Thursday, March 11, 2010

Tibet & Xinjiang

On the 51 anniversary of the uprising [11 March 2010] of the Tibetans against Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama made an important speech. He linked the struggle of Tibetans for cultural and political autonomy to that of the Turkomen or Quyghurs in Xinjiang. He did not neglect support for Chinese intellectuals and ordinary citizens who are struggling for their rights and democracy in China itself.
The Chinese Communisty Party [CCP] and its functionaries are put on notice. For, the linkage of the three struggles for democracy and the rights of minority peoples in Tibet and Xinjiang [east Turkmenstan], and in China proper is now established.
The time seemed right to hook up these struggles, although now that it is announced, the fight of these 3 people, is as plain as the nose on one's face.
Of course the CCP will not take the challenge sitting down, and they've a standing army to prove the point. Yet, strong and invincible as they might seem, the time and the fast moving evolution of Chinese economy and society, tied down by the weights and measures of the past, are against Beijing.
Of course, too, the CCP's propaganda machinery is working triple time, to launch lightning bolts of invective, lies, and fabrication cloth of stories woven from falsehood. Beijing will cajole, bribe, throw into prison those it cannot buy off or consider too weak but whose mere frail voice shakes the pillars of their temple.
It is curious that a brutal regime that always talks of history and history being on its side, remains impervious to the lessons of its own past.
Little does the CCP understand that the prophets of their doom are speaking, and the cracks and crevices of a corrupt society are widening day by day.
When the fall comes, the CCP won't have the luxury of wondering why. And that is the significance of the Dalai Lama's words.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Israel slaps the US

US vice president Joe Biden is in Israel, to reanimate the corpse of 'peace talks' between Israel and the Palestinian Authority [PA], albeit indirectly, the goal of which is a two state solution.
For his domestic audience back in the US, Biden went out of his way to assure that when push comes to shove Washington stands tall with Jerusalem. Israel needs no such proof of doglike fidelity from the Obama administration. It knows that it can count of congress and a large body of public opinion to support whatever it does, legally or illegally.
Biden came offering an olive branch, but right wing prime minister Bibi Netenyahu went out of his way to bite the hand that has so liberally funded the 'Jewish' state for the last 60 years with US rate or taxpayer monies.
President Obama [BHO] has caved in on all his conditions save the weak straw of a freeze on illegal settlements on the west bank and east Jerusalem which are under internationa law, recognised as belonging to the Palestinians.
Well living up to its arrogance, Israel, led by the Likud government, announced the building of 1300 additional units in Arab east Jerusalem, and thus in once breathed killed even the merest of hopes of getting on with stillborn negotiations.
Consider every move Israel has done facing Washington's demands. It has dug in its heels, wearing down spineless American presidents to water them down or simply let Jerusalem have its own way. For it full well knows that any party in the White House in the hope of staying in office, won't risk taming the rogue state which is Israel.
Netenyahu's announcement of further building in Arab east Jerusalem, which is yet another example of ethnic cleansing, simply rubbed Biden's face in donkey manure. Biden kept smiling, reaffirming support for arrogant and lawless Israel, but he did make Netenyahu wait 4.5 hours before joining the Israeli prime minister for dinner. Had he any 'cujones', Bidon should have taken the first aeroplane back to the states.
BHO & co. are used to being 'kicked around' by Israel, whose value in the Middle East for US policy is a game of diminishing returns, more a liability than an asset. Jerusalem as a client state of the US knows full well how to manipulate its 'protector' and 'banker', the US. If Washington has caught on to the game, it has a poor way of showing it, the more especially since it demurs to Israel's demands.
Not since the presidency of George WH Bush and his savvy foreign secretary James Baker, has Israel had to jump through US hoops and dance to Washington's tune. And to this day, Baker is a curse word in Israel! You won't find BHO cracking the whip; he will find his administration dragged into the infernal designs of Israel for a unitary state from the Mediterrean to the Jourdan river, with Bantustans for Palestinians Arabs.
No one in the department of state or the endless number of intelligence outfits the US government has, has taken into account that Netenyahu & co. come out of the reformist Zionist movement intent on a state from the sea to the river, without recognising the existence of Palestinians. Or if they do, they have a funny way of keeping quiet.
Netenyahu's slap in the US face is yet more proof of Israel's arrogrance, its thumbing its nose at the world, thinking rightly for the moment, it is beyond criticism. Consider the assassination of the Hamas leader in Dubai, caught on security cameras, involving identity theft, and flipping the bird at 5 friendly governments. Consider too the pre emptive war against Gaza, and the high deaht toll of civilians, complete destruction of infrastructure, and then holding Gazans as hostage with the bare minimum of food, to keep them from massive starvation. Consider not cooperating with the UN Goldstone commission and then falsely accusing the Jewish South African jurist of being a self hating Jew for putting the lion's share of blame on Israel for war crimes in Gaza.
Israel's behaviour is a law unto its own, but slowly but surely outside and weakly in the US, is growing a chorus of protest that Israel will not escape judgment for war crimes, and high crimes against the Palestinians and the world community.
This in spite of Washington's shameless support of what Israel does and the contempt Israel shows to its protector.