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2010-11-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

Is the Gulf of Mexico safe?

2010-11-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

Gulf Coast residents, fishermen, seafood distributors, and scientists believe that living on the coast and eating seafood from the Gulf has become hazardous to their health.
In response to their oil disaster last summer that released at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons of widely banned toxic Corexit dispersants (which have been banned in 19 countries) to sink the oil. The dispersants contain chemicals that many scientists and toxicologists have warned are dangerous to humans, marine life, and wildlife.
Earlier this year on May 20, the EPA told BP it had 24 hours to find a less toxic alternative, but the EPA's request was ignored. Then on May 25, BP was given a directive by the EPA to scale back their spraying of the Gulf of Mexico with dispersants. The Coast Guard overlooked the EPA's directive and provided BP with 74 exemptions in 48 days to use the dispersants.
A March 1987 report titled Organic Solvent Neurotoxicity, by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), states: "The acute neurotoxic effects of organic solvent exposure in workers and laboratory animals are narcosisanaesthesiaia, central nervous system (CNS) depression, respiratory arrest, unconsciousness, and death."
Several chemicals and chemical compounds listed in the NIOSH report, such as styrene, toluene, and xylene, are now present in the Gulf of Mexico as the result of BP’s dispersants mixing with BP's crude oil.
Government testing repudiated
On October 29 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced in a press release, new chemical testing for BP's dispersants.
Prior to the federal government's announcement, a "rigorous sensory analysis" (a sniff test), was the only measure in place to test seafood samples for dispersant contamination. According to the press release, the new testing measure checks for the level of dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (known as DOSS), a major component of the dispersants.
Surprisingly, the press release admits to dispersant chemicals being present in some of their seafood samples: "Using this new, second test, in the Gulf scientists have tested 1,735 tissue samples ... Only a few showed trace amounts of dispersants residue (13 of the 1,735) and they were well below the safety threshold of 100 parts per million [ppm] for finfish and 500 parts per million for shrimp, crabs and oysters."
"This test adds another layer of information, reinforcing our findings to date that seafood from the Gulf remains safe," Jane Lubchenco, undersecretary for commerce and NOAA administrator, said of the test.
However the press release does not specify which type of analytical testing was carried out on what types of seafood, nor what the "trace amounts of dispersants" were. Al Jazeera's requests last week for this information from both NOAA and the FDA have not been answered.
Hugh Kaufman is a senior policy analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) office of solid waste and emergency response. Kaufman, a leading critic of the US government's decision to use Corexit, told Al Jazeera this about the press release: "They say it perfectly clear: the purpose of the test they developed is to make the public confident, not whether the seafood was safe or not.
"They selected the one compound that doesn’t bio-accumulate, as opposed to testing for the toxic ingredients that have a low safety threshold and do build up in tissue. They are not looking for those."
Kaufman, who has been the EPA's chief investigator on several contamination cases, including Love Canal and Times Beach, said: "They want to be able to tell the public the seafood is safe. But if you are going to test seafood to see if it’s safe or not, you want to test for the ingredients of Corexit that have a low safety threshold and do bio-accumulate in tissue."
"However, if you want the public to think everything is fine, then you do what they said in their press release they are doing, which is to look for an ingredient with a high safety threshold that doesn’t build up in tissue."

"They told you they are doing a cover up, how they are doing the cover up, and notwithstanding that, they still have some positive results for chemicals."
Inaccurate safety levels
Chemist Bob Naman with the Analytical Chemical Testing Lab in Mobile, Alabama, has been testing samples from across the Gulf for oil and dispersant also takes issue with these recent government statements.
"500 ppm is an incredible amount," Naman explained to Al Jazeera, "I don't know what moron set that level, but 500 ppm is an extreme amount. It is probably 100 times too high. A reasonably insignificant number would be five parts per billion [ppb], not something being tracked in ppm."
Naman gave an example of a government standard that seemingly undermines information in the recent press release.
"The amount of chemicals the EPA allows in storm water draining from a site containing salvaged cars into a body of water is 15 ppm," he said.
"If the EPA won’t allow more than 15 ppm of that, why in the hell would they consider a number that is 33 times higher than that as acceptable for something you are going to put in your body? Their people that are setting that kind of number apparently don't have a clue what that number even means. The threshold limits they are setting are extremely absurd to a chemist like me. I'm appalled they would use such high numbers for their thresholds."
Naman also expressed concern over the fact that from his understanding neither the FDA nor NOAA are testing for propylene glycol and 2-butoxyethanol, the two marker chemicals for BP’s dispersants.
"Since they are testing in ppm, these two marker compounds are not being picked up," Naman said.
"They are not using low enough detection limits. They need to be looking for parts per billion, not parts per million. It's a world of difference."
The EPA's website states that, "EPA believes dispersants should only be used sparingly and when absolutely necessary," yet conversely stated that while BP’s well was gushing oil, "[dispersants] appeared to be having a positive effect on the oil at the source of the leak and thus far has had no significant ecological impact".
Al Jazeera requested information from the EPA's Region 6 Public Information Centre about their ongoing testing of the water and air for chemicals associated with the oil disaster, also asking for information the EPA has that is related to illnesses caused by the oil disaster.
Last week we were told by Joe Hubbard in EPA's office of external affairs that this information would be provided, but Al Jazeera has yet to receive this information.
Kaufman believes one of the main problems with federal response to the oil disaster is that, "BP called most of the shots, and that was the problem, and clearly from this press release, looks like they still are. The more the public thinks everything is back to normal, the less people who were harmed by the mess will be reimbursed. Follow the money".

Seafood concerns
Fisherman from Louisiana and Florida have voiced their concerns to Al Jazeera about the safety of seafood they are catching.
Karen Hopkins, who works for the seafood distributor Dean Blanchard Seafood, in Grand Isle, Louisiana, told Al Jazeera: "I will never again eat any seafood that comes from the Gulf of Mexico."
Clifford Troxler, also from Louisiana, worked in the seafood distribution business for 25 years, and told Al Jazeera: "You couldn’t force feed me a shrimp from the Gulf."
Hopkins is also concerned about what she sees as an attempt by the federal government to shift responsibility of seafood safety "away from BP and the feds and placing it square on the shoulders of fishermen and distributors".
Hopkins provided Al Jazeera with a letter from Best Sea-Pak, a seafood distributor Dean Blanchard Seafood works with, that says: "Due to the recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and customers concerns of oil tainted seafood, we must implement measures to prevent oil tainted seafood from entering the food supply.
"A new mandatory requirement by the United States Food and Drug Administration is to ensure no fish (seafood) may be harvested from an area that is covered by a Local, State, or Federal closure or for which there is additional information that indicates potential hazards related to an oil spill."
"Our lawyers looked this over and told us it is basically an attempt to make us and the fishermen take full responsibility for the seafood, even though it has been BP and the feds that have pushed to open up all the previously closed waters for fishing," Hopkins said.
"That means that we’ll be the ones who get sued if somebody gets sick from contaminated seafood, instead of BP or the feds, who are the ultimately the responsible parties for all of this in the first place."
Ongoing sickness
Al Jazeera is finding a growing number of people along the Gulf Coast who are exhibiting symptoms they attribute to chemical poisoning and exposure to BP's oil and dispersants.
Susan Price is a small business owner who lives in Chauvin, Louisiana. While volunteering for a community outreach program in Grand Isle, Louisiana in late August, Price became ill.
"When I drove over the bridge to Grand Isle, I felt heavy exposure to chemicals," Price told Al Jazeera. "My nose instantly clogged, I began to cough, my throat hurt, my voice became instantly hoarse, and my tongue felt and tasted like I'd licked a battery."
A return trip to the island a short while later brought her symptoms back, so Price saw a doctor.
"I was diagnosed with pneuminitis, which is an inflammation of the lungs that the doctor told me is caused by inhalation of chemicals," Price said. "He gave me an inhaler and pumped me up with antibiotics, but I’m still sick."
Furthermore, Price said that while she was engaged in her community outreach work on Grand Isle, "every person I was dealing with was sick and had the same symptoms I did. Those people that are living there, heaven help them".
Donny Matsler, a commercial fisherman from Dauphin Island, Alabama, has been suffering acute symptoms for months that have led him to several emergency room visits, time in intensive care, and finally to detoxification treatment with Dr William Rea in Dallas, Texas, at the Environmental Health Center.
The centre tests and treats human health problems related to chemical exposure, among other environment related ailments.
"Dr Rea told me I am Corexit-drunk," Matsler told Al Jazeera, "My wife is the same, and everybody in Dauphin Island is sick from this stuff."

China-Japan boat crash video posted

2010-11-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

Japan has said it is investigating whether online video clips that appear to show a Chinese fishing boat colliding with Japanese patrol vessels are authentic.
The collision in September near disputed isles in the East China Sea, the site of vast potential gas and oil reserves, sparked a diplomatic spat between the two Asian giants.
Japan detained the Chinese skipper of the trawler, which made him a hero in China.
The clips were posted on the video sharing website YouTube early on Friday, threatening to reignite the China-Japan row.
Naoto Kan, the embattled Japanese prime minister, has faced heavy criticism domestically for freeing the captain and tensions between the two countries have chilled since the incident.
"We need to look into the authenticity of such clips," Yoshito Sengoku, the chief cabinet secretary, told a news conference.
Japanese TV news programmes also aired the video clips, which showed a blue boat bearing a Chinese name colliding with two patrol boats as sirens blared and Japanese crew shouted "halt".
Investigation
"Generally speaking, if documents in a criminal suit have been released on YouTube and to the public, then that is a ... grave situation for investigation authorities," Sengoku added.
Japanese prosecutors released the captain but are still technically investigating whether to charge him.
Sengoku said China had inquired about the videos through a diplomatic route, and added that he hoped Kan and Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, would meet bilaterally at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Yokohama, near Tokyo, next weekend.

The government had released the video for viewing by a small number of legislators but refused to make it public for fear of inflaming anti-Chinese sentiment.
Japan's opposition Liberal Democrats threatened to delay a 4.4 trillion yen ($54.51bn) extra budget for the fiscal year to March 31 over the government's handling of the matter.
"This issue is related to national interests and sovereignty, so if the video is not released (to the public), I am not sure what will happen to the extra budget deliberation," Nobuteru Ishihara of the Liberal Democratic Party told reporters.
Tokyo, Washington and Southeast Asian nations have grown increasingly wary of a rising China's intentions as it spends heavily to modernise its military, sends its navy further afield and asserts sovereignty over the contested South China Sea.
Beijing this week attempted to calm the fears.
"China's overall national strength is rising rapidly, and this is making an important contribution to promoting Asia's peace and prosperity, global economic growth, and reform of the international financial system," Hu Zhengyue, the Chinese assistant foreign minister, told the official Xinhua news agency.
Sovereignty dispute
Beijing has staunchly asserted its sovereignty over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, and stressed that the video would not alter its stance in the feud.
"It was illegal for the Japanese coast guard vessels to interfere with, chase, block, surround and seize the Chinese fishing boat in the seas off the Diaoyu islands," Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said.
"The so-called video cannot alter the truth of the matter, and cannot disguise the illegality of the Japanese actions."

Indonesia reels from Merapi havoc

2010-11-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

At least 64 people have been killed in the last 24 hours after clouds of blistering gas erupted from Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano, prompting the country's president to call the eruptions a "national disaster".
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised on Friday that his government would take "extraordinary measures" to respond to the ongoing crisis.
Many villagers suffered severe burns from the searing hot dust and debris that spewed out of the country’s most volatile volcano. The deadly clouds raced down the mountainside at more than 100km an hour, forcing villagers to flee.
Volcanologists said Friday's gas eruption was not only the largest since the the volcano first erupted on October 26, but the worst in a century.
Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from the capital, Jakarta, said the gas eruption was still under way.
"It has not stopped erupting for the last 40 hours. Last night there was a huge eruption," she said.
"Villages were on fire, houses burned. Lots of people had to flee. Many wounded and many dead, but there are still people living on the slopes of Merapi."
Worse may be yet to come
More than 100 people in total have been killed by the eruptions.

Millions of people live in the vicinity of the volcano, in what is one of the most densely populated regions in Indonesia.
The increasingly violent activity defied initial predictions from volcanologists that the first eruption on October 26 would ease pressure inside the mountain.
To the contrary, the eruptions have only continued to amplify. And the gas pressure inside the mountain is increasing; leading experts to fear a much bigger eruption might be next.

"It is very hard to predict in the first place what the Merapi is doing as well, it is the most unpredictable volcano in Indonesia. But this pattern that we've seen now in recent weeks is totally different from what we've seen ever in the past," our correspondent said.
While Yudhoyono said 2,000 soldiers would be sent to the area to help relieve efforts, he made no announcement of any plans to evacuate the area, our correspondent reported.
"Many people have been evacuated … But still people have to go back and forth to their villages, because their animals are there.
"So people are pleading to the government to help them so that not just the people are evacuated but the animals as well, so that they don’t have to go back to their villages all the time," she said.
The president said on Friday that the government would buy villagers' cattle in a bid to prevent them from returning and putting their lives at risk.
'Danger zone' extended
More than 75,000 people have been moved from the danger zone around the volcano.
That area was widened from 10 to 15km from the peak on Thursday after an eruption gave concern for a heightened threat. It has now been extended to 20km, but experts say it may need to be widened even further. The president made no comment on this in his appearance on Friday.
Merapi last erupted in 2006, when it sent an avalanche of pyroclastic ash - hot gases and rock fragments - racing down the mountain and killing two people.
A similar eruption in 1994 killed 60 people, while 1,300 people died in an eruption in 1930.
There are more than 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which are spread across 17,500 islands.
The country is prone to eruptions and earthquakes due to its location within the so-called Ring of Fire - a series of fault lines stretching from the western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

Osama bin Laden and the Sahel

2010-11-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

Aside from the polemics that surround all of Osama bin Laden's occasional pronouncements, namely whether he is still alive and their authenticity, their importance lies in the extent to which they are believed and acted upon.
In the case of the audio-tape released to Al Jazeera on October 27, in which he castigated France for its treatment of Muslims, its role in Afghanistan and its intervention in the affairs of Muslims in North and West Africa, few of his (or al-Qaeda's) pronouncements have had greater resonance. Certainly, none have had more impact on North and West Africa, France, nor possibly the EU as a whole. It is likely to have profound implications on the so-called war on al-Qaeda in the Sahara and Sahel, as well as on French and European policies in the region.
The first thing to say about this intervention is that the international publicity given to it has ensured that a relatively obscure crisis in the hitherto little known Sahel has attained international prominence - especially in Europe where the Sahel topped the agenda at the EU Council of Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg on October 25.

Indeed, it seems hardly coincidental that bin Laden's audio-tape was released less than 48 hours after the EU Council meeting. In other words, while the Sahel crisis, or perhaps more appropriately France's crisis, was being discussed within the hallowed and scarcely publicised precincts of the European Council, it was bin Laden who brought it to global attention.

Bin Laden's 'blessing'
His pronouncement sent out several messages. Firstly, it will be seen as a 'blessing' on those who abducted seven hostages - five French nationals, a Togolese and a Madagascan - in the Niger uranium-mining town of Arlit on September 16. "The kidnapping of your experts in Niger," bin Laden said, "is in retaliation for the tyranny you practice against our Muslim nation."

Secondly, such a 'blessing' is likely to have transformatory implications. This is because al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahara-Sahel was a creation of the Algerian DRS (Direction du Renseignement et la Sécurité) with its three main emirs in the Sahara-Sahel - Abdelhamid abou Zaïd, Yahia Djouadi and Mokhtar ben Mokhtar (all with many aliases) - being strongly suspected of being DRS agents.
Between the end of 2008 and this year, as the group's estimated strength increased from around 200 to some 300 to 400, its composition changed. As young Mauritanian Islamists have become increasingly attracted to the Sahara Emirate, as they call it, so they have come to outnumber Algerians, possibly diminishing DRS influence and control over the group.
Indications are that AQIM recruitment from young and more 'Islamist' and 'jihadist' elements in the region leapt in the wake of the disastrous Franco-Mauritanian raids into Mali on July 22, ostensibly to liberate the French hostage Michel Germaneau, and again after September 16 when France's ally ('proxy') Mauritania, which had joined France in 'declaring war' on AQIM, was given a very bloody nose by AQIM fighters at Ras el Ma (west of Timbuktu).

The outcome of this surge in recruitment, for which France must take much of the credit, is that it will almost certainly lead to changes in AQIM's internal organisation with the possibility of the Islamists, as distinct from the DRS, exercising more influence and control over its general strategy and operational activities.
Bin Laden's 'blessing' will almost certainly have accelerated this transformation by giving both a huge pat on the back to the more Islamist and jihadist elements of the organisation and a boost to their further recruitment. This will be of particular concern to the EU.

A French crisis
Thirdly, bin Laden's message may give clues as to the nature of the demands that AQIM may make of France for the release of the seven hostages and thus how those demands might be negotiated.

France's plan to ban the wearing of full face veils in public could quite easily be dropped, but a withdrawal of France's 3,500 to 4,000 troops from Afghanistan, or a withdrawal from uranium mining in Niger, if that is what is meant by "taking a lot of our wealth in suspicious deals," are likely to be 'no deal' areas.
If that is the case, then the message could perhaps be interpreted as a warning of either the hostages' execution or long drawn-out negotiations designed to humiliate France. These two possible outcomes are believed to reflect the possibly different goals of the DRS and Islamist elements within AQIM.

France's reaction to the audio-tape is indicative of the precarious and uncertain nature of the direction in which this crisis could move. While bin Laden's message has raised the security alarm even higher in France (and Europe), with Brice Hortefeux, the interior minister, saying that France is under a "real" terror threat which needs "total vigilance," Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister who is the subject of resignation rumours, has tried to down-play the significance of the audio-tape by saying that the threat was expected and that bin Laden has little influence over AQIM.
France is facing a crisis to which there are no immediate and obvious solutions. After seven weeks, AQIM has still not stated its demands. Nevertheless, one can envisage possible face-saving and realistic options for France. But, they remain unspoken as they concern the 'elephant in the room' - Algeria.
Let me explain: If, as many believe, Algeria's DRS has such influence over AQIM in the Sahel, it is conceivable that it could arrange the release of the hostages, possibly on religious, humanitarian or some other such grounds, along with a series of not too onerous gestures by France.
The price demanded by Algeria would be high, involving perhaps greater freedom of operation for the DRS in France, French influence either directly or through the EU on weakening Morocco, etc. These would be politically acceptable to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, who is primarily responsible for getting France into this predicament, as they would not be of direct concern to or much understood by the French public.

A loss for Algeria?
Far less positive for Algeria is a scenario which could conceivably result in Algeria, not France, coming out of this situation as the ultimate loser. This is as follows: Most of Algeria's neighbours have recently begun to accuse it of being in some way responsible for the development of the AQIM 'terrorist' threat in the Sahel.
Cheikh El Moctar Ould Horma, Mauritania's minister of health, recently 'suggested' that Algeria was the 'porte-parole' (spokesperson) for AQIM; elements in the Moroccan media have accused Washington of appeasing Algeria in its relationship with and use of AQIM as a 'terrorist' organisation; a senior member of Mali's security forces accused the DRS of being 'at the heart of AQIM'; Niger is angry with the role played by Algeria's DRS in the political destabilisation of its northern regions; while Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's leader, has suggested euphemistically that the problem in the region is Algeria's DRS.
This increased regional antipathy towards Algeria was clearly evident at the security conference held in Bamako on October 13 and 14. The conference, initiated by France, angered Algeria, the one regional power with the military capability to eradicate AQIM in the Sahel.
Algeria, however, with the broad support (or what Morocco might call appeasement) of the US, has been using AQIM's presence in the Sahel to further its own hegemonic designs on the region. It is therefore strongly opposed to any external intervention and has consequently established, somewhat theatrically, a number of regional security-intelligence institutions that are exclusive to Algeria and its three weaker neighbours - Mauritania, Mali and Niger - and thus designed to maintain Algeria's management and control over the situation.
Mali's temerity in suggesting that Morocco, who Algeria has been trying to exclude from any participation in the Sahel security situation, should be invited was a red rag to a bull.

Algeria's boycott of the conference - attended by anti-terrorism experts from all G8 members, namely Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US, and their counterparts from Burkina Faso, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, as well as representatives from Spain, Switzerland, Australia, the European Union, the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was its most noteworthy aspect.
This much higher than expected attendance at Bamako could be interpreted as an international repudiation of Algeria's role in the fabrication, exaggeration and even management of 'terrorism' in the region since the DRS's involvement in the abduction of 32 European hostages in the Algerian Sahara in 2003.
If the regional tables continue to be turned on Algeria in this way, then France might have an opportunity to re-establish and perhaps even enhance its influence and standing in the region. While this scenario might not necessarily secure the lives of the hostages, it could conceivably ensure that Algeria and not France is the ultimate loser.
However, there is only one outcome of this situation that is certain. And that is that the countries of the Sahel - Mali, Mauritania and Niger - stand to acquire a huge increase in development/security aid and related assistance from the EU in the New Year.

Can you trust a leader who cries?

2010-11-04T07:11:00.001-07:00

Celebrating the Republican - and his own - victory, the incoming speaker of the US House of Representatives John Boehner's voice choked with emotion.

"I spent my whole life chasing the American dream. I put myself through school… working every rotten job there was and every night shift I could find," he sobbed.

"I poured my heart and soul into running a small business - and when I saw how out of touch Washington had become with the core values of this great nation, I put my name forward and ran for office."

A loyal crowd cheered and chanted as Mr Boehner, chin wobbling and welling up again, finished his speech.

For the audience, it was probably not the first time they have seen a few tears threaten to escape down the face of a political figure.

'Hard-wired response'

Most modern-day US presidents or candidates have succumbed to their emotions on occasion. Former presidents George Bush - both junior and senior, Bill and Hillary Clinton, even Barack Obama, have all been caught weeping at some point.

The outgoing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is known for his emotional outbursts, memorably shedding tears in 2009 after the announcement that Rio de Janeiro would be the host for the 2016 Olympics.

And, in September, Afghan President Hamid Karzai made headlines across the world when he wept while lamenting the state of Afghanistan.

The list goes on। Bob Hawke, former Australian prime minister and one of the country's most popular leaders, became famous for crying during his time in office.

Despite his tough-guy image, he cried while talking about his daughter's drug addiction, his infidelity and - perhaps rather more surprisingly - the 1989 killing of Chinese students at Tiananmen Square.

Even former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - known as the Iron Lady for a reason - welled up when she left Downing Street in 1990.

But why do they do it?

Most psychologists agree that it is seen as far more acceptable to cry in public than it was several decades ago.

Moreover, says Judi James, a behavioural expert, many politicians meanwhile believe it will increase their support by making people warm to them, which - at a basic level - it does.

"Crying has a profound effect on someone," she says.

"It's something that babies do to get nurture and attention and love, and we are almost hard-wired to have an empathetic response and a sympathetic response and that will still occur," she says.

Mr Blair's "Diana moment" was said to have captured the mood of the nation

But, she says, then the intellectual part of your brain kicks in and, for many of us, that includes cynicism - especially if the person is perceived to want something.

For the British, she believes former Prime Minister Tony Blair began a new trend in politics, when he blinked back tears after the death of Princess Diana.

"Because we were all tearful over Diana's death, it was seen as a shared emotion," she said.

'Faking it'

But the act soon lost its effect, she said, as the British began to get more wary of Mr Blair's emotional displays.

We can tell when politicians are faking it. We don't necessarily know how we tell but we pick up signals”

End Quote Lucy Beresford Psychotherapist

"He would begin to do the 'blinking back the tears' as a political gesture, and that was when people began to doubt it. It began to look rather contrived," she said.

"In the past, countries have been mesmerised by charismatic leaders," she says.

But, at least in Britain's case, things have changed, as we are used to "programmes like the X-factor where everyone cries to get our votes".

"As a nation we have become deeply cynical," she says.

Lucy Beresford, a psychotherapist, says the problem is that while what we are looking for in a politician has evolved over time, there is still an inherent contradiction in our requirements.

"The thing is we want our [male] politicians to be very strong and almost like father figures and therefore we don't like the sense that they will fall apart," she says.

Brazil's outgoing President Lula is known for his emotional displays

"But at the same time we want our politicians to be human."

In Mr Boehner's case, she believes it was genuine because it was congruent with what he was saying - he was revisiting emotional parts of his life.

And when it appears less real, that is probably because it is, she says, because as humans we tend to pick up intuitively whether it "rings true" or not.

"We can tell when politicians are faking it. We don't necessarily know how we tell but we pick up signals," such as facial twitches or hand gestures to the face, she says.

Ms James says that the most obvious difference is that politicians may shed a tear, but the rest of their body language fails to match up.

"Genuine tears make us desperate to hide our faces. This is where people go wrong," she says.

"The whole of the lower face crumples," she says.

No politician wants to be caught out pretending, but shedding real tears can also have its drawbacks.

When Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, cried after losing his post in a re-shuffle, it prompted novelist Arturo Perez-Reverte to comment that he "he had no balls even when leaving".

And when Hillary Clinton cried during her presidential campaign, the event was seized on by critics as "proof" that she was "not tough enough" to take it in the top job.

But, undoubtedly, at the right time and in the right place, tears can soften our hearts and make often distant-looking politicians appear human.

As French novelist Jean Giradoux once said: "The secret of success is sincerity".

"Once you can fake that, you've got it made."

Francesco Totti: Lazio Will Beat Roma In The Derby

2010-11-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

Roma captain Francesco Totti believes Lazio will enjoy the city bragging rights at the weekend as he writes off his own side.

Totti will not play any part in the derby of Rome as he is suspended. And he is clearly annoyed.

"The derby? I will watch it from home because I would suffer too much if I was at the stadium," he told Mediaset Premium.

"Who will win? Lazio and [Sergio] Floccari will score from a penalty."

Roma picked up some confidence following their Champions League win over Basel - a new route to expansion.

"We want to turn our season around, we are all on the same side," he added.

Daniele De Rossi was also relieved as Roma gain belief.

"We suffered against Basel. There are no easy games. Of course, we have to be more incisive in front of goal," the midfielder told Sky Sport Italia.

"Lazio? We need to be perfect. They are the team of the moment and everything is going well for them. It will be very tough."

Andre-Pierre Gignac: Olympique De Marseille Scored As Many As Possible Against Zilina

2010-11-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

Hat-trick hero Andre-Pierre Gignac explained to Canal+ after Olympique de Marseille’s 7-0 victory over Zilina that les Phoceens had gone to Slovakia to be ruthless in front of goal.

From the moment ‘Dede’ deflected Benoit Cheyrou’s free-kick into the net, a steady flow of goals came. Gignac made it two soon after opening his account, and he completed his treble by grabbing OM’s sixth with a stooping second half header.

“We started the match well,” the former Toulouse hitman explained after the game. “We respected the Zilina team but we scored as many goals as possible. It's good for the goal difference because there are still two matches and that's important.”

Marseille go to Spartak Moscow in three weeks for what is likely to be a defining fixture of the campaign, and it is a tie Gignac is already looking forward to. “We will go to Moscow with the desire to take the three points and the motivation to get through this round, because it is very important for OM and the supporters,” he considered before reflecting upon his own progress since his transfer this summer.

“I think that anyone who knows football knows that playing for Olympique Marseille is always difficult. I’m continuing my adaption.”

Gignac’s three goals in Slovakia were the first he has managed for the club in Europe. His only previous effort came against Saint-Etienne.

Qantas grounds A380s after Singapore emergency landing

2010-11-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

The Australian airline Qantas has grounded its six-strong fleet of Airbus A380 airliners after one of the superjumbos made an emergency landing.

Qantas flight QF32 experienced engine trouble shortly after taking off from Singapore on its way to Sydney.

One of the engines exploded with a bang, a passenger told the BBC, and debris was found on an island below.

Singapore Airlines said its A380 flights would be delayed pending technical checks.

It's a significant engine failure," Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said at a news conference.

"We do take our safety reputation and our safety standards unbelievably seriously. And we're not going to take any risks with passenger safety - and as a precaution, we're suspending the flights of the A380 aircraft until we're comfortable that we understand the reasons for this."

No-one was injured during the incident, which ended at Singapore's Changi airport.

Smoke billowed from the aircraft, which aviation experts say is capable of flying on two engines. One of the engines was blackened and its rear casing was missing.

'Big scare'

A team of air crash investigators is being sent to Singapore from France, where Airbus is based, to assist in the investigation.

A spokesman for Rolls-Royce, the British firm which made the plane's Trent 900 engines, said it would work with Qantas to identify the problem.

Chelsea Boss Carlo Ancelotti: We're Aiming To Take Part In The Champions League Final At Wembley

2010-11-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

Carlo Ancelotti has admitted that Chelsea are targeting an appearance in the Champions League final this season, after a victory over Spartak Moscow ensured a place in the last 16.

The final will be held at Wembley in May, with no London-based club having ever laid hands on the coveted crown of being champions of Europe.

And now the Italian - who guided AC Milan to two triumphs on the continent - believes there is "motivation" among the players to reach the final in the hope of making history.

"I hope we can start and end the season at Wembley like we did last season," Ancelotti said, according to The Mirror, referring to the 2009 Community Shield and the FA Cup victory that followed at the other end of the campaign.

"We are working to play the last game at Wembley. In the final."

The Blues were missing John Terry, and the 51-year-old shed some light on his decision to hand the armband to Didier Drogba.

The Ivorian was making his return to Champions League football, after suspension and illness had kept him out of the European arena until this encounter.

"Didier was captain with John Terry rested because he has a lot more presence compared to the other players," said the manager. "He has fantastic motivation for this campaign in the Champions League, but every one of us has this motivation. There are a lot of things to think about: a final in London; and the fact that no London team has won the Champions League. I think that helps to improve the motivation.

"It is not just the English players - it is the same for all of us. I'm not English. I'm working for Chelsea and have a particular feeling for this club. A sensation. If there is a final, it's an extra motivation for everyone."

Nicolas Anelka continued his strong form on the European stage to net his fifth goal of the tournament - which broke the deadlock - and the Italian gave his player a pat on the back for his efforts.

"Anelka was the key to opening the game," Ancelotti continued. "He scored a fantastic goal - the most important this evening.

"He has experience. He maintains very good skill, ability, speed. Overall he is in the best moment of his career."

Real Madrid Coach Jose Mourinho Hopes His Team Learn From Their Lesson In Milan

2010-11-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho hopes his side will learn from their trip to Milan in the UEFA Champions League in preparation for the knockout round.

Los Blancos took the lead at San Siro but had to rely on a late equaliser to steal a point and qualify from the group.

"I think my team needs to learn, they need to learn how to play in the Champions League," Mourinho told FIFA.com.

"The important thing is to learn to play at this level. If we had played as we should have done in the second half, we could have been 2-0 or 3-0 up but instead we could have lost. So it was a great experience in terms of helping us to learn."

The Portuguese tactician was however delighted with his team's spirit to take the game right to the death and avoid a first defeat of the season.

"It was an important moment for Pedro but more so for the team because we've not lost, we've already qualified for the second round and we need just one point to win the group. The most important thing was that the team had the mentality to play with the risk their coach asked of them at the end with many forwards."

Bayern Munich Defender Philipp Lahm Labels 4-0 Win Over CFR Cluj 'A Great Result'

2010-11-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

Romanian side CFR Cluj caused German champions Bayern Munich all kinds of trouble when the two sides locked horns a fortnight ago, but the Bavarians proved to be way too strong for Cluj in the return on Wednesday evening and cruised to a 4-0 away win.

Striker Mario Gomez netted a hat-trick to show Bayern the way before Thomas Mueller added a fourth goal well into stoppage time, much to the satisfaction of skipper Philipp Lahm.

"Winning 4-0 away from home in the Champions League is a great result. We were focused from the start, we took our first chance, and it was relatively easy once we'd gone a goal up," said Lahm on the Bayern Munich website.

"Overall, it was a very, very good team performance. It was obvious we’d showed up right from the start, which is vital away from home against opponents like these, because you’re telling them they won’t take anything from the game. That was particularly true in the first half."

Wednesday's results mean that Bayern have qualified for the knockout stages of the tournament with 12 points from four games, while Cluj sit third in the table with three points.

Roberto Soldado Preparing For Valencia's 'Very Important' La Liga Clash With Sevilla

2010-11-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

Valencia striker Roberto Soldado is of the opinion that Monday night’s La Liga’s match versus Sevilla could be pivotal to their season’s progress.

The former Real Madrid striker enjoyed his best performance for Los Che since his summer switch from Getafe in netting a clinical double to help defeat Rangers in the Champions League and put Unai Emery’s side in pole position for qualification.

In an interview with Marca, however, the attacker turned his attention back to league duties, and believes the match against Sevilla is one of the most vital matches in the season so far.

He remarked: “It is a very important game if we are to continue being positioned at the top of the league. Sevilla are a direct rival to us in the table, and so we have to go out and attack them, because Valencia have to set the level just below the big teams.

“We used to start games well and hold onto the result until the end of the season, but recently the opposite has happened. The team is aware of the level it has to produce.”

Soldado partnered Aritz Aduriz from the start in the win over the Scottish champions that got Valencia’s season back on track, but he does not feel that necessarily means that 4-4-2 is always the correct formation for the team.

He added: “It depends on the opponents against whom you play. Rangers are a team who plays with a lot of people back, and so the more people we had in the area, the better for us. We knew more attackers would give us more shots on goal.

“The coaches approach was good and hopefully this will continue in the next match.”

Deadly earthquake shakes Serbia

2010-11-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

A 5.4-magnitude earthquake has struck central Serbia, killing two people and leaving at least 50 others injured, officials said.
The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said the tremor struck near the city of Kraljevo, which lies around 150km south of the capital Belgrade, in the early hours of Wednesday.
A couple reported to be in their 50s were killed when their roof collapsed during the quake.
Ivica Dacic, the country's interior minister said "material damage to the area is big" and that emergency teams and police had been deployed for rescue operations.
"The most important thing is that people calm down, that there is no panic and that the city authorities function," he said.
Electricity and other services have been cut in the city, which has a population of 70,000 people, while witnesses reported damage to buildings, including the local hospital.
"The town is littered with debris. Some older houses are destroyed completely," Milica Lazarevic, 40, a dentist from Kraljevo, told the Reuters news agency.
"My street and perhaps half of the town have no phones, water and electricity," she said.
The quake was felt across the country, including the capital Belgrade about 150 kilometres north of Kraljevo.
The Serbian seismological institute said it was followed by four other less powerful aftershocks.

Netanyahu: 'No troop withdrawal after peace deal'

2010-11-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

A stealth, seismic shift occurred October 22 in Jerusalem at the Conference on the Future of the Jewish People. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the conference and suggested that there will be no troop withdrawal in the West Bank even after a peace deal. He also re-enforced the view that Israel’s growing paranoia and anti-Arab attitude has reached an apex.
Netanyahu started his speech by laying out his basic premise that Israel sees itself in a constant state of war. He observed that during the last few decades there has been an increase in “demonization of Jews, the singling out of Jews, the denial of rights of Jews and Jews only.”
“The old hatred against the Jews as a people,” he stressed, building to his call for a constant state of war, “has been transformed into a hatred against the Jewish state.”
Veteran news reporter and Lebanese-American Helen Thomas felt the sting of being called anti-semitic not for comments about Jews like CNN news anchor Rich Sanchez but for a statement that “Israeli should get out of the West Bank.”
Using this position as a building block, Netanyahu then linked the United Nations with terrorists and accused the United Nations of being in a coalition with militant Islam because it has criticized Israel over its recent attack on the Gaza Flotilla in international waters.
Referring to militants and the United Nations he said, “the former works with missiles and human bombers and the latter through misnamed bodies like UN Human Rights Council, UN Human Rights Commission and their attempt to abuse the International court of Justice.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu then turned his bias towards Islam and by implication Arabs and Iranians in describing the military threats facing Israel. He defined the threats, generalizing his comments about multiple societies in the Middle East, implying Arabs and Iranians, as coming from “primitive societies, barbaric societies that in the beginning of the 21^st Century enslave women, mutilate them, deny human rights to their own citizens and promote the most absurd doctrines.”
Moving to his conclusion, he centered on the core purpose of his speech, which was to describe the future security arrangements after a peace deal with the Palestinians. In this effort, he first drove home the “constant state of war” analogy by claiming that in the last decade 12,000 rockets have been fired at Israeli citizens.
Like the rest of his speech, this claim is filled with hyperbole and fear mongering and in keeping with his core assertions that current security arrangements have not worked. In reality, 12,000 rockets have not rained down on Israel in the decade. Israel’s own Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemorative Center estimates that up to the Gaza cease fire after Operation Cast Lead about 6, 500 rockets and mortars—3,278 in 2008—were fired at military targets as well as civilian targets. The actual number of rockets fired is a fraction of this total number because it includes mortars used against the Israeli Defense Forces.
Since the cease fire, the security situation has improved dramatically with only 400 rockets and mortars being fired at military and civilian targets, according to GlobalSecurity.org, and in the last year it has been a tiny trickle.
Citing these assertions, he called on Israel and worldwide Jewish leaders to learn from the lessons of the withdrawal from Gaza.
“Peace must have built into it, arrangements on the ground—concrete security arrangements—that prevent this mistake (the withdrawal of military forces) from recurring,” he said, aware of the recent reports that US President Obama as given his support for the presence of the Israeli Army in the Jordan Valley after the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Netanyahu also claims the Palestinian Authority (PA) does not have a commitment to “such security arrangements and it has a lack of stringent demands to begin a change.” Once again this contrasts the reality of the fact that there have been no suicide bombings in Israel for years and improved security by PA forces to the point that Israel has removed checkpoints and returned control over to the PA in many locations.
In ending his speech, Netanyahu rewrites more history and calls on the PA to recognize the state of Israel, forgetting that the PLO has already done that in a 1993 letter to Prime Minister Rabin, and now making it clear that the demand has permanently changed to being recognized as a Jewish state.

Mount Merapi Volcano Forces Malysia's AirAsia to Cancel Flights

2010-11-03T08:08:00.001-07:00

Eruption of Indonesia's most active volcano caused Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia on Tuesday to cancel flights to the Indonesian cities of Yogyakarta and Solo for the day.

"The flights... to Yogya and Solo have been canceled only for November 2. We will update if there are any further developments," an AirAsia spokeswoman told AFP, referring to four flights to the cities.

Mount Merapi began erupting a week ago, forcing up to 50,000 people into temporary shelters, and on Monday spewed more heat clouds and ash.
Searing grey fumes and ash shot high into the sky and rolled down the slopes of the 2,914-metre mountain, spreading fear and panic among nearby residents in central Java.

Indonesia straddles major tectonic fault lines and has scores of active volcanoes, part of a region known as the "Ring of Fire" that circles the Pacific Ocean

Abu Rdeineh: All Settlement Forms are Illegal, Rejected

2010-11-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

Abu Rdeineh: All Settlement Forms are Illegal, Rejected Dat

RAMALLAH, October 19 (WAFA)- The Presidency spokesperson , Nabil Abu Rdeineh confirmed today that all the forms of settlement (outposts and non-random) in Palestinian lands are illegal.

Commenting on Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejection of demolishing outposts, Abu Rdeineh said that the negotiations include a cessation of all forms of settlement including the so-called natural growth, stressing that the Palestinian Authority rejects all the forms of settlement. Pointing out that comprehensive and justified peace must be based on a clear and specific basis and not based on settling and depriving Palestinian lands.

Mount Merapi Erupts Again, Indonesia Expands Evacuation Zone

2010-11-03T08:05:00.001-07:00

Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted again causing authorities to expand the danger zone and order people living closer than 15 kilometers to evacuate, officials said.

"We've decided to widen the danger zone to 15 kilometers, the refugee camps must be moved outside the zone," government volcanologist Surono told AFP.

The previous exclusion zone radiated 10 kilometers from the volcano. Around 75,000 people have evacuated the area since Tuesday last week, when Merapi started its latest series of eruptions, killing 36

Palestinian PM to Open Jerusalem School after Israel Ban

2010-11-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was on Tuesday to open a refurbished school on the outskirts of east Jerusalem after Israel barred him from opening a second one for political reasons.

The spat erupted late last week after Fayyad announced plans to open two renovated schools in the occupied eastern sector of the city, both of which lie on the occupied West Bank.

However, one of the schools is located in the Arab neighborhood of Anata, part of which falls within the âIsraeli municipal boundaries of occupied Jerusalemâ -- an area which is considered off-limits for any official activity by the Palestinians.

Following pressure and protests by right-wing lobby group Forum for the Land of âIsraelâ, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ordered the security establishment to bar Fayyad from officiating at the opening ceremony in Anata. " Benjamin Netanyahu ordered during a meeting with the security establishment not to let the Palestinian Authority conduct events and ceremonies in the municipal area of Jerusalem," a statement from his office said late on Monday.

Immediately afterwards, Israel's Interior Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch issued a warrant barring all Palestinian Authority officials from holding events "in Israeli territory without special permission." Any such events would be stopped by the police, said the warrant.

Fayyad aide Ghassan Khatib told AFP late on Monday that the premier would go ahead with the planned opening of the school in Dahiyat al-Barid, which is located just outside the municipal boundaries and therefore of no interest to Israel, but he would not be opening the school in Anata.
¬

Bombs Rock Iraq Capital, More than 300 Casualties

2010-11-03T08:03:00.001-07:00

Eleven car bombs rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, martyring at least 63 people and wounding another 285 people in the bombings that were targeted at neighborhoods in the Iraqi capital, some exploding near cafes or restaurants.

"Sixty-three people were killed and 285 wounded in 11 car bombings. All of the explosions happened at the same time," an interior ministry official said.

The biggest explosions were in the northern Kadhimiyah and eastern Husseiniyah districts. The interior ministry imposed an immediate curfew on the targeted areas of east Baghdad, over and above the nightly ban on movement in force across the capital from midnight to 5:00 am.

The attacks came just two days after Al-Qaeda gunmen stormed a church in the heart of the city and took dozens of worshippers hostage, with 46 of them killed in a drama that ended with a raid by Iraqi Special Forces.

Washington and London condemned the new bloodshed and attempts to stoke sectarian conflict. "The United States strongly condemns the vicious violence witnessed today," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement. "We have confidence that the people of Iraq will remain steadfast in their rejection of efforts by extremists to spark sectarian tension," Hammer added. "These attacks will not stop Iraq's progress. The United States stands with the people of Iraq and remains committed to our strong and long-term partnership," he said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement: "Those responsible for these barbaric bombings do not care for the future of Iraq and its people. They are intent only on provoking tension and conflict."

France Provides 4 million for Gaza Wastewater Treatment Plant

2010-11-03T08:01:00.001-07:00

France Provides 4 million for Gaza Wastewater Treatment Plant Date : 19/10/2010 Time : 18:45

JERUSALEM, October 19, 2010 (WAFA)- On Sunday 17 of October 2010, at Ministry of Planning, Mr Dov Zerah, CEO of the French Development Agency (AFD), Dr Ali Jarbawi, Minister of Planning and Administration Development (MOPAD) and Mr Frederic Desagneaux, French Consul General in Jerusalem, signed a new financial agreement in presence of Dr. Shaddad Attili, Minister of Water.

This financial agreement for an amount of 4 million Euros grant to the Palestinian Authority is dedicated to the construction of a regional wastewater treatment plant in North Gaza

The Beit Lahia wastewater treatment plant receives wastewater from the 250,000 inhabitants of the municipalities of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and Um Al Nasser. The plant today operates at over four times its nominal capacity. In 2005, AFD, the World Bank, Belgian and Swedish Development & Cooperation and the European Union mobilized USD 46 million of financing, at the request of the Palestinian Authority, for the implementation of a two-phase project. The first phase provided for the construction of a pumping station in Beit Lahia and the implementation of infiltration basin to transfer the sewage to the new site at East of Jabalia to avoid any new flooding of the surrounding areas of Beit Lahia.

The second phase of the project aims to build a biological treatment plant in Jabalia with a capacity of 35,600 m3/day. This plant is expected to meet all the needs of the North Gaza by 2015. An agricultural system will also be set up to recover and reuse the treated wastewater. The construction started early September and is running after time to complete works in less than 3 years to avoid any important damage of the groundwater resources.

With this 4 million Euros grant, additional to the 12 million Euros provided in 2005, AFD will be the main contributor of the second phase.

Weimar in Jerusalem

2010-11-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

IN BERLIN, an exhibition entitled “Hitler and the Germans” has just opened. It examines the factors that caused the German people to bring Adolf Hitler to power and follow him to the very end.

I am too busy with the problems of Israeli democracy to fly to Berlin. Pity. Because since childhood, precisely this question has been troubling me. How did it happen that a civilized nation, which saw itself as the “people of poets and thinkers”, followed this man, much as the children of Hamelin followed the pied piper to their doom.

This troubles me not only as a historical phenomenon, but as a warning for the future. If this happened to the Germans, can it happen to any people? Can it happen here?

As a 9-year old boy I was an eye-witness to the collapse of German democracy and the ascent of the Nazis to power. The pictures are engraved in my memory – the election campaigns following each other, the uniforms in the street, the debates around the table, the teacher who greeted us for the first time with “Heil Hitler”. I resurrected these memories in a book I wrote (in Hebrew) during the Eichmann trial, and which ended with a chapter entitled: “Can it happen here?” I am returning to them these days, as I write my memoirs.

I don’t know if the Berlin exhibition tries to answer these questions. Perhaps not. Even now, 77 years later, there is no final answer to the question: Why did the German republic collapse?

This is an all-important question, because now people in Israel are asking, with growing concern: Is the Israeli republic collapsing?

FOR THE first time, this question is being asked in all seriousness. Throughout the years, we were careful not to mention the word Fascism in public discourse. It raises memories which are too monstrous. Now this taboo has been broken.

Yitzhak Herzog, the Minister of Welfare in the Netanyahu government, a member of the Labor party, the grandson of a Chief Rabbi and the son of a President, said a few days ago that “fascism is touching the margins of our society”. He was wrong: fascism is not only touching the margins, it is touching the government in which he is serving, and the Knesset, of which he is a member.

Not a day – quite literally – passes without a group of Knesset members tabling a new racist bill. The country is still divided by the amendment to the law of citizenship, which will compel applicants to swear allegiance to “Israel as a Jewish and democratic state”. Now the ministers are discussing whether this will be demanded only of non-Jews (which doesn’t sound nice) or of Jews, too – as if this would change the racist content one bit.

This week, a new bill was tabled. It would prohibit non-citizens from acting as tourist guides in East Jerusalem. Non-citizens in this case means Arabs. Because, when East Jerusalem was annexed by force to Israel after the 1967 war, its Arab inhabitants were not granted citizenship. They were accorded only the status of “permanent residents”, as if they were recent newcomers and not scions of families that have lived in the city for centuries.

The bill is intended to deprive Arab Jerusalemites of the right to serve as tourist guides at their holy places in their city, since they are apt to deviate from the official propaganda line. Shocking? Incredible? Not in the eyes of the proponents, which include members of the Kadima party. A Knesset member of the Meretz party also signed, but retracted, claiming that he was confused.

This proposal comes after dozens of bills of this kind have been tabled recently, and before dozens of others which are already on their way. The Knesset members act like sharks in a feeding frenzy. There is a wild competition between them to see who can devise the most racist bill.

It pays. After each such bill, the initiators are invited to TV studios to “explain” their purpose. Their pictures appear in the papers. For obscure MKs, whose names we have never heard of, that poses an irresistible temptation. The media are collaborating.

THIS IS not a uniquely Israeli phenomenon. All over Europe and America, overt fascists are raising their heads. The purveyors of hate, who until now have been spreading their poison at the margins of the political system, are now arriving at the center.

In almost every country there are demagogues who build their careers on incitement against the weak and helpless, who advocate the expulsion of “foreigners” and the persecution of minorities. In the past they were easy to dismiss, as was Hitler at the beginning of his career. Now they must be taken seriously.

Only a few years ago, the world was shocked when Jörg Haider’s party was allowed Into the Austrian government coalition. Haider praised Hitler’s achievements. The Israeli government furiously recalled its ambassador to Vienna. Now the new Dutch government is dependent on the support of a declared racist, and fascist parties achieve impressive election gains in many countries. The “Tea Party” movement, which is blooming in the US, has some clearly fascist aspects. One of its candidates likes to go around wearing the uniform of the murderous Nazi Waffen-SS.

So we are in good company. We are no worse than the others. If they can do it, why not us?

BUT THERE is a big difference: Israel is not in the same situation as Holland or Sweden. Unlike these countries, Israel’s very existence is threatened by fascism. It can lead our state to destruction.

Years ago. I believed that two miracles had occurred in Israel: the revival of Hebrew language and Israeli democracy.

The resurrection of a “dead” language has never succeeded anywhere else. Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, once asked contemptuously: “Will people ask for a railway ticket in Hebrew?” (He wanted us to speak German.) Today, the Hebrew language fares better than the Israeli railway.

But Israeli democracy is an even greater miracle. It did not grow from below, as in Europe. The Jewish people never had a democracy. The Jewish religion, like almost all religions, is totalitarian. The immigrants who flowed to the country had also never experienced democracy before. They came from Czarist or Bolshevik Russia, from Josef Pilsudski’s authoritarian Poland, from tyrannical Morocco and Iraq. Only an infinitesimal part came from democratic countries. And yet: from its earliest beginnings, the Zionist movement fostered an exemplary democracy in its ranks, and the State of Israel continued this tradition (with one limitation: a full democracy for Jews, a limited democracy for Arab citizens.)

I was always worried that this democracy was hanging by a thin thread, that we must be on our guard every hour, every minute. Now it is facing an unprecedented test.

THE GERMAN republic carried the name of Weimar, the town where the constituent assembly adopted its constitution after World War I. The Weimar of Bach and Goethe was one of the cradles of German culture.

It was a shiningly democratic constitution. Under its wings, Germany saw an unprecedented intellectual and artistic bloom. So why did the republic collapse?

Generally, two causes are identified: humiliation and unemployment. When the republic was still in its infancy, it was forced to sign the Versailles peace treaty with the victors of the First World War, a treaty that was but a humiliating act of surrender. When the republic fell behind with the payment of the huge indemnities levied on it, the French army invaded the industrial heartland of Germany in 1923, precipitating a galloping inflation – a trauma Germany has not recovered from to this day.

When the world economic crisis broke out in 1929, the German economy broke down. Millions of despairing unemployed sank into abject poverty and cried out for salvation. Hitler promised to wipe out both the humiliation of defeat and the unemployment, and fulfilled both promises: he gave work to the unemployed in the new arms industry and in public works, like the new autobahns, in preparation for war.

And there was a third reason for the collapse of the republic: the growing apathy of the democratic public. The political system of the republic just became loathsome. While the people were sinking into misery, the politicians went on playing their games. The public was longing for a strong leader, to impose order. The Nazis did not overthrow the republic. The republic imploded, the Nazis only filled the void.

IN ISRAEL there is no economic crisis. On the contrary, the economy is flourishing. Israel did not sign any humiliating agreement, like the Treaty of Versailles. On the contrary, it won all its wars. True, our fascists speak about the “Oslo criminals”, much as Hitler ranted against the “November criminals”, but the Oslo agreement was the opposite of the Versailles treaty, which was signed in November 1919.

If so, what does the profound crisis of Israeli society stem from? What causes millions of citizens to regard with complete apathy the doings of their leaders, contenting themselves with shaking their heads in front of the TV set? What causes them to ignore what’s happening in the occupied territories, half an hour’s drive from their home? Why do so many declare that they do not listen to the news or read newspapers anymore? What is the origin of the depression and despair, which leave open the road to fascism?

The state has arrived at a crossroads: peace or eternal war. Peace means the foundation of the Palestinian state and the evacuation of the settlements. But the genetic code of the Zionist movement is pushing towards the annexation of the whole of the historical country up to the Jordan River, and – directly or indirectly - the transfer of the Arab population. The majority of the people is evading a decision by claiming that “we have no partner for peace” anyhow. We are condemned to eternal war.

Democracy is suffering from a growing paralysis, because the different sectors of the people live in different worlds. The secular, the national-religious and the orthodox receive totally different educations. Common ground between them is shrinking. Other rifts are gaping between the old Ashkenazi community, the Oriental Jews, the immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, and the Arab citizens, whose separation from the rest is increasing all the time.

For the second time in my life, I may have to witness the collapse of a republic. But that is not predestined. Israel is not the goose-stepping Germany of those days, 2010 is not 1933. The Israeli society can yet sober up in time and mobilize the democratic forces within itself.

But for that to happen, it must awake from the coma, understand what is happening and where it is leading to, protest and struggle by all available means (as long as that is still possible), in order to arrest the fascist wave that is threatening to engulf us.

-- Uri Avnery, an Israeli writer and peace activist, founded the Gush Shalom movement. He had served three terms as an MP at the Knesset. This article was published by Gush Shalom.

Israeli Intelligence Chief: Next War Will See Heavy Casualties

2010-11-03T07:58:00.001-07:00

In a final meeting at the Knesset, Israeli outgoing Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin warned on Tuesday that Israel's next war would be fought on several fronts - causing far heavier damage and casualties than other recent conflicts.

Israel was currently enjoying a period of relative quiet, Yadlin said. âBut its enemies were rearming and now posed the greatest threat to the country since the 1970s,â he claimed, adding that a new war would be far deadlier than Israel's last two, relatively short, in Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008-9.

Yadlin advised Knesset members not to be fooled by the calm security situation and addressed what he called threats from Syria, Hezbollah and Iran.

He said Russia was providing Syria with portable, state-of-the-art anti-aircraft systems, warning that the Israeli army may find itself facing a similar situation to that which prevailed in the early 1970s in the Suez Canal. "These are fairly inexpensive missiles compared to the S-300 but they are no less lethal or effective," Yadlin said.

The Israeli intelligence chief warned that the Russians are renovating old Syrian weapons systems. "Syria is engaged in a very intense campaign to procure highly advanced weapons; so advanced in fact that anything that comes off the Russian assembly lines ends up in Syria."

The major-general claimed that Syria is trying to have the best of both worlds â tightening relations with Iran and Hezbollah while also trying to show willingness to finalize a peace deal with Israel.

Addressing the Iranian threat, the MI chief claimed that Israel is well informed on the intelligence level. "Israel's intelligence coverage there is much better," he said. Yadlin also noted that "Iran today has enough nuclear material to make one bomb, and soon it would have enough to make two bombs."

The veteran soldier, who turns 60 next year, told the committee that during his position as MI chief he had contended with two enemy nuclear programs - apparently a reference to Iran and Syria.

"I've seen three defense ministers, two chiefs of staff and two prime ministers come and go, I've been through two wars and I've contended with two nuclear programs of enemy states," Yadlin said, summing up the last years of his career. "I headed a group of thousands of people working 24 hours a day to collect information that the enemy was not volunteering, information that had to be extracted from difficult places," he added

3 Policemen Killed in South Yemen Attack

2010-11-03T07:56:00.001-07:00

Three Yemeni soldiers and other 11 wounded in Al-Qaeda suspected attack that targeted the intelligence and security services headquarters in the south Yemen town of Zinjbar, a security official said.

Two gunmen were killed and one wounded in the clashes, the official added.

He said that around 20 gunmen carried out the attacks, and that Al-Qaeda was believed to be responsible.
Witnesses said gunmen on motorbikes armed with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and grenades began attacking the two headquarters at around 8:00 am (0500) GMT.

After a fierce firefight, the attackers fled toward Jaar, north of Zinjibar, witnesses said.
Two policemen were killed at the security services headquarters and a third at the intelligence headquarters, the security official said, adding that police have one dead attacker's body while the surviving gunmen took the other.
"It seems Al-Qaeda was behind the attacks," the official told AFP.

HAS