Boycott Against Israeli Products

This article was published at the Worker's World page:

Movement grows to boycott israeli products

Published Feb 23, 2009 10:12 PM

Furious at Israel’s horrific siege of Gaza and inspired by the courageous people of Gaza, workers, students and progressive activists are organizing sit-ins, demonstrations and other acts of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Many groups are getting on board and endorsing the Palestinian-led call for an international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

From South Africa, where union dockworkers heroically refused to unload an Israeli ship, to Irish activists, Basque unionists and students in Britain and the United States, momentum is growing in the struggle to cut ties to Israel.

Students across Britain, including Palestinian and Arab youth, have taken direct action and occupied 21 campuses to protest Israel’s military assaults on Gaza and to demand their schools end links to the Zionist state and to the British weapons maker BAE Systems, which arms Israel.

In London, students held sit-ins at Goldsmith University and the London School of Economics, among others. Similar protests spread through England to Birmingham, Sussex, Norwich, Warwick, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge and elsewhere. Some protests have won concessions from university officials.

At Manchester University, 1,000 students equated Israel with apartheid-era South Africa and called on the administration and student union to boycott Israeli companies and support Gaza and the BDS movement. The student union agreed.

Strong sit-ins have been held in Scotland at the universities of Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh and at Strathclyde.

Other solidarity actions continue. British MP George Galloway and 300 volunteers left Ramsgate Feb. 14 in a 110-vehicle caravan, whose vans, fire truck and ambulances were filled with community-donated food, medicine, clothes and toys to be donated in Gaza. Viva Palestine, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim groups and trade unions organized this 5,000-mile journey.

Irish organizations join BDS campaign

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, with 600,000 members in 55 unions, is prepared to start a boycott of Israeli goods. The Jan. 31 Irish Times carried a full-page ad, headlined “Irish Call for Justice for Palestine,” sponsored by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Its 350 signers called for the Irish government and people to boycott Israeli products and to support the BDS campaign.

When thousands of Irish marchers in Derry commemorated the 37th anniversary of Bloody Sunday—when British soldiers killed 14 unarmed people in 1972—they carried 1,000 Palestinian flags in tribute to the Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs in Gaza. The names of children killed were posted at the Children’s Wall. Sinn Fein’s banner read, “Solidarity with People of Gaza, Stop the Blockade.”

Welsh activists were arrested in Swansea at a Tesco’s grocery store after they seized produce grown on illegally occupied Palestinian land. The media reported their message calling on Wales’ people to support a countrywide boycott of Israeli goods.

Demonstrations in more than 30 cities in Basque Country, with 30,000 participants, have called for BDS and linked the Basque and Palestinian struggles. Trade unions joined a Bilbao demonstration calling for a boycott of Israel. Ten municipalities called for breaking ties to Israel.

In Catalonia, protesters leapt onto a basketball court to disrupt a Barcelona-Maccabi (Tel Aviv) game, waving Palestinian flags and signs saying “Boycott Israel.”

Professors and university employees in Quebec also endorsed the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees’ call to boycott Israel.

The BDS campaign is growing in the U.S. As Hampshire College students successfully campaigned for school divestment from Israel, a University of Rochester sit-in was organized by Students for a Democratic Society. They demanded no school ties to U.S. and Israeli militarism in the Middle East and aid for Gaza schools. Iraq Veterans against the War and Rochester Against War took part.

Macalester College students occupied the Minnesota Trade Office in St. Paul last month, then picketed there on Feb. 6, demanding that the state end all trade with Israel.

And New York University students began a divestment campaign at their school.

A 24-hour demonstration outside the World Zionist Organization’s New York office, from Feb. 12-13, drew 900 Jewish activists. Jews Say No targeted Israel’s blockade of Gaza and the ongoing occupation and demanded justice for the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, thousands of e-mail endorsements from the U.S., Canada and worldwide have poured in to the Jews in Solidarity with Palestine campaign. (See IACenter.org)

A cultural boycott is also underway. Chicago protesters wearing bandages stained with red paint, symbolizing Palestinian casualties, recently picketed the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company. The International Solidarity Movement and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel plan protests wherever the dance company performs.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee has issued an international call for a Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for concrete and bold BDS actions on March 30 to make this mobilization “a historic step forward in the new movement.”

Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

.... ... .

Food for Nahr El Bared

This note comes to us thanks to Relief Web:

Basque Government donation aids food security in Nahr El Bared

The Basque Government has contributed US$192,308 over the past year towards UNRWA's Relief and Early Recovery Appeal to provide humanitarian relief work for 27,000 refugees displaced from Nahr El Bared Camp.

The donation was used to procure food items between September 2007 and August 2008, to complement the food assistance for displaced refugee families from Nahr El Bared.

The project contributed to the ongoing UNRWA intervention to ensure food security for all of the families from Nahr El Bared and ensure that all of the families affected by the Nahr el-Bared conflict are able to maintain basic nutritional standards. Addressing the problem of food accessibility, potentially reduces the burden on overstretched healthcare providers, and relieves tensions amongst the community. It also allows families to redeploy their resources towards restoring their livelihood.

This project was part of the Emergency Appeal, which ran from September 2007 to 31 August 2008. UNRWA is seeking further support from donors for Nahr El Bared and launched the Recovery and Early Recovery Appeal in September 2008. This is an appeal for $42.7 million to maintain temporary services- up to December 2009 – for the displaced pending reconstruction. Interventions include temporary shelter for 16,000 refugees and emergency food rations for all 27,000 displaced as well as other essential services such as temporary healthcare, education, water and sanitation.

The first stages of a major reconstruction and recovery effort of Nahr el-Bared camp – to rebuild the camp and allow displaced refugees to return to their homes – are now underway. A phased approach to reconstruction is planned, through which families will begin to return to their homes inside the camp by the end of 2009. The reconstruction is due to be completed by mid-2011.

Just in case you want to know, Nahr el-Bared is a Palestinian refugee camp located in northern Lebanon.

.... ... .

Solidarity With Palestine

This information comes to us thanks to the Palestine News Network:

Basque delegation shows artistic solidarity in Gaza

25.07.08 - 10:54

Gaza / PNN - A joint project between Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and an international delegation resulted in the creation of an artistic mural in Gaza City.

The Palestinian Progressive Youth Union (PPYU) and the Progressive Student Action Front (PSAF) collaborated to organize a project with a group of young artists from the Al Aqsa University of Fine Arts and a delegation from the International Basque Foundation, an organization from the Basque region of northern Spain.

Young Palestinians, artists and members of the Basque delegation created a mural on the headquarters of the Legislative Council in Gaza City to show their solidarity with Palestine.

At the conclusion of the work, the PPYU and the PSAF hosted a meeting in which they reiterated the importance of such visits in order to expose the repressive practices against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as well as in the West Bank.

The Basque delegation learned about the problems facing young Palestinians in Gaza and the particular difficulties experienced by university students.

Both sides affirmed in the meeting the need to plan for future visits and joint events, and expand the cooperation between the parties involved.

.... ... .

The Right to Independence

In his text called "Three cheers for Kosova!" published at Pakistan's Daily Times, Uri Avnery states this:

But a more general question arises: when does a national minority have the right to secede and establish a nation-state of its own? If the Kosovars have this right, why not the Basques in Spain? The Corsicans in France? The Tibetans in China? The Tamils in Sri Lanka? The Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria? The Luo in Kenya? The Darfurians in Sudan?

That is a subject best left to professors of political science. Reality has its own language. No one case is the same as another. There is no international tribunal to decide, according to established standards, who has this right — and who does not. The matter is decided in practice: when a particular population is determined to achieve independence at any cost, and when it is ready to fight and sacrifice for its independence — then they have the “right” to independence.

The aspirations of a minority depend also on the attitude of the majority. A nation that is wise enough to treat its national minorities with decency and accord them real equality will succeed in keeping the state intact. Countries like Canada and Belgium understand this and endeavour to prevent the breaking up of the state. But when the dominant people mistreat the minority — as the Serbs did in Kosovo and the Russians are doing in Chechnya — they reinforce the motivation to achieve independence.

But the paradox is that a small state, even a medium-sized state cannot maintain real independence in a world that is inevitably moving towards globalisation. States like Germany and France are compelled to transfer large chunks of their sovereign powers to regional super-states, like the European Union. The French economy and the German army are subject to Brussels more than to Paris and Berlin. So what is the sense in creating even smaller states?

The answer lies with the power of nationalism, which is not decreasing, but rather the opposite. One hundred or two hundred years ago, Corsica could not defend itself. To be secure, it had to be part of the French kingdom. The Basque homeland could not sustain an independent economy and needed to be part of a larger economic unit, like Spain. But today, when decisions are made in Brussels, why should Corsicans and Basques not have their own states and be separate members of the EU?

That is a world-wide tendency. Separate nations do not unite in new states, but on the contrary, existing states break up into national components. Anyone who believes that Israelis and Palestinians will unite tomorrow in one state does not live in the real world. The slogan “two states for two peoples” is relevant today more than ever.

So Israel, approaching its own 60th anniversary, should recognise the Republic of Kosova and wish it well.

I do not agree with his statement regarding Euskal Herria not being able to sustain itself in the past, after all, it was both Euskal Herria and Catalunya's economies the ones that maintained Spain afloat for the longest time.

One more thing, if you read the entire article you will find that Tito and the Serbs aided the Jewish during WWII, just like the Basques did.

You will also read about how Serbia lost its right over Kosovo the day Milosevic unleashed an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Albanians, just like Francisco Franco did against the Basques.

.... ... .

Tough Questions

500 hundred years ago Europe plunged into a maelstrom of violence against nations around the world. The colonialist powers deprived others of their sovereignty up and down Europe, America, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Well, the time has come for those colonialist powers to shed what stops them from being true democratic states, and that can only take place when they finally let go of their remaining colonies.

This is why, surrounding Kosovo's push for independence, tough questions are being asked.

Check out this note appeared at the International Herald Tribune:

Kosovo's looming independence raises question: Why not Scotland or Vermont?

The Associated Press
Friday, February 15, 2008

Sean Connery thinks a Scottish nation is a bonnie notion. How about Spain's Basque country becoming a REAL country? And what's wrong with a People's Republic of Vermont?

Kosovo's looming independence raises all those questions and more. For starters: Why is statehood OK for some people but frowned on for others? After all, isn't the right to self-determination the essence of democracy itself?

There are at least two dozen secessionist movements active in Europe alone, and scores of others agitating for sovereignty around the globe. All of them, experts warn, will be emboldened by Sunday's expected proclamation of the Republic of Kosovo.

"We live in a world which is based around states," said Florian Bieber, a professor of politics and international relations at England's University of Kent.

"The United Nations is based on states. The European Union is based on states," he said. "It's going to continue to happen. New states will emerge, and states will disappear, like East Germany."

Not all independence movements are created equal.

Some are quirky, such as Second Vermont Republic — Thomas Naylor's small but spirited campaign to break off his corner of northern New England and make it a nation.

With his spectacles, bald spot and long white hair, the retired Duke University economics professor looks like Benjamin Franklin and quotes Thomas Jefferson. He believes that if Kosovo can become a country, so can Vermont, which was independent until it joined the Union in 1791 as the 14th state.

Yet Naylor concedes: "It's a tough sell. This is not kid stuff. Secession is a radical act of rebellion driven by anger and fear."

Thousands have died in long-running quests for statehood mounted by the Palestinians in the occupied territories, and by rebels fighting to gain Kashmir's independence from India and Pakistan.

The Basques have achieved sweeping autonomy from Spain, but militants continue to fight for full independence. On the Mediterranean island of Corsica, birthplace of Napoleon, nationalists still set off bombs to press for independence from France.

There are also many strictly nonviolent movements willing to settle for autonomy rather than secession. And sometimes new states are born by mutual consent, such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic — Czechoslovakia until they split in 1993.

Kosovo formally remains part of Serbia, but it's been run by the U.N. since 1999, when NATO intervened to stop Slobodan Milosevic's brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

Although the U.S. and key allies including Britain, France and Germany support its bid, Serbia and Russia fiercely oppose it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin insists that if Kosovo gains independence without U.N. approval, it will set a dangerous precedent for secessionists in Chechnya, Georgia, Azerbaijan and further afield.

Trouble is, there's no internationally accepted standard for independence, said Marc Plattner, co-editor of the Washington-based Journal of Democracy, which analyzes movements worldwide.

You can let the people decide, he says, but first you have to decide: Who are the people?

"This is the great hole in democratic theory," Plattner said. "There isn't a sound theoretical or moral answer. One simply looks at the individual case."

Skeptics say the increasing flow of cash, goods and information across national boundaries has taken the shine off statehood.

Others wonder if the already unwieldy EU and U.N. can handle much more. The 27-nation EU already has 23 official languages, and many doubt it could cope if it had to add Albanian and Welsh to the mix.

"At a time when borders are coming down in the EU, freeing up the markets and trade, it makes no sense to put them up here," said Angus MacGregor, an insurance broker in Scotland, whose nationalist minority government is pressing to break away from Britain.

The Scottish National Party has promised to hold a referendum on independence by 2010. Although a vote looks unlikely, it's not for lack of trying.

After 700 years of struggle dating back to William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, Scotland's latest "Braveheart" is Connery.

"All of my life experience tells me that an independent Scotland will be successful," the "James Bond" actor said in TV spots aired last year.

Belgium could be the next country to face a big breakup: A nasty rift between Dutch-speaking Flanders to the north and French-speaking southern Wallonia to the south has raised speculation that the kingdom may split in two.

Other movements have been around for decades.

There's the drive to gain independence for Biafra in Nigeria's oil-rich east, and the fringe Puerto Rican Independence Party, still seeking to wrest back the island the U.S. seized in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War.

The United Kingdom looks pretty disunited, too, and not just because of Scotland.

Some in Northern Ireland still advocate unification with Ireland. The Party of Wales wants an independent Welsh state. And in southwestern England, a boisterous secessionist group is trying to carve a country out of Cornwall.

In the U.S., separatist movements advocate independence for Alaska, Texas and the southern states.

And more obscure groups abound.

Ex-Soviet Moldova, just half the size of West Virginia, already has one breakaway republic, Trans-Dniester. But there's also Gagauzia, an autonomous no man's land. Though it doesn't have a prayer of gaining independence, it still sports a flag featuring a snarling red wolf's head.

Other "stateless nations" range from the Veps — people of Baltic Finn extraction in northwestern Russia — to the Sorbs, a Slavonic people who occupy parts of the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland.

"One thing's for sure," said Vermont's Naylor. "We didn't start this. We're just continuing the process."

___

Associated Press Writer Ben McConville in Edinburgh, Scotland, contributed to this report.

.... ... .

Web Attack Against Ibarretxe

What would you know?

Rodríguez Zapatero is now resorting to a shady web of pro-Aznar thugs to carry out his dirty campaign against the Basque Autonomous Community's president, Juan José Ibarretxe.

Here you have the note from the San Jose Mercury News:

Basque government president's invite sparks dissent via Web

By Lisa M. Krieger
Mercury News
Article Launched: 01/26/2008 01:34:19 AM PST

Vehement protest has greeted the decision by Stanford University to invite the controversial president of Spain's Basque regional government to speak on campus.

Juan José Ibarretxe is author of a hotly debated proposal for a referendum on independence for the mountainous region of northern Spain.

While resistance to a Feb. 14 seminar with Ibarretxe started on campus, much of the mounting pressure comes from the other side of the world.

A globally circulated online petition with more than 3,500 signatures holds names of people far outside the Stanford community, including a European Parliament member and the sister of a Sevilla official assassinated by ETA, a Basque terrorist group. Even Spain's regional government of Navarra has weighed in, sending a letter of protest to Stanford President John Hennessy.

Campus dissent is nothing new, but technology is delivering regional disputes to college door stoops. Speaker selection is traditionally an internal affair, protected by policies of academic freedom.

Because of the Internet, "Spaniards can easily bring their feelings to bear. They don't even need an envelope and a stamp," said University of California-Berkeley school of journalism Professor William J. Drummond.

In Stanford's tiny Spanish community, there is no consensus on the visit, said Manuel Franco Sevilla, president of Iberia, the Spanish students association at Stanford.

Nor does the average student hold a strong opinion. "I don't think the general population of students at Stanford are really aware of this visit," Sevilla said.

The international protesters say that Ibarretxe does not deserve a platform at Stanford because he calls for a referendum on Basque independence from Spain and France. His visit - coming on the eve of Spanish elections - is politically motivated, they say. They criticize the professor who invited Ibarretxe, saying he shares the president's ideologies.

The petition opposing his visit was organized by a graduate student at Stanford, who asked not to be identified due to fear of reprisals against his family in Spain, and software engineer José Manuel Camporro of San Jose, who grew up in the Basque city of Vitoria and came to California four years ago.

"It's not a free speech issue," said Camporro. "I agree it is important to get informed about any situation or opinion, but there are always good and not so good sources of information. When a professor invites a politician of his same ideology during the election process, that's not academic anymore."

"Stanford chose to invite one of the most prominent representatives of the regional neo-nationalism in Spain," he said. "Most of the Basque population lives in fear. We can't speak freely there, and that's why it is funny that anybody mentions 'free speech' regarding Mr. Ibarretxe."

Stanford Provost John Etchemendy, of Basque descent, responds that a college campus is a place for all views to be aired, and that even unpopular views deserve a platform.

Stanford professor of Spanish and Portuguese Joan Ramon Resina defended the event, titled "A Proposal To Transform the Basque Conflict" and sponsored by the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He says that Ibarretxe's popularity is proven by continuous victories at the polls. Ibarretxe's party has governed the region since 1936, interrupted only by the Franco dictatorship, he said.

"This is hard to accept by political opponents, whose level of tolerance is so low that they cannot countenance a formal address by Mr. Ibarretxe at a prestigious university," Resina said.

Worried about the increasing number of universities that have rescinded invitations issued to outside speakers, in July the American Association of University Professors reaffirmed its official policy, saying "the freedom to hear is an essential condition of a university community and an inseparable part of academic freedom."

Within the past five years, Harvard University was pressed to cancel an Irish poet; the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts canceled a speech by a British cleric. Colorado College and the University of Colorado were urged to cancel a leading Palestinian representative. The visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Columbia University last year triggered a deluge of e-mails and phone calls to university President Lee Bollinger.

Protest has a long and healthy tradition on college campuses, said UC-Berkeley's Drummond.

What's changed, he said, are the global complaints of Internet-posted petitions.

"People can register their feelings in a concerted way," said Drummond. "The Web has proved to be great for organizing widely separated communities."

Yes indeed, the web is an amazing tool, and in the hands of reactionary individuals like this Camporro character it can become a dangerous weapon.

Now, I stand corrected, Provost Etchemendy is proving to be an all-weather Basque, my respect to his work and his courage.

.... ... .

Attacks Against Maoris and Kurds

As a Basque I feel disheartened when I read news like these.

First New Zealand:

Raid on Maori village opens old wound

by RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer
53 minutes ago

Armed police stormed into this quiet village at dawn, threw up roadblocks, shot out truck tires and forced families out of their homes at gunpoint.

The rare show of force, with its dark subscript of terrorism and assassination plans, stunned this placid nation where beat cops don't even carry guns. It has since sparked charges of racism and inflamed historical resentments.

The October raid was part of a nationwide sweep in which 16 people were arrested and authorities said they shut down military-style camps on Maori ancestral lands where both Maori militants and environmental activists trained.

But a bid to charge 12 of the 16 with terrorist activities unraveled on technical grounds, triggering complaints of police heavy-handedness. While the facts remain unclear, the way police handled the case has strained relations with the 540,000-strong Maori community, which makes up 15 percent of the country's population.

What many found most appalling were the tactics used to arrest three of the suspects in Ruatoki and the nearby town of Whakatane, both home to the uncompromising Tuhoe — the only Maori tribe that still rejects the government's sovereignty, 167 years after the British colonized the islands. For some, the raids stirred memories of repression of Maori more than a century ago.

"They came in here like in a B-grade film," said Tame Iti, a well-known Tuhoe activist arrested in the Ruatoki raid. "It was an attack on the community. It was an attack on me as a freedom fighter, and as a sovereign person of this country."

The town of Ruatoki is dotted with small houses, some just sheds, that lie in flat fields by a rural highway on the northern of New Zealand's two main islands.

Iti said police stormed in and held his family including children at gunpoint, firing two shots into tires on his truck to immobilize it.

After the arrests, protests broke out in a dozen towns and cities and abroad in the United States, England and Australia, itself home to 250,000 Maori.

The police actions against the Tuhoe "set back relations between Maori and the government 100 years," said Pita Sharples, co-leader of the Maori Party and a member of parliament.

Authorities said that during 18 months of covert monitoring, they had heard armed activists at the camps — in the forested hills of Te Urewera, the Tuhoe ancestral lands — talking of political assassinations and bombing power plants. The arrested included some white New Zealanders.

In a controversial move, local newspapers published police intercepts of those conversations. In them, the suspects discuss using "sudden" and "brutal" attacks to divide "Aotearoa," the Maori name for New Zealand. The suspects also surmise that foreign terror groups would be blamed, according to the newspaper accounts.

Iti said the camps he was involved in taught bush survival skills and firearms safety, something he has been doing for Tuhoe and other youth for 30 years. He rejected any connection to terrorism.

Iti was charged last year with reckless use of a shotgun and desecrating the New Zealand flag at a Maori ceremony on Tuhoe lands. The charges were dropped after he pointed out that it was an Australian flag and that he had fired into the ground.

The Tuhoe said four weapons were seized in the raids, but Detective Inspector Bruce Good told The Associated Press there were 20, including AK-47 assault rifles, shotguns, rifles and pistols, plus silencers, scopes, ammunition and firearms parts.

The government planned to charge 12 suspects under the Terrorism Suppression Act, enacted following the 9/11 attacks. But Solicitor General David Collins, the country's top justice official, ruled the anti-terror law was too complex to apply in this case.

The arrested, now free on bail, face lesser charges of illegal possession and use of firearms.

The Maori are descendants of Polynesians who migrated to New Zealand about 1,000 years ago.

Tuhoe, the most isolated and poorest of the Maori tribes, are proud that their ancestors refused to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, which created New Zealand under British sovereignty.

The treaty guaranteed the Maori could keep their lands, forests, fisheries and culture — commitments Maori say were broken as European settlers flooded in.

In 1867, colonial troops invaded Tuhoe territory and confiscated much of its land. Twenty years of guerrilla fighting ensued.

The Tuhoe resistance has won wide respect from other Maori, who remain proud of their fierce warrior heritage. Other Maori have been "colonized" by European culture, the Tuhoe say.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said police and the government will need to start building bridges over the divide. They face an uphill battle, particularly with the Tuhoe.

Sharples, the Maori Party co-leader, said invoking the Terrorism Suppression Act has branded all Maori as possible terrorists with international links.

It "could create repercussions on peoples' attitudes to authority and the police in the future," he said. "It's created further mistrust by Maori of the authorities."

Then Turkey:

Turkish planes bomb villages inside northern Iraq

by Shwan Mohammed
Sun Dec 16, 6:16 AM ET

Turkish planes bombed villages inside northern Iraq on Sunday targeting Kurdish rebels in at least the second such operation this month even as Ankara held back from launching a ground assault.

"According to our preliminary reports, eight Turkish warplanes bombed some villages along the border near the Qandil mountains early today," said Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Kurdish militia that provides security in northern Iraq.

In Ankara the Turkish army confirmed its warplanes had carried out air strikes on Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.

The planes hit the "regions of Zap, Hakurk and Avasin as well as the Qandil mountains", the general staff said in a statement.

The rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984, maintains a network of rear-bases in the rugged Qandil mountains near where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey meet.

The Turkish military said the bombardment began at 1:00 am (2300 GMT) and all its aircraft had returned safely to base by 4:15 am (0215 GMT). Artillery continued to pound the targets once the planes had left.

Turkey's CNN-Turk television said more than 20 planes took part in the air strikes, while the NTV news channel said that some 50 planes had taken part.

The Anatolia news agency said "many F-16 fighter jets", equipped to carry out night-time missions, took off from a base in Diyarbakir province in southeastern Turkey and returned about three hours later.

The military stressed that the raids targeted the PKK, not Iraqi Kurds.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek warned Ankara would carry out more cross-border strikes, if necessary.

"Such operations will continue if need be," the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.

"The government, working in harmony with all state institutions, primarily the armed forces, is determined to take this scourge off the country's agenda."

Yawar said the air strikes damaged some bridges connecting villages near the Qandil mountains.

"Some familes are fleeing from the villages attacked today. We have dispatched our border teams to check the casualties and damage," he added.

But Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan denied that any civilian areas had been hit.

"You should trust statements made by the Turkish armed forces," Babacan said in televised remarks.

The air strikes were at least the second Turkish operation against the PKK inside Iraq this month, Turkish helicopters pounded suspected rebel rear-bases on December 1.

The Turkish parliament gave the army authorisation to launch cross-border operations in October but Ankara has so far held back from any ground assault amid strong lobbying by Washington.

The vote by MPs followed a PKK ambush against Turkish troops in which 12 soldiers were killed and eight captured. The captives were released in November.

The United States has expressed concern that any ground incursion might unsettle the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq which is the most stable area of the country.

But Turkey has warned Iraq that it reserves the right to resort to a ground assault.

In recent weeks Turkey has deployed around 100,000 soldiers along its 380-kilometre (235-mile) border with Iraq.

Baghdad has promised to rein in the PKK, and in early November President George W. Bush said Washington would provide Ankara with "real-time" information on rebel movements from its satellites.

The pledge was widely regarded as tacit US approval for Turkey to carry out air strikes and limited cross-border operations against PKK targets.

The United States, like the European Union, blacklists the PKK as a terrorist organization.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since the rebels took up arms against Ankara in 1984, drawing a scorched earth response from the military in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

Kurds straddle the borders between Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey and form significant minorities in all four countries.

When will the nations without statehood get some respect?

When will the colonialist powers evolve and leave behind their blood lust and greed?

When will the mega-nations understand that they need a more organic approach towards their view of the world?

When will the occupying armies stop labeling resistance fighters as "terrorists"?

When will humankind put the crimes committed by the colonialist powers into the correct perspective?

When will nation-states will embrace different cultural expressions and stop killing people over their obsession with one nation, one language and one cultural standard?

When will the voices of those who claim for freedom will be heard?

When will the Maori, the Kurds, the Basques, the Palestinians, the Corsicans, the Catalonians, the Guanche, the Mapuche, the Bretons, the Tibetans and so many others be allowed to be what they are?

When?

~ ~ ~

International Solidarity with Segi

This note was published at An Phoblacht's web page:

Large Ógra Shinn Féin mobilisation to the Basque Country

Over 20 delegates from Ógra Shinn Féin cumainn across Ireland, will be attending a week long mobilisation to the Basque Country. The main focus of the event is to enhance and develop international relations with the Basque youth movement Segi.

Also in attendance will be Kurdish and Palestinian youth movements.

Ógra Shinn Féin activist, Councillor Johnny McGibbon said, “We will be primarily travelling to the Basque Country to show support for our Basque youth comrades in Segi who are currently deemed a ‘terrorist’ organisation, and whose former leadership is in jail. We want them to know that their plight is remembered in Ireland and that we will campaign against the constant repression.”

“We believe the international delegation will be an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas, learn from each other and also as Irish Republicans and Internationalists, to show solidarity and support with the Basque people.”

Cllr McGibbon also said:

“During the delegation we will be attending public meetings, cultural festivals, youth houses and rallies. The whole event will help equip us with knowledge of the phenomenal organisation of the Basque youth and give us an opportunity to learn of the current situation in the Basque Country at first hand.”

It is such good news to have Irish, Palestinian and Kurdish youths visiting Euskal Herria, there is much that can be learned from the experiences of these three nations under siege by expansionist and ruthless states.

~ ~ ~

5th Anniversary

Five years ago a good friend of mine finally got me to start a blog. I was not sure about what I was supposed to do with it so I would post time to time.

And here we are, five years later, blogging as often as work and social compromises allow.

During these five years I have seen how the blogosphere evolved. I remember the time when you would tell someone that you kept a blog and they would look at you as some someone from out of space. Today, anyone that uses the internet on a regular basis knows what a blog is, and the main stream media has become more aware of how bloggers can actually break right through their barrier of lies and deceptions.

This blog was one of the first blogs to bring some of the worst of the main stream media to the spot light. While many were busy blogging about their cats and their children, and other were busy trying to bring their agenda forward, this blog pointed a finger at one of the worst aspects of news as a business and as a propaganda tool.

And it aimed its criticism towards one of the worst aspects of the information monopolies, their proclivity to demonize the national liberation movements that are not darlings to Washington and London.

And so it is that while Taiwan and Kosovo are always portrayed as victims of bad governments (China for the former and Serbia for the latter), other peoples were eternally presented as violent loons. The Palestinians, the Kurds, the Timorese, the Karen and the Basques.

I can say without doubt in my mind that this blog was the first of its kind, today there is many blogs published by Basque people, Kurdish people, Palestinian people. Many of them address their national struggle towards nationhood. But this one was the first.

And as it happened, when the worst vermin produced by the neocon wave decided to attack the Lebanese, the Palestinians, the Kurds and the Basques, this blog was here to stop them on their tracks.

Many wannabe Goebbels met a mighty adversary here, and one after the other folded. Today they stay away from aiming their guns at those who work towards the self determination of their people .

This has been a labor of love and courage.

And there is a lot left from were those last five years came from, so stay tuned.

And by the way...

...Gora Euskal Herria Askatuta!

~ ~ ~

Peace Preparations Up North

Here you have a news item by the Scotsman regarding the talks between ETA and the Spanish Government:

Sat 7 Oct 2006

Basque group ETA, Spain holding talks in Norway -TV

OSLO (Reuters) - The Basque separatist group ETA and Spanish officials have been holding secret talks at an undisclosed location in Norway to prepare for official peace negotiations, Norwegian television reported on Saturday.

Commercial broadcaster TV2 cited anonymous sources in the Norwegian government as confirming that the talks were taking place.

Earlier in the day the Spanish newspaper ABC, citing unnamed experts on the peace process, said the talks were focussed on disarming the group, responsible for hundreds of deaths during its four-decade armed struggle for Basque independence.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba denied "emphatically" that Spain had begun talks with ETA in Oslo, or was preparing a meeting in the Norwegian capital to start negotiations, Europa Press reported.

"It's not true ... no such contacts exist and not in Oslo," the agency reported him as saying.

ETA declared a permanent ceasefire in March, but peace talks announced in June by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero have not yet begun.

Spanish media say this is largely because the pro-independence party Batasuna, banned for its links to ETA, has not been allowed to take part in separate consultations on the future of the Basque Country.

ABC said Norway was aware of the talks, but the country's foreign ministry declined to confirm or deny the reports.

"We can't say anything about this," Norwegian foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne Lene Dale Sandsten told Reuters.

TV2 said the discussions were being held in a villa outside Oslo.

So far ETA has not offered to disarm and initial contacts are expected to centre on the location and possible early release of ETA members serving sentences in jails all over Spain.

Norway has a tradition as a peace mediator. It hosted the talks between Israel and the Palestinians that led to the 1993 Oslo accords, which subsequently failed.

In 2002, it helped broker a truce in the two-decade civil war in Sri Lanka between Tamil Tiger separatists and government forces. That deal also broke down earlier this year, but Norway remains involved as a mediator.

(Additional reporting by Ben Harding in Madrid)

We can only hope that Spain really wants a peaceful end to their illegal occupation of Euskal Herria.

~ ~ ~

American Self-Criticism

I said it before and I'll say it again, blog trackers are a blessing.

Otherwise I would have missed this excellent entry by Racer X at his blog Ferdiad - The Warrior Liberal called Bowling for Idiots.

Here you have part of it:

Does anyone know what I hate the most about America? No, it isn’t the fact that the Republican leadership will cover up sexual predation in order to save a political seat. No, it isn’t the fact that our President wants to create a Gulag Archipelago of his own. No, it isn’t even because our government has turned America from being a beacon of light to the rest of the world into the scorn of the international community. What bothers me most about America is the stupidity of its people. Before you click to another site, please allow me to explain. Most of what I speak of, I am afraid, is not the fault of the people themselves, but rather the deliberate work of the elite.

What frustrates me most about the American people is lack of knowledge and ignorance of history. I remember reading a book about Basque Independence last year and how enlightened I felt. (For those asking what is a “Basque,” my point proven). I then changed my MSM IM call sign to “Herri Batasuna,” which is the Basque nationalist political party. A Swedish friend of mine got online and wrote to me, “When did you start studying the Basque independence movement?” At that moment, I was dumbfounded. I realized that most of what I strive very hard to understand is common knowledge to the rest of the world. As Americans, we are blind to world history. As Americans, we truly are isolated in a fairy tale world of ignorance. How many Americans can tell you about the CIA involvement in the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran? How many Americans know the name Simon Bolivar? How many Americans can tell you exactly how Fidel Castro came to power and why he commands massive support from the indigenous population? Can you tell me a friend of yours that can speak intelligently about the Islamic Revolution? How many Americans are even able to explain what Apharthied is and how such a disgusting system of government came to pass? What about the Boer war or the Crimean war? How many Americans know the significance of those events? Do you know anyone who can discuss the implications of the Russo-Japanese war and how Russia’s defeat to the Japanese set the stage for WWII? It was the first major military defeat of a white “Western” power to a “colored” enemy from the “Eastern” world. What will the long term effects of America’s folly in Iraq be for future generations? How many people do you know that understand the problems in Northern Ireland? How many Americans know the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? No, I am not talking about the “made for TV” explanation found only in the Bible, but rather the true causes for the conflict?

I recommend you read the whole thing. All I did was to type "basque" at Sphere. If Oliver Stone had had the chance to read it before going to Euskal Herria to show just how dense he is.

~ ~ ~

Haaretz's Take on Terrorism

It is a bit weird to read about terrorism at a newspaper from a country that is considered to be involved in what is widely seen as state sponsored terrorism.

I could have dismissed the whole thing but right off the bat the author places ETA among his list of terrorist organizations, a list that does not include the Irgun nor the Israeli Defence Forces. And well, this is simply unacceptable.

Now, despite his obvious bias which blinds him from seeing all the carnage that the Zionists have visited upon the region due to their nightmarish obsession with an expantionist Jewish state, the article does contain a few good things.

Example:

2. 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.'

More of a half-truth than an out and out lie, given the propensity of supporters of one side to explain and forgive atrocities committed by that side, while condemning and often exaggerating atrocities committed by the other.

It is worth noting that definitions of terrorism are legion and agreement is rare.

For the purposes of this piece, however, we will use a formula contained within a UN report issued last year, which defined terrorism as any action: "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act."

For the purpose of this piece, therefore, we will declare that any side which intentionally attacks non-combatants is practicing terrorism.

With Melitón Manzanas, Admiral Carrero Blanco and all the Guadia Civil elements targeted by ETA this definition makes ETA commandos into freedom fighters.

3. All resistance to illegal occupation is legitimate.

Intentional attacks on innocents are inherently illegitimate

How about Durango and Gernika? And the GAL?

8. 'The objective of the [(check one) war / incursion bombing campaign / liquidation raid] in [Lebanon / Gaza / northern Samaria] is the swift release of the kidnapped soldier/s.'

There is little persuasive evidence that the kidnappers of IDF soldiers can be bombed, assassinated, or otherwise militarily pressured into agreeing to release the captives they hold.

There is more than circumstantial evidence to suggest that the kidnapping may become a pretext for military action aimed at attacking an organization which engages both in guerrilla activity and in terrorism, with Hamas and Hezbollah the primary illustrations.

Whoa!

Finally, hidden in the entire article a pearl of truth. This paragraph tells us that yes, what Israel did in Lebanon can be considered terrorism.

9. 'If there were no occupation, there would be no terrorism.'

It is debatable whether this statement fits better into the status of a lie or a contention. It is, in any event, an argument which has lost much of its power in the wake of the pull-out from the Gaza Strip. Within days, evacuated settlements were used as launching pads for rocket attacks that markedly increased terrorist attacks against southern Israel.

Uh oh, back to the bias. Israel left the Gaza Strip but there is plenty of kibbutzim in the West Bank, ergo, the occupation continues.

10. 'Terrorism is the only defense of oppressed peoples against the vastly better equipped oppressor.'

On the surface, terrorism seems to work, despite its moral failings. But in the case of the Gaza withdrawal, hailed by Hamas as the Great Victory of Resistance, it may be persuasively argued that Israel would have withdrawn from the Strip years, perhaps even decades before, had terror groups not worked to foil every attempt at a peace agreement.

The fact is that Israelis were trying to find a formula to leave Gaza for years. There were even many in the settlement movement who viewed Gaza as a distinct liability to the wider cause.

One thing is certain - terrorism is self-destructive on the broadest levels. It has cost the Palestinians their once-broad support in Israel and around the world for the swift creation and recognition of an independent Palestine.

Terror attacks following the disengagement have persuaded most Israelis that further withdrawals would be mistaken.

Terrorism, particularly the concept of suicide bombing, has tarnished the Palestinians' good name in the world, and their image of David in the contemporary Goliath myth.

There are many diplomatic, political and public relations alternatives to terror. Had the Palestinians focused on them and not on the armed struggle, they would have had statehood long ago.

What a lie, the whole world supports the Palestinian right to statehood, if it was not for the USA there would be a Palestinian state as we speak.

Oh yes, this is supposed to be an experiment, so if you want to be part of it go check out the article "The 10 most useful lies about terrorism".

~ ~ ~

Self-Government

Thousands of people march through Bilbao, northern Spain, behind a Basque, a Lebanese and a Palestinian flag to support self government for the Basque country and to show support for the Palestinians and the Lebanese August 25, 2006. The banner reads 'Self government for the Basque Country'. REUTERS/Vincent West (SPAIN)

~ ~ ~

Basque Solidarity in Bil'in

Two occupied lands, two people coming together.

This report about the Zanpantzart dancers from Euskal Herria marching along with Palestinians and Israelis who want peace and want to work hard to stop the genocidal land grab by the Zionist occupation forces.

It appeared at Scoop:

Basque and Bil'in Forces Keep the Beat

Saturday, 8 July 2006, 12:41 pm

Press Release: International Solidarity Movement

On July 7th, at 13:00 the people of Bil'in, joined by a Basque Nationalist musical group and International and Israeli activists, started their weekly rally to protest the ongoing construction of the illegal Apartheid wall on their lands. One hundred people started the march, which was launched in front of the mosque and ended at the gate in the wall.

The Basque musical group, in traditional ceremonial attire and formation, kept the beat for the demonstration by marching with large bells that they wore on their lower backs, led by an individual in front who blew on a traditional horn. They were chased away by rubber bullets and sound bombs from the soldiers but returned to perform their art and pass through the line of soldiers that were holding people back. They stated their intent of solidarity with the Palestinians: "we too have been fighting an occupation of our lands for generations", and wished to express their support for the Palestinian resistance.

The demonstration turned violent when soldiers tried to arrest non-violent protester, Iyad Burnet. Other Palestinians and one international came to his aid to try to prevent his arrest and were caught between the Jeeps and the barbed wire as soldiers beat them. They grabbed the hands of the soldiers to stop the beating and were successful in deescalating the situation so they could talk with the soldiers.

Iyad Burnet was again targeted for arrest and pulled inside the gate, separated by the group by rolls of barbed wire. Several people ran to his aid, despite being blocked by soldiers, and a small group was able to successfully prevent his arrest.

The demonstration ended with five people injured. Ahmed Mohammed Hamad, 55, of Bil'in suffered damage to his right ear from a sound bomb. Mohammed Katib, 33, of Bil'in suffered bruises and tears to the skin in his left torso from soldiers roughing him up. Michael, 23, from the US, suffered tears in the skin of his forearms from schrapnel from a sound bomb. His right forearm was damaged when he was thrown by one soldier against another's shield with extreme force. Ashrof Askar, 22, of Tulkarem, suffered a rubber bullet to his upper left thigh as he was walking by the soldiers. Khaled, 18, of Bil'in, was hit with a rubber bullet in the leg.

This evening the army revoked the order declaring the area a closed military zone. A team of three internationals gained access through the gate which had been denied to them after the demonstration. They have now relieved the lone Palestinian who was manning the outpost, and the area has been declared open for the time being.

.... ... .

The Onion's Ethniklashistan

You got to love blog trackers.

Thanks to a blog called Coming Anarchy and their post called "The Solution to all Problems" I learned about a rather amusing piece by The Onion published back in 2001, a few months before this blog was created.

If you don't have a black sense of humor, do not read it.

So, without further introduction, I present it to you:

Northern Irish, Serbs, Hutus Granted Homeland In West Bank

June 20, 2001 | Issue 37•23

UNITED NATIONS–In a bold gambit hoped to resolve dozens of conflicts around the world, the U.N. announced Monday the establishment of Ethniklashistan, a multinational haven in the West Bank that will serve as a new homeland for Irish Protestants, Hutus, Serbs, and other troubled groups.

"For far too long, these groups have been locked in prolonged strife with their former neighbors, unable to achieve a lasting peace," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. "Now that these various peoples have a new homeland where they can find refuge, all the years of fighting and bloodshed can finally be put behind them."

Former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, now presiding over a Serb settlement near the Jordanian border, was optimistic about the future. "All Muslim scum must die," he said. "Death to all enemies of Serbian purity!"

The various groups, transported to Ethniklashistan by a massive U.N. airlift, will share their new homeland with the roughly two million Palestinians and Israeli settlers who currently occupy the region. U.N. officials say the West Bank site was chosen for its centralized location, opportunities for tourism, and comfortable desert climate. These factors, combined with the already diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious composition of the area, offer "a unique opportunity for many international groups to live together in peace."

"This is truly a win-win situation," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "War-ravaged peoples from all over the world finally have a place they can feel safe. And, for the Palestinians and Israelis already there, the presence of additional ethnicities should reduce any pre-existing stresses. Arabs and Jews will enjoy exposure to a glorious, multiethnic stew, and they will, in turn, have the opportunity to lead by example, serving as role models of peaceful coexistence."

Hutu leader Kagabo Ndadaye, who between 1994 and 1996 personally oversaw the machete deaths of more than 10,000 Tutsi Rwandans, echoed the positive outlook. "The glorious Hutu are the one pure race," said Ndadaye, speaking from a Hutu settlement near Hebron while eyeing a nearby Kurdish settlement. "All inferior mongrel peoples shall be put to the blade."

Though hopes are high for Ethniklashistan–a name created by a team of linguists who combined 17 different languages' words for "sanctuary"–the establishment of the new homeland has proven rocky. Of the more than 500,000 people relocated there so far, approximately 97 percent have responded with violent resistance, swearing oaths of eternal vengeance against U.N. volunteers conducting the forced relocations.

Bloodshed also marred the "Festival Of Human Brotherhood," a weeklong, nationwide event celebrating the founding of Ethniklashistan. On Monday, 11 people were killed in a skirmish between Basques and Sikhs near Nablus. The same day, six were killed and dozens injured on the streets of Bethlehem when Somalis and Greek Cypriots exchanged gunfire and grenades.

Dozens of shifting alliances have added to the confusion and chaos. In a pre-dawn border raid Monday, Burmese Karen rebels attacked a Tamil settlement. By late afternoon, the Karens were driven back by the Tamils, who were newly armed with Israeli anti-personnel missiles smuggled into the West Bank by Zionist fundamentalists who had allied themselves–some say only as a temporary ruse–with the Tamils.

On Tuesday, guerrilla fighters made up of an uneasy Palestinian-Papuan alliance attacked an Irish Protestant church near the Golan Heights, killing 121 Irish worshippers with nerve gas before being repelled by a nearby faction of Protestant-sympathizing Zapatista rebels from the Chiapas region of Mexico.

The violence continued that evening, when the severed heads of 20 Chechens were paraded through the streets of Jericho by Azerbaijani extremists. The killings are thought to be in retaliation for rocket attacks by a band of pro-Armenian Chechen rebels, who have thus far evaded Azerbaijani attempts to flush them out of their encampments in the hills with prolonged shelling.

Alarmed by the new nation's growing pains, world leaders have launched a large-scale international-aid effort to help Ethniklashistan get on its feet. Great Britain has pledged 12,000 peacekeeping troops, vowing to "pummel with rubber bullets, tear gas, and billy clubs anyone who dares threaten the Sons of Ulster." China has pledged 40,000 soldiers to supervise the 2,000-plus Tibetan Buddhists relocated to the region. Indonesia, Cambodia, Nigeria, and Afghanistan have also sent troops.

"There is always a period of transition and upheaval in the founding of a new government," President Bush said. "That is why an international humanitarian consortium of nations, including the U.S., France, Russia, Iraq, and North Korea, has pledged $2 trillion in military aid to the new nation. This way, all Ethniklashistanis, regardless of race, color, creed, or economic background, will have equal access to the state-of-the-art ordnance they need to defend themselves and their families during this initial period of instability."

Encouraged by such aid efforts, experts are confident that a lasting peace can soon be established among the rival Ethniklashistani groups.

"When you take that many long-suffering, war-torn groups and put them in the same place, how can you not have peace?" asked former president Jimmy Carter, who will lead talks among the various Ethniklashistani groups. "This hatred cannot possibly last long."

.... ... .

Pat on Self-Determination

Believe it or not, I'm quoting Pat Buchanan.

I simply need to do so, for this is a rare example of a right wing fella actually defending the right of the old nations to be what they want to be.

Pat goes the extra mile when he says that such thing is the way things are supposes to be.

Anyway, I learned about his column "The death of the nation-state" thanks to a blog called "European Ethnocentrism".

Here you have Pat's piece on what is going on in Europe:

The death of the nation-state

May 23, 2006

by Pat Buchanan

Yugoslavia is gone, forever. The country that emerged from World War I and Versailles as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, land of the South Slavs, has passed into history.

Sunday's vote in Montenegro, a tiny land of fewer people than the Washington, D.C., this writer grew up in, voted Sunday to secede from Belgrade, establish a nation and seek entry into the European Union.

In 1991, Macedonia peacefully seceded. Slovenia and Croatia fought their way out, and Bosnia broke free after a war marked by the massacre at Srbenica and NATO intervention. Bosnia is itself subdivided into a Serb and a Croat-Muslim sector.

After the 78-day U.S. bombing of Serbia by the United States, and the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the province in the wake of the NATO war, Kosovo is 90 percent Muslim and Albanian. Loss of this land that was the cradle of the Serb nation seems an inevitability.

The disintegration of Yugoslavia, the second partition of Czechoslovakia and the breakup of the Soviet Union into 15 nations -- many of which had never before existed -- seem to confirm what Israeli historian Martin van Creveld and U.S. geostrategist William Lind have written.

The nation-state is dying. Men have begun to transfer their allegiance, loyalty and love from the older nations both upward to the new transnational regimes that are arising and downward to the sub-nations whence they came, the true nations, united by blood and soil, language, literature, history, faith, tradition and memory.

Imperial and ideological nations appear, for the foreseeable future, to be finished. The British and French, greatest of the Western Empires, are long gone. Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, the Irish, though its sons had fought to erect and maintain the Victorian "empire on which the sun never set" -- and defend it in World War I -- fought relentlessly to be free of it. They wanted, and in 1921 won, a small nation of their own, on their own small island.

The Irish preferred it to being part of the British Empire.

The call of ethnicity, nationalism, religion, faith and history pulled apart the greatest of all the ideological empires, the Soviet Empire, and the Soviet Union, that "prison house of nations."

Transnational institutions, the embryonic institutions of a new world government to which the elites of the West and Third World are transferring allegiance and power, include the United Nations, the EU, the World Trade Organization, the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the International Seabed Authority, the Kyoto Protocol, the IMF and the World Bank.

The sub-nations, or ex-nations, struggling to be born or break free include Scotland, Catalonia and the Basque country of Spain, Corsica, northern Italy and Quebec in the West. Iraq, as we have seen, is a composite of peoples divided by tribe, ethnicity and faith -- as are Iran, Pakistan and India. Jordanians are Palestinian Arabs, with a minority of Bedouins.

Lind argues that not only are nations subdividing, losing their monopolies on the love and loyalty of their peoples, but they are being superseded by "non-state actors" that are challenging the monopoly on warfare enjoyed by the nation-state since the Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War.

Among the more familiar non-state actors are the Crips and Bloods, Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13, the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, the Zapatistas of Chiapas, the racial nationalists of MEChA, the white supremacists of Aryan Nations, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah, the Maoists of Nepal and the Tamil Tigers.

Among the central questions of our time is a central question of any time: Who owns the future?

Of late, the transnational vision has lost its allure. Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and most of Latin America reject the NAFTA vision of Bush and Vicente Fox. French and Dutch voted down the EU Constitution, which now appears dead. The Doha round of world trade negotiations is headed for the rocks. Hostility is rising to bringing Turkey into the EU.

Arabs and Turks in Europe identify more and more with the Islamic faith they have in common and the countries whence they came, not the one in which they live and work.

So, too, do millions of illegal aliens in the United States. They march defiantly under Mexican flags in American streets demanding the rights of U.S. citizens -- while an intimidated political class rushes to accommodate and appease them, assuring itself this is but the latest reincarnation of Ellis Island.

As the Old Republic trudges to its death, less and less do we hear that incessant blather about the American Empire, "the world's last superpower" and "our unipolar moment."

Pat Buchanan is a founding editor of The American Conservative magazine, and the author of books such as The Great Betrayal, A Republic, Not an Empire, Neo-Conned, and Where the Right Went Wrong.

Whoa!

I'm telling you, I never ever thought I was going to be posting anything written by Pat Buchanan, but as it happens, I strongly agree with what he says about the way the European political landscape is being transformed as we speak.

.... ... .

ETA's Ceasefire, The End of Spanish Colonialism?

That could very well be the title for Joe Gandelman's post about the decision by ETA to give peace a chance in the resolution of the Basque conflict. He instead called it "Basque ETA's Permanent Cease Fire: The End Of Basque Terrorism?".

I know I said I was not going to waste any ink on the posts by ill informed Americans regarding the issue of the ceasefire.

But there is one thing you can not call Joe Gandelman, and that is that he is ill informed.

He is very knowledgeable about a lot of issues, including the Basque conflict. The problem with his post seems to be on the point of view he choses in this case. Yes, being moderate can be tricky when it comes to a centuries long drive for self determination.

More so, his opinion in this matter sheds light on a simple fact, Americans do not take the side of the underdog anymore.

But lets cut to the chase.

For starters, the opening question:

Has Spain finally seen the day that many Spaniards have prayed for? Is the era of Basque terrorism finally over?

Maybe the Spaniards should pray so they can leave behind their colonialist past, and also to make sure that the people they elect to public charges do not use their power to repress an entire nation. Violence generates violence, and Madrid has the upper hand when it comes to who is responsible for the bloodshed in the Basque Country for the last 500 years.

Then he gets into the business of making the king look good:

During the final months of the Franco government, ETA was Enemy Number One. And, indeed, ETA literally changed Spain's history forever when in 1973 it killed prime minister Carrero Blanco by planting a massive bomb under his travel route on a street in central Madrid. Franco had planned on Blanco as his successor. So he had to instead choose Prince Juan Carlos — who proved to be a democrat at heart and what Spaniards called "the motor of change" in transitioning Spain to democracy and helping integrate it into the European community.

If the king was such a democrat at heart, then there was only one thing to do at the death of his master; renounce to the crown and go hide somewhere. Let me remind you here and now that if Juan Carlos is the head of a monarchy today is thanks to the actions of people like Francisco Franco and Adolph Hitler.

And just to say it plain and simple, democracy and monarchy are not two concepts that you can mix, they oppose each other on the basis of what they stand for.

What is funny is that there is so many out there that are willing to call Spain a democracy. Would you describe a country in which you can go to jail for speaking your own language a democracy?

Spain as a democracy has closed down schools, worker unions, news papers and political parties just because.

That can not be considered a democracy, unless you see it from the view point of someone that comes from a country were people feels perfectly fine with something called the Patriot Act.

Now check this paragraph:

Once Franco died it became clear that Basque separatism was not going to go away, even as the new government began to give more autonomy to Spain's various regions. Predictions that the Basque separatists could be brought into negotiations and eventually work with Basque moderates seemingly fizzled. There were periodic announcements of truces. And then it'd be bloody business as usual.

Here you have the classic media non sense. The Basque drive for self determination has nothing to do with separatism. What the Basques desire is independence, pretty much what the USA got from England. And the move by the bulk of the Basque society towards their right to self determination can not be shoved in some file under ETA's armed struggle. I can go into some generalizations about Americans that would include the KKK and Timothy McVeigh.

And Spain can do as it pleases when it comes to giving more autonomy to Spain's various regions, they are welcomed to do so. What they can not do is to dictate the future of the occupied nations of Navarre (the Basque Country), Catalunya and Galiza.

The right of those nations to their self determination is protected by the UN Charter, the same piece of paper that gave the Jews the chance to have their nation, Israel.

Don't expect the right-wing Israelis and the right-wing Jews to defend this right to the self determination of all nations, after all, that would require for them to accept the existance of Palestine and the Palestinian people, and that takes a huge amount of courage.

And now, the kicker:

Still, as the news reports suggest, Spaniards have had their hopes raised many times when it comes to ETA, only to resign themselves that domestic terrorism would not go away. Will it be truly different this time?

Joe, don't ask ETA, they already did the right thing.

Go ask Mariano Rajoy, José María Aznar, Angel Acebes and all the other PP members who made sure that all the crimes commited by the Francoist would go unpunished, but that today are very eager to put all kinds of roadblocks in front of the Basque nationalists and the members of today's Spanish government willing to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Because that is something that many people around the world forget about this young democracy in Spain, that not a single Francoist was ever put to trial for the crimes commited against people of all the nations that conform Spain.

.... ... .

Are Palestinian Flags Antisemitic?

A couple of web sites report about a complaint by Racing de Santander's Israeli goal keeper Dudu Awat about some Osasuna de Pamplona's fans wishing for Ariel Sharon's dismissal in their chants:

European Jewish Press: Spanish football fans call for Sharon's death

By Jeremy Last

Israeli goalkeeper Dudu Awat who currently plays for Spanish club Racing Santander, has complained about opposition supporters calling for the death of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Awat's team held second placed Osasuna to a 1-1 draw, the first time Osasuna had not won at home in the league this season.

But the match was tainted by Osasuna fanatics taunting Awat throughout the game. The supporters of the Basque team are known for their racist slogans and chants.

Palestinian flags

According to reports, the Osasuna supporters held Palestinian flags and anti-Israel banners as well as shouting "Death to Sharon" and "We wish Sharon dies."

The Israeli prime minister is currently lying in an induced coma in the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem after undergoing several operations on his brain following the stroke he suffered last Wednesday.

Although clearly upset, Awat refused to repond to questions about the anti-Sharon chanting. He would only say: "I don't want to address those things. They're improper."

However, Awat said that while he was playing for Santander on Sunday he was feeling worried about Sharon and his condition.

"Even during the match my and my family's heart was with Sharon all the time," Awat said.

The Israeli international spoke of his concern for his prime minister and how he has been keeping up to date with the news via the internet.

"Those are difficult days for the country and I wish him a speedy recovery. It's difficult for us even here in Spain. We're following it on the Internet and hoping for the best," he said.

YNetNews adds little or nothing at an article titled "Spanish soccer fans: Death to Sharon", if not for this:

Osasuna fans, who are Basque, are known for their racist chants, and during the match against Santander focused their fury at the Israeli goalie. Spanish websites and journalists who covered the game reported that a large group of fans gathered behind Awat holding Palestinian flags and anti-Israel signs.

Both outlets seems to focus on one thing, Osasuna fans are Basques, and they are known for their racist chants.

Is a little bit weird that both titles point out towards Spanish fans but suddenly, they become Basques.

Weird, if one is to believe the international media, there is no Basques is Spain, only Spaniards. To complicate matters even more, Pamplona is located in Navarre, not in the Basque Autonomous Community.

So how did these two sites found out that those chanting the "racist" slogans were Basques?

And since when holding Palestinian flags became a crime?

Now, regarding the Sharon issue, after his role in the Sabra and Shattila massacre and his key part in the squatters strategy to rob Palestinians of their land, one has to realize that the fella is far from being Mother Theresa of Calcutta.

Would you be sad if Pinochet or Milosevic were to die tomorrow ohemorrhage hemmorage?

Neither do I.

.... ... .

Dear Steven Spielberg,

My youth is filled with memories of your movies, to some degree you have been a part of my life for a long time, so please, allow me to call you Steven.

Steven, I grew up in Acapulco, and at the tender age of 10 you gave me a scare that produced goosebumps on me each time I went for a swim in the ocean.

Then came an onslaught of easy to watch movies, not a whole lot of content, but easy to watch nevertheless.

One day you surprised many around the world with your movie about Oskar Schindler and the Holocaust. By then I was heavy into Kurosawa, Kubrik, Stone and Scorcese. So, I thought it was a valiant effort on your part, but the movie was not all that.

Now they are announcing your new movie, the one called "Munich". I read something about you wanting to be up for a bunch of Oscars and I really don't know if you are going to be able to pull the trick, but good luck to you.

But let me get to the reason of this open letter to you.

As you may know, there is a large selection of movies that revolve around the Holocaust. They must be hundreds.

If you add those to all the movies made about WWII and the Nazis, we can be talking about thousands of movies that touch some way or the other the nightmare that this particular era was to all of humankind.

Today I ask, in how many of those movies about the Holocaust do you get to see what happened to all the non-Jewish victims of the Nazi murderous machinery?

How many are there that talk about the Roma*?

How many show what happened to the Basques?

I'm sure you know that millions of Roma died in the same concentration camps where the Jewish were massacred.

You may not know that also many Basques met their deaths at those very same camps. Is not your fault, the Basques have been all but removed from the world's historic records.

What I am getting at is that not you nor any of the other movie directors that talked about the Holocaust so far have had the courage to present the other victims of the Holocaust to the world.

Why does this happen?

One world: box office.

The Roma and the Basques do not sell as well as the Jewish, so why bother making a movie about them.

And in doing so you help perpetuate what the Nazis (an many others) worked on, to refuse a place for the Roma, the Basques and many others in this planet.

We all decry what happened to the Jewish community in Europe under the Nazi regime, we really hope that it never ever happens again.

But only a few of us wish for that also for many others: the forgotten victims, the unsung heroes, the voiceless.

Not you nor any of your fellow movie directors ever made a movie about the Basque resistance being fully engaged in the rescue of Jewish individuals (children mainly) throughout World War II. Name a movie that depicts the horrors of Gernika being bombed by the Luftwaffe.

You can't, because there is none.

But suddenly you feel like including something Basque in one of your movies, and this is all you could come up to according to an article by the World Peace Herald called "Walker's World: Terror's challenge to democracies":

The next mission, in Greece, finds the Israeli team, who are claiming to be European terrorists from the Basque ETA, and the German Red Army Faktion, sharing a safe house with a group of PLO bodyguards. Inevitably, but in a scene that strains credulity, the Israeli team leader finds himself discussing the justice of the Palestinian cause with one of the PLO men.

Oh my.

Never a movie about the Basque priest that used to spirit Jewish children away from the Nazis by carrying them on his back from Vichy's France to the Spanish Basque Country. Never a movie about the 14 year old Basque boy tortured by the Gestapo as to obtain information about the boy's father who was in charge of a group taking Jewish people across the border. Never a movie about the Basque smuggler who scaped a Nazi jail even with a broken leg. Never a movie about the hundreds of Basques murdered by Franco's underlings for hiding Jewish families.

Oh, but there you go, making a movie that will perpetuate the wrong (and criminal) perception that equates the Basque people to terrorism.

Steven Spielberg, shame on you.

Shame on you.

* Wrongly called Gypsies

.... ... .

Open Hatred Towards the Basques

My own fault, I got distracted, and because of that, back in May, at his blog Transatlantic Intelligencer, John Rosenthal splurged in a bit more of openly racist Basque bashing withot a dutiful response from this blog.

John Rosenthal who likes to talk about gaps and how he is going to bridge them doesn't seem to see the huge gap in his own credibility.

While he devotes post after post to the right of Israel to exist and how evil are all of those who oppose that, he has no qualms when it comes to demonizing the Basque push for self determination.

He loves calling anyone a bit critical of Israel by the name of Anti-Semitic. If you dare to express an opinion that he might construe as a direct attack on Israel's god given right to exist he calls you a racist pig, a bigoted monster.

But then he entertains himself by labeling the Basque right to self determination as racist, because the Basques want a nation out of ethnic nationalism, and all nationalisms are bad but ethnic nationalisms are even worst.

Well, I am here to tell him that anyone that opposes the Basque god given right (whatever that means) to exist is a racist pig, a bigoted monster and an Anti-Basque.

And being Anti-Basque is just as bad being Anti-Semitic.

Now, what he did back in May on his post titled "M 11 Revisited" was to parrot the Barcepundit's pet conspiracy theory that Al Quaeda did not act alone during the March 2004 attacks in Madrid:

Islamist responsibility and sole Islamist responsibility – i.e. without the complicity of ETA – for the March 11 attacks in Madrid has become an article of faith for Spain’s ruling Socialist Party and its allies in the media, both national and international. When I say an “article of faith”, I mean this quite literally. Spain’s crusading “anti-terror” judge Baltasar Garzón famously declared that any collaboration between ETA and the Islamists was “metaphysically impossible”. That being the case, facts apparently do not matter. It might not be very reassuring for Spaniards that the country’s leading investigative judge would adopt such an attitude.

What facts?

Where are these facts?

Only Franco Alemán and a few PP loonies who jack off to pictures of Francisco Franco saluting Adolph Hitler are saying that.

It there was any evidence, the Spanish government would be all over it.

Something that Johnny does not seem to understand is that when it comes to repressing the Basques, the PSOE is not different from the PP.

Otherwise Morantinos would not have spent time in Mexico demanding the extradition of the six Basques imprisoned in that country waiting for a Supreme Court resolution on their case. Nor would Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Baltasar Garzón's replacement, continue to prosecute four members of EHAK even if that means going against a report by Public Prosecutor Jesús Santos who stated that there was no verification of any crimes.

But to show you just how ignorant John is of what it is going on in Spain, here you have this paragraph:

BTW, on the political front, there is a further development in Spain that bears very close watching: namely, the Spanish Socialist Party’s effective rupture of its “anti-terrorism pact” with the other major national party, the PP [Popular Party], and its making common cause with the smaller “nationalist” – i.e. regional “nationalist” (or, in other words, ethnic-nationalist) – parties in offering to open negotiations with ETA. A precedent is being set and the significance of it - recall Zapatero's plea before the UN General Assembly for a "Dialogue of Cultures" - extends well beyond Spain. I hope and expect we will be hearing much more about it on Barcepundit in the days and weeks ahead.

It is the other way around mister, the ones walking away from the Anti-Terrorism Pact are the member of the PP, out of pure spite for having lost the election due to their lies and their nostalgia for Francoist style rule.

If not, why would French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy go to Spain to tell Rodriguez Zapatero we are here for you on your fight against ETA?

Finally, within the comments to this post, he answers someone that left a comment with this pearl:

Virtually every politically organized and officially recognized ethnic-nationalist movement in Europe denies it is ethnic-nationalist. This is also so for the most virulent ones: the Corsican and the Basque nationalist movements, for instance. Their leaders know that it is not exactly politically correct to say that one is a racist. Both Ibarretxe in the Basque Country and Talamoni in Corsica insist nowadays that they are defending a “civic” conception of nationality.

Ah!

Now even Ibarretxe is a virulent ethnic nationalist. Virulent as in the violence by ETA, meaning, for John Rosenthal, Basques that decry and condemn violence are just the same as the members of ETA.

Here goes one more sampler of his twisted logic:

If it is merely “civic” nationalism that inspires them, why not be satisfied with their status as citizens of Spain and France, which are, after all, precisely civic nations?

So, I answer with another question:

Why do the Jews need Israel?

Couldn't they be satisfied by keeping their status as citizens of Spain, France, Germany, the USA, Canada or Russia?

You see, unlike John who hates the Basques and simple refuses the idea of a Basque homeland, I in fact recognize the right of Israel to be. I understand how and why it came to be.

I also recognize the right of Palestine to exist, as a matter of fact, the right of Palestine and Israel to exist go hand in hand.

I do not approve of many of the actions by the Israelis in Palestine, and I condemn every single act of violence in which innocent Israelis and Palestinians die.

Why?

Because unlike John Rosenthal who acts in accordance to dogmas and paradigmas, I understand that history is a flowing process and that no people in this world should live under the booth of any occupying or colonialist power.

Why does he hate the Basques so rabidly?

Only he knows.

Funny thing is, for as much as he hates Hitler and the Nazis, one has to wonder if he knows what they did to the Basques.

.... ... .