Why the US is part of Middle East problem, not the solution

The quotation below is from an al Monitor interview with Arab Knesset member Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint List, a political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties.

Well worth reading, for liberals and others interested in community in the US.

Th article, quoted below, concludes with this:

Odeh:  As I have said before, and let me reiterate this, the United States isn’t the solution — it’s the problem. To date, there is no one unified group of Arab Israelis in the United States holding events and talking to the public in general as well as to people who carry influence and trendsetters. This is my primary goal at the moment, to set up such a body in America through which I can influence American public opinion.

Reasonable.  What can one do, from the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List, poses before the filming of a television campaign ad in Tel Aviv, March 8, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/ Ratner)

Why the US is part of Middle East problem, not the solution

In early November, Arab Knesset member Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint List, received a surprising email from Foreign Policy magazine: He had been selected as one of its 100 Leading Global Thinkers for 2015. Yet, Odeh could not pop the champagne cork right away, as he was asked to keep his selection under wraps until the official announcement was made in early December. Unfamiliar to most of the Israeli public until about a year ago, he suddenly found himself rubbing elbows with Pope Francis, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, the negotiators of the Iran nuclear deal and other world leaders and thinkers.

The announcement indicates that Odeh was chosen for the prestigious list thanks to his ability to unite Israel’s Arabs. “Odeh yoked diverse leaders — Islamists, secular feminists, socialists — with a forthright argument that Arabs deserve the same rights as Jewish citizens,” it read.

Odeh called his father, a construction worker, and whispered the news into his ear so that none of his associates or aides could eavesdrop. He later drove home to tell his wife the happy news. He then had to hold his tongue for nearly a month until the magazine made the official announcement.

In early December, Odeh went on a US tour to voice his own opinions and to serve as a mouthpiece for Arab Israelis and their predicaments. According to him, the decision-makers of the world’s largest power are hardly familiar with the population that makes up 20% of Israel’s citizens.

Odeh returned to Israel earlier this week with at least one operative goal. He wants to set up an active lobby of Arab Israelis living in the United States who attended American universities and speak English. What he would like is for them to do everything they can to raise public awareness in the United States concerning the issue of Arab Israelis.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Odeh relates that during his tours in Washington, Philadelphia and New York and after addressing various crowds and more than 20 research institutions, he has arrived at the conclusion that not only is the American establishment not part of the solution, it is in fact one of the main obstacles to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“These are perhaps harsh words,” Odeh tells Al-Monitor, “but it is indeed the truth. US foreign policy is predicated on interests and not on morality. They shouldn’t be selling this democracy fiction to us. Americans are best friends with tyrants and primitive leaders in the Persian Gulf — those who prevent women from driving. But all of a sudden, if there’s one Arab leader they don’t like, they take down the flag of democracy, come riding roughshod with large forces, allowing fundamentalist movements to take control over everything. We’ve seen this in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, too.”

Touching on the American conduct concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Odeh observed, “Saying that the United States has supposedly bailed out on the conflict — and that we saw this after the meeting between [President Barack] Obama and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu — is simply untrue. It hasn’t given up. It keeps paying billions for what is called 'security' and 'Israel’s army.' All those statements about the administration wanting a two-state solution but not Netanyahu are an outright lie. The United States is pleased with what’s going on in the Middle East, selling weapons to Israel and Saudi Arabia. It is the only one that maintains ties with everyone, but the others don’t maintain any ties with each other. It stands to gain by not having peace in the Middle East, which is why I directly point a finger at the United States for being the main stumbling block to peace in the region. If the US really wants the two-state, it can force the Israeli government to act, but it doesn’t do so on purpose. When it comes to the issue of peace, it only pays lip service.”

The rest of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor:  If that’s your opinion of the United States, what were you looking for there?

Odeh:  You know where I stand in regard to Netanyahu’s government, so what am I doing in the Knesset? I’m a person who has an opinion and wants to make a change, and I also know it can’t be done by a knockout. There are over 300 million people in America. There are African-American movements from which I have learned and still do. I’m learning from the American civil rights movement and want to knit ties with it. One of the things I’m trying to do is to tell them that there are relations between the official United States and the official Israel. But it is high time, for the first time in history, that ties were fostered between the progressive forces in both countries, for example between the Arabs and the blacks and between democratic forces in both Israel and the US. This is what I’d like to advance.

Al-Monitor:  [Now obligatory questions about Trump ommitted.]

Al-Monitor:  During your US tour, you refused to enter the building of the Jewish Agency in New York when you arrived there to address the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Why?

Odeh:  You know how much I want to meet with people. I was told "the Conference of Presidents" and I replied, "Sure thing." Someone whispered in my ears that they are very right wing. I said, "Bring them on." I don’t need to preach to the converted. I want to talk with them. I thought I was going to address them in their offices. Suddenly at the entrance I see signs for Aliyah, the Jewish Agency and the Zionist Congress. So I asked, "Where am I?"

I was informed that that was a Jewish Agency building, so I asked if they could find another venue. Then somebody came over and in very blunt language said to me, “You don’t want to talk to us; you’re against us.” That was Malcolm Hoenlein, their president. I said, “I want to meet you, but please understand me. I won’t go in there.”

Al-Monitor:  What do you have against the Jewish Agency?

Odeh:  Israel has built over 700 Jewish communities and zero Arab ones. The Jewish Agency played a big role in establishing the Jewish communities, and part of it came at the expense of our lands. It’s not just the Nakba and not just the discrimination, but even today, in connection with the unrecognized communities. It’s the Jewish Agency that gives trouble to the young people there, together with the Jewish National Fund, which is the one that expelled the Arabs from their lands and continues to do so. So with all due respect, let me say that I can’t address you, not here at the Jewish Agency offices.

Al-Monitor:  Coming back to Israel, you evoked the idea of setting up an active lobby of Arab Israelis living in the United States in order to raise public awareness there concerning the issue of Arab Israelis. Why is such a lobby necessary?

Odeh:  As I have said before, and let me reiterate this, the United States isn’t the solution — it’s the problem. To date, there is no one unified group of Arab Israelis in the United States holding events and talking to the public in general as well as to people who carry influence and trendsetters. This is my primary goal at the moment, to set up such a body in America through which I can influence American public opinion.

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From Wikipedia:

Ayman Odeh (Arabic: أيمن عودة‎, Hebrew: איימן עודה‎; born 1 January 1975) is an Arab Israeli lawyer and politician.[1] He is a member of the Knesset, and currently serves as leader of Hadash, and head of the Joint List, a political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties; Hadash, Balad, the United Arab List and Ta'al.

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On facebook, with contact information . . . .

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The horrific settlements which Americans are funding.  Israel has built more than 700 Jewish communities and zero Arab ones.  Some of the new settlement are built on land that for which Palestinians hold deeds dating from the Ottoman Empire, but no matter to the Israeli.

Graffiti on the road to Bethlehem in the West Bank stating "Ich bin ein Berliner" (English: "I am a Berliner")

Some Middle East Conundrums

If you want to know why secretaries of state go mad, consider:

—  The US has been droning Qaeda men in South Yemen and giving billions to Yemen’s dictators to fight them, and Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is now one of the strongest brands of radicals there is; 

— The Southern Separatists, inclined to favor British governance, originally opposed Qaeda but began to support it when drones killed many of their relatives, without cause or explanation; 

— The quasi-Shia Houthi are fighting the radical Sunni Qaeda in Aden - the principal city in South Yemen, aiding the US objective there; 

— The Saudis are bombing the Houthi, falsely claiming that the Houthi are a tool of Iran whom we hate and love, because they fear that Houthi power will spread to the Shia who make up a majority of the residents of of the Saudi Eastern Province, their main oil producing province;

— The US is providing the Saudi with logistical support, while continuing to fight Qaeda;

— Thee Saudi have asked Pakistan for boots on the ground to help it in it’s defense and offense, since its military is ineffective, and Pakistan is wavering on joining the Saudi bombing of Yemen, fearing that doing so will make their own Shia-Sunni divisions  worse;

— The Coalition of Five which is negotiating with Iran over the Bomb has differing positions, making it hard for Iran to agree to anything;

— Israel, should be worried more about the Egyptian-Ssaudi-Pakisani military cabal now taking shape more than about Iran;;

— That cabal consists of  our “friends" in the Middle East,  nations to whom we give billions a year.

—  Kerry does not sleep well.  Neither would you, if you had to hold all this together.

— Obama sleeps well, content to do the best he can in the circumstances.  I think.

The New York Times

MIDDLE EAST

Qaeda Militants Attack Port City in Yemen, Freeing Prisoners

By SAEED AL-BATATI and KAREEM FAHIMAPRIL 2, 2015

 AL MUKALLA, Yemen — Militants from Al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate stormed this southern port city early on Thursday, attacking several government buildings including the central prison, where they freed hundreds of inmates, according to residents.

It appeared to be the first large-scale operation by the affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, since the beginning of a military offensive led by Saudi Arabia onYemen more than a week ago, and a further expansion of the violence rapidly spreading across the country.

In an apparently coordinated offensive that began after midnight, the militants attacked security headquarters, the presidential palace and other official installations. That appeared to be intended as a diversion before the militants attacked the central security prison, their primary target.

Witnesses near the prison said they saw hundreds of inmates file out. Afterward, looters descended on the prison, they said.

• Al Mukalla, the capital of the oil-rich Hadhramaut Province, had been spared much of the recent unrest in Yemen’s accelerating war. The fighting began in earnest weeks ago in the southern port city of Aden, where forces loyal to the president of Yemen, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is now exiled, clashed with allies of the Houthis, a northern militia that controls the capital and forced Mr. Hadi from power.

Last week, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of countries, with support from the United States, began a broad military offensive against the Houthis, ostensibly aimed at restoring Mr. Hadi to power. Many have begun to question the aims of the military campaign, as the Houthis have continued to advance, including deeper into Aden, and the toll of the fighting on Yemeni civilians has become increasingly severe.

The attack on Thursday was the first indication of how Al Qaeda was capitalizing on the growing anarchy, at a time when Yemen’s American-trained counterterrorism troops have come under attack by the Saudi-led military coalition.

A similar attack by Al Qaeda in late March on a town in Lahj Province forced the Obama administration to withdraw its last military advisers to Yemen, who were stationed at a base near the town. The administration has said it is providing intelligence, logistical support and targeting guidance to the Saudi-led campaign.

Explosions and gunfire could be heard throughout Al Mukalla overnight. Clashes continued in the city later on Thursday morning, as local military units backed by helicopters fought gun battles with militants in Al Mukalla’s old city, according to witnesses.

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Netanyahu and the coming election in Israel

The following Brooks' opinion piece is an interesting literary conceit.

Brooks is more optimistic about the future of a civil society that has millions of prisoners and no visible plan for change; but that doesn't fit Brooks' romantic vision.

This observation is central, and wrong:

Like Churchill, he is wisest when things are going wrong. He has been a pessimist about the Arab world. As the Arab Spring has deteriorated, as Palestinian democracy led to Hamas, as run of the mill extremists have lost ground to the Islamic State, Bibi’s instincts have basically been proved correct. 

Tiny examples:

Camden - Abu Dis Friendship Association

Gazan children still suffering from anxiety - Ikhwanweb

1,200 Palestinian prisoners begin hunger strike - Telegraph

  See what you think.  What you and the World thinks about Israel's present and future is important.

The Opinion Pages | OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Age of Bibi
David Brooks
Politics, culture and the social sciences.
JAN. 1, 2015
METULA, Israel — If I were a political novelist, I’d try to write a novel about Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel.
The story would be partly Nixonian. Netanyahu is surpassingly brilliant, as even his opponents here concede. He knows the minute guts of Israeli politics and has read deeply into big history and grand strategy. He is also said to be suspicious, solitary and insular. It is hard to stay on good terms with him, whether you are on his staff, or his nation’s closest ally.
The story would be partly Kennedyesque. The Netanyahu clan was presided over by Benjamin’s brilliant father Benzion, the great medieval historian. The eldest brother Jonathan was the golden child. When Jonathan died in the raid on Entebbe in 1976, hopes shifted to Benjamin, who is known as Bibi. Political analysts have spent decades psychoanalyzing the family dynamic, with mixed results, but a novelist who studied Sophocles or Tolstoy might be able to make some sense of it.

The story would be partly Churchillian. Netanyahu sees himself in world historical terms, and admires Theodor Herzl and Winston Churchill — two men who saw dangers ahead of other people. Netanyahu obviously lacks many of Churchill’s qualities, like playful charm, but he has a profound nationalist passion and a consuming historical consciousness.
Like Churchill, he is wisest when things are going wrong. He has been a pessimist about the Arab world. As the Arab Spring has deteriorated, as Palestinian democracy led to Hamas, as run of the mill extremists have lost ground to the Islamic State, Bibi’s instincts have basically been proved correct.
The story would be part Shakespearean. Nearly every political leader has one close friend or spouse, often female, who is widely hated. People can’t blame the leader for slights, so they blame her. In Israel, the role is played by Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, who has been the subject of fascination and scorn for decades: She is often described as Lady Macbeth. Few know her exact role, but, it is said, she exiles the disloyal, shapes his politics, mistreats servants and distracts him when he is supposed to be running the country. Obviously, any novel about Netanyahu and modern Israel would have to be told from her vantage point. The narrative voice would be electric.
The story would be part “Citizen Kane.” Netanyahu rose to fame via CNN. His rise and survival are intertwined with changes in media, with the decline of old newspapers that are generally hostile, and the rise of new cable networks and outlets that are often his allies. Ferociously tending his image, his wars with his foes in the Israeli press have been epic.
Finally, the story would be part Machiavelli. The great Renaissance philosopher argued that it is best to be both loved and feared, but if you have to choose one, it is better to be feared. Netanyahu is not loved, especially by those in his party. But he is feared and acknowledged, the way any large, effective object is feared and respected.
I’m visiting Israel for the 18th or 19th time (my son is currently a member of the Lone Soldiers Program, which allows people from around the world to serve in the Israeli military). I asked a couple of smart Israelis what their coming elections are about. They said that the elections are about one thing: What do you think of Netanyahu? Such is the outsized role he plays in the consciousness of this nation.
No one has a simple view of him. To some, he is a monster who has expanded the settlements on the West Bank, which are a moral stain and do calamitous damage to Israel’s efforts to win support around the world. To some, he is the necessary man in hard times, the vigilant guardian as the rest of the Middle East goes berserk.
Both viewpoints have some truth. To me, his caution is most fascinating. For all his soaring rhetoric and bellicosity, he has been a defensive leader. He seems to understand that, in his country’s situation, the lows are lower than the highs are high. The costs of a mistake are bigger than the benefits of an accomplishment. So he is loath to take risks. He doesn’t do some smart things, like improve life for Palestinians on the West Bank, but he doesn’t do unpredictable dumb things, like prematurely bomb Iran. He talks everything through, and his decisions shift and flip as the discussions evolve.
If you think trends in the Middle East will doom Israel unless it acts, then this defensiveness is a disaster. If you think, as I do, that Israel has to wait out the current spasm of Islamist radicalism, then this caution has its uses.
Israeli voters haven’t warmed to Netanyahu over the past quarter-century. But they have come to think more like him, accepting that this conflict will endure, digging in for a dogged struggle. For good and ill, he has refashioned the national mind.

Bombing Iran is Off the Table, for six months, anyway.

The United Nation's Security Council's permanent members (China, Russia, England, France, and the United States), Germany, and Iran have agreed on a six-month inspected freeze of Iran's uranium enrichment program!

In return, international sanctions against Ian will be modified.

According toThe Guardian (the New York Times, RT and The Tehran Times in accord)

Iran will get access to $4.2bn (£2.59bn) in foreign exchange as part of the accord, and was also expected to receive limited sanctions relief on gold, petrochemicals and cars, a Western diplomat said.

The Times of Oman says that China's

. . . state media hailed the deal as an "exhilarating result" of negotiations based on "sincerity and mutual respect".

I'm exhilarated too.  Good for common sense!

Benjamin Netanyahu was predictably downcast by the growing prospect on No Bombing of Iran.   From The Guardian, supra,

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told media in Moscow on Thursday that Iran was essentially given an "unbelievable Christmas present – the capacity to maintain this [nuclear] breakout capability for practically no concessions at all".

I hope that the "petrochemical" part of the agreement will include a decision by the United States not to punish Pakistan if it fulfills its contract with Iran to complete the Iran-Pakistan Pipeline that will open Iran's Pars natural gas field, the largest in the world, to the East.  Pakistan needs Iranian gas, and so does India and China.

The Guardian's report says that Iran will, among other things, suspend work Arak research reactor, not yet completed,and a major international concern.

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Arak is an ancient city located here:

Arak reactor | Peace and Freedom

From Wikipedia:

Arak  pronunciation (help·info) (Persian: اراک‎, also Romanized as Arāk and ‘Irāq; formerly, Solţānābād and Sultānābād) is a city in and the capital of Markazi Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 526,182, in 160,761 families. [Citations omitted.]

 The modern city of Arak was founded in 1795 by a Georgian warlord who fled Georgia before advancing armies of Russia's Catherine the Great.  The original inhabitants were Georgian; then Armenians arrived; now the city and province are Persian.  For a more complete history see Wikipedia, supra.

Scenes from Arak:

 Folks we would kill if we were to Bomb Iran.  Looks like friends who worked in oil fields in South Texas.

Growing tomatoes hydroponically.

Arakians wrestle, swim, and play football, basketball, and volleyball, of course, and Arak peculiar in this:  it is the only city that posts no images of its footballers or of its football or wrestling stadiua.  Perhaps Iranians are cautious that the Evil West  will learn something about its  nuclear capabilities from images of a footballer;  perhaps no tourists go the and no locals see the need to post images of sports heroes.

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Israel's objections to first steps to protect Iran from being bombed and the Middle East from becoming a killing field is disappointing and expected; and cries out for an explanation, since Iran is not rational for  Israel to fear Iran.  Israel is reported to have some 250 Atomic Bombs, and its greatest ally, the United States, the most powerful nation on Earth, has the  present ability to do Iran great harm:

The question Why Israel's irrational fear of Iran will be explored in a later post.

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For small images of Arak guys seeking women, (brave buys, these) check out Arak Men - Arak Boys - Arak Guys (Iran).  No record of guys seeking guys, of course.  See Gay City News.

Don't Bomb Iran!
Stop Salafi in Syria!

Free all prisoners!

Good relations with Iran?

From Thomas Friedman's  op-ed article in this morning's New York Times, with luck Iran is safe from being Bombed and the chance that we will see a world at peace in my lifetime is increased.

Modest congratulations are due those of you who opposed Bombing Iran initially.

A free and prosperous Iran, though still a theocracy theocracy might look something like this:

. . . instead of something like this:

Israel and the Horrible Saudis are the likely spoilers.  

Israel’s leaders -- some American Jews consider them Fascists and many more believe the leaders have betrayed Israel’s founding hope of a free, democratic state --- are unreasonably afraid of death.  

Death comes to us all, some sooner than they would like, but an irrational fear of death leads to irrational and brutal actions; courageously facing the certainty of death leads to gentleness and openness.  

Israeli leaders are nothing if not irrational and brutal: irrational because they have enough atomic Bombs to make them safe from any nation on the face of the earth; brutal because of the march of new settlements into Palestinian territory and the mistreatment of Palestinians.

 Remind you of anything, you Border Citizens?

The H. Saudis are a danger because they wish with all their might for a return to the splendid Abbasid Caliphate during the Arab Golden Age (750 - 1250 a.c.e.), when the acquisition of knowledge was the highest value . . .

 . . . and they are captured by Wahhabism, a religion so reactionary and intolerant of women and others who do not conform that they have won no converts outside the Pashtun, in spite of decades of expensive propaganda. 

There are not many pictures.  Pictures are not often permitted.

See Wikipedia, LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia; Human Rights Watch,  Saudi Arabia 2013 

Although Wahhabism wins no converts, the H. Saudis have so much free money that they are dangerous:  consider their efforts to turn Syria into a Salafi state.

Wahhabism is sometimes conflated with the Salafi movement; and some Salafi regard the term as derogatory:  no matter: they both espouse an intolerant interpretation of Sharia that only experts can tell apart.  It is as if a majority of the voting Citizens in the U.S. believed hat the Old Testament, with its cruel injunctions must be applied literally.   Indeed, the Old Testament may be even more draconian than Sharia:  Consider an Arkansas Republican politician, quoted in the Daily Kos 

"a child who disrespects his parents must be permanently removed from society in a way that gives an example to all other children of the importance of respect for parents. The death penalty for rebellious children is not something to be taken lightly. The guidelines for administering the death penalty to rebellious children are given  in Deut 21:18-21” -- Arkansas Republican Charlie Fuqua.

Deuteronomy, an Old Testament book held to be The Holy Word of God by Christians, recommends stoning rebellious children to death.  The text is here, and is worth reading, ye who are certain of our moral superiority.

Salafi fall in love --

and Sunni Muslims mourn their dead.

Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1:  Shylock:

. . . .  I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, asa Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?