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Armageddon Watch archives
Assad: Palestinian attacks are a national duty
Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com) Feb 17 2002
Syrian President Bashar dubbed the ongoing Palestinian violence "a national duty and not terrorism," in an interview with an Italian newspaper over the weekend.
Assad told Corriere della Sera that Syria had not presented any new demands for restarting negotiations with Israel, saying the Syrian position was based on the Madrid Conference and other international agreements, Israel Radio reports.
He said that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was uninterested in peace.
Assad also said Syria was against a US attack on Iraq, which he termed a, "sister country to Syria."
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/02/17/LatestNews/LatestNews.43560.html
Armageddon Watch Focus:
The Mid-East Policy of "Gomer with all its troops?" (Ezek. 38:6)
EU pulling Middle East rope in opposite directions
Analysis By Herb Keinon from the Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com) February, 15 2002
(February 15) - The widespread impression following the EU's informal
foreign minister meeting in Spain last weekend was the EU had all but
adopted a French proposal for breaking out of the current Israeli-Palestinian
stalemate.
The news wires wrote of the EU "breaking ranks" with the US
and "broadly" endorsing the French plan. This blueprint calls
for Palestinian elections, followed by the creation of a Palestinian state
to be immediately recognized by Israel.
Striking in its absence from the French plan is reference to the Tenet-Mitchell
frameworks, heretofore seen as the roadmap out of the current crisis.
A basic premise of the Tenet-Mitchell plans - beyond all the details and
all the stages - is first we stop fighting, then we start talking.
Israeli diplomats have complained privately in recent weeks the Europeans
seem to have abandoned this approach and, in their impatience to see things
move along, no longer view a cease-fire as a precondition to moving forward.
Indeed, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique was paraphrased recently
as saying the Europeans resent the US and Israeli view that peace talks
can only start after a lasting cease-fire takes hold, and this fixation
on security matters at the expense of political initiatives has created
the current impasse.
But the recent visits of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and German
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer indicate reports of Mitchell-Tenet's
demise are premature - even inside Europe. They also show how specious
the idea of a unified European foreign policy is.
Not only did Straw, in particularly strong statements at his press conference
in Jerusalem on Wednesday, recommit himself to Mitchell-Tenet, he also
warned breaking with the US is a recipe not for ending the crisis, but
for prolonging it. The EU itself is clearly pulling in opposite directions.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policy has been to strive to create an iron
wall of international resistance to Palestinian terror, a unified position
insisting nothing moves until violence ends.
The French blueprint represents a huge crack in this wall. What is so
problematic in Israeli eyes is it makes no demands on the Palestinians.
It calls for Palestinian elections, but does not condition them on an
end to terror.
This message, according to diplomats, was passed on to the two European
visitors by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who sees the French proposal
as undermining his own plan with Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker
Ahmed Qurei.
Although the Peres plan also calls for recognition of a Palestinian state
in a short period of time, it first calls for the Palestinians to stop
the violence and dismantle the terror networks. If this is not done, he
made clear this week, the plan stops dead in its tracks.
But why should the Palestinians accept the Peres proposal, when they feel
there is something out there - the French proposal - which also gives
them a state in the short term without demanding anything substantial
in return?
This is the Israeli message Straw and Fischer are expected to carry back
to their colleagues, who will meet again on Monday to discuss the Middle
East.
Although the discussion will focus on the Middle East, it will not only
be about the Middle East. Internal EU politics is strongly at work here.
Five months after September 11, and a month after President George Bush's
"axis of evil" speech, which found little favor in some European
capitals, the Europeans are re-evaluating their relationship with the
US. The policy the EU charts regarding Israel and the Palestinians will
be a good signal of where the Europeans are steering their relations with
the US.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/02/15/News/News.43508.html
Assad admits Israel superior in strength, but warns against war
The Associated Press
http://www3.haaretz.co.il/htmls/kat14_4.htm Oct 20, 2001
BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad acknowledged Israel's military
superiority, but said any widescale clash with its Arab neighbors would
not solve the country's problems, according to an interview published
yesterday.
The threat of a Syrian-Israeli confrontation has heightened after two Israeli air strikes on Syrian military radar sites in Lebanon. Syria condemned the attacks and said it was capable of responding, but has not done so militarily. The strikes - in April and early this month - were in response to Hezbollah attacks on Israeli troops in the disputed Cheba Farms border territory.
"We know Israel is superior to us in some military fields, but we have decided to stand fast," Assad was quoted as saying in an interview with Talal Salman, publisher of the leftist Lebanese newspaper As-Safir.
"We will stand fast and repulse aggression even if we understand that the enemy would destroy many of our installations," he said. "To start with, we are poor, but we can stand fast more than they can imagine and rebuild what may be destroyed. Also, we have [weapons] that can severely damage the enemy."
Assad said following Israel's withdrawal from South Lebanon in May last year and Palestinian-Israeli clashes that broke out last September, Israeli leaders ought to take account of the possibility of Arabs taking the battle "into the enemy's territory."
Syria has long been suspected of having acquired Scud missile and missile technology from North Korea. Syria's Scuds are believed to have a range of 600 km - putting all of Israel within reach - and to be capable of carrying chemical or biological warheads.
"Israel has factors of strength that may entice it, under the leadership of a war maniac like [Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon to embark on a massive military adventure. Sharon knows only the language of strength," Assad was quoted as saying.
"But such a war will not solve any of the causes of its (Israel's) crisis. It will not solve the question of the Palestinian people. Israel may decide the beginning of the war, but it cannot at all decide its end or its consequences. The Arab party, and we are at the vanguard of it, is the one that decides the end of the war," Assad said.
Syrian defense minister blames WTC, Pentagon attacks on Israel
By Arieh O'Sullivan October, 19 2001
TEL AVIV (October 19) - Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass has blamed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center on Israel.
At a meeting in Damascus last week with a delegation from the British Royal College of Defense Studies, Tlass said the Mossad planned the ramming of two hijacked airliners into the WTC's towers as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
He also told the British visitors that the Mossad had given thousands of Jewish employees of the WTC advance warning not to go to work that day.
The Jewish-conspiracy theory started circulating in the Middle East shortly after the terrorist outrages in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. The "rationale" was that Israel wanted to provoke US retaliation against the Arab world.
In Israel and in Jewish circles abroad, the theory has been dismissed as a "gross lie." It had been dismissed by Arabists as "wishful thinking" by frustrated Arabs who badly wanted to believe that Muslims were not responsible for the atrocities.
But Tlass's comments last week indicate that it has been commuted to fact among senior Arab officialdom. Experts believe the false rumor has taken root in the Middle East, thanks to the deep anti-Semitism propagated by Arab governments as well as the myth of the "awesome power" of the Jews.
American Jewish leaders this week urged the Bush administration to debunk the rumor.
"Nobody is challenging this gross lie. Nobody is getting on Arab TV stations and saying it is a lie, it's absurd, and it's a libel," said Abraham Foxman, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League.
David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, agreed.
"Perhaps the Bush administration doesn't want to confer legitimacy on these canards by even acknowledging their existence. Sadly, this story has taken on a life of its own. It has even reached non-Muslim countries like Greece and South Africa, where Jewish communities have frantically contacted us, asking for help in refuting these charges," Harris said.
"At this point it would be very helpful for the Bush administration and other countries not only to condemn this canard, but to call it by its real name, which is raw, unadulterated anti-Semitism," he said.
In Iran, the hard-line Resalat newspaper last week quoted "experts" as saying the attacks were so complicated they had to have been carried out by the Israeli government and the Mossad.
In Kuwait, where some speakers on television have ridiculed the report, some people have even added embellishments, saying Jews were advised by New York rabbis to sell their holdings in the stock market the day before the attack and did so.
Public opinion data on Arab views on the September 11 attacks is sparse. One poll conducted a week after the attacks and published in the Lebanese newspaper An Nahar found that 31 percent of respondents thought Israel was behind the hijackings, while only 27% thought Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden was responsible, as the US has charged.
Historian Richard Levy, an expert on anti-Semitism at the University of Illinois in Chicago, said such conspiracy theories have flourished after years during which Arab governments have encouraged crude Jewish conspiracy theories.
"They have encouraged their peoples to explain politics and history by means of myth, lie, and fear. This sort of demagogy will come back to bite them," he said.
"If I were a Pakistani who has internalized what my successive governments have been telling me for years about the awesome power of the Jews and their Israeli pawns, I might well find bin Laden more attractive and inspiring than my so-called leaders," Levy said.
(Reuters contributed to this report.)
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/10/19/News/News.36550.html
From the Sun October 11, 2001
PM: Israel key to peace
From TREVOR KAVANAGH
Political Editor, in Cairo
TONY BLAIR last night warned Israel must give ground to demands for a
separate Palestinian homeland — to save the world from terrorism.
He admitted the bloody Middle East feud has handed terror mastermind Osama bin Laden a propaganda tool to inflame Muslim anger at the West.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak — standing beside the PM in Cairo — warned: “Until the Middle East is settled, there will be no peace on our planet.”
And Mr Blair, who broke into his peace shuttle through Arab capitals to phone Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, announced a Middle East peace deal is now top of his anti-terror agenda.
Britain and America want Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to shift his position on occupied territories and reach an agreement on Jerusalem which is holy to both sides.
Mr Blair said as he landed in the Egyptian capital: “I have discussed this with President Bush and both he and I are seized with the need to push it forward.”
He added later: “It’s important we put the peace process back on track so there are not generations of people who use the Palestinian cause as an excuse for terrorism.
“This is not just for the stability of the region, but for the stability of the world. We’re determined this should never be seen as a struggle by the West versus Islam.
“We understand how important it is to make sure that at this moment in time this should not be a reason for letting the peace process decline and wither.
“The purpose of those who carried out the US attack was not just to kill large numbers of innocent people — but to set in train a series of events that would divide people, Arab and Western, Muslim and other faiths.
“Our responsibility has to be to say, ‘You are not going to divide us — we know the game you are playing’.”
Mr Blair said Mr Arafat had agreed to support a new start to peace talks. The Prime Minister is planning face-to-face talks with both him and Mr Sharon.
The PM said: “People have to understand that Israeli people are being blown up and people are still being killed by terrorist acts and they feel they have to respond.
“But we have to try and help people rise above that and put in place a process that ensures Israel has the guarantees of security it requires and the Palestinians can see some end in sight. We have always said we support the concept of a Palestinian state with proper guarantees for Israel’s security.”
He added: “The difficulty is what happens if there is no process. Extremists use violence to fill the vacuum. There is outrage and extremism, as we’ve seen in Northern Ireland when the peace process stalls.
“All moderate, sensible Arab opinion accepts it is right that we act in Afghanistan. But they point out they have genuine problems with their own people who believe we have lost interest in the Middle East.”
Mr Blair plans to explain the West’s antiterror campaign with appearances on Arab TV and radio stations and articles for Muslim newspapers. He said: “We have to win this battle on several fronts — including the battle for people’s hearts and minds.” Mr Blair added: “Bin Laden wants to put a Taliban regime in each of the main Arab countries and that fills people with horror.”
But there are fears that bin Laden is already far ahead in the propaganda war.
An official with the PM repeated US warnings that the fanatic used a video broadcast as a coded trigger for fresh atrocities.
Mr Blair's popularity has equalled that of Winston Churchill during World
War Two. Almost nine out of ten voters think he is acting faultlessly
in the war against terror, says a poll for today's Guardian newspaper.
US braces for all-out war with unknown foe
Washington - America is on a war footing after the terror attacks that tore the heart out of the financial and government centres in New York and Washington on Tuesday.
US Air Force F-16s patrolled the skies over Washington, US Navy warships were sent to Manhattan, and US military forces around the world were on highest alert.
President George W Bush, in an address to the nation, vowed to find and punish those responsible for the death of untold thousands when hijacked airliners were used as giant missiles to wreck the Pentagon and destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan.
"We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbour them," he said.
Already intelligence experts and others were putting fugitive Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden, sheltered by Afghanistan, at the top of their list.
But what would happen next - including potential retaliatory strikes - was not clear.
At a Pentagon briefing earlier, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Henry Shelton said, "I have no intention of discussing what comes next. But make no mistake about it, your armed forces are ready."
Bush put US forces around the globe on the highest alert, "Threatcon Delta".
Security forces were put on high alert by US allies, including Britain, Canada, France and Germany as well as Russia, China and Middle Eastern and Asian countries.
Nato said that its Brussels headquarters and the Allied forces headquarters at Mons, also in Belgium, were on a state of maximum alert.
Russia reinforced security around key sites and halted all air departures to the US.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied American forces had been responsible for explosions heard last night near Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. "In no way is the US government connected," he said at the Pentagon briefing.
A senior defence official said the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, which was due to stop in Cape Town on its way home from the Persian Gulf, had been ordered to remain in the area indefinitely. A second carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, remained in the area as well, the official said.
The North American Aerospace Defence Command took steps to protect the military's computer systems from hackers.
Norad - which also defends US airspace from foreign invasion - was also on its highest alert. With all civilian flights grounded, fighter jets, airborne radar and reconnaissance aircraft and refuelling tankers took to the skies, officials said.
Norad controllers did track one of the hijacked jetliners, but it had crashed into the World Trade Centre even as fighter jets were scrambling, said Colonel Mike Perini, Norad spokesperson.
Fighters had not shot down any of the hijacked aircraft, he said.
But they were "prepared to engage aircraft deemed a threat to the civil population".
The Navy dispatched the carriers USS John F Kennedy and USS George Washington to New York to assist with defence and medical needs.
Ike Skelton, the top Democrat on the House armed services committee, said he had been told by military officials there were about 100 casualties at the Pentagon.
Rumsfeld, who was in his offices on the second floor of the Pentagon when the jetliner tore into the opposite side of the building, pledged that the Pentagon - workplace for 24 000 - would function on Wednesday.
Bush visited a number of military sites on Tuesday in Air Force One, escorted by fighter jets. For security reasons he did not return to Washington as he had planned.
"America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time," said Bush.
"Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.
"None of us will ever forget this day," he said of the worst attack on American soil since the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour on December 7 1941.
The search for those responsible was under way, he said. "I've directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice."
A US official said there were indications the attackers may have links to Laden or his organisation. The hijackers were believed to be have operated in teams of three to five, armed with knives. - Reuters, AP and Sapa-AFP
Published on the Web by IOL on 2001-09-12 09:10:11
The Durban International Conference on Racism: Prelude to Armageddon?
UN conference against racism agrees on final declaration,
including Mideast
Canadian Press
Saturday, September 08, 2001
(AP/Themba Hadebe)
UN Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, left, hugs South African
Foreign Minster Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, at the World Conference Against
Racism in Durban, South Africa, Saturday. (AP/Themba Hadebe)
DURBAN, South Africa (CP) - The World Conference Against Racism adopted
a declaration Saturday recognizing the injustice of slavery and colonialism
and the "plight" of Palestinians after nine days of contentious
debate and brinksmanship that repeatedly threatened to unravel the gathering.
Compromises on both issues were reached only Saturday morning, a day after the conference had been scheduled to end.
Even as they accepted the compromise, Arab states registered their reservations that the conference would not directly condemn Israel for its treatment of Palestinians.
But the Arabs were not the only disappointed delegates as the conference wound down.
Both Canada and Australia said they were unhappy with final documents' language on the Middle East conflict.
Canadian delegation chief Hedy Fry issued a "statement of reservation" immediately after the agreement was announced saying Canada wished to "disassociate" itself from those parts of the text dealing with the Middle East.
" We are not satisfied with this conference," Fry said in remarks directed to the conference chairwoman.
". . . Canada is still here today only because we wanted to have our voice decry the attempts at this conference to de-legitimize the state of Israel, and to dishonour the history and suffering of the Jewish people.
"We believe, and we have said in the clearest possible terms, that it was
inappropriate . . . to address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in this
forum."
"That is why the Canadian delegation registers its strongest objections and
disassociates itself integrally from all text in this document directly or indirectly relating to the situation in the Middle East."
"We state emphatically that this text is ultra vires; it is outside the jurisdiction and mandate of this conference."
Fry, a junior minister responsible for multiculturalism and the status of women, also registered Ottawa's position with regard to possible damages that might be claimed based on final declaration language dealing with slavery and colonialism.
"Canada believes that the transatlantic slave trade was morally repugnant and is a stain on the fabric of history" and would constitute a crime against humanity if it "occurred today," she said
But Fry said she wanted to register "Canada's understanding . . . that under international law there is no right to a remedy for historical acts that were not illegal at the time at which they occurred."
The gathering had been envisaged as a historic opportunity for the international community to create a blueprint for fighting racial discrimination around the globe. But it became bogged down in disputes over whether to provide an apology and reparations for slavery and whether the document should condemn Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians.
Earlier in the day, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told the conference she understood agreement had been reached on the two issues, and the Islamic states issued a statement confirming that. However, several Muslim countries quickly expressed reservations.
The South African proposal recognized the Holocaust and condemned anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and also expressed concern "about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation."
But it did not specifically criticize Israel or mention Zionism.
"Despite the fact that the text expresses concern about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation, it failed to condemn the discriminatory policies and practices of Israel," according to a statement by Organization of Islamic Conference.
"Regrettably, our repeated attempts to initiate negotiations on this issue . . . have been thwarted by other parties," it said.
The Muslim countries objected to efforts to delete additional text that many delegates felt indirectly referred to Palestinians, including a paragraph that said "foreign occupation . . . is among the forms and sources of racial discrimination."
Canada, Brazil and the European Union said they would vote against the paragraphs if they remained in the text.
Arab states contend the plight of 3.7 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants driven from their homes when Israel was created in 1948, seizure of Palestinian land for Jewish settlements, collective punishments and other complaints support the strong language against Israel.
However, the EU, backed by Canada and others, has refused to allow the conference to take sides in the conflict.
The announcement of the initial Middle East agreement came quickly after
a deal surfaced on how the conference should refer to slavery and reparations.
The conference, which was supposed to end Friday afternoon, had been driven
into overtime in an attempt to reach agreement on the two contentious
issues.
Quote from article, "UN conference against racism agrees on final
declaration, including Mideast," on Canada.com (http://www.canada.com/ottawa/story.asp?id={50DCE647-B6E5-4AED-98AD-694C16453AA2}),
09/08/01.
EU weighing Durban walkout
By Herb Keinon -- from the Jerusalem
Post, Sept 6, 2001
DURBAN (September 6) - The European Union last night was waiting to see
the Arab League's reaction to its proposal to strike "offensive"
language on the Middle East from the final resolution to be adopted Friday
at the Durban anti-racism conference, before deciding whether to walk
out en masse, a member of the EU delegation said last night.
J.J. Van Heukelum, a member of the Dutch delegation, said that an answer was expected late last night, after which the EU would decide what to do.
If the EU does decide to walk out of the conference, it would include the 15 member states of the organization and another 13 candidate states.
In addition, diplomatic sources in Durban said that if the EU leaves, east Europeans are expected to follow suit, which would leave only South America, Africa, and Asia in their seats on Friday to vote on the resolution.
Europeans, along with the host South Africans, were busy yesterday negotiating with Arab states and the Palestinians on language of the proposed resolution.
In France, meanwhile, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin was quoted as telling a cabinet meeting that, "If the link between Zionism and racism is maintained, the issue of our departure - along with the Europeans - will come up immediately."
While negotiations were still going on over the governmental document to be adopted, the NGOs at the conference officially presented the body with its recommendations, which included eight virulently anti-Israel clauses that make the Zionism-is-racism resolution of 1975 look tame in comparison.
Among the clauses, the NGO body:
* calls for the immediate deployment of an independent, effective international protection force for the Palestinian civilians and the dismantlement of the illegal Jewish Israeli colonies (settlements) and complete withdrawal of colonial military occupation;
* calls for the reinstitution of UN Resolution 3379 determining the practices of Zionism as racist practices which propagate the racial domination of one group over another through the implementation of all measures designed to drive out other indigenous groups, and through the application of discriminatory laws of return and citizenship, to obliterate their national identity and to maintain the exclusive nature of the State of Israel as a Jewish state to the exclusion of all other groups;
* calls for the repeal of all discriminatory laws within the State of Israel, including those of return and citizenship, which are part of the institutionalized racism and apartheid regime in Israel;
* calls for the establishment of a war-crimes tribunal to investigate and bring to justice those who may be guilty of war crimes, acts of genocide, and ethnic cleansing and the crime of apartheid, which amount to crimes against humanity that have been or continue to be perpetrated in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories;
* calls for an increased awareness of the root cause of Israel's belligerent occupation and systematic human rights violations as a racist, apartheid system, through relevant UN agencies working closely with international civil society networks to widely disseminate information including educational packs for schools and universities, films, and publications.
In addition, the document calls for the launching of an international anti-Israeli apartheid movement, and calls on the international community to impose a policy of complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state.
After the entire NGO document - which included sections on numerous other world ills - was presented to the plenum yesterday, Australia voiced its immediate objection. It's delegate said that while the Australian government recognizes and values the work done by the NGOs, its value "is diminished by some imbalanced and extreme language, in particular in reference to the Middle East. We are disappointed by those references and deplores as unhelpful to aims of conference and achievement of peace in Middle East."
UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson refused to receive or endorse the NGO forum Declaration, earning her a sharp rebuke from the Palestinian and Arab caucuses at the world gathering.
The Palestinian caucus said that in refusing to accept the document and pass it on to the government plenary, Robinson "rejected the voices of all the victims of racism and the thousand of delegates who were present at the NGO forum."
The highlights of the NGO document were read to the plenary, and when the section on "Palestinians and Palestine" was mentioned, it received the largest applause from those NGO representatives sitting in the gallery.
But Israel was not without it supporters. In a statement signed by some 70 NGOs - primarily in the former Soviet Union - and circulated by Eastern and Central European organizations, these NGOs said that "we must emphasize that the language of the chapter 'Palestinians and Palestine' is extremely intolerant, disrespectful, and contrary to the very spirit of the conference."
Organizations such as Amnesty International, Lawyers for Human Rights, and Physicians for Human Rights did not sign the document, though they did earlier disassociate themselves from its language.
Also, one of the leading civil rights organizations in America, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, held a press conference in Durban yesterday and condemned the US decision to leave the conference, but said the "anti-Semitic sentiments expressed at the conference are regrettable and reprehensible."
Amid all the talk of racism and resolutions calling Israel racist, Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Tova Herzl bestowed a Righteous Among the Nations medallion posthumously at the Jewish Club in Durban to Martinus and Gerda Moolenschot, who hid two Jewish boys for nine months in Holland during the Holocaust.
Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was originally asked to help ease tensions in the run-up to Durban by conference head Mary Robinson.
However, days before the event Sacks pulled out when he saw no real change in the rhetoric.
"It's a tragedy and a travesty," Sacks told Jerusalem Post Radio last night. "Never has so noble a cause been hijacked to such ignoble ends."
"Canada has no plans to leave the conference..."
From the article, "EU walkout looming at world racism conference"
CTVNEWS.com
Staff
Wed. Sep. 5 2001 4:10 AM
...Delegations from the United States and Israel walked out on Monday in protest of language in conference drafts that branded Israel as racist for its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
On Wednesday, Hedy Fry, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Status of Women and head of the Canadian delegation, said Canada has no plans to leave the conference, disputing earlier reports of a pullout.
"Our position hasn't changed," said spokeswoman Lizzette Vanniekerk told The Canadian Press on Wednesday.
"We are continuing to participate fully."
In an effort to save the conference, the Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister is taking over the Norwegian delegation.
"The racism conference is in danger of completely breaking down. I am going to Durban to try to contribute to it reaching a result that does not damage the international battle against racism," said Raymond Johansen.
While no decision has been made yet, a pull out by the EU could be devastating for other delegates, especially Canada, said Andrew Hladyshevsky, a board member with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.
"Because the EU represents so many countries, if the EU does pulls out, that affects the conference, probably even in a greater way than the pullout by the Americans," Hladyshevsky told CTV's Newsnet.
"Canada is playing a major role and is being called on by a number of countries to broker a deal. If some of these countries begin to pull out, then we've got less people to broker with and that undermines the conference."
If the conference were to break down, Hladyshevsky said the conference would probably have to reconvene after "an appropriate period of time."
"It clearly is very disturbing to many of the countries, including Canada, because there are many issues we have on the table here that both govern our domestic and foreign policy that need to be addressed in this particular United Nations conference."
Canada also wants language to change
Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley has said that Canada is committed to finding a solution to the troubling language.
"We think there's still work to be done there and we'll continue to try to do it until either we conclude that there can't be a successful result or until there is one,'' Manley said.
"We will accept a statement that tries to establish principles on which countries can measure themselves in trying to eradicate racism,'' Manley said from London where he is attending a Commonwealth ministerial meeting.
Fry, a junior cabinet minister, is heading the Canadian delegation after
Manley chose not to attend. The United States and Israel also sent lower
level delegations to the conference in Durban, South Africa.
Canada to stay at UN racism conference
CTVNEWS.com Staff
Tue. Sep. 4 2001 8:18 AM
Canada has said it will remain at the UN World Conference Against Racism
being held in Durban, South Africa, as hosts try to get talks back on
track after Israel and the United States pull out of the summit.
Hedy Fry, head of the Canadian delegation to the conference, faxed a statement to Toronto saying they would "continue the dialogue unless it becomes clear to us that a satisfactory outcome is impossible."
"With respect to the Middle East, if the language does not serve the interest of a negotiated peace, we will not accept it," she said.
Fry, who was appointed to lead Ottawa's delegation after Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley boycotted the conference because it was too anti-Israel, also said that they "fully understand" the reasons behind a U.S. withdrawal from the summit.
Both the U.S. and Israel backed out of the conference on Monday in protest of language in conference drafts that branded Israel a racist for its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Meanwhile, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is drafting new wording on the Middle East on Tuesday in an effort to save the conference.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is also boycotting the conference, ordered the low-level American delegation to return home for singling out "only one country in the world, Israel, for censure and abuse" and suggestions that apartheid existed in Israel.
Both UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson were disappointed by the move, while black American leaders said Washington was hiding behind the Mideast issue instead of dealing with issues of racism and slavery.
EU spokesman Olivier Alsteens said the EU and all 13 states hoping to join the 15-state bloc would decide within 24 hours of receiving the new text whether a deal was possible.
The World Conference Against Racism runs from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7, by which time it aims to have draft a document on racism, xenophobia, racial discrimination and related intolerance.
But even before it began, conflict over the Middle East, where more than 700 people have died in a 11-month Palestinian uprising, have marred any negotiations.
(20:00) Israel, US pull out of Durban conference
By The
Jerusalem Post Internet Staff
Israel and the United States are leaving the UN World Conference Against
Racism in Durban, South Africa, in protest over ongoing attacks against
Israel and Zionism, the State Department and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres
announced a short while ago.
Canada is also expected to leave, according to senior diplomatic sources.
Efforts to reach a compromise on the wording of the conference's final declaration reached a dead end earlier today.
Norway and Canada had proposed a compromise, but the Palestinians and Arab countries rejected it.
"All attempts to reach a compromise have failed," Rep. Tom Lantos, a member of the US delegation, said earlier this evening.
"It seems that despite extraordinary efforts by the American government ... it will prove impossible for the American delegation to continue participation in the conference," he said.
"We have gone the extra mile," Lantos said. "We have tried beyond anything that was reasonable to make compromises."
Lantos said he expected up to four dozen other delegations to reject the inclusion of anti-Israel language in the conference's final document and program of action.
A conference that should have been about horrible discrimination around the world has been "hijacked by extremist elements for its own purposes," Lantos said.
"The conference will stand self-condemned," he added.
Earlier today, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said only a balanced declaration on the Middle East, acceptable to everybody, will be taken seriously at the conference.
Moussa said Arab states were seriously working toward compromise.
"What is the use of the document that will be tilted to one or the other? It will just be condemned and thrown away and not implemented at all," Moussa said.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
Robinson Laments U.N. Race Meeting Hijacked by Mideast
September 2, 2001 8:32 am EST
By Buchizya Mseteka
DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - U.N. rights chief Mary Robinson urged
the media Sunday to help prevent a U.N. summit on racism being hijacked
by the crisis in the Middle East, sidelining issues such as slavery and
poverty.
"You as a media have a role to play, a responsibility to ensure that
this conference is not just about one issue, the Middle East. You must
ensure that other equally important issues are tackled and highlighted
at this meeting," she told Reuters.
"The issues of slavery, minority rights, gender and poverty are equally
very important issues that need to be addressed by this conference,"
Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Irish
president, added.
Robinson, who was speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. conference on
racism, said she also regretted a decision by a forum of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) to adopt a declaration branding Israel as a racist
and genocidal state.
The official racism conference entered its third day on Sunday, still
sharply divided over attempts to condemn Israel and over the issue of
reparations for centuries of slavery.
Worsening Israeli-Palestinian violence has cast a shadow over the racism
meeting despite pleas by Nelson Mandela, the father of South Africa's
multi-racial democracy, to seize the chance to end the contagion of racial
discrimination.
DELEGATES SHOCKED
Israel was branded a "racist apartheid" state early on Sunday
by thousands of non-governmental organizations meeting in Durban, South
Africa, a move that shocked Jewish delegates.
The NGO Forum also accused the Jewish state of "systematic perpetration
of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing."
The harsh anti-Israeli language in the NGO Forum's final declaration injected
new Middle East tension into the parallel U.N. World Conference Against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.
Robinson said she tried but failed to persuade the NGO Forum not to include
the text on Israel in its final declaration. She doubted the official
racism conference would adopt the unusually harsh text.
"I had urged the NGOs not to adopt it. But the process was democratic
and they went ahead and adopted it," she said. "But I also have
a democratic right to reject that declaration dealing with Israel."
"I think the NGO Forum, by including that text on Israel, have diminished
the chances of it being adopted by the conference. I don't think it can
be adopted," she added.
The United States, Canada and Israel sent only junior-level delegations
to the U.N. conference in protest at what they see as anti-Israeli bias.
Some 6,000 delegates are attending.
http://www.iwon.com/home/news/news_article/0,11746,158769|top|09-02-2001::08:34|reuters,00.html
U.N. Talks Resume After NGOs Blast Israel
September 2, 2001 7:11 am EST
By Steven Swindells
DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - Israel was branded a "racist apartheid"
state early on Sunday by thousands of non-governmental organizations meeting
in South Africa.
The harsh anti-Israeli language in the NGO Forum's final declaration injected
new Middle East tension into the parallel U.N. World Conference Against
Racism attended by 153 governments in the Indian Ocean port of Durban.
The official conference entered its third day, still sharply divided over
attempts to single out Israel as a "racist" state and the issue
of reparations for four centuries of slavery.
Worsening Israeli-Palestinian violence has cast a shadow over the racism
meeting despite pleas by Nelson Mandela, the father of South Africa's
multi-racial democracy, to seize the chance to end the contagion of racial
discrimination.
The NGO Forum accused the Jewish state of "systematic perpetration
of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing."
It called Israel "a racist apartheid state in which Israel's brand
of apartheid as a crime against humanity has been characterized by separation
and segregation...and inhumane acts."
The declaration, adopted by 3,000 NGOs in 44 regional and interest-based
caucuses, shocked Jewish groups. Jewish delegates walked out in protest.
DEEP U.S. UNEASE
The United States expressed deep unease, particularly about the removal
of clauses opposing anti-Semitism. "We are extremely unhappy about
it," a U.S. official in Durban told Reuters.
Israel's legal adviser to the governmental conference, Alan Baker, said:
"They have only succeeded in turning the conference into a circus
for Israeli bashing...it's inciting hatred."
Palestinian representatives said the declaration had highlighted society's
disgust over Israeli attacks on civilians.
"It was a very successful human rights conference...It broke the
silence of conspiracy of governments," said Raji Sourani, director
of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza and a member of the
official delegation.
Hours after the declaration was adopted, New York-based Human Rights Watch,
also at the conference, distanced itself from the NGO stance because of
the harsh language about Israel.
"Israel has committed serious crimes against Palestinian people but
it is simply not accurate to use the term genocide and to equate Zionism
with racism...it is now a matter of damage control," Reed Brody,
executive director of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.
Amnesty International also said it had reservations.
"We are not ready to make the assertion that Israel is engaged in
genocide," Amnesty spokesman Claudio Cordone said.
NGO INFLUENCE ON U.N. MEETINGS
Resolutions at NGO Forums have no binding authority but they increasingly
influence the final declarations adopted at the U.N. governmental meetings
they precede.
The United States, Canada and Israel sent only junior-level delegations
to the U.N. conference in protest at what they see as anti-Israeli bias.
Some 6,000 delegates are attending.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, one of only a handful of top
Western government officials in Durban, left South Africa on Sunday.
Washington had already warned it might withdraw before the conference
closes on September 7 unless offending language is removed from draft
texts. The NGO Forum's declaration further reduced the prospects for agreement
at the U.N. meeting.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned delegates to the main meeting
on Saturday that disputes about the Middle East and controversy over how
to handle the historical issue of slavery threatened the conference.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, among the conference's most prominent
figures, branded Israel as racist on Saturday.
He was referring to the 11-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli
occupation in which at least 548 Palestinians and 157 Israelis have been
killed.
Mandela made an impassioned call for delegates to put aside differences
and act to rid the world of racism, a disease that was an "ailment
of the mind and the soul."
Reparations for centuries of slavery also remained a stumbling block.
African and Caribbean states want a formal apology and some countries
are pressing for reparations for the millions of Africans torn from their
homelands during the 400 years in which the trade flourished.
http://www.iwon.com/home/news/news_article/0,11746,158769|top|09-02-2001::07:11|reuters,00.html
Annan: 'Zionism is racism' - a dead issue
By Herb Keinon
Jerusalem Post, Sept 2, 2001
JERUSALEM (September 2) - The comparison of Zionism to racism is dead,
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday, adding that
the UN made its decision on the matter in 1991 when it rescinded the 1975
resolution equating Zionism and racism.
Annan was speaking to journalists at the World Conference Against Racism in response to a question on the possibility of condemning Israel for racism.
Meanwhile, resolutions effectively calling for the dismantling of the State of Israel were voted upon by regional caucuses and adopted by the non-government organizations' forum at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban last night, despite commitments by some major human-rights organizations to fight the resolutions.
According to Shimon Samuels, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and head of the Jewish Caucus in Durban, representatives of Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch, Minority Rights Group, and International Fede ration of Human Rights said that, although they are not in agreement with Israeli governmental policies, "they will not accept, and their constituents will not accept, a document that calls Israel genocidal, and equates Zionism with racism."
Samuels said that the document, which he termed a "diplomatic abomination" that is nothing less then "a plan of action for the dismantling of the Jewish sovereign state," will be presented to UN Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson, who will in turn present it as the spirit of the 3,900 NGOs represented at the conference, which opened on Friday.
The resolutions are divided into a declarative section and a section called a "plan of action." In the declarative section, Israel is referred to as a "racist, apartheid state" that is "colonial" and commits "racist crimes." The document also excoriates Israel for "inhumanity in denying food and water to the Palestinians," the "victimization of women and children," and "the discrimination of Palestinians in Israel."
The declarative section is "milder" than the section that deals with a plan of action.
For example:
* Article 160 calls for the enforcement of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which includes measures to be employed against apartheid, a "protection force," and the dismantling of "Jewish Israeli colonies."
* Article 161 calls for the right of return of all Palestinians.
* Article 162 calls for the reinstitution of UN Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism, the repeal of Israel's Law of Return granting citizenship to all Jewish immigrants, and the establishment of a war crimes tribunal to "try Israeli racists."
* Article 163 calls for the UN to prepare educational packets for schools and universities on the "Israeli racist apartheid system."
* Article 164 calls for the establishment of UN special committee on Israeli apartheid.
* Article 165 calls for UN programs and institutions to "combat the racist media distortion, stereotyping, and propaganda that demonizes and dehumanizes Palestinians as being violent terrorists."
* Article 166 calls for the launch of an international "anti-Israeli-apartheid" movement.
* Article 167 calls on the international community to impose a policy of "complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state, as was done in the case of South Africa... sanctions, embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, and military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel."
* Article 168 calls for "the condemnation of those states supporting , aiding, and abetting the Israeli apartheid state, and its preparation of racist crimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing, and acts of genocide."
Samuels said that the Jewish Caucus is now trying to get as many of the 3,900 NGOs there as possible to sign a document distancing themselves from these resolutions.
The Jewish Caucus at the conference, representing 11 Jewish NGOs such as the ADL, B'nai B'rith, Hadassah and the Wiesenthal Center, walked out of the conference after a resolution it introduced against anti-Semitism was not included in the document. "This forum is now Judenrein," Samuels said.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, said that if this document reflects the spirit of the resolutions that will be adopted now by the governmental part of the conference, "we fully expect that the US will walk out of the conference."
On Friday, American diplomats in Durban were trying to eliminate anti-Israel provisions from the conference's final declaration. If they fail, the low-level US delegation will quit the conference before its windup this coming Friday, said officials from the Bush administration. "We have made very clear that elimination of the offensive language singling out Israel is critical for the United States to be able to participate fully in this conference," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Cooper said that the document "has moral influence on the proceedings of the governmental portion of the conference, and is supposed to set the stage for the governmental deliberation.
"This document certainly changes the vernacular of the human rights community. If this language is accepted by the international community, it means no possibility for a Jewish state. This is a maximalist language - a dream come true for the Palestinians."
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, who on Friday had accused Israeli of ethnic cleansing by driving Palestinians from their homes in the occupied territories, repeated the charge yesterday.
"The ugliness of these Israeli racist policies and practices against the Palestinian people has become manifest and obvious during the intifada," he said.
Veteran Cuban leader Fidel Castro told the conference nobody has the right to dictate to a United Nations gathering. The 75-year-old president also charged Israel with "genocide" over the number of Palestinian deaths since the uprising began last September.
"[Nobody] has the right to set preconditions to the conference or urge it to avoid the discussion... [of] the way we decide to rate the dreadful genocide perpetrated, at this very moment, against our Palestinian brothers," Castro said.
The Arab League met yesterday morning to coordinate its position on the final declaration. Secretary-General Amr Mousa said the section condemning Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and the recognition of the Holocaust were both open to negotiation. "There are racist policies and practices by Israel and they have to be addressed [just] as Israel wants us to address the problem of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism and so on, so it's a package."
Conference committees worked behind the scenes on the wording of a final declaration to be adopted at the end of the eight-day UN summit. Almost a year into the intifada, Arab nations have pushed to make Israel the main issue at the conference.
Arafat's harsh words undercut the Rev. Jesse Jackson's efforts to solve the symbolic and semantic nature of the dispute. Jackson said he had urged Arafat to drop his support for a summit declaration that would attack Israel as a racist state and equate Zionism with racism.
Palestinian officials later accused Jackson of being "overzealous" and said they would still seek condemnation of what they called Israel's "racist practices." "What we can hope for is that this conference will say what is bad, what is just in the face of this bloody tragedy that has befallen the Palestinian people," Arafat told a round-table of world leaders. "This brutality, this arrogance is moved by a supremacist mentality, a mentality of racial discrimination."
In Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Noam Katz reiterated that Israel feels the racism conference is not the appropriate forum to discuss the Palestinian conflict.
"We are not here at the conference to discuss, to deal with specific political problems," Katz said. "We are here to create a united front against racism."
(News agencies contributed to this report.)
From Middle East Newsline: Arms, Defense, Strategy--August 30, 2001
JORDAN, SYRIA WEAK; IRAQ GROWING STRONGER
MOSCOW [MENL] -- Jordan and Syria are growing weaker and more unstable while Iraq is reemerging as a contender for leadership in the Middle East.
A new analysis by the Moscow-based Institute for Israel and Middle East Studies reviewed the array of forces in the Middle East. The analysis was drafted by institute director Yevgeny Satanovsky.
The institute said Jordan is weak and besieged by a growing opposition. King Abdullah is being squeezed by both foreign and domestic pressure.
"He is weak and can be challenged by contenders within the country," Satanovsky said.
The institute said Syria is also under domestic threat. The threat is directed toward the regime of President Bashar Assad, who continues to face a challenge from his uncle, Rifaat Assad, now in exile in Switzerland.
"Rifaat is a clear competitor for power," the institute said.
At the same time, the institute termed Iraq as an emerging power in the Arab world. Satanovsky said the regime of President Saddam Hussein has recovered from the defeat of the 1991 Gulf war. Over the last few years, Saddam has restored his power, the study said.
As a result, the institute predicted increasing stability that will lead
to a series of conflicts in the Middle East. The report said the war will
be sparked by the current confrontation between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority. But the regional war predicted by the institute will stem from
domestic instability within key regimes in the Middle East.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22 2001
Collapse
of wall could start war