This month, MEMO briefly looks at the impact of wikileaks in the Middle East; the Coalition government's response to Israeli pressure to change Universal Jurisdiction laws and Washington's loss of credibility as a peace broker in the conflict and more.

Wag the dog

The US is fast losing credibility in the international political arena. Once a country that could instil awe in friend and foe alike, today she is like a dog led by its tail - the tail, in this case being Israel.

In early November, the Obama administration pledged $3 billion in stealth fighters to Israel, promising to 'veto any U.N resolution that questions Israel's legitimacy  in exchange for Israel's pledge to extend its partial settlement moratorium for another 90 days. The new moratorium was not to include East Jerusalem as requested by the Palestinians; with the Israeli lobby's successfully entrenched within the US political arena, the US continues to falter, refusing to make any definite commitments to Palestine.

As one American commentator wrote, the constant mantra echoed throughout the recent set of peace talks from all in the Obama administration professing commitment to 'Israel's security' is nonsensical; "the question is not whether we are committed to Israel's security, but whether they're committed to ours."  Granted that the recent mid-term elections have rocked the boat at home, this explains why the Obama administration has diluted its earlier promise to find a solution to the conflict. One Republican senator promised Netanyahu that "the new Republican majority would serve as "a check on the administration" in any dispute with Israel -- a statement so astonishing that one pro-Israel journalist viewed it as not only unprecedented, but "extraordinary".

And thus there were no surprises,  when on 7 December 2010, US officials came out confirming that the US have abandoned any talks of a settlement freeze in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, bowing to Israeli pressure, and ignoring the requests from the Palestinian leadership. So the 'independent broker' has once again shown its true colours - weak and ineffective.

Israel's short lived domestic 'wikileaks' moment:  IDF war criminals exposed

An Israeli website leaked the full details of hundreds of individuals who had been directly involved in Operation Cast Lead. It stating that: "Underlining the following people is an act of retribution and affront. They are the direct perpetrators, agents for the state of Israel that in Dec. - Jan. 2008- 2009 attacked scores of people in the besieged Gaza"

The website http://israeliwarcriminals.zzl.org had more than 3,000 hits in the few hours before it was taken offline, allowing many to disseminate the information, including full names, ranks, photographs and addresses. Speculation of how this information was made available is rife, with fingers being pointed at someone within the Israeli military itself.

Israel's 'wikileaks' moment seems to have been short lived but many of those looking to bring IDF personnel to justice have made known they have this information stowed away for the right moment. Watch this space…

Does the British government even have a backbone?

Speculation surrounding a change in Universal Jurisdiction (UJ) laws has been milling around for over a year now after former Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, promised to review them back in 2009. The current British government have gone a step further to protect their Israeli friends and this month have set in motion a bill that will see UJ laws changed to allow suspected Israeli war criminals to enter Britain without fear of being held to account. Israel has over the past few months played its part as expected - holding the British government to ransom- which came in successive histrionics and melodramatic outbursts from Israeli parliamentarians and right wing media alike, culminating in Israeli officials postponing 'high-level talks' with the Foreign Minister, William Hague, early this month.

Unfortunately for many of the British electorate, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has shown his true colours in a series of promises and pledges he has reneged on since coming into office, including Universal Jurisdiction.

Student activism in the fore

Student activism has always played an important part in political movements for change - be it against South African apartheid, for America civil rights or women's suffrage and it is no less pertinent to today's Pro-Palestinian movement in the Western world.

At beginning of November, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Arizona State University (ASUSJP) held a silent protest against an Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldier speaking on the "Spirit and Ethics of the IDF". It followed similar action at the University of Michigan, where two IDF soldiers spoke as part of a national public relations campaign by "Stand with Us", which according to protest organisers is a campaign "aimed at justifying Israel's recent atrocities in the Middle East".

In Britain, over the past few years, student activism has taken the form of campus 'occupations' at universities in London, Manchester and elsewhere; walk-outs, direct protests and demonstrations have also been held against Israeli actions and policies.

Click here [University of Michigan and Arizona State University] to watch video footage of the student protests in the US.

Wikileaks in a nutshell

Too busy to trawl through the thousands of documents now available courtesy of Wikileaks? In a little MEMO "wikicheat", just look at the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer on 3 December (we know, that's December and this is the November digest, but do you want a timesaver or not?): "The purloined cables exposed U.S. hypocrisy or double-dealing." Is that a problem for Mr Krauthammer? "Good God, that's the essence of diplomacy. That's what we do; that's what everyone does. Hence the famous aphorism that a diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country." So there you have it. You can ignore anything and everything that a diplomat ever tells you.

In the New York Times, good old Thomas L Friedman gave us a novel take (excuse the pun) on the whole Wikileaks saga. What if, he asked on 30 November, "China had a WikiLeaker and we could see what its embassy in Washington was reporting about America?" There followed Mr. Friedman's view of America today. His "Chinese" view of America's election is that it involved "one congressman trying to raise more money than the other (all from businesses they are supposed to be regulating) so he could tell bigger lies on TV more often about the other guy before the other guy could do it to him". In a revealing mirror of Israel's chosen people fixation, Thomas Friedman's Chinese email mocks "Republicans Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee [who] are denouncing Obama for denying 'American exceptionalism.' The Americans have replaced working to be exceptional with talking about how exceptional they still are. They don't seem to understand that you can't declare yourself 'exceptional', only others can bestow that adjective upon you." Funnily enough, I doubt whether the Times star columnist would make the same link with Israel; in fact, he doesn't even mention his country's obsession with the Zionist state and how bizarre that looks to outsiders, probably even the Chinese. And that's probably the most bizarre aspect of his article.

However, I can't cancel my membership of the Thomas L. Friedman fan club just yet. Not only does the guy write well, but he also tackles issues in a way that other columnists won't. In "I believe I can fly" (14 November), he bemoans the fact that "Netanyahu toys with President Obama, makes Israel look like it wants land more than peace and risks never forging a West Bank deal". This, he adds, risks "permanently absorbing its 2.5 million Palestinians and eventually no longer having a Jewish majority". And that's the Zionists' greatest fear; hence the raft of laws to promote the Jewish nature of Israel and the discriminatory laws intended to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland. Thomas L. Friedman couldn't and probably wouldn't ever say that; which is a great pity.

"You know you're in trouble when you need Henry Kissinger to vouch for you," wrote Maureen O'Dowd in the New York Times on 20 November; nothing to do with the Middle East, just a great quote!

In an article about "Anglo-American relations", the NYT's Roger Cohen reflected that the days "are long gone" when an American spy could say "Whenever we want to subvert any place, we find the British own an island within easy reach". The "special relationship" would turn that convenience into a launching pad for the said subversion. The Obama administration's brief connection with the Gordon Brown government in Britain was just that; brief, with Obama "cool" towards the then British Prime Minister, in the original sense of the word. However, Mr. Cohen says that "The Obama-Cameron body language was better. I detect interesting movement in the Anglo-American relationship." Britain, he says, "is shifting" and this was reflected by David Cameron's statements in Turkey a week after meeting Obama in July. "The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable"; and Gaza "was a 'prison camp'". According to Roger Cohen, "Obama, whatever he feels, could never say this, given U.S.-Israel politics." Britain, he added, is now "more hound than poodle". He credits the "easing" of the Gaza blockade to this change.

Perhaps, though, it's also something to do with "President Barack Obama's new Middle East envoy, a person with broad experience, the trust of Israelis, growing support among West Bank Palestinians and a fierce personal conviction that a peace accord is essential not only for the parties but for United States national security". According to Roger Cohen, that envoy is now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; in "Madam Secretary's Middle East" (15 November), Cohen says that Clinton "has taken charge" in order to "finish Rabin's work" her husband said recently.

When Hillary Clinton said that "America [was] 'deeply disappointed' by 'counterproductive' Israeli housing plans in East Jerusalem", consider, says Cohen, that in 1999 she said that Jerusalem is "the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel." Over the past ten years, he adds, the Secretary of State's "conviction hardened that the state of Palestine is achievable, inevitable and compatible with Israeli security."

The "transition from a self-pitying, self-dramatizing Palestinian psyche, with all the cloying accoutrements of victimhood, to a self-affirming culture of pragmatism and institution-building... is incomplete," says Roger Cohen. "But it has won Clinton over. And it's powerful enough to pose a whole new set of challenges to Israel: Palestine is serious now." The catalyst for this change is Salam Fayyad, the unelected Palestinian Authority Prime Minister in Ramallah; Clinton, says Mr. Cohen, has "great confidence" in him. His unelected status does not worry the US champions of democracy.

"If anyone can persuade Israel that its self-interest involves self-criticism, that occupation is corrosive, that its long-term security demands compromise, and that a new Palestine is emerging, it's Clinton." Conversely, "If anyone can persuade Palestinians that self-pitying unilateralism ('Help us! Recognize an occupied state!') is the way of the past and a road to nowhere, it's Clinton."

On the attempts at national reconciliation by the Palestinians, Cohen points out the Fatah-Hamas "differences on security" without going into detail about what they are. Essentially, Hamas thinks that Palestinian security services should be there to protect Palestinians. The current Fatah-led situation in the West Bank is that they appear to be there doing the job as proxies of their Israeli counterparts. Cohen doesn't go into that, perhaps for obvious reasons. However, he does mention that "Fatah itself is beset by sharp divisions - over President Mahmoud Abbas's leadership and the peace effort" before asking, "Can Palestinians keep their eye on the prize this time?"

If what he says is true, then that prize seems to be there for exclusively for the "West Bank Palestinians" who are enamoured with Hillary Clinton. More than anything else, that is yet another indication of the US-Israeli efforts to separate Gaza - historically always an integral part of Palestine - from a future Palestinian political entity. That may satisfy the West and Israel, but where does it leave the 1.5 million Palestinians in the beleaguered Gaza Strip and their democratically-elected government?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/opinion/23iht-edcohen.html?ref=rogercohen
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/opinion/16iht-edcohen.html?ref=rogercohen


And in other News...

Britain, the US and the World

• "Foreign Secretary, William Hague ended a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories with a call to renew freeze on settlement construction to allow talks to resume, a price worth paying given the prize of a prospect of long-term peace. He said the UK would prefer substantial extension rather than the 60 days demanded by the US. He warned that the window of opportunity for a two state solution to the conflict was closing and failure to reach an agreement would constitute a serious setback.

Israel, the West Bank and Gaza

• Israel Land Authority razes Rahat Mosque in the Negev:  Palestinians in the Negev had their place of worship razed to the ground early in November. Worshippers were beaten and forcibly removed from the mosque and made to watch their community mosque demolished. In an area which has over 80,000 Palestinian inhabitants, the ILA continue to discriminate against its Palestinian citizens and refuses to give permits for building homes, schools and mosques. The residents showed their true Palestinian spirit and began to rebuild in their mosque in earnest the very next day.
  
  
• B'Tselem report - Shin Bet questioning violates International Law: The report is based on the testimonies of 121 Palestinians who were held in the Shin Bet's main detention facility in Petah Tikva throughout 2009. Detainees are forced to stay in 'disgraceful hygienic conditions' and are tormented with sleep deprivation and physical abuse'. "In one case, a 63-yearold widow was allegedly held in the facility so that members of her family could see her suffering while under detention. The woman was released two days later." The Israeli government rejected the report's findings.
  
  
• The Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, referred to by Jews as the tomb of Rachel sparked a diplomatic row between Israel and the UN this month when the latter included the site in a UNESCO resolution describing it as a mosque and noted that it formed an integral part of the Occupied Palestinians Territories.
  
  
• Two Israeli soldiers convicted of "inappropriate conduct" during a closed military trial last month for using the nine-year-old Palestinian boy, Majeh Rabah, as a human shield during Operation Cast Lead were given three month suspended sentences and demoted from staff sergeant to sergeant. They had faced a maximum of three years in prison. The boy's mother criticized the sentences saying "This is a scandal that just encourages others to continue in this behaviour which sends a negative message to both the victims and the soldiers," The traumatized boy's family is considering civil action.