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1. The End is Near for Qaddafi: Rebels Control Most of Libya
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Libyan rebels control most of Libya’s oil production facilities, have taken over another town and are closing in on Tripoli, Muammar Qaddafi’s sole base.
Reporters in the city of Zariwa, where Qaddafi’s supporters took them
to show how its forces were in control, saw opposition fighters flying
their own flag and controlling barricades in the city, where intense
fighting took place last week.
Qaddafi continued to thump his version of events, charging that Libyan
youth are being drugged to go on a rampage of "destruction and
sabotage.”
He continues to hold on to the capital of Tripoli, but the opposition
has firm control of most of the oil production facilities in Africa’s richest oil country.
Virtually the entire world has turned against Qaddafi, with the Arab League, the United Nations Security Council
and Western powers demanding he end his slaughter of opponents and his
41-year-long rule. The Libyan delegation to the Arab League in Cairo has
condemned Qaddafi for "heinous crimes against unarmed citizens." The
UK, which had been accused of freeing the Lockerbie bomber for an oil deal, has joined the condemnation.
A bloody battle is in store in Tripoli, where opponents to the regime
fear Qaddafi will unleash planes to bomb them, as he did last week to
prevent rebels from reaching munitions stored in an abandoned military
base.
The U.N. Security Council resolution Saturday against Qaddafi included
an unprecedented call to the International Criminal Court hear evidence
of his war crimes. Latest reports indicate that Qaddafi's troops and
mercenaries have murdered well over 2,000 people.
The opposition movement has organized itself and established a
transitional government that "will lead for no more than three months,
and then there will be fair elections and the people will choose their
leader,” according to Mustafa Abdel Jalil, formerly a justice minister
under Qaddafi.
2. UN Human Rights Council at Work: Praise for Libya 4 Months Ago
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
It is hard to believe, but ess than four months before Qaddafi’s forces
massacred protesters, the United Nations Human Rights Council members
praised him for promoting human rights.
A video of the discussion, provided by Eye on the UN, documents the discussion.
“Syria: The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has a unique experience in democracy
that has allowed for growth and development in promotion of human
rights.
“Palestinian Authority observer: We highly commend the national report.
This proves the Jamahiriya’s keen interest in improving and promoting
human rights.
“Saudi Arabia: The interest shown by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya...shows
very clearly the important it attaches to human rights.”
The Human Rights Council admitted Libya as a member last May, and on
November 9, its members discussed a Universal Periodic Review that is to
be adopted March 18.
The Palestinian Authority and several countries, including Saudi Arabia
and Syria – leaders on the American list of human rights violators –
lauded the Libyan dictator for “democracy” and protection of human
rights.
The Council's previous censures of countries have focused solely on Israel.
3. Iran Forced to Remove Fuel from Bushehr Reactor
by Chana Ya'ar
Iran has confirmed it has been forced to begin removing fuel from its
nuclear reactor at the southern city of Bushehr, citing “safety reasons”
but providing few other details. The move adds another delay to the
startup for the reactor, which was to produce electricity for the nation
by January, but which missed its first deadline.
Iranian nuclear envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told the ISNA news agency
the fuel was being ejected from the core of the reactor so that tests
could be conducted.
The Russian engineers involved in the construction of the plant had
advised the move, he said. “Based on Russia's request to run tests and
technical measures, the fuel will be unloaded from the core of the
reactor and will be returned to it after completion of the experiments
and technical work,” Soltanieh said.
The process of unloading the fuel from the reactor could take up to six
days, according to a source close to the project quoted by Reuters.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to supervise the process, Soltanieh said.
4. Opinion: Our Absurd Obsession with Israel Is Laid Bare
by Nick Cohen
Nick Cohen is a columnist for the London
Guardian's Observer, where this article appeared on 27.2.11, and the
New Statesman. He writes occasional pieces for many other publications,
including the London Evening Standard and New Humanist.
The Middle East meant only Israel to many. Now the lives of millions of Arabs have been brought to Europe's attention.
The Arab revolution is consigning skip-loads of articles, books and
speeches about the Middle East to the dustbin of history. In a few
months, readers will go through libraries or newspaper archives and
wonder how so many who claimed expert knowledge could have turned their
eyes from tyranny and its consequences.
To a generation of politically active if not morally consistent
campaigners, the Middle East has meant Israel and only Israel. In
theory, they should have been able to stick by universal principles and
support a just settlement for the Palestinians while opposing the
dictators who kept Arabs subjugated. Few, however, have been able to
oppose oppression in all its forms consistently. The right has been no
better than the liberal-left in its Jew obsessions. The briefest reading
of Conservative newspapers shows that at all times their first concern
about political changes in the Middle East is how they affect Israel.
For both sides, the lives of hundreds of millions of Arabs, Berbers and
Kurds who were not involved in the conflict could be forgotten.
If you doubt me, consider the stories that the Middle Eastern bureau
chiefs missed until revolutions that had nothing to do with Palestine
forced them to take notice.
• Gaddafi was so frightened of a coup that he kept the Libyan army
small and ill-equipped and hired mercenaries and paramilitary "special
forces" he could count on to slaughter the civilian population when
required.
• Leila Ben Ali, the wife of the Tunisian president, was a
preposterously extravagant figure, who all but begged foreign
correspondents to write about her rapacious pursuit of wealth. Only when
Tunisians rose up did journalists stir themselves to tell their readers
how she had pushed the populace to revolt by combining the least
appealing traits of Imelda Marcos and Marie-Antoinette.
• Hearteningly, for those of us who retain a nostalgia for the best
traditions of the old left, Tunisia and Egypt had independent trade
unionists, who could play "a leading role", as we used to say, in
organising and executing uprisings.
Far from being a cause of the revolution, antagonism to Israel
everywhere served the interests of oppressors. Europeans have no right
to be surprised. Of all people, we ought to know from our experience of
Nazism that antisemitism is a conspiracy theory about power, rather than
a standard racist hatred of poor immigrants. Fascistic regimes reached
for it when they sought to deny their own people liberty. The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion, the forgery the far-right wing of the decaying
tsarist regime issued in 1903 to convince Russians they should continue
to obey the tsar's every command, denounces human rights and democracy
as facades behind which the secret Jewish rulers of the world
manipulated gullible gentiles.
Syrian Ba'athists, Hamas, the Saudi monarchy and Gaddafi eagerly
promoted the Protocols, for why wouldn't vicious elites welcome a
fantasy that dismissed democracy as a fraud and justified their
domination? Just before the Libyan revolt, Gaddafi tried a desperate
move his European predecessors would have understood. He tried to
deflect Libyan anger by calling for a popular Palestinian revolution
against Israel. That may or may not have been justified, but it
assuredly would have done nothing to help the wretched Libyans.
In his Epitaph on a Tyrant, Auden wrote:
"When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter
And when he cried, the little children died in the streets."
Europe's amnesia about how tyranny operated in our continent explains
why the Libyan revolution is embarrassing a rich collection of dupes and
scoundrels who were willing to laugh along with Gaddafi. His contacts
in Britain were once confined to the truly lunatic fringe. He supplied
arms to the IRA, funded the Workers' Revolutionary Party, Vanessa
Redgrave's nasty Trotskyist sect, and entertained Nick Griffin and other
neo-Nazis. We should not forget them when the time comes to settle
accounts. But when Tony Blair, who was so eloquent in denouncing the
genocides of Saddam, staged a reconciliation with Gaddafi after 9/11,
his friendship opened the way for the British establishment to embrace
the dictatorship.
It was not only BP and other oil companies, but British academics who
were happy to accept his largesse. The London School of Economics took
£1.5m from Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, money which by definition had to have
been stolen from the Libyan people, despite being warned to back away by
Professor Fred Halliday, the LSE's late and much-missed authority on
the Middle East, who never flinched from looking dictators in the eye.
"I've come to know Saif as someone who looks to democracy, civil
society and deep liberal values for the core of his inspiration," purred
the LSE's David Held as he accepted the cheque. Human Rights Watch,
once a reliable opponent of tyranny, went further and described a
foundation Saif ran in Libya as a force for freedom, willing to take on
the interior ministry in the fight for civil liberties. Meanwhile, and
to the surprise of no one, Peter Mandelson, New Labour's butterfly,
fluttered round Saif at the country house parties of the plutocracy.
Last week, Saif, the "liberal" promoter of human rights and dining
companion of Mandelson, appeared on Libyan television to say that his
father's gunmen would fight to the last bullet to keep the Gaddafi crime
family in business, a promise he is keeping. The thinking behind so
many who flattered him was that the only issue in the Middle East worth
taking a stand on was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that the
oppression of Arabs by Arabs was a minor concern.
The longevity of the regimes presided over by the Gaddafi, Assad and
Mubarak families and the House of Saud ought to be a reason for
denouncing them more vigorously, but their apparent permanence added to
the feeling that somehow Libyans, Syrians, Egyptians and Saudis want to
live under dictatorships.
The European Union, which did so much to export democracy and the rule
of law to former communist dictatorships of eastern Europe, has played a
miserable role in the Middle East. It pours in aid but never demands
democratisation or restrictions on police powers in return. That will
have to change if the promise of the past month is to be realised. If it
is to help with democracy-building, Europe will need to remind itself
as much as the recipients of its money that you can never build free
societies on the racist conspiracy theories of the Nazis and the tsars.
They are and always have been the tunes that tyrants sing.
Reprinted with permission of the author.
5. Yemen, a Key US Ally May Fall as Al-Qaeda Urges Revolt
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
An al-Qaeda offshoot is encouraging revolt in Yemen. The key U.S. ally
faces new threats from two leading tribal groups, who join protesters
one day after at least five people – and perhaps 11 – were killed in
clashes on Friday.
Amnesty International stated that 11 people died, bringing the total
death toll to 27 since anti-government demonstrations began to demand
the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose soldiers
reportedly opened gunfire on protesters Friday night.
The Arabian Peninsula al-Qaeda group, an offshoot of the Yemen-based
terrorist network, produced and posted an audio tape on Saturday, urging
revolutions. The speaker was Ibrahim al-Rubeish, a former detainee at
the Guantanamo Bay prisoner facility run by the United States, according
to the SITE Intel organization, which monitors terrorist websites.
The tape was produced by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a
Yemen-based offshoot of the terror network, reports the SITE Intel
group, a U.S.-based group that monitors extremist websites.
"One tyrant goes, only to be replaced another who may fix for the
people some of their worldly issues by offering job opportunities and
increasing their income, but the greater problem remains," al-Rubeish
said.
Al-Rubeish criticized Saudi Arabia for hosting deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Saudi Arabia announced a $37 billion aid package for its citizens late last week.
The Yemen Solidarity Council, most of which is comprised of Saleh’s own
Hashid tribe, demanded an end to the bloodshed. "The Yemeni people will
not stay quiet on the blood that was spilled in Aden and we will avenge
it for them," said Hussein Ahmar, president of the Council, whose
withdrawal of support for Saleh has placed the ruler’s regime in
jeopardy.
"We call on all those loyal to Yemen to stand with the revolution until this regime falls,” he said.
Contributing to the threat to Saleh are high unemployment and a water
shortage, circumstances that al-Qaeda is exploiting in its call for a
Shi’ite revolution.
Yemen is a base for al-Qaeda’s attempts to attack the United States,
and the Obama administration fears the fall of Saleh could set off
full-fledged anarchy and terror in more areas in the Middle East.
The kingdom of Morocco also faced large-scale protests on Sunday, which
were expected to be peaceful. Five people died in demonstrations last
Sunday.
"King Mohammed is well aware of" and "taking appropriate action" to
meet the aspirations of Moroccans, U.S. State Department spokesman
Philip J. Crowley told reporters last week.
Several Moroccan websites have reported that the king will replace his prime minister and cabinet.
In Bahrain, another key American ally, senior Shi’ite opposition leader
Hassan Mushaima has returned from exile and will likely strengthen
protests against the regime.
Protests also continue in Algeria, where President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has deployed a large police force.
In Tunisia,
the interim government has temporarily banned all traffic, including
that of pedestrians, on the capital’s main street after rock-throwing
protesters clashed with police and soldiers, some of whom manned tanks.
The opposition has accused the interim government of hijacking the
revolution.
6. Analysis: Russian Arms Sales to Middle East, Method or Madness?
by Dr. Amiel Ungar
One could ostensibly see a conflict between recent evaluations by the
Russian elite on the situation in the Middle East and continuing arms
sales to the region.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned that the revolutionary
wave in the Arab world could lead to "decades" of turmoil.. "Fanatics"
could come to power, he warned. "That would mean fires for decades and
the further spread of extremism." Vladimir Putin was equally
pessimistic: "We are concerned that radical groups will come to power or
be strengthened, despite soothing reports that this is unlikely."
However, despite these warnings. Russia continues to sell sophisticated arms to the same volatile region.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told reporters that the
Yakhont missile sale to Syria will proceed. The Yakhont is a cruise
anti-ship missile with a range of 300 km that skims the water's surface.
making detection and interception difficult. Israel has objected not
only because it is apprehensive of Syrian intention.s but because of
fears that these weapons could make their way to Hizbullah in
Lebanon or to Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza.
Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of Russia's Federal Service for
Military-Technical Cooperation, boasted of a $48 billion backlog of
orders with budgeted sales for the year surpassing $9.5 billion, in an
interview with the Kommersant newspaper.
Equally disturbing is Moscow's brinksmanship in terms of sales to Iran,
where Russia pushes the envelope of international sanctions. Russia
agreed to scrap the sale of the S-300 surface-to-air system to Iran,
but it is still going ahead with the sale of a less ambitious defense
system. Dmitryev ominously added: "We have prepared a list of potential
areas of cooperation with the Iranian side, and it is quite long."
One explanation is that governments frequently pursue conflicting
policies, particularly when there are powerful institutional interests
and bureaucratic inertia in pursuing disparate policies. Russia's arms
sales policy to the region antedates Putin and continued unabated from
the Soviet Union through the era of Boris Yeltsin. There are various
reasons for its continuation, from Russia's point of view.
Russia may sense that Muslim radicalism means trouble, but may have
decided that its way of dealing with the problem is to buy off the
radicals. Western European countries played the same game with Arab
terrorist organizations, providing immunity from prosecution for
terrorists in exchange for immunity from terrorist outrages. Russia
faces Moslem insurgency in the Caucasus. It does not want places like
Chechnya to become the ultimate battlegrounds for jihadists and thanks
to its support for the Iranian nuclear program, arms sales and playing
the spoke in the wheel of UN sanctions, Russia has a received a clean
bill of health from the Iranian mullahs.
This policy is reminiscent of Stalin's policy after the Molotov von
Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, when he sought to divert Hitler from the
Soviet Union. It backfired then and it may well backfire again.
Russia also needs the arms industry to maintain jobs. The backbone of
the Russian economy is the sale of raw materials. Under Putin and
Medvedev, Russia has yet to escape the model of a Third World economy.
The collapse of Soviet-style industrialism has created an unemployment
problem in company towns and the arms industry is one of the few areas
where Moscow can successfully maintain industrial jobs.
Russia has recently announced a $650 billion arms modernization
program. The regime is apprehensive not only about the Muslim insurgency
in Russia itself but also about its ability to defend its eastern flank
against China. If Russia is not to fall into the position of relying on
Western technology and arms purchases, it has to expend billions in
research and development. Like any arms manufacturer, the more Russia
sells abroad the more it lowers the unit cost on R&D.
The current unrest threatens some of Moscow's arms contracts. Russia
had many deals in process with Qaddafi that are now in limbo. Another
source of problems is a falloff of sales to China. China used to be a
major purchaser of Russian weaponry, but as China moves up the
industrial and technological food chain, she has less need for Russian
weapons. Now if China makes orders of Russian arms it orders them in
small batches, reverse engineers them and makes its own. Therefore,
Russia must defend her remaining arms markets.
Finally by the policy of arms sales, Russia makes it known that it is a
player in the great game. If other countries want Russia to desist from
a particular arms sale, Moscow will be able to extract a quid pro quo.
For example with Israel, a reported payoff for Moscow's decision to
scrap a sale to Syria was the Israeli sale of UAVs to the Russian army
and Moscow's ability to influence Israeli arms sales to Georgia.
7. Glenn Beck Apologizes for Reform Leaders-Muslim Radicals Analogy
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Glenn Beck has apologized for what he called “one of the worst
analogies of all time,” in which he compared Reform Jewish leaders with
Muslim radicals.
Last week, the popular talk show host said on that Reform leaders are
"generally political in nature,” but continued, "It's almost like Islam,
radicalized Islam in a way, to where it is just -- radicalized Islam is
less about religion than it is about politics. When you look at the
Reform Judaism, it is more about politics. I'm not saying that they're
the same.
“It's not about terror or anything else, it's about politics, and so it
becomes more about politics than it does about faith. Orthodox rabbis
-- that is about faith."
In fact, the Reform stream of Judaism rejects the concept of G-d given
commandments, takes the Torah and adapts its contents for political
and social issues, while rejecting the authority of Torah sages.
However, Beck's comparisons with Muslim radicals got him in trouble with
all of the American Jewish community, including leaders of the Orthodox
and Conservative movements.
It was Beck’s second run-in with Jewish clergy. Last month, a group of 400 Conservative and Reform rabbis posted
a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, condemning Beck for
negative comments about secular anti-Zionist Jewish billionaire George
Soros, whom Beck described as collaborating with the Nazis. At that
time Orthodox and Zionist leadership came out for Beck and it was the
clergy's ad that was severely criticized. A letter by ADL director Abe
Foxman against the ad was printed in the NY Times.
Beck’s apology for the analogy of Reform leaders and Muslim radicals
focused on what he called his own ”ignorance” and the need to apologize
when one is wrong. He did not address the issue of Reform leaders’
concentrating on political issues.
“I was admittedly misinformed on Reform rabbis, and made a horrible
analogy that I immediately attempted to clarify – quite honestly, I blew
it on this one,” Beck stated in his apology, which the Anti-Defamation
League accepted.
“We welcome his words of apology and consider the matter closed,” ADL
director Abe Foxman said.. However, the Jewish Funds for Justice stated,
“Glenn Beck’s apology for comparing Reform Judaism to ‘radicalized
Islam’ is welcome but incomplete. He still has not acknowledged the
letter signed by 400 rabbis.”
In his six-minute apology, Beck said, "I was having a conversation with
a few friends the night before, one of whom I trust on things like
this, and I'm not even sure if I misunderstood him or misheard him or
what but I certainly had not done enough homework to go on the air and
haphazardly make a comment like I did.
“It was a nightmare. Halfway through [his on-air analogy], I knew no
way, [but] I am on the air for four hours every single day, live. That
is a recipe for disaster; that is trouble."
Concentrating on his relationship with listeners, Beck commented, “We
have been together for so long, and you know me, and I feel that I know
you. And when you have that kind of relationship, you are talking like
in a cubicle.
“I told you to guard your credibility. There is no way you will never
be wrong, and the people around the cubicle know that if you make a
mistake, you have to correct it…. Abe Foxman brought this to my
attention, I don’t agree with Abe Foxman [on issues], but on this one he
is right. If I offended to you, it was not my intent.”
8. US-Lebanese Citizen Extradited for Hizbullah Support
by Chana Ya'ar
A dual U.S.-Lebanese citizen charged with supporting the Hizbullah
terrorist organization has been extradited from Paraguay to
Philadelphia.
U.S. officials have announced that 38-year-old Moussa Ali Hamdan
appeared in court there over the weekend. He faces 28 counts on various
charges, including conspiracy to provide funds to Hizbullah from the
sale of counterfeit money and fake passports.
The federal prosecutor's office in Pennsylvania said in a statement
that he was charged with providing “material support to Hizbullah, a
designated foreign terrorist organization.”
If convicted on all charges, Ali Hamdan could face a sentence of up to 260 years in prison.
Diplomatic documents leaked by the WikiLeaks group made it clear the
U.S. embassy in Chile was tracking fundraising efforts by the
Lebanon-based terrorist group in Latin America.
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay were named in the Islamist network under surveillance by the embassy.
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