Blair's Boom Continues: West Bank Stays Bust

It looks as if Tony Blair's preposterous ambition to become 'President of Europe' has been stymied, and that his rumoured preparedness to forego a reputed £5million a year will not be put to the test.
His vainglorious occupation of the role of economy-builder for the Palestinian people has attracted occasional bursts of the usual celeb publicity; but the measurable achievements are minimal and they have made no perceptible contribution to the 'peace process'.

Meanwhile the nomination of two Muslims for middle-ranking posts in the Obama administration has sent theAmerican right into another paroxysm of phobia: and there's no sign there that Blair's Faith Foundation has any mitigating influence on such propaganda.

It is not possible to change what people think. Blair's legalisated enforcement of political correctness has not suppressed frank discussion of matters of concern in the family circle: as is evidenced by this week's report of a massive rise in the use of racist abuse by even the under-fives in British schoools. Apartheid has prevailed in schools in the old northern mill towns for three decades, while teachers pretend that armed neutrality between ethinc groups [punctuated by occasional violent flare-ups] is evidence of a satisfactory development of inter-faith and inter-racial relationships.

President Blair would not have been able to cope with the crisis-to-come in Europe: when the continuing relative economic decline of the continent exposes the ethno-religious faultline that everybody knows to exist.  This will require sensitive staesmanship: not spin, lies and posturing.

Can it really be true?

It is sometimes hard not to fall for a conspiracy theory: but good old 'sod's law' is enough to explain most of the tiny disastrous decisions and incidents that have conspired to bring the United Kingdom to its present sorry state.
This is the theme of the Bugger-up Awards, which is now accessible from this blog. Try it!

Human Rightists Hoist by their own Petard

The recent adoption by a UN committee of the Goldstone report that asserts that both Israeli and Hamas forces committed 'war crimes' before and during the latest Israeli Gaza incursion has sent major components of the Human Rights industry into turmoil and tailspin.
For more than half a century the world's revulsion at the horrors of the destruction of Jews and Gypsies in Europe, and the treatment of 'inferior' Koreans and 'errant' Chinese by the Japanese, before and during the Second World War, has given a licence to the lawyer-led human rights industry to build up a huge corpus of moderately remunerative law and of forceful lobbying whose overall result has been to make rational government and national self-defence impossible.
It is part of the tragedy of humanity that in extremis the pragmatic use of force by an overriding state authority is necessary to defend the positive values that society depends upon.
Thomas Hobbes argued, in the seventeenth century, that a sovereign was necessarily 'at war' with his subjects, so that by occasionally sending some to face death on the battlefield he could protect the lives and liberties of the rest. So it will always be: at nodal points in history 'rights' must be surrendered to the greater good.

Palestine Tragedy Deepens

As the cynics have predicted all along, there has never been serious intent in enough of the parties for the 'roadmap' process to come to any positive conclusion.
The effluxion of time since the deal was notified has enabled massive settlement activity to proceed; and the disillusion of Palestinians with any leadership has intensified.
The role of the United States, so heavily 'bulled' in the early days of the Obama presidency, has sunk back to the usual support for Israel combined with offers of subsidy for anyone else in the region who will tolerate Israel.
The lack of determination by the United States to 'discipline' Israel is often ascribed to the 'Israeli' or 'Jewish' lobby in the country. There is no doubt that the Jewish supporters of Israel are influential in most advanced countries, but there is another, more powerful force at work in the United States: American History.
This unrecognised force will ensure that the US will NEVER side against Isreal.
To understand the reasons for this, see THE LEVANTINE LOZENGE, accessible from this site.

Early Reward for Early Failure?

It has become evident that the Israelis have already stymied President Obama's assertion that settlement building on the West Bank must cease. All that remains to be negotiated is the form of words in which the US climb-down is to be wrapped.
Until October 9 it would have been possible to seek to embarrass the President into having at least one more big push on this point. Now, as a beatified peacemaker, he can assume a mantle of infallibility and allow the greater force to suppress the residue of the Palestinian community.
The Palestinians have been appallingly led for generations; therefore they need the support of respected international figures. Obama could have been a leader in that process. The absurdly premature award of the Nobel Peace Prize has undermined his credibility.
To be honoued with 'clouds of glory' before he has survived his 'baptism of fire' is the worst possible way in which both Obama and the Palestinians could be served.

Amazonians Show Mettle

Achuar 'Indians' from communities along the Pastazzar River in Peru, close to the Ecuadorian border, have come out publicly - with facial paint - to protest against government plans to auction exploitation rights over almost 75% of the area around their villages to oil, gas and mining companies.
The leaders reckon that more than fifty tribal groups, with a total population of several hundred thousand, are forming alliances to resist the exploitation of the territory.
This - probably doomed - expression of frustration at the political impotence of indigenous peoples has gained attention in the global media: so there is hope that it will be a significant 'straw in the wind' in the movement to redress the wrongs that were wrought by the USA in past centuries; and the alleged infractions of international law by Israel, Turkey and other states in real time.
Territorial encroachment by oil firms in the Amazon, as by Muslims in European cities, is becoming a topic of mass anxiety of which governments have so far proffered no sign of comprehension. Flash points will become more frequent and the potential for the situations to be exploited by opportunist extremists should alarm all responsible citizens globally.
See the Levantine Lozenge.