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Of Marx, Christ, and the Persecution of Radicals

Friday, July 27th, 2007

How Will Humanity Survive the Capitalist Threat?

A few days ago, one of my closest friends hit me with a heavily loaded question.

“Are you a Communist?” she queried.

To which I replied:

I do not belong nor militate in any formal communist party in the U.S. Nor do I belong to any other political entity or party. Furthermore, I do not subscribe to a specific doctrine, ideology, or dogma. My allegiance is to my core principles and values, which are premised on honesty, justice, humanity, responsibility, critical thinking, open-mindedness, egalitarianism, compassion, a belief in a Higher Power of my understanding, and many of the teachings of Christ.

My personal beliefs aside, communism is an incredibly loaded word. Our infinitely mendacious educational, social, and media infrastructures begin inculcating reflexive rejection of “all things communist or socialist” into US Americans from the moment they draw their initial breath.

Why is the establishment so desperate to vaccinate us against the “disease” of communism?

Because at its hopelessly rotten core, capitalism, which is manifested most strongly in the United States, is about exploitation, hyper-competitiveness, “rugged individualism”, survival of the fittest, concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, profits above all, property over people, greed, and selfishness. Perhaps worst of all, this pyramid scheme masquerading as a “moral” economic system inevitably leads to wars fueled by its insatiable demands for new markets, more resources, and cheaper labor. Why else would 350 million out of 6.5 billion people spend a trillion dollars a year on a military that has the capacity to destroy our planet thousands of times over, dwarfs the combined firepower of the rest of the world, and plagues over 130 countries with its “benign” occupations? We in the United States maintain a carefully crafted façade as the “benevolent champions of democracy”, but will quickly install ruthless tyrants and commit mass murder (euphemistically labeling our victims as “collateral damage”) if sovereign nations dare to resist our economic rape and plunder.

And for those who have swallowed the specious argument that “true capitalism” doesn’t exist, you’re dreaming. Pinch yourself hard enough and you may awaken before it is too late. Capitalism is a cancer upon the sentient beings of the Earth and we are suffering through its advanced stages. Finance capital reigns supreme, massive oligopolies abound, wealth is increasingly accumulating in the hands of the few, imperial wars to expand markets and attain resources are increasing in frequency, and the insatiable greed driving this appalling perversion is raping and destroying the Earth.

Some opine that if we could just dismantle the “socialist” aspects of our socioeconomic system in the United States, restoring an unbridled free market, the world would be a much better place. Certainly our cynical plutocracy would welcome such a transition. However, it is hard to envision too many working people truly welcoming a return to ten year olds working twelve hour days, company towns, death and dismemberment on the job with no recourse against employers maintaining perilous work environments, miserly wages that would make today’s working poor look relatively affluent, blatantly monopolistic business practices, and wanton disregard for the environment.

History has clearly demonstrated that “free markets” are “free passes” for acquisitive sociopaths who thrive on bullying and exploiting a large percentage of the Earth’s sentient beings. And despite the ridiculously few and relatively minor restraints that social unrest has forced the opulent class to implement in the US, adept players in the deadly game of capitalism have refused to surrender their “inalienable right” to fuck the rest of the human race in their relentless charge to attain the power and wealth they so desperately crave to distract them from the existential agony of their spiritual emptiness.

[Note: If you don’t find a historical perspective convincing enough, consider the deadly machinations of the “free market” in China as it hurtles headlong into the very bowels of capitalist Hell:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/26/madeinchina.overview/index.html]

Karl Marx predicted the inevitable implosion of capitalism and theorized that a much more humane, egalitarian, and democratic system would rise in its place. It is little wonder that the bourgeoisie in the United States have striven so tenaciously to inculcate the unwashed masses to despise, fear, and ridicule socialism, communism, and nearly all aspects of Marxist thought. Sound bites, emotionally evocative images, ahistorical presentations, fear mongering, jingoism, advertising, and numerous temptations of instant gratification comprise a vast array of highly refined and insidious propaganda that perpetually hammers our minds to create a potent and effective false consciousness, and an irrational fear of anything but capitalism.

Socialism and communism, the political manifestations of Marxist ideas, have been grossly distorted within the framework of this false consciousness. While it is true that the implementations of Marx’s philosophies have yielded mixed results (many of those outcomes are primarily due to the unwavering hostility of the older, well established capitalist powers in the second half of the 20th century, led of course by the U.S.), the chasm between reality and the mind fuck we have received since birth is wide enough to engulf Donald Trump’s ego, or most of it anyway. For evidence, one need look no further than our Cold War nemesis.

Consider the pernicious myth that the United States “defeated” fascism in Europe in WWII. This lie persists despite the fact that a number of our very own uber-Capitalists did business with the Nazi regime until the 1942 Trading with the Enemy Act finally forbade it. Ironically, Prescott Bush, GW’s grandfather, was amongst those profiting from Hitler’s rise to power. Further, our ruling elite refused to intervene on behalf of a democratically elected government in Spain against Franco, who ultimately rose to power as a fascist dictator. Perhaps most importantly, the US lost about 500,000 people (almost all of whom were military personnel) in “defeating” Germany. Russia, one of history’s most heavily vilified “communist” nations, sacrificed 20 million people to ensure Hitler’s defeat. Had it not been for those evil “communists”, we might be speaking German right now.

Shortages of consumer goods is another “communist failure” apologists for capitalism love to trot out as “proof” that their beloved license to plunder and conquer is inherently superior to a more just economic system. Yet time and again they suppress the real reasons these shortages occurred. Recognizing the existential threat that Marxist ideals posed to their Anglo, imperial, and patriarchal plutocracy, the United States ruling class and its allies circled the wagons and imposed crippling economic sanctions on nations attempting to implement communism (i.e. Russia and Cuba).

Domestically, communists and socialists endured harassment, financial ruin, and prison. Witness the Palmer Raids and the witch hunts of the McCarthy era. Thank God our opulent overlords nipped potential revolutionary action in the bud. It is a tremendous relief that such a small number of “richly deserving” individuals acted to ensure the perpetuation of their virtual monopoly on the wealth of our nation, particularly in light of the existence of over a million homeless US Americans. Heartwarming indeed.

Yet our intrepid profit-seekers weren’t content to stop there. Realizing that the Soviet Union had an economy that was roughly 1/8th the size of the United States and was still largely agrarian all the way up to the Russian Revolution, they decided to initiate a ruinous military escalation that eventually culminated in the criminal nuclear arms race. Enabling obscene profits for the military industrial complex (by way of raping the US American taxpayer) and smothering communism in its infancy, the vampiric bourgeoisie ensured the perpetuation of its abominable existence. Meanwhile, the Ruskies faced the staggering tasks of industrializing a technologically backward nation, rebuilding their devastated infrastructure, and meeting consumer demands. So of course they didn’t have a McDonalds on each corner or a new car dealer within a three mile radius of every home. They were too busy bringing their economy into the 20th Century, recovering from Hitler’s invasion, and matching the US warhead for warhead.

Now, do I think that any manifestation of a communist government to date is a utopia? No. I see their flaws. But remember, those who have tried to implement socialism or communism have faced a formidable adversary in the form of the rotten bastards who comprise both our “elected” and our de facto governments. Crushing those who dare to attempt alternatives to the sacred cow of capitalism and trumpeting our “monopoly” on virtue, we US Americans would benefit tremendously from some serious soul-searching about our participation in a morally bankrupt mode of being. What spiritual growth or substance could possibly flourish in a system premised on greed, selfishness, and self-absorption?

Are we, the beneficiaries of a relative degree of physical security and comfort (in exchange for our complicity in crony capitalism, Neoliberal exploitation, and imperial invasions), truly superior to the communists and socialists we have been taught to fear and revile? How many invasions have Fidel or Chavez EVER launched?

We the People are mere pawns of our multimillionaires in Congress, the 10% who own 90% of our nation’s wealth, massive corporations, and a group which includes in its ranks both GW and other abject criminals like Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Abrams, Negroponte, and many others who have acted with impunity dating back to the Nixon era. There is a revolving door between our government (including both “elected” and appointed officials) and major corporations. Cheney and Halliburton represent exhibit A. Lobbyists and special interest groups pull our legislators’ strings and, in some instances, even write our laws, as was the case in the behind-closed-doors deal that Cheney cooked for the energy corporations. And look at our most likely Democratic Presidential nominee to be, Hillary Clinton, whose conservatism is one of the best kept secrets inside the Beltway. As a First Lady, she ostensibly fought aggressively for universal health care. She has now sold us out by accepting nearly a million dollars from the health care industry. Corruption, duplicity, mendacity, and egregious criminal conduct are not the exception. They are the rule in our vaunted capitalist system.

Our domestic politics, guided and determined by the demands of our predatory socioeconomic structure, are not alone in reeking of the fetid stench of profound moral decay. Consider our malevolent foreign policy, including myriad CIA covert operations, economic extortion, and outright imperial slaughter frequently employed to crush efforts by sovereign nations to defy the capitalist paradigm and implement socialism. For convincing evidence that we are NOT wearing white hats and making the world safe for democracy, do a little research on Chile and Salvador Allende, Cuba and Castro, Iran and Mossadeq, Franco and Spain, Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam (we “only” killed 3 million people there), Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

Here is a good starting point (the entire website is excellent, but the page linked below gives a condensed version of parts of our history the plutocracy doesn’t want the masses to know– the mainstream media and textbook writers have done a masterful job of shielding us from the truths displayed on this site):

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

While it wasn’t his intention at the time, David Starr Jordan (from Imperial Democracy, 1899, pp. 50-51 –cited in Monthly Review, September 2006, p. 53.) penned an apt characterization of the despicable foreign policy of the American Empire:

“First you push into territories where you have no business to be, and where you had promised not to go; secondly, your intrusion provokes resentment and, in these wild countries, resentment means resistance; thirdly, you instantly cry out that the people are rebellious and that their act is rebellion (this in spite of your own assurance that you have no intention of setting up a permanent sovereignty over them); fourthly, you send a force to stamp out the rebellion; and fifthly, having spread bloodshed, confusion and anarchy, you declare, with hands uplifted to the heavens, that moral reasons force you to stay, for if you were to leave, this territory would be left in a condition which no civilized power could contemplate with equanimity or with composure. These are the five stages in the Forward Rake’s progress.”

Having analyzed our vile and reprehensible economic paradigm from many angles, I find it virtually impossible to believe that a critical thinking, decent human being could support our institutionalized rapacity, at least not once they pierced the simulacrum so fastidiously maintained by the corporate media.

Fortunately, challenging life experiences spurred me to undertake a spiritual and intellectual journey that enabled me to break free of the prison of false consciousness. While I tend to look at the world through a very eclectic lens, I derive most of my principles, beliefs, and sociopolitical views from Marxism, the Friends of Bill W, Christ’s teachings, and Buddha.

Together with many dedicated and exceptional human beings, I am waging an intellectual/political struggle for social justice, a reasonable degree of peace in the world, a significant reduction in exploitation, a more equitable distribution of resources, an end to the rising epidemic of unnecessary suffering, the formation of a social structure based on our interdependence with nature and each other, the obliteration of the moronic, sociopathic American myth that individuality and personal rights supersede the well-being of the collective, true justice for criminals and their victims, the evisceration of corporate power, awakening people from their trance of self-absorption and apathy, and an end to the hedonistic narcissism manifested in obscene levels of consumerism. A number of factors indicate that we are in a pre-revolutionary stage in the United States. Premature revolutionary activity at this point would be suicidal folly, but meanwhile, we have plenty of opportunity to implement radical solutions at the personal level and to employ political education to win hearts and minds.

If you still tremble at the notion of “Godless communists, socialists or Marxists,” remember that though I am not a Christian, I am deeply spiritual and derive tremendous inspiration from Christ and members of the Liberation Theology Movement. Marxist thought is not antithetical to spirituality, morality, or Christianity. In fact, I examined its synthesis with these elements in some detail when I wrote “Jesus Wouldn’t Bomb Anyone: Why are we waging war on the poor and oppressed?” at:

http://freepress.org/departments/display/9/2007/2526

No, I’m not the “communist bogeyman” that Ronald Reagan (who was a far better actor in the White House than he was in Hollywood) warned you about. How could I be? Communists, socialists, and Marxists are only potentially threatening to those amongst us who will waste eternity desperately attempting to squeeze camels through the eyes of needles.

Forget worrying about the “communist threat.” We need to turn the moneyed establishment’s idiocy on its head and focus our energies on answering a question that affects the 90% of us who aren’t obscenely affluent:

How will humanity survive the capitalist threat?

Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He is Cyrano’s Journal Online’s associate editor (http://www.bestcyrano.org/) and publishes Thomas Paine’s Corner within Cyrano’s at http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/. You can reach him at JMiller@bestcyrano.org

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ID card consultancy hits £50m

Friday, July 27th, 2007

By Sarah Arnott

The government has spent £53m on consultants for the national biometric identity card scheme, and continues to use 83 external contractors at a cost of nearly £50,000 per day.

The figures are more than double the value of the original £19m pre-procurement consultancy contract signed in 2004, according to data released to Computing by the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act.

The ID scheme has been substantially re-shaped in the past 18 months – changing from a standalone card system using entirely new IT systems to a broader identity management programme that will reuse existing government databases and is closely allied with international requirements for biometric passports.

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) says that since the combined agency was created in April 2006 all spending on consultants covers both the ID and passports programmes.

But continued delays to the start of the ID scheme procurement are starting to raise questions. Originally expected in October 2005, the tendering was rescheduled for May this year, then June, then July.

Some of the delays have been political – caused by the progress of the ID Cards Bill through Parliament, the General Election, and the change in prime minister. But frustrated insiders say there are still unresolved issues, despite the extra time and the army of consultants.

‘The procurement is now not expected until August because the IPS does not have its ducks in a row,’ said a source close to the programme.

‘Some of the consultancy costs can be justified by the fact that the scheme has significantly changed, but £50m is a lot of money and deadline after deadline keeps going by.’

Big IT suppliers, poised for the bidding to start, are also increasingly discontented.

‘The current position is unsustainable,’ said one industry source. ‘The market needs to know if the scheme is going ahead, not least in the context of the government continuing to spend so heavily on consultants.’

Whitehall’s reliance on external skills has attracted a bad reputation. Last month the influential Public Accounts Committee accused the government of ‘sheer profligacy’ in spending £2.8bn a year on consultancy, more than half of that figure going on IT.

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4 Year Olds Now Being Fingerprinted

Friday, July 27th, 2007

By Sarah Miloudi

SCHOOLS in Wales could fingerprint pupils as young as four without asking for parental consent first, it emerged yesterday.

Under new guidelines schools throughout Wales could opt to collect a child’s biometric data including their fingerprints, retina scans, hand measurements and typing patterns.

And because the Data Protection Act fails to specify that parental consent must be sought, schools could gather the information without parents’ permission.

Figures suggest up to 3,500 schools across the UK have already installed fingerprint scanners and use the information to monitor children’s attendance, access to libraries and to run cashless catering schemes.

Now those scanners could be rolled out to schools in Wales. But the Welsh Assembly Government has said the decision to introduce fingerprinting will be taken by individual schools, rather than WAG implementing a blanket policy on the use of biometrics.

Any school wishing to collect biometric data will have to encode pupils’ fingerprint information and destroy the information once the pupil has left school.

But the guidelines introduced by British Education Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) have triggered concern among campaign groups.

They say gathering and retaining pupils’ biometric data could leave the children open to identity theft and if implemented, the scheme must be closely monitored to avoid security breaches.

David Clouter , spokesman for Leave Them Kids Alone (LTKA), said, “This seems to imply children as young as four may ‘give consent’ to be fingerprinted, so schools are not required to seek permission from parents.

“If a school wants to fingerprint a child for any purpose, parents should be informed and asked for written consent – as is required for a whole range of far less intrusive school activities.”

Alun Cairns, Shadow Minister for Education, stated that a rethink was required, and that the security risks associated with gathering such information could be serious and not fully understood at this time.

Kirsty Williams, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for education, added, “I would need to be convinced there is a genuine reason behind the need to do this in schools, and I am not convinced other methods cannot be used.”

Teaching union NUT Cymru is also concerned, stating that while it could make school administration easier, children do have civil liberties that must be respected.

Primary and comprehensive schools in England and Wales can gather biometric data on pupils, suggesting children as young as four could be fingerprinted.

Research by LTKA suggests 3500 primary schools have already started fingerprinting pupils, and that 700,000 pupils have been fingerprinted without parental consent sought.

Iris scanning has also been introduced in some UK secondary schools without parental consent.

No schools in Wales are thought to have yet installed iris scanning or fingerprinting systems. But NUT Cymru has said it is aware of several comprehensive school governing bodies considering implementing such systems.

Headteachers are said to be hoping official guidance on the Becta report, due this autumn, will clear up confusion over whether parental consent must be sought for pupils under 12.

What is biometric technology?
Biometrics are physical or behavioural characteristics that every person has. These characteristics are unique to the individual.

Biometric technology covers a range of techniques used to measure and record these characteristics, and is often used by businesses and security organisations requiring confirmation of any individual’s identity.

Fingerprints are a typical example of biometric data, and are commonly used for identification . Other characteristics such as retina and iris pattern information can also be used in the same way, along with a person’s voice and facial shape.

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McDonald’s sued in China

Friday, July 27th, 2007

Reuters

A Chinese lawyer has sued McDonald’s in China for using mostly English, not Chinese, on its receipts, violating his right to information, media reported on Friday.

The lawyer, identified only as Shan, decided to take legal action against the world’s largest restaurant chain after he ate at two McDonald’s restaurants in Beijing in May and June.

“McDonald’s offers food service in China, but it does not use Chinese, which violates the consumers’ right to know,” the Beijing Youth Daily quoted Shan as saying.

Shan has asked McDonald’s to apologise in newspapers and give him symbolic compensation of 1 yuan (6 pence), the newspaper said. The case began on Thursday.

The newspaper quoted McDonald’s as saying it was not fair to accuse the company of not using Chinese as its advertisements and menus were all in Chinese and its staff all spoke Chinese.

The receipts had changed into Chinese since July, it said. The company was not immediately available for comment.

Cases of east-meets-west culture clashes have been widely reported in China since the country embraced economic reforms in the late 1970s.

Earlier this month, a controversial Starbucks coffee shop in the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace at the heart of Beijing, closed its doors after facing years of opposition.

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Cashless (RFID) train tickets planned

Friday, July 27th, 2007

By Dave Friedlos

Rail passengers throughout the UK will in future use cashless tickets, including smart cards, barcodes on mobile phones and radio frequency identification (RFID), says the government rail White Paper released yesterday.

Technology will play a crucial role in improving reliability and easing overcrowding on the rail infrastructure over the next 30 years.

In addition to smart ticketing options, the strategy says improved communication systems, a comprehensive database of asset information and intelligent railway infrastructure must be priorities for rail operators.

Network Rail is already developing plans for an intelligent infrastructure that will automatically alert staff to problems, ensuring better maintenance of the network.

Rail operators will be able to access the information in real time and predict and prevent maintenance failure rather than reactively finding and fixing faults.

Satellite communications could also help to provide accurate positioning of trains and improve voice and data communications for passengers on both trains and station, says the strategy.

The initiatives will be introduced over the next 30 years, with funding to be split between train operators, Network Rail and the Department for Transport.

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Sudan accuses CIA of smuggling weapons into Darfur

Friday, July 27th, 2007

SudanTribune

Sudan’s interior minister accused Central Intelligence Agency of smuggling weapons into the troubled region of Darfur.

Interior Minister Zubair Bashir Taha addressing a crowd consisting of youth organizations said that the CIA is seeking to “disrupt the demographics of Darfur”.

The US special envoy to Darfur Andrew Natsios told reporters in Khartoum last week that Arab groups from neighboring countries were resettling in West Darfur and other lands traditionally belonging to local African tribes.

Taha accused the US of being responsible for “prolonging the war in Darfur and the death of thousands of people after the Abuja peace agreement just like they did in Iraq”.

The Los Angeles Times revealed last month that Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an example of how the U.S. has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its suspected role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.

The U.S.-Sudan relationship goes beyond Iraq. Sudan has helped the United States track the turmoil in Somalia. Sudanese intelligence service has helped the US to attack the Islamic Courts positions in Somalia and to locate Al Qaeda suspects hiding there.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when an ethnic minority rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which then enlisted the Janjaweed militia group to help crush the rebellion.

According to UN estimates, at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine since the conflict started in February 2003. But Khartoum disputes the figures.

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Bush’s international peace conference: A conspiracy against the Palestinian people

Friday, July 27th, 2007

By Jean Shaoul

President Bush’s July 16 announcement that he will relaunch the Middle East peace process with an international conference in New York is an attempt to use the puppet regime of Mahmoud Abbas to rubber-stamp an agreement that leaves the Palestinian masses with nothing.

Washington calculates that the Arab regimes will not only endorse a settlement that traps the Palestinian people in militarised and impoverished ghettos in parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but will join Egypt and Jordan in finally recognising Israel.

The heaviest price for any agreement will be paid in Gaza, where the Hamas government deposed by Abbas’s Fatah in a Western-backed constitutional coup is targeted for destruction.

The proposed conference is a unilateral assertion of US policy, which Washington announced independently of the other members of the Middle East Quartet—the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. It will be chaired by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Bush framed his announcement as an ultimatum, stating that attendance will be limited to those that back the creation of a Palestinian state, reject violence and recognise Israel. Describing the conference as a “moment of choice,” he warned that support for Hamas would be a victory for its “foreign sponsors” in Syria and Iran that “would crush the possibility of a Palestinian state.”

The US president described Hamas’ takeover in Gaza as a “violent and lawless” betrayal and threatened Hamas, declaring, “You must stop Gaza from being a safe haven for attacks against Israel. You must accept the legitimate Palestinian government, allow aid to Gaza, disarm militias, and recognise Israel.”

He also insisted that Abbas arrest militants and end corruption before talks could begin, and told Arab nations to end “the fiction that Israel does not exist,” curb anti-Israel rhetoric in their media, and send cabinet-level officials to the Jewish state.

In contrast, Bush declared that Israelis “should be confident that the United States would never abandon its commitment to the security of Israel as a Jewish state and homeland for Jewish people.” He followed this with a perfunctory appeal to Tel Aviv that “unauthorised outposts should be removed and settlement expansion ended.” There was no call for a rollback of the vast majority of Israeli settlements.

The announcement was followed by phone calls by Bush to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt to seek their backing for the initiative.

Bush offered $190 million in financial support to Abbas’s regime in the West Bank, together with $80 million specifically to help Abbas reform his security services. This is aimed at enabling Fatah to wage war on Hamas. US officials said the money was being shifted from Gaza, starving its people.

Israel welcomed the talks, but immediately announced that the three core issues of borders, the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, and Jerusalem were not on the table.

Abbas has said that he hoped to reach a “comprehensive peace with the Israelis within a year or even less than that,” i.e., before Bush leaves office. “I heard this with my own ears from the president himself and from Secretary of State Rice,” he added.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, rejected Bush’s conference, calling it “a new crusade by Bush against the Palestinian people.”

Bush’s chosen peace envoy, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was dispatched this week to hold two days of talks with Abbas and the Israeli government of Ehud Olmert. Israeli President Shimon Peres was full of praise for Blair. “I can’t think of a better man,” he said, adding, “We have music in the Middle East, we have orchestras in the Middle East, we need a good conductor and I think Tony can become a good conductor.”

Blair’s credentials as a peace envoy are based on his readiness to follow Bush’s instructions to the letter. John Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president and special envoy who resigned in 2006, recently told Ha’aretz, “There was never a desire on the part of the Americans to give up control of the negotiations, and I would doubt that in the eyes of … the State Department team, I was ever anything but a nuisance.

“The basic problem was that I didn’t have the authority. The Quartet had the authority, and within the Quartet it was the Americans who had the authority.”

Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia all welcomed Bush’s proposals, although Saudi Arabia politely declined to attend.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib and his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, made an unprecedented visit to Israel on July 25, as emissaries of the Arab League. They relayed the text of an Arab land-for-peace initiative to Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and other cabinet ministers and Knesset members, offering, Gheit said, “security, recognition and acceptance in this region which Israel has long aspired to.”

Israel will not accept the Arab League’s call for a full withdrawal from the West Bank, on which it has major settlements, but it also knows that this is a negotiable position in any case as far as the Arab states are concerned. Yuval Steinitz of the opposition Likud party, commented, “I am happy to say that after hearing our criticisms they said [the plan] is not an ultimatum, it’s not ‘take it or leave it.”’

Bush met this week with Jordan’s King Abdallah at the White House to push through his plan.

The US and Israel view the split between the rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, the de facto political division between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the formation of an emergency government by Abbas as an opportunity to pursue their geo-political interests in the region.

To this end, they are offering a few crumbs to their political agents, Abbas and his new prime minister, Salam Fayyad, a former World Bank and International Monetary Fund official, while isolating and laying siege to Hamas-controlled Gaza.

But Bush’s so called “West Bank First” strategy is also aimed at securing the support of the Sunni Arab states—Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia—against Shi’ite Iran, whose rising influence in the region is just as much anathema to them as it is to the White House. Bush has accused Iran of supporting Shi’ite insurgents in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, describing this as an arc of Shia extremism.

This is both a justification for hostile action against Iran and an appeal to an alternative arc of Sunni states, which use sectarianism to divide the working and rural poor and divert social struggles within their own countries.

Syria is continually bracketed alongside Iran, ever since it sided with Iran in 1980 in the Iran-Iraq war. The two countries have growing economic ties, with an annual trade of $200 million, and Iranian companies have invested more than $1 billion in Syria in power generation, the auto industry, cement and agriculture.

Damascus desperately wants to improve relations with the US and Israel and is more than ready to deal with Israel, having repeatedly sought peace talks with Jerusalem. It was, however, unwilling to participate in peace talks without a third party presence and a commitment by Israel to return the Golan Heights—illegally held and settled by Israel since the 1967 war. Israeli Premier Olmert rejected this out of hand and called on Syria to break off relations with Iran and anti-Israel parties. Thus, with no indication that any compromise was on offer, Syria has refused to attend Bush’s proposed conference.

Last week, Syrian president Bashar al Asssad hosted a visit from Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and discussed Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. Ahmadinejad also met with Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who came from Lebanon to meet him.

The preparations for Bush’s proposed conference take place against the background of an escalating offensive by Israel against Gaza and the Hamas stronghold of Nablus on the West Bank, including “targeted assassinations” of its personnel by Israeli jets.

Israel has now totally sealed its borders with the Gaza Strip, with only humanitarian aid allowed through, leading to the loss of at least 68,000 jobs. Thousands of small factories, businesses and farms have closed as imports and exports have ground to a halt, with the result that about 85 percent of Gaza’s private sector employees are now without work.

United Nations officials have warned that the closure is creating a humanitarian catastrophe. “If the present closures continue, we anticipate that Gaza will become a nearly totally aid dependent population that will be robbed of the possibility of self-sufficiency, and also of the dignity of work,” said John Ging, the UN’s director of operations in Gaza.

The West Bank government has also tightened the screws on Hamas and Gaza. It has extended the power of the military courts and given the Interior Ministry the right to close down non-governmental organisations. It has told the 17,000 Gaza police whose salaries it pays not to turn up for work. Abbas has also announced new elections, without the consent of the 120-member parliament which is inquorate: half of its 75 Hamas members are detained without trial in Israeli jails and the rest are refusing to attend.

Hamas’s deputy information minister, Hassan Abu Hasheish, said this week, “There have been 750 cases of assaults on Hamas people in the West Bank in the last month and a half. I don’t think people can tolerate and forgive that. If it continues, things will explode. That’s what Fatah did in Gaza.”

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RINF Podcast: Biometric Schools

Friday, July 27th, 2007

By Mick Meaney
RINF Alternative News

[audio:http://rinf.podomatic.com/enclosure/2007-07-26T21_25_43-07_00.mp3]

Following on from a recent report about fingerprinting in schools, I speak to Ben Emlyn-Jones, an Oxford father who stood up for civil liberties and banned his daughter’s school from taking her fingerprints.

Have Your Say: RINF Podcast: Biometric Schools
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This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 6:20 am and is filed under Contributions & Guests . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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