Nations Without States

There is a magnificent blog article by Sean Thomas about the Yezidi people of Iraq at the Telegraph and their plight at the hands of the hateful bigot of ISIS.

The current plight of religious minorities in the Middle East* isn't restricted to the Yezidi, Christians have suffered terrible persecution too partly as a result of the Iraq War. If those peoples had a nation that could defend them and provide a refuge they wouldn't be looking at annihilation. Which is one reason Israel will do it's utmost to remain a Jewish state that is strong enough to defend itself against all its neighbours.


* While the Middle East is the current heartland of violent bigotry almost every region on Earth has periods where belonging to a stateless minority has been very dangerous.

A Shameful Decision.

Britain is re-establishing links with Hezbollah and organisation whose leader as made it clear that he wishes to exterminate all Jews (not simply 'Zionists' although that would be despicable enough) , which includes many British citizens. An organisation that has carried out mass murder to accomplish this goal as far afield as Argentina.

Morally it is shameful to treat this organisation as anything other than pariahs, in some cases there may be a pragmatic reason to talk to bastards- say with Stalin during WW2- but Hezbollah isn't an all powerful organisation that we simply have to talk to. To open contacts with them is a choice and it is a shameful one.

Sorting Out The Middle East.

I've got ten minutes to spare so I thought I'd solve the Middle East problem.

Thinking aloud about the Israel Palestine situation.

What some or all Israelis want:

• Security within recognised borders.
• To be able to maintain a homeland for jews the world over where they can be free of persecution.
• Some also want to annex some territory within the West Bank & Gaza.
• To have Jerusalem as their capital.
  

The first two of those wishes are perfectly reasonable the third one is not. Thankfully in recent years this has been recognised entirely with respect to Gaza and to some extent with the West Bank. Many of Israel's critics only pay lip service to recognising the first two requirements and in actual fact oppose any move Israel makes to protect its citizens (even simply building a wall) and by advocating a one state solution to the problem.

What some or all of the Palestinians want:

• A viable nation state free from foreign control.
• The opportunity for economic development.
• To remove the settlements from the West Bank.
• To return to properties that their families lost in the numerous Arab-Israeli wars.
• For Jerusalem to be their capital.
• To Expel the Jews from Israel.
• To establish an Islamic state.

Before I continue I want to emphasise that I am not saying that all these positions are held by everyone on one side or the other. Some of the Palestinian positions cannot be considered as up for negotiation namely the last two. This means that Gaza should be ignored until they get rid of Hamas but there is a starting point for discussions with Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas, who isn't perfect but is a vast improvement of Yasser Arafat, on the West Bank.

Some of the wishes are entirely reasonable such as the first three.

In the long term what is up for negotiation therefore is the status of Jerusalem and the 'right of return'. Israel cannot accept a full right of return of the children and grandchildren of those who left 60 years ago, because the vast increase in the Palestinian population in the last 60 years would mean that Israel would cease to be a Jewish state and the recent history of Jews in Arab countries is not encouraging. However given that for most Palestinians there isn't any sentimental value to properties they have never seen so it is the value of the properties that matters. So carry out a survey of who owned what in 1948 and 1967 and offer their descendants twice the market value* of the properties in return for renouncing their claims.

Jerusalem is a trickier problem to solve because if it's importance to both communities. Partitioning the city isn't an appealing prospect to anyone, perhaps it could be made into a stand alone entity in which both sides share sovereignty like Spain and France do in Andorra.

* The best way of getting the money for this is from the USA. Lame duck presidents love sorting out the region, so the Israelis and Palestinians should make the arrangements themselves and then let the US president take the kudos for it.

Justifiable Hamaside.

Whenever there is a war on involving Israel and a terrorist group like Hamas, we invariably hear about the seething anger of the 'Arab Street' who all want to see Israel destroyed. So this is a turn up:

The funeral of the killed assassinated dead egyptian border officer was attended by 30,000 of his countrymen, who according to al masry alyoum, turned the event into an anti-Hamas rally, shouting anti-Hamas slogans, and rightly stating that his blood is on Hamas' hands.

In Britain there have, thus far, only been rallies against the other side of the conflict so we are behind the Egyptians on that one.

Blair- Still Got The Old Magic.

It's nice to see that Tony Blair is having as much success in his role as Middle East peace envoy as he had as Prime Minister. In fairness the Israeli Palestinian situation has always been volatile even before his Tonyness came along saying "look guys, how come you don't have the Christmas spirit over here?".

The Independent reports that:

Three Israelis killed as Hamas launches revenge attacks

Which isn't really true seeing as it was Hamas's rocket attacks that precipitated the current situation. Perhaps Hamas were taking preemptive revenge.

I'm not sure whether Israel's actions are correct or appropriate. Allowing rocket attacks to continue is clearly not an option but the Prime Minister is corrupt and demonstrably incompetent so who knows whether this is the best response or whether it is being done with one eye on the upcoming Israeli elections? It would be nice if there were a means of targeting those who fire the rockets without endangering civilians but without effective intelligence gathering that is difficult to do.

However the way the UK media have been reporting the situation is misleading in that it present every Israeli action as occurring in a vacuum with no context given for why they are doing it whereas Hamas's behaviour is presented as being a reaction to what Israel does rather than the conscious choices of sentient individuals.

As with Hezbollah's unprovoked attack on Israel two years ago, territory that Israel had completely withdrawn from is being used as a platform to attack and murder Israelis. This clearly undermines the case for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem so you would have imagined that opponents of Israel's presence in the West Bank would have been the loudest in denouncing Hamas and Hezbollah but instead there is a long pause followed by a barrage of propaganda and conspiracy theories to excuse them.

My Enemy's Enemy

Al Qaeda have been denouncing Iran as yankee imperialist puppets, or some such nonsense. Whilst both Iran and Al Qaeda can broadly be described as Islamists, or Islamic Fundamentalists it would be a mistake to conflate the two or assume that they have common interests. Fanatics hate infidels alright but they really hate heretics, and to Sunni Islamists like Al Qaeda, the Shia Islamists in Tehran are the enemy.

Iran nearly got into a full scale war with Al Qaeda's soulmates, the Taliban, back in the late 1990s after the latter organisation murdered some Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan.

This doesn't mean that there will never be cooperation between the two sets of fanatics, Iran does support the Sunni group Hamas and has been alleged to now be supporting their old adversaries the Taliban in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda on the other hand are too stupid to understand the concept of my enemy's enemy is my friend and prefer to keep blowing up Shia in Iraq rather than allying with them against us. However there is a fundamental tension between the two groups that it may be possible to exploit in the same way that differences between the two communist powers, China and the USSR, were exploited by Nixon back in the 1970s.

{Via}

The Root Cause Of Terrorism.

Many theories about the ultimate cause of jihadist terrorism abound, some say it is a direct result of Islam, some say it is a reaction to Western foreign policy, Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is also frequently blamed. Very few people have come to the conclusion that it is all about Marmite or rather the absence of the vile stuff. It has been claimed that no countries with a McDonald's have gone to war with each other, but this isn't technically true since the Kosovo war when McDonalds operated in Belgrade throughout. However I can't think of any armed conflict between two Marmite devouring countries.

Irony Watch.

Lecturers have voted unanimously to oppose government plans urging them to fight against extremism on campuses.

They had been asked to monitor and report suspicious behaviour amongst Muslim students.

But at the University and Colleges Union annual conference in Bournemouth, delegates rejected the demands, saying they amounted to spying on students. ...
"Universities must remain safe spaces for lecturers and students to discuss and debate all sorts of ideas, including those that some people may consider challenging, offensive and even extreme.

Well that's good to know, the UCU will defend academic freedom and oppose the demonisation of minorities.

University lecturers threatened yesterday to provoke international condemnation by forcing their union into a year-long debate over boycotting work with Israeli universities.

Delegates at the first conference of the new University and College Union in Bournemouth voted by 158 to 99 for "a comprehensive and consistent boycott" of all Israeli academic institutions, as called for by Palestinian trade unions in response to Israel's "40-year occupation" of Palestinian land.

Except when they don't support academic freedom and ethnic demonisation.

( via Harry's Place & House of Dumb )

Update: More wacademia from the UCU over at ATW.

All negative characterisations by teachers of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender people, identity and lifestyle should be outlawed and classified as an act of discrimination and an incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation.

So when the UCU reps were clamouring for the freedom to discuss ideas 'that some people may consider challenging, offensive and even extreme.' they only meant view that other people might find 'challenging', not those that they themselves find offensive.

Alan Hart Guest Blog: Another Zionist Myth Busted.

One of the staples of misinformed 'Israel can do no wrong' commentators is a myth that has been used to smear one of the great peacemakers of the region, Yasser Arafat. This is the oft repeated claim that Yasser Arafat was unattractive or even ugly. By ugly I mean physically unappealing.

In fact Yasser Arafat's striking looks were a source of tremendous pride to the Palestinians and conversely envy by the Israelis. In 1974 when I was working ITN General Rabin told me: "Alan, you're a legendary journalist and an inspiration to writers everywhere. Because you've explained that you couldn't possibly be anti semitic because you had a jewish taxi driver take you to the Airport I'm going to let you in on a secret, Arafat handsome face is making our propaganda work ten times harder so we have decided to spread rumours that he is in fact uglier than a Rottweiler's arse".

This was perplexing how could anyone be convinced that Yasser's tender smile and twinkling eyes that could make a grown journalists knees tremble were repellant? How could Zionists convince people that the face that launched a 1000 mortars was something to be ashamed of? The answer was that the Zionist lobby in the USA could easily suppress the TRUTH, so only a few honest journalists like me could give it to you straight.

Some years later when I told Yasser Arafat why he was no longer appearing on the front cover of Vogue he took it with great courage, "Alan, lick me" he said "Run your tongue over my nose, into my ears, taste the salt of my tears". After several minutes I asked him if I could stop now, he smiled and nodded. He did not have to say anything, the sweet aftertaste was devoid of any bitterness, his point was made.

Kuwaiti Women.

It is very nice to see that Kuwaiti women are now allowed to vote in parliamentary elections. This hasn't always been the case. A journalist who visited the country in the 1980s was appalled to see that women had to walk ten paces behind their husbands but things changed radically after Saddam's invasion and when she returned in the 1990s women walked ten paces in front of their husbands. She was thrilled at the new status afforded to women and asked a passerby what had caused this sexual revolution. "landmines!" he replied.