Bridging the Gulf

[Behind the Aegis]

Huge demonstrations took place on Friday all over the Shi'ite-Muslim world in honor of "Jerusalem Day" - the last Friday in the month of Ramadan, when masses of people take to the streets, to express identification with the Palestinian people and to condemn Israel. The usual scenes at these demonstrations are the burning of Israeli and American flags, shouts of contempt and belligerent speeches. Such demonstrations were held this year as usual in countries such as Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, but in one country, Bahrain, the demonstration was of particular significance. In the small Gulf kingdom, the rally took place in the shadow of rumors that Bahrain will soon recognize Israel and establish diplomatic ties with it.

The demonstration's organizers passed out petitions among the thousands of participants, to be submitted to the king, Hamed bin Isa al Khalifa, calling on him to torpedo last month's government decision to abolish the direct economic boycott against Israel. Ali al-Sitri, one of the participants in the demonstration, said he hopes Bahrain never recognizes Israel. He said to the English-language Bahrain newspaper The Gulf Daily News that there are more important things in life than trade and business, and that Bahrain has to stick to its principles, rather than selling out to make more money. His brother Hadam said he supports the words of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called for the destruction of Israel. "They took the Palestinian land by force, so when should they protest when there is a call to eliminate them by force?"

The furor of the Bahrainian public was aroused last month because of the government declaration that it was closing the "boycott offices," a vestige of the 1960s Arab League decision that obligated all Arab countries to boycott Israeli companies, as well as companies trading with Israel. The Arab pressure did succeed in preventing various international companies from operating in Israel for years, until it dissolved in the 1980s. The indirect boycott on foreign companies was officially abolished in most of the Arab countries after the Oslo Accords, but the direct boycott, on Israeli companies and merchandise, has remained in place. Now Bahrain has decided to abolish this last vestige, due to American pressure.

Bahrain is not the only Arab country changing its policy toward Israel, at least in part. The United Arab Emirates agreed in the summer to open an unofficial Israeli delegation in Dubai. In Qatar there is a low-ranking Israeli delegation, and in recent weeks even Kuwait, a relatively rigid and conservative country, has been sending clear public signals in the direction of Israel. On Saturday, the official Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassa published an unprecedented interview with Vice Premier Shimon Peres, and even spread it over an entire page. Al-Siyassa, which apparently assumed this would arouse criticism, wrote that the interview was being published jointly with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, the most famous paper in the Arab world.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/639413.html

[Coastie for Truth]

1. Perhaps we progressives

should stage demonstrations in Emeryville CA (Shell's San Francisco area refinery) and San Ramon CA (TexacoChevron's suburban San Francisco corporate headquarters) to show solidarity with all of the Middle Eastern proletariat (Saudi, Iraqi, Palestinian, Israeli) and against their manipulation by the power elite (See, Craig Unger, "House of Bush, House of Saud" and Engdahl, "A Century Of War : Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order").

The "power elites" of big oil, and the House of Saud and the House of Bush are playing a "Divide and Conquer" game - we are falling for -- as are our Arab and Israeli proletariat brothers and sisters.