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News Release Archive | Middle East | Accuracy.Org

Iran: A Repeat Ten Years After “Fixing” Intel on Iraq

July 24, 2012

RAY McGOVERN, rrmcgovern at gmail.com, raymondmcgovern.com
ANNIE MACHON, annie@anniemachon.ch, skype: annie.machon, www.anniemachon.ch
Machon is a former intelligence officer in the UK’s MI5 Security Service (the U.S. counterpart is the FBI), McGovern is a former U.S. Army Intelligence officer and CIA analyst. They just wrote a piece titled “Will Downing St. Memo Recur on Iran?”

They said today: “This week marks the tenth anniversary of a key meeting in the corruption of U.S. and British intelligence to ‘justify’ war on Iraq. Eight months before the ‘shock and awe,’ bombing campaign, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers met to discuss how they might best support George Bush’s decision to achieve ‘regime change’ in Baghdad. The minutes of that briefing were leaked to London’s Sunday Times on May 1, 2005, but mainstream media, the vast majority of which had been cheerleading for the war, did not print them. The Washington Post waited a month and a half to allude to them, and then dismissed them as nothing new.

“The now infamous ‘Downing Street Minutes’ record the July 23, 2002 briefing by the head of British intelligence at 10 Downing Street three days after his trip to Washington to get the word on Iraq from one of Bush’s closest advisers, CIA chief George Tenet. Here is what the head of British Intelligence said:

“‘Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.’

“A decade after the ‘fixed’ intelligence for invading Iraq, there are signs that more fixing is been done, this time to make the case — whatever the facts — for a new war with Iran. The serving head of British Intelligence is exaggerating the ‘threat’ from Iran, which he says is just two years away from getting a nuclear weapon. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is echoing the Downing Street Minutes’ theme that war is ‘justified-by-the-conjunction-of-terrorism-and-WMD.’

“Blaming Iranian-backed Hezbollah for the terrorist attack in Bulgaria, Netanyahu asked viewers of Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday to imagine what would happen if the world’s most dangerous regime got the world’s most dangerous weapons. Asked how he knew who was behind the bombing in Bulgaria, Netanyahu said, in effect, Trust me. Sadly, but not surprisingly, most U.S. media are doing just that even though Bulgarian authorities and even the White House are urging caution until a full investigation has been completed.”

Machon and McGovern just appeared on The Real News: “10 Years Since Downing St. Memo: Is It Happening Again?”

Tagged With: Annie Machon, Fixed Intel Iran, Hezbollah Attack Bulgaria, Iran, Iran War, Middle East, Ray McGovern,

Syria on Fire, and the U.S. and Russia Have “Turned up with Flamethrowers”

July 18, 2012

CHARLES GLASS, charlesmglassmail2003 at yahoo.com
A noted journalist, Glass was ABC News Chief Middle East correspondent and recently wrote the pieces “The Country That Is the World: Syria’s Clashing Communities” and “Syria’s Many New Friends are a Self-Interested Bunch,” which states: “The Syrians are now surrounded by more new-found friends than a lottery winner. … How did Syria become so popular that almost half of the members of the UN are scrambling to save it? What other country can claim more than 100 sovereign friends? What inspired this rush of affection for Syria? Where have these friends been hiding for the past 50 years? What were they doing in 1967 when Israel seized the Syrian Golan? …

“Would it be churlish to suggest that Syria’s friends want something from Syria for themselves? George Bush was eyeing Syria when he left the White House, and, as in so much else, the Obama administration is taking the policy further.”

Glass cites investigative reporter Seymour Hersh writing in 2007: “To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the administration has co-operated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hizbollah, the Shiite organisation that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”

Glass states: “Syria is a house on fire, and the U.S. and Russia have turned up with flamethrowers.”

ASA WINSTANLEY, asa at winstanleys.org
Winstanley has been following Syrian oposition groups and wrote the piece “The Syrian Observatory: The Inside Story.”

STEPHEN ZUNES, zunes at usfca.edu
Zunes is professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus. He said today: “Unlike the ousted regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and Libya, the Syrian regime … is an oligarchy with a sizable (albeit shrinking) social base. The failure of the nonviolent wing of the movement challenging Assad, then, is not a result of his ruthlessness as much as the way the fact that the structure of Syrian society requires a more protracted struggle. Unfortunately, armed struggle challenges the government where it is strongest, and foreign intervention would play right into the regime’s hands, which has so deftly highlighted the West’s hypocrisy and manipulated the country’s deep nationalist sentiments.” Zunes wrote the piece “U.S. in No Position to Condemn Alleged Russian Transfer of Helicopter Gunships to Syrian Regime.”

Tagged With: Arab Spring, Asa Winstanley, Charles Glass, Middle East, Stephen Zunes, Syria,

Secret Pentagon Docs Reveal Pre-War Plans to Get Big Oil into Iraq

July 17, 2012

Bloomberg reports: “Iraq’s crude production overtook Iran’s last month for the first time in more than two decades… The rising rate of Iraqi production comes as foreign investors such as ExxonMobil Corp. and BP are developing new fields and reworking older deposits.”

GREG MUTTITT, dlee at thenewpress.com
Currently touring the U.S., Muttitt (based in London) is author of the just-released Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq. He said today: “Government officials meeting in the Pentagon before the Iraq war planned to use the U.S. occupation to open the country to Big Oil. The documents, marked SECRET/NOFORN, were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and reveal for the first time the role of the Energy Infrastructure Planning Group, which was established in 2002 by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith to plan how to run the Iraqi oil industry under the Coalition Provisional Authority.

“In a November 2002 presentation to the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council, EIPG proposed not to repair war damage to oil infrastructure, as doing so ‘could discourage private sector involvement” in rebuilding the industry. That proposal however was rejected, in order to ‘minimize disruptions and promote confidence and stability in world markets’ and to maximize revenues to finance the administration of Iraq.

“In January 2003, EIPG instead proposed a new strategy under which initial repairs — carried out by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root — would be followed by long-term contracts with multinational companies to expand Iraqi oil production to five million barrels per day, awarded by the U.S. occupation authority. Although noting that many believed such decisions should be left to a future Iraqi government, EIPG argued that this expansion held advantages including putting ‘long-term downward pressure on [the oil] price’ and forcing ‘questions about Iraq’s future relations with OPEC.’ With private companies operating in Iraq since 2010, those questions have already begun to surface: last month analysts noted that Iraq’s rising production could constrain OPEC’s ability to influence oil prices.

“At the same time as making these proposals, EIPG recommended the government state publicly that ‘We will act, through our administration, so as not to prejudice Iraq’s future decisions regarding its oil development policies; its relations with international organizations; [or] the future ownership structure of its oil industry’ — a public position directly contrary to the substantive policy it proposed.

“These documents provide conclusive proof that control of Iraq oil was a critical consideration at the highest levels of the U.S. government while it was planning the Iraq war. There was little regard for the welfare of Iraqis, but the welfare of companies like ExxonMobil was central to the administration’s thinking. It is particularly troubling that the EIPG recommended the government mislead the public on its oil plans.

“The British government repeatedly met BP and Shell in late 2002, to discuss how to help them achieve their aims in post-Saddam Iraq. BP said it was ‘desperate to get in there;’ the Trade Minister said she believed that if Britain participated in the war its companies should get a share of the spoils. The U.S. government in 2006 hired a lawyer to draft a new Iraqi law to reverse the country’s oil nationalization of the 1970s. Getting this oil law passed became the Bush administration’s top priority in 2007, and was closely tied to the ‘surge’ strategy. After BP won a contract to run Iraq’s largest oilfield in 2009, following an apparently transparent process, its terms were renegotiated in secret, such that the Iraqi government would take the major risks and BP’s profits be guaranteed. In spite of all these pressures, Iraqi civil society groups achieved surprising successes in thwarting the U.S. oil plans through popular campaigns, unreported in the West.”

Muttitt was interviewed Monday on Democracy Now.

Filed Under: , Tagged With: Greg Muttitt, Iraq, Middle East, oil,

U.S. Attacks Church of Nativity Designation by UNESCO

June 29, 2012

Sites added today by UNESCO to its “List of World Heritage in Danger” include the Church of the Nativity, believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus. UNESCO statement can be found here.

The U.S. and Israeli governments attacked the move.

Rev. MITRI RAHEB, mraheb at diyar.ps
Currently at Yale University, Raheb is senior pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem; he is also president of Diyar Consortium and of Dar al-Kalima University College in Bethlehem. He said today: “Today is a historic day for the Palestinian Christian Community with UNESCO voting the Church of the Nativity as a World Heritage Site. This is long overdue for a church used without any interruption for over 16 centuries, a church that is the home church for Palestinian Christian community. This will hopefully open the eyes of the world community to see that Bethlehem is in Palestine, and that the Christians in the Holy Land are Palestinian. We hope that doing justice to the church will be another step towards justice to our people. That is long overdue too.” Raheb is author of I Am a Palestinian Christian and the forthcoming God, the Middle East and the people of Palestine.

Rev. DONALD WAGNER, dwag42 at gmail.com
Wagner is program director of Friends of Sabeel–North America and a Presbyterian clergyperson, He said today: “We in Friends of Sabeel–North America and myself personally applaud the UNESCO decision as it affirms the historic continuity of Palestinian Christians dating back to the early 4th century, and by extension to Pentecost. Yes, Palestinian Christians predate the state of Israel by at least 17 centuries and the coming of Islam, and they still remain in the Holy Land. However, the Israeli occupation is now strangling Palestinian Christians and Muslims throughout the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, causing many to leave — not due to religious tensions but the oppressive policies of the Israeli military occupation. I returned from Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in May of this year as I led a church group to see the situation in Israel and Palestine. We were struck by the fact that Bethlehem has become an isolated ghetto, surrounded by a 25-foot wall, and the majority of the local Palestinians are unable to visit Jerusalem for medical treatment or to visit the Christian and Muslim holy sites that are just six miles away. We watched Christian tour groups from Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S. get off their buses and do a quick tour of the church of the Nativity, but fail to meet local Christians and Muslims to hear their stories of hope and loss, and enjoy their warm hospitality. Let us hope that this decision by UNESCO will not only preserve this historic church, but become a place where all the children of Abraham can come and see the truth of the occupation and make up their own minds about ‘the things that make for peace’ among Jews, Christians, and Muslims in that land. Let the emphasis be not so much upon these ancient stones but on the ‘living stones,’ the people who yearn for a normal life without war, impoverishment, and military occupation. We urge people across the globe to go and see the situation for themselves and discover the truth about the occupation, the illegal separation wall, and then work for true peace based on justice and eventual reconciliation.”

Video of Desmond Tutu is available at the Friends of Sabeel–North America webpage.

Tagged With: Donald Wagner, Middle East, Mitri Raheb, Palestine,

Rise of the Egyptian Junta

June 20, 2012

PHILIP RIZK, rizkphilip at googlemail.com, @tabulagaza
Rizk is an independent blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. He has been warning of the actions of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces since the uprising last year. See Institute for Public Accuracy news release: “From Cairo: Egypt’s Military Leading the Counter-Revolution?”

Also, see: “Egypt One Year After the Uprising, Protests Continue Against Junta.”

SEIF DA’NA, dana at uwp.edu
Seif Da’Na is an associate professor of sociology and international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside specializing in the Mideast and North Africa. He said today: “Egypt’s SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces] exploited the transitional period and people’s faith in the armed forces to abort the revolution through a slowly, but well-planned coup. The outcome is a major setback to the revolution in Egypt and the region, but might result in significantly weakening the Muslim Brotherhood, whose performance during this period not only divided the revolution camp but also enabled SCAF to carry out its premeditated scheme.

“On June 14, 2012, SCAF initiated what most commentators, as well as Egypt’s activists, believe was nothing less than a coup d’etat. Egypt’s High Constitutional Court, whose justices are remnants of Mubarak’s regime, dissolved the newly democratically elected parliament. Later, the Minister of Interior Affairs issued a decree empowering military police and intelligence to indefinably arrest any person considered a threat to public order, which restores the 30-year-old emergency law that was revoked a few weeks ago due to activists’ pressure.

“On the eve of the run-off election, the coup was completed with SCAF’s second constitutional declaration that basically revokes the president’s power and places him under its power, in addition to taking over the legislative power of the dissolved Parliament. This renders an expected victory of Mohammad Mursi (the Muslim Brotherhood candidate) rather insignificant (the official results of the runoff elections are scheduled to be announced on Thursday, but both campaigns contest the claims of the other).”

See on twitter.com/accuracy/egypt.

Tagged With: Arab Spring, Egypt, Egyptian Elections, Middle East, Philip Rizk, Seif Da'Na,

Pakistani Court Dismisses Prime Minister

June 19, 2012

Al Jazeera reports: “The decision comes two months after Gilani, the nation’s longest-running prime minister, was convicted of contempt for refusing to ask Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. … The allegations against Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his late wife, former president Benazir Bhutto, are suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder an estimated $12m allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts.”

JUNAID AHMAD, junaidsahmad at gmail.com
Ahmad is assistant professor of law at Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan and is currently visiting the U.S. He said today: “The supreme court ruling disqualifying Prime Minister Gilani from office throws this deeply unpopular Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led civilian government further into crisis. The government is trying to be the first civilian dispensation to complete its five-year term in power, but seems to have few friends both in the population at large as well as in the army establishment — the institution that really calls the shots. The question now is whether the successor to Gilani that the PPP chooses will be willing to reopen the corruption cases against the PPP’s sitting president, Asif Zardari, as the supreme court has demanded and which Gilani’s unwillingness to do…cost him his job.”

Tagged With: Junaid Ahmad, Middle East, Pakistan,

Egypt: Behind the Chaos

June 14, 2012

The Guardian headlines their Mideast blog “Egypt’s Transition Plunged into Chaos.” The Wall Street Journal reports: “Egypt’s highest court ruled on Thursday to allow a former regime loyalist to run in presidential elections starting Saturday and to dissolve both houses of Egypt’s parliament, in verdicts that could add another pressure point to Egypt’s already fraught transition from military rule to democracy.

“The verdicts come only two days before run-off elections for Egypt’s next president start on Saturday, and only two weeks before the ruling council of generals had promised to hand over its executive authority to the newly-elected head of state.”

Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera is reporting: “Egypt’s justice ministry has issued a decree allowing military police and intelligence officers to arrest civilians suspected of crimes, restoring some of the powers of the decades-old emergency law which expired just two weeks ago.”

JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN, amadea311 at earthlink.net,
Loewenstein is faculty associate in Middle East Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said today: “The Supreme Court ruled that Ahmed Shafiq can run in the election even though he was part of the Mubarak regime — he was the last prime minister — and even though the court has ruled that others associated with the Mubarak regime cannot stand for office. Meanwhile, the other candidate, Muhammed Morsi, is the candidate put forth by the Muslim Brotherhood — though they initially said they would not field a candidate. While the Brotherhood represents the oldest and most well-organized political party in modern Egypt, it nevertheless sat on the sidelines of the uprisings in Tahrir Square when they were at their most popular and intense. There is real irony in the fact that neither of the two contenders for president of a new, democratic Egypt represents the people and organizations whose energy and motivation set the Egyptian Revolution in motion. The ramifications of this situation could be profound.”

JIHAN HAFIZ, fahema22 at gmail.com
REED LINDSAY, reedlindsay at yahoo.com
Hafiz is The Real News correspondent in Cairo. Lindsay is bureau chief there. See their recent reports.

KHALED BEYDOUN, khaled.beydoun at earla.org
Beydoun is with the Egyptian American Rule of Law Association. He said today: “The Egyptian Courts, and SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces], are not only undermining the self-determination millions of Egyptian’s marched and rallied for during the January 25th Revolution, but also manipulating a result advantageous to a select few of elites — many of whom are remnants or proxies of the toppled government. Much of what SCAF’s strategy is an extension of what Mubarak did for decades: If not for us, the nation will degenerate into chaos.”

See on twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/accuracy/egypt

Tagged With: Arab Spring, Egypt, Egyptian Election, Jennifer Loewenstein, Jihan Hafiz, Khaled Beydoun, Middle East, Reed Lindsay,

* Syria * Supreme Court and “Gutted Habeas Corpus”

June 12, 2012

ELAINE HAGOPIAN, echagop at verizon.net
Hagopian is a Syrian-American sociologist, a professor emeritus of sociology at Simmons College in Boston and political interviewer for Arabic Hour TV. She said today: “The situation in Syria has intensified. The regime is determined to defeat the militarized opposition and the fractured and incoherent militarized opposition, which is trying to develop a united strategy, is determined to bring down the regime. Both parties refuse to accept a cease fire as part of the Annan plan, blaming each other for its failure. Each blames the other for the series of massacres that have taken place. But there are conflicting reports on these, and the UN monitors have confirmed the massacres, but have not stated who committed them. They did identify artillery shells that were fired in the area by the regime, but did not connect the up close murders of civilians to the regime. A leading German daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), reports that the rebels did the killing, and the victims were Alawites. Mainstream media report that the Shabiha (civilian Alawite mafia) did it on behalf of the regime. Who to believe? Two things are clear, both the regime and the militarized opposition lie, and both commit atrocities. In the meantime, the original, non-violent reform movement, now calling for Assad to step down as well, has been overshadowed by the violent exchanges going on between the regime and the militarized opposition. As Syria deteriorates and feels the pressures of the economic sanctions, the violence escalates. Russia and the U.S. suggest different ‘solutions,’ but have not found common ground to move toward halting the violence…”

ANDY WORTHINGTON, andy at andyworthington.co.uk
The New York Times reports: “The Supreme Court on Monday, June 11, refused to hear appeals from seven men contesting their imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, passing up an opportunity to clarify its last Guantanamo decision, in 2008.”

Worthington is author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison. He is co-director of the film “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo.”

He said today: “The Supreme Court’s refusal to rebuke the right-wing judges of the D.C. Circuit Court, who have gutted habeas corpus of all meaning, has led to a situation in which, although 87 of the remaining 169 prisoners at Guantanamo have been cleared for release — some as long ago as 2004 — it is probable that none of them will ever be released, as they have been failed by every branch of the U.S. government.” Worthington was on Democracy Now this morning.

Filed Under: Tagged With: Andy Worthington, Arab Spring, civil liberties, Elaine Hagopian, Guantánamo, Middle East, Syria,

* Escalating Drone Strikes in Pakistan * State of Libya

June 5, 2012

JUNAID AHMAD, junaid.ahmad at lums.edu.pk
Ahmad is assistant professor of law at Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan and is currently visiting the U.S. He said today: “The United States launched new drone strikes on Pakistan over the weekend, causing at least a dozen deaths in the tribal area of South Waziristan.

“The attack on Sunday included two drones that fired missiles into a home and a car in the Wana district of the northwestern Pakistan tribal area near Afghanistan. Ten people were killed, and another ten wounded.

“Media reports about the attacks portrayed all of the victims as ‘suspected militants.’ This is in line with the publication last week of a detailed article in the New York Times describing how President Barack Obama determines victims for targeted assassinations and personally authorizes a number of the so-called ‘signature strikes’ — those targeted not at clearly identified ‘suspects,’ but rather at gatherings deemed to be involved in ‘suspicious behavior.’

“The report disclosed that Obama had authorized a CIA policy of classifying any combat-aged male killed in a drone attack as a ‘militant,’ in the absence of clear proof to the contrary. This approach effectively allows for the murder of any adult male in the tribal areas identified as kosher for drone strikes.

“Sunday’s attack was the seventh drone strike since the NATO summit in Chicago last month. They have included a May 24 attack on a mosque that killed 10 people during worship. A May 26 strike murdered 4 persons in a bakery where supposed militants were purchasing bread.

“The intensification of the U.S. drone attacks comes in the context of the NATO summit in Chicago last month, where the U.S. and Pakistani governments failed to come to an agreement concerning the reopening of a supply route for U.S.-NATO occupation forces in Afghanistan. The route, which goes from the Pakistani port city of Karachi to Afghanistan, was closed by Islamabad in protest over U.S. air strikes that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers last November.

“The supply lines through Pakistan were previously carrying over 30 percent of the materiel for the U.S.-NATO soldiers in Afghanistan and are perceived to be critically important for the withdrawal over the next two and half years of U.S.-NATO forces and their equipment.

“Also toward the end of last year, Islamabad shut down the covert Shamsi air base in Baluchistan that the U.S. relied upon to launch its drone strikes.

“Just last month, the Pakistani parliament passed a resolution stating that an end to the drone attacks will be the precondition for reopening the supply lines and calling on the United States to apologize for the killing of the 24 Pakistani soldiers. The Obama administration has rebuked both demands.

“The recent drone assaults are the most blatant expressions of American anger at Pakistan’s unwillingness to completely subordinate itself to U.S. diktat. The period after the Chicago summit has also witnessed repeated threats in Congress to halt all aid to Pakistan as well as a propaganda frenzy over a Pakistani court’s sentencing of a CIA informant who facilitated the Navy Seal raid that assassinated Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

“It should be obvious to the world by now that these ongoing drone attacks are viewed with disgust in Pakistan, and are blamed for killing thousands, mostly civilians.”

Reuters is reporting: “In a fresh challenge to the interim government’s weak authority, members of the al-Awfea Brigade occupied the airport for several hours demanding the release of their leader whom they said was being held by Tripoli’s security forces.”

REESE ERLICH, rerlich at pacbell.net
Recently back from Libya and available for a limited number of interviews, foreign correspondent Erlich, author of “Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence and Empire,” is currently writing a book on the Arab uprisings. He said: “The western-backed National Transition Council operates a weak and ineffective government. Some 60 militias are the real power centers. Unable to suppress the militias, the NTC uses some as auxiliary forces to be called out in time of emergency. Some are now allying with political parties, a very dangerous long-term trend because they will be much harder to dissolve.” Erlich’s article on the Libyan uprising and its political aftermath will appear in an upcoming issue of The Progressive.

Tagged With: Junaid Ahmad, Libya, Middle East, military, Pakistan, Reese Erlich, war,

Roots of the Rise of Fundamentalist Islam: The 1967 War

June 4, 2012

NASEER ARURI, naruri at aol.com
Aruri is chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and author of the books Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine and Obstruction of Peace. He also contributed to the anthology The June 1967 War, which took place 45 years ago.

He said today: “The 1967 Middle East war, sometimes referred to as the June War, is also called ‘al-Naksa,’ or ‘the setback,’ whereas the debacle of 1948 — which cost the Arabs more than two-thirds of Palestine and resulted in the expulsion/exodus of 78 percent of the Palestinian people — is increasingly referred to as ‘al-Nakba,’ i.e., ‘the catastrophe.’ While one might recover from a setback, it is probably a very daunting task to recover from a catastrophe.

“And yet, the 1967 War was a transforming event of epochal dimensions involving huge stakes: Who will emerge as the hegemon of the Middle East? Conservative monarchies with influence and power based on petroleum products and pro-west affiliations — or Arab socialism, non-alignment, Arab unity and secularism? Would revolutionary Arab nationalism or right-wing monarchies emerge as the order of the day?

“Today, almost a half a century later, as the Arab uprisings proceed, we ask whether these questions have been answered. Can we say with certainty, that political Islam has emerged triumphant while secularism has been dealt another setback? Did fundamentalist Islam score high particularly in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere? Did right-wing Arabs such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, etc. score better than did others on the left?

“The single most important outcome of the June War was the defeat of Arab nationalism, known as Nasserism, the antithesis of reactionary Arab politics. Correspondingly, Israel emerged as America’s surrogate in the Middle East. The shifting realignments which can be traced to the 1967 war reveals a new geo-political map, which pits the big powers against each other Cold War style — the U.S., NATO, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Israel versus Syria, Iran, Hizbullah, Lebanon. Such shifting realignments are rooted in the June War and the Cold War, both significant eras which will have a geo-political impact on the region for some time to come.”

Tagged With: 1967 War, Gamal Abdul Nasser, Israel, Middle East, Naseer Aruri, Nasserism, Palestine, Rise of Fundamentalist Islam,
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