[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, December 28, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
December 28, 2006
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

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Ask Your Representatives to Support the State Department!
In a "rare public rebuke," the New York Times reports, the State
Department has asked Israel not to build a new Israeli settlement in
the West Bank. Ask your representatives to support the State
Department's opposition to new settlements.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/no_new_settlement.html

Talk Directly to Iran: Petition
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Policy petition. Please sign/circulate if you have yet to do so.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iranpetition.html

Tell Your Representatives: Stop the Money and Bring the Troops Home
Please write/call your Members of Congress if you have not done so
recently. The recess is a good time to call the local office. Phone
numbers are given on the representatives' web pages, which can be
found at http://www.senate.gov
and http://www.house.gov. To send a letter:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iraq.html

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Summary:
U.S./Top News
Instead of kvetching about the 'Israel Lobby', let's support the State
Department when it does something right, writes Robert Naiman on
Huffington Post. The State Department criticized Israeli government
plans to build a new settlement in the West Bank. Since even Jimmy
Carter says "It would be almost politically suicidal for members of
Congress to espouse a balanced position," when the State Department
does something right, we ought to ask Members of Congress to speak up.
Is it political suicide to support the State Department?

President Bush seems to be laying the groundwork for a surge of
additional troops in Iraq, the Washington Post reports. Two defense
officials said Wednesday the specific size and nature of such a surge
still has to be worked out.

Republican Senator Gordon Smith's Dec. 7 speech criticizing the Iraq
war may have signaled that some moderate Republicans in the Senate are
poised to break openly with the White House on the war, the New York
Times reports.

Some Western analysts contend that Syria can be pried away from Iran's
influence, the New York Times reports. But Washington has spent years
trying to isolate Syria, while Iran has for decades moved to entwine
itself with Syria on many levels - political, military, economic and
religious. As a result, some Western diplomats in Iran say that, even
if the US tried, it might be impossible to extricate Syria from Iran's
orbit.

Democracy Now devoted a section of its broadcast today to the crisis
in Somalia, interviewing Said Samatar of Rutgers, Nii Akuette of
Africa Action and former UN official Salim Lone, whose International
Herald Tribune piece critical of the US intervention was in
yesterday's Just Foreign Policy News.
.
Iran
Radio Free Europe interviewed Trita Parsi on the UN sanctions against
Iran. Parsi argues that the UN sanctions have moved the US and Iran
further away from a diplomatic solution.

Iraq
A top deputy of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was killed Wednesday
during a raid by U.S. and Iraqi troops in the southern holy city of
Najaf, the Washington Post reports, leading to vigorous protests. The
raid calls into question the claim that the US had "handed over
control" of Najaf to Iraqi forces.

Iraqi politicians regularly interfere in US attempts to clamp down on
sectarian violence, the New York Times reports. "I have come to the
conclusion that this is no longer America's war in Iraq, but the Iraqi
civil war where America is fighting," Maj. William Voorhies said. A
reporting trip accompanying Voorhies's unit seemed to back his
statement.

Somalia
Militias loyal to the transitional government seized the Mogadishu,
the capital of Somalia, today, the New York Times reports. Witnesses
said clan warlords had instantly reverted back to setting up roadside
checkpoints and shaking down motorists for money. "No one is really in
command," said one adviser to Western diplomats. "Chaos is in
command."

Ethiopia
Almost half of Ethiopia's children are malnourished, and most do not
die, the New York Times reports. Some become intellectually stunted
adults, unable to learn or even to concentrate, inclined to drop out
of school early.

Liberia
Firestone is under fire from human-rights advocates in Liberia and the
US who say conditions of its workers in Liberia are a scandal,
McLatchy News reports. The International Labor Rights Fund has filed a
class-action suit against Firestone for what it calls "a gulag of
misery" in what is believed to be the largest rubber plantation in the
world.

Israel/Palestine
The State Department, in a "rare public rebuke," criticized Israeli
government plans to build a new settlement in the West Bank, the New
York Times reports.

UAE
The United Arab Emirates is converting 8 percent of its foreign
exchange reserves from dollars into euros, AP reports. Other Gulf
countries may follow suit, suggests AP, which may further drive down
the dollar. Although many Americans would not suffer directly from a
falling dollar - workers in trade-sensitive industries would actually
benefit - a significant fall may encourage the Federal Reserve to
pursue higher intrerest rates, since the US financial sector tends to
prefer a strong dollar.

Ecuador
President-elect Rafael Correa appointed seven women to his cabinet,
including the first woman to become defense minister, saying he wanted
to promote gender equality in Ecuador, AP reports. Correa takes office
Jan. 15.

Contents:
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-
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org