Why Should Europeans Protect Israel?

WHY SHOULD EUROPEANS PROTECT ISRAEL?

PEJ News, Canada
Peace, Earth and Justice News
Aug. 30, 2006

ICH ~ Robert Fisk ~ The enlarged Nato/Unifil force is not going to
preserve ‘peace’

First, it was to be a 15,000-strong foreign army to reinforce the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, Unifil. Now it is to be
about 7,500. And it will not disarm Hizbollah. And anyway, Hizbollah
refuses to be disarmed.

Why Should Europeans Protect Israel?

Robert Fisk

Information Clearing House

The French would send 200 men; then they sent 400. Then the
Italians would send 3,000. Then the French would send another 2,000,
making their total contribution 2,600, including the company that
has remained in Unifil since the French were hurled out of the
peacekeeping organisation back in 1986 after fighting Shia militias
in the Lebanese village of Marrake (of which no mention will be made,
any more than it is on the BBC). And now the Belgians might send 700.

And the Turks? Well, the Lebanese Armenians are objecting to their
contribution on the grounds – perfectly accurate, though the BBC will
not tell you this – that the Turkish army perpetrated the genocide
of one and a half million Christian Armenians in 1915.

Oh, what a wondrous plot we weave when first we practise to deceive.

This, of course, applies to everyone in the Lebanese swamp.

Self-deception – or self-delusion – has become a cancer throughout
both the Middle East and the west; and amid the EU countries that
are now bidding to send their young men to sacrifice their lives
in Lebanon. They are going to preserve peace, we are told; they are
going to maintain a ceasefire; they are going to save lives.

So a big Ho-Ho-Ho from the world of reality. The enlarged Nato/Unifil
force is not going to preserve "peace". It is going to maintain a "
buffer" zone to protect Israel after the latter’s dismal failure to
destroy, disarm and liquidate the Iranian-armed Hizbollah guerrilla
army over the past seven weeks. The UN may deny that it is a buffer
zone for the Israelis – but if it was a buffer zone to protect Lebanese
(the numerically higher victims of this latest war), it would be
based, surely, inside the Israeli frontier. But no, it is there to
protect Israel.

Note how the Arabs have accepted this. Note how we have accepted this –
how we have sublimely gone along with the idea that Israel’s security
and happiness are more important than the security and happiness of
the millions of Muslims also living in this region. Our soldiers are
to be deployed to protect Israel. Do we really think that the Arabs
don’t realise this? And do we think that our western governments don’t
realise this when they huff and puff over whether to send soldiers
to the Middle East?

Needless to say, the Americans and the British want no part of this
mess. After Iraq and Afghanistan, they have no stomach to defend
Israel, let alone Lebanon. Their job is to push the European masses
into the bog they have created by their injustice and cowardice in
the Middle East. President Bush promises "intelligence" assistance
to the Unifil force – which means Israeli "intelligence", and we all
know how good that is – while Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara offers not
a single hero to give his life, which is as well after his outrageous
sacrifice of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But while Europe’s other political masters dithered this week, BBC
World Service laid down a familiar narrative for its listeners. "It
seems," said their man on The World Today, that the Europeans – how
I hate these cheap cliches – "are prepared to talk the talk but not
walk the walk." In other words, those bloody Wops and Frogs and Boche,
not to mention the Dagos and the ungrateful Finns and Norwegians,
were gutless little chicken shit when it came to standing by their
European principles.

Those principles, it is now clear, are supposed to be the sacrifice of
their soldiers’ lives for the latest UN Security Council Resolution
cooked up by America and France (and, a bit, by Lord Blair) in New
York. But the BBC got it completely wrong. The Europeans are not
nervous about military losses or unclear mandates.

They had plenty of both in Bosnia.

What is happening in Europe is that a growing number of states that
had nothing to do with the Balfour Declaration or the Sykes-Picot
agreement or the 1948 Middle East war or the 1967 Middle East war or
the 1973 Middle East war or the 1982 Middle East war in Lebanon or the
1993 Israeli bombardment of Lebanon or the 1996 Israeli bombardment
of Lebanon or the latest 2006 bombardment and "petit" invasion of
Lebanon (after Hizbollah’s outrageous provocation by crossing the
international frontier) are simply sick and tired of clearing up the
dirt after these filthy Arab-Israeli wars.

Most of Europe had no part in the Balfour Declaration. Much of Europe
had an unforgivable role in the Jewish Holocaust. But the decades pass
by, and the generations now being asked to sail to the Middle East
do not even have parental guilt to absolve for the genocide of the
Jews of Europe, any more than modern Turks can be proclaimed guilty
for their grandparents’ rape and murder of one and a half million
Armenians. The Europeans, to put it mildly, are tired of being asked
to atone for the sins of their grandparents. Maybe it is time, they
are asking, for the Israelis and Arabs to pay for their own sick wars.

There is nothing immoral in this. President Bush claims that
the Israelis won their war against the Hizbollah and humbled the
organisation’s supporters in Iran and Syria. Yet not even the Israelis
claim this.

Now the Europeans – and perhaps the Turks, and certainly the poor
old Lebanese army – are supposed to achieve all Israel’s failed
objectives. And when they fail – as they assuredly will, because
Nato is not going to go to war with Islam – Israel will accuse them
of abandoning poor little Israel.

The French will be reminded – as they were under the first Unifil
mandate – that Vichy France handed its Jews to the Nazis, and
the Belgians will be reminded (no doubt) that half their country
was pro-Nazi and the Italians will be reminded that they elected
fascism into power, and the Spaniards will be reminded that Franco
was a fascist.

And the Arabs will sit silently by and watch the Europeans betray
them all over again. And the winners? Syria. Iran. And all those
enraged by the injustice and hypocrisy of our "democracies".

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BAKU: Safar Abiyev: "Azerbaijan’s Deploying Peacekeepers To Lebanon

SAFAR ABIYEV: "AZERBAIJAN’S DEPLOYING PEACEKEEPERS TO LEBANON HAS NOT BEEN DISCUSSED"

Today, Azerbaijan
Aug. 30, 2006

"Azerbaijan’s deploying peacekeeping forces to Lebanon inside
international peacekeeping contingent is not topic of discussion,"
Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Safar Abiyev told journalists.

The Minister said Azerbaijan has not been offered related to deployment
of peaceful contingent to Lebanon, APA informs.

Mr.Abiyev also said that Azerbaijani Army will not need the held of
Turkish Armed Forces if war breaks out with Armenia.

"Azerbaijani Army is strongly prepared and can carry out all
operations," he underlined.

The Minister also said the issue on establishing united armed forces
staff is not being discussed. Stating that establishing GUAM military
groups is being considered, Abiyev refused to talk about this in
detail.

URL:

http://www.today.az/news/politics/29559.html

Boiling With Rage: History And Geography: The Brotherhood Of Nations

BOILING WITH RAGE: HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY: THE BROTHERHOOD OF NATIONS
by Boris Tumanov
Translated by Elena Leonova

Source: Novoe Vremya, No. 34, August 25, 2006, p. 6
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part A (Russia)
August 28, 2006 Monday

Russia goes further than the West in everything it does; While
receiving Armenian President Robert Kocharian in Sochi last week,
President Vladimir Putin congratulated him on the successful progress
of the Year of Azerbaijan in Russia. Kocharian ventured to remind
Putin that he is the president of Armenia, not Azerbaijan – and Putin
was forced to agree.

While receiving Armenian President Robert Kocharian in Sochi last
week, President Vladimir Putin congratulated him on the successful
progress of the Year of Azerbaijan in Russia. Kocharian ventured to
remind Putin that he is the president of Armenia, not Azerbaijan –
and Putin was forced to agree.

Mixing up the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan – it’s almost as
if Putin had mistaken Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Observers are still wondering how Putin
could have made such a faux pas.

Did the resort atmosphere of Sochi make him too relaxed? Has the
well-trained memory of an intelligence officer started to fail him?

Perhaps he’s been bad at geography all his life? Or maybe the slip of
the tongue wasn’t accidental at all – was it Putin’s way of hinting to
Kocharian that Russia is changing its priorities in the South Caucasus?

In our view, none of these suggestions are accurate – since Putin’s
slip of the tongue actually indicates something completely different.

Back in the days when the world was multipolar, thanks to the existence
of a great power that called itself the Soviet Union, Soviet leaders
didn’t consider it necessary to burden themselves with knowledge of
details about all Soviet republics. Suffice it to note that some
Politburo members were sincerely convinced that the Armenians and
Azeris were fellow Muslim peoples.

Until now, Putin had never permitted himself any carelessness
with regard to former Soviet republics. He never confused Latvia
and Lithuania, Tajiks and Uzbeks, or even Russia and Ukraine. But
times have changed. Russia, as Putin himself pointed out, has risen
from its knees and is now talking to the rest of the world in the
tough language of oil and gas pipelines. And the fact that Russian
politicians have started mixing up Armenia and Azerbaijan again is
the best evidence of Russia’s new-found greatness.

Last week, the Our Own (Nashi) youth movement picketed the British
Embassy in Moscow – demanding that British Ambassador Anthony Brenton
apologize immediately for having dared to attend the Other Russia
opposition conference on July 12, shortly before the G8 summit in St.

Petersburg. Judging by the statements of the picketers, they believe
that Brenton insulted the entire Russian people by attending a
conference that was also attended by such hellspawn as Eduard Limonov
and Viktor Anpilov.

Our Own’s picket outside the British Embassy says a great deal. Most
immediately apparent is Our Own’s delay in demanding an apology
from Ambassador Brenton – six weeks after he allegedly insulted all
Russian citizens. There can be only one explanation for this delay:
the Kremlin brain center really has no idea how to keep its homuniculi
busy. Such pickets might actually become Our Own’s sole occupation:
hanging around the embassies of Western states, demanding (like the
unforgettable Father Fedor) that governments repent publicly of their
sins against Russia.

True, some might point out that in no Western country would even
the most hopeless idiot think of demanding that foreign ambassadors
apologize for meeting with representatives of the opposition –
especially such a comical opposition as the forces represented by
Limonov or Anpilov. But that’s why we’re Russia, after all – to go
further than the West in everything without exception.

Last week, passengers on a British Airways flight from Malaga to
Manchester delayed take-off by refusing to fly with some Arabs who
might have been terrorists, according to the law-abiding Britons.

These suspicions were based on the fact that the Arabs were talking
amongst themselves in their own language and wearing dark jackets.

The plane didn’t take off until the unfortunate Arabs were no longer
on board.

Such precedents have already happened in Russia, with Russian
passengers on domestic and international flights demanding that
persons of Caucasus ethnicity should be removed from the plane. This
used to be considered a phenomenon unique to our country, which is
not known for inter-ethnic tolerance. In the Malaga case, however,
the Arabs were ostracized by politically correct Europeans.

This is encouraging. When people from different countries, with
different national cultures and different social traditions, start
reacting to the same irritants in the same ways, this indicates that
the coveted progress of globalization is making great strides.

New Radio Station In Javakhk

NEW RADIO STATION IN JAVAKHK

AZG Armenian Daily
24/08/2006

Georgian representative of BBC R-studio has founded a new radio station
that will operate in the region of Ninotsminda (a region with major
Armenian community) starting from October 1. According to A-info,
the radio station will broadcast news, music and entertaining programs.

ANCA Eastern Region Announces New Executive Director

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian National Committee
Eastern United States
P.O. Box 1066
New York, NY 10040
Contact: Doug Geogerian
Tel: 917 428 1918
Fax: 718 651 3637
E-mail: ancaer@anca.org
Web:

ANCA Eastern Region Board of Directors Announces New Executive Director

New York, NY–The Armenian National Committee (ANC) Eastern Region
Board of Directors announced the hiring of ANC activist Karine Birazian
as the region ‘s new Executive Director.

"We are excited to have Karine joining our staff. As one of our
most proactive activists across the entire region, she brings
experience, energy, and an extraordinary example of dedication to her
position as Executive Director," said ANC-ER Board Chairman Dikran
Kaligian. "Karine will greatly assist the ANC to further promote
important issues of concern to Armenian Americans."

"I am thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to begin working
at the Armenian National Committee," stated Birazian. "The task ahead
promises to be exciting and, at the same time, challenging. I look
forward to working with our local chapters and activists to help
advance our interests at the local, state and federal level."

Birazian, who earned a Bachelors of Science in Nursing, is currently
a critical care nurse in Park Ridge, Illinois. Working as a nurse for
over two years, Birazian serves as chairwoman of committees within
the hospital advocating for advancing the nursing practice.

A prominent activist in the ANC of Illinois, Birazian currently
lectures to students at several schools about the Armenian Genocide.
In 2005, she worked with activists to help pass an Illinois mandate
on teaching genocide in the curriculum. She has been an leader
in the community promoting the growth of Hai Tahd, facilitating
various public forums, building coalitions with other organizations,
planning Genocide commemorations, meeting with Members of Congress, and
organizing demonstrations for the advancement of the Armenian Cause.

Current ANC Eastern Region Executive Director Doug Geogerian will
be stepping down at the end of August to return to the field of
education in the New York area. "Doug has had a distinguished and
productive two years directing the region’s Hai Tahd work. He helped
expand the breadth of ANC work into new spheres and maintained an
active schedule of visiting local ANCs, including tapping new human
resources for ANC activity in parts of Georgia, Florida, and Ohio.
We wish him great success in his endeavors and in his future work on
the ANC regional board."

The Armenian National Committee is the largest and most influential
Armenian American grassroots political organization. Working in
coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters
throughout the United States and affiliated organizations around the
world, the ANC actively advances the concerns of the Armenian American
community on a broad range of issues.

####.

http://www.anca.org/

BAKU: US-Azeri relations discussed at Washington meeting – TV

US-Azeri relations discussed at Washington meeting – TV

ANS TV, Baku
17 Aug 06

[Presenter] UN ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse has highlighted
the main aspects of bilateral economic relations during a meeting at
the US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

Derse recalled that during his visit to Washington Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev had said that Azerbaijan was developing as a
modern and democratic country with a market economy. She added that
both president and his team had said during this visit that Azerbaijan
aimed to use oil revenues as a major source to develop the non-oil
sector and expand trade relations with the USA.

ANS’s special correspondent Ali Ahmadov has the details.

[Ali Ahmadov, ANS’s special correspondent, captioned, speaking over
phone over his still picture and video of meeting] The key speaker
at the presentation ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Business Centre
in Washington was US ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse. She gave
an update on US-Azerbaijani economic relations. She said that the
two countries cooperate in different areas such as energy security,
the fight against terrorism and democracy. Generally, the USA views
Azerbaijan as its major partner in the economic area, as well as in
other areas. The main challenge is to further develop economic ties
and provide mutual assistance. Naturally, one of the main issues was
to increase the volume of US investments in Azerbaijan.

Derse said that the Azerbaijani government intended to develop the
non-oil sector. Being situated at the crossing of Asia and Europe,
Azerbaijan is a vital transport corridor. Derse mentioned the newly
commissioned Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline [designed to carry
Caspian oil to world markets] and the [Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum] gas
pipeline which is under construction. She said that these pipelines
would increase Azerbaijan’s role in the region. Touching on the
economic situation in Azerbaijan and US investment in the country,
Derse mentioned the non-oil sector. She said that the Azerbaijani
government wanted to develop the non-oil sector, including
telecommunications, agriculture and energy.

The business environment in Azerbaijan was immediately mentioned. It
was noted that there were certain problems in Azerbaijan such as
corruption and problems related to transparency. But the government
is already stepping up the fight against corruption and plans to
improve the situation in this area in accordance with international
standards. Corruption must also be tackled so that it does not prevent
Azerbaijan from spending its huge oil revenues in a very efficient way.

Investors who attended the meeting were interested in the situation
in Azerbaijan. They asked about how the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict
affected the investment climate in Azerbaijan. The ambassador said that
the conflict did not create problems for the investment climate in
Azerbaijan on the whole. There were other questions, too. It emerged
at the end of the meeting that a group of US businessmen and experts
from the US administration were expected to visit Azerbaijan soon to
hold talks with the government to resolve the problems of US companies
in Azerbaijan.

Ali Ahmadov, ANS, Washington.

Russia Ends Transfer Of Military Equipment To Armenia

RUSSIA ENDS TRANSFER OF MILITARY EQUIPMENT TO ARMENIA
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug. 17, 2006

Russia was reportedly completing on Thursday the transfer of military
equipment from one of its two Soviet-era bases in Georgia to Russian
troops stationed in Armenia.

Russian news agencies said a convoy of 13 military trucks and armored
vehicles left the Russian base in Akhalkalaki, southern Georgia, early
in the morning and was expected to cross the Armenian border in the
afternoon. Russian military officials were quoted as saying that it
is the 12th and last batch of military hardware and other equipment
sent to Armenia since the start of a gradual Russian pullout from
Georgia last May.

Under a Russian-Georgian agreement signed earlier this year, Moscow is
to close the bases headquartered in Akhalkalaki and the Georgian Black
Sea city of Batumi by the end of 2008. Most of the tanks and other
heavy weaponry of the Akhalkalaki facility are due to be transported
to Russia by rail via Azerbaijan.

Unlike Georgia, Armenia is a member of the Russian-led Collective
Security Treaty Organization and regards Russian military presence
as a key element of its national security doctrine. Yerevan has made
it clear that Russian troops will remain on Armenian soil in the
foreseeable future despite its growing military ties with NATO and
the United States in particular.

The Russian military had moved military equipment from the
Armenian-populated Georgian town to its larger base in Gyumri,
northwestern Armenia, even before the agreement. The shipments sparked
protests by Azerbaijan which feared that it could be transferred to
the Armenian military and thereby change the balance of forces in
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Russian officials have assured Baku
that the materiel is meant for the Gyumri base only.

Russia’s reluctant pullout raised fears of an upsurge in tensions
in Akhalkalaki and other parts of Georgia’s impoverished Javakheti
region which is mainly populated by ethnic Armenians. The Russian
base has long been Javakheti’s largest employer. There have been no
reports of major unrest there in recent months.

Russia Tries To Draw Ex-Soviet States Closer

RUSSIA TRIES TO DRAW EX-SOVIET STATES CLOSER
By Sergei Blagov

CNSNews.com Correspondent
August 17, 2006

Moscow (CNSNews.com) – At a summit of former Soviet states, Russia
has agreed to settle a dispute with neighboring Ukraine over natural
gas prices, which contributed to a split between the two former allies.

Moscow also used the event to further strengthen its economic relations
with countries in its neighborhood, where some ex-Soviet states have
moved away from its influence and towards the West.

A damaging disagreement over prices for gas supplies from Russia to
Ukraine early this year saw Russia cut off gas, a move that also had
a ripple effect on European countries whose gas supplies from Russia
travel across Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine’s new, pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich told
journalists Wednesday that the two countries had now agreed on prices
for Russian gas until the beginning of 2007.

Agreement came during talks between Yanukovich and his Russian
counterpart, Mikhail Fradkov, who said Russia would pump 24.5 billion
cubic meters of natural gas into Ukraine’s storage facilities by the
end of the year.

Many observers saw the dispute as part of an attempt by Russia to
punish its neighbor for drifting out of its orbit and towards the
West under President Viktor Yushchenko.

The president was forced recently to offer the premiership to his
rival, Yanukovich, to end a long-running political crisis in Ukraine.

Yanukovich met with Fradkov at the Black Sea resort of Sochi,
on the sidelines of a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Community
(EEC), an organization formed in 2001 whose aim is to boost economic
cooperation between Russia and its neighbors that was lost when the
Soviet Union disintegrated.

It comprises Russia, Belarus and the Central Asian states of
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Ukraine, Armenia
and Moldova attended are currently observers.

President Vladimir Putin and other leaders discussed plans to create
a customs union that would unite all of the EEC states.

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev told a news conference
that by October or November, a fledgling customs union would be in
place, comprising a core of three nations – Russia, Kazakhstan and
Belarus. Others are expected to follow later.

Moscow wants to see the EEC continue to expand. Last January it
gained its sixth full member, Uzbekistan, the most populous of the
four Central Asian republics.

As with other post-Soviet blocs, Russia dominates the EEC. It has a 40
percent vote in the grouping, and also funds 40 percent of its budget.

In another important development Wednesday, Uzbekistan confirmed
its return to another post-Soviet grouping, the Collective Security
Treaty. Uzbekistan was a member of the CST, but withdrew in 1999 when
its relations with the West were improving.

After strong U.S. and European criticism of a 2005 clampdown in
the city of Andijan, President Islam Karimov ended his short-lived
dalliance with the West and moved back towards Moscow.

The CST links Russia with the Central Asian "stans" as well as Belarus
and Armenia.

BAKU: Turan Morali: "Some Int’l Organizations Try To Hinder Regional

TURAN MORALI: "SOME INT’L ORGANIZATIONS TRY TO HINDER REGIONAL PROJECTS NOT ATTENDED BY ARMENIA"

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug. 16, 2006

Some international organizations wants to put political and economic
obstacles in the implementation of regional projects not attended by
Armenia, Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan, Turan Morali, told APA.

"We see similar hindrances in Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki-Kars Railway
project. Azerbaijan and Turkey are capable of implementing this project
at their own charge. As the project interests Kazakhstan and China, the
implementation doesn’t need financing by international organizations".

Mr. Morali stated that some privately-owned Turkish companies can
also be involved in the implementation of the project.

Hrayr Avetian’s Statue of Jesus Erected in Latvia

HRAYR AVETIAN’S STATUE OF JESUS ERECTED IN LATVIA

AZG Armenian Daily
17/08/2006

Several meters high statue of Jesus Christ was recently erected in
the town of Aglon in Latvia. Its author is Hrayr Avetian, alumnus
of the Academy of Fine Arts of Latvia. Yerkramas newspaper of
Russian-Armenians reports that it took Hrayr 6 years to turn the
Ukrainian granite into a sculpture.

The Christ’s statue will be a good decoration for annual celebration of
Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 12-15. Following a tradition,
numerous believers gather in this Latvian town for the celebration. The
number of pilgrims this year surpassed 10 thousand.