Once again, a top-level American diplomat, while visiting Israel, has been insulted and embarrassed by the host country, and it’s time for the White House to push back!

In 2008, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, while visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to discuss the stalled peace process, was blindsided by an Israeli announcement of expanded settlement construction – the most inflammatory issue of the day.  Bush never made Israel pay a price for such insulting diplomatic behavior from one ally to another.

This time, they have blindsided and sandbagged Vice President Joe Biden, who is in the area this week promoting the just-announced informal peace talks that Israel and the Palestinians will resume, thanks to the tireless diplomacy of George Mitchell.

After spending the day lavishly reassuring Israel of our commitment to their security and our willingness to broker the coming peace talks, Biden was rewarded with a diplomatic insult: Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai announced that 1,600 new homes would be built in the ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem enclave of Ramat Shlomo.

Biden offered friendship and reassurances and Israel slapped him down! Perhaps this kind of outrageous treatment was acceptable to the Bush administration but it should not be acceptable to Obama, not if he ever wants to be taken seriously and treated respectfully by the Netanyahu government!

Now is the time for the U.S. to say, “Enough is enough!” Now is the time for Israel to pay a painful price for the luxury of insulting visiting American diplomats.

Biden responded to the insult by arriving 90 minutes late to a dinner with Netanyahu, and publicly said “I condemn the decision!” But that’s not nearly enough!

Netanyahu, reeling from the diplomatic uproar he had just created, claimed he was unaware that his own minister was planning on making the settlement-expansion announcement, but that won’t fly! He’s in charge, and he should take the full blunt of the blame for this shameful treatment of a loyal and generous ally – us!

Biden has made his anger known; now it’s President Obama’s turn! If Netanyahu and Eli Yishai thought they could insult us to the point where we walked away from the peace talks, they thought wrong! Obama and Mitchell must now demonstrate the tenacity of a pit bull. They have to slap back by getting the Netanyahu government to the peace table, even if they have to be dragged kicking and screaming.

America will not tolerate this selfish and demeaning behavior from Israel anymore!

Electoral workers carry ballot boxes at a counting center in Baghdad on Monday, March 8, 2010. It could be Days until returls come in, and after that, months to form a government.

The good news is that the Parliamentary elections finally came off in Iraq. The bad news is that voting was down from the 2009 Provincial elections, and that deadly violence continues to plague and terrorize Iraqi society.

But now the true test begins! In the weeks and months ahead, the two winning alliances in this election will have to work together to form a coalition government – and the sooner the better. The longer the al-Malaki government is in limbo, and his status as prime minister is uncertain, the more time Iraq has to fragment once again.

Al- Malaki’s STATE OF LAW party apparently split the majority of votes with former prime minister Ayad Allawi’s secular coalition, THE IRAQI NATIONAL MOVEMENT. Al-Malaki has successfully held off the more sectarian Shiite coalition, THE NATIONAL IRAQI ALLIANCE.

We now have the forces for democratic reform, openness and true reconciliation – Allawi’s coalition – in a strong position to wrest significant power from the corrupt and dictatorial Shiite-dominated government of Nuri al-Malaki.

The question thus becomes, will al-Malaki allow it? Will his Shiite government, and their supporters in the military, bow to the will of the voters or will they manufacture any excuse to suspend the democratic process and the election mandate?

Al-Malaki’s tenure as prime minister is very much in doubt, even within his own limited coalition. His reckless and transparent endorsement of the illegal disenfranchisement of over 500 candidates from this election made him new enemies.

Ayad Allawi

If the forces for peace, justice and honest government are successful, Ayad Allawi will emerge as the most respected and logical candidate for prime minister within these two coalitions.  All other arrangements and power-sharing decisions will flow from this one. Al-Malaki has accumulated much power within the office of the prime minister, and he will not give it up without a struggle, especially to Allawi, who has spoken out forcefully over the years in favor of a government free from religious dominance and influence.

The next few weeks and months will define Iraqi democracy once and for all.  The strong showing by THE IRAQI NATIONAL MOVEMENT means that the Shiite stranglehold on power is seriously threatened.

We know from experience that elections alone do not guarantee democratic outcomes. The forces of tyranny can ride into power on the back of a democratic election, then undermine and corrupt that very same process so as to guarantee their lock on power.

The true test of any democratic election is whether or not a transition of power can take place peacefully and honestly while the institutions of government continue to function.

We’re going to see, for better or worse, if Iraq can accomplish that difficult but essential goal. The Shiite-dominated al-Malaki government has been in power since 2005. With this election, Sunnis in exile and within the country have joined with secular Shiites and Christians to challenge the status quo and to stake their rightful claim to share in the decision-making processes of the central government.

A policeman frisked a man in line to vote at a polling center in Basra, Iraq. At least 38 were killed in Baghdad.

In 2005, we had thousands of troops in Iraq to guarantee an orderly transfer of power to the newly elected parliament and their new prime minister. This time around, we won’t be there in great and powerful numbers to enforce anything of a sort, which is why these coming weeks and months will be perilous.

This time around, Iraqis will be making all the hard but critical decisions and compromises necessary for an orderly realignment of power. If they fail in this test, and power ultimately ends up in the hands of those with the most brute force, then this experiment in Middle Eastern democracy will have failed completely.

If this happens, we will be held accountable.

At GOALS FOR AMERICANS, we call on the Obama administration to apply all the influence at our disposal to insure an honest, peaceful and equitable transfer of power from the former Iraqi government to the new one to come!

HOPE OR DESPAIR:
The Iraqi Parliamentary Elections Are Now Upon Us

“What will matter most is the acceptance by the Iraqi people of the election results.”

Ad Melkert, U.N. Special Representative to Iraq

Today the first voters go to the polls in Iraq in what many consider to be a make-it-or-break-it time for Iraq’s embattled attempts to move beyond sectarianism and violence.

On Sunday, the majority of the approximately 19 million registered voters will go to one of 50,000 polling places across the country to vote for members of Parliament that now has 325 seats up for grabs. Iraqi exiles will be able to vote as well, and that final tally could be anywhere from 300,000 to 3 million. Approximately 180,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), within the country, driven from their homes because of sectarian warfare within their communities over the past year, will also be voting.

Ad Melkert, U.N. Special Representative to Iraq

We want to salute the brave men and women of the U.N. ASSISTANCE MISSION FOR IRAQ (UNAMI), especially the Electoral Assistance Office, for the tireless and dedicated work they have done in working with the Iraqi High Electoral Commission to insure a fair, honest and successful election. U.N. Special Representative to Iraq, Ad Melkert, has directed these efforts.

The U.N. is fighting an uphill battle in this effort because this election is essentially under Iraqi control. The U.N. will have 13 teams of poll-watchers – not nearly enough with the thousands of polling places, each mandated to only handle a few hundred local registered voters. The international community will field approximately 600 monitors, and the EUROPEAN UNION will have 126 ‘observers’ in 14 provinces.

The Iraqi political parties and alliances will do their own monitoring. Fraud, abuse, vote-rigging and voter intimidation are expected, but on what scale remains to be seen. Violence has already increased, with the terrible bombings that occurred within the past days, targeting governmental buildings, civilians and voters on Thursday.

U.S. Embassy Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) have assisted the High Electoral Commission in advising and training election workers, in anticipation of this critical parliamentary election cycle. The U.S. military will stand by to assist the Iraqi security forces when help is requested, but our role and flexibility has diminished considerably since the last election. It’s a wait-and-see mission for us right now.

WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE 2005 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS?

Some Iraqis have demonstrated against what they describe as Kurdish influence in Mosul, the Capitol of the Northern province of Nineveh, and the proposed Kurdish constitution.

For better or worse, the political landscape in Iraq has changed dramatically, and this election will be historic in ways that will either be successful or disastrous! Unlike the 2005 parliamentary election, this time the Sunnis will be actively engaged, with their own parties, alliances and candidates. If this election produces a wave of fraud and corruption charges, and Sunnis decide they have been cheated out of their rightful place within the government, the Sunni-led insurgency could be re-ignited in short order, and that would most likely plunge Iraq back into the kind of sectarian warfare that terrorized the country in 2005 and 2006.

The unresolved questions concerning KIRKUK and the disputed northern territories has disrupted the politics of Kurdistan, and greatly increased the tensions between Kurdistan and the Iraqi government. Were it not for U.S. forces in the area, most everyone believes that major clashes would have broken out between Iraqi Arab security forces and Kurdish peshmerga militias. The Kurdish vote will be unpredictable.

The Shiite community is now split down the middle!  Unlike 2005, when the vast majority of Shiites voted for the united alliance that won a majority in parliament and appointed al-Malaki as prime minister, this time they are lining up behind two major alliances and smaller Shiite/Sunni groups. This fracturing will prove to be critical in the coming weeks because it will insure that there are no major winners, and that new alliances must be forged before a functioning government can be formed.

Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki

Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki has split off with his STATE OF LAW party, which is aligned with the Anbar Salvation Front, a Sunni party.

Ahmed Chalabi

His menacing rival is the NATIONAL IRAQI ALLIANCE, which includes the Badr Brigade, Sadrists, the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhilah) and the nefarious opportunist, Ahmed Chalabi, the career liar who feed the Bush administration the WMD disinformation that the Bush administration used to justify the war.

Ayad Allawi

The greatest hope for democracy, secularism and sanity in Iraq is the IRAQ NATIONAL MOVEMENT, led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

It is predicted that no alliance will win enough of a parliamentary majority to form a government. The ensuing negotiations and maneuvering will drag out for weeks and weeks if not months, which is just what happened after the 2005 elections. The civil war broke out during those months of governmental paralysis, and it could happen again!

This time, there won’t be thousands of U.S. forces in the cities to insure some degree of security. This time the forces of sectarian violence and intimidation will have free reign to use violence to distort and manipulate the ultimate outcome of the election.

If al-Malaki is rejected as the next prime minister, will he go quietly, or will he resist, thus jumpstarting a Constitutional crisis? Will the security forces back him or remain neutral? Will the Sunnis reject the election results and take up arms again?

This election is a watershed moment for Iraq. Their future begins right now. Will democracy survive, or will sectarian and tribal violence once again rule the day?

Will 2010 be a year of hope for the Iraqi people, or a return to despair?

Anna Baltzer: A Patriotic Jewish-American Writer – She Spent Significant Time Over the Last Five Years in Palestine and Israel – She has the Answer!

Witness in Palestine

A JEWISH AMERICAN WOMAN IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

ANNA BALTZER

Anna Baltzer is a Jewish American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar, and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. She is a three-time volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service, where she documented human rights abuses in the West Bank and supported the nonviolent movement against the Occupation. She has spent most of the past few years in Palestine or on tour with her book, Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories.

In 2003, Anna Baltzer visited the West Bank to discover the realities for Palestinians under the Occupation. She lived and worked with farmers, Palestinian and Israeli activists, and the families of political prisoners, traveling with them across endless checkpoints and roadblocks to reach hospitals, universities, and olive groves. Baltzer witnessed first-hand the devastation brought on by expanding settlements, and the destruction wrought by Israel’s “Security Fence.” Through an insider’s extensive interviews and documentation, Witness in Palestine reveals the truth about Israeli atrocities.

Anna Baltzer and Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian Democratic Leader, appearing on the “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ANNA’S EXPERIENCE IN PALESTINE AND TO PURCHASE HER BOOK OR DVD, VISIT WWW.ANNAINTHEMIDDLEEAST.COM

ZIONISM UNMASKED

“Citizen Paul” and The Goals for Americans Foundation has tried very hard to promote various
Peace Plans over the last 30 years. The Israeli invasion of Gaza in January, 2009 – along with the
Israeli War Crimes proven by the Goldstone Report – has brought any pretense that there is any equality
between Israel and Palestine to an end — it is not a question of working out a peace plan any longer.

The Israeli government is guilty of “ENSLAVING” the Palestinians – by treating them in an abject, inhuman
way and subjecting them to a “Living Hell” of deliberate destruction and humiliation!

The time has finally come to accept reality — the gruesome fact that the Israeli/Palestinian calamity is
not a question to be dealt with by rational, humane discussions anymore! The Israeli government can
not be trusted! They take full advantage of the American “good will” WHILE pursuing their
nefarious scheme to take over all of Palestine by stealing land, destroying Palestinian property,
and de-humanizing the people to whom this land really belongs.

Now, Mr. Netanyahu –
You have achieved great things and now Israel stands as a Vital Society in the Middle East – as well as a Military Power !

You can now create for Israel a reputation for Generosity and Humanity! You can allow the
Jewish People to “Shine Forth” as a model society devoted to Justice and Humanity and
the Equality of all Human Beings. The time has come for Justice and Liberty
and Freedom!

Let All Humanity Win!

* Join AAPAC – “All-American Political Action Committee!”

All We Ask is That You Support American Ideals!

The Final Solution for Israel and Palestine can only happen with your help — but you will bring never-ending shame and sorrow to all of the Jewish people throughout the World if you do not act on this plan to demonstrate that Israel is and can act in a Human way toward other human beings.

As the year 2010 begins, one year into the Obama presidency, prospects for a just and sustaining resolution of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians seem more hopeless than ever. This is the harsh reality we all face! But for the Palestinians in the West Bank and especially Gaza, this hopelessness is a slow-motion death sentence – the death of a better future!

When Obama was elected, moderate Israelis and all Palestinians in the occupied territories dared to envision the resumption of serious negotiations leading to a lasting peace, and the most audacious thought imaginable — the establishment of a Palestinian homeland. Obama represented a fresh and vigorous new beginning – a new American president who would champion the Palestinian Cause as a moral imperative.

Obama represented the end of our duplicity and the beginning of our national redemption! His election represented a new beginning for Israel as well!

Obama is discovering that the generation of Israeli leaders now in power – including you, Mr. Netanyahu – lack the spiritual courage to right this historical wrong – to negotiate and conclude an honorable peace settlement with your Semitic Palestinian brothers and sisters, who are Semitic just as you are, Mr. Netanyahu. You lack the moral imagination to step out from behind your insular shield of victimhood and to see clearly and appreciate the legitimate anguish of your perceived enemies, the Palestinian people. You have sacrificed your collective humanity on the altar of entitlement. You have become inhuman and have become a disgrace to noble American Jews like Anna Baltzer who we feature in our book, and to all Americans for whom I speak.

Mr. Netanyahu, this has been your duplicitous history – your government’s history – right up to the present. You offer vague assurances and desires for peace that ring hollow, then crush any hope for optimism by demonstrating just the opposite. Recently you announced that 700 more apartment units would be constructed in east Jerusalem, in the three Jewish enclaves that have been relentlessly strangling the Arab neighborhoods for years.

The Palestinians, as you well know, claim east Jerusalem as their own, and want it for the future capital of an independent Palestine. Israel annexed the entire city following the 1967 bogus war which you started by bombing the Egyptian and Jordanian air forces on the ground when “negotiations” were still going on, in violation of international law — while a woman Mossad agent kept President Lyndon Johnson busy in her own White House bedroom while your secret prewar bombing surprise attack took place. Your successive governments have been developing, stealing and encroaching into Palestinian communities ever since.

This gross disrespect, and the criminal seizure of the property of your fellow Semitic Arab citizens of Jerusalem, represents the perfect metaphor for Israeli aggression throughout the West Bank. It is emblematic of your blind sense of entitlement, and complete void of honor and humanity, Mr. Netanyahu. It represents who you have been, who you are and what you stand for!

But it doesn’t have to be this way in the future, and it doesn’t have to represent your history in Israeli politics. There is another way, and there is another path for you to take as Prime Minister – a path that can bring redemption to your legacy.

With profound hopelessness comes the opportunity for greatness – for you and the state of Israel! You can break all of us out of this cycle of despair and failure. You can provide the Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem and the West Bank with a future. You can save Israel from itself!

The subjugation and domination of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip have always been predicated on the tragically false notion that the security of Israel required it, and that your historic “religion” falsely allowed you to desecrate your humanity … by killing the native population of Palestinians whose land it really belonged to! If you should somehow succeed in this vile inhumane effort, you and Israel and yes – Jews worldwide will be damned forever more. This has been based on the inhumane and irrational notion that the Palestinian people are the natural and inevitable enemies (and inferiors) of Israel — and that you are entitled to forcibly remove them from the West Bank — and destroy them in Gaza because of your “Religion.”

What Religion would approve of that?

This fallacy – this endless tragedy – has corrupted the moral foundation of Jews and Israel worldwide for far too long. It is time for Israel to radically change course. It is time to remove this poison from your society once and for all. It is time for the Palestinians to be accorded the respect and dignity they have so long deserved. It is time for Israel to begin the road to redemption by doing all that is necessary to establish an independent Palestinian state!

You must belatedly accept that all human beings have Equal Rights!”*

As the Prime Minister of Israel, you alone are capable of moving this process forward. We understand that you would come under criticism starting with political fire from your base, the settlement community and the right wing of the Likud (formerly Irgun) Party that put you back into office. You might very well not survive politically, as fragile as your coalition is. A sincere peace and reconciliation effort on your part might quickly collapse and die under an onslaught from the opposition – from your very allies.

But such an effort is the one true hope if the security of Israel is to be achieved — if Israel is to have any respect throughout the world.

Mr. Netanyahu, you can immediately begin this process by removing the inhumane barriers and strangling restrictions that make Gaza a living hell for its impoverished residents. This deplorable situation is reminiscent of the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, where Jews were surrounded, terrified and starved by the Nazis.

Gaza represents a grotesque contradiction to the principles that Israel and America stand for in so many other ways. The Gaza Blockade – this horrible blight on Israel’s soul – must end now, and it is within your power, Mr. Netanyahu, to do it!

End this travesty and allow humanitarian and reconstruction aid to pour into that beleaguered area. Your redemption can begin with this single act of political courage – and we will stand with you against the outcry that would surely come from within your own radical party personified by Avigdor Lieberman, your own Foreign Minister — imported from Soviet Moldova! The international community of free nations will stand by you and work with you as well.

Great leaders make courageous decisions that often go against the grain – decisions that shape a better future. You can be such a leader Mr. Prime Minister.

The ultimate security for Israel lies in your resolution of the Palestinian Question.

The renewal and elevation of Israel’s moral standing lies in that resolution as well.

Thank you for heeding what I am saying. I speak for all knowledgeable and responsible American Citizens of all Religions and Ethnicity.

Sincerely,

Citizen Paul, President and Founder
Goals for Americans Foundation

An Israeli shell or bomb explodes on a target in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on January 13, 2009.

A Palestinian woman holds up a portrait of her son, Nedal, one of 29 members of the Samuni family killed during Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’, as UN lead investigator Richard Goldstone arrived to inspect destruction at the Samuni family home in Gaza City on June 3, 2009.

AAPAC – All American Political Action Committee^®

WWPAC – Worldwide Political Action Committee^™

Watch their movie GAZA LIVES ON below.

See this dynamic series of movies from Beirut Lebanon from The Never Before Campaign.

Kurdistan includes the three Provinces of DAHUK, ARBIL AND SULAYMANIYAH.

The concept of FEDERALISM was incorporated into the political future of Iraq because of the ethno-sectarian violence that was tearing the country apart. The Constitutional writers recognized that the warring factions in Iraq might never reconcile their ethnic, religious and tribal grievances and blood feuds. They provided FEDERALISM as a mechanism to separate these factions to some degree while still maintaining a unified country – the FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF IRAQ.

As we see it in its most basic form, a FEDERAL REPUBLIC would break down into a predominately SUNNI REGION, a SHIA REGION, a MIXED REGION and the existing KURDISTAN. BAGHDAD PROVINCE, with its dense population, could be a REGION in and of itself, with Baghdad City remaining the Iraqi capital.

Why is FEDERALISM so critical right now?

The city of BAGHDAD is the perfect example of why REGIONS must be established, before it is too late.

On Oct. 25, massive suicide car bombs, killing more than 150 and injuring hundreds more, once again shook Baghdad. The Justice Ministry and the Provincial Council Buildings were destroyed as once again, the very heart of the Iraqi government has been targeted. Iraq continues to self-destruct before our eyes!

Until mid-summer, the various factions within the sprawling city were separated by a complicated maze of blast walls and traffic barriers. Al-Malaki started removing these barriers in Aug. as a crass political move to bolster his credentials as the prime minister who brought security to the country.

Shortly afterwards, the latest wave of truck and suicide bombings started up in Baghdad and across the countryside, including the horrific double-truck bombings that destroyed two ministry buildings. Al-Malaki quickly reversed the policy, his reputation seriously damaged as the number of dead and injured dramatically increased.

These latest Oct. bombings will weaken him all the more!

THE GREATER QUESTION THUS BECOMES: As American forces begin to drawn down in earnest, will the ethno-sectarian violence flare up with even greater intensity, laying bare the hollowness of al-Malaki’s security claims?

The terrible bombings that have taken place through Sept. and Oct. indicate to us that Iraq is far from secure, and that the next phase of sectarian civil warfare could already be in motion. The Obama administration must wake up and recognize this terrible possibility as well, and to take actions to head it off.

Two powerful forces are on parallel tracks right now in Iraq: The Jan 2010 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS and the BOMBING AND ASSASSSINATION CAMPAIGN.

Regardless of how the election comes out, and who the next prime minister is, we believe the United States MUST renegotiate the STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT so our troops can remain on hand to deal with an emerging civil war.

The next Parliament MUST move quickly forward with the implementation of FEDERALISM once and for all!

With that in mind, we have taken this opportunity to provide a hypothetical map of THE REGIONS OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF IRAQ. These five regions generally correspond to the main concentrations of SUNNI, SHIITE and MIXED POPULATIONS, as well as recognizing KURDISTAN as the de facto KURDISH REGION.

Like KURDISTAN, these theoretical regions would have the right to establish their own government, judiciary and security forces. And like KURDISTAN, they could have their own regional Constitution as long as it didn’t contradict the national Constitution.

This point is especially critical because Iraq already is facing a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS in the form of the new KURDISTAN CONSTITUTION, which gives Kurdish courts the right to declare Kurdish Law superior to Iraq Law, if a conflict arises,

The Iraqi Constitution allows for the formation of REGIONS, but it does not mandate it! It is a Constitutional choice and option for like-minded Provinces, should they decide to come together.

We not only see the value in REGIONS, we see the absolute necessity of it!

The national government has abdicated its responsibility to implement FEDERALISM and we must call them on it. Two many critical issues have gone unresolved in Iraq for far too long, and FEDERALISM IS AT THE TOP OF THE LIST.

IF this issue is pushed off until after the election, and then ignored by the new parliament and prime minister, and the evolving civil war reaches critical mass, the possible scenarios are all terrible – for Iraq and us as well.

• As chaos once again grips the countryside, a MILITARY COUP could topple the government and a military leader could assume dictatorial powers.
• A civil war could degenerate into general anarchy, like SOMALIA.
• Neighboring countries could send troops across the borders: Saudi Arabia to defend their fellow Sunnis, Iran to defend their fellow Shiites.  The entire region could plunge into upheaval, with American forces trapped in the middle.
• KURDISTAN could declare full independence and claim the oil fields around KIRKUK as their own, setting off a conflict with Turkey.

OUR MAP OF REGIONS represents the most realistic chance for avoiding a complete breakdown of Iraqi social order. As the recent cycle of bombings demonstrates, Iraqi society is violent and fragile and unstable. And we can clearly see that the more our military pulls back, the worse it gets. The Success of the Surge is falling apart.

We must FIRST suspend the STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT. We must then put all available pressure on the new Iraqi government to move quickly forward with FEDERALISM so these warring factions can separate into secure REGIONS.

OUR MAP OF REGIONS illustrates a peaceful possible future for Iraq.

This map will save Iraq by creating its future, like its glorious past, as the sister city of Babylon that is pictured in the Jan./Feb. 2010 of The National Interest (inside front cover).

With the powerful continued stewardship of Iraq by both America and the UN, we can create Iraq’s new future that will again give it the ancient glory of Baghdad and Babylon.

America and the United Nations must except the continuing partnership and stewardship with and of Iraq for the benefits of their entire population, the harmony of the Middle East – and a model for other countries in the world to follow.

The future belongs to us – but only if we stay together continuously as partners dedicated to the power of human intelligence and cooperation…

Here’s to our mutual success!

Iraqi soldiers inspect the site of a car bomb attack in al-Qahira neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq on 8 December 2009. At least 112 were killed and 197 others injured in the wave of blasts that ripped through the Iraqi capital earlier today, police said

THE SUCCESS:

After many weeks of intense sectarian conflict and bitter negotiations, the IRAQI PARLIAMENT has finally approved the long-awaited ELECTION REFORM LAW. These reforms were essential if the 2010 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS were to have any legitimacy.

Without the reforms that have just been incorporated into the new law, the country faced the very real possibility that major ethnigroups would boycott the elections, setting the stage for a renewal of the 2006 civil war.

The elections are now tentatively scheduled for March 6, almost two months behind the original Jan. 12 date. If this schedule does not stand, a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS will ensue and the current government will automatically dissolve.

The reform law was originally passed in early November, but Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, vetoed it. He demanded more representation for Sunnis living abroad, which number well over three million. The Kurds in turn demanded more representation for minorities in the disputed Northern Territories around Kirkuk.

The impasse these new demands created lead to intense American and UN involvement to break the deadlock and avoid the Constitutional crisis of a dissolved government.

Without the reform laws, the High Electoral Commission was paralyzed and unable to prepare for the elections. This is not a process that can be rushed to completion, especially without a firm election date to work around.

We know that both President Obama and Vice President Biden got involved by talking directly with Massoud Barzani. The Kurds had two other demands that have been met to their satisfaction – for now.

The Kurds have been pushing for a new census in the Northern Territories – the border regions between Kurdistan and northern Iraq – because they believe it will reflect a greater number of Kurds and Kurdish sympathizers then the 2005 census. They have now been promised a 2010 CENSUS, to be monitored by the UN.

The Kurds will now have 43 seats in Parliament instead of their current 38 seats. The 2010 Parliament will have 325 seats.

And most importantly, Obama and Biden promised the Kurds that the FINAL STATUS OF KIRKUK will be determined in 2010 according to parameters set out in the IRAQI CONSTITUTION.

Our reading of this development is that the FEDERALISM that is offered in the Iraqi Constitution will finally be allowed to play out – that the PROVINCES will be given the opportunity to come together as REGIONS. If this is, in fact, what Obama and Biden have promised the Kurds, then all of our remaining influence will have to be brought into play to force the new government to move forward with FEDERALISM.

The Kurds believe that if given the opportunity under FEDERALISM, Kirkuk Province (At Ta’min Province) will join the existing KURDISTAN REGION, thus giving Kurdistan the complete control over the oil-rich area they have long coveted.

The main obstacle to Federalism has always been the Shia Political Class, because Federalism would dilute the powers of the central government in Baghdad, and Shiites are clearly going to hold onto the majority of Parliamentary seats in the 2010 election, and once again be in a position to appoint the next prime minister. The last thing they are going to do is give up power voluntarily.

We’ve been arguing for years that a SHIA THEOCRACY would attempt to hang onto power, whatever it took.

In this sense, the coming year will be the FINAL SHOWDOWN ON FEDERALISM IN IRAQ. And Obama and Biden must keep their promises and make it happen!

The reform law also calls for OPEN LIST election ballots instead of the CLOSED LIST system that discredited past elections.

THE TRAGEDY

Just as Iraq was celebrating the final approval of the long-awaited Election Reform Law, the country was once again torn apart on Dec. 8th by a series of massive car bombs aimed at government and civilian targets. The new Finance Ministry building was destroyed – the original building having been destroyed in the Aug. 9^th attacks. Also targeted in Baghdad was a complex of federal court buildings as well as the Labor Ministry. Beyond Baghdad, a series of roadside bombs were detonated, killing four American soldiers along with many Iraqi civilians and police officers.

Over 110 people have died from these attacks and hundreds more have been wounded.

Will Iraq ever see an end to this kind of horrific violence? Will every step forward in Iraq be answered with three bloody steps backwards?

The targeting of American patrols with roadside bombs has particularly ominous implications. Are we seeing the beginning of a new insurgency, aimed at us once again?

The thousands of SONS OF IRAQ militiamen have long since become disillusioned with us and our failure to force al-Malaki to make good on his promise to hire them into the security services and our civilian jobs. Could these intentional attacks on our patrols represent the next bloody phase of our entanglement in Iraq’s endless cycles of violence?

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Sunni terrorists with al-Qaeda connection have claimed responsibility for the Oct. and Dec. bombings with this announcement: “The young men of Islam…set off to target the citadels of evil, the nests of infidelity and the centers of the rejectionist (Shiite) government. We are determined to uproot this government and pull down the pillars and target its points of strength. The list of targets will not end until the banner of one God is once again raised over Baghdad.”

Sadly, this group represents just one aspect of the multi-headed monster that we have come to know as Islamic fundamentalism.  All of the militant Jihadi groups that assemble under this banner – the many heads of the monster – have one thing in common: They all are capable and willing to use deplorable violence to express their beliefs and to advance their campaigns of terror, even against their fellow Moslems.

In the case of this group, they are waging a cowardly truck-bomb war against innocent civilians in order to destabilize the Shiite government – their fellow Moslems.  During the terrible months of 2005/2006, as ethno-sectarian warfare terrorized Iraqi cities, it was Sunni insurgents exterminating Shiites and Shiite death squads and rogue militias exterminating Sunnis and driving them out of entire communities, creating a refugee crisis that lingers to this day.

Radical Islam is a cancer that will destroy Iraq’s fragile democracy if it is not controlled. There are many failures in Iraq today that have contributed to the horrid success of these bombings. First and foremost is the obvious incompetence and corruption within the security services – the very people who time and again allow these bombers access to their targets.

We know that a number of the security people involved in the Oct. targets have been arrested for accepting bribes and allowing the car bombs through the high-security checkpoints to get right up to their targets.

We also know that the Iraqi security services use a worthless bomb-detecting ‘wand’ at their check points – a piece of junk the Iraqi government paid millions for.

Corruption and incompetence in the Iraqi security establishment have created a deplorable vacuum that allows these terrorists to strike at will. And as their statement says, they intend to continue their bombing campaign.

Six years into this war and occupation, Iraq is still plagued from within by the multi-headed monster of Radical Islam. Reconciliation has failed.

It’s not too late for Obama and Biden to assert our still-considerable influence in Iraq.

Regardless of the Iraqi election results, they must be relentless in making FEDERALISM IN IRAQ a reality. It still represents the most realistic and immediate hope for separating the rival ethno-religious factions in Iraq before they destroy the country from within!

72.  The Mission acknowledges that the supply of humanitarian goods, particularly foodstuffs, allowed into Gaza by Israel temporarily increased during the military operations.  The level of goods allowed into Gaza before the military operations, however, was insufficient to meet the needs of the population even before hostilities started, and has again decreased after the end of the military operations. From the facts ascertained by it, the Mission believes that Israel has violated its obligation to allow free passage of all consignments of medical and hospital objects, food and clothing (article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention).  The Mission also finds that Israel violated specific obligations it has as Occupying Power spelled out in the Fourth Geneva Convention, such as the duty to maintain medical and hospital establishments and services and to agree to relief schemes if the occupied territory is not well supplied.

73.  The Mission also concludes that in the destruction by Israeli armed forces of private residential houses, water wells, water tanks, agricultural land and greenhouses there was a specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance to the population of the Gaza Strip.  The Mission finds that Israel violated its duty to respect the right of the Gaza population to an adequate standard of living, including access to adequate food, water and housing.  The Mission moreover finds violations of specific human rights provisions protecting the rights of children, particularly those who are victims of armed conflict, women and the disabled.

74.  The conditions of life in Gaza, resulting from deliberate actions of the Israeli forces and the declared policies of the Government of Israel – as they were presented by its authorized and legitimate representatives – with regard to the Gaza Strip before, during and after the military operation, cumulatively indicate the intention to inflict collective punishment on the people of the Gaza Strip in violation of international humanitarian law.

75.  Finally, the Mission considered whether the series of acts that deprive Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of sustenance, employment, housing and water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own country, that limit their access a court of law and an effective remedy, could amount to persecution, a crime against humanity.

From the facts available to it, the Mission is of the view that some of the actions of the Government of Israel might justify a competent court finding that crimes against humanity have been committed.

Dear Congressman Who Voted to Oppose UN Report on Human Rights Abuse in Gaza:

The House’s vote to oppose unequivocally the Goldstone Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (H.Res. 867) on November 3, 2009, was a travesty.

To vote to call on the President and Secretary of State to oppose any endorsement or further consideration of a report on human rights abuse without even reading the report summary was stupid.  To assume that Israel must be right in every situation without considering the facts is unfair to Gaza, Israel, the United States, and humanity as a whole.  Israel has grown up to be a big bully in the Middle East.  It does not warrant or need America’s unconditional support.  If the United States lets Israel get away with murder another time without any regard for the victims, we will be announcing to the world that America does not care about human rights or humanity.  How shameful!

We at Goals for Americans Foundation are thankful that the resolution is nonbinding, but we are aware that the message the House sent to the rest of the world makes the United States look as bad as Israel.  Please study the report you were so quick to dismiss.  The only fair and intelligent thing to do is to invite Justice Richard Goldstone to the House of Representatives for hearings.  He is a proud, honest, Orthodox Jewish South African.  This should make his report more credible for you.  The report is quite fair.  It criticizes Hamas and other small armed Palestinian militias as well as Israel, but finds that Israel is guilty of more human rights abuse.

Please do the right thing.  Read the report executive summary, criticize what you find wrong with it, but don’t blindly condemn the whole thing.  The American reputation for fairness and belief in and support for human rights is at stake here.  Do you really want to sacrifice that just to support Israel unconditionally?  As one of your own, Congressman Brian Baird (who went to Gaza and Israel right after the war), wrote:

“At the end of the day, this is also about our own domestic security.  If we are seen internationally as condoning violations of human rights and international law, if our money and our weaponry play a leading role in those violations, and if we reflexively obstruct the findings of someone with the credentials, history, and integrity of Justice Goldstone, it can only diminish our international standing and our own security.”

We agree with Congressman Baird and are ashamed that your vote indicates that you don’t!

Sincerely,

President
Goals for Americans Foundation

Click here to view some of this report!