What Sort of Democracy Bans Legitimate Political Parties?

       Israel likes to portray itself as a model democracy in a region where various forms of non-democratic government are more the norm. Certainly it has just about the purest form of PR in the world, though its lack of a threshold means that some real nutters get into the Knesset as long as they can garner at least 1% of the popular vote. Thus there are some really extreme, racist, right-wing political parties represented which sometimes wield considerable power, as larger parties are unable to form governments without having some form of broad coalition.

This makes it all the more outrageous that Israel’s Central Election Committee has voted by an overwhelming majority to ban two of the three main Israeli Arab parties — Balad and United Arab List-Ta’al — from standing in next month’s general election.  The committee, which comprises representatives of the country’s major political parties, has voted by a seven-to-one margin in favour of barring the two parties on the grounds that they ‘support terrorism’. Ahmad Tibi, a UAL-Ta’al MP, told the BBC ‘they are accusing us of supporting the terror while they are killing the children of Gaza.’ He continued, ‘This racist government wants us out of the Knesset during the war on Gaza.’ The Supreme Court will have the final say on Friday; if it endorses the Committee’s stance, that ;eans the two parties are out of the race. That would do wonders for Israeli Arabs’ confidence in the democratic process!

Christian and Muslim Arabs make up 20% of Israel’s population, though they have just 7 MPs in the 120-seat Knesset. In principle, they are full citizens of Israel, but they complain of systematic discrimination within the self-defined Jewish state. Some extreme fundamentalist Jewish religious leaders and politicians have argued that the Arabs should be expelled from Israel, and even more believe that Israel should formally annexe the occupied Palestinian territories as part of their vision of a Greater, supposedly ‘historic’, Israel. Not surprisingly, most Israeli Arabs are distraught about what is happening in Gaza, even if many disapprove of Hamas.

It was significant that the Israeli media the other day claimed that 90% of the population of Israel supported the onslaught on Gaza. Obviously, Israeli Arabs must not have been included in this crude opinion poll. Not for the first time, it appears that as far as the powers that be are concerned, non-Jews don’t count.

 (photo of Ahmad Tibi: Hagai Aharon)

Ken Clarke: the Tories’ Remedy or Poison?

          It’s fascinating to observe the amount of heated speculation going on — not least within the Conservative Party — about whether David Cameron will bring Ken Clarke into his Shadow Cabinet. If he does, this might prove to middle England that the new Tory party is indeed a broad church. There is something comfortingly cuddly and shabby about Ken, which would make a nice counter-weight to the squeaky-clean young Old Etonian non-entities currently hogging the Opposition front bench. With Clarke on board the Conservatives might even persuade some pro-European Tories that it is not impossible to vote for them in June, after all. On the other hand, some of the rabid Euro-sceptic right has made it clear that if Ken is brought in, they are likely to vote UKIP in protest.

Lord Tebbit, helpful as ever, has stuck his stiletto in by decrying Ken as not only unsound on Europe but ‘lazy’! Well, I know which of the two I would be rather be stuck with on a desert island. And I am sure Ken would occasionlly put his hand to fishing for our lunch, even if it was from a deck-chair on the beach. But of course, by allowing all this Clarke-speculation to flourish, David Cameron has landed himself between a rock and a hard place — as he will be damned if he does take old Mr Brown Suede Shoes on board, and damned if he doesn’t.

Prominent British Jews Oppose Gaza Offensive

     There is an imporant letter in today’s ‘Observer’ from almost a dozen leading British Jews — including the LibDem peer, Rabbi Julia Neuberger — calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, with international monitoring of the ceasefire agreement. The signatories – who also include form Labour Party Chairman Sir Jeremy Beecham, the philanthropist Sir Sigmund Sternberg and the academic Professor David Cesarani — declare that ‘it is our desire to see a durable solution for ordinary people and our view that an immediate ceasefire is not only a humanitarian necessity but also a strategic priority for the future security of Israelis, Palestinians and people of the region.’

While naturally suporting Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks, the authors ‘are concerned that rather than bringing security to Israel, a continued military offensive could strengthen extremists, destabilise the region and exacerbate tensions inside Israel with its one million Arab citizens.’ Hear, Hear!

www.observer.co.uk

10 Years of the Euro

     The European Movement held a day conference on 10 Years of the Euro at University College London yesterday, though any sense of celebration was overshadowed by a deep feeling of frustration that Britain has failed to ‘opt in’ to the single currency, and that the mood of such a large proportion of the British public remains Euro-sceptic. The media were mainly blamed for that, though there was a ray of hope on that front offered by one of the keynote speakers, Graham Bishop, when he pointed out that increasingly people get their news and views from the Internet, rather than from newspapers, so the Rupert Murdochs of this world are losing influence.

However, national governments are as much to blame as the media for giving a distorted view of what the EU is all about. As the former Conservative MEP Ben Patterson said – in a paper ‘The Euro: Success or Failure’, tabled at the conference — ‘All EU governments are tempted to blame “Europe” for difficulties of their own making. Electorates generally have little idea how EU decisions are taken, and are only too willing to believe that there is  vast, unelected Eurocracy in Brussels, imposing absurd regulations out of the blue.’ In other words, if in a pickle, blame Brussels.

The second keynote speaker, another former Conservative MEP (and now active Liberal Democrat) John Stevens asserted that that the Eurozone is not going to collapse, nor will any country leave it. On the contrary, it has just acquired its 16th. member, Slovakia, and others are in transition. The Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told me a few months ago that he was going to do what he could to persuade the Danish public to join the euro, and similar moves are afoot in Sweden. Which just leaves Britain as the last bastion of euro-scepticism. But as John Stevens said yesterday, ‘If Britain were to join the euro, the euro would be made.’  The EU is proving that it is possible to have an international currency, which can be a model for other parts of the world and help ensure that European political values have clout in changing global geopolitics.

Link: www.euromove.org.uk

Mahmoud Zahhar Is So Wrong about Killing Jewish Children

   There was a great atmosphere at the Gaza demonstration in London this afternoon, despite the freezing weather (and snow at one point). Tens of thousands of Muslims, Christians and Jews of many nationalities marched side by side, many accompanied by small children, from Speaker’s Corner at Marble Arch to Notting Hill Gate. It was good to see a number of placards in Hebrew, including those being carried aloft by Jews against the War in Gaza. The grossness of the current Israeli operations transcends religious divides.

It was therefore regettable, to say the least, that the former Hamas Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Zahhar, earlier this week declared that the Israeli army’s killing of Palestinian children in Gaza would justify the reciprocal killing of Jews worldwide. It most certainly would not. I can understand Mr Zahhar’s fury at what has being going on over the past couple of weeks, but one crime does not justify another. Moreover, it is quite wrong to blame all of the world’s Jews for what is happening in Gaza now. Not even all Jewish Israelis support it. The core issue is that one should not confuse the religion with the political entity (even if Israel is a self-declared Jewish state). Judaism and Jews have made great contributions to the history of civilization and continue to do so. So deliberate attacks on Jews worldwide (adults or children) cannot be morally justified, even in these terrible times. And the recent assaults on synagogues, graveyards and other Jewish institutions and entities in Europe, for example, are as reprehensible as similar desecrations of Muslim equivalents.

Tony Blair Is a Disaster as Middle East Envoy

    When Tony Blair was appointed the Madrid Quartet’s Middle East Envoy 18 months ago, there was a certain amount of incredulity in the Muslim world. Here was the man who had swallowed the mendacious US line on Iraq and taken British troops into a war that was opposed by huge swaths of the British public. I, too, was critical of the decision, but once he was in post (operating out of a comfortable suite in the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem), I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and see what, if anything, he could come up wth.

Well, tonight, in an extensive interview with Gavin Esler on BBC2′s ‘Newsnight’, Blair confirmed my worst suspicions. Commenting on the current Gazan situation, the former Prime Minister made not one word of criticism, let alone condemnation, of  the bloody Israeli assault on Gaza. He parroted the line out of Tel Aviv that all the blame should be placed on Hamas’s shoulders, and argued that only Hamas can extricate the people of Gaza from the current situation, essentially by capitulating. Despite being one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace agreement, in which negotiation with the IRA/Sinn Fein was a key element, he rejected even the idea that Western countries should talk to Hamas.

I have no truck for the rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas and other radical Islamic groups based in Gaza. I have consistently denounced them and continue to do so. However, to peddle the Israeli myth that the root of the current crisis is the Hama rockets, as Tony Blair is doing, is an obscene distortion of reality. What about the Israeli blockade, which has been turning the Gaza Strip into what the Vatican has now referred to as a giant concentration camp? And what about the 40 years of illegal occupation of the West Bank and its ongoing settlement by Israelis, in total violation of international law?

The extremely effective Israeli PR machine is yet again trying to portray Israelis as the victims. But this just will not wash. Listen to the UN officials, one after another, being driven in their anguish to state openly that Israeli actions in Gaza — including the bombing of schools and the slaughter of civilians — may now prove to be war crimes.

Tony Blair must know this. He is not stupid or ill-informed. But he is the wrong man for the job as Middle East peace envoy. One of the first things Barack Obama should do when he takes office as US President in a fortnight’s time is to move to get him replaced.

Graham Watson Pitches for the Presidency

    Next week sees the first 2009 plenary session of the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, but ALDE (Liberal) Group leader Graham Watson is already hard at work, launching his bid to become the Parliament’s next President. It’s an audacious move, which will raise eyebrows in some quarters. But ever since I first met Graham when he was David Steel’s bag-carrier, I have been aware of both his ambition and his talent. We can expect him to fight hard, even if he enters the campaign as the underdog. The reason for that is that the two bigger parliamentary groups — Socialists and EPP (centre-right) — tend to sort out the position between themselves, and it is only rarely that a Liberal — such as the Irish independent MEP, Pat Cox — gets through.

That’s why Graham is standing, he says. ‘For too long, Presidents of Parliament have been chosen through backroom deals in smoke-filled rooms. Mine will be the first ever public campaign for the presidency: in this I hope that I will set a precedent. I hope that by going public with my campaign I will stimulate debate about the candidates and the issues, and spark a contest that will be decided on merit not convenience.’

Graham plans to reveal his campaign platform next week. Let the debate begin!

Link: www.grahamwatsonmep.org

Nick Clegg, the Economy and the Environment

Nick Clegg, Susan Kramer (MP for Richmond Park) and the environmental campaigner Tony Juniper attracted a full house at the Duke Street Baptist Church in Richmond (Surrey) this evening, for a Question Time on the economy and the environment, chaired with characteristic panache by ‘University Challenge’s’ Bamber Gascoigne. This was a variation on the town hall meetings that Nick has been doing up and down the country, reaching out to many thousands of electors. Richmond being Richmond, it was all very well behaved (apart from the slight irritation of the three young women helpers of Richmond Conservative candidate Zak Goldsmith sitting immediately behind me, who chattered throughout the whole event).

Opp0sition to the third runway at Heathrow (in which Susan Kramer has been hyper-active) not surprisjngly surfaced as an issue almost immediately, but soon the evening settled down to a serious discussion of how we can marry economic and social justice with environmental responsibility at this time of financial retrenchment. Tony Juniper was particularly eloquent in expressing how proper environmental management (including house insulation) and changing one’s lifestyle can actually improve one’s quality of life, even when economic conditions are tight. Nick rightly endorsed Tony’s comment that we need to show China and India how to develop more environmentally by example, rather than by finger-pointing.

One questioner asked why the three main political parties don’t work together on vital issues such as climate change, to which Nick responded that the LibDems had in fact encouraged this as a strategy, but it failed. The only agreements possible were on the lowest common denominator, whereas the LibDems, as the most environmentally-friendly of the mainstream parties, wish to set higher standards. Altogether, the evening was a worthwhile exercise, which may well be repeated elsewhere in Britain, not necessarily with the same subjects (though they are two of the core themes of the forthcoming European election campaign).

LibDems Have a Leader They Can Be Proud of

    Alone among the main party leaders in Britain, Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats has spoken out forcefully against what is happening in Gaza. In an unambiguous opinion piece in today’s ‘Guardian’, Nick rightly states that the past two weeks have been ‘a telling indictment of the international community’. George W Bush has given the green light to the Israeli onslaught, while there has been an ‘aching silence’ from President-elect Barack Obama. Moreover, ‘we have a European Union encumbered by clumsy decision-making and confused messages.’

Gordon Brown, like Tony Blair, has made British foreign policy ‘effectively subservient to Washington’, Nick argues. Israel has a right to defend itself, but its current tactics are self-defeating. The overwhelming use of force and high level of civilian casualties are ‘radicalising moderate opinion among Palestinians and throughout the Arab world’. He urges Gordon Brown to ‘stop sitting on his hands’ and lead the EU in using its considerable economic and diplomatic leverage in the region to broker peace. Crucially, Nick argues for the immediate suspension of the proposed new cooperation agreement between the EU and Israel, a halt to arms exports to Tel Aviv and a recognition by the world’s leaders that ‘their response to the election of Hamas has been a strategic failure’.

Charles Kennedy seized and held the moral high ground on the Iraq War, despite viscious attacks on him in the House of Commons by both Labour and Tory MPs. Nick Clegg will doubtless also receive a lot of flak for his stance on Gaza (including from some people within his own party). But he too has seized the moral high ground on this issue, while Gordon Brown and David Cameron have proved to be pathetic straw men, waiting for His Master’s Voice from Washington. The Liberal Democrats have a leader they can be truly proud of. 

(read the full article at: www.guardian.co.uk)

Evidence of Israel’s Successful Hits on Palestinian Terrorists

The pictures speak for themselves:

Infants killed so far in the assault on Gaza: 195 (source: BBC News, quoting Palestinian Health Ministry)