Just Commentary August 2014

August 2014

Vol 14, No.08

PALESTINE RESISTS GENOCIDE

By Sara Flounders The crimes are staggering, the destruction massive. Israel is creating a 3-kilometer strip of scorched earth around Gaza City that eats up about 44 percent of the Gaza Strip, already the most densely populated place on earth. (U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) After more than three weeks of ground attacks, Israel has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza using aerial bombardment, tank rounds and prohibited weapons. By United Nations estimates, 80 percent of the dead are civilians.

UNICEF says 226 children have been killed and 1,516 injured.

Whole neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble. Some 3,175 homes have been destroyed, along with five hospitals and six clinics. Sixty-four mosques and two churches were bombed. The al-Wafa Geriatric Hospital was completely leveled.

Doctors charge that Israel may be using

weapons such as white phosphorous, flechettes (small pointed metal darts in tank shells) and Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). “The injuries we receive are unfamiliar to us,” said Muhammad Duaidar, a doctor in the intensive care unit at al-Aqsa hospital.

“We have noticed bodies that look melted.

We are calling for investigations into such injuries, which we have not [seen] in previous Israeli attacks.” (electronicintifada.net, July 28) Israeli tank rounds killed 16 Palestinians at a U.N. school in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun after hundreds of students sought shelter there. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said U.N. staff were among the casualties and that more than 100,000 Gazans have sought refuge in U.N. facilities.

Israel denied responsibility for all these attacks, claiming Palestinians are firing on their own people or misfiring rockets.

Determined to resist Yet Israel’s brutal offensive has failed in its goal of destroying the collective will of the Palestinian people to resist.

Gaza, a flat, sandy strip of land the size of Brooklyn or Detroit, is an open-air concentration camp. Israel deploys hightech drones, overflights and tracking of every electronic message; it uses torture to extract information. Yet it hasn’t been able to stop the missiles smuggled into Gaza or the hidden tunnels. The ability of resistance forces to carry out ambushes and sabotage has been a blow to the Israeli military machine.

Israel’s siege of Gaza has lasted for eight years. It has waged three wars there in the last five years. In this offensive, 52 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far by the resistance — three times the number in earlier attacks.

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STATEMENTS .MH17: WHO STANDS TO GAIN?

BY CHANDRA MUZAFFAR......................P3

.MH17: RELEASE MILITARY RADAR DATA

BY CHANDRA MUZAFFAR......................P5

ARTICLES . DELETED BBC REPORT. “UKRAINIAN FIGHTER JET

. WASHINGTON IS ESCALATING THE ORCHESTRATED

SHOT DOWN MH17”, DONETSK EYEWITNESSES

BY GLOBAL RESEARCH NEWS............................P 5

UKRAINIAN “CRISIS” TO WAR

. THE GAZA MASSACRE- THE UNDERLYING MOTIVES

BY CHANDRA MUZAFFAR.................................P 7 .JIHADISM

BY PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS..............................P 10 .C AN T HE BRICS R EFORM G LOBAL P OWER RELATIONS?

BY NILE BOWIE...................................................P 12

PETROLEUM INDUSTRY: THE STORY BEHIND THE RISE OF ISIS IS AN OIL WAR . A VOICE FROM KASSAB

BY THIERRY MEYSSAN.....................................P8

BY JUDITH BELLO..............................................P 14 AND THE

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Palestinians have carried out successful military operations inside Israel at least six times. U.S. and European airlines suspended their Israeli flights and landings for 24 hours in fear of Gaza’s missiles.

The Israeli war on Gaza would be impossible without total U.S. support.

This is as much a U.S. war as those against Iraq and Afghanistan. It is waged with U.S. equipment, dollars, and political and diplomatic support.

Secretary of State John Kerry has been frantically racing through the region trying to shore up Israel’s position. He is not engaged in talking up a ceasefire out of concern for the Palestinian people.

Hamas, the elected leadership of Gaza, is holding out in order to end Israel’s blockade. (See workers.org, “Hamas’ conditions for ceasefire.”) Their fight is for the very survival of Gaza.

The population is united around a minimum goal: Israel must end its blockade of imports and exports. All armed groups in Gaza are cooperating.

With so many armed fighters, the government could not survive without this unity.

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Searing images that can’t be kept out of the world media are stoking international outrage against Israel. U.S. imperialism is virtually alone in backing Tel Aviv.

When the attack began, not only the U.S., but all the imperialist powers of Europe, plus the Gulf state monarchies and the Egyptian military dictatorship, supported it. But mass pressure from below has forced many states to recalibrate their public position.

On July 23, 29 members of the U.N. Human Rights Council voted to launch an independent commission to investigate violations of human rights unleashed by Israel’s assault on Gaza. Only the U.S. voted no. Washington’s European allies abstained.

The council condemned the “widespread, systematic and gross violations of international human rights and fundamental freedoms” arising from Israeli military operations since July 13 and called for an immediate ceasefire. It demanded that Israel immediately reopen the occupied Gaza Strip and called upon the international community to provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance and services to the Palestinian people.

Uprising in West Bank

Israel agreed in 2012 to a ceasefire. It then violated every provision of the agreement, kept the strangling blockade in place and rearrested Palestinians it had released in a prisoner exchange.

This July 27 it declared a ceasefire and then announced it would continue with “limited operations” to clear tunnels. On July 28, it struck Gaza’s major hospital, al-Shifa. That’s when it also bombed the Shati refugee camp and killed 10 people, including eight children playing on a swing set.

Isolation in the face of outrage

As the assault on Gaza intensified, tens of thousands marched in cities across the occupied West Bank on July 24 and 25, despite checkpoints, soldiers and settler/snipers gunning down demonstrators in Hebron. Nine Palestinians were killed near the West Bank cities of Nablus and Hebron. At the Qalandia checkpoint, Israeli soldiers shot approximately 200 protesters. The wounded were rushed to Ramallah Hospital where two died.

This uprising in the West Bank was the largest protest there since massive repression crushed the 2000-2005

L E A D A R T I C L E Palestinian uprising, called the Second Intifada.

Among Israelis, a small but outspoken opposition rejects racism and brutal repression. Some 130 young people face jail for signing statements and refusing to enlist in the military. Udi Segal, a 19 year old from Kibbutz Tuval, was jailed on July 28 after saying he refused to accept a life filled with violence, occupation, fear and hostility.

Fifty former Israeli soldiers refuse to be part of the reserves and say they will support all those who resist being called up.

A large “Stop the War” rally in Tel Aviv held on July 26 by Palestinian and Israeli members of Combatants for Peace was attacked by right-wing Israelis. Israeli vigilante groups are targeting Palestinians and Jewish leftists. But Jews Against Genocide went to the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem to honor Palestinian children being systematically murdered.

The war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza today are the latest stage of an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Indigenous people of this land.

Dire warnings Outrage is growing against U.S. imperialism for backing this criminal onslaught.

Lebanese resistance leader Hassan Nasrallah declared at a massive rally in Beirut that Israel is on a path toward “suicide” in Gaza and praised the Palestinian resistance.

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in Lebanon.”

Anti-Zionist Israeli Gilad Atzmon writes: “The IDF’s defeat in Gaza leaves the Jewish State with no hope. The moral is simple. If you insist on living on someone else’s land, military might is an essential ingredient to discourage the dispossessed from acting to reclaim their rights. The level of IDF casualties and the number of bodies of Israeli elite soldiers returning

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home in coffins send a clear message to both Israelis and Palestinians.” (occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com, July 21) The rulers of Israel and the U.S. arrogantly assumed they had politically isolated Hamas through the coup in Egypt and war in Syria. Israel was determined to break the announced unity government of Hamas and Fatah and the armed opposition in Gaza.

S T A T E M E N T This heroic resistance will resonate globally. It will strengthen the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. It is urgent that everyone opposed to war and oppression stand up for Palestine NOW! 28 July 2014.

Sara Flounders is an American political writer and has been active in 'progressive' and anti-war organizing since the 1960s

STATEMENTS MH17: WHO STANDS TO GAIN? The Russian military has released military monitoring data which challenge allegations circulating in the media pertaining to the MH 17 crash in the Donetsk Region of Eastern Ukraine on July 17 2014. Questions have been raised about Kiev military jets tracking MH 17, Ukrainian air traffic controllers and the deployment of Buk missile systems. Kiev should also release military data on the circumstances leading to the crash. So should the Pentagon which reportedly has relevant intelligence and satellite data.

Since military data is hardcore information, Kiev and Washington should be persuaded to be transparent and accountable. The UN SecretaryGeneral can play a role in this since there is a specialized agency within the UN, the ICAO, dedicated to international civil aviation. Military data from Moscow, Kiev and Washington should be scrutinized by the independent international panel that is supposed to probe the MH 17 catastrophe.

Such data carries much more weight than videos purportedly revealing the role of the pro-Russian rebels and the

Russian government in the crash. One such video showing a Buk system being moved from Ukraine to Russia is a fabrication. The billboard in the background establishes that it was shot in a town — Krasnoarmeisk — that has been under the control of the Ukrainian military since May 11.

Similarly, a You Tube video showing a Russian General and Ukrainian rebels discussing their role in mistakenly downing a civilian aircraft was, from various tell-tale signs, produced before the event.

The public should be wary of fabricated “evidence” of this sort, after what we have witnessed in the last so many years. Have we forgotten the monstrous lies and massive distortions that accompanied the reckless allegation that Iraq had weapons of

mass destruction (WMD) which led eventually to the invasion of that country in 2003 and the death of more than a million people? Iraq continues to bleed to this day. What about the Gulf of Tonkin episode of 1964 which again was a fabrication that paved the way for wanton US aggression against Vietnam that resulted in the death of more than 3 million Vietnamese? The “babies in incubators” incident in Kuwait in 1990 was yet another manufactured lie that aroused the anger of the people and served to justify the US assault on Iraq. Just last year we saw how an attempt was made by some parties to pin the blame for a sarin gas attack in Ghouta, Syria upon the Assad government when subsequent investigations have revealed that it was the work of some militant rebel group.

From Tonkin to Ghouta there is a discernible pattern when it comes to the fabrication of evidence to justify some nefarious agenda or other. As soon as the event occurs before any proper investigation has begun, blame is apportioned upon the targeted party.

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from the real culprit whose act of evil remains concealed and camouflaged.

The colluding media then begins to spin the “correct” version with the help of its reporters and columnists who concoct “fact” out of fiction. Any other explanation or interpretation of the event is discredited and dismissed derisively to ensure that the “credibility” of the dominant narrative remains intact.

As the narrative unfolds, the target often embodied in a certain personality is demonized to such a degree that he arouses the ire of the public and becomes an object of venom.

The pattern described here is typical of what is known as a “false flag” operation in which blame for some dastardly deed is consciously transferred to one’s adversary. It has happened right through history and many contemporary nation-states — and not just the United States — are guilty of flying false flags.

To protect ourselves from being deceived by such operations, the general public should always ask: who stands to gain from a particular episode? Cui Bono is in fact an important principle in the investigation of a crime. In the case of the MH 17 carnage, the pro-Russian rebels do not benefit in any way from downing a civilian airliner. Their goal is independence from the Kiev government which is why they are fighting Kiev through sometimes violent means including shooting down its military planes. Massacring 298 passengers in a flight fromAmsterdam to Kuala Lumpur does not serve their cause. Moscow which backs the rebels to an extent also gains nothing from involving itself in such a diabolical carnage.

10 days after the carnage, it is now clear who is trying to reap benefits from that terrible tragedy in the skies.

The demonization of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, orchestrated from various Western capitals, including Kiev, after Crimea voted to join the Russian Federation, thus thwarting one of the primary strategic goals of NATO’s eastward expansion, has now reached its pinnacle. After MH 17, it has become a lot easier to convince people— even without an iota of evidence — that Putin is a “mass murderer”. The tarnishing of Putin’s image is crucial for those in the West who want to curb Russia’s political reassertion so that the US and its allies can perpetuate their global dominance without hindrance.

MH 17 has helped the elite in Washington in yet another sense. It has strengthened its push for tougher sanctions against Russia which began after the Crimea vote. Given their extensive economic ties with Russia, many European countries such as Germany, France, Netherlands and Italy have been somewhat lukewarm about widening and deepening sanctions. But will that change now?

Will an outraged European public, incensed by the MH 17 massacre, demand that their governments punish Moscow?

It is obvious that those who seek to punish Russia and the pro-Russian rebels, namely, the elite in Washington and Kiev, are poised to gain the most from the MH 17 episode. Does it imply that they would have had a role in the episode itself? Only a truly independent and impartial international inquiry would be able to provide the answer.

S T A T E M E N T In this regard, we must admit that while elites in Kiev and Washington may stand to gain from MH 17, those who actually pulled the trigger may be some other group or individual with links to the powerful in the two capitals. It is quite conceivable that a certain well-heeled individual equipped with the appropriate military apparatus and with access to air-control authorities in the region may have executed the act of evil itself.

Because of who he is, and where his loyalties lie, that individual may have also decided to target Malaysia. Was he giving vent to his anger over our principled stand on the question of justice for the Palestinians? Was he also attempting to divert public attention from Israel’s ground offensive against Gaza which time-wise coincided with the downing of the Malaysian airliner?

As we explore MH 17 from this angle, would we be able to connect the dots between MH 17 and MH 370, between July 17 and March 8, 2014?

We should not rest till the whole truth is known and the evil behind these two colossal catastrophes punished severely.

We owe this to every soul who perished on those fateful flights.

(This article is dedicated to the cherished memory of all those on MH 17 — especially the 80 children who were on board).

26 July 2014.

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is the President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).

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MH17: RELEASE MILITARY RADAR DATA The MH 17 disaster continues to generate a lot of questions. People everywhere want to know what really happened. What caused the crash?

Was it a surface to air missile that brought MH 17 down? Or was it a missile fired from a jet fighter following the passenger airliner?

Answers to these questions may tell us who was actually responsible for

the dastardly attack.

In the interest of finding the answers, the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) calls upon the authorities in Kiev, Moscow and Washington to de-classify and release the raw military radar data manifest for the incident area on that ill-fated day. This vital information should be studied by an independent

international panel of experts. The panel’s findings should be made public immediately.

For the families of the victims of the MH 17 crash and for the world at large, it is this military radar data that may provide the closure that they yearn for.

Chandra Muzaffar 20 July 2014.

ARTICLES DELETED BBC REPORT. “UKRAINIAN FIGHTER JET SHOT DOWN MH17”, DONESTK EYEWITNESS.

By Global Research News The original BBC Video Report was published by BBC Russian Service on July 23, 2014.

its military aircraft conducting strikes against the civilian population from the Militia’s anti-aircraft units?

under it, because it could be seen. It was proceeding underneath, below the civilian one.

In a bitter irony, The BBC is censoring its own news production.

Highlights of Witness statements (see complete transcript below)

Why did BBC delete this report by Olga Ivshina?

Eyewitness #1: There were two explosions in the air. And this is how it broke apart. And [the fragments] blew apart like this, to the sides. And when ...

Eyewitness #3: There were sounds of an explosion. But they were in the sky. They came from the sky. Then this plane made a sharp turn-around like this. It changed its trajectory and headed in that direction [indicating the direction with her hands].

Is it because the BBC team was unable to find any evidence that a rocket was launched in the area that the Ukrainian Security Service (“SBU”) alleges to be the place from which the Novorossiya Militia launched a “BUK” missile?

Video: The Catastrophe of #MH17: #BBC in the Search of the “#BUK” by slavyangrad.wordpress.com Introductory Paragraphs to the BBC Video Report

Or is it because every eyewitness interviewed by the BBC team specifically indicated the presence of a Ukrainian military aircraft right beside the Malaysian Airlines Boeing MH17 at the time that it was shot down?

Or is it because of eyewitness accounts confirming that the Ukrainian air force regularly used civilian aircraft flying over Novorossiya as human shields to protect

Intro of BBC Report (For Full Transcript see below)

Eyewitness #2: ... And there was another aircraft, a military one, beside it.

Everybody saw it.

Eyewitness #1: Yes, yes. It was flying

The “black boxes” of the crashed Malaysian Boeing have finally been transferred into the hands of the experts.

However, how much can they tell us?

The recorders logged the coordinates and continued next page

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continued from page 5 the heading of the aircraft at the time of the incident and may have recorded the sound of the explosion. However, they will not tell us what exactly caused the explosion.

The inhabitants of the nearby villages are certain that they saw military aircraft in the sky shortly prior to the catastrophe.

According to them, it actually was the jet fighters that brought down the Boeing.

The Ukrainian government rejects this version of events. They believe that the Boeing was shot down using a missile from a “BUK” complex that came in from Russia.

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According to them, it actually was the jet fighters that brought down the Boeing.

Eyewitness #1: There were two explosions in the air. And this is how it broke apart. And [the fragments] blew apart like this, to the sides. And when ...

Eyewitness #2: ... And there was another aircraft, a military one, beside it.

Everybody saw it.

Eyewitness #1: Yes, yes. It was flying under it, because it could be seen. It was

The Ukrainian Security Service has published photographs and a video, which, in its opinion, prove that the Boeing was shot down with a “BUK” missile.

BBC reporter Olga Ivshina and producer Oksana Vozhdayeva decided to find the place from which the missile was allegedly launched.

Original BBC Video Report: Preserved by Google Web-cache Transcript of the BBC Video Report DPR Representative: Here it is.

Olga Ivshina, BBC: The black boxes from the crashed Boeing are finally being transferred into the hands of the experts.

However, how much can they tell us?

The recorders logged the coordinates and the heading of the aircraft at the time of the incident and may have recorded the sound of the explosion. However, they will not tell us what exactly caused the explosion.

The inhabitants of the nearby villages are certain that they saw military aircraft in the sky shortly prior to the catastrophe.

proceeding underneath, below the civilian one.

Eyewitness #3: There were sounds of an explosion. But they were in the sky.

They came from the sky. Then this plane made a sharp turn-around like this. It changed its trajectory and headed in that direction [indicating the direction with her hands].

Olga Ivshina, BBC: The Ukrainian government rejects this version of events.

They believe that the Boeing was shot down using a missile from a “BUK” complex that came in from the direction of Russia.

Vitaliy Naida, Department of Counterintelligence of SBU [Ukrainian Security Service]: This was a BUK M1 system from which the aircraft was shot down. It came to Ukraine early in the morning on the 17th of July. It was delivered by a tow truck to the city of Donetsk. After that, it was redeployed from Donetsk, as part of a column of

A R T I C L E S military equipment, to the area of the city of Torez, to the area of Snezhnoye, to the area of Pervomaisk.

Olga Ivshina, BBC: The Ukrainian Security Service has published photographs and a video, which, in its opinion, prove that the Boeing was shot down with a “BUK” missile. We attempted to verify these photographs and information at the location.

One of the photographs showed a landscape not far from the city of Torez, on which smoke could be seen coming from the presumed location of the missile’s launch. We attempted to find this location, and it appears that we were successful.

We are now on the outskirts of the city of Torez. Behind me, approximately five kilometres away, is the city of Snezhnoye. And the landscape here matches the landscape that we can see on the photograph published by the Ukrainian Security Service.

To find the place from which the smoke was allegedly coming from, we adopted as markers these three poplars and the group of trees. Presumably, this is the place that can be seen on the photograph published by the SBU. And here are our markers: the three solitary poplars and the small group of trees in the distance.

The smoke that can be seen on the photograph came from somewhere over there [pointing behind her], behind my back. The SBU believes that this is a trace coming from the launch of a “BUK” missile.

However, it must be noted that there are here, approximately in the same place, the Saur-Mogila memorial, near which the fighting continues almost unabated, and a coalmine. It turns out that the smoke with the same degree of continued next page

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probability could have been coming from any of these locations.

Having circled around the nearby fields, we were unable to find any traces of a missile launch. Nor did the local inhabitants that we encountered see any “BUK” either.

At the ruins of an apartment building in the city of Snezhnoye, the topic of the jet fighters that may have been escorting civilian aircraft comes up again. A bomb dropped from above took away the lives of eleven civilians here.

Sergey Godovanets, Commander of the Militia of the city of Snezhnoye: They use these civilian aircraft to hide behind them. It is only now that they stopped flying over us – but, usually, civilian

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aircraft would always fly above us. And they hide [behind them]. [The experience in] Slavyansk had demonstrated that they would fly out from behind a civilian aircraft, bomb away, and then hide, once again, behind the civilian aircraft and fly away.

Olga Ivshina, BBC: The commander of the local militia emphasizes that they have no weaponry capable of shooting down a jet fighter [flying] at a significant height.

However, he says that if such weaponry were to appear, they would have tried to.

Sergey Godovanets: If we know that it is not a civilian aircraft, but a military one, then – yes.

A R T I C L E S had mistaken it for a military aircraft?

There is as yet no unequivocal confirmation of either this or any other version [of what took place]. The international experts are just beginning their work with the information obtained from the crashed airliner. It now appears that it is difficult to overstate the importance of this investigation. Olga Ivshina, BBC. The Catastrophe of #MH17: #BBC in the Search of the “BUK” – The Video Report Deleted by BBC Translation by: Valentina Lisitsa http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com 29 July, 2014

Olga Ivshina, BBC: So, could the Boeing have been shot down by the militias that

Global Research

THE GAZA MASSACRE: THE UNDERLYING MOTIVES

By Chandra Muzaffar Massacre has become a habit. Every two or three years, Israel launches a massive military assault upon largely unarmed Palestinians in Gaza. It did this in December 2008 to January 2009. It did it again in November 2012. On each occasion hundreds of Palestinians are murdered and thousands more maimed.

Every time, Israel claims the moral high ground for its brutal, barbaric action. It blames Hamas, an important component of the Palestinian liberation movement, for the present cycle of violence. It alleges, without an iota of proof, that Hamas was responsible for the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens on 12 June 2014. Hamas has denied any involvement. The death of the teens — a despicable act — provided the justification for a large-scale operation against Hamas and other so-called militants. Israeli authorities arrested a number of activists including those who were released earlier.

While the global media has highlighted the killing of the Israeli teens, it has ignored a critical bit of background information that may have a connection with the tragic episode. On 15th May 2014, the Israeli army killed two unarmed Palestinian teens and wounded a third.

The media has also failed to provide a context to this unconscionable murder of children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Between 29 September 2000 and 23 June 2014, 1,523 Palestinian children were killed by Israelis as against 129 Israeli children killed by Palestinians.

It is also worth noting that between the two dates, 6,876 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli occupiers compared to 1,110 Israelis by Palestinians.

If the media has concealed these statistics from the public, it has also presented a rather distorted picture of how the present violence had unfolded.

It is mainly because of the huge emotional torrent unleashed by the antiArab venom spewed by some politicians

and religious personalities in the wake of the killing of the Israeli teens that some Israeli settlers may have killed a Palestinian teen and burnt his body on the 2nd of July. This incident — not unexpectedly — provoked thousands of Palestinians to launch angry protests in not only Gaza but also the West Bank.

The Benjamin Netanyahu regime retaliated with harsh punitive measures including missile strikes and the collective punishment of entire communities.

It is against this backdrop that one should look at the primitive rockets launched by Hamas against targets in Israel. It is true that these rockets have generated some fear among segments of the Israeli population but they have not resulted in any deaths. On the contrary, they serve as “evidence” for Netanyahu to convince the world that Israel is under threat and is forced to defend itself and to protect its people. This is why one wonders whether as a strategic option the rockets continued next page

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serve a purpose.

If anything, the rockets have helped to divert attention from the underlying motives for Israel’s current aggressive offensive. What are these motives?

One, the offensive, ostensibly directed at Hamas, actually demonstrates Israel’s overwhelming military power in the region. Its neighbours are reminded at regular intervals that no one should try to trifle with West Asia’s most formidable armed forces. The projection of power in this manner is consistent with Israel’s singular obsession with its security. For the nation’s security, in the Israeli psyche, is equated with its ability to dominate the region, militarily. Hence its opposition to any other state in West Asia possessing even the remotest capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Besides, Israel is determined to show friend and foe that it is above the law, that the norms that apply to other states bear no relevance to it. It is “exceptional” because the Jews are a “chosen people.”

Two, the need to project its power is all the greater at this moment in view of the reconciliation agreement reached between Hamas and its rival Fatah on the 23rd of April 2014. Israel perceives a united Palestinian liberation struggle as a major threat to its agenda of domination and control through the strategy of divide

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and rule. If, as a result of a Hamas-Fatah unity government, Gaza and the West Bank are brought together, the Israeli plan of keeping them apart — and weak — will be thwarted.

Three, the Netanyahu regime is also worried that more and more people especially in Europe are beginning to appreciate the justice of the Palestinian cause as reflected in the growing support of big corporations and universities for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel’s post 1967 occupation of Palestinian land. In order to check this trend, Netanyahu is once again playing the victim card especially with Europe in mind: Israel is still under a grave threat, its survival is at stake. Do not abandon Israel.

Four, playing victim has acquired a new urgency in light of a recent development.

There is a strong possibility that Iran will come to some understanding soon with the US and other big powers on its nuclear programme. As we have hinted, for Israel, an oil-rich Iran with a strong scientific base and a clear Islamic ideological orientation, is a challenge to its security, read dominance. It explains why it has gone all out to foil Iran’s rapprochement with the US in particular. The present offensive which attempts to link Hamas’s rockets with Iran is both an endeavour to make Iran look like the culprit and to underscore Israel’s vulnerability.

A R T I C L E S Since the motives reveal an extremely myopic perspective on Israel’s interests, all the more reason why an immediate ceasefire in Gaza is critical. Though there have been calls for a ceasefire from the United Nations Security Council to NGOs, the parties involved especially Israel is not prepared to heed.

Perhaps NGOs and other civil society groups all over the world should be more vocal and more persistent in demanding an immediate cessation of conflict.

Needless to say, a ceasefire in itself is not a solution. There will continue to be massacres of this sort in the future unless the fundamental cause of the Israeli-Palestinian/ Arab conflict is addressed. It is widely accepted that the root of the conflict is Israeli occupation of Palestinian/Arab land. It is because of their situation— their dispossession —that Palestinians and other Arabs are sometimes even prepared to resort to violence in order to restore their dignity.

This is something that the Israeli elite and its backers in the West should understand. As it has been said on numerous occasions, there will be no security for Israelis unless there is justice for the Palestinians and other Arabs.

15 July 2014.

JIHADISM AND THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY: THE STORY BEHIND THE RISE OF ISIS IS AN OIL WAR; THE LOSERS ARE THE BRITISH, TURKS, CHINESE; THE WINNERS U.S.,ISRAEL, SAUDI ARABIA

By Thierry Meyssan While the Western media portray the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant as a group of jihadists reciting the Qur’an, the ISIS has started the oil war in Iraq. With the help of Israel, it has cut off Syria’s supply and guaranteed the theft of oil from Kirkuk by the local government of Kurdistan. The sale will be assured by Aramco who will camouflage this diversion as increased

“Saudi” production.

The Baiji Refinery.

For the Atlanticist press, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) which has just invaded the north and west of Iraq is a group of jihadists led by their faith, the Koran in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other.

For those who have suffered their abuses, including in Syria, it is a private army of mercenaries, composed from the four corners of the Earth and managed by American, French and Saudi officers dividing the region to allow easier control by the colonial powers.

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continued from page 8 as armed believers, we cannot imagine dark material interests behind their attack. But if we admit that these thugs are manipulating religion to give the illusion thatAllah blesses their crimes, we must be more attentive.

While shedding crocodile tears for the thousands of Iraqi victims of this offensive, the Atlanticist press decries the consequences of this new conflict for oil prices. Within days, the barrel rose to $115, that is to say the level of September 2013.

Markets were concerned about the fight for the Baiji refinery near Tikrit. In reality, this refinery produces only for local consumption, which could quickly run out of fuel and electricity. Rising oil prices is not due to the interruption of Iraqi production, but the disruption of deliveries.

It will thus not last as markets are in surplus.

Saudi Arabia has announced that it will significantly increase its production to compensate for the reduced supply due to the marketing ban by ISIS. But experts are skeptical and point out that the kingdom has never produced more than 10 million barrels per day.

The Atlanticist press, which denies the sponsorship of NATO, learnedly explained that the ISIS suddenly became rich by conquering oil wells. This was already the case in northern Syria, but it had not noticed.

The western press had tried to deal with fighting between the al-Nosra Front and the Islamic Emirate as a rivalry exacerbated by the “regime”, while they sought to monopolize the oil wells.

However, a question arises to which the Atlanticist media and the Gulf still has no answer: how can these terrorists sell oil on the international market so monitored by Washington? In March, the Libyan Benghazi separatists had failed to sell the oil that they had seized. The U.S. Navy intercepted the tanker Morning Glory and had returned it to Libya. [1]

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If al-Nosra and the ISIS are able to sell oil on the international market, they are authorized by Washington and are linked to storefront oil companies.

Chance has it that the annual world congress of the oil companies was held from June 15 to 19 in Moscow. We thought there would be talk of Ukraine, but there the issues were Iraq and Syria. It was learned that the oil stolen by al-Nosra in Syria is sold by Exxon-Mobil (the Rockefeller firm that rules Qatar), while that of ISIS is operated by Aramco (USA / Saudi Arabia). Note in passing that during the Libyan conflict, NATO authorized Qatar (that is to say, Exxon-Mobil) to sell oil from the “territories liberated by al-Qaeda”.

We can therefore read the current fighting, as all those of the twentieth century in the Middle East, as a war between oil companies. [2] The fact that the ISIS is financed by Aramco is enough to explain why Saudi Arabia claims to be able to compensate for the decline in Iraqi production: the kingdom would just put its stamp on the stolen barrels to legalize them.

The ISIS breakthrough allows it to control the two main pipelines: the one exiting toward Banias to supply Syria while the other transporting crude to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The Islamic Emirate has interrupted the first, causing additional power outages in Syria, but strangely, it allows the second to function.

This is because this pipeline is used by the local pro-Israel Kurdistan government to export the oil it just stole from Kirkuk.

However, as I explained last week [3], the

A R T I C L E S ISIS attack is coordinated with Kurdistan to cut Iraq into three smaller states, according to the map reshaping “the Greater Middle East” established by US Staff in 2001, that the U.S. military failed to win in 2003, but Senator Joe Biden had adopted

by Congress in 2007. [4] Kurdistan has begun its oil exports from Kirkuk via the ISIS-controlled pipeline.

Within days, it was able to load two tankers at Ceyhan, chartered by Palmali Shipping & Agency JSC, the company of billionaire Turkish-Azeri Mubariz Gurbanoðlu.

However, after the al-Maliki government, which has not been overthrown by Washington, issued a note denouncing this theft, none of the companies usually working in Kurdistan (Chevron, Hess, and Total) dared to buy this oil. Failing to find a buyer, Kurdistan has declared its readiness to sell its cargo at half price at $ 57.5 per barrel, while continuing its traffic. Two other tankers are being loaded, always with the blessing of the ISIS. The fact that traffic continues in the absence of a market shows that Kurdistan and the ISIS are convinced that they will succeed in finding a buyer, indicating they have the same state supports: Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The possible division of Iraq into three will not fail to reshuffle the oil cards. In the face of the ISIS breakthrough, all oil companies have reduced their staff. Some more than others: this is the case of BP, Royal Deutsch Shell (which employs Sheikh Moaz al-Khatib, the geologist former president of the Syrian National Coalition), Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklýðý (TPAO) and Chinese companies (PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC).

So the losers are the British, the Turks, and especially the Chinese, who were by far Iraq’s largest customer. The winners are the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia.

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[1] “Pentagon orders take over of “Morning Glory” in Mediterranean Sea”, Voltaire Network, 17 March 2014.

Partition Project”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 19 June 2014.

[2] « Irak, les pages d’histoire effacées » (Iraq, the pages of history erased), par Manlio Dinucci, Traduction Marie-Ange Patrizio, Il Manifesto, Réseau Voltaire, 18 juin 2014.

[4] « La balkanisation de l’Irak » (The Balkanization of Iraq), par Manlio Dinucci, Traduction Marie-Ange Patrizio, Il Manifesto, Réseau Voltaire, 17 juin 2014.

Thierry Meyssan French intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace Conference. His columns specializing in international relations feature in daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last two books published in English: 9/11 the Big Lie and Pentagate.

[3] “Washington Relaunches its Iraq

Translation: Roger Lagassé

Source: Al-Watan (Syria)

WASHINGTON IS ESCALATING THE ORCHESTRATED UKRAINIAN “CRISIS” TO WAR

By Paul Craig Roberts Despite the conclusion by US intelligence that there is no evidence of Russian involvement in the destruction of the Malaysian airliner and all lives onboard, Washington is escalating the crisis and shepherding it toward war.

Twenty-two US senators have introduced into the 113th Congress, Second Session, a bill, S.2277, “To prevent further Russian aggression toward Ukraine and other sovereign states in Europe and Eurasia, and for other purposes.” https:// beta.congress.gov/113/bills/s2277/ BILLS-113s2277is.pdf The bill is before the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Note that prior to any evidence of any Russian aggression, there are already 22 senators lined up in behalf of preventing further Russian aggression.

Accompanying this preparatory propaganda move to create a framework for war, hot or cold with Russia, NATO commander General Philip Breedlove announced his plan for a deployment of massive military means in Eastern Europe that would permit lightning responses against Russia in order to protect Europe from Russian aggression.

There we have it again: Russian Aggression. Repeat it enough and it becomes real.

The existence of “Russian aggression” is assumed, not demonstrated. Neither Breedlove nor the senators make any reference to Russian war plans for an attack on Europe or any other countries.

There are no references to Russian position papers and documents setting forth a Russian expansionist ideology or a belief declared by Moscow that Russians are “exceptional, indispensable people” with the right to exercise hegemony over the world. No evidence is presented that Russia has infiltrated the communication systems of the entire world for spy purposes. There is no evidence that Putin has Obama’s or Obama’s daughters’ private cell phone conversations or that Russia downloads US corporate secrets for the benefit of Russian businesses.

Nevertheless, the NATO commander and US senators see an urgent need to create blitzkrieg capability for NATO on Russia’s borders.

Senate bill 2277 consists of three titles: “Reinvigorating the Nato Alliance,” “Deterring Further Russian Aggression

in Europe,” and “Hardening Ukraine and other European and Eurasian States Against Russian Aggression.” Who do you think wrote this bill? Hint: it wasn’t the senators or their staffs.

Title I deals with strengthening US force posture in Europe and Eurasia and strengthening the NATO alliance, with accelerating the construction of ABM (anti-ballistic missile) bases on Russia’s borders so as to degrade the Russian strategic nuclear deterrent, and to provide more money for Poland and the Baltic states and strengthen US-German cooperation on global security issues, that is, to make certain that the German military is incorporated as part of the US empire military force.

Title II is about confronting “Russian aggression in Europe” with sanctions and with financial and diplomatic “support for Russian democracy and civil society organizations,” which means to pump billions of dollars into NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) that can be used to destabilize Russia in the way that Washington used the NGOs it funded in Ukraine to overthrow the elected government. For 20 years Russian government negligence permitted continued next page

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Washington to organize fifth columns inside Russia that pose as human rights organizations, etc.

Title III deals with military and intelligence assistance for Ukraine, putting Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova on a NATO track, expediting US natural gas exports in order to erase European and Eurasian energy dependence on Russia, preventing recognition of Crimea as again a part of Russia, expanding broadcasting (propaganda) into Russian areas, and again “support for democracy and civil society organizations in countries of the former Soviet Union,” which means to use money to subvert the Russian federation.

However you look at this, it comprises a declaration of war. Moreover, these provocative and expensive moves are presented as necessary to counter Russian aggression for which there is no evidence.

How do we characterize a bill that is not merely thoughtless, unnecessary, and dangerous, but also more Orwellian than Orwell? I am open to suggestions.

Ukraine as it currently exists is an ahistorical state with artificial boundaries.

Ukraine presently consists of part of what was once a larger entity plus former Russian provinces added to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic by Soviet leaders. When the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia permitted Ukraine’s independence, under US pressure Russia mistakenly permitted Ukraine to take with it the former Russian provinces.

When Washington executed its coup in Kiev last year, the Russophobes who grabbed power began threatening in word and deed the Russian populations in eastern and southern Ukraine. The Crimeans voted to reunite with Russia and were accepted. This reunification was grossly misrepresented by Western

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propaganda. When other former Russian provinces voted likewise, the Russian government, kowtowing to Western propaganda, did not grant their requests.

Instead, Russian president Putin called for Kiev and the former Russian provinces to work out an agreement that would keep the provinces within Ukraine.

Putin has received neither respect nor appreciation for encouraging a nonviolent resolution of the unfortunate Ukrainian situation created by Washington’s coup against a democratically elected government that was only months away from a chance to elect a different government.

Kiev and its Washington master did not listen. Instead, Kiev launched military attacks on the provinces and was conducting bombing attacks on the provinces at the moment the Malaysian airliner was downed.

The sanctions that Washington has applied and that Washington is pressuring its European puppets to join send the wrong information to Kiev. It tells Kiev that the West approves and encourages Kiev’s determination to resolve its differences with the former Russian provinces with violence rather than with negotiation.

Washington and its European vassals have consistently misrepresented the situation in Ukraine and denied their responsibility for the violence, instead placing all blame on Russia. But it is not Russia that is conducting bombing raids and attacking provinces with troops, tanks, and artillery. Just as Israel’s current military assault against Palestinian civilians fails to evoke criticism from Washington, European governments, and the Western media, Kiev’s assault on the former Russian provinces goes unreported and uncriticized. Indeed, it appears that few Americans are even aware that Kiev is attacking civilian areas of the provinces that wish to return to their mother country.

Sanctions should be imposed on Kiev, from which the military violence originates. Instead, Kiev is receiving financial and military support, and sanctions are placed on Russia which is not militarily involved in the situation.

When the outbreak of violence against the former Russian provinces began, the Russian Duma voted Putin the power to intervene militarily. Instead of using this power, Putin requested that the Duma rescind the power, which the Duma did.

Putin preferred to deal with the problem diplomatically in a reasonable and unprovocative manner.

This means war will continue, and that is clearly Washington’s intent. The latest reports are that US military advisors will soon be in Ukraine to aid the conquest of the former Russian provinces that are in revolt.

The presstitute nature of the Western media ensures that the bulk of the American and European populations will remain in the grip of Washington’s antiRussian propaganda.

At some point the Russian government will have to face the fact that it doesn’t have “Western partners.” Russia has Western enemies who are being organized to isolate Russia, to injure Russia economically and diplomatically, to surround Russia militarily, to destabilize Russia by calling the American-funded NGOs into the streets, and in the absence of a coup that installs an American puppet in Moscow to attack Russia with nuclear weapons.

I respect Putin’s reliance on diplomacy and good will in the place of force. The problem with Putin’s approach is that Washington has no good will, so there is no reciprocity.

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consists of captive nations, and these nations are without leaders capable of breaking free of Washington’s agenda.

I hope that I am wrong, but I think Putin has miscalculated. If Putin had accepted the former Russian provinces requests to reunite with Russia, the conflict in Ukraine would be over. I am certain that Europe would not have joined Washington in any invasion with the purpose of recovering for Ukraine former provinces of Russia herself.

When Washington says that Putin is responsible for downing the Malaysian airliner, Washington is correct in a way that Washington doesn’t suspect. Had Putin completed the task begun with Crimea and reunited the Russian provinces with Russia, there would have been no war during which an airliner could have been downed, whether by accident or as a plot to demonize Russia. Ukraine has no capability of confronting Russia militarily and had no alternative to accepting the reunification of the Russian territories.

Europe would have witnessed a decisive Russian decision and would have put a great distance between itself and Washington’s provocative agenda. This European response would have precluded Washington’s ability to gradually escalate

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the crisis by gradually turning the temperature higher without the European frog jumping out of the pot.

believes that America is the exceptional nation on whose leadership the world depends.

In its dealings with Washington Europe has grown accustomed to the efficacy of bribes, threats, and coercion. Captive nations are inured to diplomacy’s impotence. Europeans see diplomacy as the weak card played by the weak party.

And, of course, all the Europeans want is money, which Washington prints with abandon.

In other words, all other countries and peoples are unexceptional. Their voices are unimportant. Their aspirations are best served by Washington’s leadership.

Those who disagree–Russia, China, Iran, and the new entity ISIL–are regarded by Washington as obstacles to history’s purpose. Anything, whether an idea or a country, that is in the way of Washington is in the way of History’s Purpose and must be run over.

Russia and China are disadvantaged in their conflict with Washington. Russia and China have emerged from tyranny.

People in both countries were influenced

by American cold war propaganda. Both countries have educated people who think that America has freedom, democracy, justice, civil liberty, economic wellbeing and is a welcoming friend of other countries that want the same thing.

This is a dangerous delusion. Washington has an agenda. Washington has put in place a police state to suppress its own population, and Washington believes that history has conveyed the right to Washington to exercise hegemony over the world. Last year President Obama declared to the world that he sincerely

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries Europe faced the determination of the French Revolution to impose Liberty, Equality, Fraternity upon Europe. Today Washington’s ambition is larger. The ambition is to impose Washington’s hegemony on the entire world.

Unless Russia and China submit, this means war.

25 July, 2014 Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal.

Source: Paulcraigroberts.org

CAN THE BRICS REFORM GLOBAL POWER RELATIONS?

By Nile Bowie The latest meeting of the BRICS countries, held in Brazil’s northeastern city of Fortaleza last week, represents the bloc’s most significant step towards its aim of building a new, multilateral development framework.

After two years of negotiations, the geoeconomic grouping of emerging markets known as the BRICS – Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa – has broken new ground by launching a development bank intended to challenge Western-dominated multilateral lending institutions such as the IMF and World

Bank.

The New Development Bank (NDB) will be headquartered in Shanghai, and will primarily serve to facilitate sustainable development and large-scale infrastructure modernization within BRICS countries, which will each allocate an equal share of $50 billion startup capital with the aim of reaching $100 billion.

NDB loans would not be exclusively for BRICS governments, but would also be

extended to other low- and middleincome countries that contribute to the capital base. It is this capital base which will finance the construction of megaprojects involving electricity supply grids, telecommunications networks, roads and bridges, power stations, shipping infrastructure and ports, and water treatment facilities.

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raise liquidity protections and collectively hedge against economic challenges.

Though member countries will contribute an equal amount of startup capital to the NDB, China will have a 41 percent stake in financing the currency pool, with other members taking on smaller percentages.

BRICS countries represent 41.6 percent of world’s total population, 19.6 percent of global GDP, and 16.9 percent of total global trade, making the five-member community the world’s largest market.

Despite extensive economic clout, the BRICS countries together wield only about 11 percent of the votes at the IMF, an institution that is widely viewed as disproportionately influenced by the developed West to the detriment of the Global South.

The BRICS project is not simply about emerging economic powerhouses striving for a wider international role that traditional Western institutions have thus far denied. Rather, it is an attempt by the Global South to articulate an alternative multilateral global order intended to be more equitable, inclusive, dynamic, and suitable to 21st Century realities.

As developed economies find themselves today mired in austerity policies, and struggling to tackle unemployment wrought by hollowed-out industrial sectors, trade between economies in the Global South now exceeds trade between emerging and developed economies by some $2.2 trillion, more than one-quarter of global trade. China, Brazil, and India have also begun to displace western nations as large-scale donors throughout Africa and other low-income countries.

The growing role of developing countries in international institutions signifies how the global political landscape is shifting in favor of a multipolar order. The

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determination of emerging countries to independently pursue institution-building has been brought on by policies of western financial bodies that attach intrusive conditionalities to loans and deny equal voting rights to developing states.

Countries that borrow from institutions such as the IMF are forced to enact structural adjustment policies that scale back on public and social spending, and pressure countries to hurriedly reduce subsidies that would better be phased out gradually. Loan conditionalities have also been known to disproportionately favor the private sector and reduce a country’s ability to hedge against speculative capital.

The bloc’s push toward institutionbuilding to advance an alternative development vision has been hastened in recent times by several contentious flashpoints in global politics, primarily between Russia and China on one side, and the United States and European Union on the other.

Relations between Moscow and Washington have reached their lowest point since the end of the Cold War, while the US has spearheaded punitive sanctions against Russia for its purported role in the Ukrainian conflict. China has also expressed displeasure with US efforts to refocus its naval presence to the Asia Pacific region, which Beijing views as efforts by the US to interfere in the region’s complex territorial disputes.

A R T I C L E S capitals on Moscow and Beijing, who also take joint positions on issues in the UN Security Council, has prompted both countries to deepen their involvement in the multipolar project. Russia and China now intend to more forcefully utilize the BRICS framework to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and technology, and diversify political and trade relations with countries throughout the Global South.

The BRICS group will not be solely an economic community, but due to increasingly tense relations with the West, the five-member bloc is increasingly more disposed to cooperate politically to adopt common positions and coordinate joint efforts toward tackling regional issues at the UN level. In contrast to western leanings toward interventionism, the core principles of BRICS foreign policy thinking centers on respect for sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of countries.

In a recent interview with news agency ITAR-TASS, Russian President Vladimir Putin articulated his intentions to deepen both economic and political cooperation among the BRICS group, primarily by addressing the bloc’s common position against unilateral military interventions and economic sanctions that violate international law, pledging closer coordination and high level consultations between the group’s foreign ministries to jointly forge political and diplomatic settlements.

Washington’s calls for heavy economic sanctions on Russian industries and sectorial trade have been met with opposition by most EU states, which are largely dependent on Moscow for their energy needs. European states are also wary that sectorial sanctions against Russia will drastically drive up gas prices.

Putin has said that any economic

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sanctions on Russia will eventually boomerang back to harm US interests, and called on BRICS countries to introduce “a system of measures that would help prevent the harassment of countries that do not agree with some foreign policy decisions made by the United States and their allies, but would promote a civilized dialogue on all points at issue based on mutual respect.”

The primary interest of the BRICS countries is to begin the gradual process of reforming the international monetary and financial system, which remains heavily dependent on US monetary policy. The emerging multipolar alternative being championed by

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developing states, with varying degrees of antipathy toward Washington, is propelled forward by perceptions that global management on the basis of genuine and equal partnership cannot be realized under current political and economic conditions.

The BRICS countries face an uphill battle, and have yet to firmly establish internal decision-making mechanisms.

There are hurdles to address before the bank begins lending in 2016. The NDB can play an important role in channeling capital into industrial assets rather than into bubbles and financial markets, thus improving investment confidence, reducing risk, and advancing a productivity-focused development

A R T I C L E S agenda.

The failure of western-dominated institutions to address their asymmetric influence over global political and economic affairs is the primary factor that has given rise to an alliance of developing countries intending to correct this imbalance.

One can only hope they work toward bringing about a more equitable and just world order.

18 July 2014 Nile Bowie is a columnist with Russia Today, and a research associate with the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).

A VOICE FROM KASSAB

By Judith Bello I was with a group of 5 Americans, 3 Canadians and an Irishman who went to observe the Syrian election, but there were other observers from Asia, Africa and South America. On the way there, I thought about having a particular angle to report from, and I decided that since there weren’t many women observers that I would talk to other women and try to get their perspective on the election, but also on life in Syria before and after the war. I wanted to look at the issues from a less politicized perspective than most of what you hear and read on the subject of the war in Syria, and Assad’s election.

I did meet and interview number of women in Syria, and I found myself in contact with another woman when I got back, an American named Lilly Martin living in Syria with her Syrian husband. When I heard that Lilly had a house in the town of Kassab that had been destroyed during the recent period of occupation by ‘rebel’ forces (actually, al Nusra Front I think) , I wanted to know more. Kassab, an Armenian town near the Turkish border, was occupied during March of this year and only liberated

by the Syrian Army a few days ago. I asked Lilly via email if she would be willing to do a written interview through email and she agreed.

Because Lilly is a middle class American and has lived much of her life in this country, her voice is familiar. She says that she had not considered herself an ‘activist’ since the Vietnam War. She says she had not thought of herself as a feminist before now. But, she says this war has changed her. Not everyone will agree with Lilly’s perspective, but it is honest, and not unfamiliar. I am very grateful to her for sharing her insights and experiences. What follows are my questions and Lilly’s answers.

Judy: How did you come to live in Syria?

Lilly: I married in 1978 in California a young kid my same age who was originally from Syria, but had migrated to USA and had left Syria in 1970. We were married and living in California from 1978 to 1994. He was in the real estate business and I was a medical professional. We had 2 sons born in CA, then moved to Syria to be close to his parents

and siblings. My parents had died, and my only brother was living in Singapore teaching.

Judy: How long have you lived in Kassab and did you live in Syria before that?

Lilly: I have lived in the city of Latakia from 1994 until present. Latakia is a midsize city, it is a beach resort for summer tourism and a Port for shipping. I visited Latakia first in 1986, then in 1990, and finally moved here in 1994. The home I lost in Kassab is my summer house, as Kassab is a high mountain village, and many people have a summer house there. Kassab is about 2000 pop and is Armenian, but the summer-house-people are of other sects.

Kassab used to be a frequent summer spot for Saudi and Kuwaiti families seeking cool breezes. They would drive up from “Arabia”.

Judy: What was your life like in Kassab before the war?

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March 2011 was wonderful. I had a great group of friends, they were all females, some Syria and some western women. We had regular meetings and I called them ‘The Ladies Club’. That ‘club’ was broken up by this war, because some of the ladies backed the ‘revolution’ and some did not.

I did not, so we have never met again, after a famous Christmas party in 2011, where I simply stated, “My Christmas prayer is: God please stop the terrorists”. Half the group attacked me viciously, they said that there were no terrorists, only freedom fighters.

When I said, “But, they are making bombs and throwing them everywhere indiscriminately!” They countered, “They have to defend themselves.” I never did get their logic of throwing a bomb into a shopping center in order to defend themselves.

My kids had free education, and really a good education system in both Arabic and English, mandatory. My kids went to University for FREE, which is the right of all Syria students, as long as the grades are kept up. We had free medical, hospital, surgeries, etc. Medicines were so cheap, because Syria was a large manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, with export to over 32 countries. Free education and Free medical. What more do you want?

Latakia is a easy-going place, there are no dress codes or restrictions here. Everyone got along and in 1994-March 2011 there were no uprising, no riots, no sectarian strife. The government and police were strong, so criminal activity was very low, no one had hand guns other than police and Army. No robberies, no car-jackings, no armed robbery, no bank robbery. There was regular crime, like thieves coming in when people were away, and a car theft, but nothing which involved a gun. No one had a gun.

Judy: Did you or your loved ones ever have any problem with the government in Syria Lilly: I never had any problem with the

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government. My husband, and all of his family members, are NOT civil servants, or connected to the government in anyway.

My husband is a self-employed businessman. We didn’t have anyone who was in prison, or in any trouble. It was my general impression that there was nothing to be afraid of, if you obeyed the laws, just I would have if I was still living in USA. Judy: What did you think was happening at the beginning of the insurgency and where

did you think it would lead?

Lilly: We all watched the revolution in Egypt.

We wondered if it was coming to Syria?

We all shook our heads and guessed that it would NOT. I had friends who were a couple of retired teachers from Canada, who had asked to come to visit Syria in January 2011. We all debated as to whether there could be any disturbances, and we all concluded that there was nothing going to happen. They came and we did my famous ‘walking-tour’ of Damascus. They went home and our revolution began March 2011.

From our home, watching TV we watched the coverage of Deraa March 201 unfold.

Deraa is a very small and insignificant town.

It is so small and remote, I would venture a guess that 90% of Syrians had never visited it. I know that the Latakian people had no relationship to Deraa, they were about 8 hours drive time between the 2 and there was no exchanges between the 2 places.

Deraa was famous for archeology, and farming, and not much else.

At first, we guessed it must really be an uprising. An actual uprising of disgruntled

A R T I C L E S people . People who felt oppressed or grievances of some sort. Then we wondered why were their so many soldiers and policemen being killed? How could the BBC report a soldiers funeral as coming under fire from other soldiers? That made no sense. Who were these snipers on roofs?

Once they showed the Omari Mosque was a store-room for weapons, then we understood the true story. This was a foreign attack, but disguised as a popular uprising.

If it was really an uprising, then we should see it come to Latakia eventually. It did, on April 1, 2011. That was the first day. The mayor and other dignitaries went out to the protesters and asked them “WHAT” do you all want? They said in reply, “FREEDOM”.

The mayor asked, “WHAT does that mean?” No reply. I saw the protesters.

They were drug addicts and weird looking people, and they didn’t all look like there were even from Latakia. Outside agitators, bused in to create trouble. However, there were some genuine intellectuals, how were duped into promoting the cause, which they later dropped when it went to armed rebellion.

People would protest, they would destroy shops, they killed innocent civilians, they killed soldiers, and police. Next came the President on TV announcing that they would abolish the emergency law, and they would send all police and soldiers to watch the protests, but strictly unarmed. The President thought that the western media was showing the Syrian police and soldiers as brutal, so by taking away the weapons, there could be no excesses. I’ll never forget that day, the day they were not allowed to carry a weapon, just to stand and watch.

My friend’s son in the Police force, stood and watched, and the peaceful protesters cut him up with axes. He was buried in a plastic garbage bag. That was April 2011, from that day on we knew this was really awful, and had nothing to do with freedom or democracy.

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population that was not being well served by the government and who could be used to spearhead a regional proxy war?

Lilly: The government in Syria was, and is secular. The President is a minority, but most of his cabinet of ministers are Sunni, the majority. The Defense Minister, who is directly responsible for the Military, was a Christian, until the terrorists blew him up in Damascus, and now he is a Sunni. The Syrian government has never been a “Alowi Elite”, or a “Minority Rule”. Those are media mantra, but are not fact.

My husband and all his relatives are Sunni, the majority, which is about 60% of the country. Alowi are about 20%, Christians are about 15%, there are about 5% which are Shite. Syria is famous for having 18 sects. The first sectarian strife was instigated by the Ottoman Turks in 1860.

The second sectarian strife was 1980’s in Hama, instigated by Muslim Brotherhood.

During the years I have been here there was no sectarian strife.

Every Syrian is the same under law.

Corruption does exist, as it does all over the middle east, but it was dispersed among all sects. The reason for this secular government was due to the Ba’ath Party being the sole ruling party until 2012, when the new constitution abolished the one party rule. The Ba’ath party was strictly secular, and members and supporters of the Ba’ath party are among all various sects. It is still the largest and strongest party. It will take years to build confidence in other parties.

There was no “under-served, oppressed, unrepresented” portion of Syrian society.

The western media mantra is the SUNNI majority rose up because they had been downtrodden too long. This is the SUNNI fantasy. My family are Sunni, and from the average types, nothing spectacular or different. There is a self-deluded paranoia here, among under-educated and bigoted Sunnis, who say all their problems are

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because the Alowis have all the breaks. No one asks the Sunnis why do they refuse to take advantage of the FREE education?

They decided that they will do a revolution, strip everything hard earned from their minority neighbors, and then the yogurt maker will be appointed Prime Minster. This is their fantasy.

people who want to blame all their woes on the government and their minority neighbors.

There is a huge cultural difference between Sunni families and Alowi families here on the coast, which is the Alowi highest concentration. You find the Alowi families living on an orange farm, the mother and father are tending to the trees, meanwhile their kids are studying to be a Doctor, Lawyer and Engineer. Down in the city of Latakia, you find the Sunni families complaining that their kids have to study so much, and they have to pay for private tutors because their kids are not self motivated, and want to drop out of school.

These people are my relatives, and have been through 36 years of marriage. They need a lot of work, and they need to do it alone.

Judy: What do you think is the role of the US in the current war against Syria?

It was the Sunni population which fostered and participated in the rebellion. It didn’t take much outside agitation to get them into the streets and demanding that the country should be Sunni only, with all Christians shipped out to Beirut, and all Alowis slaughtered. That was the Free Syrian Army’s first banners and slogans. The Free Syrian Army was and is exclusively Sunni.

If you can find one FSA soldier who is from any sect other than Sunni, I will give you $100.00 The FSA is a bigoted, sectarian terrorist group, who preys upon the uneducated, and undereducated bigoted

The problem with this plan of revolution was that it had very little support on the ground. The vast majority of Sunnis did not buy it or accept it or support it.

Lilly: The US is the founder, inventor and the prime driver of the attack on the Syrian people for the purpose of regime change.

The CIA admits they started planning and funding this many years ago. I can understand their wish for regime change, as Syria is a pro-Palestinian resistance supporter. Those goals are not compatible with US. However, once they started their plans, and got to the point that they could see their was no ground support for the removal of the President, they should have switched gears and given up on the attack, and found another plan. But, the evil part is to continue killing innocent unarmed civilians, only because they refuse to be traitors and refuse to stop fighting terrorists.

This is a moral low point for USA foreign policy.

The funding comes from Saudi Arabia, who is forced to fund by black-mail. In other words, if they don’t fund terrorism, their Royal family would be taken out over night, in the cause of human rights, and a new form of government instituted by USA. This could still happen. The Saudis have to be very docile, if they act too strong, the US will cut them down to size. The Army and military in Saudi Arabia are all in the hands of USA. Judy: Did the people of Kassab have much social or economic commerce with people on the other side of the border in Turkey before the war?

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very busy before the war. Trucks of Turkish merchandise coming in, Syrian dress shop owners going to Turkey for merchandise orders from their factories, shoes coming in from Turkey, sugar and tea going to Turkey from Syria (cheaper in Syria). The back and forth business exchanges were daily. As far as tourism, the Syrians went to Turkey all summer long on bus trips, going to shops, going to restaurants, to resorts. My own family took our summer vacation every year in Turkey.

We loved it.

Judy: Were there problems with terrorists in Kassab before they took over the town a few months ago?

Lilly : The road from Latakia to Kassab had remained open all during the war.

People were constantly coming and going between the two all during the war. Even on March 21, the day of invasion, there were people in Kassab visiting there. There was a place to the EAST of Kassab, towards Idlib, Qasta Maaf, Selma, Ferloq, Rabia, all those areas to the EAST of Kassab had experienced problems with terrorists. But, the coast and Kassab were OK and there had been no previous attacks. It was a shock and mystery why they would burst into Kassab on March 21, 2014. I still don’t see the military target or strategy. From the other side, I can’t see why they did it.

Massacring 88 unarmed civilians and beheading 13. Why? For what reason?

Because they were Christians?

Judy: Were there internal divisions in or around Kassab where people were taking divisive political or military stances within the community?

Lilly : There was nothing whatsoever political going on in Kassab. 2,000 Armenians, Syrian citizens, who are Christian. They were all small farmers, apples and peaches. Some owned tiny grocery shops, some owned hand soap factories, small sized, for the production of

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Olive Oil and Bay leaf hand soap bars. There were no parties, no protests, nothing. The Syrian Christians are all of one mind, which is in support of peace, safety, support of the government. I have never seen any Syrian Christian say anything about supporting any rebellion. There could be some Syrian Christians in USA who may be supporting regime change, but not inside Syria. Christians here see the rebellion as 100% Sunni and they have no place in it.

Judy : Were people killed when Kassab was overrun or did most people escape before the terrorists came in?

Lilly: 6 am, March 21, 2014 the terrorists burst in, according to survivors (I have their names and testimony) the terrorists were a combination of foreigners, with a few Syrians included. This would be classic Free Syrian Army. They are Syrians working with various Al Qaeda. 88

unarmed civilians killed immediately, with 13 of those beheaded. The survivors ran to Latakia in cars, etc. The survivors are still sleeping here at the Armenian church in Latakia (I spoke by cell phone to their media person this morning) 22 very elderly survivors were kidnapped and taken by force to Turkey, were they were treated well in a small village 23 kilometers north of Kassab.

11 of them have been brought back to Latakia, via Lebanon and we are waiting for the other 11.

Judy: Have you been suffering other problems due to the war before or since the terrorist invasion of Kassab? Have there been shortages of food or gas and

A R T I C L E S oil, for instance.

Lilly: Since the war began, March 2011, the prices of normal everyday items of life have risen by 8 times. If an item had cost 100 lira, it is now 800 lira. I am referring to everything you eat, drink, or clothes. Many medicines are no longer available. You would have to go to Lebanon to find them, and at US prices.

Gas, food and supplies are available, but at prices many cannot bear. Syria has never had a welfare program, like money given to the poor. So the poor are suffering.

For example: my husband sells bulldozers. He has not sold one bulldozer since March 2011. We have been living off savings, with no income at all in this period. We are a typical family.

Government employees still have their paychecks, so this helps many. Self employed people have been hit, and especially factory workers, since all the various factories were destroyed by FSA. At certain times we were staying inside city limits, it was too dangerous to travel.

Right now, the roads from Latakia to Homs to Damascus are all open and OK. There is no travel from Latakia to Aleppo, that is all terrorist lands.

Judy: What are the conditions under which refugees in Latakia live?

Lilly: The survivors of Kassab have been and still are sleeping at the Armenian church in Latakia. The church is modern and has water, kitchen, toilets and plenty of space. It is a church, school and cultural center all in one. It was renovated about 5 years ago, thank God for that, it has been put to use. The refugees are well cared for and have funds donated and are OK for the persent, but they will need a lot to repair and rebuild their homes in Kassab. Many homes have been looted and destroyed.

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Judy: How have the conditions of the war affected the circumstances of women and children in general in Syria?

Lilly: Women and children have suffered a great deal. But the biggest suffering has been those that LEFT Syria to stay in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. I will discuss the females and kids outside of Syria later with you. The suffering of those inside Syria, internally displaced, has been real, but not much more than males. We have many internally displaced refugees from Aleppo here in Latakia. They have food, shelter, medicines, and the kids are all in school. They are suffering because they can’t go home. They can’t have a normal income.

Judy: I saw a lot of martyrs images in and around Tartous when I was there .

Are many of the men in your community engaged in the fighting as members of the military?

Lilly: The Syrian Army was ranked #16 in the world prior to the war. It consisted of 600,000 soldiers. I know many have died, the official count is 25,000 soldiers dead. The Syrian Army consists of young men 18 and over, healthy and not currently enrolled in University. It is a compulsory duty. The Syrian Army soldiers are from all 18 different sects.

They are not “Assad loyalist” any more that the US military are “Obama regime loyalist”. Uniformed soldiers in a national Army are fighting for their country and family, but not necessarily for their leader or political ideology. The typical American soldier and the typical Syrian soldier are similar. You wear and uniform and shoot a gun and no one ever asks you for your political analysis.

The Syrian soldiers who have died in the war are from every family in every community across Syria. Everyone has lost someone.

Judy: How did you feel about the election?

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What are your thoughts on Bashar Assad’s continued Presidency?

Lilly: I was very excited about the election, I observed my local poll and took photos and wrote a report. I had been expecting the current President to make a big move toward free elections back in 2007. I could tell when he came to office in 200 he wanted to make changes. He was very slow, but I am sure he had advisors who cautioned to go slow. Syria is so conservative, they

move slow. I know that the majority of people support him.

There are people who boycotted the election, they are mainly these bigoted, sectarian types. If they wanted a Sunni President, they could have all voted for Dr. Hassan al Nouri, but only 500,000 did. If you ask any of the revolutionaries who do they want leading, they have no candidate, no ideas, no goals. They are just dead-heads as far as I am concerned.

All they needed to do was to present a vision of what they wanted for Syria should the regime fall. If their vision proposed was acceptable to many, it would have happened. But they never had a vision, or any plan. They are the blind leading the blind and wondering why everyone voted for President Assad.

Judy: Do you feel safe going home?

Lilly: I won’t feel safe returning to Kassab, to check on my home there, until all the Armenians go. I will tagalong with them. I would be afraid of left over bombs, or dead bodies laying

A R T I C L E S around. I am a bit afraid really. But at some point the all clear will be given and I will go. I have to.

Judy: Will you be given any assistance with rebuilding?

Lilly: The government has already said there will be funds provided for rebuilding the whole of the country. The exact amounts, and how and when, those are in the works. Syria entered into the war with zero debts. They have paid for many weapons and various supplies, they were not given any gifts, they paid for everything, but still have not taken any loans from anyone. This was their goal, to be able to spend their own money without asking for loans, which could make you feel tied up later, beholden.

Judy: Is there anything else you would like to share with people about what is going on in Syria right now?

Lilly: The main thing is for the various countries funding and supporting the attack on Syria to stop. That means the London 11 group (formerly known as the Friends of Syria) should be dissolved. There should be no more paychecks and weapons sent to terrorists to fight inside Syria. The Rat Line from Benghazi to Iskenderun, Turkey should be shut. The borders along Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan should be well guarded and terrorists should be prevented from coming in. if the various sponsors and supporters will stop immediately, Syrian can slowly recover, clean up and re-build.

In the consideration of humanitarian issues, I would ask that all nations formerly against Syria cease and desist and let’s discuss ways to make Syria a better place through the UN and other peaceful means.

17 June, 2014 Judy Bello has traveled to Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and now Syria seeking to bridge cultural barriers to understanding and network with others to build a more peaceful and more just society.

Source: Countercurrents.org

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