In this mailing:
- Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians Being Slaughtered, Displaced
- Fiamma Nirenstein: U.S. Foils Al-Qaeda, but Blows Own Cover Again
Palestinians
Being Slaughtered, Displaced
Where are the
"Pro-Palestinians"?
by Khaled Abu
Toameh
August 14, 2013 at 5:00 am
August 14, 2013 at 5:00 am
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The
mistreatment of Palestinians at the hands of the Lebanese authorities always
reminds one of those university professors and political commentators living in
the U.S. who pretend to be "pro-Palestinian." They focus their
attacks on Israel, and ignore the real suffering of the Palestinian people at
the hands of Arab countries.
As Israeli authorities issued permits last week to hundreds of thousands of
West Bank Palestinians to visit Israel, the Lebanese government decided to ban
Palestinian refugees fleeing the war in Syria from entering Lebanon.So while Palestinians are being slaughtered and forced out of their homes in Syria, the Lebanese government is preventing them from entering Lebanon.
The Israeli permits, which were issued on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, enabled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to visit shopping malls, restaurants and beaches in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Jerusalem and Acre.
But as the West Bank Palestinians were celebrating the feast in Israel, thousands of their brethren found themselves stranded along the border between Syria and Lebanon.
The Wavel refugee camp
for Palestinians, near Baalbek in Lebanon. Palestinians fleeing the Syrian
civil war have been given shelter in Wavel with the assistance of UNRWA.
(Image credit: European Commission DG ECHO)
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According to the Palestinian human rights foundation Rasd, the Lebanese decision to ban Palestinian refugees from entering Lebanon is a "violation of the Lebanese international commitments."
The group also expressed its surprise over the Palestinian Authority's "silence" towards the suffering of the Palestinian refugees fleeing from Syria.
The Lebanese ban did not surprise those who have long been following Lebanon's apartheid policies against Palestinians. These policies include laws prohibiting Palestinians from owning property and working in dozens of professions.
Although the Lebanese authorities have not offered any reason for the latest anti-Palestinian move, some Lebanese politicians have expressed fear that the Palestinians would try to "settle" in their country.
More than 70,000 Palestinians are reported to have fled Syria to Lebanon over the past two years.
Other Lebanese politicians have expressed fear that the new Palestinian refugees would pose a threat to their country's national security. These politicians claim that many of the refugees have turned Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps into bases for Islamic terror groups.
Human rights activists say that most of the Palestinians stranded along the border between Syria and Lebanon are women and children who clearly pose no threat to Lebanon's national security and stability.
The mistreatment of Palestinians at the hands of the Lebanese authorities always reminds one of those university professors and political commentators living in the U.S. who pretend to be "pro-Palestinian."
These professors and columnists rarely utter a word about the apartheid laws enforced by Lebanon against the 450,000 Palestinians living there.
Instead, the "pro-Palestinian" professors and columnists focus their attacks on Israel and ignore the real suffering of Palestinians at the hands of the Lebanese authorities and other Arab countries.
The Palestinian Authority leadership also does not seem to care about the plight of Palestinians in Arab countries.
Abbas and his top officials spent the whole week issuing condemnations of Israeli plans to build new homes in Jewish settlements, completely ignoring the latest Lebanese ban against Palestinian refugees. As far as the Palestinian Authority leadership is concerned, plans to build new housing units are much more serious than the killing or displacing of thousands of Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon.
Related Topics: Lebanon
| Khaled Abu
Toameh
U.S. Foils Al-Qaeda, but Blows Own Cover Again
by Fiamma
Nirenstein
August 14, 2013 at 4:00 am
August 14, 2013 at 4:00 am
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Al-Qaeda
leader Ayman al-Zawahiri may be isolated in Pakistan, but he is still free to
contemplate the next moves of his army.
If there's one thing that's worked in this Al-Qaeda plot that caused 22
American embassies and consulates to close, it is the surveillance system that
Edward Snowden took such pride in exposing, while accusing the U.S. of wanting
to control the lives of its citizens.That information could now fall, and most likely has by now fallen, into the hands of Snowden's new best friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin. The rest is pretty much also a debacle; and America's debacles, as far as the war on terror is concerned, are always Europe's as well.
According to a leak from the U.S. government, Al-Qaeda held a conference call, intercepted by the CIA -- with no fewer than 20 leaders scattered all over the world. We have learned that their plan was to seize power in a Middle Eastern country now devastated by arms trafficking, money, savagery, and international terrorism: Yemen. These accumulating failed states can easily become more Afghanistans: perfect hiding places, basically countries from which new countries can be conquered. The Yemenite government announced yesterday that it had just foiled a planned coup d'état by Al-Qaeda, that had called for the conquest of the cities Al-Mukalla and Ghayl Bawazir, pivotal points for the oil trade. In the main part of the operation -- the plan to attack the Mina al-Dhaba terminal -- Al Qaeda would undoubtedly have taken hostage the foreign experts working there.
American fear now seems as widespread as Islamist extremism. It seems to be a fear of practical and ideological loss in the face of the instability and carnage that now dominate the Middle East, and the need to do anything about it. What makes America's fear damaging is the current administration's refusal to admit that a war -- such as the one under way from Syria to Egypt, from Yemen to Libya to Tunisia -- requires a courageous Middle Eastern policy. The U.S. administration seems to have thought that the democratic movements behind the revolutions would put an end to terrorism, and would be supported the Muslim Brotherhood. The U.S. seems to have thought that the Muslim Brotherhood was moderate. To some extent, this misinformed belief actually still exists. In the meantime, Syria is a new meeting point for international Sunni al-Qaeda, a powder keg waiting to happen; and the other terrorist group, Hezbollah, on the orders of Iran, is strengthening its new Shiite al-Qaeda forces every day.
In response, the U.S. President went on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," a television show known for its light-hearted irony, to explain that there has been "no overreaction by the United States with the closing of the embassies and consulates," -- which at the time, when it was still unclear which country the al-Qaeda leaders on conference call had selected, was a prudent decision. He also said that the threat of attacks is "significant," and that, despite an American counterattack, the terrorist organization is very much alive and well. Good news, which, according to the President of the United States, justifies closing its embassies.
After the attacks on the prisons in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan, on the anniversary of Mumbai, Gluboky and Jakarta, with the memory of Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and the murder of the U.S. ambassador in Benghazi, Obama was ready to put up a fight -- just not against the terrorists.
Now al-Qaeda seems to have one of its central headquarters in Yemen, under the command of Nasser al-Wahishi. AQAP [al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula], as the organization is called; and, as is the operational structure of al-Qaeda, it is certainly capable of independant operations. So is Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria and others in Tunisia, Sinai and everywhere throughout the vast regions North Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri may be isolated in Pakistan, but he is still free to contemplate the next moves of his army.
Fiamma Nirenstein, journalist and author, former Vice-President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and member of the Italian delegation at the Council of Europe.
This article originally appeared in slightly different form in Italian in Il Giornale; English copyright, Gatestone Institute.
Related Topics: Fiamma
Nirenstein
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