Saturday, December 24, 2016

Is it Wise to Weaken Powers of the Central Government?

Centre-Periphery Relations

by M.L.WICKRAMASINGHE-December 24, 2016, 6:57 pm

The reports of sub committees of the Constituent Assembly are now in the public domain. Hence issues can be analyzed rationally sans any guess-work. This article attempts to understand the recommendations in the sub-committee report on centre-periphery relations (SCCPR), their potential outcomes and possible influence on the Sri Lankan State. Please note that the SCCPR recommendations are still suggestions and are not officially sanctioned proposals.

Is it Wise to Weaken Powers of the Central Government.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

KOICA provides UN-Habitat with $ 2 m to improve living conditions, skills of Central Province plantation communities

- Dec 24, 2016

Yesterday, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) signed a grant agreement with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) to implement a one year project in Sri Lanka’s Central Province to improve the living conditions and skills of communities in plantation settlements.

The Government of Korea through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is providing funding of $ 2 million to implement this project entitled ‘Human Development Initiative through Empowerment and Settlement Improvement in the Plantation Settlements in Sri Lanka’. The project will contribute towards human development through capacity building of youth, communities and local authorities; increasing resilience of communities through settlement planning and community infrastructure; and through awareness creation towards mainstreaming plantation settlements. It is expected to benefit over 10,000 persons directly and 250,000 persons indirectly in Nuwara Eliya district.

The signing of the grant agreement between KOICA Sri Lanka Resident Representative Lee Dong-ku and Dr. Chanaka Talpahewa of UN-Habitat Sri Lanka, took place at the United Nations Compound in Colombo. Officers from KOICA and UN-Habitat were also present at the event.

Commencing on 1 January 2017 and continuing for 12 months, the project will be implemented by UN-Habitat in partnership with the Ministry of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development, Plantation Human Development Trust (PHDT) and Estate Worker Housing Cooperative Societies (EWHCS). UN-Habitat is planning to work in four settlements and two surrounding villages in the Kothmale and Nuwara Eliya Divisional Secretariats in Nuwara Eliya district. The settlements are where the agency is currently implementing a housing project for estate workers, with funding from the Indian Government.

The new project will follow scientific settlement planning principles and ensure a holistic approach towards achieving the 2019 targets of the National Plan of Action for Plantation Infrastructure Development (NPA) and provide lessons for subsequent projects with a special focus on water, sanitation and waste management and skills development. It will also contribute to KOICA’s strategy to support fragile states and strengthen resilience towards sustainable development and establish an economic foundation for socially vulnerable groups.

ft.lk

Sri Lankan president discusses protecting ‘historical sites’ with BBS

Photograph: Daily Ceylon

24 Dec 2016

Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena met with senior government ministers and Buddhists monks in Colombo this week, including with the head of the extremist Bodu Bala Sena organisation, to discuss the protection of “historical places with great archaeological value”.

The meeting, at the President’s Official Residence on Thursday, discussed “in detail” a plan to “implement a accelerated programme to ascertain the insecure and vulnerable sites rich with archaeological value and to name those sites as archaeological reserves”. See more from the President's Media Division here.

Archaeology has been repeatedly deployed by the Sri Lankan government to take control of areas of land in the North-East. Last year, a mosque was set to be demolished following long-running protests from Sinhala Buddhist groups, after a government appointed committee found it sat on a Buddhist archaeological site.

BBS has come under increased controversy this month as a mob of Sinhala Buddhist monks from the organisation with lion flags attempted to enter the town, despite the local Magistrate prohibiting their presence. However, monks from the extremist organisation met with Sri Lanka’s justice minister in the North-East on Wednesday this week.

The Coming Nationalist Juggernaut – 2020

By Lakshan Sathokorala –December 24, 2016

The Progressive Liberal World Order, itself borne out of the disastrous War on Terror and Invasion Iraq, and which ruled the roost for 10 long years at least, is now on decline, possibly until President Donald Trump finally wears off his welcome, mainly due to economic meltdown brought on by his isolationist foreign policy and/or protectionist economic policy, each of which are too early to predict at this early stage. But what of the Sri Lankan Political scene?

The room is wide open another actor, namely the former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa | Photo via Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Facebook

Winter of Discontent ?

The alleged mismanagement of Rajapaksa regime brought those touting Good Governance to power in what rather optimistically termed as January 8 Revolution. Then we heard theories about ethnic distribution of votes and voting patterns and this led to intense debates in social media and political forums. But barely two months in to that exalted reign, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe saw it fit get himself involved in a what seems to be a shady treasury bond issue and its fallout now hurting his “Mr Clean” image more deeply than any reports of the Batalanda Commission appointed by the ex- President Chandrika Kumaratunga, more so given rumors, some verified, that the prime movers behind the Bond scam are now aiming to acquire a loss making TV station and to start a brand new newspaper publishing company with whooping salaries for the journalists headhunted from other establishments, with a view to prop up Mr. Wickremesinghe in a future Presidential Poll. Further the talk of the street pithily describe the Government as pure snake gourd or “pathola” meaning that it has ground to a halt without any noticeable development activities to be spoken of even while people are saddled with an unprecedented tax burden. Added to this the disaffection among ordinary Sinhalese Buddhists that this government favors minority interests over their wellbeing and that it has ulterior motive of division of country along ethnic lines via a Federal constitution, despite numerous assurances given by both President and the Prime Minister. The arbitrary halting of the Sampur Coal Power Plant Project and Government’s misguided dependence on so-called “Alternative Energy Sources” means that Sri Lanka is notoriously ill equipped to face the supposed Power Crisis come 2018. Those of the urban middle class who voted with their feet having disgusted with cronyism and alleged corruption of the Rajapaksa regime are now red in the face having their hopes dashed rather unceremoniously. All eyes are now fixed on the 2020 Presidential Election.

The Numbers Game

After the disastrous Peace Process of the previous UNF government of 2001-2004, a sizable section of the right wing conservative Sinhala Buddhists defected to the newly formed Hela Urumaya which capitalized on the death of Ven. Soma to win 10 Parliamentary seats in 2004 election. Mahinda Rajapaksa successfully managed court these votes during Presidential Elections. When Patali Champika Ranawaka boasted after the Presidential Elections 2015, that it was JHU instrumental in the downfall of Rajapaksa regime, that statement is not without significant merits. It was not the groundswell of support for the Common Candidate from minority centric electorates in the North and East that ensured his eventual victory, but the considerable sway in the highly populous, nationalistic Sinhala Buddhist dominated electorates in the Western Province like Kaduwela, Gampaha, Maharagama, Homagama, Kesbewa etc. and a major factor behind that sway is the defection of Champika Ranawaka and the JHU. And any reversal of these votes will surely offset any large gains from minority dominated districts. And further we can expect even other electorates of the South and not to mention Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts voting the nationalist candidate with higher margins. The deep felt disaffection on Sinhala Buddhist electorate would propel them to vote in same numbers as the Mahinda Rajapaksa’s triumphant 2010 Presidential Election.

But this sway is no longer there. The actions of the Sirisena- Ranil Government, even though they may had best intentions for the country at heart, alienated this nationalist voting bloc, making not the pseudo- Marxist, internationalist JVP but the Sinhala Buddhist nationalist faction of the SLFP led by Mahinda Rajapaksa the clear favorites. The hopes of JHU to play the ace by gobbling up a sizable chunk of nationalist SLFP votes is now dashed by the sins of association, and JVP is discredited with highly effective allegations of collusion with UNP and TNA. But there’s another significant factor that would surely come in to play in 2020.

By P K Balachandran- 22nd December 2016

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan and Indian experts in fishing say that a combination of toughness and innovativeness on the part of the Indian government will help curb poaching by Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan waters significantly.

Speaking to Express on condition of anonymity, the experts said that if the governments of India and Sri Lanka continue to be lenient towards the poachers, as they are now, poaching can never be stopped.

The determination of Tamil Nadu fishermen to defy odds and fish in Sri Lankan waters is evident from the fact that despite losing 111 boats to the Sri Lankans, they keep coming and inflict a loss of LKR 9 billion (US$ 60.5 million) on Sri Lanka annually.

“What is needed is toughness on both sides and an innovative economic strategy in India to divert Tamil Nadu fishermen from trawling on the Sri Lankan side of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL),” an expert said.

The experts noted that both India and Sri Lanka are veering towards a tougher stance and said that this trend should be kept up.

For example, the Sri Lankan side has been impounding the poachers’ boats, and New Delhi has not done anything to curb this practice because New Delhi also believes that impounding of boats will curb poaching over time.

At the last bilateral ministerial level meeting in New Delhi, India, for the first time, agreed to consider joint Indo-Sri Lankan naval/coast guard patrolling, which had been a long standing Sri Lankan demand. The Joint Working Group on Fisheries (JWGF) which has now been set up, will have representatives of the navies and coast guards of the two countries. Significantly, the JWGD does not have representatives of the Tamil Nadu government, which means that New Delhi and Colombo will be more free to take decisions.

On the Sri Lankan side, a decision has been taken to enact a law to ban illegal fishing and illegal methods of fishing with a hefty fine for those who disobey. The bill is in parliament. No decision has been taken on the quantum of the fine though the Minister of Fisheries, Mahinda Amaraweera, has threatened to impose a fine of LKR 150 million or INR 7 crore. According to the Sri Lankan government, a hefty fine to curb illegalities in fishing is a commitment made to the European Union to prevent EU from black listing Sri Lanka. The act would apply to Sri Lankan vessels as well as foreign vessels fishing in Sri Lankan waters.

However, if the IMBL is police strictly, India and Tamil Nadu will have to plan for potential unemployment or underemployment of fishermen on the Indian side.

Indian experts, speaking on the basis of anonymity, said that the best solution would be to ban all the 3000 trawlers now in operation on the lines of the demonetization of 85 percent of the currency notes in circulation. Tamil Nadu, aided by the Centre, could buy back the trawlers or give the fishermen an adequate compensation. Alternatively, in addition to a buyback or compensation facility, the Central and State governments could divert the fishermen to other occupations, trades and businesses, by offering loans and training facilities.

Indian experts contend that only a section of Indian fishermen are “traditional” fishermen wedded to sea. Many have strayed into the profession and can switch easily if the right incentives and facilities are given.

Even for traditional fishermen, there are alternatives within fisheries. Inland fisheries is a booming field. Trawler workers could switch to using vallams which can also go far into the sea in the Palk Bay and Palk Straits (even up to Delft Island in Sri Lanka).

Ambulance drivers prepare to launch island-wide strike

December 24, 2016

The Government Health Service Ambulance and Transport Drivers’ Association has decided to engage in an island-wide strike action from December 28, in support of the trade union action launched by the North Central Province Health Service Drivers’ Association.

Health Service Drivers in the North Central Province commenced their strike last Wednesday (21) while they launched a Satyagraha the following day opposite the office of the North Central Province Health Services Director.

The strike was staged over several demands and against the decision to recruit Health Service drivers to the Provincial Ministry.

However, an Ada Derana reporter said that army personnel have been tasked with operating the hospital ambulance services in the North Central Province.

SRI LANKA IGP SUSPENDS POLICE NEWS TO PRIVATE MEDIA

24/12/2016

The Police Chief has suspended the police news sent daily to private media institutions through emails with effect from Wednesday, a senior officer at the Police Headquarters said today.

He said the Police Chief had instructed that the daily updates be sent only to state media institutions.

He said this step had been taken after the uproar in the country resulting from his telephone conversation during a recent meeting in Ratnapura. The news was telecast on a private media channel.

Police sources said the Police Chief had also instructed his officers not to invite private media representatives to any functions held at the Police Headquarters in the future.

He is reported to have discussed this matter with several police officers including his Staff DIG Ranmal Kodithuwakku recently prior to arriving at this decision. (Indika Ramanayake)

Daily News

Ground frost in Nuwara Eliya

2016-12-24

Ground frost appeared in several areas in the Nuwara Eliya District following temperature fell to 6ºC this morning. The frost could be a threat to vegetable cultivation in the area. Pix by Shelton Hettiarachchi - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Ground-frost-in-Nuwara-Eliya-121188.html#sthash.KCJ3rb9Z.dpuf

Video: Israeli soldiers tear gas Santa

Bethlehem -23 December 2016

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas, pepper spray and stun grenades at Palestinians calling for free movement between Bethlehem and Jerusalem on Friday.

The Christmas-themed protest was held in front of Checkpoint 300, where Israeli soldiers control Palestinian movement between the occupied West Bank cities.

Approximately 100 protesters, some of them dressed in Santa Claus suits, chanted against Israel’s military occupation and for Palestinian freedom.

“Jesus came with a message of peace, his city suffers oppression,” one demonstrator’s sign read.

“Santa Claus stands with the Palestinian people,” stated another.

Half a dozen people were injured, including journalists, during the protest.

Palestinians and their supporters highlight around Christmastime that if Joseph and Mary were to make their journey from Nazareth today, Israel’s military checkpoints and massive concrete wall would prevent them from accessing the Bethlehem manger where tradition holds Jesus Christ was born.

Israel’s wall completely encircles Bethlehem, as do its settlement colonies, turning a once vibrant Palestinian cultural center and international tourist destination into a shuttered ghetto.

Israel’s regime of movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians living under its military rule prevents the free access to places of worship, including the al-Aqsa mosque and Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Even the Holy Fire of Easter must pass through an Israeli checkpoint during the ancient ritual observed by Orthodox Christians in Palestine.

Video by Keren Manor/Activestills.org

US Jewish activists stand with Muslim allies at interfaith rally

Jewish activists rally in Washington in support of Muslims as two faiths come together to reject bigotry

'Targeting all Muslims is a horror movie that we Jews are all too familiar with' (MEE/ Molly McCluskey)

Molly McCluskey-Saturday 24 December 2016

WASHINGTON DC - Three nights before the beginning of Hanukkah, Jewish advocacy groups organised protests against Islamophobia in 25 cities around the United States. In the nation’s capital, the demonstration, coupled with a march to the White House, was another event in a year that has seen multiple alliances between the two faiths.

In Washington DC, the rally began at 1717 Pennsylvania Ave NW, a block and a half from the White House, and home of the offices of the Clarion Project, a nonprofit organization that lists its mission as “challenging Islamic extremism through facts”. However, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has called it an “extremist” organisation that peddles “anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.”

The site also reportedly houses President-elect Trump’s transition team, and the new consulting firm founded by the controversial former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

The rally was merely the latest ripple in a groundswell of interfaith support for religious freedom in a year that has seen a rise in hate crimes, particularly in the six weeks after the US presidential election, with the SPLC counting more than 1,000 bias-related incidents in the month immediately following the results.

A week after Trump’s victory, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) announced the launch of the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, although leaders of the new group said the coalition had been planned prior to the election.

“We are here three days before the beginning of Hanukkah, called the festival of lights, to gather as Jews and allies to shine light on institutional racism, to shine light on white supremacy and to shine light on the hate that the Clarion Project represents,” said Alison Glick, Jewish Voice for Peace’s local chapter coordinator, and an organiser of the event.

“There is a direct connection between the anti-Islamic work of the Clarion Project and their work against Palestinian rights. We know that connection. We are going to shine light on it. And we are going to root it out from this city, and this country.”

With approximately 100 people gathered, the groups held handmade and professionally printed signs, reading “Jews for Muslims”, “Jews and Muslims Are Stronger Together”, and a large banner reading, “If You Want Peace, Work for Justice. End the Israeli Occupation.”

Speakers revved the crowd, which chanted like fans at a sporting match. They took breaks so that those in attendance could call the offices of Tishman Speyer, which owns the building where the Clarion Project is housed, to demand the real estate giant terminate the organisation’s lease.

The Clarion Project did not respond to a request for comment from Middle East Eye.

US Jewish groups have expressed solidarity with Muslims (MEE/ Molly McCluskey)

For Mirriam Seddiq, founder of the American Muslim Women Political Action Committee who did not attend the rally, said the support for Muslims from the Jewish community is quintessentially American.

“If we have shared American values, which are, we believe in the First Amendment (of the US Constitution) and freedom of religion, then every American should be willing to stand up for every other American’s right for that, regardless of whatever their foreign-policy perspectives are,” Seddiq told MEE.

“I would hope that all day, every day an American Jew would support an American Muslim, and their right to live their lives without harassment and bigotry. And it works both ways, that Muslims would speak up for Jews if needed.”

Mike Ghouse, founder of the Center for Pluralism in Texas, said when people stand up for each other, everyone remains protected.

“Muslims are simply indebted with gratitude for this beautiful outpouring of support,” Ghouse told MEE.

Muslim registry

Among the calls for action at the rally was the end to the proposed Muslim registry, and ban of Muslim immigrants to the US. Then-candidate Trump proposed a watchlist of American Muslims in 2015, “to protect America” and reiterated his support for the proposals again this week, telling reporters, “You know my plans.”

“There’s absolutely value to these partnerships, because if you add any materials to any fence, that fence becomes stronger.”

-Mirriam Seddiq, founder of the American Muslim Women Political Action Committee

Think-tanks, faith-based policy organisations and other nonprofit institutions have derided the registry. The American Jewish Coalition called the idea “noxious.”

“Targeting all Muslims is a horror movie that we Jews are all too familiar with,” AJC CEO David Harri said in a statement. “It can easily lead to heightened discrimination, persecution, and scapegoating. In the United States, there is no place – no place, whatsoever – for this kind of divisive, hateful rhetoric.”

The morning after the rally, President Barack Obama moved to dismantle procedures created after the 11 September 2001 attacks to register and surveille immigrants from mostly Muslim countries.

The program, called the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS, was developed under the George W Bush administration, and required all males over the age of 14 from more than 20 Muslim countries to register with the US government when they arrive, and leave, the country. They had to be fingerprinted, and were only allowed to enter and leave the US through designated ports, or face arrest and deportation.

“Registering and tracking Muslim visitors to the United States is not only discriminatory but a tremendous waste of our nation's national security resources,” Council on Islamic American Relations (CAIR) Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw said in a statement. “CAIR will offer a legal challenge to any Trump administration attempt to resurrect or expand NSEERS to target Muslims residing in the United States.”

Ghouse said Obama’s gesture is just that - a gesture.

“There is always someone who can resurrect (the NSEERS program) if they really want it,” Ghouse said.

Several US technology companies have said they will refuse to help the incoming administration build a Muslim registry if asked.

For Seddiq, the budding coalitions offer a bright spot in what are expected to be challenging times ahead.

“There’s absolutely value to these partnerships, because if you add any materials to any fence, that fence becomes stronger,” she told MEE. “It is amazing to me that this Muslim Jewish coalition has been gaining such momentum. Who would think that would have happened in such a way?”

U.S. declines to veto U.N. Security Council resolution for Israel to stop Jewish settlement activity

For the first time in 36 years, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution critical of Israel's Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory. The United States abstained. (Reuters)

By Carol Morello and Ruth Eglash December 23 at 2:27 PM

The U.N. Security Council on Friday passed a resolution demanding that Israel cease Jewish settlement activity on Palestinian territory in a unanimous vote that passed when the United States abstained rather than using its veto as it has reliably done in the past.

The resolution declares settlements constructed on land Israel has occupied since the 1967 war, including in East Jerusalem, to have “no legal validity.” It said settlements threaten the viability of the two-state solution, and it urged Israelis and Palestinians to return to negotiations that will lead to two independent nations.

The United States’ abstention Friday was a rare rebuke to Israel, and it reflected mounting frustration in the Obama administration over settlement growth that the United States considers an obstacle to peace. With President Obama’s time in office due to end in barely a month, his decision not to veto was a last-minute symbolic statement of that displeasure and a sense of exasperation that the time has come for two states to be carved out of the contested land.

The administration’s move also defied Donald Trump’s call on Thursday for the United States to veto the resolution. The incoming Trump administration has signaled that there will be a shift in U.S. policy toward Israel, a point the president-elect hammered home about an hour after Friday’s vote when he tweeted, “As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.”

Trump has supported moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He has appointed David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer who believes Israelis should annex and settle the West Bank, as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Riyad Mansour, the permanent Palestinian observer to the United Nations, welcomed the Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements, saying those against it were "not living in reality." (Reuters)

[Trump picks a supporter of West Bank settlements for ambassador to Israel]

It is unclear what, if any, impact this resolution will have. Resolutions reflect the opinion and will of the 15 members of the Security Council, but legal scholars differ about how binding they are. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not abide by the terms of the settlements resolution.

About 400,000 Jews live in roughly 150 settlements in the West Bank on land that the Palestinians want for a future state east of the line formed after the 1967 war. An additional 200,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want to become the capital of their future state. Many Israelis consider the settlements to be in the ancestral homeland of the Jews and refer to them by their biblical names, Judea and Samaria. Most nations consider the settlements illegal. U.S. diplomats characterize them as illegitimate and say they exacerbate tensions between Israelis and the Palestinians who live nearby, thereby undercutting efforts to advance peace.

Twice, the Obama administration has made concerted attempts to broker peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. The most recent, involving nine months of intense diplomacy by Secretary of State John F. Kerry, collapsed in 2014, and nothing has been able to revive the talks.

Throughout the year, the administration has been increasingly vocal in its exasperation. The State Department has issued several sharp criticisms of settlement construction, in July calling it “provocative and counterproductive.” Since then, more than 2,600 housing units have been built in settlements.

[Even Israel says this Jewish settlement is illegal. Now comes the showdown. ]

Still, the United States agreed this year to provide Israel with $38 billion in military aid over 10 years, the largest such package ever. U.S. and Israeli officials both have said security and military cooperation between the two countries has remained excellent, even when Obama and Netanyahu have clashed.

The international community has shown increasing impatience with the intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Proposals have been put forth in the last year by Egypt, France, and a group made up of the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the United States. Israel has blamed the impasse on Palestinian refusal to recognize the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinians blame Israel for occupying lands they consider rightfully theirs.

The 14-to-0 vote, with only the United States abstaining, followed an intense campaign from Israel to derail it. It was to have been voted on Thursday, but Egypt withdrew its sponsorship after the country’s president spoke by phone with Trump, who got involved at Israel’s request. Friday’s resolution was sponsored by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal.

The resolution’s passage brought a swift reaction, particularly in Israel and in Congress.

Netanyahu said Friday that he welcomed Trump replacing Obama, whose administration, he said, had “colluded” in a diplomatic assault on Israel.

“Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office. “The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes.”

“This is absolutely shameful,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a statement, promising that next year “our unified Republican government will work to reverse the damage done by this administration, and rebuild our alliance with Israel.”

But Palestinian diplomats called the resolution a chance to salvage the possibility of two states and exulted in seeing the U.N. pass a resolution reflecting their views.

“After years of allowing the law to be trampled and the situation to spiral downward, today’s resolution may rightly be seen as a last attempt to preserve the two-state solution and revive the path for peace,” Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday.

Kerry said he would speak more in the coming days about the U.N. vote and “the way ahead” for Israel and the Palestinians.

“That future is now in jeopardy, with terrorism, violence and incitement continuing and unprecedented steps to expand settlements being advanced by avowed opponents of the two-state solution,” Kerry said.

“That is why we cannot in good conscience stand in the way of a resolution at the United Nations that makes clear that both sides must act now to preserve the possibility of peace.”

Friday’s resolution also condemned Palestinian incitement to violence and all acts of terrorism. Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the United States would not have allowed its passage without that proviso. She also criticized the United Nations itself, saying it had perpetuated a double standard by repeatedly condemning Israeli actions while remaining silent about Palestinian incitement.

In the hours before the vote, Israeli media reported harsh criticism toward Obama and Kerry coming from an unnamed official in Netanyahu’s office. The office accused them of having “abandoned” Israel by refusing the block the resolution with a veto.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Friday that the administration's pursuit of a two-state solution is “guided by our belief that it is the only way to preserve Israel’s security in the long run.”

“President Obama has done more for Israel and its security than any previous U.S. president,” Rhodes told reporters.

That argument did not assuage Israeli anger at the U.S. decision not to veto the resolution, a decision the Obama administration still had not shared with the Israeli government a few hours before the vote.

According to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition on anonymity because the conversations were private, a White House official told an Israeli official Thursday that the United States is Israel’s best friend. The Israeli replied, “Friends don’t take friends to the Security Council.”

Eglash reported from Jerusalem. Karoun Demirjian and David Nakamura contributed to this report.

The CIA as Organized Crime

by Ron Jacobs - Dec 24, 2016

( December 24, 2016, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) There is no democracy in the United States. Nor does the United States bring democracy to other countries. In fact, the United States does not even really want democracy in other countries. The only ideology supported by the ruling elites in the US is the ideology of monopoly capitalism. One can call it the free market or one can call it neoliberalism; one can call it the American Way. What it is is this: a brutal, bloody, destructive and immoral attempt to rule the planet, no matter what the cost in lives and environmental destruction. The marriage to the amoral system of profiteering known as capitalism has created an immensely immoral number of men and women willing to carry out the brutality and bloodshed necessary to reap that profit.

As the paragraph above implies, in order to maintain such a system there must be humans willing to do the dirty work that maintenance entails. Of course, those humans must be organized and, of course they are. Security forces, both public and private, form the front lines of the system’s defenders. Military corps are also part of that line. Legislators serve their role too, making laws that benefit the wealthy elites and providing the money for their domination. Then there are the organizations that do the dirtiest and therefore, the least known work. This is where the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), and other secret police agencies come in. This is where the common brutality of the military and police transforms into a violence that makes Hollywood’s blood and gore cartoonish in contrast. While these deeds are not new to the current time, the events known as 9-11 have allowed those who champion them to make their actions public. The events that transpire in CIA black sites around the world are often too gruesome to be believed.

There was a program known as the Phoenix Program that was established by the CIA during the Vietnam War. The point of this program was to eliminate popular support for the revolutionary forces in Vietnam. The means utilized by those running the program included bribery, torture, murder of suspected revolutionaries, their supporters and their families. Despite the pervasiveness of the program it failed. Nonetheless, many of its architects have lived to fight another day, using it as a model for US imperial adventures subsequent to Vietnam in Central America, Asia and even in the United States.

Indeed, it is its replication in the United States that is the ultimate argument of author Douglas Valentine’s latest book examining the skullduggery, murder and deceit the Phoenix Program was synonymous with. This book, titled The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World, is a collection of previous articles, supplementary texts and completely new material that examines the connections between the implementation of the Phoenix Program in Vietnam and its ongoing utilization as a model for subsequent counterinsurgency operations by the CIA and other agencies. As Valentine makes clear, some of those connections are merely philosophical while others are as pinpoint as some of the same individuals who built their early careers on Phoenix are now operating inside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other top-secret US agencies—many of them enhanced in the wake of the events of 9-11.

There is no better investigator to write this book. Valentine’s best known title is the consummate text on the Phoenix Program, The Phoenix Program: America’s Use of Terror in Vietnam. Not only does this mean that his understanding of the complexities and subterfuges of Phoenix is fairly sophisticated, it also means he knows many of the personalities. This knowledge helps him draw what can only be considered a menacing number of connections from the development of the counterinsurgency template of the Phoenix Program to the creation and development of the US national security apparatus now in place around the globe. His discussion of the hierarchy of units leading all the way to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia from hamlets in Vietnam and their replication in so-called fusion centers set up around the United States by the Department of Homeland Security since its inception is but one instance of the insidiousness of the Phoenix template. His naming of various individuals—like DHS commandant Bruce Lawlor—is proof that old death squad warriors don’t just go away, they are given more power. While Valentine reveals the dark side of US power, he also uncloaks the venality of many of those involved in these endeavors. In addition, his investigation leads this writer to believe that this is not the deep state so many conspiracists talk about; this is the state itself.

Douglas Valentine writes books that rip the bloody veil off the criminal enterprise known as the US government. When he does this, he combines incredibly in-depth research, interviews and an inviting style of prose that exposes the dark truth about the US nation and its national security state. The CIA as Organized Crime continues that tradition and is an important and crucial text. Its publication would be timely at any moment in recent history, yet its publication in late 2016 seems even more so given the recent campaign season and the accompanying destruction of any semblance of a fair electoral process in the United States.