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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (96654)	1/24/2005 9:53:06 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793677

Little Green Footballs - Putin Will Not Sell Missiles to Syria If true, here’s a positive development: Putin promises Israel not to sell missiles to Syria. JERUSALEM (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by phone that he won’t sign a contract to sell SA-18 surface-to-air missiles to Syria, the daily Haaretz reports. The reported promise, said to have been made by Putin on Thursday, came on the day that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad begins a four-day official visit to Russia. The paper said that Sharon had explained to the Russian leader that the arms, also called Igla missiles, risked falling into the hands of Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, who are violently opposed to Israel. What Cease Fire? Israeli settlers in Kfar Darom are accusing the Sharon government of covering up Palestinian attacks to maintain a fictional cease fire: Angry settlers ask: What cease-fire? On Saturday, Kfar Darom settlers were shocked to hear media reports about Abu Mazen’s success in achieving a hudna (cease-fire), as they were forced to remain in their homes during a half-hour long shootout between IDF troops and Palestinian gunmen. The settlers also reported an attempt by Palestinians to fire a Kassam missile. On Sunday, the violence continued in Gaza after shots were fired at a convoy leaving Netzarim and a mortar shell was launched at an IDF outpost nearby. In response to the ongoing “ignored” violence, head of the Disengagement Administration Yonatan Bassi’s daughter, Yiska Oppenheim, traveled to the Gaza Strip from Jerusalem to kick off the Tu Bishvat tree planting festivities in Ganei Tal. “I came in response to the government’s apathetic approach to the shooting attacks in Gaza,” Oppenheim said, “and as an act of solidarity with the local residents.” Settlers were particularly disturbed by the army’s description of the half-hour long shootout in Kfar Darom, which the IDF called “a single burst of gunfire.” “There is no cease-fire,” longtime Elei Sinai settler Avi Farhan said. “The government thinks that since there aren’t Kassams landing in Sderot and people aren’t getting killed then there is a cease-fire, when in reality the attacks are continuing against the Gaza Strip settlers,” he said. Farhan said he believes Abu Mazen succeeded in fooling Sharon into believing he is sincere in maintaining a cease-fire. “Abu Mazen told the various Palestinian factions to quiet things down for the next few months until after the disengagement plan and only to restart the attacks after we run away and leave all the land behind,” he said. Earlier this month I wrote: Expect condemnations of violence from Abu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas, followed by a few staged arrests, followed by the quiet release of the usual suspects. But this was much too optimistic. Abu Mazen never even moved past the worthless condemnation stage. The Next Islamist Revolution? Here’s a scary piece at the New York Times on Bangladesh, where the barbarism of extremist Islam is taking hold: The Next Islamist Revolution? In Bangladesh, “Islam is becoming the legitimizing political discourse,” according to C. Christine Fair, a South Asia specialist at the United States Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan, federally financed policy group in Washington. “Once you don that religious mantle, who can criticize you? We see this in Pakistan as well, where very few people are brave enough to take the Islamists on. Now this is happening in Bangladesh.” The region, Fair added, has become a haven where jihadis can move easily and have access to a friendly infrastructure that allows them to regroup and train. Another close observer of Bangladeshi politics, Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch, told me recently: “The practical effect of politics along religious lines is that you start to accept a religious identity and reject every other. It’s absolutely crucial to understand that this is happening in Bangladesh right now.” If it’s so crucial, maybe NGOs like Human Rights Watch should spend more time on this issue instead of devoting the vast majority of their budgets (and fading credibility) to attacking the United States and Israel.