In this mailing:
- Khaled Abu Toameh: Arab Apartheid Against Palestinians
- Shoshana Bryen: The Incredible Shrinking US-Israel Security Cooperation
Arab Apartheid Against Palestinians
by Khaled Abu
Toameh
June 27, 2012 at 5:00 am
June 27, 2012 at 5:00 am
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The plight
of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and other Arab countries has received
little attention from the mainstream media in the West. Lebanon's apartheid
laws deny Palestinians access to the majority of white collar positions in
areas such as banking, medicine, management, law and education. Though born and
raised in the country, they are denied political, economic and social rights.
The Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are
considered the worst in the region in terms of poverty, health, education and
living conditions, according to a report published this week
by the American Near East Refugee Aid [ANERA], one of the largest American
not-for-profit organizations working in the Middle East.
This does not mean, of course, that
Palestinians living in refugee camps in Jordan and Syria or other Arab
countries are happy. But when it comes to Lebanon, the living conditions of the
Palestinians are appalling.
The ANERA report coincided with news about
mounting tensions between Palestinian residents of refugee camps in Lebanon and
the Lebanese army.
The tensions reached their peak last week when
Lebanese soldiers shot and killed a young Palestinian man in Nahr El Bared
refugee camp. Later Lebanese soldiers prevented residents from going to the
cemetery to attend the funeral.
In 2007, the Lebanese army destroyed most of
the camp's houses during fighting with militiamen belonging to Palestinian
armed groups and radical Islamic groups.
Two-thirds of the camp's 36,000 residents fled
the fighting and found shelter in surrounding fields and valleys. Many set up
new homes in the nearby Baddawi refugee camp.
Since 2007, the Lebanese army has imposed a
strict siege on the camp: residents are allowed to enter and leave only after
obtaining permission from Lebanese security authorities. According to the
Palestinian residents, they have since been living in a ghetto.
The Lebanese authorities have also banned the
residents from rebuilding the houses that were destroyed or damaged in 2007.
Palestinians are convinced that Lebanon has
been trying to get rid of them for many years. Lebanon's apartheid laws deny
Palestinians access to the majority of white collar positions in areas such as
banking, medicine, management, law and education.
Like many Arab countries, Lebanon has always
been treating Palestinians as third-class citizens. Nearly half a million
Palestinians live in Lebanon's 12 camps. Though born and raised in the country,
they are denied political, economic and social rights.
Palestinians cannot attend Lebanese public
schools or own property. They do not have access to national health services or
the social security system. Checkpoints restricting access to most of the
camps, according to the ANERA report, thwart trade and commerce with
neighboring counties.
"The refugees live in overcrowded camps
and have to deal with discrimination, isolation and social exclusion," the
report states. "The refugees often refer to themselves as 'forgotten
people' and feel they are living in a hostile environment where their basic
human rights are not represented or protected."
The plight of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
and other Arab countries has received little attention in the mainstream media
in the West. Although many international aid organizations have been working to
assist the Palestinians in the Arab world, Western journalists often turn a
blind eye to the misery of these refugees.
The unconscionable condition of the
Palestinians in the Arab world will end the day the Arab governments and
Palestinian leaders stop lying to them and confront them with reality, namely
that they need to get along with their lives and secure a better future for
their children. Arab and Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, continue to deceive
these people by promising them that if they wait a little longer they will one
day "return to the homeland."
Related Topics: Khaled Abu
Toameh
The Incredible Shrinking US-Israel Security Cooperation
by Shoshana Bryen
June 27, 2012 at 4:00 am
June 27, 2012 at 4:00 am
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If the
Administration had wanted to make the point the Israel is a valued partner in
counterterrorism activities, it could have insisted that Israel be there or
else moved the meeting.
In light of increased sensitivity to
intelligence leaks, it seemed innocuous – or even admirable – when the Office
of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) asked the Senate to remove a
few words from the US-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act: the "sense
of the Senate" part of the bill included the sentence, "Expand
already close intelligence cooperation, including satellite intelligence, with
the Government of Israel;" ODNI wanted the words "including satellite
intelligence" to go.
An ODNI spokesman said it was "simply a
matter of clarifying the intelligence aspects of the bill and being sensitive
to the level of specificity of the language…nothing nefarious here, just more
clear language."
Yeah, right.
This is just the latest example of the Obama
Administration making clear that it does not want to be seen as Israel's
partner in regional affairs – several of them predicated on Turkish desires.
Despite Israel's status as a Major Non-NATO ally, a NATO "partner"
country, and a member of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue, Turkey is increasingly
insistent that Israel be isolated and cut out. This surrender to Turkey --
which Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for years been
aggressively making ever more fundamentalist -- coincides nicely with the
Administration's increasingly
open courtship of Turkey's Islamist-leaning and virulently anti-Israel
Prime Minister and what appears to be the desire of the Administration to
enhance security relations in the Arab-Muslim
world as it dials back visible cooperation with Israel.
This is no small matter. Israel's security is
threatened -- above all by the refusal of the Arab States to accept that it is
a legitimate, permanent part of the region in which it lives. For the U.S. or
Turkey -- formerly a partner in regional security – to distance themselves from
Israeli security is to raise hopes among enemies that they will ultimately be
able to threaten Israel without fear of a U.S. or NATO-allied response.
Turkey bluntly objects to sharing intelligence
information with Israel – specifically the intelligence from NATO's
Turkey-based, U.S.-run X-Band early warning radars. At a NATO meeting in
Brussels, Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz told reporters, "We need
to trust states' words. This is a NATO facility and it shouldn't be used beyond
the scope of this purpose." The "state" in question was clearly
the U.S., and "beyond the scope" referred to sharing information with
Israel. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta replied, "Clearly, the NATO
members are the ones that will participate in the program and access
information produced by the missile defense system." In a meeting in
February, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen parroted the Turkish
formula. "We do stress that data within this missile defense system are
not shared with a third country. Data are shared within our alliance, among
allies, it is a defensive system to protect the populations of NATO allies,"
Rasmussen said.
Agreeing publicly to keep intelligence
information from Israel – a more likely target of Iran than Europe/NATO – at
the behest of Turkey is a serious diminution of the U.S.-Israel security
relationship as well as the Israel-NATO relationship, and elevates Turkey to
the role of spoiler.
According to one source, Turkey
assured Iran that the X-Band radars were not aimed at the Islamic Republic
and that a Turkish military officer was in charge of receiving the intelligence
information. Here the U.S. appears to have balked, telling Israel that
Americans were in charge of the information, but not reassuring Israel on the
subject of information sharing. Further, since the station in Turkey also
acquires information from the X-Band radar based in Israel, it raises Israeli
concerns that Turkey will have access to security information from Israeli
skies.
Turkey also demanded the exclusion of Israel
from Anatolian
Eagle, a NATO exercise conducted every few years to enhance aerial
cooperation. The Turkish decision caused Italy and the U.S. to pull out, and
the exercise was canceled – "postponed," according to US sources as
was the planned U.S.-Israel missile defense exercise, Austere
Challenge, which would have had a strong intelligence-sharing component.
NATO's snub of Israel at the meeting in Chicago
in May was simply waved
away: "Israel is neither a participant in ISAF nor in KFOR
(Afghanistan and Kosovo missions)," said Rasmussen, even as he
acknowledged that 13 other "partner" nations would attend
because, "In today's world security challenges know no borders, and no
country or alliance can deal with most of them on their own."
It was said then that Turkey used its NATO
veto. But Israel was similarly not invited to the inaugural meeting of the Global
Counterterrorism Forum in Istanbul -- not a NATO meeting.
Coming on the heels of Eager
Lion 2012, a Special Operations exercise involving 12,000 troops from 19
countries (excluding Israel and including several countries at war with
Israel), the counterterrorism forum was designed by Secretary of State Clinton
to "build the international architecture for dealing with 21st century
terrorism." The State Department was responsible for the invitations, so
Turkey had no veto. If the Administration had wanted to make the point that
Israel is a valued partner in counterterrorism activities, it could have
insisted that Israel be there or else moved the meeting.
Perhaps as compensation, a U.S. delegation
visited Israel separately. But private bilateral meetings are no substitute for
leading by example so that other countries – particularly in the Middle East,
North Africa and Southwest Asia – understand that the United States sees Israel
as a legitimate partner in solving regional problems, including terrorism, and
that U.S.-Israel security cooperation is a priority of the American government.
Turkey is riding high with the Administration
right now; and President Obama welcomed
the Turkish Prime Minister in March as an "outstanding partner and an
outstanding friend on a wide range of issues" -- including, apparently, in
reducing relations with Israel.
ODNI's determination to remove language about
satellite intelligence from the Senate bill was most likely intended to ensure
that the State Department and Pentagon were not caught between the Senate's
interest in keeping U.S.-Israel security relations strong, and Turkey's interest
in wedging Israel out of its place as an American security partner.
What an odd place for a U.S. intelligence
agency to find itself. What an odd place for the Administration to find its
intelligence agency -- or what an odd place to put it.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The
Jewish Policy Center. She was previously Senior Director for Security Policy at
JINSA and author of JINSA Reports from 1995-2011.
Related Topics: Israel
| Shoshana
Bryen
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