Blogroll Me!
The Real Middle-East Deal Re: Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria et al ...
As eager as we pair ever are to strive to explain, enlighten and educate -- this afternoon we scoured cyber-space to secure the simplest sort of (diagrammatic) map of the middle east, as we could muster.
Hopefully it will help even the most seriously geographically challenged, as well as the plain pig-ignorant inhabitants of far-off lands we'd rather remained nameless right now. And for This Old Brit's and Richard's (more, shall we say) mature peers, who finished full time, mandatory education quite a while ago, it should serve to jog some memories.
Perhaps eye-balling the map will make it easier for many to follow the plot. And please note that we chose the last word of the preceding sentence, particularly intentionally.
However, to further help put you all in the picture -- as literally as is possible via such a virtual medium as the one we are using -- we're calling upon the expert knowledge of a group of several specialists -- and one in particular.
So for anyone honestly interested in a genuinely, political-party-free insight of what's really 'going down' re: Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, etc -- below are two brilliant blog sources that are both must-reads and must-bookmarks. You'd better believe it.
1./ From/to markfromireland
2./ Gorrila's Guides:
Questions and answers on hostilities. Plus ... Israeli assault on Lebanon.
Incidentally, if you're also interested in Iraq (and who isn't), congratulations, you just hit the jackpot. Both blogs above are tailor-made for you -- they should suit you to a 'T'.
Well, what are you waiting for?
Do you want facts instead of fiction, or what?
Then hit those links.
Don't stop to think about it -- just go -- get thee gone.
You'll be glad you did: we guarantee it.
*
posted by Richard at Monday, July 17, 2006
30 Comments:
Thank you for the excellent map. I will be the first to admit to being geographically challenged.
Here ya go graniab and all ~ couple more relevant maps.
Maps are great. I think it is impossible to get any semblance of an idea of what is going on in any conflict without literaly being familiar with the territory. A picture is worth a thiusand word (again!).
It isn't called Geopolitics for nothing.
Here's a page with lots of maps and information to start with.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/greater-israel-maps.htm
.
When the burning of the books finaly starts in America, the first ones to be thrown on the pire will be Atlases.
(That is if they can find any there)
And I an only HALF joking, btw.
Lots of interesting maps here-
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/iraq.html
Of interest is this map of kurdish pop.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/kurdish_lands_92.jpg
This area includes oilfields in Turkey and Syria. This contributes to why T &S keep the Kurds down and also why Israel is playing nice to them - training their soldiers etc.
Now look at theis aspirational map of Kurdistan according to the KNC which I thinkit is reasonable to assume has the blessing of the Neo-Cons -
http://www.kncna.org/docs/map.asp
Note that it extends way down past their acknowledged territory to include the oilfields on Iran!
Also not that it runs parallel and close to the Euphrates River which is the aspirational Eastern Border of Greater Israel as seem in link on my previous post.
Israel would make great partners in the oil business I'm sure. All pumped, of course, to Haifa via Syria. They would also hope to pipe oil from the Central Asian Basin across Syria.
Israel then would have a major choke hold on Europes oil supplies.
It's not that complicated really. Israel is not viable economically and will perish if it doesn't manage to steal water resources from Lebanon and Oil from Iraq and neighbours.
It is a survival issue for them but it is not primarily military in nature; it is economic. Israel is suffering a population drain and has to do something pretty damn fast.
Pardon all the typos!
It should also read that - Israel and the Kurds would make great partners -
I have comea cross maps showing the oilfields in Syria and Turkey (and Iran). Still looking for them again.
Wish I'd bookmark the bloody things!
Maps are great things, no?
And here's an article on attacking Syria and Iran that is worth revisiting-
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20CH20050501&articleId=66
.
That's about the best dot-connecting tool I've seen for a while. Let's hope those who see it know how to use.
Well done, Old Brit. And well done to markfromireland and his friends - their work should be essential reading for all the self appointed experts and armchair pundits -- they may even learn something.
I wonder why I've never found you before? No matter - I've definately got some new favourites no.
I love the way you keep it simple and pull no punches. While you keep blogging I'm going to keep reading.
Thank you for your work. It shoul certainly enlighten many. So should those other blogs you've given links for.
From the wireservices:
Canada wants Israel and Lebanon to garantee they will not attack six ships scheduled to pick up Canadians stranded in the strife-torn country.
Six chartered passenger ships are expected to arrive at the port of Beirut on Wednesday. They will be able to transport an estimated 4500 Canadians a day. (To Ciprus)
"We want assurances that those ships will be protected and afforded the utmost safety" Foreign Affairs Minister Mac Kay said on CBC Newsworld.
As many as 50 000 Canadians are believed to be in Lebanon. The bulk of them are thought to have dual citizenship, and are permanent residents of Lebanon and unlikely to leave.
About 5 000 are visiting relatives for the summer holidays, something they do every year.
CBC reported on Tuesday from Beirut that the Canadian Embassy sent an e-mail to everyone who registered with the embassy to 'fill them in' on the evacuation plan.
Officials told the Canadian Press that the federal government ordered a military reconnaissance squad to go to Lebanon to ensure Canadians' safety and offer logistical advice.
Hi Richard,
Thanks for the plug Mark's just published two postings today one on the conditions of Iraq's children - be warned it makes very upsetting reading.
"46. On 26 June, 10 children were reported to be among at least forty people killed in targeted explosions on two crowded markets in Hilla and Ba'quba. Three children were reported as casualties in June clashes between the MNF-I and anti-Coalition forces in Maysan. Conversely, MNF-I informed UNAMI that only one insurgent was killed in this incident. In the first week of May, Iraqi police reported finding a group of 100 brutally murdered people in Karbala, among them a 13-year-old child.
47. In one case the body of a 12-year-old Osama was reportedly found by the Iraqi Police in a plastic bag after his family paid a ransom of some 30,000 US dollars. The boy had been sexually assaulted by the kidnappers, before being hanged by his own clothing. The police captured members of this gang who confessed of raping and killing many boys and girls before Osama."
The second posting is on today's Kufa bombing - he explains how its part of a pattern.
I tested the links in your posting. The one that reads
"Questions and answers on hostilities." goes to blogger's version of 404.
I think it's a copy/paste error. The link should go to here:
in text that is:
[
http://gorillasguides.blogspot.com/2006/07/questions-and-answers-on-hostilities.html
]
Thank you again. We hope Mark will be back soon. We got an email from him today. He is OK not very happy, actually very unhappy indeed, no that's not right either. I'll try again.
He is both horrified and incandescent at what he is seeing and hearing.
Erdla
Link fixed - back later - wife says food's on table ready to eat.
Very good links. Just imagine if we Americans, who are having our opinions so heavily massaged at the moment, would take a step back and figure out how things came to this pass. Like the border shenanigans which led to Israel's strikes on bridges and airport and infrastructure of what I thought was a sovereign country. Instead, I see Madeleine Albright itching for the whip of power which she lost at the end of Clinton's term. I see her feebly wishing Condi would get going with a diplomatic initiative, but quite resigned to the Israeli operation without any restrictions on its actions. I see at least someone paying some attention to Americans and Lebanese Americans caught in the crossfire without warning. I live in a predominantly Jewish New England town. Not ten miles away is a large Lebanese-American community. I would hate this to turn into a Napoleon of Notting Hill scenario. Must I cross over to the Catholics in that event, as I was born one? Hope it never comes to that. Seems my ancestors left Ireland in the hope that America stood for something else. Little did they imagine it would one day stand for unconditional support for Israeli in all its actions. While the President talks dirty with food in his mouth and reaches for his revolver....
You know the only real thing wrong with Lebanon, Palestine and Syria AND Iran?
The US [nor it's outsourced hoodlum-hit-men, Israel] don't effing OWN them. And they think they should. Regardless of the deaths, carnage, misery, suffering etc they cause [directly or indirectly] in pursuit of satisfying their glutony.
Make no mistake - Israel is doing the US-neocon-cabal administration's bidding. Tney staged a coup 6 years ago - and hardly anybody noticed.
And to think that once the US stood for something;something called civilisation.
Now, along with Israel, they're the pariahs of this world.
From Chris floyd again (I'm on commission)-
"American citizens in Lebanon are at dire risk of being killed by Israeli bombs, despite the fact that few if any of these citizens have even the slightest connection to Hezbollah, because the IDF is methodically laying waste to the whole country regardless of how many civilians they kill, or where they might come from.
This is what the Bush Administration is saying – through deeds, not words – with this evacuation. It is a remarkable admission. Yet at the same time, the Bushists are sending $210 million worth of vital jet fuel supplies to Israel to help run the IDF war machine (which is already well-stoked by American largess) as it wages mass slaughter and threatens the lives of up to 25,000 Americans. Obviously, Bush doesn't really care how many civilians the Israelis kill, or where they might come from, either.
But we have certainly arrived at yet another surreal moment in the Bush Imperium: American taxpayers are paying millions of dollars to fuel a war machine that is menacing the lives of thousands of, er, American taxpayers – who are having to pay to be rescued from the war machine they are already funding with their taxes."
Link-
http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=752&Itemid=
.
The primary Reason Israel must take territory from Lebanon (and elsewhere).
What you may take as a course of inquiry is the detailed documentation on the present situation in Israel as regards water. They are, quite simply, experiencing dramatic problems with there acquifers and so this long-planned offensive has been rushed forward.
The world is on fire. Education and information are the first and long since passed steps. Action from the grass roots, on the streets is the only answer.
The Litani River
3. Reasons to want the Litani
a. Israel
Israel could increase its annual water supply by 800 MCM (approximately 40% of its annual water consumption in 1993) if it had continued access to the Litani through continued/permanent occupation of southern Lebanon.(38) Another reason for Israel to want the Litani is that, especially along the Israeli coast, many aquifiers are stressed and their water is increasingly brackish.(39)
Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zionist Organization, wrote (around 1919-1920) to Prime Minister David Lloyd George that Lebanon was "well-watered" and that the Litani was "valueless to the territory north of the proposed frontiers. They can be used beneficially in the country much further south." He concluded the Litani was "essential to the future of the Jewish national home.'" Yet the British and French mandate powers kept the Litani entirely in Lebanon.(40)
Returning water-rich western slopes to the West Bank (acquired in the 1967 war), may be seen as relinquishing Israel's water sovereignty and threatening its national existence.(41)
A major reason that Israel gives for its use of the Litani is that Lebanon is not doing so. As evidence, Israel cites Lebanon's "Litani Project," of which only a third has markedly been realized. Yet, Lebanon argues that if it does not have control over its water and land, it will not be able to realize the potential of its water or land, or use it to the utmost.
http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/litani.htm
"Prodi told Siniora that Olmert set two conditions for a ceasefire: handover of the two captured soldiers and Hezbollah's withdrawal beyond the Litani (river)," said Aridi.
1. History/background
There has always been conflict over scarce natural resources, for instance, water. Adequate access to necessary water may be termed resource security and possible to war over. Both Lebanon and Israel see adequate supplies of water as essential to their security--and increasingly see it so. In fact, they find that there is not enough water to satisfy their wants and needs. Therefore, there exists the possibility of aggression in order to obtain water from the Litani River. In fact, "history reveals that water has frequently provided a justification for going to war: It has been an object of military conquest, a source of economic or political strength and both a tool and a target of conflict."(8)
If the demand or need for water in the riparian region is much greater than the supply, conflict over the relatively scarce water to meet those needs is more likely. This conflict may be military.
In the Israeli-Palestinian context, water is a central ingredient, perhaps only second to land, of the wider conflict between the two sides...the water conflict is not just about water; it reaches to the recesses of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to questions of land and annexation. Those are abnormal in a water conflict, and render the Israeli-Palestinian water conflict more complex and acute than others in the region.(9)
Israel seemingly is tempted to reach beyond its border to get access to the needed water. "Almost half of the water currently used in Israel is captured, diverted or preempted from its neighbors."(10) This is understandable, given water can be described as "Israel's vulnerable and fragile source of life."(11)
Israel is a riparian state, in part meaning that it must share a large portion of its surface water resources with neighboring countries. Control of water may be seen as integral to Israel's sovereignty, the need for which Israel might war over.(12) Historically, Israel has been interested in the Litani, and conflict with Lebanon over the Litani is more likely given this. Essentially, control of the Litani has long been a dream of Israel in hopes of establishing a greater Zion from Sinai to ancient Babylon.(13)
Israel hoped that it would have use of the Litani by the mid 1980s, when it projected that it would have fully used up the waters captured in the 1967 war. Israel hoped to meet this goal by securing the Litani in 1978. Israel had even included the Litani in calculations of their water resources.(22)
Israel's significant sources of water are currently exploited, and the only other source is the Litani, which, in order for Israel to use it, would have to be in Israel's possession, which could possibly happen through seizure. The only other source of additional water would be recycled water.(25)
http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/litani.htm
Pentagon OKs Possible $210 Million Jet Fuel Sale To Israel
Rebecca Christie
Dow Jones Newswires
"The Pentagon on Friday said it has approved a possible $210 million sale to Israel of JP-8 jet fuel.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the deal. Congress has the ability to block foreign military transactions but rarely steps in.
The Pentagon said it had not yet identified a contractor for the fuel. A competitive process is expected.
"This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country which has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East," the defense agency said.
"The jet fuel will be consumed while the aircraft is in use to keep peace and security in the region," the agency said."
Your taxes at work. Working for Big Oil
Thank you very, very much, Anonymous.
It's always about resources.
I might also add that Israel has been droppping leaflets telling the citizens of Southern Lebanon to evacuate to avoid being bombed and then bombing anyway to speed them on their way. They are "cleansing" the land and have been pulling this murderous stunt since 1947.
Griffon, I sure appreciate the relevant background research you do. It "fleshes out" whatever topic is at hand.
It is certainly true that there is almost always a critically important resource need behind most conflicts.
That last "anonymous" was me. Sorry about that mistake.
You're very welcome, Rosemary.
And it's nice to have a place like Richard's (and Mark's) to put the links up.
A million thanks for the info, links & everything else.
I've been watching with my jaw on the flaw, Britons trying to evacuate Lebanon with the help of tht Royal Navy - and without all the help they are entitiled to expect from HM Government via the embassy.
Men, women & kids of all ages, in all manner of states of health - physical and mental.
I cannot believe what is going on. Civilian areas ARE being bombed - I repeat - civilian areas ARE being bombed - knowingly - by Israel.
They are obviously intent in anihilating the indigenous poulation (plus anyone else in their way] and raising the the whole country to the ground.
If this was ANYONE else Britain would have, at the very least, broken off all diplomatice relations with this Pariah warmomgering nation by now.
I did know a little of the needs to steal certain resource [and valuable coastlines, which so far nobody has mentioned] - but right now that's no consolation to the thousands of innocent victims of so many different nationalities - including around 25,000 Americans and over 5,000 Britons.
We, those at home in both cuntries should be taking to the streets. We should be doing whatever it takes to make our governments stamp on Israel -- yeah, I said stamp.
On a side note, I've been out & about this morning talking to many people - just passers by in the streets and stores - and you know what? I came across NOT A SINGLE ONE who has not had enough of Israel AND America AND Blair, the poodle.
If it was anyone's intention to fire up what's commonly called anti-semitism, they've suceeded - beyond their wildest dreams. The sad thing is that, as always, innocent Jews who played no part in any of this will become the easist targets all over the world, btw, for so many to vent their spleens on. And I'm not talking just about verbal abuse. Mark my words.
I'll try to publish fresh blog about this later. Right now, I'm watching scenes which I think I'm dreaming. God damn all those Israelis who lend, in whatever way[s] their support to ANY of this.
Get that? God damn you to hell. Though perhaps even hell won't have you.
And yeah, that right, this post was made in hot blooded anger. But waiting wouldn't have changed my current frame of mind, not for the better anyway. And yeah, it's probably busting with typos, grammatical/spelling errors, etc. But so what? I'm not sitting a bloody English test. I'm trying to help get info & truth out.
So, if you don't like it, lump it. Okay?
So well said, Mate.
You don't need no rehearsal!
So well said, Mate.
You don't need no rehearsal!
The Old Brit said:
If it was anyone's intention to fire up what's commonly called anti-semitism, they've suceeded - beyond their wildest dreams. The sad thing is that, as always, innocent Jews who played no part in any of this will become the easist targets all over the world, btw, for so many to vent their spleens on. And I'm not talking just about verbal abuse.
Lemme tell ya'll :He got that right. Israel is Juadaeism's worst enemy, bar none, but most Jews are to arrogant to admit it.
Same with the US, Bush and more than 50% of 'Merkins.
So no wonder no one stands a chance with 'Merkin Jews' ~~ they're beyond redemption.
What's to add? It's all been said.
Maybe this ...
Hell? it isn't hot enough for these extreme right wing warmongers. They see any other humans as animals to be slaughtered.
I've recently heard 50% of the Israelis did not support the settlement expansions and the recent cut-backs in food deliveries to the Palestinians, let alone the bombardment and so on.
If this is true, why have they not been heard from? Why do they have NO influence on what Israel is doing now, both on Palestine and on Lebanon?
That question is bothering me a LOT.
I'm 100% with you Richard on everything you said.
There is an elegant word for, what just happened with you and it's called righteous anger.
And I say it out loud with you, I had just about enough as a Gentile of being treated as a moron and a sheeple.
I can see through most of your deceptions, lies and intimidation tactics, I can debate the vast majority of Zionist Jews out there and I can defeat them in the arena of ideas.
You are only distinguished by your own self-imposed separateness from the rest of Humanity, which you plan to exploit, enslave and worse. God will never going to allow that to happen and the punishment will be harsh, as he always delt with you that way, for your blasphemous waywardness.
There is a Divine curse on Israel and nothing you will do, will change that, other than extend the misery and the suffering to others. The end result and the Wrath of God will be the same.
t0V9aJ The best blog you have!
Post a Comment
<< Home