Jefferson Corner

The views I express here may offend some, but I will say it any way. I was one of the millions in Iraq and around the Arab world who were very happy and celebrated the capture of Saddam Hussein on 14 December 2003 and was even happier when he was hanged on 30 December 2006. The only regret I have is that it took a foreign invasion and for the wrong reasons to bring down Saddam and his regime. One has to wonder what kind of Iraq we will have today if the people of Iraq did what the people of Tunisia and Egypt did? And if the Iraqi Army did what the Egyptian and Tunisian armies did when they took the side of the people, avoiding all the humiliations, the shame it brought upon itself, when it chose to side with a failed leader who failed the army before failing the people. Just imagine the millions of lives that could have been saved, the hundred of billions wasted on a war that not only destroyed Iraq but failed to rebuild it and failed to usher in a new democratic, transparent and accountable government, turning Iraq into a failed state like it was under Saddam. Read the rest of this entry »

For the past few days, I have been watching live news reports of the unraveling and dismantling of Hosni Mubarak police state, with officers and commanders of the “state security service” or “amn aldwla” on the run after succeeding in shredding hundreds of millions of very important files implicating the Mubarak regime in torture, cold blooded murder, invasion of privacy and abuse of citizens rights with the entire force of 1.4 million strong serving Mubarak, his cronies, business associates and his political allies. When it became clear General Ahmed Shafiq was on his way out, deliberate fires were set to offices of state security services all over the country. Citizens came to the rescue but it was too late in many instances. Read the rest of this entry »

The message from President Obama and Secretary Clinton to Mahmoud Abbas and Ramallah leadership is very clear. Mahmoud Abbas message to the US should also be equally clear. Mahmoud Abbas should travel to New York address the UN General Assembly and Security Council and announce the disbanding of the PLO/PA and declaring Oslo Accord as “null and void”, and throw the keys of the Occupation at the White House. The US casting its standard “Veto” at the UN Security Council should not come as a big surprise to the Ramallah leadership and other Arab countries long advocates and supporters of the US sponsored “no-peace” process. There is no peace, there is no process there is only Occupation and the ever present US “Veto”. For God sake disband the PLO/PA as enablers of the Occupation and as the legal and contractual party with the Israeli Occupation. Read the rest of this entry »

Mahmoud Abbas whose tenure as elected president of the Palestinian Authority expired over two years ago, and who has no legal or constitutional legitimacy accepted and then re-commissioned Salam Fayyad to form a new government. Of course the government of Salam Fayadh never received the legitimacy it needed since it did not receive the approval of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), which the PLO and Fatah leadership rendered inoperative after Hamas won and Fatah was badly routed in the election. With the support of Egypt’s Mubarak/Suleiman, Israel, the US and of course Fatah, the PLC came to a halt and for all practical purpose ceased to exist through the concerted efforts of the PLO Executive Committee and Fatah. Read the rest of this entry »

Poor Mahmoud Abbas and his Ramallah entourage, they must be feeling down on their luck. Ramallah leadership lost friends and allies left and right. It lost Ehud Olmert and Tizpi Livni who waged war on Gaza killing thousands and leveling Gaza to the ground and it lost a team that expanded the settlement at an accelerated rate and continued to build the Apartheid Wall. Ramallah also lost close confident and ally in Bin Ali and lost two close allies and confidants in Hosni Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, two men where were key architect to the siege of Gaza standing in the way of Palestinian reconciliations.  Ramallah not only lost close friends and allies it lost most favored destination (rest and recreation) in Sharm El-Sheik. Ramallah must be grieving and accepting condolences. Read the rest of this entry »

The issue of continuing and expanding Jewish settlements came back to haunt the Palestinian leadership that negotiated Oslo and continued to negotiate with Israel for the last 16 years while Israeli continued to build and expand its settlements, not to mention building the Apartheid Wall. Read the rest of this entry »