“If you come here again we will kill you” – National Catholic Register

February 3rd, 2011

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/where-do-iraqi-christian-refugees-go-turkey/

ISTANBUL — For Sarmad, translating e-mails from English to Arabic for fellow Iraqis is a welcome change from the incessant fear of murder he lived through in Iraq. In his hometown, Mosul, attacks on Christians have been an almost-daily reality throughout the past few years since the ousting of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

“I was stopped at the university,” Sarmad recalls. People he describes as “terrorists” told the 18-year-old mechanical engineering student, “If you come here again, we will kill you.”

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has targeted the country’s fast-disappearing Christian population, describing them as “legitimate targets” and causing unknown hundreds of thousands to flee in recent years. Out of an estimated 800,000 to 1.3 million Christians during the Hussein era, now less than half are thought to remain in the country.

Since an Oct. 31 attack on Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation Church, thousands more Iraqi Christians have run to Turkey. Exact figures are unknown, but Chaldean Church records show more than 600 arrivals in December 2010 alone, which exceeds the total arrivals for all of 2009.

The Oct. 31 attack began when Islamic militants with ties to al-Qaida took Sunday worshipers hostage. As police moved in, 58 people, including two priests, were killed.According to accounts of the carnage, a young child was killed when one of the attackers blew himself up inside the church. Over 100 more were wounded. (more…)

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MIST on the Bosphorus – The Guardian

February 1st, 2011

The term MIST has been coined to describe the next tier of large emerging economies – Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. Can Turkey live up to the hype?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/feb/01/emerging-economies-turkey-jim-oneill

Simon Roughneen in ISTANBUL –  Acronyms have long been a favourite of policy wonks and policymakers, shorthand for describing the world and the changes taking place in it. Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who came up with the now-mainstream “BRIC” catch-all for four quite different economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – has done it again.

“MIST” – or Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey – is O’Neill’s latest rhetorical agglomeration, pulling four more far-flung countries together and talking-up the next tier of large “emerging economies”. (more…)

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Israel, Vatican: A Magdalene meeting point – Asia Times

July 13th, 2010

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LG14Ak03.html

TIBERIAS – The breeze cooling the furnace-like lakeshore funnels down between hills behind, redolent of history like so much else in the Holy Land. One, an extinct volcano popularised as the ‘Horns of Hattin’, marks the site where Saladin defeated a Crusader army in 1187. Closer again is the cliff-face where over a thousand years before, Jews are said to have committed mass suicide rather than be taken captive by the Romans in 67 AD, 3 years before the destruction of Jerusalem and a better-known mass suicide at the Masada.

Downhill is the reed-laden lakeshore along the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus Christ walked. He may well even have preached in a startling new discovery 200m from the water’s edge at Magdala, thought to be the home-place of Mary Magdalene, 5km from Tiberias and around the same from Capernaum. A synagogue dating to the first century AD, possibly destroyed during the same Jewish revolt, has been discovered during excavations for the construction of a new Catholic pilgrimage center.

Like many other locations in the country, Magdala is precious to more than one religion. An image of a seven-branched menorah (a type of candelabra) found at the synagogue dig is apparently a replica of the the iconic menorah held at the Second Temple, nowadays reproduced on Israel’s coat of arms. The temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD , marking the start of 2000 years of Jewish dispersal prior to the formation of Israel in 1948. (more…)

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An unbreakable bond? – Asia Times

June 28th, 2010

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LF29Ak02.html

JERUSALEM – In ‘The Great Divorce’ C.S. Lewis attempted to allegorise about a reality which he admitted he could not know, but tentatively hoped to suggest. The US-Israeli relationship, to most, seems like an unbreakable bond, and any potential divorce might be regarded as unimaginable.

But when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets US President Barack Obama on July 6, they will discuss a relationship that is on the rocks, despite an annual US$2billion in aid and – in keeping with the traditional parameters of the relationship – Obama’s repeated commitment to Israel’s security. Stirring things up in advance, Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Oren spent Sunday and Monday denying media reports that he told Israeli diplomats that a “tectonic rift” was emerging between the two countries.

The summit will be a reprise of a stillborn meeting originally scheduled for late May, which Netanyahu cancelled after nine Turks were killed by Israeli commandoes onboard one of the six boats attempting to breach the blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. In the aftermath, whatever Obama’s private thoughts, he refused to join the chorus condemning Israel. But American policymakers felt themselves to be caught between a rock and a hard place, and beyond this incident, there are divergent worldviews colouring thinking in both administrations. (more…)

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Both sides of the wall – ISN

June 24th, 2010

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=117949

Simon Roughneen in Ramallah – It might be unwitting irony, but the coffee-shop overlooking central Ramallah tips its hat to an American consumer icon, in what might otherwise be deemed an outpost of anti-Americanism.

Stars and Bucks cafe in downtown Ramallah is branded with almost the same colour scheme as the global chain, a hue pretty-close to Islamic green. Hummus and labaneh are on the menu should the customer want a more “authentic” experience than just downing a Middle East macchiato. Inside a mixture of western and Arabic-dressed women kept to their own tables, appearing inscrutable behind outsized sunglasses. Some men lounged on sofas, puffing on shishas while watching the Portugal-North Korea World Cup mismatch. (more…)

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Israel in the dock — but what do Israelis think? – Crikey

June 22nd, 2010

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/06/22/israel-in-the-dock-but-what-do-israelis-think/

Simon Roughneen in Tel-Aviv – Israel has taken a hammering once more in much of the world’s media after the recent flotilla incident and due to the Gaza blockade. Despite the country’s uncompromising “siege mentality” image, a few days in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem suggests that many people are sensitive to what the world thinks. Gali Ginat is a reporter for Maariv newspaper, the second-biggest seller in Israel. She lamented that “it seems that the rest of the world hates us now”. And while the Government and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) have mounted a vociferous defence of the country’s actions in recent weeks, many Israelis are not fully-convinced.

I spoke with Gal Lin at the Media in Conflict seminar organised by the IDC Herzliya, where he is a student. He said that “it’s almost a consensus in Israel that the execution of the operation to stop the flotilla was poor”. During the seminar IDF spokeswoman Lt Col Avital Liebovich fielded tough questions from Israeli journalists who thought the operation was a mess, and from Turkish reporters who questioned the official account of events.

After the flotilla incident and a Red Cross statement that the blockade contravenes international law as it involves collective punishment of one million Palestinians living inside Gaza, Israel announced that it would relax some of the blockade’s provisions. Most Israelis I asked about this said that they are happy for anything that could not be used against Israel by Hamas to be let through, as the Red Cross and others say that humanitarian conditions inside Gaza are “dire”. (more…)

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Tensions remain despite pledge to ease Gaza blockade – Sunday Business Post/RTÉ World Report

June 20th, 2010

http://www.thepost.ie/news/world/coloniser-israel-relaxes-gaza-blockade-49972.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0620/worldreport.html

SIMON ROUGHNEEN IN JERUSALEM – Israel’s Government last week agreed to relax its 4-year long blockade on the

Gaza Strip, but the fallout from the recent flotilla incident lingers. With Israeli-US relations somewhat-frayed of late, US President Barack Obama called the move “ a step in the right direction”. Israel has come under intense international criticism for the deaths of nine Turks onboard the Mavi Marmara, one of six boats that tried to breach the naval blockade on May 31 last. Former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble is one of two foreign observers to a committee set up to look into the clash, but described as a diversion by critics such as Turkey who want an international investigation.

Israel maintains that its soldiers were set upon first by members of a controversial Turkish group known in English acronym form as the IHH. Israeli Defence Force (IDF) spokeswoman Lt Col Avital Liebovich told a press conference that video evidence proves that the fourth Israeli soldier to land on the boat was the first to open fire on the IHH contingent, after three colleagues were already attacked with iron bars. (more…)

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Big task for Abu Dhabi bishop – RTÉ World Report

January 10th, 2010

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0110/worldreport.html

ABU DHABI – When Irish people think of a diocese, they likely imagine a county-sized region with townland parishes within.

Not so for Bishop Paul Hinder. He is the Pope’s representative in the heartland of Islam, in charge of a diocese encompassing six Arab countries – Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

I caught up with him at St Josephs Cathedral in the oil-wealthy city of Abu Dhabi, part of the Emirates. That same day, neighbouring Dubai launched the world’s tallest building, the 800 meter high Burj Khalifa, with the building effectively paid-for by Abu Dhabi, which is footing Dubai’s bills after spectacular property bust last year.

Bishop Hinder is more concerned about the estimated 2 million Catholics across his vast diocese. The majority are Filipino migrant workers, with an estimated 1 million or more in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and site of its holiest places. Here open Christian worship is not permitted, and priests cannot serve. (more…)

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Iraqi Christians: Round trip to Death Street – ISN

August 20th, 2008

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=19329

Iraqi Christian refugees flee the horror of sectarian violence at home to struggle with life in Lebanon.

By Simon Roughneen in Beirut for ISN Security Watch

“My friend was stopped at a checkpoint on the road to Irbil from Baghdad. The people in the car had to show their ID cards to the masked men.

“They could see she was Christian from her name. They dragged her from the car, pushed her to her knees and put a gun to her head.

“They told her to convert to Islam, or die. She refused and started praying out loud. But they did not kill her, not straight away. They raped her and then she was shot in the head.”

Pascale (her name and the names of her family members have been changed to protect their identity) has recounted this tale too many times to cry any more. However this story, as elemental as it is heart-rending, is not unique among the estimated 2 million Iraqi refugees who have fled their country since 2003. (more…)

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Petraeus’ visit focuses on military assistance – The Washington Times

August 14th, 2008

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/14/petraeus-visit-focuses-on-military-assistance/

BEIRUT — Gearing up to take over the U.S. Central Command for the Middle East in September, Gen. David H. Petraeus last week paid a surprise visit to Beirut to meet Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon said the meetings “focused on the United States´ assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces, so it can maintain peace and stability, and safeguard the Lebanese people.”

(more…)

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