Thursday, May 25, 2017

Robert Fisk: When Peace is a Commodity: Trump in the Middle East

I said that there was no real news in the MSM but Robert Fisk of the Independent is different. I can't see that what he says here would ever get printed in the Guardian, a paper I used to love.  I might send this to George Monbiot asking why don't we get news like this in his paper?


In Riyadh, Trump couldn’t mention where most of the 9/11 hijackers came from or whose Sunni cult-faith was the inspiration for Isis – nor which country chopped off heads with Isis-like relish. (Answer: Saudi Arabia). And when he arrived in Israel on Monday, Trump was faced with a new censorship protocol: don’t mention who was occupying whose property in the West Bank or which country was outrageously and continuously stealing land – legally owned by Arabs – for Jews and Jews only. (Answer: Israel). 
So bingo, in the biggest Middle East alliance ever created in history, the Saudis and the other Sunni Arab dictators and America’s crackpot President and Israel’s cynical Prime Minister have all agreed on the identity of the devil country they can all curse with one voice, inspirer of “world terror”, instigator of Middle East instability, the greatest threat to world peace: Shia Iran. 
No wonder Trump tried to stick to his prepared script. Otherwise he might do something sane. Like congratulate Iran’s new president on his electoral victory and for promising to stick to the nuclear agreement; like demanding an end to Israeli occupation and Israeli colonisation of Arab land; like telling the tired old dictators and princes of the Arab world that the only way they can rid themselves – and America – of “terror” is by treating their people with dignity and safeguarding their human rights. But no, that’s far too sensible and fair and just and moral – and far too complicated — for a man who long ago fell off the edge of reality and entered Twitterworld. So there he was talking of the “ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians – as if peace was just a commodity to be bought or sold. Like the one he’d just fixed in Saudi Arabia: guns for oil and dollars.
When Peace is a Commodity: Trump in the Middle East 

2 comments:

Peter Pan said...

Technically, this piece is a guest editorial, not news.

Here's another:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/25/the-rise-of-the-alt-center/

“My yacht is only 500 meters longer than an aircraft carrier because some fucking kid in Detroit still has the luxury of eating lead and ketchup for breakfast”

lastgreek said...

Thanks for posting, Kaivey. I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Fisk when he came to Montreal to give a public lecture on his book "Lebanon: Pity the Nation" in the late 90s.

Over at Taleb's twitter account, and specifically regarding Trump mistakenly assuming that Israel is not in the Middle East ... it's funny how Taleb excuses this latest Trump stupidity as Trump "being right from intuition." And it's not just this once. Every gaffe or screw-up by Trump according Taleb is nothing more than a brilliant, clever ploy.

Btw, if you follow Taleb on twitter, you'll notice that he's obsessed with his genes. The thought that he may have some Arabic blood running thru his veins must keep him up late at night ...lol

NassimNicholasTaleb‏ @nntaleb May 24
Zalloua has 12K DNA samples, largest DB for Phoenicia.
He just hired me as his data scientist for the Levant Project (unaware of my temper).


NassimNicholasTaleb‏ @nntaleb

Replying to @nntaleb @PZalloua
4 Arabs did not settle in the coastal Levant
5 Data shows distinction between Canaanites & Hebrews, doesn't contradict Biblical claims


I duuno, he kinda looks like an Arab to me. What? Me tell him? No siree bob, I'm not going to tell him -- Matt can tell him; of course,after he's done explaining to him how a modern economy works ;)