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Abbas to Kerry: Please Beg Me More!
by Khaled Abu
Toameh
April 4, 2014 at 5:00 am
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Abbas is convinced that it is only a
matter of time before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry rushes back to the
region in yet anther desperate effort to "salvage the peace
process."
In recent weeks, according to
Palestinian officials, Kerry has literally been "begging" Abbas to
agree to an extension of the peace talks after the end of April.
Abbas and the Palestinian Authority
leadership have concluded that the Obama Administration is prepared to do
almost anything to show some kind of "victory" in the peace process
between Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinian demands therefore have
continued to increase almost every day.
Palestinian Authority [PA] leader Mahmoud Abbas is now waiting to see what
the U.S. Administration will offer him in return for refraining from pursuing
his bid to join various international treaties and institutions.In recent weeks, according to Palestinian officials, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has literally been "begging" Abbas to agree to the extension of the peace talks after the end of April. Hours after Abbas signed the applications for joining a number of international bodies and treaties, he received an urgent phone call from Kerry asking him to refrain from further moves that could "derail" the peace process. Abbas is convinced that it is only a matter of time before Kerry rushes back to the region in yet another desperate effort to "salvage the peace process." On Wednesday night, Abbas and the PA leadership received the first sign that the U.S. Administration was nervous and confused following the PA's surprise decision to join 15 international organizations and treaties. Kerry's envoy, Martin Indyk, invited Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli Justice Minister Tsipi Livni to an emergency meeting in Jerusalem to find ways of preventing the "collapse" of the peace talks in the wake of Abbas's decision to apply for the memberships. The meeting lasted for several hours and, according to Palestinian sources in Ramallah, Indyk and Livni "reprimanded" Erekat for surprising Israel and the U.S. Administration with the new decision.
So far, however, Abbas does not seem to be satisfied with what his emissary, Erekat, heard from Indyk and Livni. Abbas is therefore expected to step up pressure on the two parties in the coming days and weeks, if he can, in the hope of extracting as many concessions as possible. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership have concluded that the Obama Administration is prepared to do almost anything to show some kind of a "victory" in the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinian demands have therefore continued to increase almost every day. Realizing how desperate Kerry is to achieve an extension of the talks, Abbas decided that this was the right time to set new conditions, such as the release of jailed Fatah militia leader Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Sa'adat, Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Barghouti is in prison for his role in terrorist attacks against Israelis during the second intifada. Sa'adat is serving a lengthy prison term for his role in the assassination of Israel's Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi. As Kerry increased his pressure on the Palestinians to agree to an extension, Abbas added two more conditions: the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a complete cessation of construction in settlements and east Jerusalem neighborhoods. Abbas has also made it clear that his decision to join international organizations and treaties does not mean that he is interested in a "clash" with the U.S. Administration. Abbas is right. Of course he does not want a "clash" with President Barack Obama and Kerry. Rather, Abbas wants the two men to continue begging him not to walk out of the peace process and turn their entire Middle East policy into another blunder. He wants them to exert pressure on the Israeli government to accept both his old and new demands. Abbas apparently thinks he is moving in the right direction, and that Obama and Kerry have no choice but to accept his demands and intensify U.S. pressure on Israel. Abbas does not want totally to walk out of the peace talks at this stage. He feels that he can still extract further concessions from the Israelis and Americans, and that his decision to join 15 international organizations and treaties has left the U.S. Administration in a state of panic that the peace talks might fail. Now he is waiting to see what price Obama and Kerry are willing to pay to avoid that scenario.
Related Topics: Khaled Abu
Toameh
The Changing Face of European Politics?
by Gary J. Robinson
April 4, 2014 at 4:30 am
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What was described to us as a simple
trade deal.... has been revealed as a smokescreen to cover a plan to create a
huge superstate -- the European Union.
"British sovereignty is mainly
in their head because they've signed the EU Treaty." — Viviane Reding,
EU Commission Vice President.
Imagine if you will, that the U.S., Canada and Mexico signed up to what
citizens believed was simply a new trade deal.A few decades later, you are shocked to discover that a vast amount of laws affecting your life aren't made by your elected officials in Washington, but in a new multi-million dollar Parliament Building in Ottawa, Canada. When you ask the officials there what precisely is going on, they answer that the plan all along was to merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a single nation, with a single flag, anthem and currency. If this scenario sounds bizarre, in Europe that is precisely what has taken place. Decades ago, the nations of Europe signed up to what was described to us at the time as a simple trade deal. In recent years, this trade deal has been revealed as the smokescreen to cover a plan to create a huge superstate -- the European Union. The European Union has its own unelected government, the European Commission; a vast Headquarters in Brussels; a "national anthem," Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"; and its own flag, the blue flag with the circle of yellow stars. In short they are trying to create a country called "Europe". There is only one democratic aspect to the EU, which is the European Parliament. However this chamber does not create new laws, it merely amends and scrutinizes new legislation. The elected representatives there (Members of the European Parliament, commonly referred to simply as MEPs) are predominately in favour of the grand project and have been quiet about the true aims of the project. As the superstate reaches completion, its architects have felt confident enough to let the truth be known. EU Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding boasted during a recent trip to London: "The most powerful parliament in Europe is the European Parliament. Seventy per cent of laws in this country are co-decided there. British sovereignty is mainly in their head because they've signed the EU treaty." And during a trip to Sweden she proudly stated: "Did you know that 80% of Swedish laws are not Swedish laws? They are European laws that have been translated into Swedish legislation." These claims have rightly shocked the people of Europe -- and now that the European master plan is out in the open, they are worried that they are losing democracy and national sovereignty. In May 2014, voters across the 28 member states of the European Union will go to the polls to vote in the European Parliament elections. Many pundits are predicting that in these elections the newer and more radical political parties will experience big wins. Fuelled in part by the Euro crisis, continent-wide austerity measures and large waves of immigration from poorer countries to wealthier ones, Europeans are growing tired of the political status quo and are worried where the "European Project" is heading. In polls across the continent, Eurosceptic parties in particular are riding high. The Eurosceptics vary between "reformists" who want to reform the EU, and "Outers" who want their nations to resign membership altogether. All are highly critical of the current form and costs of the European Union. Despite their shared critical views on the EU, they do not share a common ideology but come from all across the political spectrum. Notable Eurosceptic Parties include Britain's UK Independence Party [UKIP] -- tipped to win in the UK -- led by Nigel Farage; Geert Wilders' PVV Partij voor de Vrijheid [Party for Freedom] in the Netherlands; Timo Soini and The True Finns in Finland; and Marine Le Pen's Front National, predicted to win in France.
Well, in and of itself, not much; Members of the European Parliament have little real power. And even with a large surge in their numbers Eurosceptics will likely still be underrepresented in a Parliament full of pro-EU "true believers." However, if these smaller parties do experience the surges predicted, the results will likely be far reaching. Success in 2014 will mean more new spokespeople, more party donors, more party members and activists, added resources and, critically, added credibility among the electorate. A success will mean that they can go into national elections in 2015 and 2016 as well-funded and credible political forces, no longer seen as outsiders. In countries with traditionally two big political parties, we shall see three-party systems emerging. Likewise, in nations that are traditionally three-party based, we shall see the rise of fourth parties. These elections in just a few months' time will signify just how upset the people of Europe are with their present leaders. They could also change the face of European politics for a generation and perhaps even put the brakes on this new unelected, unaccountable, and non-transparent superstate, the European Union Gary J. Robinson is a British political commentator. The Choices for Syria's Christians
by Lawrence
A. Franklin
April 4, 2014 at 4:00 am
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If Assad falls, how can Christians
have any future in Syria when radical Sunni groups kill their fellow Muslim
Shi'as and even moderate Sunni rebel soldiers as well?
It is a historical irony indeed when
it appears the only safe place for a Christian in the Middle East is Israel,
a country in large part populated by Jews who themselves were forced to flee
Islamic intolerance in the same lands from which Christians now feel impelled
to flee.
In late January, a delegation of prominent clerics from Syria's Christian
communities visiting Washington, D.C. testified about horrific attacks by
anti-Assad rebels against innocent Christian non-combatants. They claimed
that both the so-called moderate Free Syrian Army and extremist Islamic
factions were guilty of repeated human rights violations against Christians.[1] For Syria's Christians, the outcome
of the civil war has existential ramifications.Dhimmi status [second-class, "tolerated" citizenship for non-Muslim minorities] for centuries under Islam has taught Syria's minority Christian community to be wary of any political change. After the initial invasion in 633 A.D. by Bedouin Muslim Arabian hordes, Syria's Christian communities were late to realize that this was not just another raid by desert nomads. After a month-long siege, on September 19, 634 A.D.[2], Damascus capitulated to the Arabian invaders. Eventually, in most of the Levant Christianity was supplanted by Islam. The era of Eastern Christianity's Byzantine civilization in Syria was at an end. The ensuing slaughter of Syria's Christian faithful was great. The burning of churches, convents, and monasteries virtually expunged any of Christianity's physical infrastructure. The rape and enslavement of non-combatant innocents was enormous. Huge tracts of private land were expropriated and settled by the Muslim conquerors. The Christian populations of Aleppo and Antioch were nearly extinguished.[3] Those "Peoples of the Book," Jews and Christians who survived the initial massacres, were to be "protected" -- as long as they peacefully embraced their diminished humanity. The Jews of Syria may have fared better than the Christians of Syria, as they merely exchanged one oppressor for another. Christians, however, had not yet discerned the mercurial nature of their so-called "protected" status. During the anti-Christian pogrom in Aleppo's Christian quarter in 1850, their "protected" status entirely evaporated.[4] Whenever fanatical imams deemed it appropriate, they would stir up their Muslim faithful into a mob. Moreover, the political leadership responsible for maintaining Islam's contract with the dhimmi proved to be ineffective and willfully passive in the face of mob fanaticism.[5] Neither could Syria's Christians count on moderate Muslim factions for refuge: they invariably disappeared once the radicals went on the rampage.[6] The pockets of Aleppo-based Christians, however, always managed to survive. Aleppo's Christian communities were able to rebound from massacres, once by the Mongols and later by Tamerlane, as well as several Muslim-orchestrated pogroms. Today's Syrian Christian community is now being tested once more as it seeks to endure the atrocities of Syria's ongoing civil war. The threat of the stark choice between extinction and exile might explain why many of Syria's Christians support the Assad regime. Nevertheless, there were some Christians who, along with their Shia Alawite Muslim countrymen, were driven by self-preservation to join the ranks of the protestors in the early months of the rebellion against Assad's tyranny.[7] Many Christians may also remain loyal to the regime out of fear, especially with the increased influence of extremist Sunni Muslim factions in the opposition. Groups such as al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS] have committed crimes against innocents and combatants alike. One high-profile crime by Chechen foreign fighters allied with al-Nusra was last April's kidnapping of the Greek Orthodox and Syrian Orthodox Archbishops of Aleppo.[8] The fate of these two clerics remains unknown. Another crime was the kidnapping of 13 nuns from their convent in Maaloula several months ago.[9] More than forty churches have been burned, rockets fired at an Armenian high school in Damascus killing four students, and several men beheaded just for being Christian. Half a million Christians have been driven from their homes and another 300,000 have fled Syria altogether.[10]
Even fighters of the more moderate Free Syrian Army [FSA] have reportedly committed atrocities against Christians. A survivor of an alleged massacre of Christians in the Syrian town of Yakubiyah, for example, who escaped across the border to Turkey, claimed that the FSA beheaded six Christians there.[12] It is likely that most Sunni Muslim opposition fighters now perceive Christians and Alawites as principal pillars of domestic support for the Assad dictatorship. The fate of Syria's Christian population may be similar to those of Iraq.[13] Reportedly, only a quarter of Iraq's 2003 population of one million Christians remains in country. Agenzia Fides [Faith Agency], an international Christian aid foundation, accuses the rebels in Syria of having engaged in massive "ethnic cleansing" of Christians. One report claims that opposition military units have reduced the Christian population of Homs from over 150,000 to 1000 souls.[14] If the Syrian government does collapse, safe alternatives for Syria's Christian minority are extremely limited. They could either flee the country or migrate to a possible smaller Alawite-ruled Syrian entity. If Syria's civil war continues, it is even more likely that the country's Christian minority will join the hundreds of thousands of their brethren, mostly Iraqi Christians, who have also abandoned their homeland. This migration is likely to be the safest alternative despite Vatican appeals for the region's Christians to remain in their home countries.[15] If Assad falls, how can Christians have any future in Syria when radical Sunni groups kill their fellow Muslim Shi'as and even moderate Sunni rebel soldiers as well?[16] It is historical irony indeed when it appears the only safe place for a Christian in the Mideast is Israel, a country in large part populated by Jews who themselves were forced to flee Islamic intolerance in the same lands from which Christians now feel impelled to flee.
Related Topics: Syria
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A. Franklin
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