewonderaars van zulke knutseltuigen...
bron : http://www.think-israel.org/brain.kassamrockets.html
HOW KASSAM ROCKETS WORK
by Marshall Brain
If you've been watching the news, you know that Israel is under
attack once again. This time, the weapon of choice comes from the
skies. It is called the Kassam (or Qassam) rocket, and dozens of them
have been landing in Israel.
In America we have a certain mental image that appears whenever
we hear the word "rocket." We tend to think of something big, complex
and expensive. We get that impression because we are used to seeing
huge moon rockets or billion-dollar space shuttles flying precisely
into orbit under the control of thousands of technicians.
The Palestinian Kassam rocket is just the opposite. It is
small, simple and cheap. The idea is to create an easily manufactured,
inexpensive terror weapon that one or two people can launch from almost
anywhere.
How can Palestinians manufacture rockets in their basements?
The key is to think small and to use everyday items wherever possible.
Therefore, a Kassam rocket starts with a simple iron tube. In other
words, you start with a piece of pipe. In a Kassam rocket, the pipe is
usually about 6 feet long and 6 or 7 inches in diameter. At one end of
the piece of pipe you weld on four simple fins made of sheet metal. The
sheet metal can come from anywhere - an old car fender will do.
A Kassam rocket lands in a Sderot, Israel synagogue
Since this is a rocket, it needs some kind of rocket fuel inside
the pipe. Palestinians use the simplest fuel possible. It is made of
sugar and potassium nitrate, also known as saltpeter. The obvious
question most people have is, "Sugar?" It turns out that sugar
contains quite a lot of energy. You can see that energy when you are
roasting marshmallows and one of them catches on fire. The problem is
that sugar does not burn fast enough to use it as a rocket fuel. The
potassium nitrate solves that problem by providing an oxidizer that
accelerates the reaction. In the United States, there is a whole
category of model rocketry called "Candy Rockets." American hobbyists
hold competitions to see who can create the highest-flying
sugar-powered rockets. The Palestinians have simply taken the hobby to
an extreme.
Once you have filled your pipe with its sugar fuel, you need a
nozzle for your rocket engine. In a Kassam rocket the designers use a
round metal plate with seven holes drilled in it. Each hole is about an
inch in diameter, because that is about as big as a standard drill bit
can get. This round plate then screws onto the bottom of the rocket.
At the other end of the rocket is a small bomb. A Kassam rocket
has a payload of 10 to 20 pounds and the bomb is very simple. It is
made of a metal casing filled with an explosive like TNT. The TNT is
probably the hardest material for the Palestinians to obtain, so they
smuggle it in or harvest it from old military hardware. The shell of a
rifle bullet acts as a blasting cap to initiate the TNT explosion.
When you put this all together, what you have is a rocket that can
lob a 10 to 20 pound bomb through the air for a distance of five or
six miles. It is very much like an artillery shell, with the advantage
that you do not need a massive artillery piece to launch it. Instead,
you need a couple of simple guide rails to act as a launch pad. You
set up the rails, lean the rocket against them, light the fuse and
stand back. 30 seconds later a 20-pound bomb explodes five miles away.
By the time Israelis can react, the people who ignited the rocket can
be long gone from the launch site.
Because they have no guidance system of any kind, Kassam rockets do
have their limits. There is no way to know precisely where the rocket
will land. However, as a tool of terror, that randomness can make the
rocket very effective. The Germans employed the same tactic with the
V-1 and V-2 rockets that they sent toward London during World War II.
[Editor's Note: Steven Plaut has suggested that Israel could stop the
manufacture of rockets in Gaza by the simple expedient of blocking the
importing of sugar into the Gaza Strip. Read his essay
here.]
Marshall Brain has a degree in computer science. He is founder of
the "How Stuff Works" website (www.howstuffworks.com), where he
explains how things work -- from spud guns to hybrid cars.
He lives in Raleigh NC and can be contacted at
marshall@marshallbrain.com. Visit his website at
www.marshallbrain.com
This article appeared in Jewish World Review
(http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0507/HowStuffWorks.php3).
en een iets "gekleurdere" opinie
SUGAR DADDIES; BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SUE FOR
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 6, 2007.
1. Sugar Daddies
Want to know WHY al-Kassam rockets are falling on Sderot every
day? I mean -- besides the obvious cause, namely, the mega-stupidity of
the Israeli government ordering the eviction of all the Jews from the
Gaza Strip and turning it over to the genocidal terrorists of the
Hamas.
Want to know the OTHER reason why the rockets keep falling?
It is because Israel's government does not have the courage to
prevent sugar from being imported into the Gaza Strip.
Huh? -- you say?
Yes, the root problem is sugar. Why sugar? Well, Kassam rockets
are primitive little devices thrown together in the basements and
underground tunnels of the Gaza Strip. They use a primitive fuel that
is mainly a mix of sugar and fertilizer. If you think I am kidding,
take a look at
http://www.me-monitor.com/files/The%20Growing%20Threat%20of%20the%20Kassam.htm
or
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0507/HowStuffWorks.php3?printer_friendly
or http://www.israelnetdaily.com/feed_content.php?feed=27641.
These are NOT the Katyusha rockets of the Hizbollah, although a few
katyushas have also been fired out of Gaza by the savages.
This has been known for years. If Israel had simply announced that
no sugar at all (better yet -- no fertilizer either) can be brought
into the Gaza Strip, the residents of Sderot would be strolling about
in tranquility, enjoying the evening Negev breezes and listening to
the birds. Instead, Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz prefer to be the Sugar
Daddies for the Gaza Strip.
The problem is that the same state of Israel that clobbered the
Arab aggressors in six days in 1967 and then rescued the Entebbe
hostages in 1976 is today too afraid of its own shadow to stop the
imports into Gaza of sugar and fertilizer.
Sure, the academic moonbats in Israel would have a fit if the
sugar shipments were stopped and Gaza were placed under a sugar
embargo. They of course would oppose anything short of unconditional
surrender by Israel to stop the rocket barrages on Sderot. Their
anti-Semitic friends abroad would also chime in their outrage.
So to keep a lid on things, I hereby
propose that Israel announce a new dental health program of preventive
dental medicine for Gaza. To help prospective suicide bombers and
rocket shooters from developing painful problems of tooth decay, Israel
will do the humanitarian thing and stop all sugar imports! Any leftist
protesting this would be seen as an anti-dentite.
And then to offset any damages to Gaza
from a halt in imports of fertilizer, Israel can also shut off the
water supply to Gaza and let the locals fertilize their fields with
human organic substances that cannot be used to produce Kassam rockets.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/1#2179
onze linkse nitwitsvisie op de massamoorden in Gaza
We kunnen niet blind blijven
voor het drama dat zich voor onze ogen afspeelt in Gaza. We lazen
vandaag minstens 100 verschillende meningen over het bloedbad dat de
staat Israël daar heeft aangericht. En we gebruiken zeer bewust de term
"staat Israël" en niks anders. We hebben hier op dit blog steeds het
onrecht aangeklaagd dat het Joodse volk werd aangedaan tijdens de
naziterreur en we zullen dit blijven doen voor elk volk daar waar
nodig. Racisme, genocide, zijn woorden die niet in ons woordenboek
passen. We zijn ook geen bewonderaars van Hamas en zijn zeker niet
blind voor bepaalde fascistoïde en vreselijk anti-joodse tendensen
binnen het radicale Islamisme. Dat zullen we hier eveneens ongenadig
aanklagen. Eén gekke grootmoefti was genoeg. Er moeten best geen
opvolgers opstaan. Toch moet het gezegd worden en we beweren hier ook
weer geen kenners te zijn van het aartsmoeilijke Palestijns-Israëlische
conflict, wat er daar nu gebeurt is ontoelaatbaar. Je kan, als zinnige
mens, moeilijk verdedigen dat zogenaamde precisiebombardementen slechts
slachtoffers maken onder de Hamasmilities. Het gaat hiet begot over één
van de dichtst bevolkte gebieden ter wereld met een meerderheid van
bijna uitgehongerde bewoners tegenover één der best bewapende
luchtmachten ter wereld. Een bom is, ondanks alle filmpjes en idiote
beweringen, nooit zo slim dat ze eens ze ontploft, een onderscheid zal
maken tussen een gewapende man en een kind. Punt uit. Je voert geen
luchtbombardementen uit in dichtbevolkte gebieden. Het excuus dat de
raketlanceerinstallaties van Hamas opgesteld staan tussen de
burgerbevolking snijdt gewoon geen hout. Hun vernuftig in elkaar
geknutselde Quassamraketten zijn inderdaad geniepige moordwapens maar
hebben geen lanceerinstallatie nodig. Dat is net het specifieke van die
tuigen je ze hieronder kan zien en je hebt er kleinere en grotere een
drietal types in totaal maar die telkens zonder uitgebouwde vaste
installatie kunnen worden afgevuurd. Bovendien is Israël gestart
met het uithongeren van Gaza en het in elkaar laten stuiken van de
plaatselijke economie begin november. De bombardementen maken dus deel
uit van een totaal plan Hieronder publiceren we een uitstekend
gedocumenteerd artikel dat we vonden op : http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html
If Gaza falls . . .
Sara Roy
Israels siege of Gaza began on 5 November, the
day after an Israeli attack inside the strip, no doubt designed finally
to undermine the truce between Israel and Hamas established last June.
Although both sides had violated the agreement before, this incursion
was on a different scale. Hamas responded by firing rockets into Israel
and the violence has not abated since then. Israels siege has two
fundamental goals. One is to ensure that the Palestinians there are
seen merely as a humanitarian problem, beggars who have no political
identity and therefore can have no political claims. The second is to
foist Gaza onto Egypt. That is why the Israelis tolerate the hundreds
of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt around which an informal but
increasingly regulated commercial sector has begun to form. The
overwhelming majority of Gazans are impoverished and officially 49.1
per cent are unemployed. In fact the prospect of steady employment is
rapidly disappearing for the majority of the population.
On 5
November the Israeli government sealed all the ways into and out of
Gaza. Food, medicine, fuel, parts for water and sanitation systems,
fertiliser, plastic sheeting, phones, paper, glue, shoes and even
teacups are no longer getting through in sufficient quantities or at
all. According to Oxfam only 137 trucks of food were allowed into Gaza
in November. This means that an average of 4.6 trucks per day entered
the strip compared to an average of 123 in October this year and 564 in
December 2005. The two main food providers in Gaza are the UN Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and
the World Food Programme (WFP). UNRWA alone feeds approximately 750,000
people in Gaza, and requires 15 trucks of food daily to do so. Between
5 November and 30 November, only 23 trucks arrived, around 6 per cent
of the total needed; during the week of 30 November it received 12
trucks, or 11 per cent of what was required. There were three days in
November when UNRWA ran out of food, with the result that on each of
these days 20,000 people were unable to receive their scheduled supply.
According to John Ging, the director of UNRWA in Gaza, most of the
people who get food aid are entirely dependent on it. On 18 December
UNRWA suspended all food distribution for both emergency and regular
programmes because of the blockade.
The WFP has had similar
problems, sending only 35 trucks out of the 190 it had scheduled to
cover Gazans needs until the start of February (six more were allowed
in between 30 November and 6 December). Not only that: the WFP has to
pay to store food that isnt being sent to Gaza. This cost $215,000 in
November alone. If the siege continues, the WFP will have to pay an
extra $150,000 for storage in December, money that will be used not to
support Palestinians but to benefit Israeli business.
The
majority of commercial bakeries in Gaza 30 out of 47 have had to
close because they have run out of cooking gas. People are using any
fuel they can find to cook with. As the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) has made clear, cooking-gas canisters are necessary
for generating the warmth to incubate broiler chicks. Shortages of gas
and animal feed have forced commercial producers to smother hundreds of
thousands of chicks. By April, according to the FAO, there will be no
poultry there at all: 70 per cent of Gazans rely on chicken as a major
source of protein.
Banks, suffering from Israeli restrictions on
the transfer of banknotes into the territory were forced to close on 4
December. A sign on the door of one read: Due to the decision of the
Palestinian Finance Authority, the bank will be closed today Thursday,
4.12.2008, because of the unavailability of cash money, and the bank
will be reopened once the cash money is available.
The World
Bank has warned that Gazas banking system could collapse if these
restrictions continue. All cash for work programmes has been stopped
and on 19 November UNRWA suspended its cash assistance programme to the
most needy. It also ceased production of textbooks because there is no
paper, ink or glue in Gaza. This will affect 200,000 students returning
to school in the new year. On 11 December, the Israeli defence
minister, Ehud Barak, sent $25 million following an appeal from the
Palestinian prime minister, Salaam Fayad, the first infusion of its
kind since October. It wont even cover a months salary for Gazas
77,000 civil servants.
On 13 November production at Gazas only
power station was suspended and the turbines shut down because it had
run out of industrial diesel. This in turn caused the two turbine
batteries to run down, and they failed to start up again when fuel was
received some ten days later. About a hundred spare parts ordered for
the turbines have been sitting in the port of Ashdod in Israel for the
last eight months, waiting for the Israeli authorities to let them
through customs. Now Israel has started to auction these parts because
they have been in customs for more than 45 days. The proceeds are being
held in Israeli accounts.
During the week of 30 November, 394,000
litres of industrial diesel were allowed in for the power plant:
approximately 18 per cent of the weekly minimum that Israel is legally
obliged to allow in. It was enough for one turbine to run for two days
before the plant was shut down again. The Gaza Electricity Distribution
Company said that most of the Gaza Strip will be without electricity
for between four and 12 hours a day. At any given time during these
outages, over 65,000 people have no electricity.
No other diesel
fuel (for standby generators and transport) was delivered during that
week, no petrol (which has been kept out since early November) or
cooking gas. Gazas hospitals are apparently relying on diesel and gas
smuggled from Egypt via the tunnels; these supplies are said to be
administered and taxed by Hamas. Even so, two of Gazas hospitals have
been out of cooking gas since the week of 23 November.
Adding to
the problems caused by the siege are those created by the political
divisions between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the
Hamas Authority in Gaza. For example, Gazas Coastal Municipalities
Water Utility (CMWU), which is not controlled by Hamas, is supposed to
receive funds from the World Bank via the Palestinian Water Authority
(PWA) in Ramallah to pay for fuel to run the pumps for Gazas sewage
system. Since June, the PWA has refused to hand over those funds,
perhaps because it feels that a functioning sewage system would benefit
Hamas. I dont know whether the World Bank has attempted to intervene,
but meanwhile UNRWA is providing the fuel, although they have no budget
for it. The CMWU has also asked Israels permission to import 200 tons
of chlorine, but by the end of November it had received only 18 tons
enough for one week of chlorinated water. By mid-December Gaza City and
the north of Gaza had access to water only six hours every three days.
According
to the World Health Organisation, the political divisions between Gaza
and the West Bank are also having a serious impact on drug stocks in
Gaza. The West Bank Ministry of Health (MOH) is responsible for
procuring and delivering most of the pharmaceuticals and medical
disposables used in Gaza. But stocks are at dangerously low levels.
Throughout November the MOH West Bank was turning shipments away
because it had no warehouse space, yet it wasnt sending supplies on to
Gaza in adequate quantities. During the week of 30 November, one truck
carrying drugs and medical supplies from the MOH in Ramallah entered
Gaza, the first delivery since early September.
The breakdown of
an entire society is happening in front of us, but there is little
international response beyond UN warnings which are ignored. The
European Union announced recently that it wanted to strengthen its
relationship with Israel while the Israeli leadership openly calls for
a large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip and continues its economic
stranglehold over the territory with, it appears, the not-so-tacit
support of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah which has been
co-operating with Israel on a number of measures. On 19 December Hamas
officially ended its truce with Israel, which Israel said it wanted to
renew, because of Israels failure to ease the blockade.
How can
keeping food and medicine from the people of Gaza protect the people of
Israel? How can the impoverishment and suffering of Gazas children
more than 50 per cent of the population benefit anyone? International
law as well as human decency demands their protection. If Gaza falls,
the West Bank will be next.
Sara Roy teaches at Harvards Center for Middle Eastern Studies and is the author of Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
We
willen dus zonder problemen uitgemaakt worden door
pro-Israël-journalisten als Hans Knoop inde Standaard van vandaag, voor
linkse nitwits. Wij beschouwen dat eerder als een soort misplaatste
blogtaal ipv gedegen journalistiek en we zullen hem hier in ons blogje
dus vanaf nu bedenken met de titel "journalist van mijn kl....". Zo
staan we quitte. En wij zullen hier niet
vervallen in een blinde idolatrie voor de Palestijnse zaak maar -en we
vallen in herhaling- wat Israêl daar nu uitricht is pure massamoord.
Basta. We willen hier eindigen
met een artikel dat vandaag door David Grossman in de Israëlische krant
Haaretz werd geschreven (ook linkse nitwits meneer Knoop?) en dat ons
toch wel heel wat intelligenter lijkt dan het hatelijke zionistische
standpunt van meneer Knoop dat fel aanleunt bij (en dat zal Knoop niet
graag horen waarschijnlijk) de excuses die door de nazi's ooit werden
ingeroepen om de aanval op Polen te rechtvaardigen....propaganda dus
meneer Knoop http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051008.html
Last update-14:56 30/12/2008
David Grossman / Is Israel too imprisoned in the familiar ceremony of war?
After
its severe strike on Gaza, Israel would do well to stop, turn to Hamas'
leaders and say: Until Saturday Israel held its fire in the face of
thousands of Qassams from the Gaza Strip. Now you know how harsh its
response can be. So as not to add to the death and destruction we will
now hold our fire unilaterally and completely for the next 48 hours.
Even if you fire at Israel, we will not respond with renewed fighting.
We will grit our teeth, as we did all through the recent period, and we
will not be dragged into replying with force.
Moreover, we invite interested countries, neighbors near and far,
to mediate between us and you to bring back the cease-fire. If you hold
your fire, we will not renew ours. If you continue firing while we are
practicing restraint, we will respond at the end of this 48 hours, but
even then we will keep the door open to negotiations to renew the
cease-fire, and even on a general and expanded agreement.
That is what Israel should do now. Is it possible, or are we too imprisoned in the familiar ceremony of war?
Advertisement
Until
Saturday, Israel under Ehud Barak's military leadership showed
remarkable cool. It should not lose its cool in the heat of battle. We
should not forget even for a moment that the people of the Gaza Strip
will remain our close neighbors and that sooner or later we will want
to achieve good neighborly relations with them.
We should in no way strike them so violently, even if Hamas, for
years, has made life intolerably miserable for the people of southern
Israel, and even if their leaders have refused every Israeli and
Egyptian attempt to reach a compromise to prevent this lastest
flare-up.
The line of self-control and the awareness of the obligation to
protect the lives of the innocent in Gaza must be toed even now,
precisely because Israel's strength is almost limitless. Israel must
constantly check to see when its force has crossed the line of
legitimate and effective response, whose goal is deterrence and a
restoration of the cease-fire, and from what point it is once again
trapped in the usual spiral of violence.
Israel's leaders know well that given the situation in the Gaza
Strip, it will be very hard to reach a total and unequivocal military
solution. The lack of a solution might result in an ongoing ambiguous
situation where we have already been: Israel will strike Hamas, it will
strike and be struck, strike and be struck, and will become unwillingly
enmeshed in every trap a situation like this entails, and will not
attain its true and essential goals. It might very quickly discover
that it is swept up - a strong military power, but helpless to get
itself out of the entanglement - into a maelstrom of violence and
destruction.
Therefore, stop. Hold your fire. Try for once to act against the
usual response, in contrast to the lethal logic of belligerence. There
will always be a chance to start firing again. War, as Barak said about
two weeks ago, will not run away. International support for Israel will
not be damaged, and will even grow, if we show calculated restraint and
invite the international and Arab community to intervene and mediate.
It is true that Hamas will thus receive a respite with which to
reorganize, but it has had long years to do so, and two more days will
not really make a difference. And such a calculated lull might change
the way Hamas responds to the situation. The response could even give
it an honorable way out of the trap it has set for itself.
And one more, unavoidable thought: Had we adopted this attitude in
July 2006, after Hezbollah abducted the soldiers, had we had stopped
then, after our first response, and declared we were holding our fire
for a day or two to mediate and calm things down, the reality today
might be entirely different.
This is also a lesson the government should learn from that war. In fact, it might be the most important lesson.
Omdat het eindejaar wat poëtischer mag zijn en dat we graag even stilstaan bij één van de meest macabere actuele thema's namelijk de "kinderen zonder papieren" vonden we voor jullie op de Italiaanse site ilmanifesto volgend artikel dat, gelukkig voor ons, in het Frans werd vertaald door de mensen van de uitstekende alternatieve site : www.legrandsoir.info
mercredi 24 décembre 2008
Journal d'un "clandestin"
Zaher Rezaï, rêves et espoirs en forme de poésie.
GRISOT Francesca
Zaher Rezaï, 13 ans, soudeur, né à Mazar-el Sharif (Afghanistan), mort à
Venise samedi, écrasé par le camion sous lequel il s'était accroché pour
entrer en Italie.
Fragments de son carnet de voyage :
"J'ai tant navigué, nuit et jour, sur la barque de ton amour..."
Zaher Rezai, fils de Mahmud, était un Hazara de Mazar-el Sharif, la ville
qui, en 1998, fût le théâtre d'un des nombreux massacre de civils Hazaras
que nous rappelle l'Afghanistan. Zaher était tout petit et l'un de ceux
qui avaient eu la chance de survivre. Quelques années plus tard, encore
enfant, Zaher était en Iran. Il travaillait comme soudeur, en notant
soigneusement esquisses et mesures sur son carnet. Le profil qui émerge de
la lecture et traduction de son carnet de « clandestin » est le suivant :
un garçon fuyant la persécution, obligé de travailler très jeune comme
soudeur, qui se jette à contre coeur dans un voyage d'espoir dont il sait
bien qu'il est plein d'embûches.
L'histoire de Zaher peut être reprise comme icône du migrant afghan, le
plus souvent mineur, si ce n'est à l'arrivée, au départ sûrement. En tout
cas potentiel demandeur d'asile. Le cas des migrants afghans, très jeunes
le plus souvent, est l'histoire d'une diaspora silencieuse. Etant donné
son nombre réduit, elle n'a pas d'écho dans les journaux, mais révèle un
malaise social lié non seulement à la guerre ou à l'occupation du pays,
mais aussi à un féroce conflit ethnique et religieux dont on ne parle pas
en Occident. Et s'y ajoute la condition prolongée de diaspora et d'exil,
qui en est désormais à la troisième génération, et, des décennies durant,
a contraint des familles entières à migrer sans répit à travers des pays
frontaliers peu hospitaliers (Pakistan et Iran) et dans des zones
intérieures de l'Afghanistan.
A cette diaspora silencieuse Zaher va finalement donner une voix : une
voix très douce. Dans les vers de ses poésies, il cherche le courage de
continuer, au-delà des mers, là où il croit que son droit d'exister est
garanti. Le carnet qu'on a trouvé dans sa poche contenait en quelques
pages la résumé de sa vie : quelques esquisses talentueuses, rapportées
avec des mesures détaillées, du travail de soudeur qu'il faisait en Iran ;
une note sur les économies grappillées et quelques poésies, inscrites ou
apprises peut-être le long du trajet. La calligraphie du garçon indique un
degré d'instruction très bas et nous confirme que, comme nombre de ses
concitoyens, Zaher n'a pas eu la possibilité de fréquenter l'école. Et
pourtant, difficile à croire pour nous Italiens, il connaissait par coeur
et récitait en lui-même un certain nombre de vers en rimes. Poésies
classiques, poésies très souvent anciennes, de plusieurs siècles, qui
parlent d'amour et de nostalgie ; où l'aimé est Dieu et l'amour mystique
le désir de le retrouver dans la splendeur et la pureté de la prééternité.
Tu portes le parfum des gemmes qui éclosent,
Tu es comme une fleur du printemps...
Et douce ton affection
J'aime parler avec toi...
Tu es un ami enchanteur
Tu es soif de passion et beauté
J'aime souligner cela parce que l'amour de la poésie de ces jeunes
migrants afghans est le premier indice de la sensibilité, de la dignité et
du respect dans lesquels ils sont éduqués dès leur plus jeune âge. Quand
on parle avec eux, trop souvent émergent la souffrance de la
discrimination, la détermination avec laquelle ils luttent pour voir
reconnaître leur droit d'exister tout simplement en tant que « personnes
humaines ». Leur rêve européen est l' « Europe des droits de l'homme ».
Rêve auquel ils n'ont pas l'intention de renoncer. Inutile de les renvoyer
; ils essaieront à nouveau, jusqu'à la mort s'il le faut.
J'ai tant navigué, nuit et jour, sur la barque de ton amour
Qu'à la fin ou à t'aimer j'arriverai ou noyé je mourrai.
Continuer. A tout prix : « En Iran, on ne peut pas rester, en Afghanistan
on ne peut pas retourner », répètent de façon obsessive les jeunes
interviewés. La poésie continue. Elle raconte la peur du rejet ; d'être
traité comme un migrant quelconque ou, pire, comme un voleur ou un
clandestin.
Jardinier, ouvre la porte du jardin,
Je ne suis pas un voleur de fleurs,
Je me suis fait rose moi-même,
Car j'ai besoin d'une autre fleur
La peur du voyage. Le bras de mer qui le sépare encore du droit d'asile.
Ce corps si assoiffé et fatigué
Peut-être n'arrivera jusqu'à l'eau de la mer.
Je ne sais encore quel rêve le destin me réservera,
Mais promets-moi, Dieu,
Que tu ne laisseras point que finisse le printemps.
On est au seuil de l'hiver. Dans les limbes de Patras, Zaher s'embarque
sur un navire qui part pour l'Italie. La mer, la dernière traversée.
Oh mon Dieu, que de douleur réserve l'instant de l'attente,
Mais promets moi, Dieu,
Que tu ne laisseras point que finisse le printemps.
Dans mon expérience de médiatrice, c'est chose banale que les jeunes
afghans, mêmes analphabètes, gardent en mémoire des vers de poésie et les
répètent souvent pour se donner du courage pendant leur voyage et
l'expérience de la diaspora. Ce que j'ai le plus souvent entendu parle de
la douleur de la mort en exil. Je voudrais le dédier pour conclure à
Zaher, en rappelant que malheureusement c'est cette obsession qu'on lit
dans les yeux des migrants afghans avec qui je vis et travaille.
Si un jour d'exil la mort décide de reprendre mon corps
Qui s'occupera de ma sépulture, qui pourra coudre mon suaire ?
Que mon cercueil soit déposé sur une hauteur
Pour que le vent rende à ma Patrie mon parfum
Fragments
« J'ai tant navigué... »
Recueillis par Hamed Mohamad Karim et Francesca Grisot.
Merci à Domenico Ingenito pour son aide à la traduction
Feuillet 9
Tu portes le parfum des gemmes qui éclosent
Tu es comme une fleur de printemps
Je me fais pour toi ivre et heureux
Quand tu viens me chercher...
Ton affection est douce
J'aime parler avec toi
Feuillet 8
Et même quand tu m'ôtes la parole
Ton repentir est beau
Tu es un ami enchanteur
Tu es soif de passion et beauté
Voyons à présent jusques à quand
Tu t'accorderas à mon coeur
Feuillet 11
Ce corps si assoiffé et fatigué
Peut-être n'arrivera jusqu'à l'eau de la mer.
Je ne sais encore quel rêve le destin me réservera,
Mais promets-moi, Dieu,
Que tu ne laisseras point que finisse le printemps.
Oh mon Dieu, que de douleur réserve l'instant de l'attente,
Mais promets moi, Dieu,
Que tu ne laisseras point que finisse le printemps.
Feuillet 13
J'ai tant navigué, nuit et jour,
Sur la barque de ton amour,
Qu'à la fin ou à t'aimer j'arriverai
Ou noyé je mourrai.
Jardinier, ouvre la porte du jardin,
Je ne suis pas un voleur de fleurs,
Je me suis fait rose moi-même,
Je ne vais pas en quête d'une fleur quelconque
Edition de dimanche 21 décembre 2008 de il manifesto
Wel hoe zit het met 2009 en volgende jaren....een overzichtje
Beste lezertjes, het is het eindejaar. dat betekent niet alleen dat je
je strontlazarus moet zuipen en met een gek hoedje op vuurwerk moet
afsteken tot je geen enkele vinger meer aan je handjes zitten hebt. dit
betekent dat we een beetje in de toekomst trachten te kijken. Goede
voornemens maken enzovoort enzoverder. Wel we beginnen er dan maar
lmeteen aan en we gaan naar volgende bron :
The
head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that advanced
nations will be hit by violent civil unrest if the elite continue to
restructure the economy around their own interests while looting the
taxpayer.
During a speech in Madrid, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that social
unrest may happen in many countries - including advanced economies if
governments failed to adequately respond to the financial crisis.
He added that violent protests could break out in countries
worldwide if the financial system was not restructured to benefit
everyone rather than a small elite, reports the Guardian.
Strauss-Kahns comments echo those of others who have cautioned
that civil unrest could arise, specifically in the U.S., as a result of
the wholesale looting of the taxpayer and the devaluation of the
dollar.
Widely respected trends forecaster Gerald Celente recently told Fox
News that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there
will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax
revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining
food, not gifts.
Back in October, Senator Chris Dodd said that revolution would unfold if banks refused to lend money.
If it turns out that they are hoarding, youll have a revolution
on your hands. People will be so livid and furious that their tax money
is going to line their pockets instead of doing the right thing. There
will be hell to pay, Dodd told the New York Times.
Last month, leading economist Nouriel Roubini said that food riots
would be the ultimate consequence of the Federal Reserve and the
Treasurys current policies.
Riots and demonstrations have gripped normally sedate Iceland following
a financial catastrophe that has wiped out half of the kronas value
and put one third of the population at risk of losing their homes and
life savings.
Expectations of violent civil unrest have not gone unnoticed by the
U.S. Army War Colleges Strategic Institute, who recently issued a
report warning that the United States may experience massive civil
unrest in the wake of a series of crises which it terms strategic
shock.
The consequence? The necessity to use military force against
hostile groups inside the United States, according to the report.
Tens of thousands of active duty military personnel returning from
Afghanistan and Iraq are set to conduct homeland patrols inside the
U.S. and their duties will include tackling civil unrest and crowd
control, according to a Northcom announcement earlier this year.
Wat verder vonden we via de uitstekende Belgische site:
Members of Congress
were told they could face martial law if they didn't pass the bailout
bill. This will not be the last time.
Background: the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three
to four thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of
October 1. Their stated mission is the form of crowd control they
practiced in Iraq, subduing "unruly individuals," and the management of
a national emergency. I am in Seattle and heard from the brother of one
of the soldiers that they are engaged in exercises now. Amy Goodman reported that an Army spokesperson confirmed that they will have access to lethal and non lethal crowd control technologies and tanks.
George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus,
thus making it legal for military to patrol the U.S. He has also
legally established that in the "War on Terror," the U.S. is at war
around the globe and thus the whole world is a battlefield. Thus the
U.S. is also a battlefield.
He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection Act to give him far
broader powers in the event of a loosely defined "insurrection" or many
other "conditions" he has the power to identify. The Constitution
allows the suspension of habeas corpus -- habeas corpus prevents us
from being seized by the state and held without trial -- in the event
of an "insurrection." With his own army force now, his power to call a
group of protesters or angry voters "insurgents" staging an
"insurrection" is strengthened.
U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman of California said to Congress, captured on C-Span and viewable
on YouTube, that individual members of the House were threatened with
martial law within a week if they did not pass the bailout bill:
"The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and
sustaining a panic atmosphere. Many of us were told in private
conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky
would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the
first day and a couple of thousand on the second day, and a few members
were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted
no."
If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not delusional, I ask you to
consider that if they are willing to threaten martial law now, it is
foolish to assume they will never use that threat again. It is also
foolish to trust in an orderly election process to resolve this threat.
And why deploy the First Brigade? One thing the deployment accomplishes
is to put teeth into such a threat.
I interviewed Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and patriot David Antoon for clarification:
"If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could stop him?"
"Nothing. Their only recourse is to cut off funding. The Congress
would be at the mercy of military leaders to go to them and ask them
not to obey illegal orders."
"But these orders are now legal?'"
"Correct."
"If the President directs the First Brigade to arrest a bunch of voters, what would stop him?"
"Nothing. It would end up in courts but the action would have been taken."
"If the President directs the First Brigade to kill civilians, what would stop him?"
"Nothing."
"What would prevent him from sending the First Brigade to arrest the editor of the Washington Post?"
"Nothing. He could do what he did in Iraq -- send a tank down a
street in Washington and fire a shell into the Washington Post as they
did into Al Jazeera, and claim they were firing at something else."
"What happens to members of the First Brigade who refuse to take up arms against U.S. citizens?"
"They'd probably be treated as deserters as in Iraq: arrested,
detained and facing five years in prison. In Iraq a study by Ann Wright
shows that deserters -- reservists who refused to go back to Iraq --
got longer sentences than war criminals."
"Does Congress have any military of their own?"
"No. Congress has no direct control of any military units. The
Governors have the National Guard but they report to the President in
an emergency that he declares."
"Who can arrest the President?"
"The Attorney General can arrest the President after he leaves or after impeachment."
[Note: Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has asserted it is possible for
District Attorneys around the country to charge President Bush with
murder if they represent districts where one or more military members
who have been killed in Iraq formerly resided.]
"Given the danger do you advocate impeachment?"
"Yes. President Bush struck down Posse Comitatus -- which has
prevented, with a penalty of two years in prison, U.S. leaders since
after the Civil War from sending military forces into our streets --
with a 'signing statement.' He should be impeached immediately in a
bipartisan process to prevent the use of military forces and mercenary
forces against U.S. citizens"
"Should Americans call on senior leaders in the Military to break
publicly with this action and call on their own men and women to
disobey these orders?"
"Every senior military officer's loyalty should ultimately be to
the Constitution. Every officer should publicly break with any illegal
order, even from the President."
"But if these are now legal. If they say, 'Don't obey the Commander in Chief,' what happens to the military?"
"Perhaps they would be arrested and prosecuted as those who refuse
to participate in the current illegal war. That's what would be
considered a coup."
Published: November 14 2008 11:51 | Last updated: November 14 2008 11:51
Hallgrímskirkja cathedral looms up out of the mists and gloom of downtown Reykjavík
Think of Ireland. Rotate it 90 degrees clockwise, make it a third
bigger and hang it like a pendant from the Arctic Circle. Crack open
the earths crust below to release limitless supplies of geothermal
steam, then fill its territorial waters, all 200 miles of them, with an
abundance of cod.
Give it a population of 300,000, about the same as Coventry, 70
per cent of them in the cities of Reykjavik and Akureyri. Ensure they
are all related and give the majority the ability to trace their
ancestry back to the times of settlement, more than a thousand years
earlier. Endow these people with industry and ambition. Give them their
own language all but unchanged for a millennium a literary
tradition, three national newspapers, two television channels, free
universal healthcare and education and close to zero unemployment. Give
this country a consistently high ranking in the world
standard-of-living charts and you have the Iceland of the recent past.
Not a bad place, all in all.
Now allow this countrys banks virtually unregulated
to borrow more than 10 times their countrys gross domestic product
from the international wholesale money markets. Watch as a Graf
Zeppelin of debt propels its self-styled Viking Raiders across the
worlds financial stage, accumulating companies like gamblers hoarding
chips. Then sit on the sidelines as the airship flies home and
explodes, showering its blazing wreckage over this once proud, yet
tiny, nation.
There you see the Iceland of today the victim of an
economic 9/11 and one of the very few places in the world where the
words financial meltdown can be used without fear of exaggeration.
. . .
There is no daytime TV in Iceland. Parents are at work and children at
school, so the test card, that feature of a bygone age, is the only
thing aired. For the transmitters to be switched on in mid-afternoon
and a sombre-looking Geir Haarde, the prime minister, to appear behind
a desk, a national flag at his side, it had to be serious and it was.
The country was on the verge of bankruptcy; the government was taking
control of the banks and was going to assume far-reaching powers to
secure the safety of the nation and its savers.
As I watched, I felt a detached sympathy for those poor
people living on a blighted island until it dawned on me that I was
one of them. Recent events had savaged my net worth by 60 per cent and
pushed up my cost of living by more than 20 per cent. Icelands plight
was mine, too. What I failed to appreciate at the time was the emotion
of this unprecedented television address, particularly in the way it
finished:
Fellow countrymen ... If there was ever a time when the
Icelandic nation needed to stand together and show fortitude in the
face of adversity, then this is the moment. I urge you all to guard
that which is most important in the life of every one of us, to protect
those values which will survive the storm now beginning. I urge
families to talk together and not to allow anxiety to get the upper
hand, even though the outlook is grim for many. We need to explain to
our children that the world is not on the edge of a precipice, and we
all need to find an inner courage to look to the future ... Thus with
Icelandic optimism, fortitude and solidarity as weapons, we will ride
out the storm.
God bless Iceland.
Edda, my partner, was in tears on the sofa beside me.
A drive across town later that afternoon, October 6, at first gave
grounds for comfort. The roads were as full as usual for the Reykjavik
rush-hour a half-hour build-up of traffic. Aircraft flew in and out
of the downtown airport, students made their way home from schools and
universities note the plural while visitors went to hospitals and
fitness fiends to sports clubs. Reykjavik showed all the outward
appearances of carrying on.
But a different picture began to emerge from the hourly
news bulletins on the car radio. The Icelandic kronas freeze in the
capital markets had now spilled over into the day-to-day transactions
of Icelanders abroad. Holidaymakers and business travellers venturing
til Útlanda, as it is called, found their credit cards refused, and
those wishing to buy foreign currency could not find willing sellers,
aside from one or two who limited their purchases to 200.
Trust in the banks had evaporated and people were trying
to find a safe haven for their cash. One man had waited for six hours
in a bank while his life savings, more than £1m in kronur (at IKr200 to
the pound), were counted out in cash in front of him. I feel like an
innocent man dragged from his bed, put in a barrel and hurled over
Gullfoss! wrote one journalist that morning. We have been brought
down by a handful of men who bet our nations wealth, fame and
prosperity on a throw of the dice. Gullfoss is one of Icelands
tourist attractions a majestic 100ft waterfall.
On collecting our daughter from her handball practice, I
learnt the news that her club could not obtain the foreign currency it
needed to release their new team shirts from customs. The citys myriad
sports teams rely on local sponsors and our daughter also brought the
news that this source of funding for her team was likely to dry up in
the months to come. Later that evening, Skype, our communications
lifeline, would not renew our credits with an Icelandic credit card.
E-mails began to arrive from friends overseas, alarmed by news reports
and asking if we were all right.
But all this was trivial compared with the financial
distress, in some cases ruin, that now faces a significant proportion
of the population.
Easy access to 100 per cent mortgages has seen a change
to the traditional pattern of young Icelanders living with their
parents until their mid-twenties. The suburbs of Reykjavik have grown
by a third in the past decade, most of it housing for first-time
buyers. Whole new neighbourhoods have emerged. New streets house young
couples, many with children, most with two cars in the drive and
furnished with the best that Ikea can provide. All bought with 100 per
cent loans, many in foreign currencies.
Iceland is the only country in the world that indexes its
loans in addition to charging interest. This means that when Icelanders
borrow IKr1,000 from the bank and inflation increases by 5 per cent,
the bank increases their debt to IKr1,050 at the end of the year. A
great deal for the bank and fine for you, too so long as the
propertys value and your salary are increasing by inflation and more.
The majority of Icelandic mortgages are based on this punitive system
and with inflation running at nearly 20 per cent, they will see their
IKr1,000 loan turn into a IKr1,200 loan. The interest burden will
increase proportionally. This is bad enough, but when coupled with
falling house prices, it means that many face a particularly savage
variety of negative equity. The impact on highly geared borrowers,
which in practice means most Icelanders, would be hard enough even with
two incomes, but with unemployment set to soar, many households are
going to go under.
A recent first-time buyer, a woman in her late twenties,
said: I took a 100 per cent loan to buy an apartment. I placed my
savings in Kaupthings money market account, because it promised high
interest rates, and my pensions in Kaupthings Vista 1 at the prospect
of becoming a millionaire retiree. Both of these funds were based on
stock investments and I knew that they were risky but I took the bait
and the risk. Now most of this money, if not all, is lost.
Icelanders are by nature frugal people. It was one of the
few countries in the world, perhaps the only one, that had a pension
system that could meet the needs of its ageing population. But in
recent years, many older people have been persuaded by the banks to
invest their savings in high-yielding money-market accounts. As a
result of the collapse of the banking system, many of these accounts
have seen huge write-downs and some are now worth less than half of
their previous values. The additional money people had put aside to top
up their pensions has been hard hit.
Bjork, Icelands ambassadress of cool, summed it up in
The Times on October 28: Young families are threatened with losing
their houses and elderly people their pensions. This is catastrophic.
There is also a lot of anger. The six biggest venture capitalists in
Iceland are being booed in public places and on TV and radio shows;
furious voices insist that they sell all their belongings and give the
proceeds to the nation. Gigantic loans, it has been revealed, were
taken out abroad by a few individuals and without the full knowledge of
the Icelandic people. Now the nation seems to be responsible for having
to pay them back.
A homemade banner, made of sheets, hangs over the main
motorway in Reykjavik, tied to the railings of a bridge. Stondum
Saman! it cries out. Let us stand together! Its the new rallying
cry of a beleaguered nation.
A cyclist in Reykjavík on a gloomy day
Icelanders have seen their economy swell and shrink from time to time
over the centuries, and always handled it calmly. Perhaps their
heritage in fishing and agriculture enabled them to meet good years and
bad with equanimity. Now they must cope equally well with an attack of
economic bulimia. To understand what makes this crisis kreppa, as it
is known here so unlike any other, a little history is needed.
For Icelanders, the golden years were the early years, shortly
after the land was settled in the ninth century. The Viking tradition,
the Althing the legislative assembly dating to 930 and the literary
canon of Sagas and Eddas are the nations cultural bedrock. But after
that, Iceland almost disappears from the history books. While the
agricultural revolution, the Renaissance, the industrial revolution
came and went, while the fine cities of Europe were being built, while
artists from Michelangelo to Mozart were pouring forth their creations,
while the great inventions and discoveries were being invented and
discovered, Icelanders were hunkering down in their turf houses,
meeting the hardest challenge of all survival.
They survived plague, famine, earthquakes and volcanoes.
There were times when some even considered abandoning the island. But
they stayed on. They stayed and survived. Icelanders will tell you that
only the fittest survived, but that is only half the story, because
survival requires another key attribute: stubbornness. And Icelanders
have it in spades. It is a national trait, and they view it not as a
weakness but as a virtue. It comes from experiencing hardship and
enduring it. It means finding satisfaction in a simple task done well
and sticking to it; finding comfort and solace in family and kinship
and being bound by those familial bonds and duties. And perhaps most
important of all, it means believing in the independence of the
individual as part of the fabric of nationhood, and fighting for that
independence. Put simply, the country has values.
And this is what sets this catastrophe apart from the
earthquakes and plagues of former years. This is a man-made disaster
and worse still, one made by a small group of Icelanders who set off to
conquer the financial world, only to return defeated and humiliated.
The country is on the verge of bankruptcy and, even more important for
those of Viking stock, its international reputation is in tatters. It
hurts.
. . .
Picture a pig trying to balance on a mouses back and youll get some
idea of the scale of the problem. In a mere seven years since bank
deregulation and privatisation, Icelands financial institutions had
managed to rack up $75bn of foreign debt. In his address to the nation,
Haarde put the problem in perspective by referring to the $700bn
financial rescue package in America: The huge measures introduced by
the US authorities to rescue their banking system represent just under
5 per cent of the US GDP. The total economic debt of the Icelandic
banks, however, is many times the GDP of Iceland.
And here is the nub. Icelands banks borrowed more than
$250,000 for every man, woman and child in Iceland, and placed an
impossible burden on the modest reserves of the central bank in the
event of default. And default they have.
Voices of caution there were many in Iceland were
drowned out by a media that became fixated on the nations emergence
from drab pupa to gaudy butterfly. Yet, Icelanders opinions were
divided. For some, the success of their Viking Raiders, buying up the
British high street, one even acquiring that most treasured bauble of
all, a Premier League football club, marked the arrival of a golden
era. The transformation of Reykjavik from a quiet, provincial fishing
port to a brash financial centre had been as swift as it was complete,
and with the musicians Bjork and Sigur Ros and Danish-Icelandic artist
Ólafur Eliasson attracting global audiences, cultural prestige went
hand in hand with financial success. Icelanders could hold their heads
high before the rest of the world.
Hallgrimur Helgason, well-known for his novel 101
Reykjavik, said in a letter to the nation in a Sunday newspaper on
October 26: Deep down inside we idolised these titans, these money
pop-stars. Awestruck we watched their adventures and admired them when
they supported the arts and charities. We never had clever businessmen,
not for a thousand years, not to mention men who had won battles in
other countries...
For others, the growth was too rapid, the change too
extreme. Many became uncomfortable with the excesses of the Viking
Raiders. The liveried private jets, the Elton John parties, the
residences in St Moritz, New York and London and the yachts in St
Tropez all flaunted in Sed og Heyrt, Icelands equivalent of Hello!
magazine were not, and this is important, they were not Icelandic.
There was a strong undertow of public opinion that felt that all this
ostentatious celebration of lavish lifestyles and excess was causing
the nation to disconnect from its thousand-year heritage. In his letter
to the nation, Hallgrimur continued: This was all about the building
of personal image rather than the building of anything tangible for the
good of our nation and its people. Icelanders living abroad failed to
recognise their own country when they came home.
What international sympathy there was for Icelands
plight evaporated with the dark realisation that the downfall of
Icelands three main banks Landsbanki, Kaupthing and Glitnir
brought with it the potential loss of £8bn for half a million savers in
northern Europe, the bulk of whom were British. The shrill media
response in the UK was reported extensively in Iceland. The British
governments use of anti-terror legislation to freeze the assets of
Landsbanki pushed Icelands banking system into the abyss. It was a
move viewed in Iceland as hateful and unnecessary. A few days later the
one remaining viable bank, Kaupthing, went under.
Pedestrians
brave the cold in Reykjavík, beneath a poster of young Icelanders. The
prime minister recently urged people to explain to children that the
world is not on the edge of a precipice
Then Landsbanki was placed on a British Treasury list of groups
subjected to financial sanctions, along with al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
A copy of the UK government webpage appeared in Icelandic papers and a
new website, www.indefence.is, was launched. A picture on it shows a young girl with a placard that reads: I am not a terrorist, Mr Brown.
At this time of year, the most-watched TV show in Iceland is Saturday
nights Spaugstofan, which translates literally as The Spoof Room. Its
a hit-or-miss affair, but events of the past few weeks have provided
the writers with a rich seam of source material. A recent episode
featured a well-worked lampoon of the film Titanic, entitled Icetanic,
with Geir Haarde and the chairman of the governors of the central bank,
David Oddsson, standing on the bridge of the economy that could not
sink. A sketch shows Gordon Brown throwing Icelanders off a life raft.
Get back in the water where you belong, you terrorist bastard! he
shouts as he throws another one overboard.
When I tried to explain Icelands plight to a friend in
the UK who works in banking, I received short shrift. You must have
gone troppo, Robert! They may not have dressed up in burkas and
strapped several kilos of Semtex around their waists. But to go into
the high street, persuade charities, pensioners, local authorities to
deposit money and then disappear, having trousered nigh on £8bn is,
even by City standards, bad. Financial terrorism, grand larceny, call
it what you will, but the government had to act and act quickly to stop
funds leaving the country.
Troppo can hardly apply one degree south of the Arctic
Circle, but if its northern equivalent is to go polar, then evidently I
have.
. . .
Fear, outrage, jealousy and guilt have mingled to form a volatile
cocktail of emotions as the blame game has started, and Icelanders
attempt to come to terms with it all. They are divided between those
who blame the Viking Raiders and those who blame successive governments
and central banks for allowing them to behave the way they did.
There have been demonstrations, previously almost unheard
of in Iceland, in which families have marched on the parliament
buildings, stringing up an effigy of Oddsson along the way.
Of the various Viking Raiders, only one, Jon Ásgeir, of
Baugur fame, has had the guts to turn up and face the music on a TV
chat show. But any temporary benevolence towards him evaporated when it
emerged that he had arrived back in Iceland with high-street
billionaire Sir Philip Green in tow. Together they proposed to buy
Baugurs debt, reported at the time as £2bn, thereby acquiring the
groups UK retail assets, including House of Fraser and Hamleys at a
significant discount that would involve massive debt writeoffs.
One of the most telling images was the departure of Jon
Ásgeirs private jet on news that the government had nationalised
Glitnir Bank (in which his investment vehicle Stodir was a leading
shareholder), wiping out his shareholding and rattling the
debt-burdened house of cards that is his Baugur business empire.
Painted black and as sleek as a Stealth bomber, the aircraft was
photographed taxiing from its hangar by Morgunbladid, a daily
newspaper. Like the last helicopter out of Saigon, the departure of
Ásgeirs jet symbolised the end of an era, the last act of Icelands
debt-fuelled spending spree.
Bjorgolfur Thor and his father Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson
have, to date, disappeared from the radar. Together they own a majority
stake in Landsbanki, and Gudmundsson owns West Ham United football
club. Their jets have also flown the coop. Downtown, beside the
harbour, construction work on a landmark project underwritten by them,
the National Concert Hall, is expected to stop any day now. Like
Hallgrimskirkja, the striking cathedral that presides over Reykjavik
and that took more than 40 years to complete thanks to a lack of
finance, the concert hall might need a change in the countrys fortunes
before it can be completed.
The government has announced that it will carry out a
thorough investigation into what happened and determine who is to
blame. It will be called The White Book, and leave no stone unturned
in getting to the truth. It will not be a slender volume.
. . .
We
live now in a foreign-currency lockdown, and although the government
has assured everyone that there are sufficient reserves to buy
essentials such as oil, grain and medical supplies for the winter, such
assurances only serve to create a further sense of unease in a people
who have learnt to take such commodities for granted.
There is some encouraging news. The International
Monetary Fund is putting the finishing touches to a $2bn bailout
package and this is likely to lead to a further $4bn from a consortium
of Nordic central banks. These funds will come with stringent
conditions that will impose external financial controls and impinge
heavily on Icelands hard-won sovereign independence. But they should
inject some much-needed confidence into the currency and into an
embattled people.
There is an Icelandic expression: We started with two
empty hands. Whoever coined it could not have expected that it would
still be so pertinent in 2008, as the nation begins the process of
rebuilding its economy and that thing it covets most of all, its
reputation.
It is going to be a long, hard struggle.
Robert Jackson is a British journalist who has lived in Iceland since 2003
Let me get lunch, I said, fumbling in my handbag for my wallet. Your
banks just gone bust after all. But old habits die hard and anyway,
the Icelandic banker wanted to find out if his company credit card
still worked. He handed it over and drummed his fingers nervously on
the bar in the gloomy City pub, writes Sarah OConnor.
The payment went through. And with a whimper two sandwiches and two
lemonades the banks six-year debt-fuelled spending spree sputtered
to a stop. The next day his card was refused.
Barely a month earlier, at his banks annual September
shindig in Iceland, international financiers who had arranged loans for
the bank were treated to quad-biking, axe-throwing, belly-wrestling and
copious alcohol and challenged to run round a traffic cone 10 times
while resting their foreheads on top of it. Believe it or not, but
some of the participating bankers fell over. And over. And ... well,
you understand, chortled Euroweek, a trade magazine also flown out for
the party.
Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir sported all the
trappings of fully fledged international banks. They had offices around
the world, slick PR, extravagant parties and huge amounts of debt. That
culture alone could have been enough to pitch them into trouble as the
credit cycle turned. But at their core, something deeper was amiss. Two
things, actually. The first has been picked over and over since the
trios calamitous demise: they were too big, and the economy upon which
they rested too small to support the huge liabilities they had taken
on.
The banks dont mind this explanation; neither do
Icelands politicians. It paints them as fearless if foolhardy in
their expansion, but ultimately as the casualties of a global crisis.
They would have survived in spite of their size, they argue, if Lehman
Brothers and Washington Mutual had not collapsed, leaving their
creditors empty-handed.
In September, creditors sense of security evaporated,
and soon Glitnir was facing demands for extra money from the
increasingly nervous institutions from which it had borrowed. It just
didnt have the money.
Glitnir went to Icelands central bank and asked for a
bridging loan to see it through to the end of the month in which it was
due to pay back a big bond issue. The central bank refused, and took a
75 per cent stake in Glitnir instead. The move triggered panic in
international markets. Maybe the government was big enough to bail out
Glitnir, but what about the other two Icelandic banks? It surely
couldnt afford to support all three.
In the face of a massive run on Landsbanki by foreign
depositors and creditors, the government seized that bank, too, and
soon after Kaupthing imploded as well.
A week later, in an upstairs room of the Ministers
Residence in Reykjavik, Geir Haarde the prime minister looked weary but
unruffled as he shook my hand and poured out coffee. We spoke before
didnt we, earlier this year? As I remember you were very aggressive.
His special adviser had called me out of the blue in
March. She had heard I was writing a story about fears the government
was not strong enough to underwrite the banks if they ran into trouble.
Would I like to speak to the prime minister about it? I would.
In the interview, he seemed perplexed about the
stratospheric cost of insuring against a default by Icelands banks on
their debts. If youre worried about not being repaid, which is what
the creditworthiness is about, you shouldnt be worried when it comes
to the Icelandic banks, let alone the Icelandic government, he said.
But would the government be capable of supporting the
banks, given that their foreign currency liabilities dwarfed the
countrys ability to generate cash? He didnt give a clear answer.
It was an odd episode, and highlights the other, deeper
problem at the heart of Icelands banking system. How did the prime
ministers office know that a junior journalist in London was writing a
story about Iceland? Presumably because someone from one of the banks
told them. If so, why are they in such close contact? Because the whole
system is run by a small group of men who go back a long way and, in
the words of one businessman, sit in the same hot tub three times a
week.
When the banks were privatised in 2002, the government
headed by David Oddsson, then prime minister, and Geir Haarde, then
finance minister sold chunky stakes to a select group of rich
businessmen. Father and son team Bjorgolfur and Bjorgolfur Thor
Gudmundsson, recently returned from Russia flush with cash, took a 45.8
per cent stake in Landsbanki after a process some have criticised as
uncompetitive. These new shareholders used the banks to support their
other businesses. For example, FL Group (which then became Stodir) an
investment company owned by the Icelandic retail entrepreneur Jon
Ásgeir Johannesson was both Glitnirs biggest shareholder and one of
its significant borrowers.
There were rumblings of discontent in Iceland over the
way the system was being run, but few spoke out. Icelands government
and supervisory authority did nothing to break up the close-knit
network of relationships.
Sveinn Valfells is one malcontent. A private investor now
living in London, his grandfather played a key role in setting up one
of the banks that were merged to form Glitnir. Sveinn left Iceland in
2004 when he decided the banking system was spiralling out of control.
This was like Eastern Europe, this was like Russia ... In most
respects it is a developed country, but the political system and
business culture are significantly underdeveloped.
The banks looked and sounded just like their large
international peers. But as one businessman in Iceland says: Astute
investors should have asked themselves, Does this smell right?
Riots and protests in Reykjavik calling for the government of
Iceland to resign have increased following a financial catastrophe that
has wiped out half of the kronas value and put one third of the
population at risk of losing their homes and life savings. Could
similar scenes of civil unrest be repeated in the United States as the
economy continues to implode?
It was the latest in a series of
protests in the capital since Octobers banking collapse crippled the
islands economy. At least five people were injured and Hordur
Torfason, a well-known
singer in Iceland and the main organiser of the protests, said the
protests would continue until the government stepped down, reports the Scotsman.
As crowds gathered in the drizzle before the
Althing, the Icelandic parliament, on Saturday, Mr Torfason said: They
dont have our trust and they are no longer legitimate.
Hundreds more gathered in front of a local police
station, pelting eggs at the windows, using a bettering ram to force
the doors open and demanding the release of a protester.
A banner hung from a government building read
Iceland for Sale: $2,100,000,000, the amount of the loan the country
will receive from the IMF.
Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old office worker,
said: Ive just had enough of this whole thing. I dont trust the
government, I dont trust the banks, I dont trust the political
parties, and I dont trust the IMF.
We had a good country and they ruined it.
These arent the actions of unwieldy mobs in
third world countries, were talking about a country that had one of
the highest living standards in Europe and a relatively wealthy and
sedate population, the vast majority of whom are now in revolt over
mass redundancies and the fast disappearing values of their paychecks
and savings.
More peaceful protests against the Federal
Reserve during the End the Fed events over the weekend were largely
ignored by the U.S. corporate media, but the potential for wider chaos
exists should the dollar finally cave in to the hyperinflationary
bubble that is being created by the ceaseless printing of money to fund
the multi-trillion dollar bailout.
Those who continue to assert, It cant happen
here, only need to look at the scenes in Reykjavik to realize that
similar events could unfold across the U.S., where the reaction of
militarized riot cops and even the military itself may be a little more
heavy handed to say the least.
de aloude Ollandse koopmansgeest en inpolderingsdrang: een voorbeeld
Beste
lezertjes, we hebben al vaak het verwijt gekregen dat we onze Ollandse
buren soms wat te onheus behandelen. We, eerst en vooral bestrijden we
deze kwakkel en zullen dit beschouwen als een poging tot
destabilisering van ons blogje in opdracht van één of andere duistere
en dus buitenlandse mogendheid. We hebben trouwens al herhaalde malen
een politiek vluchtelingenstatuut overwogen. Recent nog op één van de
waddeneilanden. Maar het moet gezegd, en we geven dit grif toe :
helemaal vertrouwen doen we ze toch niet onze Bataven. Zeker niet nadat
ze ons de grootste en fierste Belgistaanse bank hebben ontfutseld met
volgens onze Yves Leterme, lepe streken. We willen evenmin over hun
onhebbelijke politiek i.v.m. coffeeshops vlak tegen onze grens
discussiëren. Tenslotte verkiezen we nog steeds de Ollandse coffeeshops
boven de Franse kerncentrales aan de andere grens. De goedkope
Luxemburgse benzinestations lijken ons een aanvaardbare tussenoplossing
aan de zuidelijke grens waar onze Duitse buren echter absoluut niks
hebben aan te bieden. Zij gebruiken dat stukje grens enkel en alleen om
regelmatig een nieuw omsingelingsplan te concretiseren en zo de Franse
erfvijand de nek trachten om te draaien. Maar beste lezers, we ontdekten zo pas
het snode plan van onze Ollandse ex-dwingelanden waarin ze nogmaals hun
vileine koopmansgeest, zelfs in deze barre crisistijden botvieren. Dit
natuurlijk zonder enig mededogen en ten koste van den medemensch! Leest u het
allemaal maar zelf wat deze ollandse collega blogger-koopman uitgedokterd heeft om
profijt te trekken uit de kredietcrisis die onze Ijslandse medeburgers
zo hard treft :
Geld moet rollen zei Wouter Bos, en zo is 't maar net!
Dus alle Hollandse IceSavers zijn - linksom of rechtsom - gered en krijgen hun centjes terug, tot het bedrag van 100.000. Wat wil je nog meer?
Nou, wij willen nog wel wat meer ja.
Namelijk dat we die 120.000 spaarders niet via onze eigen
belastingcenten gaan terugbetalen.En IJsland zegt niets meer te kunnen
betalen, dus is dat land failliet. En zoals dat dan behoort te gaan,
wordt de boedel verkocht ten behoeve van de schuldeisers. En die boedel
is het - grotendeels lege - land zelf.
Ik stel dus voor dat we een
boedelverdeling maken conform het bovenstaande landkaartje. Het
cirkeltje linksonder is Reykjavik en directe omgeving. Daar passen alle
IJslanders makkelijk in, dus dat mogen ze houden. Wie weet wordt dat,
met een beetje professionele begeleiding en know how, nog eens een
nordisch Hongkong, Singapore, of Dubai.
De rest wordt dan verdeeld tussen onze
Engelse vrienden en ons, waarmee we weer terug zijn in de VOC-tijd,
waar onze MP zo graag van droomt. We gaan dus weer koloniseren, maar nu
op moderne leest geschoeid. Zonder slavernij.
Win-win-win-oplossing
Soms ligt een oplossing zó voor de
hand, dat je die bijna over het hoofd zou zien. Want dit is natuurlijk
geweldig, voor alle partijen!
Ten eerste is IJslandin één klap van
al z'n schulden af. En vervolgens hebben wij én de Britten elk een
nieuw - groot en waardeloos - gebied ter beschikking om nieuwe waarde
toe te voegen. Handen uit de mouwen!
De Britten krijgen het westelijke
deel, wij het oostelijke. Want dat is handig voor de aardrijkskundeles.
Zodat de leerlingen het makkelijk kunnen onthouden. Engeland in het
westen en Nederland ten oosten daarvan. En dat het dan op IJsland net
zo is en niet andersom, want dat zou maar verwarring geven. Dan heb je
voor je het weet de Vijfde Engelse Oorlog.Deze verdeling is trouwens
ook gunstig - kijk maar naar het kaartje - omdat wij dan het grootste
binnenlandse wateroppervlak krijgen, zodat er eindelijk weer wat in te
polderen valt.
Totaaloplossing
Het is ongelooflijk hoe de gang der
dingen, de loop van de historische gebeurtenissen, ons steeds weer
verrast met nieuwe, onverwachte mogelijkheden en uitdagingen. Denk aan
het Cruyff-adagium: 'Elk nadeel hep se foordeel'. En verdomd, het klopt
als een bus, tot op de dag van vandaag!
Nu is er de kans om het
integratievraagstuk in één uitdagend project aan te pakken en op te
lossen. En het kan nu ook! Op 16 september, in haar Troonrede, sprak
onze Koningin al over de mogelijkheid van een... gebiedsverbod.
Dus voortaan sturen we alle rotjochies die niet willen deugen en de
buurt terroriseren, met hun hele gezin voor een langdurig
leer-werk-ontwikkelingstraject naar ... Oost Nederijsland.
Onze westerburen doen hetzelfde met hun eigen probleemgroepjes, die dan naar Great Western Britain-Iceland verhuizen.
Een unieke kans
Samen met onze Engelse vrienden gaan
we hier een heel mooi project van maken. Voormalige probleemgroepen
worden geprikkeld om zich te ontwikkelen tot volwaardige burgers,
streng maar rechtvaardig begeleid door de beste deskundigen
gerecruteerd uit kringen van PVV en TON.Zijn we daar ook meteen vanaf.
Denk nog even terug hoe de Engelsen
vanaf 1788 al hun zware criminelen naar de strafkolonie Australië
stuurden. Afgevoerd worden naar 'Down Under' betekende zoveel als
'levenslang'. En kijk nu eens, wat een keurig land dat geworden is!
Let op mijn woorden.
Als dit plan een kans krijgt, zal
IJsland over tien tot twintig jaar de leidende positie hebben
overgenomen van de VS. Engelse en Nederlandse gastarbeiders zullen zich
er melden, bij gebrek aan werk in eigen land.
de aloude Ollandse koopmansgeest en inpolderingsdrang: een voorbeeld
Beste
lezertjes, we hebben al vaak het verwijt gekregen dat we onze Ollandse
buren soms wat te onheus behandelen. We, eerst en vooral bestrijden we
deze kwakkel en zullen dit beschouwen als een poging tot
destabilisering van ons blogje in opdracht van één of andere duistere
en dus buitenlandse mogendheid. We hebben trouwens al herhaalde malen
een politiek vluchtelingenstatuut overwogen. Recent nog op één van de
waddeneilanden. Maar het moet gezegd, en we geven dit grif toe :
helemaal vertrouwen doen we ze toch niet onze Bataven. Zeker niet nadat
ze ons de grootste en fierste Belgistaanse bank hebben ontfutseld met
volgens onze Yves Leterme, lepe streken. We willen evenmin over hun
onhebbelijke politiek i.v.m. coffeeshops vlak tegen onze grens
discussiëren. Tenslotte verkiezen we nog steeds de Ollandse coffeeshops
boven de Franse kerncentrales aan de andere grens. De goedkope
Luxemburgse benzinestations lijken ons een aanvaardbare tussenoplossing
aan de zuidelijke grens waar onze Duitse buren echter absoluut niks
hebben aan te bieden. Zij gebruiken dat stukje grens enkel en alleen om
regelmatig een nieuw omsingelingsplan te concretiseren en zo de Franse
erfvijand de nek trachten om te draaien. Maar beste lezers, we ontdekten zo pas
het snode plan van onze Ollandse ex-dwingelanden waarin ze nogmaals hun
vileine koopmansgeest, zelfs in deze barre crisistijden botvieren. Dit
natuurlijk zonder enig mededogen en ten koste van den medemensch! Leest u het
allemaal maar zelf wat deze ollandse collega blogger-koopman uitgedokterd heeft om
profijt te trekken uit de kredietcrisis die onze Ijslandse medeburgers
zo hard treft :
_1921.jpg/300px-USS_Alabama_(BB-8)_1921.jpg)
The
head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that advanced
nations will be hit by violent civil unrest if the elite continue to
restructure the economy around their own interests while looting the
taxpayer.
