middle east political discussion
UPDATED:
In Case You Don’t Realise How Dangerous the Israeli Lobby Is

By Gilad Atzmon

November 18, 2011 "Information Clearing House" -- Israeli paper  Israel-Ayom reports today about a new ‘Congressional bill’ that would require the “American administration to support Israel in a move deemed necessary to defend itself against the Iranian nuclear threat.” 

Five Republican congressmen who visited Israel last week disclosed the bill.

The bill states an "expression of support for Israel's right to defend its sovereignty and to protect the lives and safety of its citizens and use all necessary means to confront and eliminate the nuclear threat that emerges from the Islamic Republic of Iran, including use military force in the absence of other diplomatic means available in the near future. "

The initiator of the bill is Rep. Doug Lamborn (Colorado).

If you doubted the colossal danger imposed by the the ‘lobby’ you better wake up NOW!!!

Gilad Atzmon is a musician-composer. He is particularly well-known his political analysis which is widely published. His website  Gilad.co.uk

comment: Matthew/Boston

I see nothing on Lamborn's web site now. (But I did see that he is a member of the "Republican Israel Caucus".) I don't read Hebrew so I can't read the newspaper article. Mr. Atzmon's alarm is correct. This bill seems to amount to an order to the U.S. government to use military force against Iran if Israel has a military confrontation of any sort with them. This comes in the wake of HR 1905, that would make it law that the president must seek written permission from congress to have any contact with Iranian officials.

The Israeli lobby in Washington and their lackeys in the house are going for broke.

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Why elections are the least of my priorities in the Middle East

It does not matter anymore.  Do you see why I would never ever consider elections to be a matter of priority? There are tons of real reforms that we need to implement before we reach the point where we can call for free elections.  Cleaning up the economic systems and freeing our countries from foreign intervention in many forms is the priority.  No elections are meaningful before we first implement changes in the economic and banking systems where a special electoral commission can monitor all banking transactions within a year prior to an election.  There should be strict monitoring in that to ban the transfer of foreign money.  No, An-Nahda did not win in Tunisia: it was not an election between parties.  It was merely a competition between Qatari money (which went for An-Nahda) and between US money (which went to the "liberal" business parties).  Qatari money won against US money.  As simple as that. Just as the last parliamentary election in Lebanon saw a competition between Saudi money and Iranian money (Saudi money won).  It is a sham. Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil

A Libyan Abu Ghraib?
This is a world record: meet the new NATO republic of Libya
Look how many prisoners they have managed to amass:  "Nearly 7,000 prisoners of war are packed into dingy, makeshift jails around Libya, where they have languished for weeks without charges and have faced abuse and even torture, according to human rights groups and interviews with the detainees." Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil


UN Mandate for Libya/Nato intervention ends. Will it have effect?The UN Security Council unanimously voted Thursday to end the mandate for international military action in Libya
The 15-member council ordered an end to authorization for a no-fly zone and action to protect civilians from 11:59 pm Libyan time on October 31.

AFP Published: 18:52 October 27, 2011

Islamists face new tests in Arab Spring nations: Nations must find ways to integrate into democratic systems.
Jan Michiel Otto, a Dutch law professor who led a recent study of how 12 Muslim countries apply Sharia, said political Islam covers a broad spectrum of approaches."If Sharia is introduced, you don't know what you'll get," said the Leiden University professor, editor of the book Sharia Incorporated. His study indicated that, contrary to what many Western observers might think, more Islam did not always mean less liberty.

Yasin Aktay, a Turkish sociologist at Selcuk University in Konya, said Sharia itself was not a defined legal code and not limited to the harsh physical punishments seen in Saudi Arabia or Iran.

Many Middle Eastern constitutions already enshrine Islam as the official religion and mention Sharia as the basis of law, but also have civil and penal codes based on European models.

Apart from Saudi Arabia, which has only Islamic law, Middle Eastern countries apply a complicated mix of religious and civil law. Sharia can be applied almost symbolically in one country, moderately in another and strictly in a third.

Al Nahda, the Islamist party leading the vote for Tunisia's constituent assembly, is the first in the Arab Spring countries to have to start spelling out how much Islam it wants.It says it respects democracy and human rights and wants to work with secularist parties to draft a new constitution. Its leader Rashid Gannouchi has long advocated moderate Islamist policies like those of the AKP, the ruling party in Turkey.

Constitution

The Tunisian constitution declares Islam as the official religion but does not mention Sharia as the foundation of the legal system. Given the country's strong secularist traditions, Al Nahda would face serious opposition if it tried to have Sharia declared the basis of law there.

Aktay said Gannouchi's writings in the 1980s helped to influence Turkish Islamists to shift their paradigm from seeking a state based on Sharia to entering democratic politics. Since then, the AKP's success in Turkey has served as a model for Gannouchi as he entered practical politics in Tunisia, he added.

Egypt, which is due to elect a new lower house of parliament by early December, describes Islam as the state religion in its constitution and calls it the main source of laws. The Muslim Brotherhood is expected to emerge as the largest party. Its bid to build a "Democratic Alliance" has foundered, with most of the liberal and rival Islamist groups splitting away to run on their own or form other blocs. "I don't believe the Brotherhood will claim more than 25 per cent of the parliamentary seats, which is an important bloc but not a majority," said Hassan Abu Taleb from Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. Egypt has also allowed several Salafist groups to run. The Salafists, who Abu Taleb said could take up to 10 per cent of the vote, want strict implementation of Islamic laws, including those their critics say are anti-democratic.

In Libya, former dictator Muammar Gaddafi ruled by decrees that included mention of Islam as the state religion and Sharia as the inspiration for at least some laws. NTC chairman Abdul Jalil surprised some Western observers on Sunday by saying Sharia would be the source of Libyan law, but he had already spoken in more detail about it. "We seek a state of law, prosperity and one where Sharia is the main source for legislation, and this requires many things and conditions," he said in early September, adding that "extremist ideology" would not be tolerated. The exact place of Sharia in the legal system in practice will only be settled once a new constitution is written by a constituent assembly and approved by a referendum.

Libya's Muslim Brotherhood has fewer than 1,000 members because under Gaddafi recruitment was secretive and restricted to elites, said Al Ameen Belhaj, a member of the NTC and a senior member of the group.