Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on July 6, 2014
Power Struggles in Middle East Exploit Islam’s Ancient Sectarian Rift
Black and yellow concrete barricades block the roads entering this wealthy Sunni enclave, where foreign-born Sunni soldiers in armored personnel carriers guard the mansions of the ruling family and the business elite.
Beyond the enclave are impoverished villages of Shiites, about 70 percent of Bahrain’s more than 650,000 citizens, where the police skirmish nightly with young men wielding rocks and, increasingly, improvised weapons like homemade guns that use fire extinguishers to shoot rebar.
Their battles are an extension of sectarian hostilities nearly as old as Islam. But they are also a manifestation of a radically new scramble for power playing out across the region in the aftermath of the United States invasion of Iraq and the Arab Spring revolts.
This island nation off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia was the first place where Arab Spring demands for equal citizenship and democratic governance degenerated into a sectarian feud, and at first it seemed to be an anomaly. But Bahrain’s experience now appears to have been a harbinger of what was to come as centuries old but newly inflamed rivalries between Sunni and Shiite Muslims tear apart much of the region — threatening to erase the borders of states like Syria and Iraq, destabilizing Bahrain and Lebanon, and accelerating a regional contest for power and influence between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.
Scholars and activists say that the sectarian violence gripping the Middle East is not simply the unleashing of religious rivalries once suppressed by the secular autocrats who ruled the region. Instead, they say, the religious resentments have been revived and exploited in a very earthly power struggle.
“There are forces that keep the tension alive in order to get a bigger piece of the cake,” said Sheikh Maytham al-Salman, a Shiite Muslim scholar who was detained for nine months and tortured by the Bahraini police in 2011 because of his support for the uprising.
Pearl Square, where demonstrators staged a weekslong sit-in three years ago, has now been turned into a permanent military camp, its namesake statue demolished, in a grim memorial of the day in March 2011 when vehicles and troops from the neighboring Sunni monarchies rolled across the causeway from Saudi Arabia to crush the Shiite-dominated movement for democracy.
Caspian Sea
TURKEY
Tehran
SYRIA
IRAQ
Mediterranean Sea
Qusayr
Beirut
IRAN
LEBANON
Damascus
Baghdad
ISRAEL
Karbala
SYRIAN DESERT
JORDAN
EGYPT
KUWAIT
Persian Gulf
SAUDI ARABIA
BAHRAIN
Riffa
Predominantly Shiite
(Includes Alawites and
other offshoots)
Predominantly
Sunni
Sunni/Shiite
mixed
Other
religions
Desert areas
QATAR
Once aroused, however, sectarian wrath can be unpredictable and hard to control, even boomeranging against those who might have sought to exploit it. From the first stirring of Arab Spring protest in Syria, for example, the government of President Bashar al-Assad and his Iranian backers sought to portray the movement as a sectarian power grab by certain Sunni extremists, in order to rally Christians and other religious minorities against it. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led Persian Gulf states sponsored satellite broadcasts firing up Sunni resentment of Shiite Iran and the Shiite-offshoot Alawite sect to which the Assads belong. And Sunni Arabs in Gulf monarchies funneled aid to the Sunni rebels as they grew increasingly violent.
Now, the Syrian revolt has fulfilled some of the worst sectarian fears — and threatened the security not only of the Assad family but also of Iran and Saudi Arabia. The most vicious Sunni extremists among the rebels, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, have seized a broad expanse of territory across both states and boasted of executing hundreds of Shiites and destroying their mosques.
Its rampage has brought it to the doorsteps of both the Iraqi government in Baghdad, an Iranian ally, and the Saudi Arabian monarchy, which has long feared such extremists as a threat to its own power at home.
Across the region, though, the resurgence of Sunni-Shiite sectarian hostilities has followed a pattern: The weakening of the old states leads anxious citizens to fall back on sectarian identity, while insecure rulers surround themselves with loyalists from their clans and denominations, systematically alienating others, often on sectarian lines. In the case of American allies like Bahrain and Iraq, analysts say, the United States and other Western powers turned a blind eye to the excesses and sectarianism of rulers they supported.
Hammering on those internal cracks, the region’s two geopolitical heavyweights, the Shiite theocracy in Iran and the Sunni monarchy in Saudi Arabia, have sought to protect their interests and influence by funneling support to clerics, satellite networks, political factions and armed groups squaring off along sectarian lines.
“Great powers gravitate to clients they can support,” said Vali Nasr, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a scholar of the region.
Saudi Arabia and Iran, he said, each employ a sectarian foreign policy to pursue classically secular objectives. “They play the game of great power politics and the chess pieces they choose inflame the sectarianism,” he said.
For the United States, the stakes include the stability of the region, the security of its allies and oil partners, and the risk that the regional power struggle might complicate attempts to broker a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program.
But Washington has also confounded many in the region by maintaining alliances on both sides of the sectarian struggle, with Sunnis in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and in the Syrian opposition, but with the Shiites in power in Baghdad. In Bahrain, the United States effectively assented as the Saudi military helped crush the largely peaceful uprising by the Shiite majority. In Iraq, rights groups say Washington stayed silent amid mounting evidence that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki was excluding the Sunni minority from power and condoning abuses against them.
Citing such conflicting entanglements, conspiracy theorists in the Arab media now often suggest that Washington may welcome the sectarian mayhem. “It is becoming the dominant narrative,” said Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
Secretary of State John Kerry recently flew to Baghdad to urge Iraq’s Shiite-led government to share power and eschew sectarianism, hoping that may relieve some of the resentment that has made part of the Sunni population receptive to the extremists.
In Bahrain, Shiite opposition leaders rolled their eyes. “We need to hear a similar message,” said Khalil al-Marzooq, a deputy chairman of Bahrain’s main Shiite opposition party, al-Wefaq, who was recently released from prison.
The split between Sunnis and Shiites began in the seventh century, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The dominant faction, which became Sunnis, argued that leadership should pass to Muhammad’s companion and father-in-law, Abu Baker. The faction that became Shiites argued for Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali.
Today Shiites comprise only about 15 percent of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, although they form the majorities in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and Azerbaijan and a plurality in Lebanon.
The theological differences are comparable to those dividing Catholics and Protestants, such as disagreements about the authority of clerics or the details of prayer rituals. Sunnis and Shiites have often lived together amicably and formed political alliances; intermarriage has been common.
But many Sunnis across the region still suggest Shiites are not true Muslims, while Shiites grumble of centuries of persecution.
In Iraq, the latest flash point, many polls conducted over the 11 years since the United States invasion consistently found that majorities of Sunnis and Shiites supported coexistence, describing their country as “mostly unified” instead of “mostly divided.”
But as Mr. Maliki has monopolized power and as rights abuses grew in recent years, national unity weakened. In a spring 2012 poll conducted by the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, the percentage of Iraqis who said it was a “mostly divided” country jumped by 12 percentage points from the previous year, to 35 percent. Among Sunni Arabs, the portion who called it “mostly divided” doubled from the previous year, to 58 percent.
In Bahrain, when thousands of demonstrators marched to Pearl Square in defiance of the government in February 2011, most were Shiites. But one of the most visible leaders was Ibrahim Sharif, a Sunni Muslim known as an activist against government corruption and as the general secretary of Bahrain’s main liberal party.
He was also one of the first leaders arrested, abducted from his home by the police in the first hours after midnight on March 17, just after police stormed Pearl Square. Mr. Sharif “broke their story” that the uprising was a Shiite plot, his wife, Farida Ghulam Ismail, said in an interview. He remains in jail on charges of treason.
By the time of his arrest and the crackdown, the mostly Shiite protesters had increasingly taken up Shiite chants, adding to the fears of Sunnis. Bahrain’s government accused its Shiite opponents of holding weapons, plotting the violent overthrow of the monarchy and taking leadership and support from the government of Iran.
Opposition leaders called the charges fear-mongering, but since then there have been signs of both growing violence and Iranian involvement. In December, the Bahraini authorities intercepted an Iraqi ship sailing toward the island with Syrian and Iranian weapons. A Shiite group calling itself the Ashtar Brigade has reportedly claimed responsibility for attacks on security forces, including a bombing that killed two Bahraini police officers and an officer from the United Arab Emirates. Another officer died Saturday after being wounded in what Bahraini officials called a terrorist attack.
Many in the Bahraini opposition parties now say their only hope is a regional peace involving both Saudi Arabia and Iran, which might alleviate the ruling family’s fears of any concession to the Shiite majority.
But optimists note that tensions in Bahrain have not yet escalated into communal violence between Sunni and Shiite civilians. Some opposition leaders argue that while Bahrain could become the next powder keg to explode, it still has a chance to become a model of power-sharing.
“Why wait until there is a real disaster?” asked Mr. Marzooq, of Wefaq, the main Shiite party.
22 Comments on "Power Struggles in Middle East Exploit Islam’s Ancient Sectarian Rift"
Nony on Sun, 6th Jul 2014 1:54 pm
It was Sunnis that flew into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Not the Shia. Maybe Iran ain’t so evil…
Heck, problem in Iraq is the Shia just have less fight, less grab than the Sunnis.
rockman on Sun, 6th Jul 2014 3:15 pm
And it was Yankees that burned Atlanta and Mexicans that slaughtered the boys at the Alamo. That’s the secret to perpetuating sectarian violence: don’t let your side ever forget…keep scrapping that scab off.
Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
Nony on Sun, 6th Jul 2014 3:34 pm
Genocide, displacement, division. These are all old-fashioned ways to deal with the problem. Some fruit-y belief in Arabs turning into multicultural Californians is stupid. Whether it’s Bush-idiot or Obama-idiot. We need to mind our own business and minimize how much we stick our head into hornet’s nests.
Plantagenet on Sun, 6th Jul 2014 4:19 pm
Obama is putting the US on the side of the Shia in Iraq in the Sunni vs. Shia religious wars. This is a big mistake. The US shouldn’t take sides in religious wars.
Joe_D on Sun, 6th Jul 2014 8:04 pm
It was George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and the rest of the neocons that put us into this BIG MISTAKE.
Makati1 on Sun, 6th Jul 2014 10:03 pm
rockman, it wasn’t religion at the Alamo or Atlanta. It IS religion in the Shia/Sunni wars. totally different animal. This has been hot and cold for 1,200 years. Not going to stop now because some infidels divided their lands after some uprising of their own.
The West finally bit off more then they can chew. What they started is now beyond their ability to stop. However, there is still huge profits to be made, from both sides, and that is all that is important to the West.
GregT on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 9:43 am
“Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel’s targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi’ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north.”
A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties
by Oded Yinon
http://www.globalresearch.ca/greater-israel-the-zionist-plan-for-the-middle-east/5324815
bobinget on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 10:03 am
and huge losses… Makati.
Joe_D put it best, in a masterly failed power grab, Neocons changed Iraq from a greatly non-SECTarian to denominational, oppositional forces so as to divide and rule.
Fanned by clerics who refuse to be back-watered and
pretenders like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi our latest ambitious bloody maniac. A creation doubtless of wealthy Saudi Sunnis that has evidently backfired…
Arm, finance megalomaniacs, instruct them to kill at will.. Surprise, a suicide bomber leading tens of thousands of miserable, indoctrinated, warriors changed history.
bobinget on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 10:10 am
OK Ladies, It Starts.. 7/7/14 one more historic day to mark.
Hamas vows revenge after Israeli air strikes on Gaza
7 July 2014 Last updated at 10:29 ET
Israel said the air strikes against Gaza are in response to rocket attacks
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has promised that Israel will “pay a tremendous price” after eight militants were killed overnight in Gaza.
Five died after a missile reportedly struck a smuggling tunnel near Rafah.
The Israeli military said it had hit “terror sites and concealed rocket launchers” in response to rocket and mortar fire from the coastal territory.
Tensions have risen since a Palestinian youth was killed in apparent reprisal for the murder of three Israelis.
On Sunday, Israeli police said they had arrested six Jewish suspects in connection with the death of Mohammed Abu Khdair last week.
‘Unacceptable rocket fire’
Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said Israeli aircraft had targeted a “resistance location” in the southern city of Rafah.
It initially said six of its members had died, but sources later told the BBC that one man was still alive.
Medical staff said a smuggling tunnel near the border with Egypt had been hit by a missile.
But some Israeli media quoted defence officials as saying the tunnel might have collapsed as a result of the militants’ explosives detonating accidentally.
The Qassam Brigades also said a drone had attacked a site in northern Gaza, killing one fighter, while two other militants were killed in a separate strike east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Palestinians carry the body of of the militants killed in an Israeli air strike east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza (7 July 2014)Funerals were held in the Bureij refugee camp for two of the militants killed overnight
Palestinian militants at a funeral for two fighters killed in an Israeli air strike east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza (7 July 2014)Militants in Gaza have stepped up rocket attacks on Israel in recent weeks
Israeli armoured personnel carrier near the Israel-Gaza border (7 July 2014)The Israeli military has sent reinforcements to the frontier with Gaza
The Israeli military said it had carried out strikes on at least 14 locations in retaliation for at least 58 rockets and mortars that had been fired at southern Israel since Sunday.
Lt Col Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said the rocket fire was “unacceptable”.
“We will continue to act in order to debilitate and incapacitate the Hamas terror infrastructure,” he said.
He added that strikes would continue on “warehouses, rocket manufacturing capabilities and those that endanger the well-being of the Israelis in the south of the country”.
Later, the Israeli military said another three concealed rocket launchers in northern Gaza had been targeted.
It came after a rocket struck near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Monday morning and an Israeli military patrol came under attack near the security fence along the border with Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to rocket fire from Gaza has been criticised as too weak by his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman. On Monday Mr Lieberman said his Yisrael Beitenu party was scrapping a 20-month alliance with Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party as a result.
‘Abhorrent murder’
Meanwhile, Mr Netanyahu’s office said that he had spoken with Mohammed Abu Khdair’s father, Hussein, offering his condolences and promising to bring to justice those who killed him.
Mobile phone footage appears to show two Israeli policemen punching the 15-year-old cousin of Mohammad Abu Khdair in the head
“We acted immediately to apprehend the murderers. We will bring them to trial and they will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law,” it quoted him as telling Mr Abu Khdair.
“We denounce all brutal behaviour. The murder of your son is abhorrent and cannot be countenanced by any human being,” he added.
Investigators believe the 16 year old from East Jerusalem was “murdered because of his nationality”, but further details have not been divulged because the case is subject to a gagging order.
His killing has triggered violent protests by Palestinians in and around Jerusalem. Dozens of people have been arrested by Israeli police.
Just hours before Mohammed Abu Khdair’s death, funerals were held for the three Israeli teenagers whose bodies were found in the occupied West Bank on Monday.
The Israeli authorities have named two known Hamas operatives who they say abducted and killed Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaer – both 16 years old – and Eyal Yifrach, 19, last month. The group denies any involvement.
Are you in the area? Do you have any information you would like to share? Please send us your comments. You can email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject line ‘Gaza’.
bobinget on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 10:23 am
Each side, instead of looking for peaceful resolution,
seeks elusive ’causes belli’.
Israel already interceded in Syria’s proxy ‘Civil war’.
This week we may witness far greater IDF/IAF involvement by Israel from Gaza to Jordan to Lebanon to Syria.
Last week the world ‘celebrated’ the beginnings of WW
One or the “Great War”.
In one hundred years, more enlightened will
note this lead-up period to a greater East/West
“crusade”.
GregT on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 10:43 am
“Neocons changed Iraq from a greatly non-SECTarian to denominational, oppositional forces so as to divide and rule.”
Correct.
“Richard Perle, who later became a core member of PNAC, was involved in similar activities to those pursued by PNAC after its formal organization. For instance, in 1996 Perle composed a report that proposed regime changes in order to restructure power in the Middle East. The report was titled A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm and called for removing Saddam Hussein from power, as well as other ideas to bring change to the region. The report was delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[8] Two years later, in 1998, Perle and other core members of the PNAC—Paul Wolfowitz, R. James Woolsey, Elliot Abrams, and John Bolton—”were among the signatories of a letter to President Clinton calling for the removal of Hussein.”[8] Clinton did seek regime change in Iraq, and this position was sanctioned by the United Nations”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
Almost the entire Iraq-war clique, advocated the war from 1998 on. 9/11 was only a convenient pretext. Amazingly almost all were members of just two organizations: IASPS and PNAC. Both were neoconservative, and there were many links between the two.
IASPS: Institute for Advanced Strategic & Political Studies
“A Jerusalem-based think tank with an office in Washington, D.C.”
Began promoting the Iraq war in 1996 by lobbying the Israeli government.
Richard Perle (later Rumsfeld’s Chairman of Defense Policy Board, delivered “Clean Break” report to Israeli Prime Minister.
Current views (2010): Obama is the first American president who is a dictator. We should not be surprised if he proves to be the last president.
hXXp://zfacts.com/node/297
GregT on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 11:22 am
Also, coincidentally, another can of worms (maggots) in the above link:
Victoria, “fuck the EU”, Nuland
Robert Kagan
Co-founder with Kristol of PNAC the main neocon lobby.
Signer of 1998 PNAC letter to Clinton advocating Iraq War.
His wife, Victoria Nuland, was National Security Advisor to Cheney from July 2003 until May 2005. Focused on Iraq.
http://zfacts.com/node/297
HARM on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 11:29 am
“Current views (2010): Obama is the first American president who is a dictator. We should not be surprised if he proves to be the last president.”
Oh, ‘bagger please. If Obama is such an all-powerful dictator, why can’t he get an up or down vote on any of his judicial nominees, much less an immigration or gun bill? For that matter, why doesn’t he simply dissolve Congress and declare martial law? “Dictator” my @ss.
Cheney-Bush were FAR more likely to take unilateral military or police action than Obama –Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, torture, NSA warrantless spying, extraordinary rendition, etc.
American conservatives seem to have selective amnesia.
GregT on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 11:58 am
“why doesn’t he simply dissolve Congress and declare martial law?”
He would need some kind of ‘catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor’. Maybe something like oil shortages? We appear to be on the cusp….
If not Obama, Hillary would make a wonderful dictator.
Hillary for Dictator!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_opinion_polling_for_the_United_States_presidential_election,_2016
Oil shortages will most surely come during her reign of terror………….
Northwest Resident on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 12:16 pm
GregT — I know your sense of humor, and you’re putting it to get use in your above post. But it is a good point. The president “in charge” when TSHTF is likely to be the last “duly” elected American president — that is just my guess, pure speculation in other words. When marshal law goes into effect and the world as we know it comes screeching to a halt, I would expect a lot of other dramatic and sweeping changes to be implemented as well. For my part, if I have to choose a dictator, I would prefer Hillary or even Obama to (for example) Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, John “bombs away” McCain — or any of the other so-called Republican super-stars. Maybe Ted Nugent, a Republican icon and laughing stock to the rest of the world, would make a most excellent dictator. Cat scratch fever — make it a national holiday by dictatorial decree! See, collapse doesn’t have to be all bad…:-)
GregT on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 12:29 pm
NWR,
Not a humorous subject, but sometimes humour does do a better job of getting a point across.
IMHO, there will be ‘marshal law’. It is only a matter of time. I will be surprised if we make it to 2016 though. Time will tell. Like POPS pointed out in previous posts, situations can drag out much longer than most anticipate.
GregT on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 12:49 pm
Oh, and if marshal law is in the near future, I hope to hell it happens before 2016. Hillary Clinton scares the living bejesus out of me. God help us all if she ends up in control. Obama, I would think, could make a good dictator. He appears to have his head on straight.
bobinget on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 2:48 pm
Lighten up fellow posters, we have a genuine crisis.
Israel is calling up reservist forces and warning of an escalation of its activities in the Gaza Strip as more rockets fired by Palestinian militants fall in southern Israel.
A meeting was held by Israel’s security cabinet today, the same day some 40 rockets and mortars were launched from Gaza, according an Israeli military spokesman.
The goal of the call-up of those troops – all affiliated with the Iron Dome anti-missile system – is to protect cities in southern Israel, said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner on a conference call today. The troops are holding a “defensive stance,” but could “take it one step up if required,” he said, declining to elaborate.
Israel accuses Hamas – which controls Gaza – of failing to prevent rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. Overnight, Israel carried out air strikes on Gaza that left at least seven Hamas militants dead, along with two others from another group. Hamas warned today that Israel would “pay a tremendous price.”
“The idea is to see a controlled escalation, a monitored one,” said military analyst Alon Ben-David. “What you’ll see is more aerial strikes, more frequent, and more higher value [Hamas] targets.”
“I expect either Hamas to be deterred now and cease fire immediately, or we’re going to see a semi-quiet conflict escalate into a major conflict,” he added.
The growing tension comes amid some of the worst clashes seen in Jerusalem in a decade following the murder of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a resident of the eastern neighborhood of Shuafat who was abducted and burned alive last Wednesday.
On Sunday, six Jewish suspects were arrested, three of whom confessed to the crime on Monday, according to Israeli media. It confirmed the widespread belief that Abu Khdeir’s murder was in response to the killings of three Israeli teens whose bodies were found near the West Bank city of Hebron last Monday. Israel accuses Hamas of being behind the murders, which the group denies.
In the clashes that followed Abu Khdeir’s death, his cousin Tariq from Tampa, Fla., was brutally beaten by Israeli police. The assault was captured on video by a neighbor, showing one policeman sitting on the 15-year-old while another repeatedly stomps on his head before kneeling down to keep punching him.
“When they punched me the first couple times I was awake and then they punched me a little more and then I went unconscious,” Tariq Abu Khdeir told ABC News today, his face still swollen with black eyes and stitches in his lip.
Abu Khdeir denies the Israeli police claims that he was involved in the clashes, masked and attacking police officers. Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, told ABC News that Abu Khdeir had used Molotov cocktails against security forces.
“I did not throw any Molotovs and I did not throw any rocks,” he said, “I was just watching the protests.”
Abu Khdeir – in Jerusalem on vacation visiting family – was held without charges for three days before being released on Sunday, ordered to stay in his uncle’s home under house arrest and to post a 3,000 shekel (around $875) bail. He says he’s happy to be out, but disappointed he won’t be able to enjoy the rest of his holiday before his family return to Florida on July 16.
“I’m very angry,” he said, “I don’t know why they gave me a punishment for something I didn’t do.”
Northwest Resident on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 4:40 pm
GregT — If I had to pick a dictator to live under, I guess Obama wouldn’t be a bad choice. Better than Ted Nugent…
Hey, my girlfriend had one of her girlfriends over for dinner and to check out my “garden” yesterday. It turns out that her girlfriend is married, and her husband came along. So me and this gal’s husband are sitting in the backyard, talking, just hanging out. And after a while this guy started saying things like “where do you think our country is headed”, and “do you think America is headed for marshal law” — stuff like that. So, I started giving him a little of my thoughts on the subject and before long we were engaged in pure doomer talk. But wouldn’t you know, it turns out this guy is about as anti-Obama as you can get. Obama is personally destroying the country. Obama is coming to confiscate our guns. Obama is going to outlaw growing your own food because he wants us to eat store-bought food which when the time is right Obama’s admin will poison to kill off everybody. Obama is moving companies overseas to destroy American jobs. Obama, Obama, Obama. And the one that finally made me say “I don’t want to go there” and get up and go inside — he told me that the Sandyhook school massacre was a staged event, that no kids died, and Obama’s admin staged it to provide an excuse to take away our guns. I swear to God, I thought I was talking to Plantagent, or to Nony, or to whoever the heck that Obama-blamer really is. This guy didn’t know anything about Peak Oil, nothing. It is amazing the level of ignorance that exists in America, and the world for that matter.
GregT on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 11:09 pm
NWR,
Just when you think you’ve finally met someone that gets it. I hear ya. I know of a few people that I can talk with, but I still have to be careful what I say. In retrospect though, the conversations that I couldn’t have 10 years ago, are much easier to have today. Some are starting to wake up, but IMHO, too little, too late.
On the Obama thing, people need a scapegoat. Much easier to blame Obama, then to think critically. Heck, from what I experience daily, it surprises me that some people have even learned how to tie their own shoes.
Arthur on Tue, 8th Jul 2014 12:41 am
“Obama is personally destroying the country. Obama is coming to confiscate our guns. Obama is going to outlaw growing your own food because he wants us to eat store-bought food which when the time is right Obama’s admin will poison to kill off everybody”
Obama is a likeable guy but he is total nobody, a complete tool of his handlers. US policy is not made in the oval office, it is made in bodies like the CFR. If you had to point at real power brokers, point at de facto primus interpares US president and CFR chairman Richard Nathan Haass. That is the real stuff. And Bernanke, Yellen, Bill Kristol, Kerry, Nuland, Dershowitz, Kagan, etc., etc.
I gladly leave it as an exercise to figure out what these people have in common.
Davy on Tue, 8th Jul 2014 3:45 am
Art I would have to agree with that one “Obama is a likeable guy but he is total nobody, a complete tool of his handlers” but tools are dangerous none the less. Guns don’t kill people people kill people.