Life after Bush: Forecasting Peace in Palestine, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Life after Bush: Forecasting Peace in Palestine

'The relationship that governs US-Israeli love affair is convoluted and institutionalized.'

By RAMZY BAROUD

3 Oct 2008

If the last 10 months were a lesson, it was that neither the Bush administration is ready to abandon its pro-Israel position — which has jeopardized any real chance at true peacemaking — nor is the Israeli government under Ehud Olmert ready or willing to advance the cause of peace. It also became obvious that Abbas is hopelessly ineffectual in exercising any pressure, or holding any leverage to determine the speed or direction of peace negotiations with Israel. This, once again, reinforces the belief that the re-launch of peace talks under American auspices was a strategic choice pertinent to isolating Hamas following its election victory in Jan. 2006, and its clash with Fateh in the summer of last year.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat reportedly conveyed Bush's pledge to Abbas, made "behind closed doors", according to AFP, "that if a Palestinian state does not come about during his presidency, it will happen in the near future, not more than a year."

http://newageislam.com/life-after-bush--forecasting-peace-in-palestine/islam-and-the-west/d/848

US gloves are off against Pakistan: Crunch Time, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

US gloves are off against Pakistan: Crunch Time

By M Rama Rao

21 September 2008

There is an argument that by launching direct operations against the Pak based militants the United States is undermining nascent democracy in Pakistan. This talking point is valid for the seminar circuit. It ignores the reality that Washington (like Beijing) is always comfortable with tyrants, and its concern to democracy is limited to Oval Office interactions, White House Press Briefing Room and occasionally to the Rose Garden tours. Anyhow, Pakistan's new helmsman, Asif Ali Zardari is a US-backed President much like his predecessor, Musharraf, who was a US-backed dictator. This is notwithstanding the British claim that London too played a major role in ushering in the Zardari presidency by turning the screws on UK-based Pak leaders like MQM chief to make them fall in-line. The Americans opted for Zardari because as a known Mr 10 per cent he appeared more amenable than Nawaz Sharif, who is completely in the Saudi camp.

Fact of the matter is that Zardari is only a stop-gap President. He refuses to acknowledge the home truth though. That was why he dared to declare with great gusto that he wound pursue of a policy of negotiations rather than confrontation to win over the tribal militant leadership. And immediately burnt his bridges with the United States. In contrast, his wily army chief, Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani keeps himself on board the US plans while letting the myth that he had ordered the troops to shoot US raiders gains wide currency.

http://newageislam.com/us-gloves-are-off-against-pakistan--crunch-time-/war-on-terror/d/779

It's the Oil, stupid!, Islam and the West, NewAgeISlam.com

Islam and the West

It's the Oil, stupid!

By NOAM CHOMSKY

July 8 2008

Negotiations are under way for Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners decades ago in the Iraq Petroleum Company, now joined by Chevron and other smaller oil companies — to renew the oil concession they lost to nationalisation during the years when the oil producers took over their own resources. The no-bid contracts, apparently written by the oil corporations with the help of U.S. officials, prevailed over offers from more than 40 other companies, including companies in China, India and Russia.

"There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract," Andrew E. Kramer wrote in The New York Times.

Kramer's reference to "suspicion" is an understatement. Furthermore, it is highly likely that the military occupation has taken the initiative in restoring the hated Iraq Petroleum Company, which, as Seamus Milne writes in the London Guardian, was imposed under British rule to "dine off Iraq's wealth in a famously exploitative deal."

http://newageislam.com/it-s-the-oil,-stupid!/islam-and-the-west/d/273