Karim, the Palestinian who drove me to the Gaza Strip, was very quiet. As we sped out of Jerusalem in his comfortable private taxi, he said very little, except to ask if I would give his friend Rami a box of cigarettes when I arrived. “I’ve worked with Rami for eight years now,” he said, “but I’ve never seen him. He cannot come out of Gaza, and I can’t go inside.”

An hour later we reached the Erez terminal. It looks like an airport hangar; grey, immense, featureless. Erez is the main Israeli crossing to the Gaza Strip; but the journey starts long before you reach Erez. First you have to apply in writing for Israeli security clearance to enter the Strip. Since declaring the Gaza Strip “a hostile entity” on September 19 last year, Israel has tightened its siege of Gaza, and many people, including UN personnel, are refused clearance without explanation.

Inside Erez, it took me a couple of hours to clear security and start wheeling my suitcase through the grey corridors and into Gaza. Emerging from Erez, the first thing I saw was destruction; shattered buildings surrounded by mounds of rubble. Rami was waiting for me, smoking. “Welcome to Gaza,” he smiled.

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Jihad Prevention Act (Introduced in House)
HR 6975 IH
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6975

To require aliens to attest that they will not advocate installing a Sharia law system in the United States as a condition for admission, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 18, 2008

Mr. TANCREDO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

To require aliens to attest that they will not advocate installing a Sharia law system in the United States as a condition for admission, and for other purposes. (more…)

Yesterday’s nomination of Tzipi Livni as Kadima’s candidate for Israel’s upcoming national election (and especially the pleasant reception of the news by Ramallah) confirms two immutable facts about Israel/Palestinian relations: 1) Israel’s tradition of electing killers to the highest office is alive and well… Likewise, 2) the Palestinian puppet leadership always lick it all up.

Let me elaborate…

To begin, yesterday’s contest between Tzipi Livni and Shaul Mofaz was an old-fashioned battle between two evils. Despite Kadima’s reputation for being “moderate” and offering Israel’s best hope for brokering peace with the Palestinians, both candidates were (in Livni’s case, still is) entirely unfit to rule.

On the one hand, yesterday’s nomination offered Shaul Mofaz – a man notorious for recent revelations that, during his tenure as commander of the IDF in the West Bank and Gaza, he called for 70 slain Palestinians per day. This, as well as his role in demolishing hundreds of Palestinian homes during the same period, has led to accusations of war crimes. David Kretzmer, emeritus professor of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says that recent evidence suggest that Mofaz “committed serious offenses, some of which at least, fall into the category of war crimes.” (more…)

Aghast at the atrocities committed by US forces invading the Philippines, and the rhetorical flights about liberation and noble intent that routinely accompany crimes of state, Mark Twain threw up his hands at his inability to wield his formidable weapon of satire. The immediate object of his frustration was the renowned General Funston. “No satire of Funston could reach perfection,” Twain lamented, “because Funston occupies that summit himself… [he is] satire incarnated.”

It is a thought that often comes to mind, again in August 2008 during the Russia-Georgia-Ossetia war. George Bush, Condoleezza Rica and other dignitaries solemnly invoked the sanctity of the United Nations, warning that Russia could be excluded from international institutions “by taking actions in Georgia that are inconsistent with” their principles. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations must be rigorously honored, they intoned – “all nations,” that is, apart from those that the US chooses to attack: Iraq, Serbia, perhaps Iran, and a list of others too long and familiar to mention. (more…)

The decision to make public a presidential order of last July authorizing American strikes inside Pakistan without seeking the approval of the Pakistani government ends a long debate within, and on the periphery of, the Bush administration. Sen. Barack Obama, aware of this ongoing debate during his own long battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton, tried to outflank her by supporting a policy of U.S. strikes into Pakistan. Sen. John McCain and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin have now echoed this view, and so it has become, by consensus, official U.S. policy.

Its effects on Pakistan could be catastrophic, creating a severe crisis within the army and in the country at large. The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis are opposed to the U.S. presence in the region, viewing it as the most serious threat to peace.

Why, then, has the U.S. decided to destabilize a crucial ally? Within Pakistan, some analysts argue that this is a carefully coordinated move to weaken the Pakistani state yet further by creating a crisis that extends way beyond the badlands on the frontier with Afghanistan. Its ultimate aim, they claim, would be the extraction of the Pakistani military’s nuclear fangs. If this were the case, it would imply that Washington was indeed determined to break up the Pakistani state, since the country would very simply not survive a disaster on that scale. (more…)

We were promised a “New Economy” of high-tech tradable services to take the place of the offshored manufacturing economy. Wondering what had become of the “New Economy,” Duke University’s Offshoring Research Network searched for it and located it offshore. Yes, the activities of the “New Economy” are also outsourced offshore.

Call centers, IT operations, back-office operations, and manufacturing have long been moved offshore. Now high-value-added proprietary activities such as research and development, engineering, product development, and analytical services are being sent offshore. All that’s left is finance, and it is crumbling before our eyes.

Independent broker-dealers are disappearing: Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers. These venerable institutions were too thinly capitalized for the risks that they took. Merrill Lynch is now part of the Bank of America, and Lehman Brothers is history. (more…)

Anchorage

I’ve been in Alaska only a week, but I’m already feeling ever so much smarter about Russia.

I can’t quite see it from my hotel window, but, hey, I know it’s out there somewhere, beyond all the stuffed bears and cruise ships and glaciers and oil derricks.

The proximity of the country from which William Seward bartered to buy Alaska for $7 million — Seward’s icebox — is so illuminating that I suddenly realize that we would commit a grave error by overestimating Russia’s economic strength. After all, it represents only 2.8 percent of the world’s G.D.P., even though its gross domestic product has ballooned from $200 billion in 1999 to $1.7 trillion this year.

But I overanalyze. (more…)

I was sad to read that Peter Camejo, one of the founders of the California Green party, died recently. In 2004, he received my vote when he ran as Ralph Nader’s vice Presidential candidate (though independent from the Green party). There was a nice obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle.

On a hot afternoon during the month of Ramadan, there are few better places to be than resting beneath the shade of an orchard of guava trees, with the scent of fresh ripening fruit wafting around you. Farmer Sa’id Al-Agha sits quietly, his eyes resting on his fruit trees. ‘My father and my grandfather both grew up here, farming guavas, and I’ve lived here all my life’ he says. ‘This land is in my blood.’

Sa’id Al-Agha farms thirty donumms of guava plantations in Mawasi, in the south western Gaza Strip, where the loamy soil also encourages date palms and citrus trees to thrive (a donumm is equivalent to 1,000 square metres). His Mawasi farm is a tranquil haven in Gaza, which has one of the highest population densities in the world. There are some 120 guava farms dotted around Mawasi, and between them the farmers and their families cultivate more than 2,500 donumms of guavas. August and September are the height of the Gaza guava season, and we can hear workers calling to each other as they harvest the fruit by hand.
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Yesterday, I formally began my internship at the UNHCR in London. Overall it was a decent experience – albeit a very busy and immediate introduction to their work. Essentially, I am required to come in around 9.30 each morning to read every major British newspaper and newsmagazine… Yes, that’s right… I’ll be sitting down with a cup of coffee each morning, flipping my way through the Guardian, the Times, the Telegraph, the Independent, the New Statesmen, the Economist, Prospect, etc. etc. Of course, there is a reason for this – I am meant to find any articles relevant to UNHCR’s work, i.e. about refugees, displaced peoples, and any UN officials or immediate references to UNHCR.

Once I am finished with the news every morning, we send out a condensed “update” to everyone on the mailing list and then get to any other business. I must say that I am pleased with this internship, especially considering all of the negative things I have heard about interning with the UN (apparently most interns master the art of making coffee and folding origami swans). All of the people in the office have very interesting (and international) backgrounds – a common feature of IO/NGO workers – and I am quite excited to get to know some of them better.

Of course, at the same time, I am supposed to be working both on my book chapter and on my Master’s thesis. The British Library seems to be my best bet for unhindered library access, so I will be going there on Monday to register as a researcher.

John McCain announced that he was running for president to confront the “transcendent challenge” of the 21st century, “radical Islamic extremism,” contrasting it with “stability, tolerance and democracy.” But the values of his handpicked running mate, Sarah Palin, more resemble those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do those of the Founding Fathers. On censorship, the teaching of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God’s will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts. What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick.

McCain pledged to work for peace based on “the transformative ideals on which we were founded.” Tolerance and democracy require freedom of speech and the press, but while mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin inquired of the local librarian how to go about banning books that some of her constituents thought contained inappropriate language. She tried to fire the librarian for defying her. Book banning is common to fundamentalisms around the world, and the mind-set Palin displayed did not differ from that of the Hamas minister of education in the Palestinian government who banned a book of Palestinian folk tales for its sexually explicit language. In contrast, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.” (more…)

When Members of Congress or the Administration or the corporate CEOs or the empirically starved right-wing ideologues start whining about regulation the right-wing echo chamber goes wild. When the absence of adequate regulation lets an industry wreak havoc, Congress and the Administration meekly admit a bit of regulation might have averted disaster. The corporate CEOs, expelled with their lucrative golden parachutes, have “no comment.”

The taxpayers, who are too often the guarantors of last resort and who are stuck with the tab, are asking each other why their public watchdogs were asleep at the switch. The Washington merry-go-round is something to behold.

As the recent headlines note, the Federal Government has taken over the giant companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is using the legal process of a “conservatorship” to “stabilize” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Talk about regulation! (more…)

As some of you may already know, I was invited for an interview with the United Nations High Commission For Human Rights (UNHCR) last Monday at their London office – and I was recently pleased to accept their offer for an internship with their media relations division. This means that I will be scanning the British press for any updates on refugee situations or the UNHCR’s work in general for the next six months. Unfortunately, I will not be receiving any financial reimbursement whatsoever (not even travel expenses) and I was a bit disappointed with such a one-sided deal… but if I am still willing to work as a slave, I suppose I’m not too upset.

Anyway, we just moved into our new flat in Canary Wharf in London and are now located right on Southern shore of the Thames (about 3 miles east of Tower Bridge). It seems to be a very nice area – London suburbs renovated from an old industrial area… Maybe we’ll post some pictures in the coming days. Unfortunately, we are living in a small room while the landlords renovate our large room (as well as the rest of the house). The banging of Polish workmen goes on all day – so much for working at home!

Anyone who needs my new address, please let me know…

Reading Eric Alterman’s recent article in The Nation magazine recently (Israel at 60: The State of the State), I began to consider the significant gulf that exists between ideology and practice among those on the American “left”. I have been an avid reader of Alterman’s for some time, regularly visiting his website (Alternet.org), following his contributions in The Nation magazine, and reading a few of his books (What Liberal Media?; The Book on Bush; etc.). Of course, Eric and I have had our differences in the past – instead of blaming the inadequacies of the American political system for Bush’s “election” in 2000, he chose to blame Ralph Nader for Al Gore’s loss – but I am especially disappointed in his most recent article.

Referring to the 60th anniversary of Israel’s expulsion of the Palestinians and subsequent founding of the Zionist state, Alterman writes of the “successful prosecution of the War of Independence”. When discussing this state that regularly discriminates against 20% of its own population in its lawas and institutions. and which pursues policies of colonization and ethnic cleansing in the Occupied Territories, Alterman waxes romantic about a “democratic society in the midst of countless hardships in a hostile corner of the world that had known only autocracy”.

Does this sound familiar?

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During the last two days of August, the Egyptian authorities permitted approximately 3,300 people to cross the Gazan border at Rafah into Egypt ‘for humanitarian reasons’.

Those who entered Egypt included Gazan patients, students, and an undisclosed number of Egyptians who had been stranded inside the Gaza Strip. The sight of more than fifty busloads of travelers heading out of Gaza may have given the impression that movement restrictions are finally easing inside the Gaza Strip. But almost 900 other Gazans on board the buses were turned back at the border. Amongst them was twenty year old Nevin Abu Taima from Rafah – who is still desperately trying to return to the US in order to resume her political science degree.

‘My family lives in the Brazil refugee camp, in [the south of] Rafah’ she says. ‘Our house was destroyed by the Israelis in 2005, and we spent the next six months living in a local UNRWA school. We are a big family of eleven children, and some of my brothers and sisters also have families of their own – all of us were living together in one classroom. Can you imagine that?’ (more…)

I have managed to escape from the grasp of an outdated internet connection… Yes, I have finally left Greece and I am settling into my new life for the next few months in London, England. At the moment we are staying with Ilektra’s relatives, but I will be looking into taking daily trips to the LSE and Imperial College libraries as I am desperately behind schedule on some of my work. Too much fun in Greece left me with little hope of completing much.

I must say, that I was most impressed with Heathrow’s terminal five however – it was my first time flying into the new terminal and the experience was decidedly less unpleasant than Heathrow usually is. Apart from the exterior design resembling a perpetual scaffolding, I was pleasantly surprised.

Of course, much has happened since I ceased updating this site last month, so I will be getting to all of these issues in the coming days. Our hits have reached appalling low levels, but I will be working them back up again over the course of the next few months. Stay tuned!