Posts tonen met het label Israel. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label Israel. Alle posts tonen
zaterdag 23 augustus 2014
woensdag 23 juli 2014
World : Bombing for Oil: Gaza, Israel and the Levant Basin
With recent developments between Palestine and Israel we feel its necessary to bring the following facts and potential un-discussed motives into the light. This article will focus on the large oil discoveries made in the Levant Basin, off the coast of the Gaza Strip in recent years and the war surrounding who will reap the billions of dollars when those wells become a new major producer in the area.
With strong indications of extensive gas and oil reserves in Palestinian lands and waters, the British Gas Group (BG) and the Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) were ‘granted’ gas exploration rights in Gaza’s offshore, in a 25-year agreement signed in 1999 with the Palestinian Authority (PA). In 2000, as drilling operations began, BG and CCC found gas fields in the Gazan off-shores, including Gaza Marine 1 and the Gaza border field (Gaza Marine 2).
Under the agreement, BG and CCC were granted gas exploration rights and exclusive rights for marketing in the event that reserves were discovered. The two companies were granted a total 90% ownership of any reserves (60% and 30% respectively for BG and CCC), with only 10% for the Palestinian side.
Gaza Marine 1 is entirely located in the Palestinian territorial waters facing the city of Gaza, with reserves estimated at 28 billion cubic meters. The Gaza border field is located within the maritime border area between the Gaza Strip and Israel as illustrated in image above. The border field’s well reserves are estimated to be on the order of 3 billion cubic meters. Gaza’s gas reserves are estimated at 31 billion cubic meters and are valued at more than $6.5 billion.
When gas reserves were discovered in 2000, late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat held a special ceremony for the occasion, which gave Palestinians hope that their homeland would thrive and join other Gulf countries as a major gas exporter.
Yet Palestine over the past 14 years has been unable to properly exploit its own gas due to the political and economic impediments with Israel, and due to internal division and the absence of legislative control. Israel has managed to be the sole purchaser of the 10% allocated Palestinian gas, setting its own conditions to any sale agreement.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat insisted on transporting gas to Gaza first and then pumping it through ground pipelines to Israel, in a move intended to stress Palestinian sovereignty over their own resources. Negotiations over gas deals beginning in 2001 broke down in 2007 due to differences on where the pipeline would come on shore, the complications of increasing violent events, and the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007. These all contributed to circumstances whereby, in 2007, BG Group withdrew from negotiations with the government of Israel for the sale of gas from the Gaza Marine field and in 2008, BG Group closed its office in Israel, yet remained in contact with both the PA and Israel.
Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in 2000 off the Gaza coast, valued at $6.5 billion. Ya’alon dismissed the notion that “Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state” as “misguided.” The problem, he said, is that:
“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…A gas transaction with the Palestinian Authority [PA] 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… 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.”
Operation Cast Lead began in June 2008, at the exact same time that Israel contacted BG to discuss critical negotiations around Gaza’s natural gas. As these negotiations continued, 1,417 Palestinians were killed, displacing over 50,000 Gazans and destroying over 4,000 homes through air strikes and a deadly ground invasion with the declared purpose of securing areas within the Gaza strip that rockets were fired from.
Operation Cast Lead did not succeed in uprooting Hamas, but the conflict did take the lives of 1,387 Palestinians (773 of whom were civilians) and 9 Israelis (3 of whom were civilians).
Israel has made it’s own successive major discoveries in recent years, such as the Leviathan field estimated to hold 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Huge obstacle’s to that extraction are that much of the 122 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the Levant Basin Province lies in territorial waters 81 kilometers off the coast where borders are hotly disputed between Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Cyprus.
Despite these findings Israel, which is said to be dependant on Egyptian gas for some 40 percent of its electricity needs was cut off by Egypt in April of 2012.
After the February 2011 ouster of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and 15 pipeline attacks in the Sinai, Islamist groups mobilized against Israel and pressured the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company to cancel the 20-year contract, even as Egyptian hard currency reserves dwindled.
The month before in January 2011, Prime Minister Netanyahu described the offshore gas fields in the Levant Basin as a “strategic objective that Israel’s enemies will try to undermine” and vowed that “Israel will defend its resources.”
Two of the Israeli government’s chief scientists of the Nation Gas Authority said in a letter that the government chose not to publicize that Israel will need 50% more natural gas than has been forecast until now and its offshore reserves will be empty in less than 40 years.
“We believe Israel should increase its [domestic]use of natural gas by 2020 and should not export gas. The Natural Gas Authority’s estimates are lacking. There’s a gap of 100 to 150 billion cubic meters between the demand projections that were presented to the committee and the most recent projections. The gas reserves are likely to last even less than 40 years.”
But even after a new round of negotiations was kick-started between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Israel in September 2012, Hamas was excluded from these talks, and thus rejected the legitimacy of any deal.
Earlier this year, Hamas condemned a PA deal to purchase $1.2 billion worth of gas from the Israeli Leviathan field over a 20 year period once the field starts producing. Simultaneously, the PA has held several meetings with the British Gas Group to develop the Gaza gas field, albeit with a view to exclude Hamas – and thus Gazans – from access to the proceeds.
But the PA is also courting Russia’s Gazprom to develop the Gaza marine gas field, and talks have been going on between Russia, Israel and Cyprus, though so far it is unclear what the outcome of these have been. Also missing was any clarification on how the PA would exert control over Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.
According to Anais Antreasyan in the University of California’s Journal of Palestine Studies, the most respected English language journal devoted to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israel’s stranglehold over Gaza has been designed to make “Palestinian access to the Marine-1 and Marine-2 gas wells impossible.” Israel’s long-term goal “besides preventing the Palestinians from exploiting their own resources, is to integrate the gas fields off Gaza into the adjacent Israeli offshore installations.”
The 2012 annual report of the PIF noted that the value of the natural gas off Gaza depends “largely on global prices” but put a total value at “several billion dollars.” It noted that about $100 million had been invested so far in the project with total exploration and developments projected to reach $800 million.
Current plans for the development of the Gaza Marine field involve the construction of well-heads on the sea-bed, the laying of pipes to a collection unit, and a sub-sea pipeline from this to the shore, making landfall at the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon. The volume of production is predicted to be around 1.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year (around 57 billion cubic feet) giving a lifetime of 20 years to the field, a key investment requirement. It is predicted that it will take three years from the decision to go ahead with exploitation before the first gas flows ashore.
Since there are only 10 years left in BG’s original license BG would need an extension to the license, opening the table for renegotiations.
In January 2014 the Palestine Power Generation Company (PPGC) agreed to buy $1.2 billion worth of natural gas over a 20-year period. The volume of the gas was given as 4.75 bcm, which, spread over a 20-year period is very small. Estimates of the size of Leviathan exceed 530 bcm. The Leviathan gas would fuel a new $300 million, 200MW (though some reports say 300MW) power plant planned for construction near the city of Jenin in the north of the West Bank. The Jenin power station would take between two and two-and-a-half years to come into operation, a time period compatible with plans for the Leviathan field coming on stream in either late 2016 or early 2017.
Overall plans, according to Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa, are “to have the capacity to domestically produce 1,000MW of electricity using offshore gas in five years, up from just 70MW at present, turning Palestine from being energy dependent on Israeli imports to an exporter, which would greatly benefit Palestinians.
In March 2014, the Palestinian Authority announced plans to explore for oil in the West Bank in an area of about 400 square kilometers along the Green Line, the ceasefire line until 1967. Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Muhammad Mustafa said initial studies indicated the area may have between 30 million and 186 million barrels of oil. The PA announced it would accept bids from potential partners through June 2014.
The Palestinians proclaimed the project, close to a small oil field in Israel, a key step toward their dream of developing the local economy and gaining independence in the West Bank. But Israel, which wields overall control of the area, gave no indication it has agreed to the plan, and far less ambitious attempts at economic development have repeatedly sputtered in large part because of Israeli restrictions.
The PA is looking for Russian support for it’s power plant projects. Technopromexport, an engineering company involved in energy projects in Russia and abroad, is mentioned as a contractor to build a 200MW power plant in the West Bank, according to material prepared for the January 2014 meeting in Moscow between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Abbas.
Palestine moving closer to becoming a sovereign state in the eyes of the United Nations, complicates this situation for Israel’s interest in the region even further. The current government was sworn in by the President of the State of Palestine, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, on 2 June 2014. It was recognized by the United Nations on the 4th of June stating:
“The Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People welcomes the formation of the Government of national consensus of the State of Palestine, which was sworn in on 2 June in Ramallah by President Mahmoud Abbas. The Government, headed by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, is comprised of independent figures, and will report to President Abbas. The Bureau observes that the new unity Government will have a mandate focused on preparing for legislative and presidential elections within six months, and on rebuilding Gaza. The Bureau welcomed the assurances given by President Abbas and Prime Minister Hamdallah that the new Government is committed to respect past agreements, international political initiatives and peaceful solutions.”
Palestine being internationally recognized as a sovereign state would solidify it’s offshore rights, essentially guaranteeing future benefits from its own resources.
Sources and links for more info:
Bron : http://revolution-news.com/
zondag 20 juli 2014
(en) Palestine-Israel - a struggle that never end between Zionist settler colonialism and the indigenous Palestinians*.
The war on the Hamas ruled Gaza strip continue for the 13th day. Demonstrations against Israel war mongering continue both in Israel and the world. All that Israel wants in this war it initiated is the thwarting of the Palestinian unity government and curbing the peace agreements it might speed up. The danger of the surrender of Hamas to the Palestinian Authority in the heel of its economic crisis resulted from the actions of the new Egyptian government, seriously threatening the project of splitting the Palestinians - Israel invested in it extraordinary efforts. Only a total collapse of Hamas rule in Gaza scares Israel more than it. However, internal reasons within Israel force it to introduce the war intended to stabilize the Hamas rule in Gaza and preventing its surrender to the Palestinian Authority as a war against the Hamas and not as price paid to obstruct Palestinian unity. Bil'in Friday 11-7-14 demo. Ten Israelis and dozen international activists joined two dozen Bil'iners in the weekly demo its theme was: Bil'in stands in solidarity with Gaza. The activists wore clothes like these of the Jews inside the Nazi concentration camps to remind the Israeli soldiers about the Holocaust and to denounce the ongoing genocide in Gaza, demanding to stop it now. The Israeli occupation forces were relatively "peaceful" for a long time. When they started with the tear gas shooting it was not abundant as usual. The wind was friendly too. Due to the Ramadan we did not stay long and returned to the village. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204322808013285 https://www.facebook.com/bmansour1/posts/10203752574447803 Friday 18.7.14 - 11th day of the Tsuk Eitan war on Gaze, the demonstration in Bil'in against the separation wall and occupation was as usual. 10 Israelis and 15 international activists joined the Bil'iners in the march towards the gate in the separation wall. The theme of this demo was solidarity with attacked Gaza and many in the march wore white garments stained with red smears. At the gate we had angry communication with the Israeli state force that escalated first to tear gas grenades thrown at us and later escalated to invasion of soldiers, shooting of rubber coated bullets, and arrests of one Israeli and one Bil'iner (released few hours later). https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=np.130678722.100000233353245 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4250499396279 https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10494674_10204372648819274_3984470815143302913_n.jpg https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204387110821000 https://www.facebook.com/161083650619245/photos/a.162769257117351.39958.161083650619245/735028216558116/?type=1 israelpnm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6zDzzL-8Ms (me with redNblack flag and red shirt) Ma'asara Palestinian dressed like Jews in Nazi concentration camps, today (11 July 2014) during a protest in Masara village, south Bethlehem, Younes Arar https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152997512485760 NABI SALEH 11 7 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oVDTDv7azk David Reeb http://youtu.be/JQqD6hpmKOU Nabi Saleh 18.7.2014 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.318999058264563.1073741834.310608872436915 Ni'lin 11.7.2014 israelpnm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gESrNLHcNpY Yaron Ben-Haim antinarrative.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/?????-nilin-11-7-2014-2/ israelpnm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gESrNLHcNpY Today 18.07.2014, one Palestine youth 21 years old from the west bank village of Ni'lin has been injured in the feet with live ammunition during the weekly protest against Israeli apartheid wall and in solidarity with Gaza https://www.facebook.com/161083650619245/photos/a.162769257117351.39958.161083650619245/735028216558116/ David Reeb http://youtu.be/8BZAg3Kyvdg Qaddum Friday 11-7-14 150 Villagers joined by 4 Israeli and few international activists.The soldiers refrained from harassing the demonstrators with tear gas - giving the snipers to do the assault demo. Live silenced fire hit two youths demonstrating in kufr Qaddum in the west bank. Entrance and exit wounds in their thigh and calf, with no firing sound heard. The angered villagers held in the evening two additional demonstrations. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.769431803078875.1073741936.271405776214816 18.07.2014 in solidarity with Gaza.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJVaOTPlJX4 Matan S. Cohen https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152565857752500 Sheikh Jarrah demo July 11th 2014.https://www.facebook.com/sara.benninga/media_set?set=a.10152960734054688.1073741826.576534687 Protests in Tel Aviv Jaffa Wednesday 9-7-14 in front of Tel Aviv National Theater. Vigil, stop the Israeli violations and violent attacks on the Palestinian people. Stop militarism, end the occupation https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152338068916263 yisraelpnm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4nIWE9h7nw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sYPbU-CKG4 Saturday 12.7.14 Two vigils - one at the national theater at 20:00 and one at 21:00 in the clock tower square of Jaffa https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152104291567554 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1PJf6dYva4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DuKTI7caiA About 100 extremely violent fascists led by the Israeli rapper Yoav Eliassi (aka "The Shadow") attacked demonstrators against the ?Gaza? massacre. The police allegedly protected the demonstrators who wrongly relied on them, only to later discover they have been left to fend for themselves in the streets. Racists attack the demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzd4pytX7bg&index=2&list=PLVXF3dKuhQhnx5A0ZcXjnaDVQPvbZce-F https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=837388186286368 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=837389589619561 https://www.facebook.com/unityahdut/photos/a.274748132550379.75341.274324392592753/837392536285933/?type=1 https://www.facebook.com/unityahdut/photos/a.274748132550379.75341.274324392592753/837393996285787/?type=1 In Jaffa tonight, as rockets exploded over their heads and their chats got periodically drowned out by sirens and Ramadan calls to prayer, about 100 people came to demonstrate. They chanted "Arabs and Jews are united against Zionists". Across from us a few Israelis held flags that read "Long live Israel, support IDF". Israeli Citizens Call for Boycott & Arms Embargo as Gaza is Under Attack. US Embassy, Tel-Aviv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9RSUj2WrTw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOHQWJyzuQQ Tel Aviv A protest against Israeli attack on Gaza, Tel Aviv, Saturday 12.7.2014 yisraelpnm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DuKTI7caiA Saturday evening 19.7.14 500 of the radical left yisraelpnm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGk5pdn44bA ------------------------------------------------------------ Don't say we didn?t know #416 Usually during Ramadan the Israeli government operates a ceasefire in its home demolitions? war against Bedouins in the Negev and Palestinians in the occupied territories. El'Araqib is not included in that ceasefire. On Wednesday, 2nd July, 2014, Israel Lands Authority representatives arrived, escorted by police, at the El'Araqib cemetery. They Plowed the area between the graves and the fence that they had demolished on 12th June, 2014. Then they heaped up earth mounds and tore down the shades under which residents and guests were living. All this had one specific aim: to push the inhabitants out of the place.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100940165533739 ================================= * From my blog at: http://ilanisagainstwalls.blogspot.com See at the blog previous reports about the joint struggles the Anarchists Against the Wall take part in. See also: http://awalls.org http://ilan.shalif.com/anarchy/glimpses/glimpses.html http://ilan.shalif.com/anarchy/glimpses/glimpses-it.html http://ilan.shalif.com/anarchy/glimpses/glimpses-heb.html Ahdut (Unity) blog: http://unityispa.wordpress.com/ Ahdut (Unity) Position paper about the Palestinian struggle http://www.anarkismo.net/article/27019
maandag 30 juni 2014
vrijdag 1 november 2013
Israel, Statement of Coalition of Women for Peace
We were sorry to hear about the participation of the Minister Tzipi Livni at the conference will be held today, 10/31/13, and will discuss the plan of action to implement UN Resolution 1325 which deals with the representation of women, protection from violence, abuse and violence against women. ---- Some of us participated in various meetings of the process that led to the formulation of the document that will be launched at the conference. We did this in order to speak out firmly against the occupation and against Israeli militarism that affects every woman in Israel and the Occupied Territories, in various levels and shapes. We participated in the process also to continue to remind all about the violence used by the system of oppression and the ongoing occupation, on the lives of Palestinian women. We appreciate the Itach-Ma'aki ["with you" In Hebrew and Arabic] and respect many of the organizations who are partners to the process, including many of the speakers at the conference itself. But this honor is undermined as even today, after so many years of occupation and military operations and the killing and arrest of women activists, some women can still talk about peace without talking about the daily violence and crimes that Israel is committing against women under occupation - without opposing them vigorously. Tzipi Livni's invitation as a speaker at the conference, is inconsistent with our feminist values, nor with the struggle for a society free from oppression and militarism. As we know, Livni tooke active and even leading part in the attack on Gaza in 2008/9 that killed over a thousand people, including hundreds of women and children. Under this attack and following it, women and families were faced with unprecedented devastation. We call for conference participants and partner organizations to give due weight to issues arising from the political reality of these days, and put the focus of the conference on the following questions: Is every woman can represent us because she is a woman, regardless of her actions and her political worldview ? What is the significance of women's participation in decision-making, as long as the "peace process" and "negotiation" are unfortunately only fig leaf used to cover the maintaining of the occupation and the oppression of the Palestinian people? Whether and how feminist women should lead processes in cooperation with state and military institutions, while these are still limiting the freedom of protest and the political activity of women both within Israel and in the occupied territories? In particular, do not we, feminist groups, have a key role in the struggle to end the occupation and for the liberation of women from all parts of the population from the nationalist, military and social oppression? Organizations who want to add their names to this call - are invited to write to us on Facebook or email cwp@coalitionpofwomen.org Coalition of Women for Peace Groups Boycott Boycott from Within ================================================ About CWP is a feminist movement working to end the occupation of Palestine and for a just peace. CWP works to end the occupation, resist militarism and empower and mobilize women in grassroots struggles for social justice and equality. Mission CWP is committed to the struggle to end the occupation; to empower Palestinian and Jewish women as key actors in social and political change; to an end to the militarization of society; to equality, inclusion, and justice for Palestinian citizens of Israel; to ensure the Right of Return for the Palestinian refugees; to equality and social justice for all inhabitants of Israel. CWP initiates and leads mass rallies, advocacy campaigns and public education. Company Overview Coalition of Women for Peace brings together women who work relentlessly for peace and justice. Founded in November 2000, after the outbreak of the Second Intifada, the Coalition today is a leading voice in the peace movement. ?Who Profits from the Occupation?? - The occupation industry research project In addition to various political, religious and national interests, the occupation is also fueled by corporate interests. Civilian companies and transnational corporations are increasingly involved in real estate deals, the development of settlements, the construction of fences and walls on Palestinian land, the paving of a separate road system for settlers, and the sale of equipment used for human rights violations and the repression of the civilian population. This project began in 2006 and involves systematic research about Israeli and international companies which directly profit from investments in the occupied Palestinian Territories and the Golan Heights. After rigorous research, the results are posted on a website which provides the public in Israel and internationally with accurate information about business interests invested in maintaining the occupation. The project also serves as an information center for queries about business and corporate involvement in the occupation. We hope this information will stimulate a candid public debate about the economic interests that constitute an inseparable part of the occupation, and influence political decisions and policies. We are also cooperating with groups abroad and in Israel who are working for corporate accountability and labor justice. The projects` web site: www.whoprofits.org FORA ? Feminist Organizing of Russian-speaking Activists The Russian-immigrant public in Israel, the second largest minority, is traditionally considered to be dominated by conservative views on many issues, from gender roles to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This prejudiced assumption ignores the complex reality of immigration. Since 2004, a group of Russian-speaking women activists in CWP has been leading social and political change in the Russian-speaking population and the Israeli society. We aim to promote a feminist vision which interlinks ending the occupation with socio-economic justice, gender equality and LGBT rights. The activists run women's political empowerment groups throughout Israel, intensive weekend seminars, media-training for women and more. Striving to change the Russian-language media, FORA organizes gender-mainstreaming seminars for journalists and operates the alternative web-based information center in Russian: www.perspektiva.co.il . Contact Info Website http://www.coalitionofwomen.org
zondag 28 juli 2013
Israel, Anarchists Against the Wall Ebook - Direct Action and Solidarity with the Palestinian Popular Struggle
Uri Gordon (Editor); Ohal Grietzer (Editor); Alfredo Bonanno (Preface) --- Publisher: AK Press $9.00 ---- Released: Jul 3, 2013 ---- Part of a small but growing phenomenon in Israel since 2003, Anarchists Against the Wall have been boldly challenging the Segregation Barrier and generalized violence against occupied Palestine. The reflections herein offer a window into some of the most dynamic direct action activism today. --- Uri Gordon is an Israeli activist and writer and the author of Anarchy Alive! Anti-authoritarian Politics from Practice to Theory (Pluto Press, 2008). ---- Ohal Grietzer is a visual artist and composer, currently residing in New York. She is a graduate of Goldsmiths at the University of London, where she researched the use of irony in politics and obtained a master?s degree in anthropology. She has been an activist with Anarchists Against the Wall and Boycott! supporting the Palestinian boycott, divestment, and sanctions ?call from within.
donderdag 6 september 2012
After Dempsey Warning, Israel May Curb War Threat
Analysis by Jim Lobe and Gareth Porter
Gen. Martin Dempsey. Credit: DoD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
WASHINGTON, Sep 5 2012 (IPS) - President Barack Obama’s explicit warning that he will not accept a unilateral Israeli attack against Iran may force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step back from his ostensible threat of war.
Netanyahu had hoped that the Obama administration could be put under domestic political pressure during the election campaign to shift its policy on Iran to the much more confrontational stance that Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak have been demanding.
But that political pressure has not materialised, and Obama has gone further than ever before in warning Netanyahu not to expect U.S. backing in any war with Iran. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told reporters in Britain Aug. 30 that an Israeli strike would be ineffective, and then said, “I don’t want to be complicit if they (the Israelis) choose to do it.”
It was the first time that a senior U.S. official had made such an explicit public statement indicating the administration’s unwillingness to be a party to a war provoked by a unilateral Israeli attack.
Related IPS Articles
IAEA Report Shows Iran Reduced Its Breakout Capacity
Israelis Brace Dubiously for War With Iran
In Israel, Opposition to Attacking Iran Gains Upper Hand
Dempsey had conveyed such a warning during meetings with Israeli leaders last January, as IPS reported Feb. 1, but a series of moves by the administration over the next several months, including the adoption of Israeli demands during two rounds of negotiations with Iran on the nuclear issue in May and June, appeared to represent a retreat from that private warning.
Dempsey’s warning was followed by an as-yet unconfirmed report by Time magazine that the Pentagon has decided to sharply cut back on its participation in the largest-ever joint military exercise with Israel designed to test the two countries’ missile-defence systems in late October.
Originally scheduled for last spring, the exercise was delayed in January following an earlier round of Israeli sabre-rattling and the apparent Israeli assassination of an Iranian scientist, which had further increased tensions between Netanyahu and President Obama.
Former Israeli national security adviser Giora Eiland suggested in an interview with Reuters Tuesday that the Dempsey statement had changed the political and policy calculus in Jerusalem. “Israeli leaders cannot do anything in the face of a very explicit ‘no’ from the U.S. president,” Eiland said. “So they are exploring what space is left to operate.”
Eiland explained that Netanyahu had previously maintained that the U.S. “might not like (an Israeli attack) but they will accept it the day after. However, such a public, bold statement meant the situation had to be reassessed.”
Netanyahu and Barak have never explicitly threatened to attack Iran but have instead used news leaks and other means to create the impression that they are seriously considering a unilateral air strike.
The Netanyahu campaign, aimed at leveraging a shift in U.S. policy toward confrontation with Iran, appeared to climax during the first two weeks of August amid a torrent of stories in the Israeli press suggesting that Netanyahu and Barak were getting closer to a decision on war.
An unnamed senior official – almost certainly Barak – indicated in an interview that the Israeli leader would reconsider the unilateral military option if Obama were to adopt the Israeli red line – in effect an ultimatum to Iran to end all enrichment or face war.
As Eiland suggests, however, Netanyahu may no longer feel that he is in a position to make such a demand when he meets Obama later this month. Not only has Obama drawn a clear line against unilateral Israeli action, but the Republican Party and its presidential candidate Mitt Romney have failed to signal that Obama’s rejection of Netanyahu’s belligerence on Iran will be a central issue in the presidential campaign.
Although the party platform said the threshold for military action should be Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapons “capability” rather than the construction of an actual weapon, Romney did not embrace the threat to go to war unless Iran agrees to shut down its nuclear programme, as Netanyahu would have hoped.
That omission appeared to reflect the growing influence in his campaign of the “realist” faction of the Republican Party which opposed the radical post-9/11 trajectory of George W. Bush’s first presidential term in office and re-asserted itself in the second term.
The party’s marquee speaker on foreign policy was not a neoconservative but former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, whom the neo-conservatives viewed with disdain, not least because of her effort to begin diplomatic engagement with Iran.
Rice mentioned Iran only in connection with its crackdown against dissidents during her prime-time speech.
Until recently, prominent neo-conservatives, such as Dan Senor, Elliott Abrams, and Eric Edelman, as well as aggressive pro-Israel nationalists such as former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, had appeared dominant among Romney’s foreign policy advisers.
The fact that the billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, a strong supporter of Netanyahu and the Israeli far right, has pledged up to 100 million dollars to support the Republican campaign seemed to assure them of the upper hand on Israel and Iran.
But neo-conservatives may have lost influence to the realists as a result of Romney’s ill-fated trip in July to Britain, Israel and Poland – all neo-conservative favourites – as well as recent polling showing ever-growing war-weariness, if not isolationism, among both Republicans and the all-important independents in the electorate.
On the convention’s eve, Lee Smith, a neo-conservative scribe based at the Standard, published an article in Tablet Magazine entitled “Why Romney Won’t Strike Iran”.
One of Romney’s senior advisers, former CIA chief Gen. Michael Hayden, has even partially echoed Dempsey, telling the Israeli newspaper Haaretz Thursday that an Israeli raid against Iran’s nuclear facilities would likely be counter-productive.
Both Hayden’s and Dempsey’s remarks about the futility or counter-productivity of an Israeli attack on Iran echoed those of a broad range of Israel’s national-security elite, including President Shimon Peres and the former chiefs of Israel’s intelligence agencies and armed forces, who, provoked by Netanyahu’s and Barak’s war talk, have come out more strongly than ever against the idea.
In addition to publicly casting doubt on whether an attack would be effective, many of the national-security critics have warned that a unilateral strike could seriously damage relations with the U.S.
That argument, which resonates strongly in Israeli politics, was given much greater weight by Dempsey’s warning last week.
Further eroding Israeli tolerance of Netanyahu’s talk of war was a blog post on the Atlantic Magazine’s website by Jeffrey Goldberg, an influential advocate of Israeli interests who has helped propagate the notion that Israel would indeed act unilaterally in the past. As the Netanyahu campaign reached its climax last month, Goldberg offered “7 Reasons Why Israel Should Not Attack Iran’s Nuclear facilities”.
Goldberg worried that an Israeli “strike could be a disaster for the U.S.-Israel relationship,” especially if Iran retaliated against U.S. targets. “Americans are tired of the Middle East, and I’m not sure how they would feel if they believed that Israeli action brought harm to Americans,” he wrote.
*Jim Lobe’s blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com. Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy, received the UK-based Gellhorn Prize for journalism for 2011 for articles on the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
Bron : http://www.ipsnews.net/
Gen. Martin Dempsey. Credit: DoD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
WASHINGTON, Sep 5 2012 (IPS) - President Barack Obama’s explicit warning that he will not accept a unilateral Israeli attack against Iran may force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step back from his ostensible threat of war.
Netanyahu had hoped that the Obama administration could be put under domestic political pressure during the election campaign to shift its policy on Iran to the much more confrontational stance that Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak have been demanding.
But that political pressure has not materialised, and Obama has gone further than ever before in warning Netanyahu not to expect U.S. backing in any war with Iran. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told reporters in Britain Aug. 30 that an Israeli strike would be ineffective, and then said, “I don’t want to be complicit if they (the Israelis) choose to do it.”
It was the first time that a senior U.S. official had made such an explicit public statement indicating the administration’s unwillingness to be a party to a war provoked by a unilateral Israeli attack.
Related IPS Articles
IAEA Report Shows Iran Reduced Its Breakout Capacity
Israelis Brace Dubiously for War With Iran
In Israel, Opposition to Attacking Iran Gains Upper Hand
Dempsey had conveyed such a warning during meetings with Israeli leaders last January, as IPS reported Feb. 1, but a series of moves by the administration over the next several months, including the adoption of Israeli demands during two rounds of negotiations with Iran on the nuclear issue in May and June, appeared to represent a retreat from that private warning.
Dempsey’s warning was followed by an as-yet unconfirmed report by Time magazine that the Pentagon has decided to sharply cut back on its participation in the largest-ever joint military exercise with Israel designed to test the two countries’ missile-defence systems in late October.
Originally scheduled for last spring, the exercise was delayed in January following an earlier round of Israeli sabre-rattling and the apparent Israeli assassination of an Iranian scientist, which had further increased tensions between Netanyahu and President Obama.
Former Israeli national security adviser Giora Eiland suggested in an interview with Reuters Tuesday that the Dempsey statement had changed the political and policy calculus in Jerusalem. “Israeli leaders cannot do anything in the face of a very explicit ‘no’ from the U.S. president,” Eiland said. “So they are exploring what space is left to operate.”
Eiland explained that Netanyahu had previously maintained that the U.S. “might not like (an Israeli attack) but they will accept it the day after. However, such a public, bold statement meant the situation had to be reassessed.”
Netanyahu and Barak have never explicitly threatened to attack Iran but have instead used news leaks and other means to create the impression that they are seriously considering a unilateral air strike.
The Netanyahu campaign, aimed at leveraging a shift in U.S. policy toward confrontation with Iran, appeared to climax during the first two weeks of August amid a torrent of stories in the Israeli press suggesting that Netanyahu and Barak were getting closer to a decision on war.
An unnamed senior official – almost certainly Barak – indicated in an interview that the Israeli leader would reconsider the unilateral military option if Obama were to adopt the Israeli red line – in effect an ultimatum to Iran to end all enrichment or face war.
As Eiland suggests, however, Netanyahu may no longer feel that he is in a position to make such a demand when he meets Obama later this month. Not only has Obama drawn a clear line against unilateral Israeli action, but the Republican Party and its presidential candidate Mitt Romney have failed to signal that Obama’s rejection of Netanyahu’s belligerence on Iran will be a central issue in the presidential campaign.
Although the party platform said the threshold for military action should be Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapons “capability” rather than the construction of an actual weapon, Romney did not embrace the threat to go to war unless Iran agrees to shut down its nuclear programme, as Netanyahu would have hoped.
That omission appeared to reflect the growing influence in his campaign of the “realist” faction of the Republican Party which opposed the radical post-9/11 trajectory of George W. Bush’s first presidential term in office and re-asserted itself in the second term.
The party’s marquee speaker on foreign policy was not a neoconservative but former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, whom the neo-conservatives viewed with disdain, not least because of her effort to begin diplomatic engagement with Iran.
Rice mentioned Iran only in connection with its crackdown against dissidents during her prime-time speech.
Until recently, prominent neo-conservatives, such as Dan Senor, Elliott Abrams, and Eric Edelman, as well as aggressive pro-Israel nationalists such as former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, had appeared dominant among Romney’s foreign policy advisers.
The fact that the billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, a strong supporter of Netanyahu and the Israeli far right, has pledged up to 100 million dollars to support the Republican campaign seemed to assure them of the upper hand on Israel and Iran.
But neo-conservatives may have lost influence to the realists as a result of Romney’s ill-fated trip in July to Britain, Israel and Poland – all neo-conservative favourites – as well as recent polling showing ever-growing war-weariness, if not isolationism, among both Republicans and the all-important independents in the electorate.
On the convention’s eve, Lee Smith, a neo-conservative scribe based at the Standard, published an article in Tablet Magazine entitled “Why Romney Won’t Strike Iran”.
One of Romney’s senior advisers, former CIA chief Gen. Michael Hayden, has even partially echoed Dempsey, telling the Israeli newspaper Haaretz Thursday that an Israeli raid against Iran’s nuclear facilities would likely be counter-productive.
Both Hayden’s and Dempsey’s remarks about the futility or counter-productivity of an Israeli attack on Iran echoed those of a broad range of Israel’s national-security elite, including President Shimon Peres and the former chiefs of Israel’s intelligence agencies and armed forces, who, provoked by Netanyahu’s and Barak’s war talk, have come out more strongly than ever against the idea.
In addition to publicly casting doubt on whether an attack would be effective, many of the national-security critics have warned that a unilateral strike could seriously damage relations with the U.S.
That argument, which resonates strongly in Israeli politics, was given much greater weight by Dempsey’s warning last week.
Further eroding Israeli tolerance of Netanyahu’s talk of war was a blog post on the Atlantic Magazine’s website by Jeffrey Goldberg, an influential advocate of Israeli interests who has helped propagate the notion that Israel would indeed act unilaterally in the past. As the Netanyahu campaign reached its climax last month, Goldberg offered “7 Reasons Why Israel Should Not Attack Iran’s Nuclear facilities”.
Goldberg worried that an Israeli “strike could be a disaster for the U.S.-Israel relationship,” especially if Iran retaliated against U.S. targets. “Americans are tired of the Middle East, and I’m not sure how they would feel if they believed that Israeli action brought harm to Americans,” he wrote.
*Jim Lobe’s blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com. Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy, received the UK-based Gellhorn Prize for journalism for 2011 for articles on the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
Bron : http://www.ipsnews.net/
dinsdag 28 augustus 2012
(en) Palestine-Israel, the joint struggle and the activities within Israel
The Israeli state forces escalate their repression lately. Their main target are pressure
on Palestinian farmers to transfer out from the Jordan valley and the south of Hebron
hills, and the joint struggle against settlers expansion and Israeli state terror at Beit
Ummar, Nebi Saleh, and Qadum. All along the last weeks there are demonstrations and vigils
against the intended bombing attack of Israel on the nuclear facilities of Iran. Few of
them in front of the security compound at Kaplan street, others were mainly in front of
the not far away apartment tower where the security minister Barak live. Israel Putermam
video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QPUnMJIBJM At the security compound. The struggle
against the harassment of refugees and the social struggle continue too but no large
masses are involved.
Beit Omar
Israeli soldiers try to disperse Israeli, foreign and Palestinian demonstrators protesting
against the occupation of Palestinian land by illegal Jewish settlers from the illegal
Karmi Tsor settlement near the village of Beit Omar, north of the West Bank town of
Hebron, in the occupied Israeli West Bank on August, 25 2012. AFP PHOTO / HAZEM BADER
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/dailystar/Pictures/2012/08/26/95155_mainimg.jpg
Bil'in
The end of the Summer is still hot in Bil'in this Friday. As Usual most of us went by car
from the village center to the Abu Lamun park near the separation wall. About a dozen
Israelis, two dozen internationals, a delegation of youth from Nablus (with eggs) and
Bil'iners, started the demo by approaching the near by wall with the usual chants.
After a while the eggs started to fly in the direction of the soldiers piping behind the
wall. Slowly the state forces tried to make us smell the Fragrance of Israel using the
spray of Skunk like flavored water. The northern winds carried the water away but still
forced us to keep a distance from the wall. Only after about half an hour the real shower
of tear gas canisters was shot on us.
The second wave of tear gas marked the end of the demonstration and we returned to the
village.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=309055245860481
Me with the white hat
http://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/486543_4565035007066_1231347635_n.jpg
Rani Abdel Fatah http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4565030646957.330578.1327358013
Israel Puterman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIUNciBBCOQ
Nabi Saleh
"Rough day in Nabi Saleh. Massive forces of IOF and border police invaded the village.
They were instructed to break the doors of the houses, and get everybody out. Many
Palestinian and Israelis have been arrested, no accurate numbers yet. Amongst the
Arrestees, Nariman Tamimi. A Palestinian youth lost two fingers. The soldiers shot
directly at his hand. It isn't clear whether they were using direct impact or live ammo
bullets. They are using live ammo inside the village".
After being driven from one settlement to another for a good few hours all the detainees
were recently released at the entrance to Nabi Salih. With no conditions or bail.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=501355326560474
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=447457951965357
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.483227135020929.116656.136633479680298
http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills/7850496352/
Israeli soldiers going by house by house and arresting young men in the village of Nabi
Saleh, West Bank, on August 24, 2012, shortly after the violent dispersal of the weekly
protest against the occupation held in the village.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=483237688353207
Oren Ziv/Activestills.org http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills/7850457738/in/photostream
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.353942754687156.86403.219770918104341
http://t.co/ugOWQuwU
Haim Schwarczenberg
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.253460664773635.55499.202358256550543
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pQe0TWqRE8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxVtoG0aGsg
David Reeb http://youtu.be/ZBQpwNYMvUw
https://www.youtube.com/watch&v=fQrS5Vv6jpA
Al-Ma'sara weekly demonstration, Aug. 24, 2012
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.483241121686197.116661.136633479680298
Kafr Qaddum
A relatively quiet demo in Kufar Kaddum this Friday.
We were some 200 Palestinians, 5 Israelis, 2-3 Internationals.
The soldiers and the bulldozer stayed away from us and did not get into the village.
A number of tear gas canisters were shot, no one injured or arrested.
In the end we celebrated our victory over the forces of evil.
The falafel in Nebi Elias was a bit dry, but the salads compensated.
Lior Ben Eliahu http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3448461741301
Nilin weekly demonstration, Aug. 24, 2012
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.483309445012698.116681.136633479680298
Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
woensdag 11 juli 2012
Palestine-Israel, The harassment of Israeli and Palestinians involved in the joint struggle escalate.
In the past, Israeli activists detained in joint struggle activities were released after
the action ended or on bail late evening/night after interrogation in the police station
and banned for two weeks from the specific region. Seldom activists were detained for the
night and released at court the next day or banned for up to a month. In very seldom cases
activists were detained for two nights, or asked by prosecution for longer time. Last
Friday an Israeli comrade was detained at Nebi Saleh. Three days later, on Monday evening
at about 6pm, he was released after a Jerusalem District Court judge ruled that there was
no evidence to substantiate the soldiers? allegation of assault. He was however indicted
for ?reckless behavior? and will face court proceedings for this charge. He also was
banned from participation in actions for the following three months.
Beit Ommer
?Saturday, 2 Israeli activists got arrested in the weekly demo in Beit Ommer.
They were released after few hours in time to participate in the Tel Aviv Saturday night
demo of social struggle.
Bil'in
Friday weekly Demonstration. Palestinian, Israeli and international activists participated
in today's demonstration in the village of Bil'in. Israeli soldiers shot rubber bullets
and teargas: several demonstrators were shot by rubber bullets and many suffered from
asphyxiation. Three photographers were seriously suffered from asphyxiation, including
this young photographer.
http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/s720x720/8110_410156882363967_820383312_n.jpg
17 year-old boy injured during Bi'lin protest . See http://t.co/YLvaGsSv
Ma'asara
8 Israelis and 30 internationals joined the 20 local activists in a relatively peaceful
Friday demo.
Ni'ilin
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=388633291197612
Nabi Saleh
Seven years old protester - safappa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MiX_osLa7A
The hearing in the case of the 3 activists (2 international and 1 Israeli) arrested
yesterday in Nabi Saleh, will take place tonight at 21:00 in Jerusalem. They are charged
with assaulting a soldier. The Israeli remained in jail and released only Monday evening.
A Palestinian woman uses a slingshot to throw stones towards Israeli troops during a
demonstration
http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/181388_464860723524237_353372959_n.jpg
Army Targets Women at Nabi Saleh Demo. See http://t.co/LglD1gG9
David Reeb http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKEWYZC1lJQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i38aI3XhLOw
http://t.co/qMQSrFjh
http://youtu.be/YOWPLcgpd-k
Qaddoum
The first demonstration in our second year of the continuous struggle against the Israelis
was so remarkable. There was great participation from the whole village -youngsters and
old people- to emphasize the fact that we will not give up until we achieve our
objectives. There was a larger number of soldiers than before and they were so brutal
targeting the bodies of the youngsters with their bombs which resulted in many casualties.
They also set an ambush behind one of the houses to arrest some of the demonstrators, but
luckily all our youngsters who were in that area managed to escape except for one who was
arrested and brutally hit with sticks by the soldiers. Fires erupted in some parts because
of the tear gas bombs they fired. The message is still the same"there's only one option
which is the opening of our road and free access to all our lands."
One arrested during Qaddoum demo. See http://t.co/GUgAtW3o
Arrest of Majdi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltm6LoCcd0g
South Hebron hills
This week we will accompany Palestinians farmers and shepherds to their lands in several
locations in South Hebron hills. Harassment of Palestinian farmers and shepherds in the
area by both settlers and the army continues.
This coming Saturday, July 7, we need as many activists as possible to accompany them and
stand up for their rights. There is a direct link between the number of activists who come
to accompany the farmers and their ability to harvest and work their lands.
Susiya
Saturday, 4 activists were arrested. Will be probably in court late evening. They detained
for damage to possessions as they were erasing defamation graphite made by colonialist
settlers and writing better ones.
Lior Ben Eliahu http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3260651446161.160251.1563442697
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngkvex4ejAc
Court solidarity
Saturday night: The arrest of the Israeli activist imprisoned Friday in Nabi Saleh was
extended in one night. His hearing will take place tomorrow (Sunday) at 1pm in Jerusalem.
The American girl, also arrested in Nabi Saleh will soon be released, with two weeks
restraining order from the village.
4 Taayush activists were arrested today in Susiya for painting over settler colonialist
"price tag" graffiti. Their hearing will take place tomorrow at 2pm, also in Jerusalem.
Solidarity to all from those waiting outside the Russians Compound police station in
Jerusalem.
Tel Aviv
Saturday, another social struggle demonstration. Nearly thousands of us converged at the
state offices building and marched towards the Habima national theater square. From there
we marched along the Rothschild boulevards and continued to the near by stock exchange
building.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/occupyisrael
yisraelpnm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLXgh4pT6nU
Bron : (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
zondag 8 juli 2012
"You will only be free when you decide to be free"
Spain-Israel, An antiauthoritarian anticapitalist communication
An open letter from the M15 movement in Spain to the J14 movement in Israel ---- When we
see the assemblies of Kiryat Shmona, we see the assemblies in Granada. When we talk about
the tents in Haifa, we talk about the tents in Barcelona. When we see the crowds taking to
the streets in Tel-Aviv, it's the crowds of Madrid who do it. ---- Different names for
the same movement that jumps from one country to another bringing a wave of change to the
world. It?s not an organization that goes international, it?s not a political party, it?s
a new way of doing politics, it?s a new way to face the world. But like all the new ways
of thinking that changed the world in history, it takes time until it reaches everybody,
and has to coexist with the old ways during some years. We see this clash between the new
and the old in the Israeli movement, and we would like to share with you our perspective
about where the strength of this new revolution lies.
If there is something here that you think could be useful for you, we would be much more
than pleased. It?s a ?copyleft? revolution, so just take it, use it, improve it, and share it:
- A leaderless movement. We live in a world in which we vote for those who are going to
decide about our countries instead of us, where we choose who to give our money to, to
invest in things that we didn't choose, and we choose to pay the media who is going to
tell us what to think. Someone is always making the decisions instead of us, and it looks
like every time they do it is not to make our lives better. The idea of trying to fight
against this situation by choosing leaders who are going to tell the powers what we want
is just the same old mistake that we have been making over and over again. And if Daphni
Leef, Stav Shaffir or any other keep appearing in the media again and again, accepting the
label "leaders", and talking in the name of the people of the movement, that means that
they don?t understand a single word of this new revolution. The best we can do is just to
ignore them and focus our energy in the new ways that are the only thing that is going to
be able to change the world. In Spain, in USA, in UK, and in many other countries, and
also in many parts of Israel, we have understood this to mean self-organization and
horizontality. A movement where each of us is a leader, a movement where each voice is
heard, where nobody talks in the name of the others, where nobody says that he represents
the others. And what is much more important: a movement where through all this diversity
and different points of view we find common ideas that unite all of us and let us discover
the real strength of "the 99%".
In order to put this in practice, in Spain we organize ourselves through assemblies: we
meet in the streets, sit together, and each person talks and shares his points of view
about the topic we want to discuss. An open space where everybody is invited to join, and
through debate we think together of new ideas and solutions, usually different than the
ones that we brought with us before the debate, and that suit much better the different
opinions of the people.
[http://howtocamp.takethesquare.net/2011/10/10/quick-guide-on-group-dynamics-in-people%E2%80%99s-assemblies/]
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f6s9bESs-t0IGSXLIIo2LsE2lbuhEw3Q4OGyXgGyFRU/edit]
We have thematic and general assemblies, where we all try to meet to debate all together
the most important issues; and also we try to have assemblies in all neighborhoods, so
everybody can join the debates. Hundreds of assemblies where we debate, learn, propose
actions, organize ourselves, or just find other people who think like us to start
projects. Hundreds of assemblies and each one has its own voice. Sometimes the voices
agree, and then we can launch large common actions and proposals, sometimes they don't and
then we launch multiple actions. We try to find the real will of the people instead of
silencing it or hiding it behind leaders? voices, and we discover that the common sense,
and the idea of living lives with dignity and sharing the world is much more widely spread
and common than what the politicians try to make us believe. At the end it's not so
different what the 99% wants.
If at any time we want somebody to talk in the media about what an assembly proposed, an
action that is going to be launched, etc, it?s always different people who speak. And we
try to rotate as well in any position in the movement that can represent power in any way.
Is not only that this leaderless system is the only democratic option, and the only one
that truly represents reality, it is also the most effective one. If you have leaders,
they can become corrupted or they can be attacked by the powers. A system with no heads is
impossible to dismantle, except if everybody decides that?s what they want.
- Leaving aside the labels and identities that do not let us move forward. The old way of
being in the world is first of all to choose a set of labels that define you and
distinguish yourself from the others: left-winger, conservative, Israeli, Palestinian,
Jew, etc. Once the set is chosen, life is much easier. You just have to think and repeat
the same things that the leaders of your party, community, etc say. There is no place for
real debates, no place to let the ideas evolve and change, no place to truly understand
what the others think. Now it?s just a matter of fighting between the different labels and
seeing if we can make the others disappear or at least make them understand the truth,
that is, of course, exactly what we think. The new way is much more difficult: we start
defining ourselves as persons. [http://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/manifiesto-2/#en], and we
let the ideas be the only objects of the debate. Of course our ideas could be labeled as
right-winger, Marxist, democratic, religious, secular or any other label, the key is just
to put the label in a secondary plane, in order to make the debate possible.
Do you think that sticking to labels, identities and parties helps solve the problems? Do
you think that what happens in the Parliament is a real debate? Do you think that the
people from one party, after hearing another party's opinions, can just change their
minds? Is that the system we want to trust in? Did the fight between ideologies at any
time in history build a better world for all of us? Then, let's try something new.
Our political system in Spain has been reduced to a two-party system, where talk about
politics means just to choose one of the two sides in few dividing issues that the
politicians and the media set as the ones that deserve to be talked about. After the 15th
of May we discovered some important things: There are always millions of different
possible answers to the problems, we have to learn to avoid false dichotomies that show
the reality as black and white. Even when sometimes the wedge issues are very important,
when we ask the people what they want to talk about, we discover that many times their
priorities are totally different. Usually very strong identities have been constructed
around the common answers to the wedge issues, making these debates especially difficult
to resolve. Sometimes it?s much more fruitful to set aside these issues for a moment and
focus in other issues, and then, by understanding each other through other debates, or by
facing the issues from a different starting point, we can find the answer to these
dividing questions.
Talk about what you want, when you want to talk about it and stay away from forced
dichotomies.
- How radical is being non-violent. In Spain there has always been people trying to use
violence to change the world. After each demonstration, there has always been a small
minority of people burning garbage cans, breaking bank windows, or throwing things at the
police. The M15 movement is the first massive movement that is absolutely non-violent, and
we discovered with joy that it is the most effective thing that we have ever done: Being
non-violent means many more people join the movement, the actions and the demonstrations:
old people, young, immigrants, whole families,? and thus we are stronger. Since we are
non-violent, the media and the politicians can't just label us as violent provocateurs and
avoid talking about the things that we want to change, they can't just put the focus on
the violence. When we are violent, our enemy becomes the police, and then it?s just people
from the bottom fighting people from the bottom. That is total nonsense, and has nothing
to do with the ones that we are really fighting against. When we use violence, the police
answered by being more violent with us, and then we answered again with more violence,
falling in a loop from which it is really hard to escape.
Being non-violent doesn't mean that we don't use the force of our bodies, but we use it in
a non-violent way. We can close with our body the entrance of the Parliament, we can block
the way of the car of a banker, etc, but always with our hands tight to our bodies, and
without anger in our faces. We show that we are not afraid, that we are going to risk our
integrity or our safety in a fight for a better world, and that is what makes us really
dangerous.
It looks like in Israel the violence has not been so widely used as in other countries,
but you could start using it now, since you are starting to feel and understand the
strength of the crowd, when thousands of people join together. You still have the
opportunity not to fall into this dangerous loop. We hope you can take advantage of your
non-violent strength.
- Recovering the words "politics" and "public" that they stole from us.
The words define our reality and therefore affect our behavior in society. For a long
time, the terms "politics" and "public" have been understood as the interactions and
spaces in the society that are regulated through the government and the Parliament. Thus
we, the common citizens, have been excluded from all decisions. Politics is what the
politicians do in Parliament, so if you want to do politics join a party; and if you want
to use the public resources ask the authorities.
With the emergence of the M15 movement, we recovered the use of these words. As soon as we
understood that "public" doesn't mean the property of the government but the property of
all of us, we rediscovered the use of the public goods. Since the 15th of May thousands of
people camp, meet, debate and demonstrate in the public space without asking permission
for any of these actions. The legitimacy of doing what we know is right is something that
cannot be stopped.
We meet and think about how our society should be organized, how the wealth should be
distributed, how our countries can be a better place for all of us. That is the real
meaning of the term "politics". And we care about it thousands times more than what the
"professional politicians" do; we use our free time and our resources to meet, talk and
try to organize the change, nobody pays us, it's not about winning elections, it?s just
about caring about the world, we should be proud of using the word "politics". It's not
just about understanding what real politics means, it's understanding that politics
belongs to us, the citizens, this is where the sovereignty resides, it?s we who have to
decide in which society we want to live, and if at any moment we decide to channel our
will through the Parliament, they are there just to serve and obey us. It's not anymore
about begging them to change things so we can live a little bit better, the only
legitimate power resides in us, and when we understood this, we started to be free. And
since we are free, the future is for the first time open to be changed. Before the 15th of
May, we lived buried in skepticism and cynicism. Nothing could be changed, nothing could
be done. If you watched any session of Parliament you felt no emotion at all, because the
future looked closed, already decided. No real debate between the groups, the words were
dead, there was no possibility to change positions, not a chance for a real interchange of
ideas. You knew since the first minute what was going to be said and decided. That cannot
be called "politics". Now, after the 15th of May, we know what politics means, and that
it's just us who have to decide.
In Israel it looks like there is still fear to use the term "politics". The idea that
"politics" is only what happens in Parliament still prevails, and therefore limits what
the movement can do. The government and the media keep repeating it in order to keep you
out of the game. We urge you to stop letting them control the future. You don't have to
beg for anything, the power is in your hands. And from the moment you understand that, you
will begin to be free.
CC by-sa 3.0
* It should be understood that in the M15 movement each person talks only for himself.
Nobody represents the whole movement, and that is where our strength lies. This open
letter is written just by some people who took part in the M15 movement, and only
represent their ideas. The people who wrote it don?t matter, let the ideas speak instead
of the people and their names. As we said, if there is something here that you think could
be useful for you, we would be much more than pleased. It?s a copyleft revolution, so just
take it, use it, improve it, and share it.
Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)