/03

Gaza Cancer Rates on Rise
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/cancer-rates-soar-gaza-war.html

Dr. Khalid Thabet, head of the Oncology Department at the government-run Shifa Hospital, said in a meeting with Al-Monitor that he expects the rate of cancer patients to double over the next five years in the Gaza Strip, due to the uranium used by Israel in its attacks against the Gaza Strip during the 2008-2009 war.
While Israel denied in Jan. 2009 that it had used depleted uranium in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, an investigation by French NGO Action of Civilians for Nuclear Disarmament (ACDN) shortly after the war found the use of depleted uranium “highly probable.”

"After several months of investigation carried out in close liaison with the people concerned and with the help of Jean-François Fechino, a consultant on diffuse pollution and an expert accredited to the UN Environment Program (UNEP). ACDN ... produced a 33-page report concluding that the presence of dozens of tonnes of Depleted Uranium (perhaps as much as 75 tonnes) in the soil and subsoil of Gaza is highly probable.

“In April 2009, a four-person mission including Jean-François Fechino went to Gaza under the auspices of the Arab Commission for Human Rights. The samples of earth and dust that they brought back from Gaza were then analysed by a specialist laboratory, which found in them elements of depleted uranium (which is radioactive, carcinogenic, teratogenic), particles of cesium (which is radioactive and carcinogenic), asbestos dust (which is carcinogenic), volatile organic compounds (VOCs, which are fine particles which endanger health, especially the health of children, asthmatics and old people), phosphates (from oxidation of white phosphorus), tungsten (which is carcinogenic), copper, aluminium oxide (which is carcinogenic), and thorium oxide (ThO2, which is radioactive).”

Egyptian Salafist Considers Sinai The ’Next Frontier’

By Mohamed Fadel Fahmy for Al-Monitor. (Fadel Fahmy is an Egyptian/Canadian freelance journalist and author of Baghdad Bound and Egyptian Freedom Story).

▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/egyptsalafistsanaiusconsulatebenghazi.html#ixzz2PCWofWIl

“The Egyptian revolution came as a “gift from god,” as one of the hundreds of jihadists released from prison after the uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 called it. Stockpiles of weapons have made their way into Egypt through the neighboring porous Libyan and Sudanese borders since the region has fallen into a state of lawlessness, which came with the shake-up of the security apparatuses in scarred nations searching for their new identities. Al Qaeda inspired groups in the Sinai Peninsula have puzzled the international community with their bold statements and videos posted on the net, but the various Egyptian security branches have not been able to pinpoint their direct involvement in any of the many military operations and kidnappings, or the weapons smuggling to Gaza through an intricate web of tunnels located in North Sinai, close to the Israeli border. The audacity of such militant groups has left Egypt and its neighboring countries with a national security threat that is brewing by the day, as the wave of violence and killing is broadcast on a daily basis on Egypt’s dozens of television channels and talk-shows.
Obtaining transparent information, specifically in national security cases, in Egypt has become a challenge, and the terrorism case known in the press as the “Nasr City Cell” is no exception.”

#Egypt #Jihadism #Sinai #al_Qaeda #Nasr_city_cell

A New Non-Violent Palestinian Anti-Israel Movement Emerges - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/palestine-non-violent-movement-emerges.html

Since last week, dozens of activists have grabbed the spotlight on the Palestinian scene, which had been busy with US President Barack Obama’s visit. But after he left, those activists have become an important news item in Arab and Palestinian media. Israeli newspapers revealed that Israeli police were forced to postpone dealing with those activists until Obama left so as not to cause bad press in his presence.

As those young activists were formulating an initiative that breaks the political deadlock, presents alternative Palestinian resistance methods and offers something different than armed struggle and traditional resistance, the US president was speaking about the peace process and the Arab summit was issuing perplexing decisions and proposals that raised many questions about the future.
Those young activists set up a small tent city, with a children’s playground, on a piece of land threatened with being seized by Israel as part of an Israeli plan known as Plan E1. According to that plan, Israeli settlements would reach Jerusalem and cut off the West Bank’s south from its north, thus threatening the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
The activists named their tent city “The Descendants of Younes.” They had previously set up a tent city called Bab al-Shams in January 2013. Bab al-Shams is the title of a story written by Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury. It talks about the Nakba and how the Palestinians were displaced in 1948. It also talks about resistance after the Nakba. The story’s main character is a resistance fighter named Younes. He meets his wife Nahila in a cave inside Palestine. They fall in love and live their love life in secret.
The Israelis dismantled the Bab al-Shams tent city after it started attracting many visitors. But the activists who established that tent city are still active. Their movement uses different methods, has different objectives and involves different activists than traditional Palestinian movements.
The activists come from all the Palestinian factions, especially Fatah and al-Badira movements. The latter is the only Palestinian anti-Israel movement that has never participated in the armed struggle. But despite that, it has significant presence. Along with Fatah and al-Badira, the PFLP and the DFLP were also present.
A large part of the coordinating and preparatory work happens at the level of the activists, not the political parties to whom they belong. Moreover, many of the activists are independents. The movement is the result of several previous experiences, such as the fight against the Israeli separation barrier by the Bil’in, Ni’lin, Walaja and Hebron movements, and others. Those were peaceful grassroots movements with international and Israeli support. The Bab al-Shams movement is based on those previous experiences, except that the foreign presence in it is virtually nonexistent.
In such a movement, the activists are better able to organize. One of the organizers said that they want to rely on their own efforts rather than that of international activists, although the latter’s support is important.
In this kind of organized activism, the activists gather secretly to avoid the Israeli army checkpoints. Maybe in the future that can mobilize at multiple places concurrently. Things seem to be heading in that direction; it would be a different kind of intifada. The first intifada, in 1987, started with stone-throwing and demonstrations, it was not militarized. Weapons were rarely used and only after three years from the uprising’s start. In the second intifada, known as the Al-Aqsa intifada in 2000, many Palestinians regret that Israel was able to drag the movement into an armed struggle when it attacked Palestinian security headquarters with aircraft. But the new movement is very keen to avoid using violence, whether stone-throwing or arms, even though many activists affirm that all kinds of legitimate resistance are guaranteed by international law.
Popular uprisings are not usually planned. They happen when there are tensions and some event comes along to act as a spark. When that happens, activists and politicians are often surprised. Sometimes they are able to lead the popular movement and sometimes new leadership emerges. Therefore, identifying those who will lead the third Palestinian uprising is not easy. But what is certain is that Bab al-Shams and other experiences have presented a new Palestinian resistance model.
Perhaps for the first time in Palestinian history, the idea of a peaceful popular resistance is dominant. Even if this new experience is still in its infancy, all other forces that have proposed other resistance methods are on the decline. Fatah, which led the armed struggle in the past, has stopped using that method. Hamas, as a result of the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, has also halted military activities and now seems to favor political action.
In the last few days of the Descendants of Younes experience, two parties spoke of a compromise solution. The first party was US President Barack Obama. In his visit to the area he promised that Secretary of State John Kerry would devote time for a peaceful settlement. US aid to the Palestinian authority resumed and Israel resumed paying the Palestinians the owed taxes. The second party was Qatar. It suggested supporting the Palestinians by establishing a billion-dollar fund to support the Arab presence in Jerusalem and to hold an Arab summit to help Palestinian reconciliation, followed by political negotiations that may include an international peace conference.
The Palestinians are wary of a new armed struggle. But they are also suspicious of a political process that does not stop Israel from imposing facts on the ground by building settlements and confiscating land. They also do not trust Arab resolutions.
There is an international push for a peace settlement. At first glance, it may seem a course correction and a means to lower tensions. But the failures of such efforts and the Israeli policy of imposing facts on the ground may create a new anti-Israel grassroots movement. The Bab al-Shams experience may act as a model for such a movement because it includes the traditional forces but has a new approach.
Those new Palestinian forces and approaches are likely to grow stronger, especially if the reconciliation process fails and there are no new elections to rejuvenate Palestinian institutions.
Ahmad Azem is the director of Palestine and Arabic Studies at Birzeit University.
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Jerusalem Ignores the Outreached Hand of the Arab League - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/jerusalem-ignores-the-outreached-hand-of-the-arab-league.html

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army, opposition fighters and offshoots of al-Qaeda are turning Syria into a network of cemeteries and ruins; Lebanon is collapsing under the weight of hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving from its bleeding neighbor; the regime of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is hanging on by a thread; in Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah lies on his deathbed; and Shiite Iran is stirring this boiling cauldron. 

Amidst this commotion, the leaders of the Arab states who convened on March 26 in Doha, the capital of Qatar, took the time and energy to address the diplomatic freeze in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the occupation and the settlements. As it does annually — despite the upheavals besetting the region — the Arab League summit made sure to reaffirm its peace initiative of March 28, 2002. And, as they do annually, Israel’s political echelons ignored the Arab leaders’ historic peace plan. The summit’s decision to send a special delegation to Washington in April to discuss ways of kick-starting the stalled negotiations, did not elicit any reaction, either.
It is no surprise that the ratification of this regional peace plan and the Arab League’s interest in promoting the two-state solution are being received with such a cool welcome; since the start of the Arab Spring, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been using the regional instability as a reason, or excuse, to entrench himself in a holding position on the Palestinian front and focus on the Iranian arena. And now, even though the Arab Peace Initiative is the product of pre-Arab Spring regimes, the leaders of the new regimes have again affirmed their peace plan, for the second time since the outbreak of the revolutions in the region. The initiative, which proposes that Israel relinquish the territories it captured in 1967, and in return enjoy normal relations with all the Islamic states, has become one of their anchors.
Middle East scholar, Dr. Matti Steinberg, who has been researching the initiative for years, poured over dozens of pages of Doha summit decisions and found no reference to the issue of the Right of Return — the one that deters most Israelis. The reference to the refugee issue is done so in passing, in reference to the Arab initiative, according to which the solution must be just and agreed upon, based on UN Resolution 194 (which refers to the return of the refugees to their places of residence and the restitution of their property). Steinberg stresses that in the announcement summing up the previous summit, held last year in Baghdad, the right of return was specifically mentioned alongside the Arab initiative, and so, too, in the announcement of the Islamic summit, which was held in Cairo last September (and quoted Resolution 194). One can thus infer that the Arab League delegation will focus its discussions in Washington next month on the territorial issue and will try to talk the US administration into forcing Israel to present its own map for a permanent arrangement. It marks the first time that the Arab League will conduct official talks with the United States about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of a regional arrangement. 
The new US Secretary of State, John Kerry, has on his desk a proposal to replace the bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians with a multilateral platform. Acceptance of the Arab initiative as the basis of a permanent arrangement between Israel and its neighbors will enable the renewal of the multilateral channels established following the 1991 Madrid peace conference on the issues of regional security, refugees, water and economic and environmental development. Parallel to the start of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and as part of the regional initiative, the sides will agree that following the establishment of a stable regime in Syria, the new regime will be invited to renew negotiations based on the principles of the initiative. The negotiations with Lebanon, which began in Madrid, will also be renewed. 
Acceptance of the Arab initiative’s principles, as the basis for a permanent agreement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will enable gradual progress toward the final stop. This, according to the course laid out on the road map of the Quartet (which will mark its 10th year of existence in April), which was also unanimously adopted as a Security Council resolution (1515). The road map [introduced by President Bush in 2002] states that agreement reached in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will be based, inter alia, on the initiative of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdullah approved at the Arab League summit in Beirut that calls for the acceptance of Israel as a neighbor in the region, living in peace and security, within the context of an overall agreement. The road map also states, “This initiative is a vital element of international efforts to promote a comprehensive peace on all tracks, including the Syrian-Israeli and Lebanese-Israeli track.” 
Negotiations with the Palestinians under the auspices of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic States, which includes Turkey, could make it easier for the Benjamin Netanyahu government to enlist support from the public and its coalition partners for significant steps, such as recognition, in principle, of a Palestinian state, gradual transfer of lands in the West Bank to the sole responsibility of Palestine and passage of a bill concerning “eviction and reparations” for residents of the settlements east of the separation barrier. The government would be able to present these steps as the first stage of a regional peace plan, supported by the United States and the rest of the international community. On the other hand, Israeli willingness to adopt the Arab initiative as a framework for negotiations, to recognize Palestine and to hand it lands, will help the United States put pressure on Saudi Arabia and other Arab states that do not maintain relations with Israel in order to accelerate steps toward normalization.
The Arab summit in Doha illustrates that the new Arab regimes, like the ones that preceded them, regard resolution of the Palestinian issue as the key to strengthening their legitimacy. As far as they are concerned, the way to solve the Syrian problem and to prevent it being turned into a base for Iran or global jihad runs through Ramallah and Jerusalem.
Akiva Eldar is a contributing writer for Al-Monitor’s Israel Pulse. He was formerly a senior columnist and editorial writer for Haaretz and also served as the Hebrew daily’s US bureau chief and diplomatic correspondent. His most recent book (with Idith Zertal), Lords of the Land, on the Jewish settlements, was on the best-seller list in Israel and has been translated into English, German and Arabic.

Dahlan Case Shows Split In Palestinian Fatah Movement - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/dispute-fatah-official-immunity.html

The issue of Fatah-affiliated MP Mohammed Dahlan has once again topped Palestinian news, as proceedings at the Constitutional Court are to be held on March 28, to consider the appeal presented by Dahlan against President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to strip him of immunity

Portrait de Ghassan Hitto, nouveau premier ministre par interim de l’opposition syrienne. Citoyen américain, sa nomination - à laquelle le Qatar a grandement contribué – est perçue comme un renforcement du poids des Frères musulmans au sein de la Coalition nationale syrienne. Hostile au dialogue avec le régime d’Assad, il ne pouvait de fait que recueillir l’assentiment du Qatar, de la Turquie et des Frères musulmans. Sa nomination pourrait signifier l’échec de ceux qui considèrent aujourd’hui, par conviction, par calcul ou par résignation, qu’un dialogue avec le régime d’Assad est nécessaire pour mettre un terme aux affrontements.

Muslim Brotherhood Holds Sway Over Syrian Opposition
By: Hassan Hassan for Al-Monitor. Posted on March 21, 2013

Read more: ▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/syria-ghassan-hitto-muslim-brotherhood.html#ixzz2OHff7DbF

« Ghassan Hitto, a naturalized US citizen from Damascus, was selected on Monday, March 18, by members of the opposition Syrian National Coalition to become the interim prime minister. Little known among Syrians, his appointment is by far the clearest indication of the Muslim Brotherhood’s monopoly over the opposition’s political and military bodies. At least nine figures suspended their membership in the National Coalition in protest, including the coalition’s spokesman, Walid Buni, and Vice President Suhair Attasi, who then retracted her suspension a day later. Hitto is not known to be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but he is ideologically close to it. A Syrian close to Hitto told me that he is “100% supported and trusted by the Brotherhood.” His brother is a member who was jailed for many years, his acquaintance said, which is why Hitto fled Syria. The source located Hitto in terms of independence somewhere between Moaz al-Khatib, the coalition’s president who proved to be independent, and the Brotherhood. »

#Syria #Ghassan Hitto # Syrian National Coalition # Muslim Brotherhood #rejection of dialogue with the regime #negociated political solution #Qatar #interim government #Osama Kadi #Moaz al-Khatib

Très important : le Liban vient de frôler le déclenchement officiel d’une nouvelle guerre civile, et tout ce qu’on peut lire d’ici, c’est un silence embarrassé, ou une assez nette tentative d’inverser les responsabilités.

Pour Kahwagi [le chef de l’armée libanaise], le Liban vient de vivre sa pire crise sécuritaire en huit ans
▻http://www.lorientlejour.com/category/Derni%E8res+Infos/article/805988/Pour+Kahwagi%2C+le+Liban+vient+de+vivre+sa+pire+crise+s.html

Le commandant en chef de l’armée libanaise, le général Jean Kahwagi, a affirmé que le Liban avait connu ces dernières 24 h sa pire situation sécuritaire depuis huit ans, après des attaques coordonnées contre des cheikhs sunnites à Beyrouth.

La lecture de l’Orient-Le Jour tend à n’incriminer que « les chiites » qui ont agressé des religieux sunnites.

Pourtant, le chef de l’armée est cité déclarant :

Il a appelé les politiciens et les responsables religieux à “combattre tous ceux qui poussent à la discorde dans le pays”.

Mais qui peut donc pousser, selon le chef de l’armée, à la « discorde dans le pays » ?

Dans un article précédent, L’OLJ citait le Grand mufti de la République (sunnite, n’est-ce pas) :
▻http://www.lorientlejour.com/category/À+La+Une/article/805966/Liban_%3A_Les_incidents_itinerants_exacerbent_la_rue_sunnite.html

Le mufti de la République a profité de sa visite à l’hôpital pour s’en prendre aussi à ses propres opposants. « J’impute la responsabilité à certains leaders sunnites, lesquels sont derrière les attaques contre le mufti de la République et visent à le faire tomber. Ces leaders ont incité ces drogués à agresser les ulémas. Ils doivent être sanctionnés au même titre que les drogués », a-t-il expliqué. En effet, le ministre de l’Intérieur Marwan Charbel, le mouvement Amal et le Hezbollah avaient affirmé dans la nuit de dimanche que les agresseurs étaient des « voyous drogués ».

L’OLJ ne cherche pas plus loin qui pourraient être des « leaders sunnites » qui « inciteraient » des « drogués chiites » à attaquer des religieux sunnites ?

La lecture de l’OLJ donne une impression très nette : le Liban est passé au bord de la guerre civile parce que des chiites ont agressé des religieux sunnites. Les citations du grand mufti et du chef de l’Armée, si on se contente de cette lecture, sont plus ou moins incompréhensibles.

D’abord, il faut rappeler que depuis des semaines, l’agitation sectaire de l’escroc salafiste Assir à Saïda et ses menaces explicites contre les habitants chiites de la ville sont extrêmement dangereuses. J’écrivais il y a tout juste 5 jours : « Ces provocations vont fatalement se terminer dans le sang. » (Provocations explicites qui ne semblent, elles, ni intéresser nos médias, ni provoquer de déclarations paternalistes des ambassades étrangères.)
▻http://seenthis.net/messages/121609

Plus précisément, on pourra lire cette présentation d’un enchaînement des événements par Al-Monitor (article à la tonalité très discutable par ailleurs – je pense qu’il faut en général prendre Al-Monitor avec des pincettes ; cet article s’illustre d’ailleurs par un titre totalement contraire aux événements qu’il relate) :
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/sunni-shiite-tension-lebanon.html

Un militant chiite libanais (présenté avec certitude comme un membre du Hezbollah par Al Monitor) serait mort en Syrie, en protégeant un lieu saint chiite au Sud de Damas (sanctuaire déjà attaqué semble-t-il par des « rebelles » syriens autant intéressés par la guerre contre les lieux saints chiites que par la chute du régime).

À la nouvelle de l’enterrement, les supporters du salafiste Assir installèrent des check-points à Saïda, pour « distribuer des douceurs » en signe de liesse (il n’y a que l’extrême bonne volonté du Al-Monitor pour accepter l’idée que des miliciens salafistes montent des check-points pour distribuer des pâtisseries libanaises et que cela va bien se passer).

Des résidents chiites du quartier de Haret Saïda auraient donc décidé de se rendre sur ces check-points pour, selon Al-Monitor, « provoquer ces hommes » (comme si ça n’était pas le fait que des salafistes installent des check-points à Saïda qui était déjà une intolérable « provocation »).

Suite à quoi (mais le lien logique n’est pas réellement explicité), un « supporter masqué d’Assir » serait allé tirer des coups de feu contre le quartier de Haret Saïda. (Détail insignifiant : s’il est masqué et s’il n’a pas été arrêté, comment sait-on qu’il s’agit d’un supporter d’Assir ?)

Et c’est ensuite que des religieux sunnites ont été agressés à Beyrouth. La dénonciation par le chef de l’Armée de « ceux qui poussent à la discorde » prend ici beaucoup plus de sens immédiat.

En réalité, il faudrait sans doute également se replacer dans les événements de Tripoli, où les bandes armées sunnites viennent de dénoncer leur propre instrumentalisation par le 14 Mars et les sheikhs salafistes :
►http://seenthis.net/messages/121196
et évidemment l’attaque d’Ersal contre l’armée libanaise, qui avait déjà été l’occasion d’une tentative de manipulation orchestrée par le bureau de presse Hariri à Beyrouth, et la réfutation claire par le chef de l’armée :
►http://seenthis.net/messages/112742

Clairement, le chef de l’armée ne se contente pas de dénoncer deux chiites isolés de Beyrouth…

Quant aux déclarations du grand mufti, comme le souligne @rumor, ▻http://seenthis.net/messages/123105
elles ont une signification légèrement différente : la lutte entre le grand mufti sunnite et le 14 Mars est officielle depuis des mois (il y a eu plusieurs articles du Akhbar). Noter que là, les accusations sont encore plus graves : faut-il comprendre que, selon lui, les deux voyous chiites (dénoncés immédiatement par le Hezbollah et Amal) ont agit non à la suite des provocations de Saïda, mais pour le compte de ses opposants du Dar al-Fatwa, c’est-à-dire sur commande des chefs sunnites (politiques, religieux ?) du 14 Mars ?

Le Hezbollah, lui, dénonce explicitement une ingérence américaine. Depuis le #cablegate libanais, on sait en effet que les politiciens du 14 Mars et leurs alliés américains sont parfaitement capables d’exploiter une situation déjà détestable pour atteindre à une situation encore plus détestable. La déclaration du Mufti, qui implique que l’attaque par des « drogués chiites » seraient en réalité une manipulation de la part de responsables sunnites, me semble correspondre à la même logique.

Egyptian Leftist Bloc Leader Calls Morsi ’New Mubarak’ -

Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
►http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/morsi-new-mubarak-opposition-leader-hamdeen-sabahi.html

“I disagree with those who demand the return of the military to power. Egyptians should [determine] their political life, and the military has to enable them in doing so while it fights any dangers and puts an end to the spread of violence,” he added.
Sabahi believes the military is being forced to interfere not because of popular demands but because of the “oppressive policies of Mohammed Morsi and his government that refuses to interact with the people and their peaceful protests.”

Egyptian Leftist Bloc Leader Calls Morsi ’New Mubarak’ -

Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
►http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/morsi-new-mubarak-opposition-leader-hamdeen-sabahi.html

“I disagree with those who demand the return of the military to power. Egyptians should [determine] their political life, and the military has to enable them in doing so while it fights any dangers and puts an end to the spread of violence,” he added.
Sabahi believes the military is being forced to interfere not because of popular demands but because of the “oppressive policies of Mohammed Morsi and his government that refuses to interact with the people and their peaceful protests.”

Attention, attention, Israël découvre à l’instant the-dark-side des rebelles syriens :
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/the-dark-side-of-the-syrian-rebels.html

But that didn’t put a stop to the rebels’ provocative actions. They exploited the absence of U.N. peacekeepers to make it almost all the way up to the Israeli border on the Golan. A film clip posted on Youtube shows a handful of rebels firing off their guns beside a U.N. sign warning that they are in a demilitarized zone. In that same clip, the rebels demand that Assad “prove his loyalty to his citizens” by turning his tanks and missiles against Israel. “O Bashar al-Assad,” they say, “Israel is just 500 meters away. If you want to prove that you are really a part of the Syrian people, turn your tanks and missiles against Israel now! Prove that you are with us!”

Ah ben oui, c’est grotesque.

Why Are Turks Intolerant? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/turkish-society-intolerant-others-nationalism.html

1) Were Turks always like this, or was this intolerance something new?

2) What was the underlying reason behind this intolerance? Was it really “an Islamic outlook, or a nationalist outlook that has Islam at its core,” as Mr. İdiz argued?

On the first question, I can confidently argue that the anti-Christian (and in fact, anti-non-Muslim) attitude in Turkey is a new phenomenon, if we speak within the long-term perspective of history. Because the land that we call Turkey was for centuries ruled by the Ottoman Empire, which was a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, in which diverse communities lived side by side. In other words, having a Christian or Jewish neighbor would not be disturbing at all for the traditional Ottoman Muslim; it was a simple fact of life. In the late 19th century, an era of liberal reforms, even seeing Christians or Jews among the ruling elite had become a fact of life. One third of the Ottoman Parliament, which first convened in 1876, consisted of non-Muslims — a large representation that is unthinkable in today’s Turkey.

What really destroyed this Ottoman pluralism, and the underlying tolerance, was not “an Islamic outlook,” but a modern, secular ideology: nationalism. (In fact, the Islamic outlook had nurtured tolerance, by its traditional respect for “the People of the Book.”) One of the many academic studies that confirm this view is a fresh new title by historian Nicholas N. Doumanis: Before the Nation: Muslim-Christian Coexistence and its Destruction in Late-Ottoman Anatolia. In his Oxford University Press book, Dr. Doumanis, referring to an “oral archive containing interviews with over 5,000 refugees,” shows that there was an age in Turkey where Muslim and Christians “worked and drank coffee together, participated in each other’s festivals, and even prayed to the same saints.”

▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/chavez-legacy-middle-east.html

Iran’s ’Radio David’ Tries to Woo Israelis - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/iranian-radio-tries-to-win-over-the-israeli-public.html

Did you know that “Shimon Peres admits Israel poisoned Arafat?” And that “Sanctions on Iran were abolished?” And that “Assad convened a very dangerous meeting and decided to attack Israel with all its missiles?” (Yes, this is a direct quote.)

All this and more appear on an Iranian Internet news site meant for Israeli eyes. The site is painstakingly well-made and instructive and, like other sites, has news flashes on the screen and sections dedicated to politics, security and culture, along with speeches by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
What I am referring to a Radio Tehran site called Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which features, among other things, a news broadcast in Hebrew called “Radio David.”

Encore des milliards de dollars « perdus » en Iraq, cette fois dans la « reconstruction ». Ce rapport estime qu’environ 15% des 60 milliards de dollars dépensés par les États-Unis dans la « reconstruction » et la « stabilisation » de l’Irak ont été perdus.
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/stuart-bowen-iraq-reconstruction-lessons-waste-corruption.html

These are among the common-sense lessons gleaned from the checkered record of Iraq, where the US has spent nearly $60 billion on so-called stabilization and reconstruction — of which at least $8-10 billion was wasted due to lack of security, poorly executed contracts and corruption, according to a new report.

Mais, comme toujours : certainement pas perdus pour tout le monde. Et, à force de perdre des milliards de dollars dans des conditions totalement abracadabrantesques, il faut tout de même se demander si ça n’est pas plutôt une forme de « noircissement d’argent » :
►http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noircissement_d'argent

Le noircissement d’argent est l’inverse du blanchiment d’argent.

Si la préoccupation principale des organisations criminelles est de réinjecter des revenus illicites dans l’économie officielle, le souci d’une entreprise privée qui souhaiterait développer des activités illicites (comme la corruption de fonctionnaires ou de personnalités politiques, le financement illégal des partis politiques français) est, à l’inverse, de générer des fonds occultes et de l’argent noir en liquide.

Autrement dit, si le blanchiment d’argent consiste à dissimuler l’origine de fonds « sales », le noircissement, quant à lui, consiste à dissimuler la destination de fonds « propres ».