Gaza my love
by Her Eyes Only – 16 November, 2012

Gaza- I wish I was a human shield

I wish I had wings of a dove to cross

the skies that are made of fire & carry you away

from war. They shot a missile in the air,

where it falls , they do not care.

I wish I was at the heart of Gaza Habibty

to hug my brothers, my other brothers.

to be martyred by my crazy love.

Instead, I am lighting memories in the wind,

writing names of dead children on pieces of paper,

all my love turn to ash.

Photos by Guy B
…source

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marshals troops toward Gaza, Barack Obama is making a grievous error by being seen as walking in step. Post-election optimism over direct talks with Iran will be shattered should Israel invade, and the Arab world will view the US president as full of empty promises. In one swipe, Netanyahu has made Gaza the litmus test of Obama’s statesmanship.

Netanyahu calls Obama’s bluff
by Melkulangara K. Bhadrakumar – Voltaire Network – 16 November, 2012

As tensions mount in the coming hours and days with the Israeli troops and tanks advancing toward Gaza menacingly, United States President Barack Obama begins to realize that he has a forked tongue.

Gaza becomes the litmus test of what he can claim to be as a statesman and what he cannot be in political reality.

For Obama, there is no running away from the reality that he has been hiding his head ostrich-like from the day he left Cairo in 2009 after making a magnificent speech there on the Palestinian problem.

The events of the past week in Gaza underscore that unless he musters the political courage – and integrity as a statesman – to address the Palestinian problem, all his talk of a transformative agenda for the Middle East remains sheer baloney.

Furthermore, his lop-sided priorities in the Middle East are getting exposure. In essence, he ends up being seen as cooking up tales about Syria and Iran and shying away from the one issue that can make all the difference for America’s discourse with the Muslim world.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has exposed Obama and is forcing a reset of their mutual equations even before the US president gets started on his second term in the White House.

Obama can always take shelter behind mellifluous rhetoric and has no adverse domestic public opinion to grapple with. Nor is he being called upon by his European allies to be accountable.
The spanner in the wheel

The paradox is that the crisis in Gaza had to erupt just when things were looking up for a possible US-Egyptian reset, including a joint enterprise by the two countries to give a decisive push for “regime change” in Syria.

A technical team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been in Cairo for the past fortnight to negotiate a US$4.8 billion loan that Egypt has sought to shore up finances. Even as the Israeli jets kept pounding Gaza relentlessly and Hamas beseeched Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi for help, the IMF announced on Wednesday, “The mission will remain in Cairo for a few more days to continue work and build on the good progress already made.”

The IMF usually expects that governments take actual measures as per an agreed economic reform plan before signing off on loans, but Morsi knows exceptions can always be made, and it is Washington who decides. …more

Obama Poised to Dine with Architects of Burma’s Ethnic Cleansing
By Tom Andrews, 16 November, 2012 – Foreign Policy in Focus

Why is President Obama about to meet with leaders in Burma who are systematically fomenting hatred and violence that has already claimed innocent lives, destroyed entire villages and displaced tens of thousands?

In just a few days, President Obama will travel to Burma to recognize progress that one of the most brutal regimes on the planet has made toward democracy. Now that modest improvements have been made or pledged by the regime, and Aung San Suu Kyi is free, the U.S. government has decided to lift the economic and diplomatic pressure that made reform in Burma possible.

That is bad news if you are part of an ethnic minority in Burma. And it is life threatening if you are a member of the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Systematic hate speech and entreaties for the local population to isolate and attack the Rohingya Muslim minority are pervasive in western Burma. The Burmese military stand aside or actively participate in attacks against innocent men, women and children. More than one hundred people have already lost their lives, tens of thousands have lost their homes, and over one hundred thousand have been displaced.

What is the U.S. government doing about it? On Sunday, President Obama will become the first President to visit Burma. He is there to recognize and congratulate the military-dominated government for making modest reforms toward democracy. As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya continue to live in fear, President Obama will be congratulating a government that wants to ethnically cleanse every one of them from Burma.

Burma’s President Thein Sein–who Obama will be sitting down to dine with–has been actively fomenting hatred against the Rohingya community. He has gone so far to ask the United Nations to help him ethnically cleanse Burma by forcing 800,000 Rohingya people out of their home villages and into refugee camps or out of the country altogether!

I saw what violence and persecution looks like first-hand in Burma when I snuck into Kachin State last May. I saw entire villages abandoned, its population driven into makeshift camps filled with desperate people without adequate food, shelter of medical care. I spoke with families whose loved ones had been tortured, raped, incarcerated or killed by Burmese troops. Without international pressure on the regime, I know what the Rohingya are experiencing will only continue to get worse. …more

Bahrain: Implementing a State of Emergency (National Safety) without an Official Declaration
16 November, 2012 – Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rghts

Background:

In March 2011 after hundreds of thousands protested in the Lulu (Pearl) Roundabout (Manama), the King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa issued a “Royal Decree No. 18 of 2011″, and this Decree was a declaration of a State of National Safety, a “state of emergency in the country”, and this continued for three months where the Bahraini Authorities practiced dreadful violations of human rights (refer to the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry – BICI – report which was established by the King to investigate the violations : http://www.bici.org.bh/BICIreportEN.pdf)

Photo: Pearl roundabout after entering the army and the suppression of demonstrators

Photo: King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa

Articles of declaring the State of National Safety “emergency state”:

The declaration of the State of National Safety which was issued by an order from the King consists of 15 articles in which the responsibility of the police, army, and National Guard was specified in Article “5″, where they were given the following measures:

1. Evacuate or isolate certain areas to maintain security and public order.
2. Regulate and ban public gatherings if they are deemed to be a threat to public order or national safety.
3. Regulate traffic and movement; impose curfews and places limits on travel outside the Kingdom whenever this is for the benefit of the citizens.
4. Temporarily regulate access to certain areas whenever it is in the public interest.
5. Organize opening and closing times for shops and public places whenever required by the public interest.
6. Search persons and places when suspicions exist of a violation of the provisions of this Decree or the decision or orders issued by the authority responsible for its implementation.
7. If a foreigner is deemed a threat to public security and safety or citizen, they may be deported or prohibited from entering the Kingdom.
8. If evidence arises that an association, club, union or other legal person is undertaking activity that disturbs public order, or working in the interest of a foreign State, or spreading a spirit of disunity among the citizens to cause disorder or disobedience in the Kingdom, its activity may be suspended.
9. If it appears that some of the printed, audio or visual media or informational networks would prejudice national security or undermine the Constitution, social or economic order of the Kingdom, it may be seized and denied publication or broadcast.
10. Regulate means of transport by land, sea and air and use them temporarily, provided that the owners and users of these means of transport are fairly compensated.
11. Arrest and detain suspects and persons deemed threatening to the security of citizens.
12. Withdraw Bahraini citizenship from all those whose presence is deemed to be a risk to public order and security and expel them from the country or detain them at secure locations. …more

Israel okays reserve call-up of up to 75,000
16 November, 2012 – Lebanon News

The Israeli cabinet on Friday night gave its green light for the recruitment of up to 75,000 reservists, Channel 2 television said, amid signs that Israel was gearing up for a ground offensive in Gaza.

The decision was taken in a phone vote which was carried out as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks at the defense ministry in Tel Aviv with his inner circle, the Forum of Nine, the channel reported.

In practice, it means that up to 75,000 reserve soldiers can be drafted into action by the military at any point, as Israel appeared set to expand its relentless air campaign against Gaza militants.

As darkness fell, the Hamas-run enclave hunkered down for a third night of Israeli bombardment which began on Wednesday with an air strike which killed a top Hamas commander, unleashing a new and deadly round of bloody mayhem.

And the Israeli army moved to seal off roads around Gaza as AFP correspondents reported a growing build-up of military hardware and reserve forces along the Gaza border.

“Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser has started to conduct a phone vote among government ministers for approval to recruit 75,000 reserve soldiers,” the cabinet secretary wrote on his official Facebook page as Netanyahu began three hours of talks with his inner circle.

As the violence spiralled on Friday with a rocket hitting the sea off Tel Aviv and another landing in the West Bank near Jerusalem, Israel geared up for an expansion of its campaign, sending call-up papers to 16,000 reservists.

A day earlier, Defense Minister Ehud Barak had approved the call-up of 30,000 reserve soldiers, but on Friday, the defense ministry said he had decided to further expand the quota.

“Today, Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorised the IDF to expand its quota of reservists beyond the originally allocated amount,” the ministry said, and a spokesperson confirmed he was looking to increase the number beyond 30,000.

…more

Two Israeli prisoners of war captured
Al Akhbar – 16 November, 2012

BREAKING: Hamas has captured two Israeli prisoners of war, Sky News Arabic reports. The prisoners were operating the fighter jet Hamas has reportedly downed. …source

Arabic Newspapers Highlight Resistance Strikes on “Israeli” Targets
16 November, 2012 – Local Editor – moqawama.com

The Zionist regime was the highlight of Arabic newspapers issued today, stressing on the distinctive progress of Palestinian resistance strikes on “Israeli” targets.

The resistance is facing extensive raids on the Gaza strip daily, and yet al-Qassam Brigades declared having struck down an “Israeli” drone.

“The Zionist forces, on the second day of their second massacre on Gaza, had made a series of raids in the last 24 hours, which led to 16 Palestinian martyrs and 155 injured, mostly women and children,” Dar al-Khaleej Emirati newspaper mentioned.

It also reported, “The Zionist entity admitted to more than 250 rockets hitting targets and settlements, including Tel Aviv, also al-Qassam Brigades hit an “Israeli” warplane with a land-to-air missiles.” The brigades also bombed Tel Aviv with ‘Fajr 5′ missiles as well as two local projectiles.

Moreover, the newspaper recounted that al-Quds (Jerusalem) units, the armed alley of the Jihadist Movement, declared bombing Tel Aviv with ‘Fajr 5′ missiles, and said it would distribute a video of the bombing to media.

Official Arab Movements

Furthermore, as-Shorouk Egyptian newspaper published the statement of the official spokesman of the Egyptian Presidency, Yasser Ali.

Yasser Ali stated that Egypt is handling many major center-points to halt “Israeli” aggressions and violations against the Palestinians, including the diplomatic action with all active parties in the Arab region and the world.

“The second center-point is seeking the action of international organizations, such as the Security Council and the Arab League. The third is calming matters down and focusing on humanitarian aid,” Ali added. He further announced PM Hisham Qandil’s near visit to Gaza with a high-ranked delegation, Egypt’s support of the Palestinians in Gaza, and hasty supply of aids to the region.

Likewise, Okaz newspaper pointed out that the Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz received a phone call from Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi, discussing the ties of these two neighboring countries’ and the escalation of events in Palestine. The king then answered that matters must cool down, and that impulsiveness mustn’t prevail over insight.

However, al-Raya Qatari newspaper mentioned a phone call made by Qatar’s Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to the Egyptian President, where they discussed “the tragic conditions of the Palestinians from the “Israeli” aggression, and the methods to immediately stop this offensive.”

Al-Hayat newspaper reported that the “Palestinians achieved moral victories on Thursday in its war with “Israel” when it bombarded Tel Aviv and fired qualitative missiles like ‘Fajr 5′, and when the “Israeli” Channel 10 broadcasted images of Benyamin Netanyahu leaving his office to head to shelter.”

According to al-Hayat, the “Israeli” media spoke of an Egyptian proposal to restore ease, while it cited from military sources that the ongoing shelling of Tel Aviv will oblige the “Israeli” army to a ground invasion on Friday (today), although 105 out of 250 missiles targeting “Israel” were intercepted.

The Egyptian proposal, as al-Hayat reported, handles two points;

1- Both parties must seize fire
2- And give time for Egypt to prepare a package of mutual agreements.

“Israel” is not entirely eager to this proposal, political sources stated, and wishes to add conditions like halting weapon smuggling and production.

On a similar note, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will pay a visit to the occupied land next Tuesday, including al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Ramallah.

In his visit, Ki-Moon will meet “Israeli” PM Benyamin Netanyahu, War Minister Ehud Barack, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and President of Palestinian authority Mahmoud Abbas.

Gaza will not be included in the visit schedule, the newspaper added.

Yedioth Ahronoth also mentioned that French President Francois Hollande began talks with Netanyahu to avoid escalating violence in Gaza on Thursday. …source

US Govt. is Corrupt, Dictatorship, Promoting Assassination around the World – Ron Paul
16 November, 2012 – Jafria News

JNN 16 Nov 2012 Washington : Rep. Ron Paul, the iconic libertarian congressman from Texas, has delivered a speech what will most likely be his final address to Congress .He criticized the US Government of its Corruption, bent on promoting wars, undermining liberties, and assassinating those it considers terrorists.

In a sprawling, 52-minute speech to the House chamber, Paul lambasted U.S. government, politicians and special interests, declaring that the U.S. people must return to virtue before the government allows them to be free, and that the Constitution has failed to limit the scope of an authoritarian bureaucracy.

“Our Constitution, which was intended to limit government power and abuse, has failed,” Paul said. “The Founders warned that a free society depends on a virtuous and moral people. The current crisis reflects that their concerns were justified.”

For the retiring Republican, 77, the “current crisis” isn’t quite what it is for other members of Congress, who routinely use that word to describe the economic recession that followed the 2008 financial crash. To the Texas Republican, that’s part of it, but the causes are deeper, and it’s also a crisis of governmental authoritarianism and the vanishing of personal liberty.

“If it’s not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis, we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties,” said Paul, an obstetrician-gynecologist by training.

The problem isn’t just government’s size, but its use of force, both in starting preemptive wars and as it coerces U.S. citizens with police power. To Paul, this is the fault of Americans who no longer prioritize liberty, and it will lead to the unraveling of orderly society unless people change.

“Restraining aggressive behavior is one thing, but legalizing a government monopoly for initiating aggression can only lead to exhausting liberty associated with chaos, anger and the breakdown of civil society,” Paul said. “We now have a standing army of armed bureaucrats in the TSA, CIA, FBI, Fish and Wildlife, FEMA, IRS, Corp of Engineers, etc., numbering over 100,000 civil society.”

More than coercive, to Paul the government is also corrupt: “All branches of our government today are controlled by individuals who use their power to undermine liberty and enhance the welfare/warfare state-and frequently their own wealth and power,” he said.

Throughout his speech, Paul questioned not only the fundamental health of America’s social compact, but specifics like fiat money, the power of the Federal Reserve, the PATRIOT Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act modifications, undeclared war, the illegalization of medical marijuana, mandatory sentencing requirements for drug crimes, the illegalization of hemp, TSA searches, federal debt and borrowing, the White House’s authority to assassinate those it declares terrorists, the legalization of detaining U.S. citizens for national-security purposes, the political power of AIPAC, and the regulation of light bulbs and toilets in people’s homes. …more

Revoking the Right of Citizenship
Bahrain: Last Throes of a Desperate Regime
by RANNIE AMIRI – 16 November, 2012 – Counter Punch

Since Bahrain’s uprising against absolute monarchal rule began in the wake of last year’s Arab Spring, the al-Khalifa regime has brazenly trampled over the civil and human rights of its people. This past week it stripped 31 citizens of their nationality, effectively leaving them stateless and in legal limbo. Repealing citizenship signals that increasingly desperate measures are being employed by the government to quell the as-yet undeterred rebellion.

The state-run Bahrain News Agency announced the Ministry of Interior’s decree:

According to clause (c) of Article (10) of the Citizenship Law which permits the re-evaluation of nationality when a holder of the Bahraini citizenship causes damage to state security, the Bahraiin citizenship of the following individuals have been revoked:

Among those listed were lawyers, clerics, former MPs, opposition figures and political activists. Most were Bahrainis of Persian origin (Ajam), others the island’s ethnic Arab inhabitants (Baharna). Some currently reside in Bahrain, many are already in exile.

The Western media chose to identify the activists as “Shi’ite.” Unfortunately they succumbed to reporting the story through the same sectarian prism characteristic of the al-Khalifa worldview, which is to classify everyone based on religious affiliation. Doing so immediately shifts focus away from the legitimacy of political demands to non-existent religious ones. It also plays into the insinuated, ulterior motives of which the Shia community has traditionally been accused.

The message was not subtle: the monarchy determines who is a citizen, loyal to its edicts and unchallenged rule, and who is not. And it is the island’s Shia Muslims, forming its overwhelmingly majority, who are considered the disloyal and untrustworthy—the proverbial “fifth column.” The escalating rhetoric of the United States and Gulf Cooperation Countries toward Iran provided adequate cover to single out the Ajam.

This is ironic, considering the al-Khalifa family themselves are not indigenous to Bahrain. They first came to the island as pirates from al-Zubarah, on the northwest coast of Qatar. This is why many protest signs carry the slogan telling them, “your ziarah (visit) is over, go back to al-Zubarah!”

Historical origins should be put aside however. They likewise obfuscate the present-day intimidation and violence perpetrated against those peacefully seeking reform and accountability in government. What cannot be overlooked however, is the Citizenship Law cited by the Interior Ministry.

It is this law which gives expedited citizenship to Sunni, non-Bahraini nationals (largely from North Africa, Syria and Pakistan) who are then employed exclusively in the country’s security services. This law codifies the regime’s policy of sectarian manipulation and gerrymandering, a backdoor attempt to alter the island’s demographics by diluting the number of Shia Muslims.

The “outside interference” canard has also been used to accuse Hezbollah and Iran of acting on behalf of the Shia, as if 21 months of a brutal crackdown were not enough to engender mass discontent. The opposition and imprisoned leaders like Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and Nabeel Rajab, on the other hand, never talk of religious school but speak the language of dignity, justice and ending the political and socioeconomic repression of all Bahrainis. …more

Number of Injuries after Security Forces Attacked a Religious Gathering in Bahrain
14 November, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Bahrain Authorities Continue Attacks on Religious Gatherings and Processions amidst a Systematic Campaign against Religious Liberties. This Systematic Campaign Included Demolishing Dozens of Mosques and Attacking Religious Facilities and Institutions of Shiaa Muslims in March 2011.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights Warns Against the Escalating Systematic attacks on Religious Liberties with the Approach of the Religious Season of ‘Ashura’ and Holds the Authorities Responsible for the Consequences

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights sends out a critical warning in which it expresses its concern as a result of receiving documented information about the Authorities in Bahrain continuing the systematic attacks on religious liberties with the approach of the commemoration of the ‘Ashura’ rituals practiced by Shia Muslims. These religious processions tend to be received with hostile media and security alerts, as well as threats towards those who criticize the regime or who address the political situation through the podiums and forums of these religious processions .

The authorities have set up check points in many different areas, and BCHR received information from several people that people are being harassed when they attempt to move from one area to another.Security forces have already entered Karzakkan and tore down religious banners the locals had put up.

What increases concern is the ongoing systematic attacks in an attempt to restrict religious events and ceremonies, like in 2011 when several religious processions and gatherings were attacked and through targeting religious institutions, mosques and facilities by demolishing or vandalizing them. [1]
On Friday 2nd November 2012, security forces attacked a religious Shiaa gathering using pellet shotguns and teargas in an excessive and unwarranted manner resulting in a number of injuries, some of whom were children; in addition to suffocations [2]. According to information received by the BCHR from eyewitnesses, security forces attacked the religious gathering with no prior warning, and without provocation. …source

Massing troops and tanks near Gaza, Israel says wants no war
16 November, 2012 – By Dan Williams – Reuters

JERUSALEM: Israeli tanks and troops massed outside Gaza and the military said on Friday it was calling up 16,000 reservists, signs of a possible imminent invasion of the Palestinian enclave after 48 hours of air strikes.

Israel’s warplanes, drones and helicopters appeared to shift focus from suspected Palestinian rocket sites to the northern Gaza frontier, where their bombs created incursion corridors by clearing landmines or guerrilla gun nests.

The mobilisation was anything but secret and details put on social media by the Israeli military appeared to be a clear warning to the Hamas Islamists that govern Gaza to push for a truce.

“It is not our intention to go to war, and we are hopeful that this operation will not take a minute more than required,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said.

Since being fought to a standstill in its 2006 war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, Israel has been honing the training of its regular troops and could mount a land invasion of Gaza at short notice.

Public statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggest such an escalation has preliminary cabinet approval.

Among units already garrisoned outside Gaza is Israel’s paratrooper brigade whose commander, Colonel Amir Baram, said last month that in planning tactics he had studied World War One skirmishes in Gaza between British forces and the Ottoman Turks.

Should his troops be ordered in, Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Channel 2 television, “they will need to go house-to-house, and then we will need the lessons of the past”.

Among those lessons learnt has been that Gaza’s impoverished population of 1.7 million is vulnerable to humanitarian crises, which could spell international controversy for Israel.

…more

It should comes as no surprise that the al Khalifa’s are moving Bahrain into a virtual Military lock-down as the region slips into war. This is a consistent and rational action from the Intelligence community and War strategy planners in the West. The need to secure Bahrain is a necessary precondition to regional war by those who are provoking it. Phlipn Out.

Bahrain: Repression intensifies as outside activities rise
Bahrain Freedom Movement – 16 November, 2012

On Wednesday 14th November regime’s forces waged merciless attacks on people participating in the rituals marking the end of the mourning period of martyr Ali Abbas Radhi.

The 16 years old boy was killed Friday 9th November on his way to Friday prayers at Duraz Town. He was targeted and killed by members of the death squads under the command of the dictator’s court. They used chemical and tear gases as well as shotguns to disperse the thousands who ventured to attend the procession at the graveyard near the martyr’s home town of Samaheej.

In recent days the Alkhalifa regime has intensified its repression, in a last attempt to quell the demonstrations calling for regime change. It has now targeted civilian areas with systematic attacks, showering people with gases and ransacking their homes. Two days ago the towns of Sanabis, Ma’amir, Al-Jufair and Jidhafs had received heavy punishment. In addition to terrorising the occupants, the contents of the houses were damaged. The destruction continued for four hours from 1.00 am. Scores of people were arrested, tortured and taken to unknown destinations. At least 11 of them have been kept in the torture dungeons. This wholesale collective punishment is in revenge for the persistence of the people in their demands for the downfall of this dictatorial regime

Meanwhile the notable Reporters Without Borders Organisation has issued a statement denouncing the barbaric sentencing of a journalist in revenge against her for accusing regime’s supporters of assaulting her. The charges were brought against journalist Reem Khalifa after she had accused three doctors, who are regime’s supporters, of attacking and insulting her. She will have to pay a fine of 100 BD (210 euros) and a total of 500 BD in compensation to the doctors (BD 200 to each of the two she allegedly attacked and BD 100 to the one she allegedly insulted). The Organisation said: “The appeal court’s decision is just the latest in a series of rulings that demonstrate the Bahraini judicial system’s complete lack of independence. The court did not examine the evidence provided by Khalifa’s lawyer.”

The sister of a Bahraini on death row has been summoned by Alkhalifa torturers to be interrogated for talking to the public about the injustice meted against her brother, Abdul Aziz Abdul Redha. The young woman has been campaigning to get her brother released because he is completely innocent of the trumpeted charges trumpeted against him by the ruling family which is carrying a systematic programme of extermination against the native Shia population. The father of Martyr Ali Al Shaikh was arrested and sentenced to 15 days imprisonment for campaigning to get the killers of his son brought to justice. …more

Egypt’s Mursi says Cairo ‘will not leave Gaza on its own’
16 November, 2012 – Reuters – The Daily Star

CAIRO: Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi denounced Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip as “a blatant aggression against humanity” and said Cairo “would not leave Gaza on its own”, the state news agency MENA reported.

Mursi’s made the comments in a speech following Friday prayers in a mosque in central Cairo, MENA said. His prime minister, Hisham Kandil, visited the Gaza Strip on Friday.

“Cairo will not leave Gaza on its own … Egypt today is not the Egypt of yesterday, and Arabs today are not the Arabs of yesterday,” Mursi added.
…source

Nasrallah calls for regional support of Gaza
16 November, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah Thursday called on all Arab and Muslim countries to use all means possible to stop Israel’s vicious assault on the Gaza Strip, including raising oil prices.

Nasrallah urged Arab nations to suspend relations with Israel and the US, saying the only solution is for the world to pressure the United States, which will press Israel to end its blockade on Gaza.

He advocated the use of financial levers such as limiting oil production to push the West into stripping Israel of economic and political support.

“Some say the Arabs don’t have the courage to stop oil production,” he said.

“Decrease your oil exports … you will shake the United States, you will shake Europe …Put on some pressure. No one is calling for armies or tanks or planes.”

The Hezbollah leader also hailed the firing of long-range rockets from Gaza into Israel as a “very significant development” for the Palestinian struggle.

“The firing of Fajr 5 rockets on Tel Aviv today shows the maturation, the wisdom and strength, and the courage of the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip,” Nasrallah said. He added that Israel had not expected retaliatory fire on Tel Aviv, the Jewish state’s economic center.

He reaffirmed solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, saying “we in Lebanon are concerned about events in Gaza, because this is not only the battle of Gaza but of all of us.” …source

The BICI started out as a State Department-al Khalifa ruse and remains that today. It misdirects attention from revolutionary efforts and seeks to place the al Khalifa’s in control of the ‘narrative of reform’. Western liberals and those who embrace the goal of liberalized Western Capitalism seem comfortable in advancing the BICI as something relevant beyond that of a record of egregious wrongs against those who continue to suffer under the scourge of Western enabled repression in Bahrain. Phlipn out.

Bahrain, One Year Later
The Arabist – 16 November, 2012

From POMED’s report assessing the implementation of the BICI report:

We have found that the Government of Bahrain has fully implemented three of the BICI report’s 26 recommendations. Two other recommendations were impossible for us to properly evaluate due to a lack of available information, and 15 recommendations have only been partially implemented. Finally, the government has made no meaningful progress toward six of the recommendations, which are precisely the most important steps that need to be taken – accountability for officials responsible for torture and severe human rights violations, the release of political prisoners, prevention of sectarian incitement, and the relaxation of censorship and controls on free expression.

Nearly as troubling as the failure to address key areas has been the unrealistic assessment by the Government of Bahrain of its own progress. Bahraini government officials, including the Ambassador to the United States, have claimed in public statements to have fully implemented 18 of the 26 recommendations. It is difficult to expect the government to make significant progress on the many unfulfilled recommendations while it maintains that most of those steps have already been completed.

POMED Report HERE

Assassinating The Chance For Calm
The Arabist – 16 November, 2012

Gershon Baskin, who has been conducting negotiations to secure a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, writes in Open Zion:

Yesterday morning, hours before Israel assassinated Ahmed Jaabari, my counterpart in Hamas presented the draft to Jaabari and to other Hamas leaders. Senior Hamas leaders on the outside had already seen it and had instructed him to check the reactions to it in Gaza. I was supposed to receive the draft yesterday evening to present to Israeli officials who were waiting for me to send it to them.

That option is now off the table. Jaabari is dead and so is the chance for a mutually beneficial long term ceasefire understanding. Why did Benjamin Netanyahu do it? The cynical answer already offered by Aluf Benn in Haaretz is elections consideration. Cast Lead was also conducted before elections. Hitting Jaabari, according to Netanyahu’s thinking, would help him in the upcoming Israeli elections. Perhaps this is true, perhaps not.

It seems to me that some of the commanders of the Israeli army have been very frustrated that the previous agreements to return to calm left Israel in a weaker position, with Hamas calling the shots. They have been calling to rebuild Israel’s deterrence. Let them in Gaza feel the pain of a serious Israeli attack and then they will think seven times before shooting more rockets, is what they proposed. In the last days there has been a lot of talk from politicians, military experts and officers to return to the policy of “targeted killings.” This, they claim, would make the Hamas leaders hide for their lives and stop shooting at us. These military geniuses failed to realize that what never worked in the past will not work now either. …source

Jordan protesters call for ‘downfall of the regime’
16 November, 2012 – By Suleiman al-Khalidi – Reuters

AMMAN: Thousands of protesters chanted the Arab Spring slogan “the people want the downfall of the regime” in Jordan’s capital on Friday, as demonstrations against rising prices gather force in a country so far spared the brunt of Middle East unrest.

The mainly urban Muslim Brotherhood joined hitherto largely rural protests that have erupted in the last few days, raising the spectre of lasting instability in the kingdom, a staunch U.S. ally with the longest border with Israel.

Friday’s demonstration near the main Husseini Mosque in downtown Amman was peaceful, with unarmed police separating the demonstrators denouncing King Abdullah from a smaller crowd chanting in support of the monarch.

“Go down Abdullah, go down,” the main crowd of about 4,000 protesters chanted as police, some in riot gear, largely stayed away from crowd.

Protests have turned violent in impoverished towns across the kingdom since Wednesday when the government imposed a hike in the price of fuel. Unemployed youths and demonstrators have attacked police stations, closed roads with burnt cars and torched government buildings.

One protester was killed on Thursday as a crowed tried to storm a police station in the northern city of Irbid. The provinces appeared to be quieter on Friday.

The Brotherhood’s decision to back Friday’s demonstration adds the voice of the country’s best-organised opposition movement to the protests, although top Brotherhood figures did not appear in person.

“King Abdullah should take note of the situation by going back on the decision to raise prices. The Jordanian people are unable to shoulder more burdens,” Brotherhood leader Sheikh Hamam Said said in a statement ahead of the protests.

Instability in Jordan would come at a dangerous time for the region, when Syria’s war risks leaping borders and Israel is bombing Islamist-run Gaza.

The slogan “the people want the downfall of the regime” has emerged as the main chant of Arab Spring demonstrations that toppled autocrats from Tunisia to Yemen, in many cases bringing to power elected Islamists allied to the Brotherhood.

In Jordan, an opposition of liberals and Islamists has generally sought reforms, rather than the overthrow of the 50-year-old king, in power since 1999.

A friend of the West, the monarch is seen by many Jordanians as a bulwark of stability, balancing the interests of tribes native to the east of the Jordan river with the increasingly assertive majority of Jordanians of Palestinian origin.
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‘Bomb Tel Aviv’ West Bank protesters urge Hamas
16 November, 2012 – Agence France Presse – The Daily Star

RAMALLAH, West Bank: Thousands of angry Palestinians rallied across the West Bank on Friday, urging Hamas militants to “bomb Tel Aviv” as Israel pursued a relentless air campaign on the Gaza Strip.

More than 1,000 protesters gathered in central Ramallah, shouting slogans of support for Gaza’s Hamas rulers, and waving the Islamist movement’s green flag, AFP correspondents said.

“Hamas, bomb Tel Aviv!” they chanted a day after a rocket from Gaza struck the sea just offshore from the sprawling coastal city.

Coincidentally, a loud blast rocked Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon as sirens wailed to warn of an incoming rocket for the second day running, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Police said sirens had sounded but could not immediately confirm that anything had hit the Tel Aviv area.

Protesters also held up huge pictures of top Hamas military chief Ahmed Jaabari, whose death in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City on Wednesday sparked the latest bloody escalation.

Similar scenes took place in the northern city of Nablus, where more than 3,000 people called on Hamas militants to “Bomb Tel Aviv,” another correspondent said.

Hamas flags were everywhere and angry demonstrators burned an Israeli flag, chanting “Death to Israel,” he said.

In annexed east Jerusalem, another 200 protesters gathered at the Damascus Gate into the Old City, with police arresting five for “disturbing public order,” police and an AFP correspondent said.

Since Wednesday’s strike, Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks on targets in Gaza. On Friday morning, two more Palestinians, including a child, were killed. That raised the overall toll to 20, with more than 240 injured, medics said.

In the same period, militants have fired around 300 rockets over the border, killing three Israelis.
…source