Peace and Justice Post

Venezuela Endorses Sovereignty of Palestinian State

ED NOTE: On September 17, 2011 Hugo Chávez Frias, President of The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela sent the following letter to Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, to confirm the Venezuelan government’s support for the establishment of the State of Palestine. The Venezuelan president sent this letter as the 66th UN General Assembly votes on Palestinian statehood.

mycatbirdseat.com, Sept. 26, 2011

By Hugo Chávez Frías, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Miraflores, September 17, 2011

His Excellency
Ban Ki-moon
Secretary General of the United Nations

Mr. Secretary General:
Distinguished representatives of the peoples of the world:

I address these words to the United Nations General Assembly, to this great forum that represents all the people of earth, to ratify, on this day and in this setting, Venezuela’s full support of the recognition of the Palestinian State: of Palestine’s right to become a free, sovereign and independent state. This represents an act of historic justice towards a people who carry with them, from time immemorial, all the pain and suffering of the world.

In his memorable essay The Grandeur of Arafat, the great French philosopher Gilles Deleuze wrote with the full weight of the truth: The Palestinian cause is first and foremost the set of injustices that these people have suffered and continue to suffer. And I dare add that the Palestinian cause also represents a constant and unwavering will to resist, already written in the historic memory of the human condition. . . .

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It all started with a selfish, egotistic and insecure military dictator’s abject surrender to a threat from a superpower.

Primarily for personal gains and strengthening the military’s hold on power in the country, he succumbed to do Uncle Sam’s bidding and agreed to place Pakistan’s resources at its disposal. The airbases were handed over. Ground and airspace was open to the NATO forces. The Pakistan army was ordered to break the time-tested policy of not to militarily take on the armed pathan tribes in FATA. Thus, funds started trickling in for the services rendered. But while the dictate was readily complied with, no conditions or quid pro quo was secured in return for the commitments made.

Before he was pushed out, the general-president left the legacy of a political deal midwifed by Washington and London, which was based on a preposterous law that legitimised corruption and criminal offences committed by thousands of wayward politicians. However, these politicians later assumed the reins of power at the federal level. . . .

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• Miriam Elder in Yalta
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 September 2011

Viktor Yanukovych (centre) with Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin in Russia. Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/EPA

The EU is threatening to downgrade relations with Ukraine and frustrate its attempts to move closer into Europe‘s orbit unless the former Soviet republic drops a landmark case rapidly heading towards a verdict against its former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s president, has been warned that Europe sees the case against Tymoshenko as a politically motivated attempt to silence his chief rival.

EU officials say a conviction would be “incompatible with EU values” and jeopardise the finalisation of a free trade agreement that would solidify the country’s ties to Brussels.

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The sadhbhavana event may well be interpreted as a proverbial whistling-in-the-dark bravado that, far from scaring the night’s owls, may  have brought more owl-like scrutiny to bear upon everything that the  stagey fiasco was intended to cover up

Badri Raina –  Delhi | HardNews, Sept. 22,   2011

In an interview with an electronic  channel (September 18) Narendra Modi​ was asked a question about the “timing” of his fast. Rarely has one seen  a mask come off as eloquently as it did in Modi’s response to that question.  “Timing hee tou hai… …timing ke liye hee tou meri taarief hoti hai.”

As succinct an admission, albeit,  inadvertent, that the ‘sadbhavana fast’  was thought of as a prime piece of tactic, having little to do with any felt  emotion on the subject of harmony.

And, yet, this may be the one time when  Modi  mistimed himself humungously.

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Bill Van Auken, wsws.org,   24 September 2011

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas received standing ovations from the United Nations General Assembly Friday for a speech announcing his submission of a request for UN recognition of a Palestinian state.

While the speech included passages detailing the death, destruction and humiliation wrought by Israeli occupation, Abbas’ audience of foreign ministers, heads of state and UN delegates was hardly unaware of the six-decade-old plight of the Palestinian people. Not a few of their governments, particularly in the Arab world, have been complicit in it.

The enthusiastic response may have been driven more by hostility to Washington, which announced in advance that it would use its veto on the Security Council to kill recognition of a Palestinian state.

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Analysis by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service News

Obama meets with Netanyahu at the White House last fall. Credit:White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson

WASHINGTON, Sep 24, 2011 (IPS) – The right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could not be more pleased.

Not only did the allegedly most “anti-Israel” president ever repeat, for the nth time, that “America’s commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable,” but also made crystal clear that Washington will veto any Palestinian application to the U.N. Security Council for statehood in his speech this week to the U.N. General Assembly.

Not once did he refer to Jewish “settlements” on Palestinian lands; nor did he even use the word “occupied” – or any declension of that word – to describe those lands and their people in an address that was largely, if ironically, devoted to celebrating this year’s Arab struggles to end autocratic rule in their region.

Nor was there a word about the plight of the still-besieged population of Gaza, or about the “1967 borders” as being the basis for any eventual two-state solution, a formula to which Netanyahu and his U.S. allies vehemently objected much to the consternation and exasperation of the White House only four months ago.

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President Isaias in New York to Demand UN Respect His Rights, Denies Them to His People

(New York) – Ten years after President Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea ordered the detention of 21 senior government members and journalists who criticized him, his government should release the detainees or reveal their fate, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. Eritrea should also open its jails to international monitors, Human Rights Watch said.

Isaias is visiting New York for the United Nations General Assembly in an attempt to rehabilitate his country’s image even as his government labors under UN sanctions for its role in supporting the Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab.

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By Uri Avnery, opednews.com, Sept. 23, 2011

OBAMA’S  WONDERFUL SPEECH. A beautiful speech.

The language expressive and elegant. The arguments clear and convincing. The delivery flawless.

A work of art. The art of hypocrisy. Almost every statement in the passage concerning the Israeli-Palestinian issue was a lie. A blatant lie: the speaker knew it was a lie, and so did the audience.

It was Obama at his best, Obama at his worst.

Being a moral person, he must have felt the urge to vomit. Being a pragmatic person, he knew that he had to do it, if he wanted to be re-elected.

In essence, he sold the fundamental national interests of the United States of America for the chance of a second term.

Not very nice, but that’s politics, OK?

Obama treated the two sides as if they were equal in strength — Israelis and Palestinians, Palestinians and Israelis.

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A story to be published on Monday in Newsweek is revealing that President Obama secretly sold 55 GBU-28 bunker-buster bombs to the Israeli military in 2009, citing comments from unnamed officials familiar with the deal.

The Pentagon declined to confirm the sale, but Press Secretary George Little did say that US was “committed to helping Israel maintain its qualitative military edge.” The bombs had been sought for an Israeli attack on Iran, something the Netanyahu government has repeatedly threatened.

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