Zionism, in all of its brutality towards Palestinians and other Arabs has only survived because equally as brutal Arab dictatorships allow it to. Whether or not what we are seeing in Egypt right now has reached a point where it can be called a democratic process, Israel lost a very faithful friend with the fall of the regime. Check out these headlines from the last few days:
Pew Poll: U.S. Image Still Negative in Egypt
Egyptian presidential candidates agree Israel is an enemy
Everyone knows Shafiq did no such thing but still... Egypt candidate claims shooting down Israeli planes in war
While we've been caught up in the hunger strikes and Nakba commemorations and despite media claims of Israeli hand wringing over media coverage generated by the strikers--Israel still managed to accomplish the following this week: land theft, home demolitions, arrest of children, threatening women, shooting tear gas into homes, wounding hundreds of protesters, arresting and beating peaceful activists and legalizing racism. They also banned a book from Lebanon for good measure. I don't think that anyone in the Western media picked up the story about the book banning. Can you imagine though, the self righteous condemnation if it were Iran doing the same?
But enough about Egypt and Israel, what's the U.S. been up to this week in the Middle East?
Major US, Arab war drill begins in Jordan
The United States and its allies have started in Jordan what was described as the largest military exercises in the Middle East in 10 years, focusing on "irregular warfare," top officers said on Tuesday.
"Yesterday we began to apply the skills that we have developed over the last weeks in an irregular warfare scenario ... They will last for approximately the coming two weeks," Major General Ken Tovo, head of the US Special Operations Forces, told reporters in Amman.
Eager Lion 2012 "is the largest exercise held in the region in the past ten years," he said at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Centre in north Amman.
More than 12,000 soldiers are taking part in the war games, representing 19 countries, including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Australia.
"The message that I want to send through this exercise is that we have developed the right partners throughout the region and across the world ... insuring that we have the ability to ... meet challenges that are coming to our nations," Tovo said.
Irregular warfare? I do tend to lean towards being suspicious but to me that sounds like suppressing protests. What else has Washington been up to?
And shamelessly hectoring Bahraini activists:
The State Department held a meeting with Bahraini activists in Washington, DC. During the meeting, the activists were lectured and hectored by a US official. They kept being told over and over again that the government can’t reform while the “youth are resorting to violence”. The activists, of course, retorted that the US has no qualms in supporting an opposition in Syria, including elements that resort to car bombs, shelling, kidnapping, ransom kidnapping, and various kinds of shooting.
The U.S. is also still reeling from the loss of its despotic ally in Egypt, and like Israel they too haven't learned a thing. They're still supporting and arming to the teeth as many violent regimes in the region that it takes to protect their interests while talking human rights and democracy from the other side of their mouths. I'm glad that the younger generation of Arabs in the Middle East are becoming politically aware at a time when both the U.S. and Israel are so transparent in their disdain for human rights and freedom.
“As Queerty report[s], a mural touting Israel’s record on LGBT rights has gone up in New York‘s West Village. The painting features a silhouette of two men holding hands, with a banner asking “Who would you want at your wedding?” and listing the Promised Land’s accomplishments as well as misdeeds by Iran, Eqypt and other Middle East countries.”
link to queerty.com
Also, the Knesset voted down a bill on Wednesday that would allow same-sex, as well as interfaith couples to wed.
Important post. Reeling, and the subsequent scrambling to maintain popular acquiescence to support for Israel through the economic benes of joint exercises is probably, by definition, unsustainable.
link to boston.com
EU countries are increasingly irritated over Israeli repressions and obstructionism. The background that I have observed was that a Polish charity which is quite apolitical and performs “good will” projects in lots of places (Polish rural schools, North Korea, Zimbabwe) helps constructing and cleaning cisterns in several Area C villages, some of which were destroyed by IDF (cisterns and a village), Polish foreign ministry requested explanations and later released a statement that it will raise the issue in May on the respective EU meeting. And quite a few countries had the same experience. Israel, as usual, responded that EU does not know what it is talking about.
This is an interesting tention. EU countries mostly do not care, but are making various token gestures that are met with astonishing hostility by Israeli government. NGO issue was on that plane, irrelevant (in EU) token projects by very important charities were subject of a draconian Knesset legislative proposal, which could potentially trigger some sanctions. So the legislature was buried without a vote. But repression in Area C are much more central to Israel policy, so Israel is much more obstinate.